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HUNTER PVP 2Group PVP
Group PVP is very different from running into a member of the opposite faction while leveling. In group PVP winners are almost always determined by how well your group works as a team. Like in an instance you will have a role to fill depending on what you do best.
Your Primary Role.
When doing battlegrounds, arenas or world PVP objectives hunters can play well at both offense and defense. Their DPS makes them great offensive fighters and assault troops, and their trap and interrupts make them excellent guards for protecting flags, bases and resource nodes. The strategy for both cases is the same though. Keep yourself as far away from the enemy as possible while still being able to shoot. If they can't get near you they can't hurt you. You can kite them if you are alone, or you can stay back and blast them if they are busy fighting other players. Using the terrain for sniping is also a very useful tactic for a hunter. If the enemy is forced to go through a bottleneck like the tunnels in Warsong Gulch or the bridge in Alterac Valley they will have no place to go except forward, straight into your shots. Also look for places that offer cover so the enemy
doesn't know where you are. Towers, trees, tops of hills, the corners of buildings and even under water will keep you concealed for a while and make the enemy waste precious time trying to find you. As a final note, always make sure to have Track Humanoids on when doing a battleground. This will let you know when enemies are coming even when you can't see them and help the defense know what they are up against.
Battlegrounds
Warsong Gulch
This is the first and most popular battleground out there. It is basic game of capture the flag where the first team to infiltrate the enemy base three times and take their banner back to their base wins. Warsong Gulch is divided into three different battle zones. Your base, which must be defended at all times. The front lines in the middle of the battleground where most of the fighting will take place. And the enemy base where you will hack and slash through the defense to reach their flag. Each of these zones will require you to take a different role.
Hunters can make very good base defenders. Night elf hunters are especially good because of shadowmeld. If you are on defense keep back in your factions flag room. Always keep flare up to reveal stealthed players. Every thirty seconds lay down a trap in preparation for an attack. I like to keep an ice trap right in front of the flag to stop a flag carrier from picking it up. But since he will usually have backup this is primarily a tactic for when things go bad. ( If you like this tactic as well but want to save your trap you can park your pet on the flag and set it on aggressive.) A freezing trap is usually more effective, especially if you can trap the group inside one of the tunnels and you have Entrapment. This will give the other defenders time to beat down some of the attackers. Fighting inside the base is rather hard because of the limited space. It is very easy to get backed into a corner while trying to keep enemies out of your dead zone. When I play defense I try to fight them as much as possible in the tunnel then feign death when they get close and I have taken some hits. They usually think they have killed me and I can jump up after they pass and start hitting them from behind. This also gives you an opportunity to set another slowing trap if you think they are going to get the flag out of the base. To effectively fight in the tunnels I sometimes wait right outside the entrance.
When I hear one of my teammates on the front say that they have managed to break through I run inside, set a trap and wait for them to come. When they get in range I let the flag defenders know and try to knock one or two enemies off before feigning.
The front line force between the two bases takes care of most of the battles. It’s important for your team to try and control the front lines because when your team is trying to run the enemy flag back to their base they are incredibly vulnerable. By controlling the middle area and keeping the enemy on the defensive you can safely run the flag back to your base. When fighting on the front lines you will be focused on DPSing. Try to team up with another player or two and take out the enemy in a group. It is especially nice to team up with front line fighters like warriors because they will keep the enemies attention while you stand back and snipe. Use the shot rotation mentioned at the top of this section and follow class specific strategies. Traps on the front lines are not terribly helpful in my opinion because the area is so vast and you are always moving. They can sometimes be used to keep an enemy from beating on you, but even then they are used defensively.
The final and most important team is the assault team that runs into the enemy's base and tries to steal the flag. The defense will try their hardest to stop you by beating you down and disrupting your group with things like fear, snares and other CC. When playing on an assault team your main objective is to protect the flag carrier. DPSing inside the flag rooms is doable, but I prefer to help disrupt the enemy. Scatershot is particularly effective for this. Traps are also useful, but save those for when you retreat. You are most useful on an assault team when trying to help the flag carrier get out to safety. After the FC has the flag and is heading out throw down a frost trap to slow down the opponents, preferably inside the tunnel. This will give you and your group time to get ahead of them. Also, use your Aspect of the Pack ability so the FC can get even father ahead. Be careful about using it though since it will cause your other allies to be stunned if hit.
