Need a Hunter Guide?

Killer Guilds- Has a good guide for how to play a hunter.

Need WOW Gold?

EpicToon - Very good place to purchase WOW gold. IGE is a large supplier of online game currency and currently has very good prices on gold.

WOWGoldFinder.com - WOW Gold Review Site.

*Please note buying guides or gold at the above sites helps support this site.

Hunter Builds, Updated for Mists of Pandaria, Patch 5.3

HunterBuilds.com is a site that lists different talent builds for hunters of World of Warcraft and their pets. Many of these hunter builds come from whereever I can find them on the net(for instance the elitistjerks site has a great guide as to how to play your hunter and has a lot of useful information). I hope you find the following hunter builds and information useful.

With the release of the expansion Mists of Pandaria the talent system was completely changed for Hunters in World of Warcraft. There are no longer different trees for you to put points into, instead there is now 6 tiers of talents. Each talent tier has 3 talents and you can pick one talent from each unlocked tier. When leveling a talent tier unlocks every 15 levels.

Talent changes are not the only change made in this new expansion. The level cap has increased to 90, there are new areas, raids and 5 mans available, the glyph system has changed some, there is a new pet fighting system and much much more.

For previous builds before Mists of Pandaria was released please see:

Hunter Builds For Cataclysm

News:

Patch 5.3 has been released!

General

-Hunters now have 50 pet stable slots, up from 20.

-Cooldown on crowd control abilities for several

Hunter pet families have changed.
     -Basilisk pet family’s Petrifying Gaze now has a cooldown of now 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
     -Bat pet family’s Sonic Blast now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
     -Crane pet family’s Lullaby now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
     -Monkey pet family's Bad Manner now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
     -Porcupine pet family’s Paralyzing Quill now has a cooldown of 2 minutes, up from 1 minute.
     -Shale Spider pet family’s Web Wrap now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, up from 45 seconds.
     -Wasp pet family's Sting now has a cooldown of 90 seconds, up from 45 seconds.
     -Worm pet family’s Burrow Attack now has cooldown of 14 seconds, down from 20 seconds.
-Aspect of the Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 25%, up from 15%.
-Revive Pet now has a cast time of 4 seconds, down from 6 seconds.

Talents

-Aspect of the Iron Hawk now increases ranged attack power by 25%, up from 15%.
-Binding Shot is no longer a talent and learned by Marksmanship Hunters at level 30.
-Blink Strike has been renamed Blink Strikes and turned into a passive ability. The pet's Basic Attacks deal 50% increased damage, can now be used from 30 yards away, and will instantly cause the pet to teleport behind their target.
-Intimidation is now a level-30 talent available to all Hunter specializations and no longer learned by Beast Mastery Hunters at level 20.

Beast Mastery

-Beast Cleave now deals 75% of the original damage, up from 50%.
-Exotic Beasts no longer reduces the cooldown of pet special abilities by 30%.
Marksmanship -Bombardment now increases the damage of Multi-Shot by 60%, up from 30%.
Item Sets -PvP 2-piece set bonus has been redesigned. Using Arcane Shot now causes the Hunter's PvP Power to increase by 800 for 6 seconds.

Beast Mastery Builds updated for Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.3

Hunter beast master builds have the best burst DPS of all of the trees and is often preferred for PVP, leveling and solo'n. Beast Mastery builds are also good for raids as all 3 of the specializations are doing good dps now.

Best Beast Master Raid Build - This is the default Beast Master build for hunters but you may want to change this build depending on the mechanics of the fight.

beast mastery hunter build

Beast Mastery Hunter Shot Rotation Priority:

Hunter's Mark - Try to have this up before combat starts and keep it up.

Serpent Sting - Refresh this with Cobra Shot.

Kill Command - On cooldown if your pet is on the mob.

Kill Shot - If mob goes is below 20% health.

Arcane Shot

Cobra Shot - To generate focus.

Multi-Target Beast Mastery Rotation:

Multi-Shot - Use it when you have enough focus to cast this.

