Hunter PvP guide The role of hunters in arenas . The role and viability of the hunter class in arenas is often contested amongst the class community , as between Beast Mastery , Marksmanship , and Survival hunters , there is a very large difference in play style . As a Beast Mastery hunter , your role will be to put out as much damage as possible paying heed to little else , as a Beast Mastery hunter requires less support from teammates . Your pet will be a source of damage with this spec and a very underestimated one . This style is generally preferred on teams without a healer , or ' gib ' or ' rush down ' teams . Beastmastery is also a part of a beastcleave team usually made up of a BM hunter , an Enhancement shaman , and a third pet bearing class ( Unholy DK , warlock , boomkin , Frost mage ) . The Marksman ' s role is one of utility and damage output . As a Marksman , you will be expected to keep melee damage classes off your healer or more fragile team members with Scattershot , Freezing Arrow , Frost Trap , Concussive Shot , Silencing Shot , your pet ’ s web or pin abilty ( you do have a spider or crab , right ? ) , drain the enemy healer ' s mana with Viper Sting and keep one of the enemy players controlled with Freezing Trap . In many cases , all of these things are expected of you at once . Survival adds the utility of Wyvern Sting and extra survival cushion in the form of extra stamina while maintaining near the burst output of a Marks hunter . These styles have met with differing levels of success , but Marksmanship hunters are generally more successful in higher level brackets while Beast Mastery hunters and Survival hunters are better against more unorthodox teams usually encountered in lower level brackets . This is however a generalization and there are exceptions to both . Historically if you were a Marksmanship hunter , many of your fights would be long , since your most popular team setups would be drain teams ( often with a disc priest and / or a warlock . In this scenario it was necessary to be patient , and not try to rush the game or rush the burst . A typical drain team game can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes . However , in current t10 / s8 gear , Marks has pulled ahead of both Survival and BeastMastery as a high burst class while retaining all of its utility . Survival hunters are perfect for countering warriors , rogues , enhancement shamans or other hunters . With a diverse arsenal to immobilize ( Counterattack , Entrapment for example ) , high avoidance ( Deterrence , Deflection , and for maximum effect , go for the Beast Mastery talent Improved Aspect of the Monkey ! ) and 20 % extra crit on Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite , it ' s possible to surprise your melee opponents with a barrage of alternating melee crits and short range shots while they are immobilized . Wyvern Sting and Scattershot are excellent arena weapons and give the hunter that much more CC . The downside to a survival build is the decreased ranged damage output and the loss of MM ’ s silencing shot and because of that , less viability versus casters . Survival should be combined with additional marksmanship talents and Improved Aspect for the Monkey to retain its diversity . Work on synergy with your team , and practice good decision making on utilizing your skills . How you play against one team composition may be completely different to how you play against another . Discussing strategy on taking down specific team comps or particularly annoying classes ( cough , frost mage , cough ) , is the key to getting beyond a 1000 rating . Getting off your autoshots while kiting is often very important , if you can spare the room while kiting . Often referred to as stutter - stepping , it involves a brief pause while running / strafing away . The cast time for auto shot is 0 . 5 seconds , so as long as you stop moving 0 . 5 sec before your next shot , it will go off on time . Using a swing / cast timer like Quartz is extremely useful for getting the timing right , though eventually after practicing with the swing timer you should no longer need it . A slower weapon allows more movement . As you are a ranged class , melee combat should always be your last resort . Melee is an entirely impractical style of fighting for hunters . Only four abilities besides Wing Clip are available to the class : Scattershot ( early Survival , often in MM Arena builds ) , Raptor Strike , Mongoose Bite , and Counterattack ( Only available with deep Survival ) . It is not recommended to use anything but Wing Clip when engaged in melee , since Raptor Strike is based on next attack swing , Mongoose Bite is situational and Wing Clip is spammable . But your priority is to get out of melee range as fast as possible , using scattershot , Wingclip , Explosive Trap ( if spec ’ d into Entrapment ) , Snake Trap , Disengage , Deterrence , or Master ’ s Call . Pillars work both ways . Try to stay near them and duck out whenever ranged target you , or when melee turn their focus to , pillars can help to avoid Shadowstep and Intercept . Being comfortable working around pillars is crucial for survival as a hunter in any bracket or level of play . Also using strategies to get a pillar - humper away from his pillar or lock him in place long enough to get some shots off is key . Often you can use the same strategies that you used to get melee off of you , to root a priest , mage or tree that won ’ t leave that pillar . Also if they are a healer , try to drag their teammates out of range , while staying in range of the healer . That way they will have to come out from behind that pillar or watch their tunnel - visioning dps teammates die . A quick switch back to the unprotected healer often results in a timely kill . Protect your Viper Sting . It is one of the hunter ' s most important tools in Arena . If you are draining a druid , following up a Viper Sting immediately with aSilencing Shot if you are a Marksman or Intimidation if you are a Beast Master , so the first few ticks are guaranteed protection from Abolish Poison . Conversely if your intended drain is something else like a mage , be sure to immediately silence or stun anyone on the mage ' s team who can dispel the sting . Be sure to work with any other crowd controllers on your team to chain CC effects to keep the sting up as long as possible . Use high points such as hills or buildings as firing locations . Any place that is hard to reach is perfect . High slopes in Alterac Valley and cliffs in Nagrand for instance . Also use bushes and trees as cover , making you harder to pin point . There are areas where you can shoot through the terrain , such as a hill . Paladins , rogues , and others who aren ' t ranged and can ' t charge / intercept you have little to counter this with , since they can ' t hit a button to find you . You can lay traps during combat . The best use of this is to drop a freezing trap , then run through it . Your opponent will likely follow . Once frozen ( don ' t worry , your pet won ' t attack them ) , get as much distance as possible and load up an Aimed Shot / Arcane Shot combo . Use Concussive Shot to slow them if they are close then a Scatter Shot and repeat . It is important to note , freezing trap will break on most damage including dots , Serpent Sting and Piercing Shots ( proc ’ d off chimera / aimed shot ) will both break freezing trap . In arena , this means never try freezing arrow / trap on your focus target , save it for the healer / non - focus target . If you are trying to get a melee who is under the effect of dots off of you , Scattershot , Frost Trap , or Snake Trap are often more effective . The debuff ’ s associated with Viper Sting and Scorpid Sting do not break freezing trap ’ s effect . The most effective abilities in the battlegrounds are those that have little to no casting time . Chimera Shot , Explosive Shot , Aimed Shot , Arcane Shot , Kill Shot and Concussive Shot will be your best friends in the battlegrounds . Hunters are very powerful and versatile but require more than a button - mashing approach . Assessing the situation before you engage will always net better results for any class but no class benefits more from smart decisions than hunters . Steady Shot is a powerful PvE tool but its usefulness is limited in PvP . As Steady Shot has a 1 . 5 second casting time , it should only be used when you are not the target of any attackers . It is during this time that the hunter should take advantage of its mana efficient , yet surprisingly devastating damage output . For the Eye of the Storm battleground , Frost Trap is a must . On the tight passageways one well - placed frost trap can effectively cripple an enemy ' s advance . In addition , using Flare in tight passageways like the two eastern and western bridges as well as the Flag spot is great against rogues as well as stealthed Feral druids . Try to always keep your Insignia of the Alliance / Horde up as it will remove all crowd control effects from you when used . On an interface note , the debate of button pushing / mouse turning vs . clicking / keyboard turning rages on . After reading this article , you may come to the realization that the hunter has a huge array of spells and abilities that will be needed in arena . How could you possibly map keys to the 24 odd “ main ” abilities of a hunter . Well basically you could conceivably use the alt , shift , and ctrl modifiers to map 8 keys , however the chance of actually putting enough time in to master this configuration and always hit the right key combo at the right time would be immense . Also considering that strafing while kiting can often be far easier that jump shooting and allow more time to plan your next move , it works for many to map out some core abilities that are necessary when a melee manages to get in close enough that keyboard turning becomes a huge liability . It is important that you can switch from the usual wasd - qe movement to mousing on a dime ( Especially useful for facing the right direction after a fear , in this case you might want to map your silencing shot , Chimera , big hitters to Alt - 1234 ) . Those core abilities are Scattershot , Wing Clip , Traps , Scorpid Sting ( Chimera - disarm ) , Disengage , Deterrence , Master ’ s Call , Trinket . ZXC work well for Disengage , Deterrence , Trinket . R for freezing trap . 