Arathi Basin
In an Arathi Basin match your team tries to gather a stockpile of resources by controlling up to five resource nodes. To win you have to defend the nodes you control and try to take other nodes away from the enemy. The basic strategy of this battleground is to not get greedy and spread
When I hear one of my teammates on the front say that they have managed to break through I run inside, set a trap and wait for them to come. When they get in range I let the flag defenders know and try to knock one or two enemies off before feigning.
The front line force between the two bases takes care of most of the battles. It’s important for your team to try and control the front lines because when your team is trying to run the enemy flag back to their base they are incredibly vulnerable. By controlling the middle area and keeping the enemy on the defensive you can safely run the flag back to your base. When fighting on the front lines you will be focused on DPSing. Try to team up with another player or two and take out the enemy in a group. It is especially nice to team up with front line fighters like warriors because they will keep the enemies attention while you stand back and snipe. Use the shot rotation mentioned at the top of this section and follow class specific strategies. Traps on the front lines are not terribly helpful in my opinion because the area is so vast and you are always moving. They can sometimes be used to keep an enemy from beating on you, but even then they are used defensively.
The final and most important team is the assault team that runs into the enemy's base and tries to steal the flag. The defense will try their hardest to stop you by beating you down and disrupting your group with things like fear, snares and other CC. When playing on an assault team your main objective is to protect the flag carrier. DPSing inside the flag rooms is doable, but I prefer to help disrupt the enemy. Scatershot is particularly effective for this. Traps are also useful, but save those for when you retreat. You are most useful on an assault team when trying to help the flag carrier get out to safety. After the FC has the flag and is heading out throw down a frost trap to slow down the opponents, preferably inside the tunnel. This will give you and your group time to get ahead of them. Also, use your Aspect of the Pack ability so the FC can get even father ahead. Be careful about using it though since it will cause your other allies to be stunned if hit.
Arathi Basin
In an Arathi Basin match your team tries to gather a stockpile of resources by controlling up to five resource nodes. To win you have to defend the nodes you control and try to take other nodes away from the enemy. The basic strategy of this battleground is to not get greedy and spread
yourself to thin. You can win by keeping control of only three nodes, but it is usually safest to aim for four. After you have captured a node keep a few people behind. Two or three is usually sufficient and it is best if you have someone who can do lots of damage quickly. After leaving a defense force the rest of your group moves to other nodes until you have three captured. Now the remaining players split into two groups. One is a mobile defense force that can run to the captured nodes if they are attacked by the enemy. The other is a mobile assault force that tries to take away an enemy controlled node.
Starting off, your team will want to capture the node closest to their base. If you are Alliance this would be the stables and if you are Horde it’s the farm. Leave two or three people here, though a healer is usually not as necessary since these areas generally see less combat than the other nodes. Now your main group will split into two and try to take either the lumber mill, blacksmith shop or gold mine. Only take two of them though and leave a defensive group here. Now your remaining players are part of a mobile defensive squad that will run to one of your captured nodes when it comes under assault and try to assault a nearby node if the enemy is disorganized.
A hunter can do well in either of these roles, but are probably best suited for defense because of Flare. Keep flare up to avoid stealth players and keep track Humanoid up as well to see when you are under attack. Also, always keep an ice trap down at the base of your flag to trap anyone trying to cap it. If you are really good at aiming you can get the trap inside the flagpole which makes it hard to see, sometimes tricking people into thinking it is safe to click. Your pet can also be used to run interference. Make sure to put them on spellcasters to knock back their spells or make them stay at the flag and set them on aggressive to stop any clickers. When your node actualy gets attacked you have two options. If help is close by try to delay them as much as possible. Focus on staying alive, disrupting the enemy and keeping people from clicking your node. If you have enough help to take them out focus on DPS, but watch out for clickers. Look for a good hiding place like behind the farmhouse, inside the lumber mill or behind carts to shoot the enemy. This way you won't be seen and won't have to kite.
