Images courtesy of Peter Dorsi

A very effective class that utilizes distance to its fullest potential, the Hunter dispatches great amounts of damage from afar and avoids melee engagements as much as possible. Being a range unit, the Hunter excels at pulling, threat distraction and redirection, and crowd control. The Hunter also employs combat pets that can deal damage DPS and provide support for aggro situations. Among the Hunter’s unique abilities is taming wild beasts to become the character’s allies. Aside from combat, pets can be trained to track and scout. Although the Hunter is an excellent company, his circle of friends only consists of his weapons and his pets.

Overview
The Hunter is one of the six classes that can employ “pets” in combat. The others are the Druid (summons Force of Nature entities), Warlock (summons Demons), Mage (summons Water Elementals), Shaman (summons elemental totems), and Priest (summons entities through Shadowfiend spells). However, only the Hunter can name and feed their pets. The Hunter’s pets’ damage rate is affected by the “Happiness” level, unlike a Warlock’s demonic minion whose damage rate is constant.

The Hunter is an expert of the outdoors. His excellent outdoor skills allow him to excel in outdoor survival, tracking, and laying traps for enemies. As for weaponry, the Hunter starts with a dagger or an axe and a gun, crossbow, or bow. The unit can be trained to use other weapons with the exception of wands and maces (both the one-handed and two-handed kinds). Once a Hunter has reached Level 20 he can learn the Dual Wield skill, enabling him to use two one-handed weapons simultaneously. The Hunter is also limited to wearing cloth or leather armor until he reaches level 40. By then, the unit can now be equipped with mail armor.

Mana is also a basic necessity for the Hunter, since the character requires mana for several spells such as Pet Healing or for special shooting abilities. However, since the Hunter is not designed to be an extensive spell caster, the unit’s mana pool is not as large as those who use spells dedicatedly.

The Hunter can enhance his performance by activating his Animal Aspects. An Animal Aspect is a self buff designed to enable or improve a particular skill of the Hunter such as dodging, movement speed, and resistance to natural hazards. The Hunter can only activate one Animal Aspect at a time and may last until the Aspect is cancelled.

Background
The Hunter is attuned to the wilds and spends his days living on his outdoor survival expertise and mastery of the bow and the rifle. Being a nature-centric unit, the Hunter can turn even the mightiest and most savage beasts into his allies in battle. Most creatures of Azeroth would immediately answer the Hunter’s call and most, if not all, are unable to survive its wrath.

Although each race has its own version of the Hunter, all versions are widely acknowledged with their deft ways of tracking and bringing down their prey. However, some races have put the Hunter in high regard as they excel in the said field. The Hunter constantly looks for ways to keep the fragile balance of nature in check along with the Druids. The Hunter’s adept skills in surviving in nature are only equaled by that of the Elven Ranger’s.

The Hunter is among the oldest classes in history. The Taurens have always been the masters of the hunt since long before history was written. The Orcs of the Horde have gained their hunting abilities from the trolls of Lordaeron. Like Shamans, the Hunter of the Horde can call upon the spirits of land, wind, and fire to provide assistance during a hunt. Majority of the Horde’s Hunter leans toward the elements and the land.

Figuratively, the Hunter is a representation of the connection that binds man and beast. The hunter in the Warcraft universe does not hunt down his prey for mere consumption. Instead, the Hunter plays a major role as the custodian of balance. The Hunter’s role is to actively engage in the circle of life and death, a concept the character wholly understands.
The prey the Hunter chooses to track down and slay is given the same degree of respect that is also given the predator from which the Hunter acquired his skills and emulates. Reclusive, the Hunter’s companions for life are the beasts of the wild.

The Hunter in the World of Warcraft aims to be an excellent marksman, though not all Hunters choose to become expert sharpshooters. With nature by his side, the Hunter can easily concoct himself into a fusion of mysticism and the outdoors. The Hunter’s knowledge in magic enables him to excel at what he does as he can call upon the wild to grant him abilities or improve them to help him achieve his goal. From a certain viewpoint, the Hunter becomes the Wild as he can act with the spryness of the monkey or the quickness of the cheetah.

Though the Hunter calls distance his ally, he has devised a system of hand-to-hand combat that is derived from animal’s movements should the confrontations become up close and personal. The Hunter’s deftness in hunting allows him to set waiting traps for his prey. With his mystical orientation, the Hunter can fill his traps with magic to ensure that the hunt will succeed. His shots can be infused with magic, poison, and explosives to maim, disorient, or kill the target.

Although the Hunter strives to keep the balance of nature in check and shares the same goal with the Druids, Hunter and Druid do not stand on the same ground when it comes to intervening with the balance, as the Druid opts to observe and heal, while the Hunter prefers to participate. The Hunter has nothing but the utmost reverence for nature and the willingness to preserve it using man-made equipment.
Famous Hunters in the Warcraft universe includes:

• Alleria Windrunner (Elven Ranger)
• Vereesa Windrunner (Elven Ranger)
• Sylvanas Windrunner (Elven Ranger)
• Shandris Feathermoon (Night Elf)
• Rexxar (Beastmaster).

The Combat Pet
Pets are essential tools for the Hunter. They can perform various roles such as aggro-management and additional DPS. But the combat pet’s most prominent function is as a tanker. With the right pet management, the Hunter’s pet can deal great amounts of damage. How the pet fares in a confrontation depends heavily on its specs, as each variant is open to customizations and modifications.

