by Bryan Carey

Created on: March 22, 2010

So you want to be a Hunter?  Being one of the leading damage dealing classes in World of Warcraft, the Hunter is a fine choice.  However there are a few things that you should know before setting out to claim Azeroth for yourself.

The idea of a Hunter is simple, doing physical damage from a range of 5-35 yards.  However what makes this class special is the ability to survive even during the heat of battle.  With a combination of traps (damage traps and ones that freeze the enemy solid), strings (which slow or do damage over time) and crippling melee attacks, it's never wise to count this arrow flinger out.  Even when the group of players die a Hunter can fake his own death to detach enemies for the purpose of popping back up and resurrecting his teammates (If one of his talents is engineering).  Sometimes though you need a little extra power to balance your awesome skills of longevity and that is where your little friend comes in handy.

Obtained at level 10, that friend is your trustworthy pet.  This guy is always on call and ready to run into clashing swords for you.  When choosing your talents one of the tress is based on improving your pet.  This allows you to use the pet as much or as little as you want.  Perhaps the main reason why so many people are drawn to this unique class is the fact that you can completely customize your pet.  Let it be a bear or bird of prey, each pet has a smaller talent tree similar to yours that you fill out as your companion gain levels.  A great resource that every Hunter should take advantage of is Petopia.  You can browse for pets or search for a specific one.  If you wish to have more then a single pet, no worries.  There's a Stable Master located at all the major cities so if you wish to trade a tanking turtle for a ravenous raptor, it's not a hassle at all.  In fact, most Hunters have multiple pets ready for any situation that they could encounter.  When generally leveling you can decide for yourself if you want a pocket tank or a speedy damage dealer. 

These two traits, survivability and powerful damage, translate into arguably the fastest leveling class there is.  With no down time at all if played right, the only time you won't be gaining experience is when you're training even more powerful attacks. Where the Hunter class shines is in groups though.  If you can master using your pet as a tank then that frees up that slot for another damage dealing class.  Dungeons can be flown through with ease when there’s a competent Hunter in the group.  Basically faster dungeons + faster soloing + no down time = you get to enjoy all the wonderful end-game material that the game is based on.

When played to their full potential Hunters can lead Player vs. Environment or Player vs. Player teams to certain victory.  Powerful attacks and a customized pet keep the Hunter as a player's main character again and again.  It's no wonder that they are the most popular class of the eleven million players that take part in the World of Warcraft.

So you want to be a Hunter?  Not a bad choice at all…

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