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1.12 Hunter PvP Guide! - Gnawbone - 12-24-2016
Gnawbone's Hunter PVP Guide
I hope you, the reader, are able to make use of this guide. A lot of this is content I wrote, but there is a lot of research I have done over the years and I have included many of my sources, meaning that I cannot take full credit for this guide, only its assembly. Be mindful most of this will be expanded and updated periodically.
Table of Contents:
Preface- Key Terms (Glossary)
1. Stats
2. Important Abilities
3. Race and Spec
4. Pets (WiP)
5. Macros (WiP)
6. Gear, Enchants, and Consumables (WiP)
7. Rotation and Tips (WiP)
8. Kiting
9. Class Tactics and Battleground Tactics
10. Addons
11. Keybinds
12. PvP Attitude and the Meta-Game (WiP)
13. 1.12 Hunter Videos
14. Known Hunter Bugs (Server Specific)
Key Terms:
You will notice throughout this thread, that a lot of jargon is used. For those that don't know all of it I'll post some key terms here:
-Crowd Control (CC)- Stopping or slowing an enemy from casting or moving.
-Best in Slot (BiS)- The best gear or enchant you can put in a specific slot. This is not static for pvp, and mostly depends on your spec.
-Burst- Referring to the act dealing extremely high amounts of damage in a short amount of time.
-PUG- Pick Up Group. Refers to groups of players randomly assigned to the same team.
-Prem/Premade- The opposite of a PUG- a pre-made group of players who are typically well geared and well coordinated.
-Proc- "... an abbreviation that refers to a weapon, item or ability activating with the 'Chance on Hit' or 'Chance on Use' effect (an ability or a spell)."
-GY- Graveyard.
-Damage Per Second (DPS)- How much damage you average per second.
-Line of Sight (LoS)- LoSing a player means running behind an object or wall, at which point it will cancel their cast, or not allow them to cast until they can see you on their screen again. A commonly used tactic in a pvp environment.
-Beast Mastery (BM)-Hunter talent branch that focuses on your pet.
-Marksmanship (MM)- Hunter talent branch that focuses on your ranged damage.
-Survival (SV)- Hunter talent branch that focuses on traps and survivability.
-Area of Effect (AoE)- AoE spells are spells that do not target a specific player, but rather a specific area. This is useful for getting enemies out of stealth. Our two AoE spells of note are flare and volley.
-Kiting- Running away from an opposing player, while continuing to dps or cc them.
-Diminishing Returns (DR)- “Diminishing returns means that certain spells and abilities become less effective against a target if used frequently within a short period of time” (wow.gamepedia.com). This affects how long your freezing trap and wyvern sting lasts on opponents if you continuously are putting them in a trap.
-Backpedaling- Walking backwards while facing forwards. This is counterproductive in pvp, if we're trying to back away from someone, we should run with our back to them as we will be able to get away faster. Using a mouse to turn instead of arrow keys or WASD will both increase your speed and free up more keys for you to bind abilities to.
-Out of Mana (OOM)- Self explanatory. Running out of mana.
-Cooldowns (CD)- Really the only cooldown we need to worry about as a hunter is our Arcane/Aimed shot cooldown, as they share one. As a rule of thumb, don’t fire an arcane shot if you think you can get an aimed shot off before the CD is up, you’ll be lowering your overall dps if you do.

-EFC/FC- Enemy Flag Carrier/Flag Carrier. Whoever is carrying your or the opponents flag in WSG, respectively.
-Clipping- The delay between your shots. You can tactically "clip" your shots to maximize your burst in PvP. In regards to PvE, clipping is terrible and should never be done to maximize your DPS, however, the situational nature of PvP does not always mean that you should be focused on maintaining a constant uptime on spells/pouring out all your dps at once. "DO NOT OVERLAY AUTO SHOT WITH MULTI OR AIMED SHOT. MEANING WAIT IF YOUR AUTO SHOT IS ABOUT TO FIRE BEFORE USING SPELLS. Now this will take some practice but try to cast Aimed shot as your auto shot is being fired, you will shoot during your aimed shot casting - it takes a while to master don't be discouraged if you can't get it first time. This will boost your dps significantly however once you get it."
-Interrupt- Using a CC ability which stops the enemy from finishing a cast. As a hunter, you have 4 possible interrupts: Scatter Shot, Freezing Trap, Feign Death, and Intimidation.
-Flytime- The hidden delay in certain shots. You can see this when you see your arrows or bullets flying toward your target, hence the name. From a retail bluepost: “This is also good time to clear up some of the confusion about hunter shot cast times. Essentially, ranged attacks in World of Warcraft have always had a built in 0.5 second delay to their cast time. Since this does not apply to instant attacks, for hunters it only really applies to Aimed Shot, Steady Shot and Cobra Shot. Prior to the 4.0.6 changes, Aimed Shot was listed with a 3.0 cast time, but due to the delay, in reality it had a cast time that amounted to 3.5 seconds.

1) Stats:
Hunters are great because they’re one of the few classes that can benefit from every stat, although some lose and gain importance in a pvp setting. So here is what I look for in gear (in order of importance):
1) Hit: hit cap for hunters is 5% in pvp (higher for pve but we don’t care about that now). Get this before anything else, then focus on others, because with your hit % lower than 5, your attacks will miss, softcapped (meaning you may miss once in a blue moon) you will be landing almost all of your shots/attacks. You don’t want your shots to miss when it matters most!
2) Agility or Stamina: this depends on your gear and play style, so if you prefer greater survivability, go for stamina, if you want to pew more stuff, focus on agility. That being said these should be your two highest stats. I personally prefer to have more agility than stamina, but you would be hard pressed to gear yourself to the point where your stamina is greater than your agility.
3) Crit: As always, critical strike % is important in pvp. Look for crit with your gear because there’s nothing better than scoring that vital crit and downing an efc, and pvp is all about burst damage.
4) Ranged Attack Power (RAP): Increases your ranged base damage. Pretty much the same mechanic as attack power, except useful to us. THIS IS THE SAME THING AS ATTACK POWER (AP), THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT AP BOOSTS BOTH MELEE AND RANGED, WHILE RAP EXCLUSIVELY BOOTS RANGED DAMAGE. BUFFS TO AP ONLY AFFECT MELEE AP.
5) Intellect: Intellect affects your mana pool, which is important for obvious reasons, you’re mostly shooting on the run as a hunter and sitting oom auto shooting people won’t get you very far. Additionally this affects your spell damage (read: arcane shot, serpent sting, and fire traps). This is important, but I wouldn’t sacrifice agility, stamina, or crit for intellect.
6) Strength: Strength is a very minor stat for hunters- we won’t get much use out of it, and it isn’t worth stacking (in my opinion), but if an item has good aforementioned stats, and contains strength, don’t exclude it as a possibility, because it can improve your pets stats and it can improve your raptor/mongoose strikes. 
7) +Dodge %: Not important, not necessary. You should look for this when you have absolutely no other options for an item, or an enchant. That being said, this will help you in evasion tanking in PvP: although you can also get +Dodge % from stacking agility.
8) Armor: Reduces damage taken by melee attacks. Do not look for this over other stats, you'll get all the armor you need from your gear.
9) Spell Power: Spell power SHOULD affect a very small portion of our attacks: Arcane Shot (? Some people say that it is a physical attack calculated with spell power, but I believe that it scales with ATTACK POWER here instead of SP), Wyvern/Serpent Sting, Volley, and Immolation/Explosive trap. However, due to some strange normalization on the server's end in response to spellpower rogues (Speculation), many classes spells do not receive increases from Spell Power. Tested and confirmed that it does nothing.
10) # Mana per 5 Seconds: More useful than spirit, but this is not nearly as important for pvp as it is for pve, due to the fact that you do not have as long of fights in pvp as you do in pve. The alternate version is "Hp5", basically just replace "Mana" with "Health" and it functions the same way.
11) Spirit: I would not look for spirit when gearing a hunter for pvp. If you get enough to significantly improve your mana regen, your damage will most likely be garbage. Again as with strength, do not let it deter you from a piece of gear with good primary stats (agi, stam, crit). Spirit give mana every 2 sec. Even if you cast Aimed Shot (3.5) sec, and Multi-Shot (+3.5 sec), then you will have at least 1-2 spirit tick(s).
Here is how your stats are going to affect you (Source)
"Stamina: 1 Stamina gives 10 health.
Agility: Gives 1 Melee Attack Power and .02 Melee Crit.
50 Agility = 1% Melee Crit.
53 Agility (52.91) = 1% Ranged Crit. (Outside Source)
Strength: Gives 1 Melee Attack Power.
Attack Power: Makes you Swing Harder.
Critical Strike*: Increases your Chance to crit.
Normal Hunters value this around 30 Attack Power.
Melee Hunters value it around 20 due to Savage Strikes.
Intellect: 1 Intellect is 15 Mana. (Not important on gear)."
On Crit:
Here comes some math try to follow along:
(Lets say we hit 100% of our shots, so we dont have to take misses into account.)
-Our shots hits for X, and our crits hit for x+x*130% = 2,3X
-With 0% crit our shots would hit for 100*X
-With 1% crit out shots would hit for 99*X+1*2,3X = 101,3X
-So the difference between 0% crit and 1% crit is: (101,3X-100X)/100X*100% = 1,3%
-That means if we go from 0% crit to 1% crit, we would see and dps increase of 1,3%
-The problem is that we most likely have around 25-30% crit. So lets look at the math when we go from 25% crit to 26% crit.
-With 25% crit our shots would hit for 75*X+25*2,3X = 132,5X
-With 26% crit our shots would hit for 74*X+26*2,3X = 133,8X
-So the diffence between 25% crit and 26% crit is: (133,8X-132,5X)/132,5X*100% = 0,98%
-You could make a graph or a sheet, where you can see your % dps increase with 1% crit, depending on your crit level.
So as you can see, the more % crit we have, a 1% crit increase will give a smaller % dps increase.

