Hunter leveling specs

[ElAmigo]

So my friend decided to make a hunter to level on my account and I haven't really leveled one since they had mana. So I was wondering if I could get some hints and tips to give my friend for the fastest and most efficient specs for questing his way up to level 85 (he's using the heirloom bow btw)

[RedHeadWolf]

I leveled as MM (This was in Wrath) but I suspect BM is the best leveling spec. I've heard pets have better agro that way.

[Deleted]

Bm is nice. Kill command tends to make sure your pet has agro constantly. SV is also nice, especially at low levels. Explosive shot tends to plow through pretty much everything. Wouldn't really recommend MM unless your friend wants to level like a Fire Mage and pre-cast that slow, hard damaging ability befor every mob (AiS compared to fire mage Pyroblast).

[Deleted]

Bm was the way i levelled but I levelled in vanilla haha, Any of the specs are more then viable to level with and my hunter which is still my main was one of the most fun characters i have levelled out of all my chars. Pick something you like and have fun

[Lana]

i've been trying to figure out the best spec for dungeon leveling, but if you plan on questing a lot, i would recommend bm.

[Dedweight]

Leveled my first hunter as BM in Wrath, second hunter(current main) was leveled as Survival with a BM/MM offspec. Any of the specs are sufficient for leveling, I'd say play around with all three and go with the one you enjoy most. As for Pet aggro BM is better for that but doesn't really matter when 75% of the time you're killing everything before it gets to you.

[Emelyn]

Been lvling as survival and i am now lvl 76. With full heirloom gear i guess anything goes but i have realy felt this spec was easy so give it a try.

[fellgon]

im 69 and have been mm all the way aimed shot may be a little slow but it makes u feel like a sniper cos it damn near 1shots every mob in the game

anything it dont kill dies from ure arcane shot that follows (or chim if ure above 69)

u will also be learning the most dominant pve and pvp specs as u level

my 2c

[Zynx]

Lower levels probably BM for speed (though everything dies in like 2 hits at that level with any spec anyway). Though I suspect at higher levels the Rapid Killing/Rapid Recup combo from MM is pretty great.

[Ninjamoo]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu not another one of these threads! Why can't you people search!!!!!


http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/...hunter-guides/

[zro1021]

i've been trying to figure out the best spec for dungeon leveling, but if you plan on questing a lot, i would recommend bm.

Ive been leveling in dungeons only with another friend on a hunter with the same boas and other gear for the most part I have been survival the entire time while he has switched in between BM/MM and i have out dps'd him in almost every fight but he does get close often. Take it with a grain of salt.

[Neponc]

For soloing group quests I would go BM. Just doing normal quests marks seems to be faster just because aimed shot tends to kill most normal mobs.

[Samin]

So my friend decided to make a hunter to level on my account and I haven't really leveled one since they had mana. So I was wondering if I could get some hints and tips to give my friend for the fastest and most efficient specs for questing his way up to level 85 (he's using the heirloom bow btw)

Okay quick answer: DON'T GO BM!
If you have Heirlooms: MM (especially with a ranged weapon)
Otherwise: SV or MM (MM after 69 is definitely a wiser choice than SV)

Long answer: I'm currently trying (hard) to level a BM hunter. The last (and first) time I tried was mid-wotlk, because everyone told me it's really awesome to level. Thing is, BM-Hunter levelling is what made me hate hunter (to play myself). I don't want to go to much into detail why BM hunter even sucked for levelling in Wrath because that's over.
I tell you why it sucks at low levels (because my try on a cata BM hunter is not very far yet) and explain why it's a better choice to always go MM/SV.
The Idea behind BM is to have your pet to much of the work. So if you want to actually use the BM spec you would use Kill Command as your main damage ability and AS as a focus dump. The problem is, that your pet needs to be on the enemy, so you either have to send the pet in and wait for it to reach the mobs, then Kill Command and unload your damage on the mob OR you have to send in your pet, then shoot at the enemy, causing it to run for you. The problem now is that your pet often has problems keeping in melee range of the mob to KC if it has to run after it (because the mob chases for you). Also your options while you wait for your pet to reach the mob are a) do nothing, wait, waste time or b) Shoot - which means either AS which will cause you being out of focus for when your pet could KC or you Steady Shot but you can't KC while casting Steady, so you either have to cancel the cast (wasting time) or wait for it to cast through (delaying KC which is a large damage source for you).
So the problem is because your pet has to be in melee range you usually spend much time waiting or delaying your big damage ability. Of course you could run into the mobs, but then you had the problem of having to run out again to shoot at them - which leads to the biggest problem. It's inefficient. And it teaches you a wrong way of playing a hunter.
So basically what you have with BM is a spec where your early abilities clash together and you either wait for your pet to run around or play otherwise inefficient by not using your own abilities properly.

