- In world PvP, we have tracking to alert us of nearby hostile players, and the ability to start combat at long range and kite. We can feign death or use our pet to take care of mobs if an opponent engages us while we are in combat. We have good survivability in world PvP and are not an easy class to gank.

- In battlegrounds, we tend to easily top DPS charts and have a large amount of survivability. Due to our effectiveness at extreme range, we can stand in the back and snipe opponents. Our traps are tremendously helpful in BGs for slowing down flag runners or crowd controlling individual opponents.

- In arenas, we are abusively powerful in 2v2/3v3′s given the proper PvP spec. In 5v5 arenas, we provide a lot of different and valuable support although our DPS is somewhat secondary to that.

The role and viability of the hunter class in arenas is often contested amongst the class community, as between Beast Mastery and Marksmanship hunters, there is a very large difference in play style. As a Beast Mastery hunter, your role will be to put out as much damage as possible paying heed to little else, as a Beast Mastery hunter requires less support from teammates. Your pet will be a source of damage with this spec and a very underestimated one. This style is generally preferred on teams without a healer, or ‘gib’ or ‘rush down’ teams. BM however does suffer the longer the match progresses so Marksmanship hunters are preferred on ‘outlast’ teams.

The Marksman’s role is one of utility, rather than oppressive damage. As a Marksman, you will be expected to keep melee damage classes off your healer or more fragile team members with Wing Clip , drain the enemy healer’s mana with Viper Sting and keep one of the enemy players controlled with Freezing Trap. In many cases, all of these things are expected of you at once.

These styles have met with differing levels of success, but Marksmanship hunters are generally more successful in higher level brackets while Beast Mastery hunters are better against more unorthodox teams usually encountered in lower level brackets. This is however a generalization and there are exceptions to both.

• If you are a Marksmanship hunter, many of your fights will be long, since your most popular team setups will be drain teams. Be patient, and don’t try to rush the game or rush the burst. A typical Marksmanship hunter team game can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. Although your spells are cheap, you don’t have a large mana pool, so it is very important for you not only to gem and enchant your gear to make up for this shortcoming, but also that you use your skills economically. If possible try to save Arcane Shot to dispel in your shot rotation, and DPS a target nice and easy while it or the opposing team’s healer lose their mana.

• Survival hunters are perfect for countering warriors, rogues, enhancement shamans or other hunters. With a diverse arsenal to immobilize (Counterattack, Entrapment for example), high avoidance (Deterrence, Deflection, and for maximum effect, go for the Beast Mastery talent Improved Aspect of the Monkey!) and 20% extra crit on Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite, it’s possible to surprise your melee opponents with a barrage of alternating melee crits and short range shots while they are immobilized. Wyvern Sting and Readiness are excellent arena weapons and give the hunter that much more CC. The downside to a survival build is the decreased ranged damage output and because of that, less viability versus casters. Survival should be combined with additional marksmanship talents and Improved Aspect for the Monkey to retain its diversity.

• Work on synergy with your team, and practice good decision making on utilizing your skills. For example, if you fight a team with no defensive dispeller like a priest or a paladin, it may be a better idea to Freezing Trap a target rather than kiting with Frost Trap. You could set this up by using Scatter Shot (if specced Marksman) or Intimidation (if specced Beast Mastery) on your intended trap target, laying it under him and then forcing him into the CC, and it can be followed up by an Entangling Roots, Fear, Polymorph, Blind, etc depending who you run with. Coordination with your team is vital to success.

• If possible, flag warriors in combat from max range with a quick attack like Arcane Shot to deny them the ability to Charge.

• The cast time for auto shot is 0.5 seconds, so as long as you stop moving 0.5 sec before your next shot, it will go off on time. A swing/cast timer like Quartz is extremely useful for getting the timing right. A slower weapon allows more movement.

• As you are a ranged class, melee combat should always be your last resort. Melee is an entirely impractical style of fighting for hunters. Only three abilities besides Wing Clip are available to the class: Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, and Counterattack (Only available with deep Survival). It is not recommended to use anything but Wing Clip when engaged in melee, since Raptor Strike is based on next attack swing, Mongoose Bite is situational and Wing Clip is spammable, meaning you can keep stacking it and hope for an Improved Wing Clip proc (Survival tree talent) to get away.

• Pillars work both ways. Try to stick by them and duck out whenever ranged target you, or melee turn their attentions to you so they can Intercept or Shadowstep. Being comfortable working around pillars is crucial for survival as a hunter in any bracket or level of play.

• Protect your Viper Sting. It is one of the hunter’s most important tools in Arena. If you are draining a druid, following up a Viper Sting immediately with a Silencing Shot if you are a Marksman or Intimidation if you are a Beast Master, so the first few ticks are guaranteed protection from Abolish Poison. Conversely if your intended drain is something else like a mage, be sure to immediately silence or stun anyone on the mage’s team who can dispel the sting. Be sure to work with any other crowd controllers on your team to chain CC effects to keep the sting up as long as possible.

• Use high points such as hills or buildings as firing locations. Any place that is hard to reach is perfect. High slopes in Alterac Valley and cliffs in Nagrand for instance. Also use bushes and trees as cover, making yourself harder to pin point.

• There are areas where you can shoot through the terrain, such as a hill. Paladins, rogues, and others who aren’t ranged and can’t charge/intercept you have little to counter this with, since they can’t hit a button to find you.

• You can lay traps during combat. The best use of this is to drop a freezing trap, then run through it. Your opponent will likely follow. Once frozen (don’t worry, your pet won’t attack them), get as much distance as possible and load up an Aimed Shot/Arcane Shot combo. Use Concussive Shot to slow them if they are close then a Scatter Shot and repeat.

• The most effective abilities in the battlegrounds are those that have little to no casting time. Arcane Shot, Multi Shot (despite a 0.5 second delay), and Concussive Shot will be your best friends in the battlegrounds. Aimed Shot can still be effective (especially when you want to really put the finishing touch on an enemy) but pick your timing: any enemy can close the distance during the Aimed Shot casting time. Never sacrifice range by getting greedy and looking for the killing blow. Hunters are very powerful and versatile but require more than a button-mashing approach. Assessing the situation before you engage will always net better results for any class but no class benefits more from smart decisions than hunters.

• Steady Shot is a powerful PvE tool but its usefulness is limited in PvP. As Steady Shot has a 1.5 second casting time, it should only be used when you are not the target of any attackers. It is during this time that the hunter should take advantage of its mana efficient, yet surprisingly devastating damage output.

• For the Eye of the Storm battleground, Frost Trap is a must. On the tight passageways one well-placed frost trap can effectively cripple an enemy’s advance. In addition, using Flare in tight passageways like the two eastern and western bridges as well as the Flag spot is great against rogues as well as stealthed Feral druids.

• Try to always keep your Insignia of the Alliance/Horde up as it will remove all crowd control effects from you when used.

PvP in a Nutshell
1. Focus on crit rating, ranged attack power, agility, and stamina for PvP. Those stats are far more important than any other.

2. Choose a ranged and melee weapon with the highest max damage that you can find, regardless of its DPS. PvP is all about burst damage — doing a ton of damage in a short time so that your opponent does not have time to heal or react.

3. Steady shot + arcane + autoshot “three-shot combo” is your main burst damage, it consists of a set of 3 attacks that comes pretty much instantaneously. Hit your steady shot button, start spamming your arcane shot button, and then you’ll get your arcane right after your steady shot casts, and your auto shot shortly afterward. Spam kill command as the autoshot goes off since likely one of your attacks will have critted.

4. Get out of melee range with scattershot, freezing trap, intimidation, and wing clip. Against melee classes, you need to be very deliberate about getting to range, since once you are out of options, you are typically dead.

5. Learn to kite. Kiting is shooting on the run — jump, turn and shoot an instant such as concussive shot / stings / arcane shot, turn back around, and land facing the original direction. Kiting is essential for killing melee opponents such as rogues, it might be difficult to learn at first but once you have practiced it a bit, it will become easy and natural.

6. Hunters kill leather and cloth opponents. Warriors and paladins take forever to kill so avoid them as much as possible. Rogues, druids in caster/cat form, warlocks, priests, mages are your primary targets. Choose your targets so that you maximize your killing.

7. Trap and flare before battles. Resist the urge the run in before you’ve adequately protected yourself with a trap at your feet and a flare to keep away rogues. When you put down a trap, there is nearly a 100% chance that someone will hit it before it expires.

Arenas in a Nutshell
1. Get good at using viper sting and frost trap, since those are the two primary justifications for having a hunter on a 5v5 team.

[u]2. Spec BM for 2v2/3v3′s, and MM for 5v5′s if you’re a novice to arena. BM is the easiest spec to play for 2v2/3v3′s.

3. Stack resilience and sta even if it breaks socket bonuses. We are basically tanks in arenas and our survivability is gear-dependent.

4. Equip your PvP trinket and hotkey it, if you don’t have your trinket then this is the first honor point purchase you should make.

5. Watch line of sight and never initiate combat against an opponent near a pillar. Hunters die to LoS because we also have a deadzone to contend with, so we want to fight in the open.

6. Keep your pet on a non-pally healer and spec cobra reflexes for faster attack and thus faster interrupts. Use a scorpid against pallies so they cannot cleanse your viper sting.

7. Create an assist macro via “/assist <NameOfMSWarrior>” in 5v5′s and spam that button to always be hitting whatever target your warrior is attacking.

8. Use frost traps and spec entrapment to hold targets in place. Lay a frost trap every time one has expired.

9. Feign and drink frequently. We blow through mana like crazy. Be sure to buy plenty of arena water.

10. Use silencing shot and scatter to interrupt pally healing at crucial times. Don’t get tunnel visioned by wanting to just DPS, since there are other classes that DPS far better than we can so we must be good with utility and CC.

BGs in a Nutshell
1. Stay back and snipe targets. Do not be the first to charge in. We want to make opponents work to kill us, which means they come to us not vice versa. Yes it is cheap, but it is effective.

2. Find low and concealed spots in BGs where you can hit targets without being seen.

3. Use frost traps at choke points and key mobility areas such as WSG tunnels, AV bridges, AV graveyard spawn points, WSG flag rooms, etc.

4. Use aspect of the pack to help flag runners in WSG.

5. Use your pet to locate enemy flag carriers in WSG by manually targeting them and then sending in your pet.

6. Volley does NOT stop opponents from capping your flags in AV, nor does any channeled AoE spell. You must hit an opponent with an non-channeled attack that does direct damage.

7. Viper sting targets at all opportunities, and particularly when you are about to die (you might as well leave a parting shot).

Races
Horde racials are generally thought to be superior than alliance, particularly given the shadowmeld nerf in the specific case of hunters. The rule of thumb is that alliance racials are better for PvE, and horde racials are better for PvP. I will not go into depth here, but just point out some relevant advantages of each class. ote that starting stats differ between races, but this difference is not considered significant. Blizz’s site has a table of starting stats ( http://worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/hunter.html ).

Blood Elf

• Blood elves’s arcane torrent is a useful tool for shutting down casters who get into our melee or deadzone area. BE are not the premiere choice for hunter race but at least they look nice.

Dwarf

• +5 guns is a nice skill although our choice of ranged weapon tends to depend on what’s available.
• Stoneform has some usefulness such as removing crippling poison from rogues. Stoneform also removes Blind, Devouring Plague, and Viper Sting.