1234 for Scattershot , Wingclip , Frost Trap , and Snake Trap . = General Tips = Tips for fighting and killing each class . Rogue . You will mostly need the following skills : , , , , , , , , , and ! Additional Notes Warrior . The king of the arena , but an extremely limited brick on legs anywhere outside it . The typical strategy for fighting any warrior is to kite . Warriors have much higher damage mitigation than a hunter , but on the plus side , they have no ranged capabilities whatsoever , which thus means that ensuring that they don ' t touch you is your main priority . If you have the jump on the warrior normally you would follow this technique . Charge and Intercept have a maximum of only 25 yards range ( 30 with Glyph of Charge ) , which is 10 yards less than a hunter ' s maximum shooting range . A skilled warrior will attempt to make liberal use of Intercept , but as long as you are constantly above 30 yards from the warrior , it shouldn ' t be too difficult at all . Alternate Strategy " If you ' re Beast Mastery specced and have Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within , fighting against warriors shouldn ' t be difficult at all . Once activated , nothing stops you from kiting them if you ' re immune to their Hamstring , Intercept , Piercing Howl and even Intimidating Shout . 10 seconds should be just enough . " Priest . Killing a Priest is very difficult for a hunter , and if the priest knows what she is doing , it ' s better to run . Facing a shadow priest : A priest ' s greatest offense is his dots , able to take out well over 10k in a few seconds and sometimes even more . I suggest you open with a silencing shot if you are facing a shadow priest . The priest will open with an disarm , which is for 10 seconds , during that time you will watch him add his dots and call his pet Shadowfiend upon you . You have lost . When facing a shadowpriest the best thing you can do is to put your legs behind your back , but if you are forced to encounter him open with a Silencing Shot you can ' t afford losing the 10 seconds at the start , or even 5 if you have chain that is critical . As you have the priest silenced , it is time to start nuking . There is no use trying to viper sting him as you won ' t be able to take out a pool of 20k in mere seconds , and as a dot round only costs 3k mana , you better open up with everything and really keep the pressure on him . As you start nuking while he ' s silenced he will ( if you are unlucky ) disperse and after the disperse open with a disarm , cast his dots and keep himself alive healing and shielding . The best thing you can do when he is out of Dispersion is to shoot him with the silencing shot and start nuking again . But basicly , with all the priest ' s shields , heals , fears and offensive spells , you have basiclly lost even before you start it . Even if you know exactly how to do , against a skilled shadow priest a hunter alone stands no chance and sometimes not even with a friend . Facing a disc priest Begin with aimed shot or another high damage shot . Keep your pet on the priest to keep him in combat and distracted . Make sure you stay at a safe distance and avoid getting dotted or damaged as the priest can heal up , but you can ' t , neither can you dispell . the priests dotts will have taken 10k off of you in about 20 seconds ( full duration ) in a duel , dont even consider mana burning a disc priest , if he goes on the offensive when seeing you viper sting , he can be a powerful foe , with power infusion , smite dotts and penance , he could come close to your own damage , the only difference is that he can heal . How do i counter this ? A hunters best way of killing a disc priest is simply to nuke him , give it your all and using silence shot when hes down on around 15k , if your lucky , you will kill him . Remember , you dont have much time since three rounds of his dots could kill you . you could always try using Viper Sting to continuously drain mana . Once mana is out of the way , just keep kiting . Without mana the priest is pretty much hopeless against you . Even if they try to melee you they have no chance against you without their spells . Keep in mind however that they need only a small amount of mana to