If you are in the mobile defense force you will focus on mobility and pure DPS. When a node calls out for help follow your group to assist the defenders. Usually if you have gotten there in time you will not have to
worry about stopping them from capping the node. Focus on killing them all as quickly as possible. Sic your pets on the spell casters (especially the healers) and stop any runners with Concussive Shot. Disruption and traps are not usually necessary, though you can use some offensive traps to get rid of them more quickly.
Alterac Valley
Alterac Valley is the largest and longest of the battlegrounds. The objective here is to drive into the heart of enemy territory and kill their general to win the match. Along the way you need to claim graveyards and towers to weaken the enemy forces at the base and to strengthen your own. But the strategies used in Alterac Valley change more often than in any other battleground. Like the other battlegrounds hunters can play either defensively or offensively. So watch for what your team is lacking and head for that. If they are low on offense try to fight your way to the enemy base. If they are low on defense head back to your own base to make a last line of defense.
Currently AV has undergone some major changes and you can no longer simply race to kill the other teams general. There is now a point system like AB called reinforcements, and the goal of the game is to make the reduce the enemies reinforcements first. You lower them to zero if you kill their opposing general, but you also lower them by killing their NPCs and the opposing players in the battleground. This means defending towers and graveyards is key and your healing is even more vital.
The captain fight is like a basic PVE boss battle so DPS and watch your aggro. After that most battles will take place on either the north or south end of the Field of Strife. Players may cap a graveyard here but usually they will ride on to either the Frostwolf or Stormpike Graveyards. Hunters are prime graveyard defenders because of Flare. Keep it up at all times and guard the flag like you would inAB.
If you are lucky a few team players will stay behind to guard any graveyards you have captured while the rest move towards the enemy base. If no one else stays behind or there are very few you should consider staying to help. Capping a graveyard is the key to victory in AV, especially the ones near the enemies base. This will allow your team to start clearing out the enemy base faster. Move up and help the rest of the group take the relief hut and when that is capped start pulling the marshals or warmasters. These are also basic PVE fights similar to a trash pull in an instance. Watch your aggro or if
you want, use misdirect to put more aggro on the tank. You can even have your pet offtank some of the smaller adds if you don't have enough tanks on the front.
When all of the marshals or warmasters are dead have your tank head inside and attack the enemy general. This is a very simple tank and spank fight where the only issue is dealing with agro and watching your mana. Your major concern in this fight is the enemy coming inside and disrupting everyone. If you have an interrupt or stun ability like Scatershot or Intimidation use it to stop them from causing havoc. Usually this will give the other players time to burn them down.
Eye of the Storm
Eye of the storm is an upgraded version of Arathi basin resource gathering and Warsong Gulch Flag capturing. In this battleground you win by earning two thousand points before the other team by capturing and holding towers and capturing a flag and bringing it to one of your towers. When you capture a tower you will start to gain points like you gain resources in AB. But if you capture more towers your points will go up exponentially. Controlling one tower will give you one point every two seconds and capturing two will give you two points every two seconds. But when you capture three you get five points per tick and if you have all four you get ten points per tick. You will also want to maintain towers because in the center of the field a flag will spawn and if your team can bring it back to their base they get extra points. If you control several towers you can go to the one with the fewest amount of enemies and take less risk. But you also gain an extra 25 points for each tower you control.