Night Elf

• NE are the stereotypical alliance hunter race. They were particularly popular before the shadowmeld nerf since they could aimed shot from stealth ( nowadays, we will destealth as soon as we start the aimed shot). Shadowmeld is still very useful for various tactics such as guarding flags and nodes, or eating safely near combat. Wisp form is marginally useful for corpse running such as when we need to get to a forward GY to res past defenders.

Orcs

• 15% stun resistance is huge given that stuns are integral in PvP.
• +5% pet damage is very useful in PvP and is particularly useful for BM-specced hunters.

Tauren

• War stomp is very effective as yet a tool to get out of melee range, or as a caster interrupt.
• Endurance is also helpful since stamina is so important in PvP.
• The large size of Taurens makes us easier to target in PvP, which may or may not be desirable.

Troll

• Beserking can add significant DPS but is a mixed blessing since to get the most of it, you need to be somewhat close to dying.

Talent Spec
All three talent trees are viable for PvP depending on style and situation. This subject is far too in depth to cover completely here, so I will discuss each talent spec in general and then urge you to check out any of the other good talent guides on the forum for more information. The important point is that each spec is useful for PvP; a lot of what spec you decide on will depend on your own personal preference as well as other factors such as how important raiding is to you.

Beast Master
BM is an easy and extremely effective spec for PvP and is often referred to as the “2-minute free kill” spec. The basic idea behind BM is that the pet does the killing while the hunter keeps himself (and his pet) alive. BM is particularly useuful in 2v2 arenas since it can be used to hold still and quickly burn down one target.

• BM allows the hunter to stun a target and burn it down with an extreme amount of burst damage every 2 minutes.
• BM allows the hunter to use his pet as the main source of his damage, which negates traditional methods of killing hunters by getting into their deadzone.
• BM coupled with some survival talents gives the hunter and his pet a lot of armor and health.
• BM is a fairly easy spec to play since it relies less on kiting and deadzone management.
• BM is one of the best anti-gank specs for world PvP since if an opponent engages us and our BM is up, we can typically burn him down easily.
• BM gives us and our pets the ability (the beast within) to become immune to crowd control, which is devestating in PvP.

Marksman
MM is the most popular spec because it is useful for both PvP and PvE. MM focuses the hunter’s primary damage on his own ranged attacks. The main disadvantage of MM is that it is vulnerable to opponents getting into the hunter’s deadzone, and it does not itself allow for much survivability.

• MM gives the hunter a very short cooldown ability to get out of deadzone (scattershot).
• MM gives the hunter an effective tool for silencing casters (silencing shot).
• MM gives the hunter a significant amount of ranged burst damage.

Survival
“Going survival does not guarantee survival”. However, survival affords a lot of flexibility and makes the hunter significantly harder to burn down and gives him further utility with better traps. Survival is one of the more complicated specs to play, but with appropriate use it can be extremely annoying to enemy players.

• Survival allows the hunter to reset his cooldowns (readiness), allowing for all manner of abuse with traps and such.
• Survival gives a hunter a high crit chance, which translates into important burst damage.
• Survival gives the hunter long range crowd control (wyvern sting).

Stats
Balancing stats is a tricky issue with hunters since almost all but a few stats (spell damage, spell crit, strength, spirit, etc.) are helpful for us in PvE.

DPS stats
Agility, +crit, and ranged attack power are our core DPS stats. Of those, the typical conversion is 2AP == 1agi == 1crit. For example, you may have a choice between a +35agi vs. +70AP enchant for your 2Her. How you balance between these three stats is largely a matter of personal preference, although there are two relevant factors to consider:

• Blessing of Kings has no effect on RAP and crit, but does increase our agility by a percentage. Thus, we will see more improvement from choosing agility over crit/RAP when we have a BoK available.
• PvP tends to rely on burst damage since it is unpredictable and thus hard to heal through or react to. Thus, crit tends to have a higher importance in PvP.

The following are formulas for each stat at level 70:
40 agility = +1% crit.
1 agility = 1 RAP.
14 RAP = +1 DPS.
22 crit rating = +1% crit.
16 hit rating = +1% hit.

+hit
Maximum +hit needed at lvl70 PvP is +5%, which means absent any other conditions, we will not miss if we are at +5% hit. It is generally a very good idea to make sure we are at max hit (including speccing into surefooted if we’re short) since a missed silencing shot or scatter shot will usually have severely bad consequences.

Survivability stats
Stamina is typically given increased priority in PvP and particularly arenas for all classes because “glass cannons” do not tend to fare well. This is because once opposing players figure out that some particular hunter has a ton of agility but relatively little health, they will gun for him repeatedly since they know he is easily killed and does too much damage to ignore.

In arenas, hunters are usually the “tank” of the team since we are typically the first target to be burned down. This is because we do not have immunities (vanish, ice block, etc.) and our mail only gives us limited damage reduction. Our survivability in arenas is heavily gear dependent, and thus it is generally a good idea to stack stamina/resilience at the expense of almost all other stats. In BGs, this is less of an issue since if we play properly, we can avoid most damage by just staying behind other classes when we engage. But in arenas, we have limited space to hide and kite.

Mana/intellect
Intellect and mana regen are fairly important stats in PvP but are generally prioritized lower than other stats. We have very limited mana pools and thus are vulnerable to mana draining abilities, and often will be targeted with such abilities to render us useless. Our ability to feign and drink somewhat compensates for this, but this can only safely be done between battles. Thus, MP5/intellect can provide us with a cushion where we are not so easily mana drained down.

Spirit
Spirit is useful for mana/health regen outside of combat, making it less important to us. We can always eat/drink between engagements, and our ability to track humanoids means we can do so aggressively without worry about being sniped while we are seated.

Strength
Strength only affects melee attack power, and as such is fairly useless to us.

Pets
There are numerous pet choices out there, and much of which pet you choose is stylistic or situationally dependant. Certain pets are better against certain classes. Here is a breakdown of some more common pets:

Boars
Boars have a stun charge, which adds yet another form of crowd control. Their charge makes them good for chasing down runners such as flag carriers.

Wind Serpent
Wind serpents put out a lot of DPS and have good “focus dump” ability since their lightning breath has no cooldown. Their pathing is somewhat buggy so they sometimes back up instead of attacking even though they have no minimum range. Lightning breath is also a useful ability since it is natured based.

Cats
Cats have stealth, which is useful for concealing the hunter’s position in battlegrounds and works well partly in conjunction with night elf hunters. NE hunters can stealth with their pets in arenas (particularly at arena start) in order to hide themselves completely.

Scorpids
Scorpids apply a DOT, which can be both helpful and detrimental. DOTs prevent the target from being crowd controlled such as by freezing traps. However, DOTs also make stings difficult to dispel; for example, keeping scorpid poison on a paladin in conjunction with viper sting can make the viper sting difficult to remove. Scorpids are typically seen as a requirement in high rated 5v5′s because of their use in conjunction with viper sting.

Weapons
Melee Weapons
Dual-wielding versus using two-handed weapons is one of those questions that pops up constantly. In general, dual wield in PvE and use a two-hander in PvP. The rationale for choosing 2H weapons is that 1) the overall stats from a 2H-er are typically better than two 1H-ers, 2) raptor strike is based on weapons damage and thus the higher the max damage of the weapon, the harder hitting the raptor strike, 3) you will not be spending much time in melee so melee DPS is not as important. If you take my advice, you will choose the highest damage 2H you can find with the best stats. A typical “poor” hunter will have a slow green “of the monkey/bandit” 2Her. Disregard this advice if you are in a bracket where you can get 2 1Hers that give better overall stats than 1 2Her, or if you constantly find yourself in prolonged melee situations (where the DPS of dual wielding will be superior to 1H). In that case, choose the 1Hers as long as you don’t mind weaker raptor strikes.

A final issue to note is that dual wielding allows for an enchant on each weapon. This difference is particularly important to twink hunters in lower brackets such as when considering between +25agi to 2H or two +15agi to 1H.

Ranged Weapons
Similar to with melee weapons, generally you will want to pick whatever ranged weapon has the highest max damage, particularly since aimed shot, scattershot, and multishot are based on max damage. This will mean the weapon has a relatively slow speed, since comparable weapons in a level bracket will have the same overall DPS (the higher the max damage, the slower the weapon must be).

Note that weapons damage is normalized such that faster bows will still hit hard, but the normalization does not completely negate the difference since it only affects RAP, not the base damage of the weapon. I won’t go into all the math; but suffice to say, a slower bow with high max damage will hit significantly harder with aimed and multishot. This becomes even more important with critical hits, once you factor in the various talents that increase critical damage.

An additional minor consideration is that slower bows use less ammo, and incur less repair cost since there is a chance of the weapon suffering damage each time it is *used*, meaning that everytime you actually shoot the weapon, that is when there is a chance of damage. If you’re using something the Hurricane ( http://thottbot.com/?i=13869 ) with Improved Aspect of the Hawk and Rapid Fire on frequently, your repair costs are going to be fairly high, not to mention the cost of ammo. There are at least mods out there that will automatically use junk ammo for those shots and stings that don’t rely on weapon damage, but it’s a pain to have to manage this.

One advantage must be mentioned about faster bows, which is that they are better for caster interrupts. A fast bow with Improved Aspect of the Hawk and Rapid Fire along with a pet can lock casters down. Also, +dmg scopes on bows affect each shot, they do not add DPS (i.e. unlike ammunition), and thus a faster weapon will benefit more from scopes.

Another dilemma is whether it is worth paying much more money for a blue ranged weapon that has slightly higher DPS than a green one. The answer is that a small amount of additional DPS is not *that* important for PvP. DPS really becomes noticeable over very long PvE boss fights where you can shoot uninterrupted for quite a while. Apart from that, doing one more DPS at lvl19 isn’t going to make or break your game. It is far more important to look at weapon stats and max damage, and much of your DPS will come from your attack power versus the bow’s damage itself.

Finally, sometimes the question is asked of whether to use a gun or bow. Aesthetic differences aside and racial bonuses aside, a reason to use a gun is if engineered bullets are available at that level. At lvl70, blue arrows are much cheaper than blue bullets. Some people prefer bows because they are less noisy, and thus less likely to attract attention.

Armor
Stats
As explained in the stats section, focus on armor that gives +crit, +agi, +sta, and +ATK.

Mail
At lvl40, hunters begin wearing mail. Mail armor mitigate physical damage by a significant amount over leather armor, and thus can be thought of somewhat as giving extra health against physical attacks. Hunters after 40 should transition primarily to mail, since there is no drawback to using it. If you’re on alliance side, you will find plenty of mail in the AH since we are the only class that primarily uses it (versus on horde side, where you’ll be competing against shamans, although fortunately shamans tend to prefer different stats).

Don’t discount leather completely, however. Some pieces of leather armor such as from easy quests give noticeably superior stats than green mail, so it may be worth sacrificing some armor in order to get better stats. Also, due to poor hunter itemization at the time of the writing of this guide, it is sometimes difficult to find good hunter items that focus on our primary stats. A lot of mail is hybrid shaman gear which contains properties that are not as useful in PvP such as mana regen. Sometimes, regretably, hunters resort to wearing leather to improve their DPS.

Enchants
Most enchants have no level requirement so they are particularly useful in lower brackets. +7sta means a lot more at lvl10 than at lvl60. Some feel that using such enchants particularly in lower brackets is unethical for various reasons. I am not going to comment on that here; it is up to you to decide whether that is an issue. Suffice to say, there are many enchants available to us and they can significant improve our performance.