cause some damage so keep the Viper Sting active . It may also help to run around in circles whilst draining their mana as they will have a harder time hitting you with their spells . This will not work against a shadow priest , but could work against a disc if hes not ready , or simply cant go on the offense . this way of dealing with a priest is recomended in the arena . I would recommend not closing with a priest to fight them , if they come close they may be trying to use Psychic Scream . Also bear in mind that Mind Flay has a short range ( ~ 20 yards , depending on talents ) so you may be able to kite out of range of that , only eating mind blasts . But the problem with Psychic Horror still remains if your facing a shadow , against a disc , this is strongly recomended . NB : Hunter vs priest combat can sometimes be very gear dependent , since if you meet a well equipped Shadow priest he can quite easily down you fast with SW : Pain , Devouring plague and Mind Blast / Mind Flay if you ' re not careful . Its advised to use Scatter Shot and Feign Death / trap when you get the chance so you can deal heavy damage to him before he can start chewing down your health . Tapping their mana won ' t be effective if they get your health down 50 - 70 % before you can start nuking them back . The bad news is that priests can attack you and you won ' t notice your health diminishing . Quick Tip : Dont ever worry about being mana burned , if your facing a shadow priest , he will simply add dots and try to take you out that way , and if its a discipline priest ( arena ) his job in the team will probably be healing , and he wont have time mana burning anyone . Even in a duel , mana burning is a discipline priests last choice of play facing a hunter but its not often he gets the time to do so as your damage is prity heavy on a clothie , he will be busy healing and adding dots onto you . Warlock . Warlocks can be very dangerous opponents , their level of danger is reflected by which pet they have out . They will most certainly apply a Curse as well as other DoT spells which will inflict a lot of damage to you . Your pet will be a target of these as well . Be warned that warlocks have a Fear spell and will use it on your pet to remove it from the battle . If you have the talent Bestial Wrath it would be a good idea to activate it before the pet can be feared . Also a hit with Intimidation just before Bestial Wrath falls will help . You should use Concussive Shot to allow you to keep the warlock out of your dead zone . As always a Freezing Trap is very useful to keep the warlock or his pet at range . The bulk of a warlock ' s damage is Shadow based but they have Fire based spells as well . The Survival talent Wyvern Sting can be exceptionally useful against warlocks , as it is an effective pre - emptive counter to the initial use of Fear . Use it as an opener , and if you are successful , the warlock will be asleep for 12 seconds . You then have the option of an Aimed / Arcane / Multi crit combo if you have 20 points in Marks , or rapid dual wield pet - assisted melee with Blood Fury / Berserking ( if you ' re Horde ) , and an Immolation trap otherwise , ( an Immolation trap plus Wyvern Sting will give you 1500 DoT ) which can work very well due to a ' lock ' s comparative lack of armor . Warlocks tend to expect hunters to both kite and be afraid of them ; the initial use of a spell they generally won ' t have heard of ( Wyvern Sting ) , followed by a barrage of rapid fire melee has been known to surprise them sufficiently that they are uncertain how to react . While they ' re wondering what to do , you can finish cutting them up . Destruction ' locks can easily be primarily fire hoping for Soul Fire crits and Immolate and conflagrate . Most of all watch out for a start of battle death coil , it may waste the healing effect but gives them time to fear pet and seduce you . Be aware that some warlocks may try to close to your dead zone and use howl of terror , an area of effect fear . How to deal with warlock pets : Send your pet to attack the warlock while you take out the imp quickly . The pet will help stop the warlock from casting non - instant spells . This can be very helpful especially if they are casting a long move like Soul Fire . The succubus can seduce at a good range . They are often invisible , making the warlock look petless . If you rush in foolishly believing that , you ' ll be defeated quickly . Seduce is a 1 . 