So lets say you want to really calculate how your stats are feeding into other stats (i.e. how much crit you get from your agility). This page is a comprehensive guide on how your stats are calculated into other stats, and really can help you understand the importance of certain stats based on your spec/gear:
http://wowwiki.wikia.com/index.php?title=Critical_strike&oldid=366674 (accurate for patch 1.12).
2) Abilities:
Here are SOME (not all) important abilities for me as a hunter. As there is not really a rotation in pvp they can vary in importance, they can all be game breaking/making given the situation.
So before we get into the meat of this guide lets do some math! Here are the equations that allow you to calculate damage of various abilities: (found here):
"-Auto Shot = SlayingMod*(AmmoDPS*WeaponSpeed+RWSMod*(RAP/14*WeaponSpeed+Scope+AverageWeaponDamage))
-Aimed Shot = SlayingMod*(AmmoDPS*WeaponSpeed+RWSMod*(RAP/14*2.8+Scope+AverageWeaponDamage+AimedShotBonus))
-Multi-Shot = BarrageMod*GSMod*SlayingMod*(AmmoDPS*WeaponSpeed+RWSMod*(RAP/14*2.8+Scope+AverageWeaponDamage+MultiShotBonus))
Here is what you replace the jargon with:
AimedShotBonus = 600
MultiShotBonus = 150
MortalShotsMod = 0.30
SlayingMod = 1.03 if Slaying Talent, 1 if not
RWSMod = 1.05 if MM spec, 1 if LR spec
BarrageMod = 1.15 if MM spec, 1 if LR spec
GSMod = 1.15 if 8/8 Giantstalker bonus, 1 if not"
Basically you need to do a lot of math in order to accurately test your damage. If you are further interested in testing, this is a good resource,. You can also download various damage meter addons (sw_stats is good) to test the damage of specific spells based on your gear.
Aimed Shot: Aimed shot is our bread and butter as a hunter. It takes a while to shoot, but causes devastating damage. Make sure you don’t sit in an open spot and start casting aimed shot unless you have a sufficient amount of allies in front of you, otherwise players will probably get in your dead zone (read: area where you can’t shoot or melee attack them) and make your long cast pointless. 980 to 1024 Damage. 6 second cooldown, 3 second cast.
Scatter Shot: Disorients your target, stopping casting and making them wander around in a "circle" for 4 seconds. 181 to 203 Damage, 30 second cooldown.
Multi-Shot (MS): MS is another high damage attack with virtually no cast time. While it shows up as an instant cast on the tooltip, it actually won’t fire unless you’re standing still (you don’t have to stand long, just long enough until you see the shooting animation). Hits 3 Targets for 458 to 508 damage.
Feign Death (FD): Pretend you’re dead! The main use of this ability in pvp is that it causes everyone to lose you as a target- meaning that if they are casting a spell and you cast FD, they will have to stop cast. The other primary benefit here is that it takes you out of combat, and we have to be out of combat to put down our traps!
Freezing Trap (FT): When hit, causes the target to freeze, making them unable to move or cast. Lasts 20 seconds.
Frost Trap: Puts down a blanket of frost on the area around the trap, slowing all enemies that stand on the affected area. Lasts 30 seconds. Slows enemy movement speed by 60%.
Serpent Sting: A damage over time spell. Note that serpent sting is not a significant amount of damage in relation to how much mana it uses, so I try to save it for when an enemy is low. Serpent sting is also handy vs mana users when the enemy is very low on health and cannot heal (don’t serpent sting a priest with full mana and low health unless you have another player with you, they may be able to outheal the damage making your serpent sting essentially pointless). 490 Damage over 15 seconds.
Viper Sting: Viper Sting is one of the most overpowered hunter moves. It allows us to drain huge amounts of mana from our opponents and is easy to reapply. I have this up 100% of the time I am fighting a mana using class. Drains 1108 Mana over 8 seconds.
Scorpid Sting: Not too much use here, but not a bad debuff if you’re fighting a melee class. Additionally this is a good tool to use if you're fighting against a group with a competent druid/shaman/paladin, in that it adds another debuff slot to dispel, making them struggle to dispel other debuffs (crippling poison for example), generally wasting their time and running them OOM. 
Rapid Fire (RF): Increases your ranged attack speed by 40% for 19 seconds. Useful all around, but I like to save it to pop right before my aimed shot, or along with an attack power increasing trinket for more burst.
Wing Clip (WC): slows the target. always use when an enemy gets in melee range.
Concussive Shot: slows the target. again, use it on any melee class, or on an enemy such as a mage, who may blink away from you once you get his health low enough.
Flare: Forces stealthed enemies out of stealth within a 10 yard radius. Put it down ANY time you see an enemy rogue. (Secret tip: The duration of flare is slightly longer than its cooldown time.)
Hunter’s Mark: VERY USEFUL. Hunters mark essentially does 3 things. It increases your ranged attack power against the target, it allows you to see the target if he goes into stealth (When used right, no rogue can kill you), and makes the target affected appear on your minimap (this is nice if it’s a druid and you don’t want to be bothered with changing between track humanoids and track beasts).
Deterrence: 25% Dodge and Parry for 10 seconds. Pop it when you ENTER in a tough melee battle or during close draws where your enemy could finish you off easily close-range: USE THIS WITH ASPECT OF THE MONKEY.
Aspect of the Wild: Increases your nature resistance by 60. I occasionally save this when fighting elemental shamans- It WILL make a small difference, and an even bigger difference if you have chromatic flask and Mark of the Wild.
Rapid Fire: Increases your ranged attack speed by 40% for 15 seconds.
Track Humanoids: self explanatory. Keep this up almost 100% of the time. This is where hunters really shine in battlegrounds- we can tell our whole team where the enemy flag carrier goes!
Track Beasts: Useful for chasing druids- this allows you to track them on your minimap if they change into cat/bear/travel form.
Track Hidden: Allows you to see hidden players that are within a certain range of you, does not show up on minimap. Useful for rogues and druids.
Aspect of the Hawk (AotH): Keep this up most of all. Increases your ranged attack power. +110 Ranged Attack Power.
Aspect of the Monkey (AotM): Keep this up any time a melee class gets in range, or if a hunter sends his pet after you. It will increase your dodge chance by 6% and you can easily switch back to Hawk once you get out of melee range.
Aspect of the Cheetah (AotC): Use this when you carry a flag and don’t have any enemies incoming. Increases run speed. When hit with this on, you will get dazed. 20% Movement speed increase. WILL ONLY DAZE YOU FROM DIRECT DAMAGE (Read: no dots).
Aspect of the Pack (AotP): Use this when you are running with a flag carrier or your team and don’t have any enemies incoming. When anyone with the aura is hit, they will get dazed, very not good, so be careful when you have this aura on. 20% Movement speed increase.
Aspect of the Beast (AotB): Makes you untraceable. This is situational, but handy when the opposing team has a hunter or druid, as they cannot track you. Be sure to dismiss your pet or order it to stay somewhere you aren’t if you have this on, as a hunter could switch to track beasts and find you based on where your pet is.
Volley: Our second temporary flare. This has 2 uses. One, you can cast it if there is a rogue in the room, and occasionally you will surprise them out of stealth (hunters mark and serpent sting him after that and its game over). Two, if an enemy tries to LoS you to eat or re-stealth, your volley can put them back into combat ruining their counter.
Fear Beast: It's a 20 second fear. Our only PvP application will be fearing druids, use scatter shot to stop them from shifting out of bear/cat/travel form so you can get the cast off.
Arcane Shot: Instant cast shot (our only real one), i save this for A) plate wearing classes because this counts as magic damage, so it can eat through plate armor, or B) kiting/chasing, since you can shoot it on the run. 183 Arcane Damage. 6 second cooldown.
Raptor/Mongoose Strike: Hits hard if you have a 2handed weapon. Don’t rely on this for significant dps, but it can sometimes surprise you with a high damage if you’re geared the right way.

Note: All traps have a 15 second cooldown.
3) Race and Spec:
Race:
Don't be racist: You should base your race decision on how you want to play. Here I'm going to break down the beneficial racials for hunters, and how they might fit into different playstyles. Yep, you can also guess what I'm going to tell you next, I'll be saying it A LOT: Do not focus on min/maxing stats and racials if you think you would have more fun playing another race. This game would be incredibly boring if all you saw were Orc and Nightelf hunters (While these have the most racials that will benefit you, there are perks of playing other races, in addition to the fact that even if you min/max based on racials, you can still get rolled by someone who knows the class better than you).
Horde:
Orc: Axe/2H Axe skill +5 (~1% Hit with axes at 60)/ +25% Attack power -50% Healing buff/debuff (buff lasts 15 seconds, debuff lasts 25 seconds, 2 minute cooldown)/ 25% Stun resist (Lol)/ 5% Increased pet damage (Lol)
    Basically this is a great spec if you want: Survivability and competitive DPS in close situations (for PvP that is).
Troll: 10-30% Increased attack speed (based on your HP)/5% Damage vs. Beasts (Not terribly useful for PvP/+5% Bow Skill (Should also translate to ~1% Hit with bows at 60, not verified)/10% increased Hp5
    Arguably the most stylish Hunter race. The buffs, sadly, don't really do much for us in PvP, unless you can use your attack speed buff perfect, which is hard to do, if you get your 30% increased speed buff, you're probably going to be dead before the first 2 seconds are up.
Tauren: 2 Second stun for up to 5 players/units (2 Minute cooldown)/5% Increased health/+15 Herbalism/+10 Nature Resistance
    Hardy and a cool built in stun, Taurens are the mid-tier Hunter class for the Horde. Note that your hitbox as a tauren is MASSIVE, even with Nogginfogger, so it will be slightly harder to kite than say, a dwarf.
Alliance:
Night Elf: 1% Dodge/Stationary stealth ability/+10 Nature Resist/50% Increased corpse speed.
    Night Elves make fantastic snipers. You can use your stealth ability in conjunction with a cat's prowl can suprise people at bases/flags you are defending. Your dodge ability and nature resist make you all the more powerful against rogues, and your increased corpse run speed will make world PvP much less boring, increasing your uptime, and overall increasing your dps comparatively.
Dwarf: 8 Second immunity to bleeds, poisons, and diseases, 10% Additional armor (3 Minute cooldown)/+5 Gun skill (Again, SHOULD translate to ~1% Hit when using guns)/+10 Frost Resistance/Treasure tracking.
    Dwarves are an outstanding utility class. You can hit stoneform against rogues and it's good game. Alternatively, you can stoneform away pesky viper stings from other hunters. You also have an amazingly tiny hitbox, allowing you to navigate through certain areas that other races cannot (I do not condone abuse of game/class/race mechanics).
NOTE: +5 weapon skills do not exclusively give +Hit%, but also a small amount of +Crit%. Taken from Surelynotdhorn referencing a dead-linked elitestjerks page:
"...those 5 skill should hook you up with 0.24% hit per point and 0.04% crit per point (see ) for a total of 1.2% hit and 0.2% crit."

Specs:
Throughout your time as a hunter you will hear/will have heard people telling you that a certain spec is the best hunter spec. There are a lot of what I like to call “Tunnel Vision Hunters” who think that they’re playing a pure dps class: these are often the people who will /w you “turn on TSA” when you don’t have it, and they are silly. If you don't have fun playing a spec, chances are you won't be playing that spec to the best of your ability, and the great thing about hunter talents is that for pvp, you can get really creative with them (as opposed to dumping most of your talents in one tree, as all 3 trees offer a combination of damage and utility). Deep tree talents such as True Shot Aura (TSA), Beastial Wrath (BW), and Wyvern Sting (WS) will prove less useful than if you had spread more points across different trees, and hunters are all about being useful in pvp. That being said, Scatter Shot (SS) is an essential pvp talent, as is Aimed Shot (AS), I try to take those and either Intimidation or Counter Strike (CS), but the former has more uptime since you don't have to parry to activate it (It is worth noting that if you take CS, you will almost certainly want to spec into Deterrence as well, which will pretty much guarantee you at least one free CS). The one template I would give you is this, it includes the talents that are essential for your burst (your main pvp burst is described in the Rotation & Tips section):
[Image: WF7b1fd.jpg]
MM/Surv: This is my current spec, and is good when you have better gear because Lightning Reflexes increases in usefulness the more agility you have. It provides excellent damage output through the marksmanship tree, and great durability via the survival tree. This is a build that isn't afraid to get in close: it provides decent melee damage, I took improved wing clip (WC) because the proc rate is nice (1 in 4 WCs will usually yield 1 proc), and it will make kiting much easier for you. Entrapment is ignored here because as far as I know, it is still bugged on this server, although I would pick entrapment over imp. wing clip once it gets fixed as it provides even more utility (picture trapping a whole team in your tunnel with a frost trap while you run away with their flag). 
[Image: Fv0CeFs.jpg]
Version II: Very similar spec, this increases your damage slightly and provides a useful buff to your party. While it gives you more uptime with Efficiency, it is wise to use a boar pet to make up for the lowered proc rate from Improved Concussive Shot. 
Butt Mastery: The other spec i like for pvp is a BM hybrid which is better for newer players with preraid bis (but can be fun with better gear too) and provides good cc. I would caution against using this unless you have EXCELLENT pet micro-management skills, as pet pathing is very much broken here, and it can take ages for your pet to catch up with you in fast paced battlegrounds (which is partially why we spec into Bestial Swiftness). I chose Beastial Discipline over Spirit Bond because it allows for more bites/claws, increasing our pets overall dps, while Spirit Bond is too little too late when when in combat. Imp mend pet is optional, but i like it because it can free your pet if it is cc’d, as there is a dispelling tick, meaning you can spam rank 1 mend and usually enjoy a nice proc rate. Note that based on my experience, this spec doesn't hold up in an endgame environment.
[Image: 4evwk3g.jpg]
Fun Specs: To adequately demonstrate the versatility of a hunter’s spec choice, I’m including some goofy, creative, or at the very least interesting specs that may not be the most viable in PvP or PvE:
Spell Power Hunter:
Melee Hunter: https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=28163
Tank Hunter:
Flag Carrier: This spec is ideal for carrying flags if you still want to roll with beast mastery. You can switch points between either Deflection, Improved Aspect of the Monkey, Ferocity, and Thick Hide depending on your play style and how often you get focused in a battleground. Improved Cheetah/Pack is useful for running flags, and Spirit Bond was chosen for using LoS and eating, for a faster regeneration time.
4) Pets:

