Benefits and Detriments

As a new player to the game, I personally found the Hunter class to be a great starting choice. Benefits I’ve found, all the way up to 60, include:

• Great class for those who play alone, aka ’solo’
• Pets add a lot to playability
• Equipment is sturdy, lets me take the beats occasionally, aka ‘tank’
• Repairs are reasonably-priced

One large detriment to being a Hunter, however, becomes more apparent as players advance in level and begin to join in on 5-person dungeon instance parties: Hunter is a popular class choice and therefore at times it may be difficult to find a pick-up group (aka PUG) willing to accept you. A Hunter will be more likely to need to be the one to start dungeon parties themselves than players who have chosen the classes of Warrior or Priest which are both highly sought after. But of course, a good team player of any class won’t often have problems finding groups, so keep that in mind while you play your Hunter :)

Brand New To WoW?

If you’re brand spanking new to the game, you’ve got a lot to learn that is seperate from the class you’ve chosen. If you have questions, leave a note and I’ll make a post of the answer!

Hunter Weapons and Basic Tactics

When you begin your Hunter, you start out with two weapons - a bow or gun with 200 arrows or bullets and a one-handed axe. These first 200 arrows or bullets will probably take you through your first four or so levels, so we’ll come back to them later.

Your bow or gun can only be used on enemies that are somewhat distant from where you stand - too far away and you cannot reach them, but too close and your weapon use needs to change from ‘ranged’ (bow) to ‘melee’ (axe). Mastering the art of engaging an opponent from a distance, getting in as many ranged shots as possible before the opponent gets too close and then effectively engaging an opponent up close in melee/hand-to-hand style is what Hunter is all about in the early levels.

Key To Engaging Opponents From A Distance

For Hunters, ‘3′ on the keyboard launches the ‘auto fire’ ability (bow/gun) in brand new players, while ‘1′ on the keyboard launches the ‘attack’ ability (melee weapon). A brand new Hunter will have little other skill, making first fights very simple.

Notice when you target an opponent from a distance (using the tab key to target a mob in front of you or left-clicking on the mob from afar), what color the number 3 is, over top of the ‘auto fire’ icon in your quick-launch bar. If it’s red, you’re too near or too far to fire your bow or gun. If it’s white, they’re in firing range.

Here’s the key to getting the most out of your ranged ability, whether it be magical or hunter-esque: By backing away from a targetted mob before firing that first shot, you can maximize the number of shots you can fire off before the mob enters into your melee range and forces you into hand-to-hand combat.

As a brand new Hunter with default equipment against a level one mob, you should be able to get 3 shots in before switching to melee.

User Interface Addons

Folks who are brand spanking new to the game likely feel overwhelmed enough just learning how to move around and effectively engage a mob, and don’t need to worry about UI Addons quite yet, but for those who are comfortable with their newbie Hunter and wish to improve its usability, here are some addons I’ve personally found quite useful:

• RangeHelp
• Fizzwidget’s Hunter Helper
• Fizzwidget’s Feed-o-Matic

For information on generic, non-class-related Addons I’ve found to be useful, please check back, as I’ll be posting that soon.