The Epic Guide to Melee Huntering
Melee Huntering
Verb -
1. To fight as the hunter class in melee
2. The process of using only melee abilities as a hunter
Noun -
1. Hardcore Mode
Hunters are normally ranged characters and normally use pets to increase their damage and tank for them. This guide will explore the melee aspects of hunters without the use of any ranged attacks or a pet. Melee hunters will get extremely hard to play at certain points in the game (mainly 6-16 and 58-62) but do not be discouraged by this awesome playstyle. One word of warning before you begin though: DO NOT attempt to join instance groups as a melee hunter as some of the “conservative†players will flame and laugh at you for being a melee hunter and kick you from their group.
Useful Spells
Raptor Strike: This is your basic damage boosting attack. Use it as often as possible.
Aspect of the Monkey: Your basic aspect. An extra chance to dodge is a good thing. Use it.
Wing Clip: Snares the target. Not all that useful unless you want to run away.
Scare Beast (against beasts): Helps you CC or run from beast mobs.
Mongoose Bite: Your basic instant attack. Use it when you can.
Immolation Trap: Adds extra damage to a mob to burn them down faster.
Disengage: Helps you back off an enemy or run from them.
Freezing Trap: Freezes an enemy solid. Great CC.
Frost Trap: Slows a group of enemies. Useful if you need to run.
Feign Death: One of your best abilities. You’re going to die? NP, feign death.
Flare: Reveals rogues and other enemies.
Explosive Trap: AoE trap damage.
Aspect of the Wild: Helps you against things that do nature damage.
Aspect of the Viper: Helps you regenerate mana but cuts your damage by 50%
Snake Trap: Lots of snakes attack your enemies.
Misdirection: Put your threat onto another player.
Aspect of the Dragonhawk: Even more dodge! Use it when you get it.
Deterrence: Good to live a bit longer and to help counterattack light up.
Counterattack: Use it when you can. Free damage? Yes please.
Talents
Cookie Cutter Build: 14/3/49
The last 5 talents can go anywhere you like. It is not recommended that you deviate from this build much at all, because most other talents you could get will not help a melee hunter at all. Most of the talents chosen in this build should be self explanatory.
Important Information
-Raptor strike and Mongoose Bite are your most useful attacks because you have a 20% increased chance to critically hit with them.
-Immolation Trap is your basic single target damaging trap. You should be sure to have it ready for use in a fight.
-Freezing Trap is most likely your most useful trap of all. It lets you stop your foe and take a step back to bandage or wait for CDs if it is not used to snare an extra mob you didn’t need to fight. Keep it close at hand.
-Feign Death. For when you know you are going to die and don’t want to. One push of a button and there go all the mobs! Not recommended against players though.
-Counterattack should be used whenever it lights up.
-Aspect of the Monkey and Aspect of the Dragonhawk should always be used in combat. The dodge it gives helps reduce damage to you considerably.
Dual Wield or 2 Handers?
You receive the ability to dual wield at level 20. As for if you should or not, it is mostly personal preference. I usually use a 2 hander because the 20% extra crit chance with raptor strike causes some fun numbers to pop up on the screen. However, 2 Handers can be somewhat unreliable. If you miss with a heavy 2 hander, you aren’t doing much, if any, damage for about 6 seconds. Dual wielding can help you smooth out that damage loss even though you will miss more often while dual wielding. If you can get two nice 1 handed melee weapons then you might want to go for dual wielding, but if you can’t get anything better than a green, a 2 hander is usually the way to go.
Have fun with your melee hunter while taking him to new heights and facing new challenges. If you get down about your melee hunter, do not despair; Melee hunters are one of the most fun and challenging classes in the game to play right and once you figure out how, you’ll have a blast.
Good luck, and happy melee huntering.
Edited, Mar 10th 2009 9:26pm by Agest