Even if you do not “twink” your character with all the best enchants, it is worthwhile to research which enchants are relatively cheap and thus worth getting anyway. Also, learn about enchant component prices, since those tend to fluctuate in the AH. If you’re patient, you can get enchant components at very cheap prices. Adding to this, often farmers sell enchants on trade chat for very cheap, because they are not able to use the AH (this is particularly an issue amongst farmers who illegally share an account). Finally, once in a blue moon, an enchanter will sell enchants for free. All in all, if you’re patient and somewhat researched, you can keep up to date on enchants without blowing a huge amount of money on them.

Similar to enchants, you can also buy armor kits and scopes to be applied to your items, although unlike enchants these have level requirements. Note that the level requirement for these is based on your item level, not your own level or the item’s minimum level requirement. You can often through questing get items that you can still use at your level even though they are high level items. One noted example is the Master Hunter’s Rifle ( http://thottbot.com/?i=38532 ), which is a lvl43 item that is available for completing a lvl29 quest. At level 29, you could buy a sniper scope ( http://thottbot.com/?i=5253 ) but you can’t apply it yourself because you are not level 40. However, you can get someone to apply it for you through trading as with any other enchant.

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In the center of a vast lake of fire stands Sulfuron Keep, the home of Ragnaros the Firelord. Until comparatively recently, he ruled his underground land with an iron fist. Three hundred years ago, he was summoned to fight in the dwarven civil war known as the War of the Three Hammers. This reckless act sundered the Redridge Mountains and created Blackrock Spire. Now, in a greatly weakened state, he lies at the bottom of that volcano on Azeroth, striving to find a way home. Meanwhile, in Sulfuron Keep and elsewhere across the Firelands, his elemental princes battle constantly for dominance.

The Firelands occupy the theoretical bottom of the “sphere” of the Elemental Plane. Just as the Skywall sits atop the plane, in a sort of bowl shape, the Firelands sit in the bottom of a similar curve. The “ground” underneath the surface is a sticky, bubbling mess of tar, ooze and rock fallen from Deepholm, which of course serves as the “sky.” In some places, lakes of flammable oil and combustibles form, burning constantly and filling the air with superheated smoke. Organic and semi-organic material from Deepholm, and even the waters of the Abyssal Maw higher above, constantly filters down to provide new fuel for the endless flames. In places where the Fire Princes do battle with Therazane, huge volcanoes rise, spewing lava into the Firelands and upwards as well, sometimes reaching the floor of the Abyssal Maw or even the upper surface of Deepholm, where they blow noxious fumes into Al’Akir’s realm.

The Firelands will be a new outdoor raid instance in the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

The Crucible of Flame, Firelands Forgeworks and Firelands Hatchery are part of the Firelands, which are only accessible through Flamegates located within Mount Hyjal.

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When a creature is slain by Sulfuras, its body is consumed by intense flame and effectively disintegrated, leaving behind only a pile of ash. The heat and pressure of this effect solidifies the ash into a hard, dark, crystal. This crystal is known as an eye of Sulfuras and is used by Ragnaros’ followers in ancient rituals or to craft special weapons such as sulfuron hammers.

Source

This weapon is not dropped, but rather may be forged by anyone who has obtained both the [Sulfuron Hammer] and [Eye of Sulfuras]. A skilled (300) blacksmith is required to make the hammer, and the Eye is only, and rarely (about a 3% rate), dropped by Ragnaros himself. The plans for the Sulfuron Hammer are obtained by turning in a [Sulfuron Ingot] to Lokhtos Darkbargainer in the Grim Guzzler in Blackrock Depths. There is no reputation requirement to receive the plans.

Background

Sulfuras is the mighty weapon of Ragnaros the Firelord. The weapon never leaves his grasp. It is composed of flaming red elementium and etched from end to end with intricate runes that seem to move like flowing lava across the weapons surface. Sulfuras is covered with many vicious pikes of varying sizes, each white hot and surrounded by the distortion of shimmering heat.

When a creature is slain by Sulfuras, its body is consumed by intense flame and effectively disintegrated, leaving behind only a pile of ash. The heat and pressure of this effect solidifies the ash into a hard, dark, crystal. This crystal is known as an eye of Sulfuras and is used by Ragnaros’ followers in ancient rituals or to craft special weapons such as sulfuron hammers.

Sulfuron Hammers

Sulfuras is incredibly massive. Far too massive, in fact, for most mortals to even dream of wielding, even if they could somehow defeat the elemental Firelord. However, fanatical followers of Ragnaros found a way to craft hammers in its image. Each requires an eye of Sulfuras, and these lesser weapons are known as sulfuron hammers. A sulfuron hammer appears to be a smaller version of Sulfuras. It is a spiked, flaming red warhammer. The hammer is crafted entirely from elementium, with an eye of Sulfuras embedded deep in the hammer’s head.

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• High Astromancer Solarian (0)

Background

The Firelord and his brethren once held sway over the entire world. As a servant of the Old Gods, he fought against the Titans for domination over the planet. The victorious Titans banished him and his brethren to the Elemental Plane — there to remain imprisoned until the end of time. It was then and there that the brothers turned on each other. For five millennia a battle was fought at the core of this world. It was during the Elemental Sundering that Ragnaros attacked Thunderaan, Prince of Air. Thunderaan was utterly defeated and the Firelord feasted upon his essence, but was unable to consume him entirely. Ragnaros divided what remained between his servants, Baron Geddon and Garr.

In the center of a vast lake of fire in the Elemental Plane stands Sulfuron Keep, the home of Ragnaros. Until comparatively recently, he ruled his underground land with a molten iron fist.

Around three hundred years ago the ambitious and ruthless Dark Iron clan initiated a war against their dwarven brethren, the Bronzebeard clan and Wildhammer clan, thinking that they were about to unite against the Dark Irons. During this War of the Three Hammers, the Dark Iron dwarf leader named Thaurissan lay siege to the Wildhammers’ capital city of Grim Batol and destroyed it. Due to this victory, the Wildhammers and Bronzebeards did decide to unite against the Dark Irons and were ultimately able to push them back to the city of Thaurissan, the Dark Iron Dwarven home. Thaurissan, seeking to summon a supernatural minion that would turn the tide of the war back to his favor, called upon the ancient powers sleeping beneath the world. To Thaurissan’s surprise, and ultimately his doom, the creature that emerged was more terrible than any nightmare he could have imagined.

Now, freed by Thaurissan’s call, Ragnaros erupted into being once again. Ragnaros’ apocalyptic rebirth into Azeroth shattered the Redridge Mountains and created a raging volcano at the center of the devastation. The volcano, known as Blackrock Mountain, was bordered by what is now known as the Searing Gorge, to the north, and the Burning Steppes, to the south. Though Thaurissan was killed by the forces he had unleashed, his surviving Dark Iron clan brethren were ultimately enslaved by Ragnaros and his elementals. Many Dark Iron dwarves remain within the lower areas of the mountain, especially Blackrock Depths, toiling away at the behest of Ragnaros and the Firelord’s lieutenants. They worship Ragnaros, considering him not only a Elemental Lord but also an Old God, although he is only affiliated with the Old Gods. The Bronzebeards and Wildhammers, however, remain free.

Witnessing the horrific devastation and the fires spreading across the southern mountains, the Bronzebeards’ King Madoran and Wildhammers’ King Khardros halted their armies and hastily turned back towards their kingdoms, unwilling to face the awesome wrath of Ragnaros. Now he lies at the bottom of that volcano on Azeroth, striving to find a way home, as well as to gather his strength once again so he can burn away Azeroth and take it for his own. Meanwhile, in Sulfuron Keep and elsewhere across the Firelands, his elemental princes battle constantly for dominance. He and his dwarven minions took control of the Blackrock mountain’s volcanic depths and made war on the orcs in the Upper Blackrock Spire, which served as the seat of power for Nefarian the black dragon. Ragnaros has uncovered the secret to creating life from stone and plans to build an army of unstoppable golems to aid him in conquering the whole of Blackrock Mountain.

Abilities

Ragnaros has several abilities that he uses in the fight, sometimes accompanied by yelling. They are as follows:

Wrath of Ragnaros – Melee Knockback

25s cooldown. “Taste the Flames of Sulfuron!” .When this ability is used characters in melee range are sent flying, much like Garr’s guardians when they die. This also reduces threat of the targets it does hit. It is common to be thrown very far and end up either in the lava or in the back row. It is resistible and on a predictable 25 second timer. Melee DPS should back out of melee range and only resume attacks once they are sure the MT or OT has aggro. Most melee deaths occur by melees engaging too fast — after the MT fails a resist and gets knocked back but before the OT engages. Because of Ragnaros’s size, melee DPS can not see the MT and OT and must use the “target of target” feature of the UI which can be found in the interface options or a “target of target” mod.

Hammer of Ragnaros – Ranged Knockback and Damage

20–30s cooldown. “By fire be purged!” This attack targets a random player with a mana bar and knocks back all players (excluding the target) within ~20 yards. They are knocked back from the impact point which is at the foot of the target.

Lava Splash – Localized Damage

At various times a lava splash will be triggered which cause large damage to all those hit. It will affect anyone within close proximity to a lava flow. With decent fire resist (150+) it should be partially resisted most of the time. It can be partially resisted with the standard mechanic; every 100FR equals about 25% damage reduction.

Elemental Fire – Damage Debuff

This is a debuff that Ragnaros puts on whoever has aggro. 4800 damage over 8 seconds.

Magma Blast – Massive Ranged Damage

If no one is engaged in melee with Ragnaros he will throw a ranged attack for 4000–6000 damage which will kill most non-tank players in 1 hit and quickly wipe the raid. It’s advisable to have a MT stand by at the end of Phase 2 to pick him up immediately upon resurfacing.

Melt Weapon – Melee Durability Damage

Often Ragnaros damages melee weapons that strike him. This takes 1 point off a weapon’s durability per attempt. To counter this, bring spare weapons and ensure the raid has a repair-bot for between every few attempts.

Summon Sons of Flame

After 3 minutes of combat Ragnaros will summon 8 Sons of Flame and submerge (he will still be visible though; this might be a bug). After 90 seconds or once they are defeated (whichever happens first) Ragnaros will reappear. This process continues after a further 3 minutes until either your group or Ragnaros is dead. Be aware that Ragnaros considers Banished sons as defeated and can resurface prematurely. See below for a detailed Sons of Flame strategy in Phase 2.

Preparation

• All other Molten Core bosses must be defeated before Ragnaros can be summoned.
• The whole raid needs to know where the exits from the lava are, because everybody has a good chance to take an involuntary lava bath.
• Fire resistance is the key to surviving his attacks.
• Your MT should have at least 300 (315 is recommended with buffs) fire resistance.
• No member should exceed 315 resistance buffed as it is the maximum effective level of resistance. (See:Formulas:Magical resistance) This is a DPS fight, you will need as much DPS gear as you can wear while maintaining a healthy, but not excessive level of resistance.
• Any melee classes should have at least 200.
• Any other class should have at the very least 100 (unbuffed), or they won’t be around very long. In each case, more fire resistance is better.
• Everyone in the raid should use anywhere from 1-3 fire protection potions during the fight to stay alive. Preferred a few seconds before the sons of flame spawn.
• All ranged DPS (Mages, Hunters, Warlocks) should keep in mind that it is impossible for them to pull aggro from the MT. Ragnaros will always attack players who are in melee range first, regardless of their position on his hatelist (so don’t hold back on DPS).
• From the time you get Domo to summon Ragnaros you have 2 hours to defeat him, after which he submerges. Majordomo Executus will respawn within 2 to 3 hours.
• HINT: Head your raid (up to 10 players at time) to LBRS and Mind Control one or more Scarshield Spellbinders (you can find them just at the entrance under the bridge), at this point provide all players with his +81 Fire resistance buff. The buff lasts 60 Minutes, and is on a 30 second cooldown. This trick was initially thought to be a bannable offense, but it is actually perfectly legal and ok to use.