5 or 2 sec cast and will probably interrupt something like Aimed Shot . Meanwhile the warlock will be Fearing your pet . Some warlocks follow up a Seduce with high damage moves , a common series is Soul Fire - > Immolate - > Conflagrate - > Shadow Burn , followed up by another Seduce . The following ability has been removed from felhunters and is no longer available to warlocks : Tainted Blood which reduces your attack power . Mage . While a competent Frost specced mage can be a problem , they are rare . An important point to remember is that a mage ideally wants range in which to operate to an even greater extent than a hunter , because unlike a hunter , a mage has no melee component whatsoever . Because of this , although the advice given against a warrior was to kite , the opposite applies here . If you can get close , apply Wing Clip , and engage in rapid melee , you will probably kill most mages very quickly . - Note , you can still drain a druid ' s mana while it is shape shifted as a moonkin or tree of life . Plus , a druid can only abolish poison in caster form . - Note , a druid will most likely have the " Enemy Cast Bar " active , so be prepared to cancel the cast if he shifts out . If timed correctly , you can hit him with a Scatter Shot before the druid can shift back . Druid . - Note , if they cast entangling roots on you then come in , in cat form it will be to hit you with tons of dots so place a freezing trap and get back fast . Your best bet is to damage them early on with an aimed shot and get them to a point where they have to come out of moonkin to heal . Unlike feral druids , the moonkin depends on its mana pool for damage as well as healing so if you can make them shift you ' ve gone a long way towards draining their mana . Be wary however as moonkin can and will drink health and mana pots without having to shift out . If a balance druid shifts into bear form it ' s usually as a last resort and it ' s unlikely he will have spent the talent points in feral charge so now is your time to use concussive shot and put your pet on him , you should be able to keep him at bay until he ' s dead . That is , if you ' re still alive . Paladin . Paladins are probably the single most highly revered class in the game , and there are a few key points to keep in mind when fighting them . Most fights are you frantically shooting them and them coming closer and closer . However , defeating them is not only possible , but enormously satisfying for the hunter , given that paladin players tend to view themselves as invincible . They will generally remove any debuffs you try . First , keep your distance . Paladins will win in melee combat . Paladins have no base ranged attacks ( with the exceptions of Hammer of Wrath , Avenger ' s Shield , and Holy Shock ) so try to use Wing Clip and Concussive Shot to maintain a safe distance . Secondly , Viper Sting is the key to defeating paladins , and is the main reason why they are more manageable for hunters than other classes . Although it is true that the paladin does have a number of impressive abilities , virtually all of these rely on their mana pool . Once the mana pool is empty , the only thing a paladin has is their melee weapon , which sometimes won ' t be anything particularly special , since some tend to lean on their magic . Unfortunately their pools empty slowly and their weapons can be dangerous to you . Additional Notes Shaman . Shaman s are difficult to deal with 1v1 because their abilities cater to this battle . Additionally , the shaman has talents that can make a huge difference in the performance of any of their three roles ( caster , melee , or healer ) and it ' s difficult to determine what spec a shaman is until you have been killed by him . Some things however , are universally true of all shamans : The first thing you note about a shaman is the lack of crowd control . A shaman cannot incapacitate you at all ( minus the short - range Warstomp on a tauren ) , and one of the two abilities to slow you down has serious issues . An extremely deadly weapon in the shaman ' s arsenal where hunters are concerned is the Earthbind Totem ; however it only has 5 health , and has a short 10 - yard range . It works in a system of pulses , which means that it will affect you slightly after it ' s dropped ( the totem is actually casting the snare , so there is a slight delay ) , and that it doesn ' t fade from you when the totem is destroyed ( the totem refreshes the snare , but the snare has a short duration of its own ) . The cooldown on the totem is 15 seconds . Shocks also have 20 - yard range , which is about half of yours . Knowing this , you can usually keep the shaman at bay . Traps , range , Concussive Shot , and Wing Clip , as well as judicious use of your pet are key . The shaman ' s greatest weapon is the Lesser Healing Wave it possesses . With a 1 . 