Season of Discovery Hunter Melee DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

The Melee Hunter rotation is based entirely around using your only available melee abilities on cooldown. The rotation is quite simple with little room for variation.

Including your new Runes, your abilities are Mongoose Bite, Raptor Strike, and the new Flanking Strike. You also have the option to use Carve for AoE.

Your rotation as a Melee Hunter involves a priority list. Keep all of the below abilities on cooldown while always staying in melee range to not miss auto-attacks.

1. Flanking Strike;
2. Raptor Strike;
3. Mongoose Bite;
4. Carve.

Finally, do not forget about traps. Explosive Trap and Immolation Trap can both be used in combat with runes, which are massive damage increases and should be used on cooldown in both single target and AoE.

Hunters are unique in that they have both a melee and a ranged basic attack with separate cooldowns and short animation times. While most ranged Hunters will try to optimize their rotation by weaving in melee attacks, melee Hunters have the choice to do the opposite. However, given the short melee swing timers while dual-wielding and the incredible buffs to melee the Hunters get through runes, ranged weaving is not a DPS increase over just playing strictly as a melee. You will always have the option of using ranged attacks on targets too far to melee, but when given the choice, you should stick to melee.

Other than racial abilities, Melee Hunters will not have any cooldowns to use.