Free WoW Guides

WoW Hunter Leveling Guide - Cataclysm Leveling & Spec

Free WoW Hunter Leveling Guide:

Cataclysm is the third expansion of the WoW game. As with every expansion, Cataclysm brought changes to all classes, but this time many of them went through some major redesigns. The Hunter class mechanics have been changed significantly while still keeping the main core of all three hunter specs. Hunter’s mana has been replaced with focus. Focus has the same basic mechanics as energy, it will replenish over time and certain abilities will generate focus.

Hunters have three dps trees: Beastmastery, Marksmanship and Survival. All three are viable as dps in raids with Marksmanship clearly being the top dps spec, however survival is in second place with most AE dps of all three and Beastmastery comes in third with a  3% increased damage  buff to the raid. When you start leveling your hunter you will have an easy time killing all the monsters and when you reach level 10 you will have to decide which spec you will follow. Until level 40, I strongly recommend going Marksmanship and after that things become a bit more complicated. With all three specs you will have zero downtime with your hunter.
Beastmastery

This is probably the easiest spec to level with and great for all those who are unfamiliar with the hunter class. Your pet will be doing a very large portion of your damage. Great self-healing and pet stun are excellent for tackling any elite monsters. A Beastmaster hunter’s main dps comes from the Kill command, arcane shot, steady (cobra) shot and serpent sting.

Your level 85 spec for dungeons should look like:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cfhfckGzRRofMMZ0o

where as your leveling spec should be:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cfhfckGzRRofrZ0o .

Marksmanship
Great dps spec, viable for leveling. Marksmanship hunter’s main dps comes from Aimed shot, steady shot, auto shot and Chimera shot. This is the highest dps spec there is. Problem is that in order to get an instant cast on aimed shot you will have to do at least five steady shots or cast it normally with over 2 second cast in which time you can newk down most of the monsters spec with your steady/arcane shots and chimera is on 10 second cool down.

Your level 85 dps spec for dungeons and raids should be:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cchMZfMG0GRMuroM

Your leveling spec should look like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cchzZfrGMMoRuroc .

Survival
Very fun dps spec that has best AE of all three spec. Survival hunters are very good for leveling as they do elemental damage, you can AE grind with them and your main dps shots are all on short cool down. Main source of your damage will come from Explosive shot, steady (cobra) shot, auto shot and serpent sting.

If you want to raid or do dungeons as survival, you should spec in the following manner:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#czZfMMZcrhcMhrRsk

Where as you leveling spec should be more like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#czZfrZcrhcMhrRsk .

For leveling you should pick a spec that suits you the best but that aside I strongly recommend Marksmanship or Survival up to level 40 where you should probably swap to Beastmastery if you are not very familiar with the hunter class - if you are then go with Survival. Marksmanship is often not considered to be a favorite spec for leveling as the trademark of that spec is Aimed Shot which has a 2 second cast time and, with Chimera Shot on 10 second cool down, you can’t really get the most out of this build when leveling. Marksmanship is great when you start raiding though.

Click Here For Additional WoW Guides Or Get The Full Hunters Guide Here

Back to Free Wow Guides