5 second cast time , it ' s often hard to stop it . It is , however , not entirely impossible to either prevent him from using it ( with abilities such as scatter shot , or the 20 % improved concussion shot ) , slow him down ( a fast attack pet , Auto Shot , Multi Shot and Arcane Shot ) , or simply outlast his small mana pool . In addition , Elemental / Enhancement shamans have 70 % resistance to damage pushback at best , so your pet can be expected to noticeably increase the casting time of this spell . Viper Sting is a good thing to use . A shaman will most often use a poison cleansing totem , which takes time to pulse , or cleanse poison , which might not remove it on the first application . Either way , you should come ahead in the mana race . Totems are expensive ( some are 4 - 5 % of his mana ) , and if he has to cast them often , you will bleed him dry . Your mail armor will soak up some of the Windfury damage , which means that often , he ' ll be forced to constantly shock you , in order to get you down before you can . A Marksmanship hunter is definitely something to be feared for any shaman . A 41 yard range is hard to overcome , especially as you can open up with an Aimed Shot , then kite them , and possibly destroy them before they even get into range ( at which point , Wing Clip / Frost Trap , or Scatter Shot / Freezing Trap to reset the range ) . Hence , as long as you stay beyond 20 yards , about the only thing he ' ll be able to do is swear at you in frustration . Facing a hunter , some shamans will equip a shield , and just try to outlast you by healing and nuking away . This is generally a terrible idea , as your pet will often out - damage a one handed equipped shaman in melee , and the shaman ' s limited mana pool means that he will lose the war very quickly . Your mail armor also means that that little mace or dagger he ' s wielding does next to nothing , even on a feared " Windfury triple - crit " , which happens once every 1000 or so attacks . Weapon - switch macros , however , still figure in a good shaman ' s arsenal , and he will have Windfury on both a big 2h and a small 1h . He will keep the shield until he gets near you , to decrease damage , then switch back , and hope for a big WF to start whittling down your health . The longer it takes him to get there , and the shorter you can make that last , the better your chances are at winning . Most of the above information is focused on melee shamans , and it ' s true , a melee shaman is an easy kill for a hunter . However , an elemental shaman is a force to be reckoned with . Consider the power of a Chain Lightning crit ( around 2k ) followed up by an earth shock ( 1 . 5k if it crits ) . This is enough to blast most hunters out of the water , and the damage dealt completely ignores armor . The hunter ' s single best defense against this is Silencing Shot . As you see his hands sparkle with lightning , hit him with a silencing shot , then pepper him . Restoration shamans are very well suited to fighting hunters . Their melee damage capacity is very weak , but their passive healing means that they can focus on doing nothing but closing with you . Since a hunter needs to stand still for maximum damage potential , many hunters attempt to stand their ground and get off a few shots and stings before running . This is often a mistake , because if that Restoration Shaman ever once gets into Frost Shock range , you are not getting away again unless he makes an error . The key in this fight is the Shaman ' s armor and passive healing . Any Restoration Shaman worth his salt in PvP will be wearing a shield , and Earth Shield and Nature ' s Guardian provide excellent passive healing . A restoration Shaman with as little as 1200 or so + healing will see his Earth Shield tick for over 700hp , and crit for 1K . This allows the Shaman to concentrate on only getting to melee range and staying there . They will then whittle you down with shocks . Nature ' s Swiftness also means that they can reach out and daze you at a range of 30 yards if you are using Aspect of the Cheetah to maintain range , allowing them to abuse server latency and the travel time of Concussive Shot ( possibly in conjunction with Ghost Wolf ) to daze you and get back into snare range . Maintain distance at all costs and be sure to heal your pet if it gets damaged ; eventually it and your shots / stings will run him out of mana , since Earth Shield does cost around 900 mana to cast . Do not fall into the trap that many fellow players put for you , by exaggerating and exalting the abilities of a shaman . With a bit of care , a shaman can be a fairly easy kill , as it really doesn ' t do much other than auto - attack and shock . If you have good control of your pet to take care of the very few totems that actually matter ( which kills the shaman ' s low mana pool ) , it really should be no trouble to take one down . Engineering is especially useful for hunters in taking down shamans . The area effect dynamite and bombs will knock out the shaman ' s totems , and the bombs have a chance to stun , preventing the shaman from casting for a few seconds . The bomb stun does not cause the target to wander like scatter shot , and the few seconds are long enough to drop an ice trap and step back for a 12 second distance .