That gets me to why SV/MM are simply better levelling specs for everyone. They teach you how to play as a hunter. YOU cause the damage. You shoot, and that bullet/arrow/bolt hits the enemy. Your pet runs in and nibbles on the enemies leg for additional damage. You have to stay away to use all your important abilities. It's obvious that you are a ranged class that kills from far, and not a class that lets it's pet do the job. You will have to learn how to kill the mobs before they reach you or at least take as much from their HP as possible. You will learn the use of Concussive Shot and if you're not as lazy as me even the use of traps.
And the aggro is even an issue as BM hunter (and also was in wotlk), because if you try to play properly and also do damage yourself, even if it's just spamming steady shot - you WILL overaggro your pet (maybe it gets better later when your pet has more talents, but then the advantages of MM/SV spec get even better anyway) - only option to avoid that is playing inefficient and only standing there doing autoshot and maybe a random Arcane.
I've wrote a lengthy post on the official forums explaining why hunter is NOT the "great solo class" that it claims to be in the character creation screen. Hunter is a great class, that is fun to play especially at end game. But they're not a better solo class then any other. Especially not for levelling. Especially not with Cataclysm.

Also your "iconic ability" i.e. the one you get at level 10 as BM is most of the time pretty pointless on low level. Maybe if you aggro multiple mobs, but it's way to situational for your iconic ability. You could get much more useful ones with MM/SV and play more efficient with them.

And yes I always talk about efficiency. Because if you really like BM for some reason, then play it. If you want to have fun while never having played hunter before - I doubt it's a good choice.

Btw, I managed to get a hunter to 80 even with WotLK (tribute goes to the fact that it was my first time levelling as horde, so everything was pretty fresh most of the time which made it easier to endure). I levelled as Marksman - it worked great for me and marked the point of my crusade against the BM spec (as a levelling spec). I still had a problem with the concept over all, being disadvantaged because of range requirement, being forced to kite and watch my back to not pull additional mobs. It's another way of playing but isn't what I define as easy levelling compared to enh shamans and ret paladins or even arcane mages who just steamrolled through all the mobs (not even listing draintank locks because those were simply OP ) without even knowing they could possibly die (well that's exeggerated but anyway).
The point that made me tip over and mark the start of my crusade against hunter as the advertised "easy solo class" was the quest Drakkensryd. Of course not only the quest, but after torturing myself through that quest on my level 78 troll hunter, I started to put everything what is wrong in my opinion together and spread out the word...that hunter is an awesome class - but not the great solo levelling class that it claims to be.

Also with Cata, from level 76 on, almost everything is fine with hunters. Glyphed Misdirection = almost playing as stressless while still being efficient as all the other classes. If Blizzard moves Misdirection to something < 25, I will think about agreeing that hunters are a good class to solo - even tho still not as BM and I will not outright agree that they are the best class to level solo.

Edit: Yes, this is something that matters to me. Because I think people will get false impressions of the hunter class when they play it as BM instead of MM/SV. And despite bashing it as a levelling class, I always point out that I think hunter is a really fun class and everyone should have one (just as every other class..except death knights which I still can't play). There are just huge amounts of misinformation about it.

[Gestopft]

You could go BM and maybe the pet would have the aggro.

Or you go MM and one-shot mobs.

[PowerGamez]

From: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...2#post11560512

Go MM. Its is extremely fast for leveling as Aimed shot hits so hard.

Talents that are amazing:

-Rapid Killing (After killing something your next Aimed, Steady or Cobra deal +20% damage)
-Careful Aim (+60% crit on your Aimed, Steady, Cobra if the targets HP is above 80%)
-Rapid Recuperation (+50 focus when you kill something)

You're using BoAs so you should be pretty much one shotting most mobs. Don't even bother sending your pet in first. Just cast a hard hitting Aimed Shot opener from max range and then an Arcane or Steady to finish it. Rapid Recup drastically speeds things up as you can jts kill kill kill. When you hit 69 and grab Chimera you'll just go: Aimed > Chimera. This will kill any mob your killing instantly pretty much.

It's an extremely fast way to level the last few levels too. I've got 6 85s and my hunter was by far the fastest to level - did 80-85 in ~10 hours just questing.

[ElAmigo]

Okay quick answer: DON'T GO BM!
If you have Heirlooms: MM (especially with a ranged weapon)
Otherwise: SV or MM (MM after 69 is definitely a wiser choice than SV)

Long answer: /snip

Thank you, this was the answer I was looking for and it's the one that i thought seemed the most plausible as well. Good to know my judgement on it was the right one haha. Appreciate the help from everyone else as well

[Iseewhatyoudidthar]

Thank you, this was the answer I was looking for and it's the one that i thought seemed the most plausible as well. Good to know my judgement on it was the right one haha. Appreciate the help from everyone else as well

I am a little late, but man, I'm just starting a new hunter with BoAs (til 30, then I'm gonna take em all off to experience the new leveling content, otherwise you just outlevel zones too fast, and I have no intention of raiding with a hunter). I gotta say, I don't like the way MM works. With BoAs, sure, you can stomp people with aimed shot, but is that fun? Long cast, one shot, dead, repeat. Boring, imo. BM or SV is the way to go. You can plow through enemies with any spec, but aimed shot just sucks the fun out of being a hunter, I think.

[drinkingcola86]

I leveled BM in vanilla, BC, wrath and to 85 in Cata(had my duel spec SV for instances though). I never had an issue with pulling off my pet. If you get a tanking type of pet you shouldn't either. just while your pet is running in cast steady shot and by the time that your pet reaches the target you should have that steady on the way and there should be no issue with it. Leveling as bm only gets easier as you level since you pet receives talent points after level 20.

Honestly though playing a hunter is going to take you to get used to how they work and the play style that you want. Play with each spec once when your 30 and can dual talent. See which you like.