Strategy overview

This fight alternates between two stages – in the first, Ragnaros is up and everybody concentrates on DPSing him, in the second Ragnaros is immune to DPS, and the raid has to deal with his sons instead. Ragnaros is always up for 3 minutes (stage 1), then submerges for 90 seconds. This alternates until either the raid is wiped or Ragnaros is dead.

The basic idea is to get him down to 30%-40% before the first wave of sons, to be able to kill him before the second. If your warriors and warlocks are up to the task, it is possible to get him down between the second and third wave of sons, but there’s not much point in holding back DPS as no tradeoff between survivability and doing damage is possible.

Phase 1

• Have your MTs run in and attack, and have all your melee and ranged DPS assist. You have 3 minutes before he submerges.
• Ranged DPS should immediately burn trinkets and cooldowns to maximize damage. So long as anyone is within melee range of Ragnaros, ranged will never pull aggro, thus dish out as much as possible.
• Ragnaros will shoot random explosions that knock people into the air (often into the lava) and do a lot of damage. Players knocked away must return to their designated areas so they can be in range of the healers, as they will be very busy.
• Ragnaros also has an AoE knockback ability that he does every 25 seconds. All melee types except the MT should back out before this happens and then re-engage immediately afterwards.

20 seconds before Ragnaros submerges and spawns Sons of Flame, the whole raid (exc. the MT who keeps tanking until the submerge) should collapse to the southern lip of the outer ring, as to be ready to handle the sons when they spawn. Mages should already be positioned at the collapse point. Mana users should be at the very edge of the ring, as to avoid the Son’s massive mana burn aura. Tanks and Rogues should form a wall in front of the casters.

Phase 2

• Ragnaros submerges and 8 “Sons of Flame” come out. They do purely fire-based damage and have an AoE mana burn, so you need to keep them away from your mana-users.The sons spawn from around the spiral that Ragnaros is along the west, north and east side, and then rush south to meet the raid. The sons damage is entirely fire based, so with decent fire resistance you will take very little damage from them.
• Control them with warriors, mage frost novas, mage blizzard, perhaps bear tanks, hunter freezing traps and kill them all (there is not much time for banish, but some guilds choose to banish a few). The Sons should be tanked and banished while they are brought down one after the other. It is important to always have at least one that is not banished, as sometimes when all the remaining sons are banished (or otherwise incapacitated) Ragnaros will re-appear. If this happens you are very likely looking at a wipe. Also you must deal with the Sons quickly as Ragnaros will surface after 1 1/2 minutes whether they are dead or not. To accomplish this everyone MUST be assisting one person that is picking targets. If attacks are spread out they will take too long to kill. With all DPS on one Son you should be aiming to drop one every 10 seconds or less.
• Ragnaros will come back after 90 seconds or when all sons are dead, whichever happens first. When you are nearing the 90 second point in the fight it is critical that you send the main tank, secondary tank and their healers back to engage Ragnaros when he re-enters combat. If the tank is not there Ragnaros will start throwing Magma blasts. Once the rest of the group has killed any remaining sons they should re-enter combat with Ragnaros.

Phase 3

• Same as phase one. You have 3 more minutes before he submerges again for another minute-and-a-half session with the Sons of Flame.
• Generally, you want to kill him before the Sons spawn again or else you will probably die. If you don’t get him to at least 40% HP before the end of Stage 1, then you probably won’t accomplish this goal.

Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros

Ragnaros approximately has a 3% to drop the legendary [Eye of Sulfuras]. The Eye of Sulfuras, when combined with a [Sulfuron Hammer], creates the legendary hammer, [Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros]. In order to learn how to the craft the Sulfuron Hammer, you must turn in one Sulfuron Ingot to the Thorium Brotherhood member Lokhtos Darkbargainer located in the Blackrock Depths. The Sulfuron Hammer can only be crafted using the Black Anvil. The Sulfuron Hammer takes the following materials to craft.

• Sulfuron Ingot x8
• Fiery Core x10
• Lava Core x10
• Essence of Fire x25
• Blood of the Mountain x10
• Dark Iron Bar x10
• Arcanite Bar x50

Thunderfury

• [Essence of the Firelord] – a 100% drop, assuming one has the quest

To get the quest you need :

• both Left and Right [Bindings of the Windseeker]

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A Hunter can fulfill one of many Group Roles. Primarily, the Hunter is called to be a puller, an off tank, sustained DPS provider, pseudo wipe recoverer, and crowd controller.

General

• Watch your pet. Your pet should almost always be set on Passive mode. Growl’s autocast should be turned off, and if you have a boar, Charge’s autocast generally should be as well, since the skill is bugged and will break Crowd Control if present.

The biggest dangers a pet can pose is when chasing after runners (make sure you call your pet back when a mob begins to run) and when jumping off of cliffs. When you jump off a cliff or a ledge, your pet will take the long way and will trigger every mob on the way and bring it to you and your group (note that this only applies when you drop onto a ledge accessible by another route; in the case of a ledge only accessible by dropping from above, the pet will drop down with you). When you need to jump off a ledge, either dismiss your pet or use Eyes of the Beast to force your pet to jump off. Better yet, put your pet on stay and move forward yourself, calling your pet again once it is out of range. This allows you to avoid the happiness penalty normally incurred by using the Dismiss spell. Let your group know that you will be watching your pet.

Hunters have caused groups to wipe through poor pet management, so they will be frequently asked to put their pets away. As long as you are able to control your pet, use it and assure your party that you WILL be watching it closely. If you’re uncertain whether you can manage it or not, it might be best to put him away.

• In pre-wipe situations, a Hunter is expendable, whereas the healer most especially, and preferably the main tank, are not. What this means is that you should have no hesitation about dying if, by doing so, you can keep a healer alive.

A Hunter’s equipment generally also costs far less to repair than that of plate wearers. For plate wearers, this cost is a powerful incentive against tanking. Although you should by no means do this when things are going well, if the tank is having to deal with multiple mobs, and his health bar indicates that he is about to die, don’t be afraid to use Distracting Shot to pull one of them onto yourself, but make sure it stays on you. The healer can always resurrect you afterwards, and it may just give the tank the few seconds he needs to survive, and avoid further increase to his repair bill.

• Oftentimes there is great contention over what items a Hunter is allowed to roll on. It might very well save a lot of headache if you confirm the loot rules before you start adventuring. Otherwise you may find that the one piece of equipment you’ve been searching for and find yourself denied on rolling for it. As a general rule of thumb, in addition to your ranged weapon of choice, daggers and polearms are the only two melee weapons a Hunter should roll on. An occasional exception is the axe class, but be wary.

• If your party is engaged with multiple mobs, it’s useful to make sure all mobs which are not currently polymorphed, or crowd controlled in some other way, have active Serpent Stings on them. The additional damage adds up very quickly.

• Remember to “assist” the Rogue or other damage dealer, if you have one in your group, to ensure you focus your party’s firepower on one mob. You can do this by selecting the damage dealer (use the F1-F5 keys to target group members) and then pressing “F”. This way, mobs will die faster because everyone is concentrating their firepower on a minimum of targets. Whatever you do, do not assist the tank (Unless said tank is a Paladin. Due to the reflective nature of the majority of their threat, they will rarely, if ever, need to swap targets to hold aggro). A Warrior and Druid tank must do a lot of target switching in order to hit all the mobs he is tanking. If a Warrior or Druid tank is being assisted, it will most likely result in everybody attacking a different mob.

• Sometimes it is more efficient and expedient for one of the crowd-control classes to root, or otherwise slow down an add’s ability to reach the group until tanks are free to deal with it. An assisting tank or other designated group member may be assigned the task of handling adds while the majority of the group continues to follow the MA and cut down the main target(s).

• If you don’t have a pure tank in the group, agree amongst yourselves who to assist and follow the procedure above to insure that everyone correctly assists that character. Although assist may not seem all that important as a concept at low levels, it’s an important habit to train oneself in for later levels, some of which are going to be tough to get through solo.

• Explain to your group that you use mana. Direct them to Thottbot if needed. It’s absurd how many other players assume Hunters do not use mana and refuse to give them buffs like Arcane Intellect, give them water, or even allow them time to drink. If you are low on mana but don’t have time to type it out in Party Chat, type “/oom” to announce it like any other emote.

The Hunter as a Puller

It is debated whether or not Hunters truly pull better than other classes. Many people would disagree and would rather have their Warriors pull so the Warrior can obtain aggro and generate rage. The counterargument is that hunters can employ completely different tactics when pulling than any other class, including an extremely high chance of completely aborting a bad pull. If used properly, this can create a Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety that completely protects the rest of the party from bad pulls 100% of the time. Hunters can, of course, pull using the same tactics that warriors and other classes are forced to use, but other classes cannot pull using the same tactics a hunter can.

The Misdirection spell, added in The Burning Crusade, allowed pulling as a hunter to become more common, simply because of the longer range when compared to a tanking character. Misdirection effectively puts all the threat generated from the shot fired after applying the spell on the target of the spell. Misdirection is good when used in combination with Aimed shot but even better when used in combination with Multishot when pulling a group of mobs.

When the hunter is given a long enough distance (as in the bridge between Drakk’s room and the room before it in UBRS) the hunter can leave mobs behind from clusters. The Hunter lays down his trap where the mobs will run, and opens with Wyvern Sting. When the hunter reaches the warrior, the warrior should charge the mobs that were running free. When the Warrior enters combat, the hunter feigns death. The wyvern stung mob and the ice trapped mob will be too far to aggro onto the warrior, and they will return to their original spots. This means that out of a group of 5 targets, the group only has to fight 3. At this point, the Warrior can either hold every mob, or one of the three can be placed under crowd control. I’ve done this (in UBRS). -Veldren

The Hunter as an Off Tank / Aggro Manager

In this role, it is the Hunter’s responsibility is to essentially protect your casters. This can be done in multiple ways

• Laying a trap between the mob and the caster
• Using Distracting Shot and your pet’s Growl to steal aggro from the caster

Once you have the mob targeting you, it is your job to keep it on you and let the main tank reestablish aggro. You can help the main tank reestablish aggro by using Disengage and Feign Death. You can also use Misdirection on the main tank to redirect aggro to it.

• Make certain to remind your party members that if they need a Hunter’s help that they should not run towards you. Hunters are weaker at close range, and running right at us forces us to use our limited melee skills.

• Let your party members know that Hunters can pull aggro off of them, but we frequently do so via our pets. If they’re running (towards, away, across, whichever), our pet might not be able to catch up with the mob to grab aggro.

The Hunter as Sustained DPS

The Hunter is one of the premiere DPS classes in World of Warcraft. With proper shot rotation and spec, you will top damage charts along with your mage and rogue peers.

