Hunter tips and tricks Part THREE: Return of the Hunter

'Sup,

So it turns out that I suddenly got very busy and just haven't had the chance to continue my popular Hunter Tips and Tricks series, but I know some of you are just quivering in anticipation of the next part, so I'll just hop in to it.

PS: We are looking for an Alliance Death Knight for 3s, please have at least 2300 experience. Send me a message in game, or use some of the contact info on the right panel here if you think you qualify. Please include a link to your armory page.

Hunter Tips and Tricks Part One, and Part Two can be found at these links.



Time to start dealing with some hybrid classes! I'll break it down by spec.

vs. Paladins:

HOLY!

1. Your chances of killing a Holy Paladin in a BG or a duel are very good... if you can free cast on them for a few minutes.
2. If they aren't moving too much, switch to hawk and start stacking up Master Marksman. You may be able to double Aimed Shot, Chim shot, Silencing Shot, Readiness, Chim Shot, Silencing Shot, Scattershot and score a kill.
3. If not, just keep the pressure on and focus on interrupting Flash of Light whenever possible.
4. Make sure to tranq off Divine Plea as soon as possible.
5. If they have no friends, a Holy Paladin is unable to kill you.
6. Make sure to tranq off their blessings and any other buffs that they have as soon as you engage. Dont worry about tranqing their weird absorb from their mastery, the damage negated is negligible.
7. Watch for Aura Mastery if you are trying to score a kill on one of their friends! It looks like their whole body is inside a glowing ball for a second and makes a distinct sound. They are immune to silence/interrupts for 6 seconds at this time, so dont waste your Silencing Shot.
8. In Arenas, paladins have few outs to your CC trains. Scatter/trap as soon as you engage, then have your allies start their CCs to force the paladin to blow a trinket/bubble very early. This is key for all healers!
9. With buff timers, you can see how much time is remaining when they bubble. Time an aimed shot to hit right when it falls off!

Ret/Prot! (I lump these together, because against you, they are functionally the same)

1. Last time I tried, you cannot Master's Call out of Avenger's Shield. Just sit in it.
2. Keep them tranqed! Make sure you can get Blessing of Freedom off as soon as it appears!
3. Kiting a paladin around in an ice trap is extremely effective! You will be too close for them to get a proc from Long Arm of the Law, preventing them from reaching you!
4. Its nearly ALWAYS a good idea to trinket the first Hammer of Justice. Paladins love to HoJ you and then blow all cooldowns and try to burst you down, knowing that you can remove wings. Don't let them do it!
5. Keep them tranqed!!!!!!!!! Get wings off ASAP!
6. Did I mention keeping them tranqed?
7. No seriously. Even if you aren't attacking them, try to keep them tranqed as much as possible.
8. Usually when you trinket the first HoJ, they will repentance you to close. Simply drop an ice trap, disengage away, tranq off Hand of Freedom, then enjoy 20 seconds of uninterrupted kiting.
9. Preemptive Disengages are very effective against Paladins, as they do not have a reliable slow.
10. Ret Paladins have intense self healing... make sure to silence them when Sacred Shield pops up so they don't get much out of that cooldown.

vs Shamans:

Enhance!

1. Do not be afraid to blow all of your cooldowns to live during wolves. Its nearly impossible to peel an Enhance Shaman during wolves.
2. FD, drop all of your traps, Disengage, ETC. It may be valuable to preemptively Deterrence when the shaman reaches you, if he has wolves up.
3. If they do not have wolves up, try to keep as much distance between you as possible. Never stop running away from them!
4. If you get rooted from Frost Shock, Master's Call out of it immediately! Do not let that shaman get within melee range! Frostbrand weapon will slow the hell out of you, and it passively procs off of melee attacks.
5. You can tranq Ghost Wolf. This may be useful if you need to buy some time waiting for Chim shot.
6. Using a standard kite pattern should work fairly effectively. Keep traps down, keep bringing the pain, and the shaman should fall quickly. Just be cautious when he has wolves up.
7. Stomp any blue totem before attempting to freezing trap. Even if its not always grounding totem, its a good habit to get in to.

Elemental!

1. Should you ever fight an Elemental Shaman, do your best to prevent them from casting Lava Burst.
1. Silence the first attempt, FD the second, Scatter the third, Deterrence the fourth, Silence the fifth. If they are still alive after that, you're in trouble.
2. Do all of these at the last possible second, to waste as much of his time as possible.
2. Look for Spiritwalker's Grace and Elemental Mastery. Spiritwalker's Grace is tranqable, and I'm pretty sure Elemental Mastery is as well.
1. Tranqing Spiritwalker's Grace is like an interrupt on a Shaman if you get it while they are moving. It will instantly stop their spell.
3. If they Hex you, they are probably attempting to heal themselves. Trinket it.
4. As soon as you engage, blow all of your cooldowns
5. I almost never see Elemental Shaman. Contribute some tips!

Restoration!

1. Resto Shaman are one of the worst targets for you to attack as Marks. CC them whenever possible.
2. In the Arena, always attempt to attack the target that does NOT have Earth Shield. Switching frequently will run a Shaman oom very quickly.
3. Shamans cannot cleanse poison! Keep it on them.
4. Always stomp blue totems when attempting to trap. Chances are high it will be grounding. The time you don't do this, it will be grounding and you'll miss the trap, so get in the habit of it!
5. Snakes are very effective against Shamans, as they can't cleanse poison. But, don't use them if you are going to be CCing the shaman... those #@!%! snakes will put #!%!ing deadly poison on EVERYTHING.
6. If you are EXTREMELY lucky, you can Tranq Nature's Swiftness off a shaman. It may be worth spamming Tranq on a shaman when you think they may use it.
7. If you see a pale blue totem with a giant whirlpool looking animation, kill it immediately. It gives the shaman's team back some pretty crazy mana. They usually cover it with Stoneclaw as well, so use Arcane Shot to kill it, Raptor wont do the trick.

Thats all for now.

Happy Hunting