Some of us long-time players take for granted the fact that new players simply haven't had the time to become as comfortable with a class as we have, and therefore may not be as confident in what they can do for a group when it's time to use our abilities for more than damage. This guide is going to specifically speak to new Hunters. We have a LOT of abilities that can allow us to control potentially bad situations, and turn a near-sure wipe into a victory.

Traps
It's a trap!

Traps are going to be your go-to crowd control ability in most situations, so set your keys to make these as accessible to you as possible when in combat. When it comes to direct-control traps, you have several options:

Freezing Trap: This will most likely be your most used trap in Dungeons. This trap will remain on the group for up to 1 minute or until triggered. Once triggered, it will freeze your target in place for up to one minute, or until the frozen target is attacked. This use of this trap is further extended if the Hunter has Glyph of Freezing Trap, which will cause the trapped target's movement speed to be slowed by 70% for 4 seconds after the trap is removed. Remember that any damage caused to the target after they are frozen will cause the trap to break, this means that you need to be careful not to attack the target after it has been trapped, and just as important, don't apply your serpent sting to the target before trapping.

Ice Trap (formerly Frost Trap): This will be your next most used trap. This trap, like freezing trap and all other traps, will remain on the ground for up to one minute, or until triggered. Once triggered, this trap will lay a layer of ice on the group covering 10 yards (12 yards with Glyph of Ice Trap), and reduces the movement speed of all enemies by 50% for 1 minute. This ability is very useful when there is not an opportunity to trap a single target due to the intended target's proximity to the group (which would resulted in a wasted cooldown, due to a broken trap). This trap is also extremely useful with the Entrapment talent in the Survival tree, which will cause any enemy within the effected range of the trap to be locked in place for 4 seconds after the initial trigger.

Snake Trap: This skill is most often used in the PvP world to irritate casters, but in our example it can have a single major use. If you have the Entrapment ability from the Survival tree, this ability will also lock your target in place for 4 seconds. The usefulness of this trap is due in large part to the fact that it does not share a cooldown with your other traps, as it is a nature spell, and not fire or frost. Best used when everything else is on cooldown, or when you don't want to use certain traps yet. Please remember not to use this ability while on a plane.

Your other two traps (Explosive and Immolation), will not trigger the Entrapment effect, and are therefore best used only in damage dealing situations. Remember that any damage to a target will break your freezing trap, so it's not a good idea to toss an explosive trap out there and then tree to freeze something (or visa versa).

Remember to use your Trap Launcher to your advantage, and try to get the traps to the targets that need to be controlled as quickly as possible, when possible.

Tactics for Trapping

So now you know what traps to have handy for controlling a situation. Now you just need to know how to control it.

In a perfect situation, your group leader will be marking targets and communicating to you what raid icons he/she would like you to focus your controlling abilities on. In these situations, you will likely be able to utilize your Trap Launcher and freeze your intended target with ease. Casters are generally the easiest targets to use your Freezing Trap on, as they tend to stand still at the beginning of any encounter, making your job of dropping the Freezing Trap on their head rather trivial.

There is not always going to be a perfect use scenario for trapping, though, especially while out of quick communication with other group members while utilizing the Looking for Dungeon system. This can make our job a lot more difficult, but rarely impossible. We just have to learn that our job sometimes involves getting right up in the face of the enemy and get their attention. This is best done with our ability, Distracting Shot, which functions exactly like any tank's Taunt ability. Once you have the enemy's attention, you can decide how to handle controlling them. If it's not on cooldown, and the target is not currently being attacked or has any damage-over-time effects on it, then I recommend using your Freezing Trap after you've moved the mob away from the group to avoid the chance that someone will attack the target and break the trap.

If for some reason your traps are all on cooldown, or traps that you've tried to use have been resisted by the target (it's possible!), you will need to result to other means to keep the target off of other players until the tank can pick it up. Make use of abilities that slow or immobilize the target. Your main abilities are:

Concussive Shot
Scatter Shot
Deterrence
Wing Clip

If you are level 83+, you will want to switch to Aspect of the Fox before attempting to kite any mobs, as you will need the passive focus regeneration, and the ability to fire Steady Shot or Cobra Shot on the run.

Concussive Shot is a great starting shot after you have an ememy's attention, as it allows them to be slowed at a safe distance, allowing you to move further away as you prepare your quick strategy for the target. If they started extremely close to you, hit them in the face with Scatter Shot. Once you've got them disoriented, you can do a couple of things. If all of your trap abilities are on cooldown, you'll want to try and at least get quick distance from the target. Best way to do this is Wing Clip the target and then Jump and Disengage away. Please watch where your character's back is facing before Disengaging a target, as flying into an adjecent group of enemies will do basically the opposite of crowd control. Once you're safely away, use another Concussive Shot once Wing Clip has faded from the target. Try not to overlap your abilities too much, as you're just wasting cooldowns and focus. Use Aspect of the Cheetah to your advantage when you need to keep your distance. Do NOT use Aspect of the Pack, as your other group members don't want to be permenantly dazed during your escapades. If you absolutely can't get away from a hard-hitting enemy and need a few extra seconds to allow for your cooldown timers to finish, or your need to be able to hit Feign Death before you suffer actual death (more on this later), then use Deterrence to give yourself 5 free seconds of extra life.

Different Hunter specs also have a few abilities up their sleeves that can add even more control to the situation.

Beast Mastery:
Intimidation

Marksman:
Concussive Barrage

Survival:
Wyvern Sting
Entrapment

Next to last, but certainly not least: Your Pet! Don't forget your pet! We Hunters try to keep our pets alive as much as possible, as we should (they're so cute!), but their primary function is to take damage when you don't want to. Your pet can be ressurected in combat by you, if need be. You can't always be as easily retrived from the nether.

The best way I've found to use my pet, as any spec, is to utilize the Glyph of Misdirection to keep aggro on the pet. Cast as often as possible while you do damaging abilities to the target (try and avoid DOTs if you plan to use freezing trap again!) and move out of harms way. Depending on the encounter, this may or may not mean certain doom for your companion. Once you're at a safe distance and have more cooldowns available, you can Distracting Shot the target off of your pet.

Beast Mastery Hunters with a tenacity pet may find using the pet to control a target as a better option. Their pets are far tougher than the other specs, and will stay alive much longer in most situations.

Lastly, you have the Feign Death ability. The reason I list this last is because it has both the effect of removing you from combat and thus out of harm's way, but also putting one of your team mates at risk. If you're not on the aggro list any more, then that just means someone else is. The best use of this ability is either before you have aggro (dump aggro while doing DPS), avoiding a death in an eminent wipe, especially for engineers who may be able to resurrect a healer, or when you have absolutely no other options, and are about to die anyway.

You will eventually become comfortable enough and quick enough in your play style to be able to use Feign Death more often without risking the life of your companions, but until that time, try and use your other abilities first.
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Thanks for reading! I know that it is in no way perfect, and many of the strategies are based on my experiences and personal play style. If you have any points to add, or strategies of your own you would like to share, please leave a comment in the thread.