Some pets here are buggy and do not retain their original attack speed as they do in true 1.12- although many have been fixed and are correct currently. Consequently, you should always check your pets attack speed against a 1.12 pet database to make sure you’re doing all you can dps-wise. You can use any pet, but I recommend these:
Boar- Charge ability gives you another free root. Sadly, boar dps is relatively small, so charge is really the only useful ability. As a hunter, you need all the cc you can get in order to maximize your usefulness as well as your damage, so this is my #1 pick for any non BM hunter. Other pets are a better option for BM due to their significantly higher dps.
Cat- Cats are nice because they can dash (sprint), prowl (stealth, increasing attack power of attack used right after stealth fades), claw, and bite, meaning that they are arguably the best dps pet you can get in a pvp setting.
Bats- Bats have bite, the flying equivalent of dash, and a good melee debuff spell. The best thing about bats is that they look unique and they are big enough that they can significantly distract an enemy player once it gets up in their face.
Wolf- Furious howl and dps abilities, the only reason I see to take a wolf pet is making a furious howl/aimed shot macro to increase your damage. IMO the buff is too small and more useful for raiding.
Wind Serpent- Lightening breath (A wind serpent-only ranged nature damaging spell) should (But currently does not) scale with your spell power, so if you have a good amount of gear from AQ40 (T2.5, etc.), you could have a relatively strong attack coming from your flying snake. Another good reason to get one of these guys is the ranged attack- if both you and your pet get cc'd while an enemy attempts to run away from you, lightning breath could be the game changer you need. I never personally use one, but it isn't the worst choice out there in terms of pvp.
Pets learn spells in a strange way. In order to get the highest rank of certain pet abilities, you need to tame a pet that already has the ability at the rank you want, and use it enough in combat until it is added to your spell book (roughly 5-10 times). I don’t want to take all the time to list where you can learn specific abilities, because I'm incredibly lazy, so I will post the resource I always use and a corresponding one for the correct pet attack speeds in 1.12.
You can find a more in-depth guide here (although there are two places where it lacks info: Most obviously it is missing info for special mobs under raptors, as it makes no mention of ZG raptors, same with the turtle family, as there is a faster-than-normal attack speed turtle available to those who seek him to tank) The real charm of this resource is that it describes the reasoning for getting a particular pet in an outstanding fashion.
Important PvP Pet Abilities:
Bite (Rank 8)- Learned from Bloodaxe Worg in Upper Blackrock Spire
Claw (Rank 8)- Learned from Winterspring Screecher/Elder Shardtooth (Both from Winterspring)
Keybind both claw and bite if your pet can learn both of them- Alternate the attacks based on the fight: claw is great for interrupts due to the higher dpf (damage per focus), while bite will hit harder.
Dash (Dive for flying pets) (Rank 3)- Learned from Bloodaxe Worg/Many others/Plaugebat in Easter Plaguelands for dive. Increases movement speed.
Charge (Rank 5)- Learned from Grunter in Blasted Lands. Functions like a warrior's charge, but has a root on the target for a very small duration.
Screech (Rank 4)- Learned from Monstrous Plaguebat in Eastern Plaguelands. Melee debuff to your enemies- great when used in conjunction with Scorpid Sting.
Pet Scaling: Another item in my massive to-do pile, pets will scale differently across various servers. To determine if your pet's stats will scale along with yours, you need to know if your server is using a TBC core (I think most do), and if so, if they have disabled pet scaling. PETS DID NOT SCALE IN RETAIL VANILLA. Here at Retro I'm fairly confident that it is run through a TBC core, but have yet to test if they removed scaling (My initial thoughts point to no, but that is unsubstantiated.)
The Scale:
26% of your stamina
45.7% of your armor
1 armor and .5 attack power for each point of agility you have
18.75% of all your attack power 
0.33 attack power for each point of strength you have
38.8% of your resistance(s)
(source)

*Make sure to micromanage your pets, having them on aggressive by accident can ruin setups if your team has CC’d an enemy. 
Special Pets:
Snarler: A cool tame that retains the resistances that it has as a mob (100 resist each). He is primarily useful for pve as Lupos can out damage him. He does not retain his resistances at this time on Retro-Wow.
Broken Tooth: Fastest cat in the game with a 1.0 attack speed. With prowl, sprint, bite, and claw, his damage output in top-tierhttp://wow-one.com/database/?npc=2850
Lupos: A cool wolf that does shadow damage rather than physical damage, which is great for eating through plate wearers along with Serpent Stings and Arcane Shots. Lupos’s shadow damage DOES currently work on the server. (It should be noted that on some servers, Lupos's attack will eat up warlock debuffs on enemies, although I haven't confirmed this.)
Bloodseeker Bat: Fastest bat in the game, boasting a 1.0 attack speed (Not tested on this server).
Razzashi Raptor: Only found in ZG, this raptor has the fastest attack speed of any pet, at a ridiculous 0.9. I personally reccomend Broken Tooth over this pet due to it having greater utility.
5) Macros:
I have already posted a thread with macros, and there are many good places to find macros.
Note that in the "Addons" section of this guide is an addon called "Classic Focus", in which you can make simple macro commands to add a focus functionality to your attacks. The list of commands can be found here.
I’ll include the "bread and butter" in here for posterity (Most of these macros will only work with the addon Supermacro):
-Feign Death+Freezing trap (This will also call your pet back to you so they don’t break your trap) Additionally, neither of these feign death+trap macros will cast feign death when you are not in combat (so if you aren't in combat, it will just place a trap):
/script PetFollow();
/script if UnitAffectingCombat("player") then CastSpellByName("Feign Death") end
/cast Freezing Trap(Rank 3)
-Feign Death+Frost trap (your pet won’t break frost trap, so there is no pet follow script here):
/script if UnitAffectingCombat("player") then CastSpellByName("Feign Death") end
/cast Frost Trap
-Scatter Shot (This will also call your pet back to you so they don’t break your scatter):
/script PetFollow();
/cast Scatter Shot
-Melee Macro (This will cast raptor strike, and mongoose strike when it is available, you can include wing clip in the line, but I personally keep it as a separate ability):
/script if (not PlayerFrame.inCombat) then AttackTarget() end
/cast Mongoose Bite(Rank 4)
/cast Raptor Strike(Rank 8)
Call/dismiss Macro (not super important but it's a good idea to free up as much action bar space as possible):
/cast Call Pet
/cast Dismiss Pet
-Auto Shot (targets enemy in front of you, and will attack your target based on distance away from you [auto attack or auto shot]. This won't turn off if you spam it, and you need to replace "3" in the line "IsAutoRepeatAction(3)" with the corresponding location of your auto shot hotkey:
/script if GetUnitName("target")==nil then TargetNearestEnemy() end /run if CheckInteractDistance("target", 3) and (not PlayerFrame.inCombat) then AttackTarget() elseif not IsAutoRepeatAction(3) then CastSpellByName("Auto Shot") end[/i]

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide - Redux - GnawboneII - 12-24-2016
6) Gear, Enchants, and Consumables:
You can try any number of gear combinations to maximize your dps or your utility, or base your gear around a specific skill or spec (I have seen good, well-geared melee hunters, T3 hunters who get destroyed by rogues and hunters in D1 and blue resist gear that can run circles around people). A good example of this is looking at the crit and damage increases from the hunter D2 pieces for beast mastery hunters. The one piece of gear I would recommend you to get as a hunter, no matter the spec are the pvp gloves: The Multi-Shot damage bonus is one-of-a-kind, and frankly, overpowered (Thanks Blizz).
*The basic hierarchy of gear for hunters in PvP: t3>Epic PvP/t2.5>t2>Rare PvP/t1>Pre-Raid BiS
In general, look for gear with the important stats previously mentioned in this guide. The only thing you definitely need as a hunter is your 5% hit. I also would recommend having one weapon as a stat stick (a weapon that doesn’t have much use in melee, but has a lot of good stats for shooting) and one weapon for whenever you’re forced to get into melee (something with high weapon damage, and/or a good proc such as Dark Edge of Insanity, or Frostguard/Eskhandar’s Left Claw). Whatever you get be aware that if there is a DoT proc, such as a bleed from a weapon, it can compromise your effectiveness when it comes time to CC.
As for ranged weapons, it is best to choose a weapon with a longer casting time in order to improve our uptime while we’re dpsing: Ashjre’thul, Crossbow of Smiting is what you should aim for until Naxx.
Don’t forget: your dps stat is not always equivalent to what your actual dps is, survivability will increase your damage output more than dumping all of your stats and talents into pure damage. If you have general questions about gear (i.e. is this weapon better than this weapon, etc.), PM me here or in-game and I’ll gladly help.
Useful Gear:
Armor:
-Invulnerable Mail (BS)
-Swift Boots (LW)
-Black Grasp of the Destroyer (BS)
-Freezing Band (Drop)
-Spider Belt (Tailor)
-Obsidian Mail Tunic (BS)
Miscellaneous:
-Skull of Impending Doom (Quest)
-Furbolg Medicine Pouch (Timbermaw Hold Rep Vendor)
-Ancient Sinew Wrapped Lamina (MC Quest, BiS Quiver)
Trinkets:
-Insignia of the Horde (Vendor)
-Carrot on a Stick (Quest)
-Linken’s Boomerang (Quest)
-Luffa (Quest)
-Mark of Resolution (Quest)
-Nifty Stopwatch (Quest)
-Tidal Charm (Drop)
-Arcane Infused Gem (Drop)
-Darkmoon Card: Heroism (Quest)
-Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether (Quest)
-Earthstrike (Cenarion Circle Rep)
-Jom Gabbar (Drop)
-Kiss of the Spider (Drop)
-Loatheb’s Reflection
-Renataki’s Charm of Beasts (ZG Quest)
-Slayer’s Crest (Drop)
-The Burrower’s Shell (Drop)
-Arena Grand Master (PVP Quest)
-Blackhand’s Breadth (Drop)
-Defiler’s Talisman (AB Rep Vendor)
-Glimmering Mithril Insignia (BS Questline)
Engineering:
-Shadow/Ice/Flame Reflectors
-Major Recombobulator
-World Enlarger
-Gnomish Harm Prevention Belt
-Gnomish Cloaking Device
-Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector
-Gnomish Shrink/Death Ray
-Goblin Jumper Cables XL
-Goblin Rocket Helm

-Gnomish Battle Chicken
-Gnomish Mind Control Helm
-Goblin/Gnomish Rocket Boots

Enchants:
-Shoulders: attack power/crit would be my first choice- NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR RAP ON THIS SERVER AND IS CONSEQUENTLY BUGGED, making your other choice (and probably best choice) the Zg shoulder enchant, or, if you want to emphasize your survivability the armor/stam enchant from Naxx is a viable option.
-Helmet: falcon’s call.
-Legs: falcon’s call.
Boots: should ALWAYS have +run speed %- as a hunter you will be kiting A LOT.
Weapon 1 (Stat Stick):, enchant it with +25 agility to increase your overall dps. You'll use this weapon when you are shooting.
Weapon 2 (Melee Weapon): get icy chill or steel weapon chain. Icy weapon will make kiting vastly easier, and the effect impacts all classes with a speed and attack speed debuff, weapon chain will allow you to wing clip warriors who try to disarm you all day. NOTE: You will get bigger Raptor Strikes with a 2-handed weapon than with a 1-handed weapon. You'll use this weapon when you have to melee enemies.
Ranged Weapon:As previously stated, pvp hitcap for us is 5%, meaning that once we get 5% in hit, we won't really have any use for the +3% hit scope, rather, Sniper Scope (which adds 7 damage to your ranged weapon) will increase our damage output, so I would recommend taking the Sniper Scope over anything else.
The rest is up to you but here is what I run with:
Cloak- +1% dodge. Any increase in dodge is useful against melee classes or hunter pets, I would personally take it over a few points in agility.
Chest- +4 all stats. Hunters can benefit from most stats, so this is very useful, more so I would say than +100 health or mana.
Bracers- +9 stamina. Stamina is important in pvp.
Gloves- +15 agility. Agility helps us kill people.
Consumables
Damage:
-Blessed Sunfruit (AD)
-Call of the Raptor (Horde Quest)
-Dragonbreath Chili (Cooking)
-Elixer of the Mongoose (Alch)
-Fishliver Oil (Alliance Quest)
-Flash Bundle (Alliance Quest)
-Frost Oil (Alch)
-Ground Scorpok Assay (Quest)
-Scroll of Agility and Strength IV (Drop/Vendor)
-Winterfall Firewater (Drop)
-Elemental Sharpening Stone (BS)
-Dog Whistle (SM Drop)
-Cinder Bracers (Seasonal)

Mana:
-Major Mana Potion (Drop/Alch)
-Blessed Sunfruit Juice (AD)
-Elixir of the Sages (Alch)
-Flask of Distilled Wisdom (Alch)
-Scroll of Intellect and Spirit IV (Drop/Vendor)
-Brilliant Mana Oil (Ench)
-Tea With Sugar (Quest)
-Cerebral Cortex Compound (Quest)
-Mageblood Potion (Alch)

Survivability:
-AllianceHorde Battle Standard
-Bloodkelp Elixir of Resistance (Quest)
-Bloodkelp Elixir of Dodging (Quest)
-Clutch of Foresight (Drop)
-Wildvine Potion (Alch)
-Juju Chill/Ember/Escape/Flurry/Guile/Might/Power (Quests)
-Wail of the Banshee (Drop)
-Sheen of Zanza (ZG)
-Spirit of Zanza (ZG)
-Bag of Marbles (Ally Quest)
-Gordok Green Grog
-Catseye Elixir (Alch)
-Magic Resistance Potion (Alch)
-Dirge’s Kickin’ Chimaerok Chops (Cooking)
-Clamlette Surprise (Cooking)
-Flask of Chromatic Resistance (Alch)
-Flask of Petrification (Alch)
-Flask of the Titans (Alch)
-Elixir of Superior Defense (Alch)
-Greater Stoneshield Potion (Alch)
-Free or Living Action Potion (Alch)
-Greater Nature, Fire, Shadow, Holy, and Frost Protection Potions (Alch)
-Jungle Remedy (Drop, STV)
-Heavy Runecloth Bandage (First Aid)
-Large Rope Net (Drop)
-Limited Invulnerability Potion (Alch)
-Magic Dust (Drop, Westfall)
-Major Healing Potion (Alch/Drop)
-Moist Towelette (Quests)
-Faintly Glowing Skull (Quest)
-Purification Potion (Alch)
-Really Sticky Glue (Quest, Horde)
-Restorative Potion (Alch)
-Fire Toasted Bun (Seasonal)
-Elderberry Pie (Seasonal)
-Midsummer Sausage (Seasonal)
-Toasted Smorc (Seasonal)
-Restoring Balm (Alliance Quests)
-Rumsey Rum Black Label (Fishing)
-Scorpid Surprise (Cooking)
-Scroll of Stamina and Protection IV (Drop/Vendor)
-Slumber Sand (Horde Quest)
-Whipper Root Tuber (Quest)
-Crystal Basilisk Spine (Drop)
-Frozen Rune (Drop)
-Dark Desire (Seasonal)
-Buttermilk Delight (Seasonal)

Misc:
-Eye of Arachnida (Drop)
-Swiftness of Zanza (ZG)
-Colossal Parachute (Vendor)
-Oil of Immolation (Alch)
-Swiftness Potion (Alch)
-Elixer of Dream Vision (Alch)
-Invisibility Potion (Alch)
-Elder's Moonstone (Drop)
-Noggenfogger Elixir (Vendor)
-Savory Deviate Delight (Cooking)

Engineering:
-Arcane Bomb
-Discombobulator Ray
-Flash Bomb
-Goblin Land Mine/Sapper Charge
-Thorium Grenade
-The Big One

World Buffs
Darkmoon Faire Buff from Sayge. (2 Hour Cooldown).
-10% Damage Combination: Slay the man, Execute your friend painfully. (1,1).
-10% Stamina Combination: Confiscate the Corn, Speak against your brother openly. (3,1).
-10% Intellect Combination: Turn him over to liege, Show not so quiet defiance. (2,2).
-25 All Resist Combination: Turn him over to liege, Remain Quiet. (2,3).
Cleanse a Corrupted Songflower in Felwood.
-Songflower Serenade: 5% Spell/Melee/Ranged Crit and 15 to All Stats.
Onyxia/Nefarian Head Turn in at Stormwind/Orgrimmar.
-Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer: 10% Spell Crit, 5% Melee/Ranged Crit and 140 Attack Power.
Heart of Hakkar Turn in at Molthor in Yojamba Isle.
-Spirit of Zandalar: 10% Movement Speed and 15% All Stats. 
Dire Maul Tribute Buffs.
-Mol'dar's Moxie: 15% Stamina. (Talk to Guard Mol'dar).
-Fengus' Ferocity: Attack Power Increased by 200. (Talk to Guard Fengus).
-Slip'kik's Savvy: 3% Spell Crit. (Talk to Guard Slip'kik).

7) Rotation/Tips:
Being a hunter in pvp is very intuitive: in most situations, you want to play with your feelings rather than logic. Surprise your enemy by doing things that are unexpected- act on impulse, maybe that involves following a pala and only viper stinging them until they’re OOM before moving in for the kill, maybe it means going into melee range of a warrior and wing clipping/trapping them, or even duking it out with your blades. In a game that has been out so long with so much theorycrafting behind it, your best and only truly dynamic ally is the element of surprise.
I will say that there is no static rotation in pvp, but there are situational ones. These are not “do this and your enemy will die” techniques, these are just some moves that will help you increase your damage and your utility. Keep in mind that if you ONLY follow these patterns, people will catch on to you and be able to counter it easier, so don't exclusively use these tactics. Play around with others based on your personal strengths/weaknesses.
1v1 situations: first scatter shot and get in close, then feign death and freezing trap. Once they’re trapped, run away and start your aimed shot. As aimed shot is casting, mash your multi-shot button. These are your two highest damage abilities, and you can use them right after the other! Now, your response from here should be based on the class of the character you’re playing against.
Chasing someone: Keep concussive shot up at all times. Use your stings accordingly. If you can avoid getting hit, turn on Aspect of the Cheetah and try to get in scatter shot range, at which point you can set up your 1v1 rotation described above. If you’re getting DR’s on your freezing trap to the point where it would be ineffective, scatter shot, then FD+Frost Trap, and wing clip the enemy, giving them a hard time getting away from you. Additionally sting accordingly, and if you don’t think you can trap them and set up an aimed shot, use arcane shot. If you’re in range and have time to stop for a split second, it is always good to use multi-shot.
Peeling: Peeling is the act of distracting or stopping an enemy from attacking you or a partner (say you are supporting a flag carrier). The most common peels coming from hunters will primarily involve freeze or frost traps. Scatter shot and our FD+Trap macros will take care of most enemies. Additionally, concussive shot should be used as much as possible, but I will usually save concussive shot for enemies who are chasing me/an ally on a mount. As with concussive shot, wing clip anything that gets in range- it’s not mana intensive and easy to spam.
You're low on health: If you're in the middle of a battle and find yourself OOM or low on health, the best tactic is to LoS your opponent, feign death, lay down a trap if you can, and drink/eat. Even if they catch you quickly you'll still have more health/mana than you had previously. BONUS: If you're a night elf, eat, then shadow meld, and the enemy will either have to AoE you to get you out of stealth, or if you LoS well, you can theoretically regain all your health. If you do shadow meld, make sure you don't have your pet following you unless you have a cat with prowl, otherwise it will be a dead giveaway to your location.
Sting/FD+trap: say you have serpent sting up on someone and you want to trap them, but you know the sting will break the trap on a tick. Bind rank 1 scorpid sting and use it vs your serpent stung opponent, then use fd/trap macro. This way your trap won’t break because scorpid sting causes no damage over time. Note that this also applies to viper sting, but viper sting doesn’t break traps here at the moment, so that point is moot for now.