Each pet has a set of unique skills that can complement the output of the Hunter. Most hunters have different pets that are modified to play certain roles in certain situations such as PvP, tanking, and so on.

The Races and Specific Racial Traits
While all races have hunters, there are several races that excel in the Hunter Class. The Hunter Class is only available to the following races:
Alliance

• Night Elf
• Dwarf
• Draenei

Horde

• Orcs
• Tauren
• Troll
• Blood Elf.

Each racial version of Hunters have specific traits that other version do not have. These racial attributes are listed below:

Races	Traits
Blood Elf	Can use Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent. Mana Tap can burn the enemy’s money while Arcane Torrent features a 2-second AOE Silence and enhances mana regeneration.
Draenei	Provides Heroic Presence buff, which greatly affects the Hunter’s pets as well as the other party members. The Gift of the Naaru gives the Draenei Hunter a heal over time ability.
Dwarf	The Dwarf Hunter increases their gun’s critical strike by 1% through Gun Specialization. With Stoneform, the Dwarf Hunter can counter several forms of debuffs, including Crippling Poison.
Night Elf	With Shadowmeld, the Night Elf version can use stealth to take advantage of enemies in both PvP and PvE situations. When the Night Elf Hunter’s Quickness attribute is staked with the Aspect of the Monkey, the dodge rate is greatly increased.
Orc	Combat pets’ damage is increased by 5% when Command is activated. The Orc Hunter also possesses the Blood Fury ability.
Troll	The Troll Hunter’s critical damage is increased by 1% with Bow Specialization. Troll Hunters also have the Berserking ability.
Tauren	The Taruen Hunter’s total health is increased by 5% when Endurance is activated. This racial ability can be stacked with Endurance Training and Survivalist in the talent trees.

The Talent Trees
The Hunter has a vast array of talents in his arsenal. Like other classes, the Hunter class also has talent trees where they can add points to further improve their skills or establish their specific specializations. There are three skill trees where the Hunter can learn and train new skills and abilities – Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival.

• Beast Mastery

This talent tree is geared on improving the Hunter’s pet’s damage capabilities and survivability. Several skills that are key to this tree are Thick Hide (greatly minimizes the amount of damage the pet takes when in combat), Unleashed Fury (exponentially increases the pet’s damage rate), and Intimidation (used effectively when facing spellcasters, giving the Hunter and its pet some time to recover from damage or inflict great amounts of it).

• Marksmanship

This particular tree is centered on improving the damage rate as well as efficient mana consumption of the Hunter’s shots. Some essential skills in this tree are Aimed Shot (effective against spellcasters, this skill gives one shot a lot of punch), Mortal Shot (gives all shots 30% critical, produces excellent results when stacked with Aimed Shot), and Readiness (quickly resets all of the Hunter’s available skills, this skill allows the Hunter to quickly evade large crowds and turn the tide against mobs).

• Survival

True to its name, the Survival tree is greatly inclined to enhancing the Hunter’s survival skills. The skills in this tree may also be of significance for party members. Must-have abilities in this tree comprise of Expose Weakness (declared as the best talent in the Hunter’s tree, this skill enhances the attack power of raid members by 25% of the Hunter’s agility), Deterrence (the Hunter’s dodging and parrying rate is increased by 25%), and Killer Instinct (all attacks of the Hunter are granted with critical strike).

The Animal Aspects
An Animal Aspect is a self buff that gives the Hunter attributes that are based on animals. Animal Aspects are exclusively designed for the Hunter Class only. There are seven different Animal Aspects that a Hunter can learn, each with its own set of advantages that can be useful in certain circumstances. While the Animal Aspects are all self buffs, there are two which also provide certain benefits to the group – Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Wild.

Animal Aspect	Attributes
Aspect of the Monkey	The Hunter’s dodging capability is enhanced by 8%.
Aspect of the Hawk	The Hunter’s ranged attack power is increased by X.
Aspect of the Cheetah	The Hunter’s movement speed is improved by 30%. If the Hunter takes damage, he will be stunned for 4 seconds.
Aspect of the Beast	The Hunter’s track is unrecognizable.
Aspect of the Pack	The group buff version of the Aspect of the Cheetah. All group members have 30% increase in movement speed. If a member takes damage, the group will be stunned for 4 seconds.
Aspect of the Wild	The Hunter and the rest of the group gain +X resistance to Nature’s attacks
Aspect of the Dragonhawk	The Hunter’s ranged attack power is increased by X and dodging rate is enhanced by 18%.

Other Features

• Traps

The Hunter has five different kinds of traps that are used for crowd control and damage dealing. All traps have a reset of 30 seconds and a 2-second prep time. Once a trap is set, it stays active for one minute. Only one trap can be set at any given moment. Learning and improving on setting traps is categorized in the Hunter’s Survival Tree.

• Tracking

The Hunter is the only class with excellent tracking abilities. With this skill, the Hunter can track up to eight different units such as Beasts, Humanoids, the Undead, Hidden foes, Elementals, Demons, Giants, and Dragonkin. However, only one tracking skill can be activated at a time.

Limitations of the Hunter
The Hunter is not able to wear plate armor throughout his Warcraft “career.” This might come in handy since the Hunter also possesses melee abilities. Aside from that, the Hunter is also incapable of using shields. There is also what gamers call the “Hunter’s Dead Zone,” where a Hunter is unable to attack whether melee or ranged. Despite an array of damaging abilities, the Hunter does not have any self-healing spells or life-replenishing abilities.