Most of the strategies you use in Arathi Basin and Warsong will come into play here. Your team will be divided into two separate groups, one for tower control and the other for flag control. The tower team should consist of at least ten people spread out between the four towers. Each one should have about two to three guards depending on how many people are on the tower teams total. Guarding a tower here is especially important because you capture them faster when you have more people inside. If you can keep at least one person inside alive the enemy won’t have a chance to capture it and your friends can run back from the graveyard. The flag team is a lot like the assault team from Warsong gulch. Four people should run to the center of the map and fight the other flag team for control. If you are on a tower team treat it like you
would a node in AB. Burn enemies down and hinder them whenever possible. If you are on a flag team treat it like a flag team from WSG. You won't have the tunnel to keep players trapped but a frost trap can still help your teammate get ahead.
Arenas
The arena is pure PVP taken to the extreme. There is no node capturing or flag running. There is no way to resurrect during an arena match and the first team to eliminate all opponents wins. Matches are very fast and brutal so teamwork and sticking to your assigned role is vital for your teams success. In the past hunters had some major issues in the Arenas, but after a class review they are much more able to fight. Our deadzone was severely reduced and our Shots became more useful as well. Aimed shot now has a healing debuff effect like Mortal Strike, and Arcane Shot will now dispel an enemy buff. Mobility is still an issue though, and he terrain of the arenas also makes it hard to keep a constant line of sight. Nearly all smart players know how to exploit this. If you know how to get around these problems though a hunter can be a force to be reckoned with in the arena. The trick is knowing how to create synergy with your other teammates classes and knowing how to use your talent spec effectively.
Hunters in the arena have several roles. All hunters will primarily be damage dealers, but they can take other sub-rolls depending on their talent spec. If they are not DPSing a hunter can either hinder the enemy or help try to crowd control them.
A beast master hunter has great DPS and relies heavily on their Bestial Wrath/Beast Within ability. This lets them go nuts for 18 seconds with no fear of CC. But after it is up your options are somewhat limited. You can continue to DPS effectively like you would in a regular PVP match, or you can use your disruption abilities like Intimidation, Concussive Shot and Scare Beast to hinder the enemy.
Marksmanship specced hunters are primarily for dealing huge burst damage. They depend on large critical strikes from heavy hitting abilities like Aimed Shot to take enemies down fast, and the new debuffs from our shots to hinder our enemies. This makes them best suited for fighting in 5vs5 and some 3vs3 matches because you will have
would a node in AB. Burn enemies down and hinder them whenever possible. If you are on a flag team treat it like a flag team from WSG. You won't have the tunnel to keep players trapped but a frost trap can still help your teammate get ahead.
Arenas
The arena is pure PVP taken to the extreme. There is no node capturing or flag running. There is no way to resurrect during an arena match and the first team to eliminate all opponents wins. Matches are very fast and brutal so teamwork and sticking to your assigned role is vital for your teams success. In the past hunters had some major issues in the Arenas, but after a class review they are much more able to fight. Our deadzone was severely reduced and our Shots became more useful as well. Aimed shot now has a healing debuff effect like Mortal Strike, and Arcane Shot will now dispel an enemy buff. Mobility is still an issue though, and he terrain of the arenas also makes it hard to keep a constant line of sight. Nearly all smart players know how to exploit this. If you know how to get around these problems though a hunter can be a force to be reckoned with in the arena. The trick is knowing how to create synergy with your other teammates classes and knowing how to use your talent spec effectively.
Hunters in the arena have several roles. All hunters will primarily be damage dealers, but they can take other sub-rolls depending on their talent spec. If they are not DPSing a hunter can either hinder the enemy or help try to crowd control them.
A beast master hunter has great DPS and relies heavily on their Bestial Wrath/Beast Within ability. This lets them go nuts for 18 seconds with no fear of CC. But after it is up your options are somewhat limited. You can continue to DPS effectively like you would in a regular PVP match, or you can use your disruption abilities like Intimidation, Concussive Shot and Scare Beast to hinder the enemy.
Marksmanship specced hunters are primarily for dealing huge burst damage. They depend on large critical strikes from heavy hitting abilities like Aimed Shot to take enemies down fast, and the new debuffs from our shots to hinder our enemies. This makes them best suited for fighting in 5vs5 and some 3vs3 matches because you will have
extra help to back you up. If your team mates can create a wall of protection and distraction around you you will be able to shoot in peace.
Survival can be one of the best builds for arenas, but you will need very good gear. You have steady DPS that can help other melee classes with expose weakness. But your greatest strength is the ability to crowd control the enemy. You can keep one player nearly constantly trapped and another player incapacitated with Wyvern Sting. This effectively lets you take two opponents out of the fight while your allies gang up on the others.
2vs2 matches.
2vs2 matches are one of the best brackets to be in as a hunter. You don't get as many points but you have a much easier time fighting. The trick to winning this bracket is to work well with your partner. This bracket depends mostly on DPS and less on healing compared to the other brackets, though a good durable healer can be very useful. Before fights talk to your partner to determine who will be doing DPS or crowd control. If they have good crowd control abilities like fear or sheep you can focus more on DPS. But if they are pure DPS like a warrior you will need to trap and stun more. Try to crowd control one of the enemies and then team up on the other. The small size of this bracket is best suited for beast master spec because your pet can effectively be another member and provides lots of useful abilities.
3vs3 matches.
This is a step up from 2vs2, but becomes more involved thanks to two extra players. Pure DPS groups have a harder time winning these matches because the additional slot makes a full blown healer pretty much a necessity. Since they are so vital to a teams survival the opposing team will usually try to take them out first, so in addition to DPSing you need to help protect your healer like a tank. When the enemy starts to burn down your healer try to interrupt them with traps, Beastmaster abilities, Scatter Shot or even Wingclip. There are some other classes that can do a much better job of this so if your group is good on defense you can focus on DPS. Coordinate with your team to focus on one enemy at a time and use a fast shot rotation to burn players down fast. Your pet can be of some use here but usually it will be killed very quickly so don't depend on it too much.
5vs5 matches
5vs5 matches are both simple, and also very hard. Because there are so many people DPS is vital and this will be your main job. Follow your leader to burn down enemies with a hard hitting shot rotation (Usually starting with Aimed Shot) but watch your mana consumption. You will have to fight five people total and you can't blow it all on the first three. A trick I use is to save my Arcane Shot for high armor classes like warriors and paladins because they can't mitigate it and use Steady Shot in its place on low armor classes. Watch where your enemies are though. If they are near obstacles like pillars or walls they will usually duck inside and break your line of sight. You also need to stay in the open as much as possible to keep them from trapping you in your deadzone.
If your group has lots of DPS already and a tough healer like a paladin you have the ability to DPS less and focus on interference. Aimed Shots healing debuff is a must when attacking your groups first target. Your Arcane Shot's debuff is also very powerful here. It's greatest strength is removing the bufs from your groups combined target. Usually once they start to get focused fired they will have one of their other players try to protect them with a shield. Blessing of Protection and Power Word Shield can both be removed with an Arcane Shot, as well as a restro Shamans Earth Shield. It's hard to choose which buff will be removed though, so let your team mates know if the one you are after isn't removed. If I am on debuffing patrol I usually save my arcane shot for just this type of situation instead of using it for damage. Survival spec can also be deadly if properly geared because of the ability to keep two targets CCed pretty much indefinitely. If you are fast enough you can Wingclip melee characters like rogues and if they focus on you you can use Counterattack to immobilize them for five seconds. You can also try to drain the opposing healers mana with Viper sting. Some classes can cleanse it off but the mana they will spend usually makes it worth it. If you think they are a reflex cleanser use the lowest rank to save yourself mana and force them to waste it. This is extra true with paladins because they also have to take off a poison effect with their magic cleansing spell. If you keep a scorpid pet out with a poison attack that stacks they will only cleanse the poison off and not the sting. This means you will have to keep your pet alive though which can be hard with all those enemies. Another trick for your pet is to sic them on a clothie with cobra reflexes. This won't do a lot of damage but it will push back their heals. Since you will probably be
Marksmanship spec you can also use silencing shot to interrupt any of their heals. Scatter shot can also be used for this, but I like to save it for when someone gets into my dead zone.
