Class Guide
HUNTER
 Hunter Lore
The Hunter has always existed to maintain the balance with the
creatures of the wild. Adventurers far and wide venture into the
wilderness to find an animal companion to protect and aid them on
their journeys. These expert marksmen are unmatched in their skill
with firearms and archery. Many of the races of the world venerate
the rites of the hunt. For the Tauren, the Great Hunt is central to
their culture and skilled hunters are honored above all others. The
Orcs have always shared a natural relationship with the rugged land
and the creatures of the wild. The Trolls share a similar
relationship with the wilds as the Taurens do. The Night Elves have
forever shared a unique bond with nature and its creatures. The
Dwarves of Khaz Modan have never been strangers of nature, living in
the rugged, ice capped mountains of the Iron Kings. They also have
the reputation of being superb marksmen, and are the leading
designers of gnomish invention of firearms, much to the jealousy of
the Goblins.
Famous hunters include all High Elven Rangers like Alleria
Windrunner and her two sisters Vereesa and Sylvanas, but also the
Night Elves such as Shandris Feathermoon. Rexxar the Mok'Nathal
Beastmaster is also a legendary hunter. Some mythical examples are
the unnamed Tauren who cornered Malorne the White Stag. Although not
considered a hunter, Orgrim Doomhammer might have played the role of
a Hunter in his years as a hermit.
Gameplay
The Hunter class is based on the beast master and ranger classes
seen in traditional role playing games. Their primary source of
damage comes from ranged weapons such as guns, bows, and crossbows.
Races that can play as hunters are the Draenei, Night Elves and
Dwarves of the Alliance and the Troll, Orc, Tauren, and Blood Elves
of the Horde.
The hunter may learn to tame beasts as pets to assist them in
battle. Hunters are only able to tame mobs that are labeled beasts,
and the abilities that the pet can learn depend on its sub-type.
The hunter has several Tracking abilities. Tracking abilities allows
the hunter to see, on the minimap, whatever creature is being
tracked as circles with a red center. Available types for tracking
include: Beasts, Humanoids, Elementals, Undead, Demons, Giants,
Dragonkin and Stealth.
The hunter also has special enhancements called Aspects. These allow
the player to passively improve their skills or talents by taking on
bestial traits from animals such as cheetah (increases movement
speed), monkey (increases dodge chance), hawk (increases ranged
attack power), and viper(increased mana regeneration). Another
useful aspect is "Aspect of the Beast", which makes the hunter
untrackable, and is particularly useful in PvP areas. There are also
aspects that benefit the entire party "Aspect of the Pack" (improves
run speed of all nearby party members) and Aspect of the Wild
(increases nature resistance for all party members). Hunters can
also lay traps to freeze an enemy, slow several down, do additional
damage to a single target or multiple targets via an area of effect
when triggered.
Hunters can also "Mark" a target, which increases the ranged attack
power of those who attack the "Marked" target.
The Hunter talent trees are: Beast Mastery (improves pets),
Marksmanship (damage and other ranged abilities) and Survival (melee
abilities and defensive skills).
Hunters can use all weapons other than maces and wands. They can
dual wield weapons once they reach level 20. Hunters can wear cloth
and leather armor, learning to use mail armor after reaching level
40. Hunters cannot equip shields.
The combination of feign death, ice traps, tracking, wyvern sting,
and long range attacks make hunters the potential best pullers in
the game. Feign death allows bad pulls to be aborted, and with its
thirty second cool-down, it functions far better than the Rogue's
Vanish. It also allows a hunter to instantly dump aggro onto a
Warrior, provided the Warrior stands a short distance from the rest
of the group.
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