Shot rotation is the process of rotating between a set of predetermined shots and stings. It also requires you to not only respect your mana consumption, but the five second spirit rule (your mana will not start to regenerate until five seconds after your last use of mana). This is why it’s suggested to shoot all of your shots off in bursts, rather than throughout a fight. Here is my shot rotation setup:

1. Apply Hunter’s Mark
2. Simultaneously begin Steady Shot and send in my pet. If timed correctly growl and the shot will hit at exactly the same time. If Steady Shot doesn’t crit, growl will hold aggro.
3. Sting (depending on the situation)
4. Aimed Shot
5. Arcane Shot

If the mob isn’t finished off by this time, I’ll just leave on autoshot until it’s dead. If they begin to run, I’d suggest a Concussive Shot to slow them down while your pet eats them alive.

Dungeons and solo grinding require a bit different shot rotation. Generally they are the same, but I may shoot off two rotations granted the mobs have more health and armor. Multishot is a very situational shot. Before I consider using multishot, I run this checklist through my head: Is there a possible add I may pull? Is there currently a mob sapped, frozen, or polymorphed? Does the tank have aggro for all possible mobs (also if the OT has aggro)? Use multishot wisely.

The Hunter as Crowd Control

Your job in this role is to take adds out of the combat for a while. You can do this by utilizing Freezing Trap. Freezing Trap can be used for this purpose to take a mob out of combat for at least 15 seconds, with a maximum of 20 seconds per trap. With the Clever Traps talent Freezing Trap can be as viable at crowd control as a mage’s Polymorph, taking a mob out of combat for up to 26 seconds. The cooldown since Burning Crusade has since decreased and can be used in combat, much to the boon of Hunters everywhere. A trap can be laid, then once the trap has sufficiently cooled down, the hunter can place another, effectively chain-trapping a mob. Hunters can also learn the talent-ability Wyvern Sting to sleep any non elemental (targets that are immune to ice trap are also immune to Wyvern Sting) targets for 12 seconds, then causing mid-level nature damage once released.

Since The Burning Crusade, Hunters have become one of the most versatile Crowd Controllers in the game. Armed with Wyvern Sting, a hunter can trap one mob, fear one beast, and sleep one humanoid, while pet-tanking one more — all at the same time.

The Hunter as Pseudo Wipe Recovery

Hunters as a class have no resurrection ability. However, there are three Engineering devices available that have the possibility to resurrect another party member out of combat: Goblin Jumper Cables (requires Engineering 165) and Goblin Jumper Cables XL (requires Engineering 265) and Gnomish Army Knife (requires Grand Master engineering.

The Hunter in question must have the appropriate level of Engineering skill, and must Feign Death in a safe location in anticipation of a party wipe. If your feigh death is on cooldown, Gnomish Cloaking Device may come in handy. Once out of combat (s)he may approach the corpse of a resurrecting class and use the cables. Both cables share a 30min cooldown and a low success rate (the XL cables work 50% of the time, the other is close to 33%).

The cables are not soulbound and may be passed to another player who has the appropriate level of engineering skill and who has not used the cables in the last 30 minutes.

If a Shaman is in the party, the cables should be tried before resorting to Reincarnation.
It should be noted that:

Rogues can employ a similar tactic with Vanish.

Mages can employ a similar tactic with Invisibility

Multiple Hunters

If you happen to party with multiple Hunters make sure each of you knows which Sting to use. Each Hunter can have only one Sting active on the mob at a time. If you have two Hunters, that’s two Stings that can be on the mob. Ask your fellow Hunter to cast one Sting while you cast the other. Both Hunters should fight away from each other so if the mob attacks one of you, the other Hunter can still fire from range.

Multiple Hunters of different talent specialisations also synergise extremely well. Have a Beast Mastery Hunter in your group focus exclusively on ranged damage, which is Beast Mastery’s forte, while a Survival Hunter could be the dedicated crowd controller for a group, as Survival’s damage output is not as strong as that of Beast Mastery, but it’s crowd control options are among the most effective in the game. Marksmanship’s specialty is extremely high powered burst damage over short periods, but it is not sustainable over time, due to that tree’s mana efficiency issues.

Stacking Stings

Multiple Hunters can stack stings on an individual target with a few limitations. Get to know your stings and in what situation to best use them.

A combination of different stings will stack together however, with the exception of Serpent Sting, the effect of more than one sting of the same type will not stack.

Use common sense to work with other hunters for maximum effect. If there are two hunters, designate one hunter to stick to Serpent sting and the other to choose between Scorpid Sting , Viper Sting or Serpent Sting based on the mob being attacked.

Runners

Hunters are great at dealing damage to mobs that try to run from the fight. Mob flight is a major concern because fleeing mobs may call friends to come help them with the fight. You can simply shoot a fleeing mob (their HPs are so low one or two shots will probably finish them off) or hit it with Concussive Shot to slow it down. If the DoT effect of the Stings and all the rest hasn’t killed them by now, Wing Clip them and keep them from running away.

It has been stated that hunter’s pets aggro adds if they pursue a fleeing mob. This is incorrect. As most mobs in instanced dungeons are social it is the fleeing mobs that bring the adds. Not the hunter’s pet.

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In some other games, such as Everquest, the hunter is a ranged/melee hybrid that can rely on both, when the need arises. In World of Warcraft, this is generally not the case. The survival tree offers some enhancement to melee ability, but the class’s damage mitigation is poor compared to most pure melee classes and its melee abilities are generally considered too limited to be a practical source of DPS. For this reason, a hunter’s melee attack is typically a last resort used only when his pet cannot keep threat on itself.

Overview

• Hunters tame the wild beasts of Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland and Northrend, training them to fight at their side. Hunters are one of five classes that can have controllable combat pets, however, they are the only ones that can name, feed, and assign talent points to their pets. Hunters would do well to pay attention to their pets’ happiness.
• Hunters excel in outdoor survival skills, such as tracking and laying traps.
• Hunters wear leather and cloth armor until level 40, at which they gain access to equipping mail armor. Hunters start with a two-handed axe and a gun, crossbow, or bow. With training, they can learn all other weapon skills except wands, maces, and two-handed maces. They are unable to use shields or plate armor.
• Hunters have many magical abilities that require mana, such as pet healing and special shots, but their mana pools are not as large as those of dedicated spellcasters.
• Hunters can take on various Animal Aspects that grant special abilities, such as increased dodge chance, improved run speed, or even additional nature resistance.

Talents and abilities

Ranged fighting

Ranged fighting requires a choice between a gun, bow, or a crossbow. When starting, this will depend on your race. Dwarves and tauren are given guns, draenei start with crossbows, and the other races get bows. Later on, you can train to use the ranged weapons that aren’t inherent to your race. In general, crossbows are relatively slow, but hit harder and are favored for increasing burst damage, while guns are relatively fast and good for steady grinding at the cost of using more ammunition than other weapons. Bows have moderate attack speed and are favored for sustained DPS. Initially, weapon speed will be inconsequential since the only available abilities consist of Auto-Shot and various instant casts. Guns can be crafted by engineers, but there are no craftable bows or crossbows, so most ranged upgrades will come from mob drops and quest rewards.

Guns use bullets while bows and crossbows use arrows. Different types of ammunition add different amounts of DPS; generally, the higher level you are, the higher DPS ammunition you can access.

Standard white quality bullets and arrows of varying DPS are available at most innkeepers and almost all general goods vendors, as well as special city vendors. There is also special ammunition that can be crafted by engineers or bought as reputation rewards; these projectiles are typically expensive and not very economical for everyday use.

Stings

Hunters have stings, which are specialized debuffs they can apply to targets to help them address specific situations. Only one sting per hunter can be active on any one target. Scorpid Sting is by far the most useful utility in PvE, capable of debuffing even a raid boss’s hit chance. However, Scorpid Stings from multiple hunters overwrite instead of stacking. Serpent Sting is common for high DPS shot rotations along with Steady Shot, especially when used in conjunction with Glyph of Steady Shot. Viper Sting is very useful in PvP but it has incredible use in PvE as well. Before it was considered as a waste of mana because of its low mana drain, but with the addition of Chimera Shot marksmanship hunters can use it to replenish their own mana more quickly. This combination allows hunters to regain mana without suffering the damage reduction from Aspect of the Viper. However, this only applies to fights with mana-using enemies.

Shots

Hunters also make heavy use of special shots to supplement their DPS and provide utility to their groups. The bulk of a hunter’s damage and utility will come from the use of these shots. Since Explosive Shot and Arcane Shot share cooldowns, as do Multi-Shot and Aimed Shot, the shots the hunter uses depend on his spec. Survival hunters use Explosive Shot, while beast masters and marksmen use Arcane Shot, while Aimed Shot is used if available. Steady Shot is used whenever all other shots are on cooldown. Regardless of their spec, any hunter not getting at least a third of his/her damage from Steady Shot after level 50 is most likely not using it enough.

In the past, the hunter could not fire his Auto Shot if he was casting another spell at the same time. The Auto Shot swing timer was still counting but would not fire over another shot. This was called “clipping Auto Shot” and would greatly reduce DPS. However, this doesn’t happen anymore, and Auto Shot would fire regardless of other spells being cast, but only if the hunter is standing. Moving still prevents firing.

Due to clipping consideration, weapon speed used to be crucial to maximizing dps with shot rotation, and a hunter should choose a ranged weapon of an appropriate speed (2.7 for beast masters, 3-3.1 for survivalists and marksmen). That is, if your crossbow is 3.2 second cast time, your Arcane Shot is at normal 6 second and your Steady Shot is at 2 second cool down, you should fire Arcane Shot -> Auto Shot -> Steady Shot -> Auto Shot -> Steady Shot -> Arcane Shot. Fire Arcane Shot when ever it is ready and allow a Auto Shot between Steady Shots. These days, however, all weapons have the same speed, and since shot rotations are not used, you should use the weapon with best dps and stats, regardless of speed.

Melee fighting

While hunters are primarily a ranged class, they do possess some melee abilities. They are nowhere near as powerful as the abilities of a true melee class such as a rogue, but they are still useful in situations where the target is too close to be hit with ranged attacks. (Note: There used to be an 8-yard zone immediately beyond the hunter’s melee range where range weapons couldn’t be used. This “Dead Zone” was done away with in Patch 2.3, much to the dismay of PvP clothies.) The general goal in using these moves is to continue inflicting damage while attempting to open distance, hence these abilities have limited uses, cooldowns, or some kind of movement impairment effect.

Combat pets

Pets are the most important tools in the hands of a hunter. They serve as aggro-management, additional DPS, and as tanks. The pet is essential to all specs, dealing anywhere from 10% of total damage for a marksman to 50% for a beast master. Formerly, pets had anemic damage potential and weak AI that often made them more of a danger to a raid than an asset. But improved AI – pets now always attack from the back of a monster – and an innate 90% damage avoidance has made this no longer a concern.

Many beast-type mobs can be tamed, and each offer a set of unique active skills (there are special abilities just for wolves, just for cats, etc). In addition, certain pet types are tanking-oriented (such as bears and turtles), and others are DPS-oriented (such as cats and owls). Combined with the diversity of armor, stamina and resistance buffs, pets are allowed a great deal of customization. Many hunters have dedicated pets for specific instances, PvP, tanking, and so on.

