Hunter Level 10
Level 10 is when Huntering gets fun! Not only do you get a couple of new spells, you also get your pet! I won’t describe much of the pet stuff here, as that generally comes out in most of the other posts as part of whatever their topic is, so I concentrate on the two new spells first.
Track Humanoids goes along nicely with Track Beasts, and now you will get to switch back and forth between the two depending on what sort of questing you are doing. These two will cover the majority of mobs you will encounter early on, but you will normally see a new type of mob before you get the Tracking spell for it. In these situations just track whichever mob you might otherwise see around the perimeter of where you are playing.
The other new spell is Aspect of the Hawk. This is similar to Aspect of the Monkey in that it lasts forever, costs no Mana and is instant. It is a buff that increases your Ranged Attack Power, and is far more useful than Aspect of the Monkey. In fact, I almost never switch back to Monkey after I get Hawk, since there are so many ways to stay out of combat. This is especially true after you get your pet!
Tracking spells and Aspect spells never make it onto my main action bar, nor do I even keybind them. Neither one of these is ever called upon during combat so there is no need to access them quickly. Tracking spells g on my lower right action bar, and Aspect spells go wherever I can find space as they are temporary anyway (once you get Viper everything changes).
Pet spells are different, or at least the main one is: Mend Pet. This is important enough that it goes on my main Action bar, usually as “=”. Which reminds me: you always want to save Mana for Heal Pet, even if it means that your shots will do less damage. If you pet dies, you lose about half your total damage, and when the mob reaches you it will drop a lot more if you have to melee. Far better to simply rely on Auto Shot if it comes to that, and keep the pet alive. Also, don’t be afraid to “overheal” in tough situations, which means casting Heal Pet before there is significant damage to the pet. The reason you would do this is because you might expect a large burst of damage on the pet at some point, and it is useful to have some heals already on the way to mitigate that damage.
And yes, I know Mend Pet is not learned until Level 12, but I wanted t0 mention it here as part of the whole group of pet spells that are learned, and to make note of the fact that I do not keybind the others, or put them on my main action bar.
After you get a pet your attack strategy will change drastically. Strafing and kiting won’t completely disappear, but they will be far less frequent since your pet will hold aggro if you play correctly.
There are two main strategies for fighting, and which one you should use depends on how many mobs there are to fight. Approaching one or two mobs in the open will be a different type of fight compared to trying to clear out a camp. With the first type I like to use a macro to cast Hunter’s Mark on the mob and then send the pet in. This macro also casts any racial spells, uses trinkets, and casts other spells with long cooldowns that will be learned later. At this point the macro will likely only be Hunter’s Mark and pet attack, with the possible addition of a racial ability.
After the pet attacks, it is best to wait a bit before shooting so the pet can establish aggro. The more you do this, the better the chance the pet will hold aggro for the entire fight, because you have to do 130% of your pet’s threat in order to steal aggro; giving your pet a head start on doing damage will go a long way to preventing that from happening.
The second strategy involves “pulling”, which is the art of getting one or two mobs from a group to leave that group and fight you. By pulling the mobs away from the group you prevent the possibility of the whole group joining in on the fight. Of course, this is done with a shot, but which one is best? I usually use Serpent Sting, but the continued damage from the DoT may prevent your pet from getting aggro back. Arcane Shot might also do the same thing because of larger amount of damage, but in either case you could simply stop shooting until the pet picks up aggro. Just don’t use Concussive, as the slower movement of the mobs causes a greater chance of “chain aggro”, which could lead to a much larger pull than you intended.
Whichever strategy you use, you will follow up with the same Serpent Sting and Arcane shots, and cast them again when required. Alternatively you could leave the Arcane Shot for later as a killing shot when the mob gets low on health; this is an effective strategy for preventing aggro pull as your major damage comes at the end of the fight rather than the beginning.
Level 10 is favourite level as a fledgling Hunter cause you finally get what the entire class is built around: a pet! Oh btw, you said that pulling with SS would be harder cause of the constant aggro but I thought DoT’s didn’t cause aggro? Sorry if my question is rambly
Well, as far as I can determine, anything that causes damage will cause threat unless there is a modifier on that spell or attack, regardless of whether it is an instant attack, or a DoT. I have never actually grabbed aggro using Serpent Sting, but I have certainly done so using Immolation or Explosive Traps, and these are mostly DoT. However, I cannot positively say as I have not found any real proof thus far. Anyway, since the damage is spread over time, I would expect Serpent Sting to be less likely to pull aggro than Arcane…unless you happen to crit, and then either one might pull aggro!
The truth of the matter is that Hunters have the best threat management of any non-tanking class, imho…so you should always be able to manage it one way or another, especially after Level 30 (Feign Death ftw!)