Not currently updated for MoP.
Contents:
1.0 Introduction
1.1 A few words
1.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms
2.0 Your Hunter
2.1 Race
2.2 Professions
2.3 Talents
2.4 Glyphs
3.0 Gear
3.1 Stats
3.2 Enchants
3.3 Gems
4.0 Tips / Shot Priority
4.1 Tips
4.2 Single Target Priority
-4.2.1 Priorities for AoE
4.3 Cooldowns
5.0 Your Pets
5.1 What pet to bring?
5.2 Pet Talents
6.0 Macros
7.0 AddOns and Useful Sites
8.1 AddOns
8.2 Useful Sites
8.0 Change log
1.0 Introduction
1.1 A few words
This guide is meant for PvE purposes only.
1.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms
TBD
2.0 Your Hunter
2.1 Race
These are the only races that offer any bonus to DPS.
Alliance:
Pandaren - Epicurean which doubles the bonus you get from food buffs.
Worgen - Viciousness gives 1% Crit rating, and even more they have Darkflight which is quite useful.
Dwarf - Crack Shot gives 1% Expertise Rating, and Stoneform which can be useful in raids.
Draenei - Heroic Presence gives 1% Hit Rating, and Gift of the Naaru which can be useful in raids.
Human - Every Man for Himself which could be situationally useful.
Night Elf - Wisp Spirit proving to be most useful when dead.
Horde:
Orc - Blood Fury gives a nice burst AP cooldown, and Command which gives 2% Pet Damage.
Troll - Berserking gives a nice burst Haste cooldown, and Dead Eye which gives 1% Expertise Rating
Pandaren - Epicurean which doubles the bonus you get from food buffs.
Goblin - Time is Money which gives 1% Haste Rating, and Rocket Jump which can be situationally useful.
Undead - Touch of the Grave which deals direct damage and heals you back for that amount.
Blood Elf - Nothing useful.
Tauren - Nothing useful.
2.2 Professions
TBD
2.3 Talents
The tiers 15, 30 and 45 are freely selectable and boss dependent. This is only a general suggestion from me, but the talent level is 60 to 75 skills are the DPS output here.
2.4 Glyphs
There are only a handful of glyphs that offer any kind of advantage.
3.0 Gear
3.1 Stats
Hit 7.5% = 769 Rating 666 if Draenei
Expertise 7.5% = 769 Rating 666 if Dwarf or Troll
Crit
Mastery
Haste
[3.2 Enchants
Shoulders - Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal or Swiftsteel Inscription if you're a Scribe.
Back - Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike or Enchant Cloak - Major Agility or Swordguard Embroidery if you're a Tailor.
Chest - Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
Wrist - Enchant Bracer - Agility
Hands - Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves - Major Agility or Enchant Gloves - Greater Expertise
Belt - Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Legs - Dragonscale Leg Armor
Feet - Enchant Boots - Assassin\'s Step
Weapon - Flintlocke\'s Woodchucker
3.3 Gems
Meta - Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
Red - Delicate Queen\'s Garnet
Orange - Deadly Lava Coral
Purple - Glinting Shadow Spinel
4.0 Tips & Shot Priority
4.1 Tips
TBD
4.2 Single Target Priority:
Is Hunter's Mark up? If not reapply.
Is Serpent Sting up? If not reapply.
Kill Command on cooldown.
Kill Shot if target is below 20% health.
Focus Fire at 5 stacks of Frenzy or if it's less than 5 seconds left on the buff. Do not use Focus Fire if you're going to use Bestial Wrath soon.
Arcane Shot to bleed off excess focus.
Cobra Shot to increase Serpent Sting and retain focus.
4.2.1 Priorities for AoE
If there are only two or three mobs continue doing your Single Target Priority. If there are 4+ mobs do this...
Bestial Wrath and Lynx Rush can also be used for AoE situations for burst there.
Multi-Shot at least every 4 seconds to maintain Beast Cleave.
Explosive Trap under them (No more melee range).
Kill Shot on targets below 20% health.
Cobra Shot to retain focus.
4.3 Cooldowns
I do Rapid Fire before Bestial Wrath to allow stacks of Focus Fire to get more out of Bestial Wrath.
Rapid Fire (Do not stack with Bestial Wrath)
Bestial Wrath.
Lynx Rush.
Dire Beast.
Readiness and repeat again.
5.0 Your Pets
5.1 What pet to bring?
Bring the pet that will most benefit your group. Look at the buffs here.
5.2 Pet Talents
Ferocity. That's all.
6.0 Macros
This will use trinkets CD or Glove CD if you have them, cast Rabid, Lynx Rush and Bestial Wrath.
#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use 13
/use 14
/use 10
/cast Rabid
/cast Lynx Rush
/cast Bestial Wrath
This will stop your current cast and Silence/Interrupt the enemy and then start attacking again.
#showtooltip Silencing Shot
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast Silencing Shot
/startattack
This will cancel Deterrence or Blessing of Protection so you can continue to attack.
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cancelaura Blessing of Protection
This will stop your current cast and Feign Death.
#showtooltip Feign Death
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast Feign Death
This will stop your current cast and Disengage.
#showtooltip Disengage
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast Disengage
This will stop your current cast and Deterrence.
#showtooltip Deterrence
/stopcasting
/stopcasting
/cast Deterrence
7.0 AddOns and Useful Sites
7.1 AddOns
Qulight UI: This is a complete UI replacement addon built off Tukui by Tukz.
Serenity: Serenity is the replacement for JS' Hunter Bar.
xCT: xCT is a very lightweight combat text addon (20- 30kb mem usage)
BigWigs: Boss-mod.
Skada: Skada is a modular damage meter with various viewing modes. It is inspired mainly by Assessment, but also by Recount.
7.2 Useful Sites
Zeherah's Hunter DPS Analyzer: tool to load a character's gear from the armory and simulate its damage output with various skill rotations, talents, glyphs, races, and professions to calculate DPS.
Reforge-Calc: With this 1 click script you can now optimal reforge your hunters equipment out of billions of options.
Warcraft Hunters Union: The WoW hunter class source for guides, advice, and entertainment. Everything you need to top the charts.
WoWInterface: World of Warcraft Addons, Interfaces, Skins, Mods & Community.
WoW-Heroes: A database covering PvE character and guild information and ratings.
Petopia: A visual guide to hunter pets and information.
Elitist Jerks: Elitist Jerks is a site dedicated to intelligent discussion of the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.
World Of Logs: World of Logs combat log analyzer which allows gamers to save, share and analyze their raiding experiences conveniently and thoroughly.
Joystiq: Game news, strategy articles, game tips, humor, and player opinions.
WoWHead: A database website with talent, glyph and hunter pet planer, forums, blog, and patch guides.
8.0 Change log
6/1/2013 I've recently quit WoW so I'll no longer be updating this. If you'd like to take over this thread, feel free. Have fun guys!
7/10/2012 I'll be updating soon™. Been very busy lately with the start of expansion and all.
5/9/2012 Added macros.
5/9/2012 Trying to get title updated.
30/8/2012 Fixed the broken links on Glyphs.
29/8/2012 Updated the whole guide... If there's something I left out or you think is better, just drop a comment.