Hunters can tame pets at level 10 by completing a short series of quests. They are able to control the pet through various commands. Although hunters can have only one active pet at a time, the stable can house up to 4 additional pets.

Traps

Hunters have five different types of traps available for use. Some traps are a type of Crowd Control; others are a source of damage. Traps exist for 30 seconds, and have separate 30 second cooldown categores: Fire (Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow), Frost (Freezing Trap, Frost Trap) and Nature Snake Trap. A hunter can have one trap of each category placed at one time. Traps are within the domain of the survival sub-school, and although the basic traps are trainable by hunters of any spec, the survival tree contains numerous talents to enhance their use.

Aspects

Hunters have eight aspects at their disposal. Only one aspect may be active at a time. Aspects will only affect the hunter, unless stated otherwise. The aspects are part of the beast mastery school, and while the base aspects are trainable by hunters of any specialization, the beast mastery tree contains talents which enhance their use.

Aspects range in use from self-protection to speed boosts.

Tracking

Hunters can track eight different types of units. Only one tracking ability may be active at a time, which includes the tracking for mining veins, herbs, and fish. Tracking became more important part of survival hunter after the implementation of Improved Tracking which increases hunter damage against different creature types.

Hunter talents

Talents are a way to specialize your character by enhancing your skills and/or learning new skills. Starting at level 10, you will receive a talent point every time you gain a level.

There are three categories for hunter talents:

• Beast mastery
• Marksmanship
• Survival

Gear

Armor

Hunters can use cloth and leather initially. At level 40 they can train to use mail. See hunter sets for a list of hunter armor sets.

Weapons

Hunters can learn how to use bows, guns, crossbows, thrown weapons, daggers, axes, fist weapons, swords, polearms, staves, two-handed axes, and two-handed swords. The only weapons they cannot use are wands and one-handed and two-handed maces. They were able to wield shields in the beta.

Upon reaching level 20, hunters can learn the Dual Wield skill. This allows them to wield two one-handed weapons at the same time.

See hunter weapon for an explanation of the value of the various stat bonuses and a list of melee weapons suitable for hunters.

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It is to include the playable races of the worgen for the Alliance and the goblins for the Horde. Flying mounts will finally be usable in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Deathwing will make his return into Azeroth from Deepholm, causing a new Sundering.

Lore

From the official site:

An ancient evil lies dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane.

Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.

Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

General

• Level cap increased to 85.
• Zones are drastically affected by the Cataclysm in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. The Barrens has been split into two, and is full of canyons of lava. Wetlands is destroyed, Ashenvale hit as well. The Maelstrom churns. The changes will be made available to all players regardless of expansion purchase.
• New race for the Alliance: Worgen,
  • all classes, except for shaman and paladin.
• New race for the Horde: Goblins,
  • all classes, except for druid and paladin.
• New race/class combinations. See the chart below. (These will be available only to those who have purchased the expansion^[4]).
• New monsters, quests, and zones.
• New dungeons, raids and battlegrounds.
• Guild advancement system, which includes guild leveling, achievements, and rewards.
• Ability to fly anywhere due to the Azeroth revamp. The blood elf and draenei starting zones will still be instanced.
• New water rendering engine.
• Cataclysm will have support for new DirectX 11 features.

Stat changes

• Attack power is being removed from gear. Death knights, paladins and warriors will still gain 2 attack power per point of strength, and all druids, hunters, shamans and rogues will get 2 attack power per point of agility and no attack power from strength, with the exception of druids in bear form / dire bear form, who may get attack power from strength in order to allow them to share tanking cloaks, necklaces and rings with death knights, paladins and warriors.
• Spell power is being removed from gear, with the exception of caster weapons. Characters will gain spell power from intellect much like how they currently gain attack power from agility and strength.
• MP5 and spirit: MP5 is being removed, all healing specs will rely on spirit for mana regeneration, with the rate affected by the Meditation passive talent tree bonus. The 5 second rule may be removed, with “in combat” and “out of combat” mana regeneration based on whether characters are in or out of combat. Spell DPS classes will no longer rely on spirit for mana regeneration, and spirit will no longer be on cloth spell DPS gear. Balance druids and elemental shamans will get talents to gain hit rating from spirit to allow them to share gear with healers and leather and mail caster gear will no longer have hit rating. Shadow Priests will also have hit conversion on one of their talents in order to make it easier for them to gear up through more options.
• Armor penetration is being removed from gear. However, some physical damage specs may still be able to gain armor penetration through talents and / or mastery bonuses.
• Haste for melee and physical ranged DPS classes will affect the rate at which energy, rage, focus and runes are gained. Enhancement shamans and retribution paladins will gain talents which allow them to gain similar benefits from haste. It will continue to provide weapon speed increases for these classes. Haste for casters is unchanged.
• Block value is being removed from the game, blocking will provide 30% damage reduction, which can be increased through talent trees and mastery bonuses.
• Defense is being removed from the game, including both defense rating and the defense skill. All tanking specs will get anti-critical hit talents similar to Survival of the Fittest.
• Weapon skills are being removed. A character has the proficiencies for all the weapons his/her class can use from the start, and doesn’t need to improve them.
• Resilience affects only damage and crit damage done by players.
• Mastery rating is being added. The mastery bonuses will be trainable passive bonuses somewhere around level 75. Depending on the primary talent tree, characters will have a different Mastery available on the trainer with a base potency and 0 Mastery Rating.

Professions

• Profession level cap raised to 525 and will be named Illustrious <Profession>.
• Reforging will allow, through specific NPCs, to convert a percentage of one item’s secondary stat into another secondary stat (e.g. Hit -> Crit).
• New secondary profession: Archaeology.
• Inscription will have three glyph tiers: Prime, Major and Minor glyphs (with primes being the old majors, and the new majors being a brand new tier of glyphs).
• Tailoring, Leatherworking and Blacksmithing will have their specializations removed and related recipes will be baseline.

Talents

• Extensive revisions to the talent system: talent trees are cut down to 31-point talents (7 tiers each tree). You will gain a talent point about every two levels up to 80, instead of every level, and then 1 every level after 80 for a total of 41 talent points at level 85 (vs. 71 points at level 80 in WotLK)
• Selecting a primary talent tree, is required at level 10 and must be done before talent points can be spent. This will provide passive bonuses and a unique active ability. You will be unable to spend talent points in a secondary tree until you have invested 31 points in your primary tree (at roughly level 70).
• Many passive talents with generic bonuses, such as increased critical strike chance, damage reduction or increased healing, and specifically those that provide bonuses to buffs and perhaps debuffs, are being removed.

PvE and PvP

• 25-man raid leaders will have the possibility to split down the raid into a maximum of three 10-man raids. This is to allow players to continue a raid even if someone has left the group. 10-mans cannot, however, be converted into a 25-man raid.
• 10- and 25-man raids will share the same ID in Cataclysm. However, players will still be able to join any raid as long as they don’t kill the same boss twice in the same lockout. This means players will be able to continue a raid with a different group at the condition the new group is the same point or beyond the invited player.
• 10- and 25-man raids in Cataclysm will give the same Loot, the 25-mans will give more Loot per character.
• There will only be four different “badges” in Cataclysm, now all called Points: two PvE (Hero and Valor Points) and two PvP (Honor and Conquest Points). Arena Points are now called Conquest Points.
  • PvE Hero Points and PvP Honor Points will only have a cap on the total number of points you can accumulate.
  • PvE Valor Points and PvP Conquest Points will have a cap on the total number of points, as well as a cap on the maximum amount of points you can earn in a week.
• Cataclysm will include a new “auto-quest” mechanic, allowing players to pick up the next quest in a chain without having to go back to the original quest giver.

Cancelled features

• Revamped character progression via the Paths of the Titans, and Ancient glyphs was planned and announced, but later cancelled.
• Guild talents and guild currency have been removed. Instead, guild advancement bonuses are automatically unlocked based on guild level.

Prominent figures

Among the many figures confirmed to have major roles in the story of Cataclysm are:

• Deathwing, formerly Neltharion the Earth-Warder, confirmed as the principal villain of the expansion.
• Thrall, the former leader of the Horde and the world’s strongest shaman, joins the Earthen Ring and has plenty of work to do after the Cataclysm.
• Garrosh Hellscream, who becomes the Horde’s acting Warchief, continues to cause internal tensions in the Horde.
• Varian Wrynn, who leads the Alliance after the Cataclysm.
• Malfurion Stormrage, who returns to prevent Mount Hyjal from being destroyed.
• Brann Bronzebeard, up to his old tricks as leader of the expedition into the newly-uncovered Uldum region.
• Genn Greymane, King of Gilneas, who helps administer a cure for the worgen curse to his now-transformed people.
• Nefarian, also known as Victor Nefarius, son of Deathwing, who survived and retreated further into Blackrock Spire.
• Ragnaros, who remains alive to challenge the world in Mount Hyjal, and later in Sulfuron Keep in his own realm, the Firelands.
• Cho’gall and his Twilight’s Hammer cult is a major player in the new expansion; its minions are revealed to be working for Deathwing.
• Queen Azshara makes an appearance in a small but important role as Malfurion Stormrage’s adversary.
• Therazane aids adventurers in Deepholm.
• Neptulon enlists adventurers to battle the naga in Vashj’ir, who are attempting to overthrow him and take control of his kingdom – the water.

Factions and organizations

Numerous new factions are introduced in the expansion.

Gilneas (Worgen)

The people of Gilneas are a nation of survivors. Having walled themselves off from the rest of humanity, they must now face new threats from within.

Bilgewater Cartel (Goblins)

Run by the ruthless Trade Prince Gallywix, the Bilgewater Cartel is the most powerful trading company on the Isle of Kezan. From their headquarters at Bilgewater Port, the cartel dominates trade all over the South Seas.

Guardians of Hyjal

The Guardians of Hyjal is a group tasked with defense of Mount Hyjal, besieged by Firelord Ragnaros’ armies. Guardians are made up mainly of druids, much like Cenarion Circle.

Some other factions may have their own reputations as evidenced by achievements:

• Dragonmaw clan in the Twin Peaks battleground.
• Wildhammer clan in the Twin Peaks battleground.
• The Earthen Ring
• Therazane (or her followers)
• The Tol’vir

New zones

Kalimdor

• Mount Hyjal (80-82)
• Uldum (84-85)

Eastern Kingdoms

• Gilneas (1-12)
• Twilight Highlands (84-85)
• Tol Barad (84-85) (Outdoor PvP)
• Vashj’ir (80-82)
  • Abyssal Depths
  • Kelp Forest
  • Shimmering Expanse

The Great Sea

• Kezan (1-5)
• Lost Isles (5-12)
• Maelstrom (entrance to Deepholm)

Elemental Plane

• Deepholm (82-84)

Zones affected by the Cataclysm

For detailed zone changes in the current beta patch, see Patch 4.0.0 (undocumented changes).

These changes are not phased. They will be seen by everyone, from level 1 to 85, whether or not they buy the expansion.