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide - Redux - Gnawbone - 12-24-2016
8) Kiting:
Kiting is the most important part of hunter survivability, so it’s good to know how to do it! Kiting involves running away from an enemy running toward you, while still maintaining your DPS. This essentially entails using your mouse to run and turn, so you can shoot in mid-air at an enemy. Lets take a look at it in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79TBxvWz-qg
Notice how he is turning with his mouse, not his keys. This allows him to turn faster midair, and still run away at full speed, as opposed to backpedaling and slowing himself for the enemy to close in.
Kiting doesn’t just involve being able to run and click-turn/shoot, it involves a bit of brains. Read this article to understand how to maintain distance from an enemy: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/football-science-hypotenuse/ (Read this keeping you kiting an enemy in mind).
Basically: make use of the high and low ground of the terrain around you when kiting, as well as your position relative to your enemy’s path. Think in terms of what is the fastest route to you and how can you obfuscate that path. Use your terrain to your advantage.
An important skill to learn in kiting is being able to time your shots precisely through clipping properly: keep a timer of your auto-shot cooldown, and you can continue to run while you’re kiting, taking only a small break to let your shot fly once the CD is up. This is useful for hitting low armor enemies or enemies with low health when you are low on mana, or to improve your overall burst. Two examples:
1) You’re OOM, and have a rogue chasing you. Kite with aspect of the cheetah and only pause to let your auto shots fly keeping the CD in mind. You could theoretically take your foe down easily if you keep as much CC up as possible given the situation.
2) You’re bursting and enemy down, and you cast an aimed shot: if your enemy cant los you, wait for your auto shot to tick in between shooting your multi-shot. You can sneak shots in between them if you’re lucky and clip correctly.
In addition to timing the cooldown of your aimed shot, it is important to understand how flytime can play into your dps. If you are watching your arrows, you can increase your mobility. For example, there is no need to chase after a mage with 300 health if one of your auto shots has just been cast- the ~0.5 sec delay will eat him leaving you free to pursue your next target. Watching flytime also makes it easier to time your shots.
9) Class Tactics, PvP General, and Battleground Tactics:
Individual Class Tactics:
As you should now know, I'm not a fan of cookie-cutter play styles, therefore this section will be short and only a vague outline.
Warriors- Trap and burst, trap and burst- switch you scorpid and serpent stings to max your dps.
Mages- Mages can rock you if you aren't watching their CD's. Time your interrupts to contest their casting during the time they have you CC'd in your deadzone. Remember that feign death can be used simply to interrupt spellcasting because it clears your enemies target. Viper sting is useful as always.
Warlocks- Trap and burst, trap and burst- don't focus too much on keeping viper sting up, you want to dps>drain them.
Hunters- If a hunter is more favorably specced or built to kill you in range, surprise them by getting in close. As a BM hunter, you are essentially your own class counter. If you can take your enemy out because you have better dps at range, then do that.
Priests- Viper sting at all times, time your shots around their bubbles and let auto and arcane shots break their shields. Avoid getting in too close to avoid Psychic Scream.
Paladins- If they are ret/reck do NOT send your pet after them, simply kite them and make good use of your CC. For Holy, viper sting and kite or find a way to distract them from healing themselves while you maintain steady damage.
Shaman- Send your pet after totems ASAP. Kill grounding totems the second you see them and trap as fast as you can to get them in CC. After that just burst. Save scatter shot for when they attempt to heal.
Rogues- I shouldn't have to explain this, this is your easiest counter! Keep flare and trap up at start of the fight, switch to Track Hidden and pay close attention to your screen. I can't count the number of "WTF"'s I get when I scatter shot a rogue out of stealth just because he got a little too close.
Druids- Another easy fight: your only real worry is a BiS balance druid who opts out of Boomkin form: even still if your gear is comparable to theirs, you will be able to out dps them in any spec. Scorpid Sting=Bear Form, Serpent Sting=Cat Form, Viper Sting=Any other form or lackthereof.
PvP General:
A great deal of your success as a hunter will depend on how you position yourself relative to your group/enemies, and the order in which you choose your targets to cc/dps.
A general rule on target priority:
Healers first. 
Then semi-healers. 
Then soft targets. 
Then hard targets.

Warsong Gulch (WSG):
“The game of Catch the Flag is a simple game that lives within the ‘a moment to learn, a lifetime to master’ ilk. Thus, Warsong Gulch can be highly tactical, or it can be an all out melee; players take great enjoyment in wildly different strategies which can give them an opportunity to shamelessly kill the opposition without much regard for actually completing the games’ objectives, or to work closely together, defending, coveting, hiding or returning the flags through a myriad of different strategies.”
(I highly recommend reading this entire paper, it is fantastically written and highly informative.)
Hunters are the kings of this battleground. We have amazing ranged and melee CC, speed, and we can track enemies- not to mention our versatility as defenders, efc killers, and flag carriers . Use the terrain to your advantage and you’ll do fine individually. But first, the basics:
General Tactics: WSG is a team based capture the flag. It may sound silly to lead with this but it’s easy to forget. If you have never played WSG before, read this and ignore the last 3 points at the bottom as they do not apply to patch 1.12. Then read this after you have played a few games to understand team movement a bit better.
Teams are most successful when they can move as 2-3 separate units, and can coordinate well either via team chat or a voice chat such as Discord or Skype. As a hunter, it is your job first and foremost to: A) Report the location of the enemy flag carrier, and B) Report incoming enemies to your teammates. Do this and you will give your team the upper hand tactically.
Defense: Keep Track Humanoids up at all times so you can report/see how many enemies are coming and from where. Occasionally it is fortuitous to switch your tracking to hidden or beasts to nose out pesty rogues and druids. FLARE AND TRAP AT ALL TIMES AS WELL. If you pop a flare and a freezing trap right in front of your flag at the right angle, no rogues can get to you without unstealthing, and no enemies can touch your flag without hitting your trap. Tactically this will give you the upper hand. Alternatively, it can be a good decision to place a frost trap instead, particularly when you have large groups of enemies with healers incoming. Call out incoming enemies as you see them even if you can handle them alone: it will let your team know your head is in the game and it will allow resurrecting players to temporarily assist you if they see your call.

