Perfecting the Hunter, Alliance Gear IS a problem, Macros, Hunter Spreadsheet!

After my venture into rolling a Shaman and gearing one up rather well, I decided that I wanted at least one twink to be fully completed. I went back and started mercilessly grinding for my Ring of Precision and Arena Grandmaster. I've yet to get any closer to my Arena Master or my ring, but I've decided I want my hunter to be completely Best in slot. Slowly starting to regret not being Blood Elf or Human...

The difference between a fully geared Human Hunter and a fully geared Troll Hunter.

While we're on the subject of races, up above are the exact calculated differences between a fully geared Alliance Hunter and a fully geared Troll Hunter. Obviously, the Human wins, and by a big margin. As far as Survival goes, considered the most viable spec, we have a gain of 1.46% Crit, 0.46% Hit (Troll being 0.38% under the cap), 9 AP, 1.85 white DPS, 2 damage and 104 HP. It's nothing to laugh at, and I'm not so sure Berserking makes up for it. 

Macros are an important part of any "Big Game" Hunter's arsenal. I recently started using 2 VERY useful macros that might help you out.

This macro will automatically use Lifeblood and Berserking when available and cast Steady Shot, which will reduce your attack speed  nicely. All "ability is not ready" errors are suppressed, so this is perfect for replacing your normal Steady Shot bind. In clutch situations (arenas), you may not want to use this, and instead choose to bind Lifeblood and Berserking seperate from Steady Shot (but together).

#showtooltip Steady Shot                             
/run sfx=GetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX");                 
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0                           
/petattack                                           
/cast Lifeblood                                      
/cast Berserking                                     
/cast Steady Shot                                    
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()                           
/run SetCVar("Sound_EnableSFX",sfx);                 

This next macro is useful for pet ability management. My mount macro also dismisses my pet, because I never know what I'm going to encounter next in battlegrounds. I have the following bound to 3 and my Bird of Prey to Shift-3 instead of adding a modifier to the macro, so I don't need to mess with my other character's binds. When I know whether I need an interrupt or disarm, I summon the required pet and then use 3 for it's ability.

#showtooltip                                         
/cast [nopet] Call Pet 1                             
/cast [pet:Bird of Prey] Snatch                      
/cast [pet:Moth] Serenity Dust                       

Lastly, I recently released my spreadsheet for hunters, which was used to calculate the differences between Alliance and Horde hunters a few paragraphs above. You can find more information and a download link over at Twink Info.

Strength,

~ Thirk