Kalimdor

• Ashenvale: Heavier deforestation around the Warsong Lumber Camp causes the orcs to encroach on Silverwind Refuge. Zoram’gar Outpost is reinforced with black iron, similar to the Horde outposts in Northrend. Astranaar becomes the victim of air assaults launched by the Horde.
• Azshara: Azshara has been claimed by the goblins (likely as their second zone after the Lost Isles), where they have established a quarry to cut stone for the construction of their towns. The zone is also now directly linked with Orgrimmar.
• The Barrens: The Barrens is split in two by great fissures in the land, spouting fiery rivers of lava. The Northern Barrens is a level 10-20 zone, while the Southern Barrens is intended for higher level players. Portions of the Barrens have grown lush thanks to the work of the druid Naralex. The passage into Mulgore has been reinforced by the tauren, with high walls and a gate. This is because the Alliance will be moving into the southern Barrens, constructing several towers and burning down Camp Taurajo.
• Darkshore: Auberdine is destroyed, and the very land torn asunder. The Alliance relocates to a new town in the northern end of the zone called Lor’danel. Shatterspear Village, previously a closed zone, becomes an accessible subzone.
• Darnassus: The “worgen district”, previously believed to be in Stormwind, will in fact be in a section of Darnassus. The architecture is described as “buildings that look like they’re built out of trees but they’re Worgen-style, so they’re dark and spooky – they fit the Gilneas style”.
• Desolace: Once a barren wasteland, the Cataclysm has caused a rift to form, allowing water to flood in from the coast and bring life back to the region. However, the region is now being invaded by demons, including shivarra.
• Durotar: The Darkspear Trolls will retake the Echo Isles as a new starting area.
• The Exodar: The boat at Valaar’s Berth will have a direct connection to Stormwind Harbor.
• Feralas: Will be retuned to a 35-40 zone. Feathermoon Stronghold has been razed by Naga. The Isle of Dread has been flooded by tidal waves caused by the Cataclysm.
• Orgrimmar: The trailer showed evidence of the front gates being reinforced with metal (like Warsong Hold). What metal is used is unknown, but at BlizzCon 2009 Tom Chilton said specifically “if you recognize the black iron… it’s from somewhere”, hinting that the metal has a specific origin or just reinforcing that we saw this type of architecture used by Garrosh in Northrend. Possibilities include dark iron, saronite or just normal iron. The Valley of Wisdom will become a tauren district, and Garrosh – now acting Warchief of the Horde – will build a new fortress in the Valley of Strength “to show who is in charge”. There will also be a district known as the “Goblin Slums” near the Valley of Spirits. There is also a rear gate leading to Azshara. The Valley of Honor will also become the second trade district, with its own bank, auction house and inn.
• Stonetalon Mountains: Eruptions decimate the landscape, spreading the flames of the Charred Vale even further. The goblins have cut through the mountains, forming a valley that leads into Ashenvale. The western coastline is now accessible. Stonetalon Peak has been destroyed by Faceless Ones and Old God tendrils.
• Tanaris: Will be flooded, with Gadgetzan becoming beachfront property; Steamwheedle Port is destroyed and populated with homeless Goblins.
• Thousand Needles: Will be flooded, with the eastern coastline accessible and the Shimmering Flats becoming a lake;^[32] it will be returned as a level 40-45 zone^[33]. Razorfen Downs has been moved to the Thousand Needles map from the Barrens map — no new dungeons in this zone.

Eastern Kingdoms

• Blasted Lands: The quest flow for the entire zone is being revamped, with the coastline being made accessible and the Tainted Scar gaining a large, worgen-themed area.
• Dun Morogh: The Gnomeregan Exiles will retake Gnomeregan as a new starting area.
• Eastern Plaguelands: Will be retuned as a level 40-50 zone.
• The Hinterlands: Will be retuned as a 30-35 zone.
• Hillsbrad Foothills: Although originally stated by the developers to have been destroyed by tidal waves, Southshore has actually been destroyed by the Forsaken Blight.
• Silverpine Forest: The Greymane Wall has been destroyed by the Cataclysm, opening up the passage to Gilneas.
• Redridge Mountains: The Lakeshire bridge will be completed and fully built.
• Stormwind City: The castles and terrain surrounding Stormwind City have been remodeled to accommodate flying mounts. Parts of the city have been damaged. The Park has been obliterated by Deathwing in retaliation for Varian displaying Onyxia’s head from the arches. A new lake area and a city cemetery have been established, and the Dwarven District will also become the secondary trade district, with its own bank, auction house and inn.
• Stranglethorn Vale: Will be one of the most heavily revamped zones.
• Tirisfal Glades: Brill has been updated with a new Forsaken architecture seen in Northrend.
• Undercity: The terrain in and around the Ruins of Lordaeron has been remodeled to accommodate flying mounts.
• Western Plaguelands: After the Lich King’s downfall, the Scourge are easily subjugated, resulting in Felstone Field, Dalson’s Tears, The Writhing Haunt and Gahrron’s Withering to be rebuilt. Portions of Andorhal are claimed by the Alliance and Horde. Hearthglen has now become a home for the Argent Crusade lead by Tirion Fordring; he has been removed from his shack in Eastern Plaguelands. Western Plaguelands will be re-tuned as a level 30-40 zone.
• Westfall: A vortex is present in the area, Sentinel Hill will be surrounded by a wall. Other effects are currently unknown.
• Wetlands: Heavily affected by Deathwing’s destructive exit from Deepholm, with the Twilight Highlands now opened to the East.

Dungeons and raids

The developers announced at BlizzCon 2009 that they intend for Cataclysm to ship with the most end-game content yet seen in an expansion.

• The Skywall:
  • Vortex Pinnacle, level 80-82 dungeon,
  • Throne of the Four Winds, a raid instance.
• Deepholm:
  • Stonecore, level 83-84 dungeon.
• Vashj’ir:
  • Abyssal Maw, level 81-83 dungeon,
  • Throne of the Tides, level 80-81 dungeon.
• Uldum:
  • Lost City of Tol’vir, level 84-85 dungeon,
  • Halls of Origination, level 85 dungeon.
• Blackrock Mountain:
  • Blackrock Caverns, level 80-81 dungeon,
  • Blackwing Descent, raid inspired by Blackwing Lair with Nefarian as end boss.
• Grim Batol:
  • Grim Batol, level 85 dungeon,
  • Bastion of Twilight, a raid instance.
• Revamps of the old world dungeons.

Planned for later release

• The Firelands:
  • Raid against Ragnaros. Originally planned for release, but pushed back for unknown reasons.
• Caverns of Time:
  • War of the Ancients, a raid instance.
• Old-world dungeons gaining 5-player Heroic mode:
  • Deadmines,
  • Shadowfang Keep.

PvP

Battlegrounds

• Battle for Gilneas City will be a new battleground in which you take control of the city by taking control of the most districts in the battleground.

• Twin Peaks will be a CTF battleground located in Twilight Highlands, similar to Warsong Gulch.

Battlegrounds starting with Cataclysm will be rated, like arenas, and will provide the same rewards as arenas.

Arenas

New arenas are planned to be added with the expansion, but not directly at the release.

World PvP

Tol Barad will be an outdoor PvP zone much like Wintergrasp. Unlike Wintergrasp however, Tol Barad will also be the main daily quest hub in Cataclysm. By taking control of the Tol Barad Prison, players will gain access to additional, very profitable daily quests.

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Tips

• This encounter bears a number of similarities to Nightbane. Felmyst will alternate between fighting on the ground and attacking from the air, and the raid must properly transition between these phases.
• The main tank should wear a good amount of nature resistance gear to help avoid the corrosion debuff.
• Priests should be quick to use mass dispel to remove the gas nova debuff as otherwise mana users will quickly be out of mana.
• Raid members must pay close attention to where the vapors are as getting caught in their debuffs can quickly cause wipes.
• As with Nightbane proper management of the skeleton adds is very important. Paladins should be particularly useful for this task.

Abilities

• Immune to taunt
• Melee – Unconfirmed.
• Cleave – 6,000-8,000 Physical damage.
• Corrosion – 9425-10575 Nature damage. Increases physical damage taken by 100% on the tank. .75 second cast with 10 second duration. Cannot be spell reflected.
• Gas Nova – Area-of-Effect spell dealing 1885 to 2115 Nature damage and draining 3000 health and 1000 mana every 2 seconds for 30 secs to everyone in a 50 yard diameter. Dispellable. Should be removed with Priests’ Mass Dispel.
• Noxious Fumes – Aura type spell. does 1000 nature damage every 3 seconds within 100 yards of boss. Not resistible.
• Encapsulate – Lifts a random player into the air and does 5 ticks of 3500 Arcane damage to them and everyone within 20 yards.
• Demonic Vapor – Breath ability cast in flight phase, similar to Nightbane in Karazhan. She will use it twice per air phase. Deals 4000 nature damage when it hits, summoning skeletons and leaving a trail which, if you step in it, does 2000 nature damage per second for 10 seconds and summons more skeletons.
• Fog of Corruption – Area-of-Effect spell. Mind controls players inside it for duration of the battle. Big coverage and can cover a random 1/3 of the area. Characters afflicted by this debuff should be killed as quickly as possible because it also increases run speed, damage and healing. Once everyone is dead or mind-controlled Felmyst will temporarily despawn, and everyone mind-controlled will be killed instantly, so that the encounter can be reset. If a wipe is called during the air phase then you can deliberately enter the cloud so as to avoid repair costs from dying.
• Berserk – After 10 minutes; all damage dealt is increased by 500%. Attack speed increased by 150%.

Strategy

Even though the majority of raidwide damage Felmyst does is nature based the resistance that will help you most (and one you should use at least while learning) is Arcane. The incoming Nature damage is low and predictable. The Encapsulate damage (which is Arcane based) is rapid, random and affected by normal resistance rules. For that reason, during the learning, everyone should use their Violet Badge and plenty of Major Arcane Protection Potion.

Ground Phase

Separate your raid into three groups, each comprised of no more than 10 people (so as to benefit from Mass-Dispel). The most common tactic is keeping a melee group directly behind Felmyst, and ranged groups on either side. There is no tail swipe, nor cone-breath, but she does cleave, so make sure no-one but the tank is in front of her. The Corrosion ability cannot be resisted and must be healed through. During that time the tank should also watch his own HP very closely, and stop attacking if his health ever drops under 50% – to avoid getting killed by Parry hasten. Everyone should stay a little apart to spread out quickly if anyone nearby gets the Encapsulate, but not too spread out so they can receive Mass Dispel to negate Gas Nova. The Noxious Fumes, like most aura-type spells, should simply be healed through.

Flight Phase

During this phase Felmyst still can – and should – be attacked. For the first few seconds, while she’s taking off your main tank can keep building aggro. Once she is in the air, only ranged attacks are possible – so all ranged DPS should be ready to use Soulshatter, Invisibility, Feign Death or any other aggro-dropping ability as soon as Felmyst lands again, if they are above the tank. Hand of Protection may also be used, provided that the ranged DPS character will be below 130% of the main-tank’s threat, once it expires.
Felmyst will use her first aerial-ability roughly 5 seconds after leaving melee range; the Demonic Vapor. She will target a random player for a couple seconds, then cast it under them. The spell follows that player for about ten seconds, leaving the DoT trail and summoning skeletons soon after. Stepping in the trail is not only lethal but will also summon more skeletons, which will likely overwhelm and wipe the raid. Best way to counter this ability is spreading out until second use – and starting to kite the beam away as soon as it’s used. The safe spot for tanking skeletons and moving during Deep Breaths should be assigned – and until second Demonic Vapor starts no-one should move near it. The area around huge crate directly south from the dead tree is a good place for that. The adds spawned by the Vapor are perfectly tankable by a protection paladin. Slowing effects like the hunters’ Frost Trap are recommended in either case. This spell is cast twice, with the second cast right after the first ends.