Chasing Flag Carriers: Assuming you are reporting the location of the efc at all times, the only vital spells to keep up are wing clip (if applicable) and concussive shot. Be mindful of enemies around that can dispell your stronger CC abilities, such as frost trap and scatter shot. Depending on your target, the best play can be simply slowing the efc down with concussive shot, scatter shot, and frost traps until your team arrives, then you can go to a safe distance to gun him down. If you can trap the FC alone, or dps him down fast enough though, move in like a shark. Look at classes abilities to see what kind of escape abilities they have. For instance, don’t move upfield of a warrior or he will charge you and cover a large amount of ground quickly, always prepare for mage’s to blink or rogues to sprint, etc. By this I mean be mindful of your cooldowns: if you save a scatter for the second a rogue pops sprint and then trap him, you could down an EFC in seconds and brag to your team. Once you get enough experience in WSG you will begin to learn people’s playstyles and movement patterns. This is critical to gaining the upper hand in a fight. I’m including these pictures to help players understand common enemy flag carrier movement in a typical Warsong Gulch:
[Image: wsg-flag-capture-going-gy-1.jpg]
[Image: wsg-flag-capture-going-fr.jpg]
[Image: wsg-flag-capture-going-roof.jpg]
Carrying The Flag: Carrying flags can be fun and challenging. I’ve said that I won’t reveal all my secrets so I’ll keep this section brief. A huge part of carrying the flag effectively is being stealthy, so drink Noggenfogger Elixer until it shrinks you. Make sure to keep switching between your aspects as needed: Cheetah when you are alone running, monkey when you encounter an enemy you can’t easily kill, and beast when there is another hunter on the enemy team so they can’t track you. I would advise any prospective flag carriers to switch up the routes they take when escaping the enemy base with their flag. Try running around new unexpected areas to keep the enemy team guessing. If you always go tun, or always go tun to roof to balcony to ramp, the enemy team will catch on and stop you. As always, keep flares up to avoid saps and stuns. It is worth noting that you will experience much more success in flag carrying if you employ a full arsenal of engineering trinkets (particularly Rocket Helm and Boots). Try practicing various jumps around the map to faster get to a safe location or avoid enemies. This video, which includes some classic jumps, is not on a 1.12 realm, so some of the jumps do not work. I’m not sure if some of these jumps are bannable so if you have a question about any ones in particular PM me and I will reach out to a GM to inquire further:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHsUuuPvUhw

Midfield Play: Sometimes focusing in on stopping your enemy mid-field can give you a tactical advantage, although you’ll hear it being the most complained about mistake players make in WSG. Let’s break it down with some help from another source.
PUG ON PRO:
-The PRO team takes advantage of the PUG's tendency to melee in the middle of the field:
-An attack team of one or two (often a tank and a healer) goes for the PUG team's flag. --A defensive team of one or two (usually cc dps, such as rogues, mages, or locks) watches in case a PUG attacker appears.
-The rest of the PRO team tries to get the whole PUG team to melee while pushing them to one side of the field or the other.
-The attack team grabs the flag and has an easy run upfield to score. Repeat the attack run twice more for a quick win.”


A strategic start to a wsg battle.
So basically play to the weaknesses of the other team. For example, If your team is running things and can get away with it, try pushing up to their graveyard to allow more space for your flag carrier to run. The more people you tie up in midfield while your FC is running away, the better. Here is a good mid-field block, where pressure is put on resurrecting players at GY, while the ramp/enemy tunnel is covered by a few players. (Note: you don't need to gy farm to make this an effective strategy, if you can tie the majority of the team up at their graveyard for even a few seconds it can make the difference for your FC because it makes it difficult for their offense to receive reinforcements and gives your FC room to run). This is just one example of the many tactics one can employ in a typical WSG match.
[Image: wsg-resurrection-vectors-strategy.jpg?w=1000]
Although this was made for a later patch it is still a viable play given appropriate team composition.
Arathi Basin (AB):
”This battleground is nothing like Warsong Gulch. The music is much worse...”
-Denbts
“Arathi can become a very tactical battle, its most common incarnation is a rapid mounted charge from one place to another, with players quickly grabbing the territory and then riding on to the next. If anything, Arathi Basin calls into focus an even more retrospective mode of warfare; one in which ‘snatch and grab’ is integrated with large scale charges. To effectively conquer each territory, one strategy is to cruise the arena in large groups – not stopping at each flag but moving quickly from one to the other and retaking positions if necessary:
MOBILITY - This is pretty much the key to Arathi. You don't need footspeed, like in WSG, but you need the ability to regroup and strike out quickly after each attack. If the [enemy] manage[s] to take one of your bases, they should just start to get the full capture as you are polishing off the defenders on the base you just counterattacked. Use discipline and tactics. Keep an eye on the map. Know where your entire team is. Ask around to find where the enemy is. Then move. Quickly. Decisively. The [enemy] may take one resource point or another, but never give them time to enjoy it. Take something else. The [enemy] should be spinning in circles, trying to figure out where you are hitting next.”

General Tactics:
AB is incredibly dynamic. I don’t like recommending set strategies such as “Hold bases x,y,z”- due to the high fluctuation of various offenses and defenses, however, a few rules hold fast:
1) Don’t leave bases alone: meaning that it is important to keep at least one person at your capped/contested bases to ensure it stays safe from stray enemies. Leaving one person at a base is a viable defensive tacitc IF the team is following the second rule:
2) Tell your team how many and if possible what classes are coming to your bases. Even if it isn’t the base you’re defending this is important. Hunters can spend 100% of the game from the peak of the Lumber Mill and eagle eye to inform their team of enemy movement.
3) Don’t tunnelvision: If you lose a base that you can’t take back, don’t waste time and energy trying to re cap it, use their high numbers at their newly contested base against them by capturing a different one.
I recommend watching this video to understand how a hunter can play various roles in AB, it does a good job of highlighting offensive and defensive play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvnnS3oPoqI
 
For anyone interested in comprehensive tactics specific to AB should read Psyae’s blog posts on the subject (found here and here).
Brief Overview of Bases:
Blacksmith (BS): Pros- Easy access to most every base, additionally it is easy for you to see/call incoming enemies. It’s a great base to have because it allows ally to rez and quickly run back to the bases they were defending if they die. Cons- extremely vulnerable to surprise attacks- it is an island, so enemies can come up through the water and sneak up on you. Enemies can also slowfall from the Lumber Mill to attack as well. This is arguably the most coveted base in AB- as such, it is frequently focused by both teams: this is disadvantageous for both parties because it can quickly turn AB into a game of capture-the-blacksmith, allowing smarter, stealthier players the chance to free cap unguarded bases.
Farm: Pros- Good waypoint for connecting bases and establishing an effective defensive front. Easy to see enemies via 2 access points: the road from the gold mine and the road from the Lumbermill/BS (make sure to keep an eye for enemies coming out from the river around BS)(Alliance players need to be aware that if they have captured the farm, horde can potentially come attack after responding at their main base). Cons- Vulnerable to attack, there is not much LoS directly around the flag and therefore people defending the flag are vulnerable to ranged attacks.
Gold Mine (GM): Pros- Easy to call out incoming enemies when defending from the roof of the mine. 3 access points, via either side of the valley, or down from the top off the cliff. Cons- vulnerable to surprise attacks from above.
Lumber Mill (LM): Pros- Only two access points UPHILL, so it’s excellent from a defensive standpoint. It’s tactically superior to most bases for hunters, in that you can call out incoming enemies to ANY base using Eagle Eye. You can use slowfall from your noggenfoggers to jump down to blacksmith if you need. Cons- aside from jumping to BS, it takes a long time to reach other bases compared to others, and vice versa, so if you get quickly swarmed there it will be difficult to call for support before they capture the base.
Stables (ST): Pros- Again, a good waypoint between the GM and LM. The stables near the flag make it good to LoS casters and juke out melee. It is easy to get to from other bases, so it is easy to defend against uncoordinated attacks. 2 access points (3 for horde; see Farm) on either side of the flag. Cons- Vulnerable to attack- enemies can group up LoS close by across the bridge or near the open area next to the stables to swarm you.
Defending Bases:
Defending bases in AB relies heavily on your geographic knowledge of the area you’re defending (see overview of bases for a brief low-down). In short, it is usually good to defend with at least 2 people for bases prone to attack. It is viable to defend as a single player, however, you must be on guard and prepared to call out incoming enemies IMMEDIATELY, then cc/LoS the enemies until help arrives (if you can’t take them out yourself). In defending bases, your #1 priority should be to DISRUPT THE ENEMY FROM CAPTURING THE FLAG- put your pet on anyone trying to focus the flag, always keep your eye on it even if you are peeling enemies away from the flag. In a situation where you have died trying to defend a base, and you resurrect before they capture, make sure to take out the weakest/lowest hp targets first: the less enemies there, the easier you can defend, and if you down 1/2 enemies at a base, die, resurrect before they cap, you essentially have two lives to the enemies 1, and thus the advantage.
Assaulting Bases:

