Thinking of starting my first Hunter toon, but I have a question: Can Hunter's use melee weapons effectively? Like 2h swords or something? Which spec would suit that playstyle the most? And what stats would I look for?
No melee weapons anymore as they have zero attacks that can be executed with a melee weapon. They are only able to equip them because pre-cata, hunters used melee weapons as stat sticks while classes still had a Ranged Slot (the slot where DK/sham/pala totem/sigl/etc went and the place rogue/warriors equipped their throwing knife/bow/gun). You have no choice but to use a bow, crossbow, or gun. Even when hunters did use melee weapons, as I said, they were only for the stats like a caster's offhand currently works.