Following the two Demonic Vapor attacks, Felmyst emotes a raid warning and flies over the stage casting her Fog of Corruption attack, covering a third of the stage with a lime-green cloud. Anyone caught in the cloud will be mind-controlled until they are killed. If your raid group tanks Felmyst on an edge of the stage, the cloud can be avoided easily while you continue clearing the skeleton waves. After three breaths Felmyst will land and return to the Ground Phase.

Rinse and Repeat. You have 10 minutes. A well-geared group can down the boss before a third flight phase.

At level 80

Ideal Raid Composition: 4 healers (2 priests), 2 tanks, 19 dps

Strategy

At level 80, Felmyst is still a technical fight and is the biggest hurdle a raid attempting Sunwell Plateau will face. The easiest way to deal with this fight is to burn Felmyst down (preferably to 1%) during phase 1, properly deal with phase 2, and finish her off when she lands again (phase 1). If your raid group has very high dps output, it is possible to kill Felmyst before she takes off the ground (phase 2). Below is a breakdown of each phase.

Preparation: Before the fight, clarify each of the three “safe” zones where people should run during Phase 2. The safe zones are behind the tree, in the middle (where the ground slopes down) and all the way down by the river that is on fire. Assign a spotter to call out where she will breathe in Phase 2.

Phase 1 (ground phase) is for the most part a tank and spank with a few noteworthy exceptions:

1. She is immune to taunt and the raid should be aware of this when attempting the burn strategy outlined above.
2. Everyone but the tank needs to avoid her frontal cone as she cleaves and casts Corrosion in this direction. However, melee and ranged should stay group together for ease of mass dispels.
3. Priests need to be ready to use their mass dispel IMMEDIATELY for Gas Nova, as it will still wipe a level 80 raid if not dispelled.
4. Encapsulate should be healed though. Don’t bother running out, continue to burn her down.
5. You have approximately 60 seconds to dps close to 4.9 million hp (down to 1% health) before she takes to the air (phase 2). Not taking healers or tanks into consideration, each dps would have to do close to 4000 damage per second to achieve this. However this number can be lower considering DoTs and ranged abilities which are still effective in phase 2.

Phase 2 (flight phase) begins 60 seconds after phase 1 (ground phase). During this phase Felmyst flies around and casts two abilities:

1. Demonic Vapor (cast twice in a row) – “Stay out of the fire” applies here as it will do 2k per tick if you step into it. This ability will also summon skeletons similar to Nightbane in Karazhan. Tanks need to pick these up and they need to be aoe’d immediately.
2. Fog of Corruption (cast three times in a row after the second Demonic Vapor) – This ability (which is emoted before being cast as a warning) will cover approximately 1/3rd of the encounter’s area with a green cloud. Anyone touched by this cloud will be instantly mind controlled and must be crowd controlled (or killed) immediately. FoC can be avoided by spotting Felmyst’s position in the sky and shifting the entire raid either south or north of her position (relative to the ground). This spotting is exactly like spotting Onyxia’s Deep Breaths. Marking an experienced raid member with a raid icon and having the raid follow him/her is a good option to consider here. Felmyst will land after this ability is cast a third time.
3. Once Felmyst lands for a second phase 1, assuming the majority of the raid has survived phase 2 (still by far the hardest part for a pick-up-group), there should be little work left to finish her off and ensure a successful kill.

Notes: Any raid member who is killed after being mind controlled by Felmyst’s Fog of Corruption will not take any durability damage and should not worry about a big repair cost if the raid has wiped this way multiple times.

Quick Facts

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Possible origins of name

M’uru’s name is possibly derived from the early writings of Tolkien. In some early drafts, the evil spider goddess Ungoliant was called Múru in the Quenya language. (Many see this as a pretty unlikely connection, a coincidence at best.)

Tips

• This encounter involves considerable shadow damage, thus shadow resistance gear may be necessary.
• Protection paladins make formidable tanks for the various shadow beings summoned during the fight.
• Area of effect healing spells are a powerful asset. Restoration shamans are an excellent choice for healing this encounter.

As of patch 2.4, M’uru is missing from his location beneath the Blood Knight headquarters in Silvermoon’s Farstriders’ Square, having been captured by Kael’thas and brought to the Sunwell Plateau. Magister Astalor Bloodsworn curses Kael’thas and his felbloods for their treachery, commenting that Lady Liadrin is looking for another source to power the Blood Knights’ magic.

M’uru is located behind Rohendor, the Second Gate and ahead of Archonisus, the Final Gate, placing it as the fifth boss encounter of the instance. M’uru was made accessible at the same time across all servers five weeks (29 April, 2008) after the opening of Rohendor, the Second Gate. The removed quest Rohendor, the Second Gate warns that M’uru is now a “twisted reflection of its former self”.

Abilities

M’uru

• Negative Energy: A black beam used on 4-5 random targets every second throughout the fight. This does ~940-1060 unresistible Shadow damage.

• Summons 2 Shadowsword Berserker: Run very fast, can be crowd controlled. Dual Wielders, hit for 3.5k with Main Hand, 1.5 with Off Hand. Has buff called Flurry in which attack speed increased is by 100%, movement speed increased is by 100% for 6 sec. 124k HP.

• Summons 1 Shadowsword Fury Mage: Run very fast, can be crowd controlled. Fel Fireball (2 sec cast) deals 4250 to 5750 fire damage (resistible.) Also melees for 3-4k damage. Has a buff called Spell Fury which can be spell stolen. Spell Fury causes spells cast to be instant, increase magic damage by 50% and make them unable to move. 104k HP.

These spawn 1 Mage and 2 Berserkers at both sides every 60 seconds. That is 6 Humanoid adds every minute. The Humanoid adds spawn from the corridor behind M’uru, and the ramp/doorway from which you enter, running towards the center.

• Summon Void Sentinel: Summons a large Voidwalker that hits very hard, roughly 8-10k melee on tanks (~25k unmitigated). 70k HP.
  • Shadow Pulse: AoE ability which deals about 4k shadow damage about every 3 sec.
  • Void Blast: Single target attack which deals 10-11k dmg and puts a debuff slowing your attack by 35% (is spell reflectable and can be resisted).
  • 8 Void Spawns appear upon a Void Sentinels death, doing 700-900 melee damage each. 30k HP. Can be enslaved by warlocks, can be worthwhile enslaving a few at the end of phase one to use against Entropius or even during phase 1.
    • Shadow Bolt Volley: 1200-1600 shadow damage to targets around them (resistible.)

Void Spawns and Void Sentinel can be snared, Void Spawns can be feared.

• Darkness: Every 45 sec, creates a large Void Zone, covering the larger circle (i.e. from up to the outside edge of the wide purple band in the center) in the middle of the room, and does ~3,000 shadow damage per second to anyone standing in it and they cannot be healed. This also spawns 8 Dark Fiends which explode for 5,000 raid-wide damage and leaves a 2000 damage dot on raid when one reaches a target (resistible). These can be killed by Dispels or Purges.

• Enrage: M’uru and Entropius share a 10 minute enrage timer. At this point all damage increases by 5x and the raid instantly wipes due to 2500 – 10,000 damage Negative Energy attacks.

Entropius

• Negative Energy: Becomes a Chain Lightning type attack with random targets every second throughout the fight. This does ~1885 to 2115 Shadow damage to the 1st target, ~50% of that to 2nd target and ~25% to 3rd target. The number of primary targets increases every 12–13 seconds. Unresistible.

• Darkness: Spawns a Void Zone under a player dealing 3000 Shadow damage every second. Will spawn 1 Dark Fiend after a few seconds which must be Dispelled or Purge.

• Singularity: Spawns over a player. After a few seconds will move around and toss any nearby players around dealing 500 damage a tick.

Raid Composition

M’uru is a very DPS intensive fight, and as such it requires stretching your healing and tanking as much as possible. This includes having about 4 tanks, 6 healers and 15 DPS. It is highly recommended, if not absolutely necessary, to include a Protection Paladin as one of your tanks to pick up the Void Spawns that spawn.

You must divide your DPS up into a few sub-groups, that are able to each put out substantial amounts of DPS. Generally you will have 2 groups assigned to killing Humanoid adds, as well as a Warlock group assigned to kill Void Sentinels and Void Spawns.

Strategy

Pulling M’uru

When you are ready to pull M’uru, DPS will mount up in the door way and be ready to run in to their positions and burn M’uru as hard as possible before switching to your respective jobs. Humanoid tanks should be ready to pick up their adds on each side from the start, using only one or two attacks to throw up a Sunder Armor or Faerie Fire on the boss.

Can also use an Eye of Kilrog to engage and quickly reset him, allowing 30 seconds for the raid to setup and position themselves.

Phase 1

While your raid group runs in and attacks M’uru, you will be in Phase 1. This phase is a combination of a control fight and a DPS race. Each Humanoid group, which will be comprised of one tank, one healer, and three to four DPS, will be in charge of controlling each add entrance (the doorway and the opposite side of the room, where the ramp down to Kil’jaeden is blocked off.) A Mage is also highly recommended on each side, to Polymorph a Berserker or Mage. You will also have a group of AoE, generally Warlocks, to control the Void Sentinels and Spawns. This AoE group is recommended to be comprised of a Protection Warrior or Feral Druid, a Protection Paladin, 3-4 Warlocks and 2 healers (one for each tank). You should also have two raid healers assigned to keep the rest of the raid up.

Humanoid Adds

Each Humanoid Wave consists of two Berserkers and one Mage. When the Humanoid wave enters the room, the tank should pick up all 3 of them while a mage sheeps a Berserker and the tank drags the other two adds slightly away from the sheep so multitarget attacks such as Blade Flurry, Cleave, Sweeping Strikes or Multi-Shot can occur.

Void Sentinels and Void Spawns

The warrior will need to be fast in picking up the Void Sentinels, and the warlocks need to be quick in DPSing the Void Sentinels to allow this mobility. Warlocks will have to manage a rotation on the Sentinels and Spawns to ensure that DPS is still active on M’uru, you need to allow the Protection Paladin to gather up two or three sets of spawns before AoEing them down. Warlocks should DPS the Void Sentinels, kill them, allow the Protection Paladin to pick up the adds and while this is occurring DPS M’uru until another Sentinel is ready to be DPSed.

Darkness

You should assign a Shadow Priest to DPS M’uru full time and Mass Dispel the Dark Fiends when Darkness comes up inside of it, thereby killing them. Be ready to target ones that resist with a single Dispel or call it out so someone else can Dispel/Purge.

Phase 2

After M’uru has been slain, he transforms into Entropius, a demon-type void god. Most of the adds that were alive during the transition should be dead or almost dead as there is 10 seconds before Entropius engages the raid. Entropius has 1,450,000 health and at this point the fight turns into an all-out DPS race before the raid damage from Negative Energy ramps up substantially and overwhelms your healers. This fight also tests the reflexes of all players in the raid and their ability to move on a seconds notice.

At level 80

Ideal Raid Composition: 4 healers, 2 tanks, 19 dps

Strategy

At level 80, like Brutullas before him, M’uru is a trivial encounter due to the fact it was designed to be a gear check and dps race. However, please remember to:

1. At least 2 tanks should still be assigned to pick up any adds that are summoned and/or spawned around the encounter area (especially Void Sentinels).
2. Stay out of void zones.
3. Spellsteal / purge / (mass) dispell Dark Fiends.

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