There are very few instances where you should be attacking a base alone: if there is a single weak player guarding the base, or if the enemy team is training one base and you can free cap. Otherwise, it should be your priority to move as/with a group to assault bases. Conversely to the primary defensive point, in attacking a base your #1 priority should be to capture the enemy flag, or, “spin” it, as some players will say. In assaulting bases, coordination is vital. From Psyae’s AB Notes:
“Back to overreaching. Often, both forces are just about equal, and each side toggles between holding two and three bases. In many of these cases, it's vitally important to defend what bases are held. The horde holding three bases to our two is not pretty, but the horde holding three bases and assaulting one of our only two is devastating. This happened a few times last night, but not because of the horde's superior or outnumbering forces. It happened because of individual overreaching. 
There are two types of overreaching. Individual and group. Group overreaching is when a leader makes the decision to attack a fourth base when possessing three. Individual overreaching is when a roving band of independents decides to attack on its own. 
Group overreaching sometimes nets an extra base, but mostly results in the loss of one currently possessed. The net result is a loss. This is because the game does not rely on the number of bases you hold at any one time, but instead how long you hold onto those bases. A tradeoff (lose one base, win another) is necessarily a loss because it takes an entire minute to fully cap. During the first base's conflict time and the new base's down time, the team is not gaining any resources from either base. Whereas, if the team had merely held the base it possessed with good defense, there would be an uninterrupted flow of resources. 
Obviously there are times when taking another base is strategically optimal. for instance, if it's determined that an overwhelming number of horde are desperately trying to capture an already held base, the alliance team can just shift focus, grab the most undefended horde base, and not suffer heavy losses. “

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide - Redux - GnawboneII - 12-24-2016
10) Addons:
1.12 Addon Links (tested and safe):
http://www.mediafire.com/download/32kl1a9h55dfs8x/addons.rar (Big ol' bundle of addons)
http://www.vanilla-addons.com/ (URL says it all)
http://addons.us.to/ (Similar to Vanilla-Addons, but with an expanded section for later versions)
http://vanillagaming.org/forum/index.php?board=73.0 (1.12 addon forum, useful links and conversations)
https://forum.nostalrius.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=605 (Breaks down addons individually)
You basically should just play around with different addons you like, there are some that are good for macros, in combat actions and notifications, and simple addons that just make your life easier (i.e. CT_MailMod will allow you to mass send/open mail). Here are the ones I use:
Auto Repair (KC) v.61a
Bongos
Bongos_ActionBar
Bongos_Minimap
Bongos_Options
CCWatch 11000.2
Classic Focus ()
CT_MailMod
Distance v1.3
eCastingBar by Repent
EzDismount
Improved Error Frame
Inspector v0.9
MiniCoords
ninmonkey’s HunterPetSkills
Outfitter
PetFeeder
ProfessionLevel
Rangecolor
Lazypig
Recap
SimpleFeignHealth
Sorren’s Hunter Timers
Spell Alert
SpellAlertOptions
SuperMacro
TargetFC
WSG Defender (http://retro-wow.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3719)
Telo’s BuffTimers
TheoryCraft
Aspect Menu
ClassIcons
Tracking Menu
UUI - QuickLoot

Classic Focus: Allows you to set a focus in addition to your primary target, similar functionality to the focus system implemented in later versions- requires the addon as well as creating macros to realize the full potential of this addon. Difficult to master, but 100% worth it once you do.
Spell Alert: Spell Alert is cool because it does 2 things: It alerts you to spells being cast, allowing you to appropriately time your interrupts. It also automatically retargets players who use FEIGN DEATH. Put a player who is out of combat back in fast enough and you can make them fail an fd+trap.
Outfitter: Use in conjunction with keybinds to switch out weapons/armor/trinkets with ease. This is not the only equipment addon out there, it is just the one I recommend due to it's simplicity and functionality.

11) Keybinds:
KEYBIND EVERYTHING, and I mean everything: Pet modes (passive, defensive, stay, follow, etc.), consumables, and every spell you have on your toolbar in addition to your macros. Give the abilities you use most bindings that are easier for you to reach, and keep more situational abilities on the other keys that require you to move your hand further from its resting position. Use what keys feel right for you, there is not one right answer as to how you should bind your abilities. That being said, read this before you start binding:
http://www.wowhead.com/guide=875/the-art-of-effective-keybinding
Having the right binds can elevate your game to a higher tier
Here is a picture of my ui for reference as to how I like to bind my keys (I leave extra blank space on bars for situational consumables):
[Image: pEe5R4y.png]
12) PvP Attitude and the Meta-Game:
13) Hunter PvP Videos:
Here are some outstanding vanilla hunter pvp videos from the webs. Ignore all of the backpedaling, there are some good basic techniques shown in here and you might learn something new:
Myskillkills:
Diabow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF6CsjFERCE
Xabt (melee hunter): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-MQu_9FQuc
Mustadeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgS4Q0i1F9U
Ranger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ui6mf3lHSU
Jezek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNfh6jUIPqA
Partss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkb-oPtdcog
Nightbird:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Vzygs4A-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCZdZVcfjwc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8pG_MZJi3g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmPQ_8vA0s0
Invasion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUgCR7k6PvI
Dinan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U95UNBeSubQ
Over 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK5a3mBxiFA
Rifle Lovin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsNaGLGMoIs&index=5&list=PLCB0FB4A32F0F4FC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPtSiKS5lJw&index=4&list=PLCB0FB4A32F0F4FC4
10 Hunter WSG + Explosive Trap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49oR6oT6AXo
Yashe's Domination: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kxjofgTQH8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7XhN64rpbQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh2Hu0loCsY
Naquer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9ywx7a6mU 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsDE8fc3HIM
Luciennaro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPXcUG7tPlk
Dabiers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjWIHPDU2iQ
Milamber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP8WaCiy_9E 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu4U_-a2ii0 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpyUQATSW0o
The Beast Within: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKf8w7DDIMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKf8w7DDIMc
[size=x-small]Biuret: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTafEe2sKFA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcb_k3FGD40
Hirim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW-ubPBT4MM&feature=youtu.be 
1.12 Hunter Dungeon soloing Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/dysph/videos?flow=grid&view=0
14) Known Bugs:
Hunter's have their fair share of challenges currently. I do not, at this time, possess fraps or other similar applications to allow me to record and officially document these bugs, however, I include them here as a caution/for information. If you have more information about these issues, or new ones that you would like to see posted here, please comment below.
Mechanic/Spell Bugs:
-Trap range: Although they have tweaked it back and fourth, the range required to activate your traps is much smaller than what is blizzlike.
-Trap visibility: My least favorite bug by far, your traps here are visible to enemies: THIS MEANS YOU MUST BE VERY SNEAKY WITH YOUR TRAPS OR PLACE THEM WHILE MOVING BEFORE YOUR ENEMY CAN REACT. A huge gimp to the hunter class.
-Scatter shot pathing: Scatter shots are tricky here: scatter someone who is moving, and they will bug out all over your screen. Scatter someone who is standing still and they will follow the correct pathing.
-Pet pathing: You will notice your pet having a hell of a time trying to keep up with you when you're jumping down or up certain areas- pathing here is very messed up and it is best to keep your pet dismissed until you really need it in battle.
-Pet LoS: Pets are similarly bugged to where they are not able to be sent after enemies who are out of YOUR PLAYER CHARACTERS LoS, even if they are within range.
-Pets vs Rogues: Pet attacks are bugged in regards to the fact that roughly 70% of the time you send your pet after a rogue, it will continue chasing the player even after they re-stealth. Not sure if this is a bug on the pets end or a scripting issue with stealth. Note: This does not apply to players using invisibility pots, but does apply to druids in stealth.
-Prowl: When using the prowl ability, some times it will not work correctly, instead giving you the error message "Reason not found". This is rectified simply by waiting roughly 30 seconds, and casting prowl on your pet again.
Talent Bugs:
-Entrapment: currently not working.
Below is a list of possibly bugged talents which need further testing to see if they are functional:
-Humanoid/Monster Slaying (Focus on if the increased damage is working as well as the increased critical strike damage.)
-Proc rate checks on Improved Wing Clip/Improved Concussive Shot
-Trap Mastery
-Clever Traps (I see no reason why this wouldn't work, but I have yet to confirm)
Special Thanks to:
Asmina, Exomist, Xabt, Feray, Hereforbeer, Riflin, and Nuja for teaching me how to be a hunter
Lavz and all his endless alts 
Oprawinfury, Trolldruid, and Toppkek
-Gnawbone

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide - Redux - Gnawbone - 12-24-2016
Reserved.

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide - Redux - GnawboneII - 12-24-2016
Reserved.

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide! - Gnawbone - 01-03-2017
Expanded some math on the stats section, Added a new section dedicated to 1.12 hunter pvp videos, expanded consumables section. More to come on the pet section in the following week.
(Will be looking to find sources to replace broken links from another server that recently had it's forum go offline.)

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide! - Phocus26 - 01-08-2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKf8w7DDIMc
Not very long but, by far the best vanilla hunter pvp there is IMO. Would suggest including it, Master Angler.

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide! - GnawboneII - 01-08-2017
Added, thanks!

RE: 1.12 Hunter PvP Guide! - Phocus26 - 01-09-2017
1 more...
add to the useful items. Its available from the starter vendors and pretty amazing.