Kill Shot - If target is below 20% health.

Cobra Shot - To generate focus.

Also don't forget to use your major cooldowns:

Bestial Wrath - Use this whenever you can. Do not stack this with Rapid Fire.

Rabid - Use this whenever you can and try to stack this with Bestial Wrath.

Readiness - Should be used after using Bestial Wrath and Rapid Fire.

Rapid Fire - Use as often as posible, don't stack with Rapid Fire..

Dire Beast - Use as often as posible.

Lynx Rush - Use Dire Beast after using Lynx Rush to reset their cooldown.

Stampede - Use this whenever posible.

Blink Strike - Use when available, works well with Bestial Wrath but it is not needed.

Fervor - Use to restore 50 focus to you and your pet, 2 min cooldown. Use when you and your pet need focus.

A Murder of Crows - Use as often as possible.

Stay in Aspect of the Hawk when in PVE fights.

Hunter Beast Master Stat Priority(keep this in mind when reforging or gemming your gear):

Agility
To Hit - till 7.5% cap
Attack Power
Crit
Mastery
Haste

Marksmanship Builds updated for Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.3

The Hunter Marksmanship builds focus on talents that increase hunters ranged damage.

Best Hunter Marksman Build for Raid DPS - This is the default Marksmanship build for hunters but you may want to change this build depending on the mechanics of the fight.

marksmanship build

Marksmanship Rotation Shot Priority:

Hunter's Mark - Apply and keep up.

Serpent Sting - Apply and keep up debuff, you can also put this on multiple targets that will be up for more than 12 seconds to maximize dps. Use Chimera Shot to refresh Serpent Sting, try to keep enough focus to use this whenever it is available.

Use free Aimed Shot proc when available or use Aimed Shot to bleed off excess focus when target is >90% health.

If target health is below 20% use Kill Shot.

Use Arcane Shot to bleed off excess focus (when target is <90% health)

Use Steady Shot to regen focus - Use Steady Shot in pairs to maintain max Improved Steady Shot buff.

So basically you want to keep up your spells on the target, manage your cd's/procs and use aimed/arcane shots as your focus dump (depending on the stage of the fight) and use steady shot to regain focus. Use kill shot if your target is below 20% health. Always have Aspect of the Hawk up when in battle.

Marksmanship Hunter Stat Priority(keep this in mind when reforging or gemming your gear):

Agility

To Hit - till 7.5% hit cap

Crit

Haste

Mastery

Survival Builds updated for Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.3

Survival Hunters are currently the highest AoE spec by quite a bit and they are actually do well now in raids in Cataclysm.

Hunter Survival Builds:

Hunter Survival Raid DPS Build - This is the max dps raid build for survival hunters as of patch 5.3. Note you still may want to change some talents and glyphs to take advange of mechanics of different fights.

hunter survival build

Survival Single Target Rotation Priority:

Hunter's Mark - Try to have this up before the fight starts.

Serpent Sting - Try to initially cast this DoT at the start of the fight if the mob will live more than 12 seconds and try to cast Cobra Shot before it drops off as this adds 6 seconds to this DoT.

Explosive Shot - This is the main damage attack and should be used whenever possible. You should always try to have enough focus to do this when this shot comes off of cooldown. Also note Lock and Load proc will reset CD as well so make sure you cast it when it is available.

Black Arrow - This is a DoT with a 30 second cooldown, cast it when it is available.

Kill Shot - Use this whenever possible when target is below 20% health, 10 second cooldown, not focus cost.

Arcane Shot - till ~40 focus

Cobra Shot - Used regain focus and add time to Serpent Sting.

Survival Multi Target Rotation Priority:

Serpent Sting - Use on multiple targets if they will live more than 12 seconds

Multi-Shot - Whenever you have the focus for it.

Explosive Trap - When off cooldown.

Explosive Shot - if Lock and Load procs.

Cobra Shot - Used regain focus

Kill Shot - if all but one or two mobs are now dead and they are under 20% health use kill shot and switch to single target rotation.

Stat Priority: