Hunter PvP Guides for TBC Classic

Hunters are a solid choice for arena, but open-world PvP is where they truly excel. With the longest range out of any class through Hawk Eye, Hunters are able to kite extremely well while still out-ranging casters. Concussive Shot is one of the best slows in the game due to its instant cast time, which is one of the main reason Hunters excel at kiting. Lastly, Hunters have excellent burst through Aimed Shot, Auto Shot, and Multi-Shot, allowing them to make quick work of low-Armor targets like Priests and Mages.

For arenas, Hunters are a niche class where each spec excels at specific things. While not S-tier in arena, they are absolutely viable, and can be quite strong when played correctly.

1. Beast Mastery is the glass cannon specialization. This spec does the highest sustained damage out of any Hunter spec, and possibly out of any spec. However, while it brings incredible sustained damage, it lacks the control, burst, or defensive capabilities of the other specs. Beast Mastery does have one incredible tool however: Bestial Wrath. Thanks to the talent The Beast Within, Beast Mastery Hunters are also unstoppable for 18 seconds during their main damage cooldown, which means they are immune to all forms of crowd control during that time. This makes them one of the most dangerous classes in the game during that burst window.
2. Marksmanship is the meta Hunter specialization for high-end arena. This is because most Hunter comps are based around one spell: Viper Sting. With full Resilience sets in TBC Classic, teams can live a long time. Hunters are part of what is called a drain comp, where the goal is to slowly drain the enemy healer's Mana using Viper Sting and other drain abilities, whittling the other team down safely over time until they have nothing left. Marksmanship also brings some better control abilities, specifically Scatter Shot and Silencing Shot.
3. Survival is the more control-oriented Hunter specialization. Survival's main appeal is its control ability Wyvern Sting and its cooldown Readiness. Wyvern Sting is an instant sleep that lasts for 8 seconds, which allows for some amazing CC chains that you can set up because of how effective Wyvern Sting is.

Macros and Addons can greatly benefit your gameplay, especially in a high-paced environment like PvP where no two encounters are exactly the same. Macros specifically can lessen the time it takes for you to perform an action by combining two or more commands into a single button. Addons can increase the amount of information you are receiving, allowing you to make better decisions as to what your next move should be. Listed below are our guides for Hunter-specific Addons and Macros. While most of these are targeted toward PvE, they can also be quite useful for PvP.

Consumables are considerably less relevant for PvP in TBC Classic as many of them either do not work in instanced PvP or their effects are considerably lessened. Star's Tears is the only water you are able to use in Arena other than food conjured by Mages.

Listed below are links to our guides made specifically for the three Hunter specializations. Inside of these guides we will go over the optimal specialization, best gear, and some tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your character in PvP scenarios.

If you are interested in learning more about a variety of Arena compositions featuring a Hunter and its relative strength in PvP, please consult our guides on them below: