Gladiator Suite Hunter Guide (2.9.0)

paintbox · March 3, 2015

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Before we begin:

Link to original guide:
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I take no credit for making this CR (Thank you, Cokx and Toizi! You are truly geniuses)

These are not the best settings, only what I have found works best for me

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Please feel free to ask questions and request additional information on certain subjects

Im going to give you a general hunter-build run-down before we get into the actual GladiatorSuite stuff.

Who Am I?

My name is Randy, Im a 2800 3x Gladiator Hunter and I've used Gladiator Suite hunter in many hunter pilots. I dont use it on my own account and DO NOT recommend relying on this combat routine

Learn for yourself and youll feel much more confident in your game play; however, Im here to give you the information I use as one of the top hunters on NA servers

Races: (Courtesy of Dillypoo!)

Horde: Orc > Blood Elf > Undead = Troll = Goblin

Alliance: Human > Dwarf > Night Elf > Draenei

Humans: Human's racial is Every Man for Himself. This ability replaces the use of the commonly used Insignias purchased with Conquest. This allows a new trinket to take place of the Insignia. That means you could have a Badge instead. It probably isn't worth using PvE trinkets because when you use two PvP trinkets you gain a significant amount of Resilience. This means that you need to compare a 2nd PvP trinket to the other racials of the other races to determine what is better. The Human Spirit has been redesigned. It no longer increases spirit by 3% but instead increases two secondary stats by a varying amount. As of 10/21/2014 is has not been implemented.

Night Elf: You probably know this but if you don't it's important for you to know that if you use Shadowmeld the same time another ability hits you it acts as if that ability never hit. For example, if you Shadowmeld right as a mage finishes casting Polymorph it will act as if the mage never casted it on you. This is very good to prevent being Crowd Controlled (CC). However make sure to remember that with WoD’s new responsiveness, it is a lot harder to meld instant ccs, but it is still useful against casted ccs and abilities on you. Think of it like an extra Feign Death, which if timed perfectly will immune you to CC. There is also Quickness which can prove to be game breaking if you dodge something like a 6 second Kidney Shot while a teammate is very low, the odds are not in your favor but miracles do happen. It also slightly increases your movement speed by 2%. Your critical strike chance is increased by 1% during the day and your haste by 1% at night.

Orc: They have several racials that benefit the Hunter Class. The second racial is Blood Fury, which is a nice damage bonus. The third is Command which will slightly buff your pets DPS. And the last racial is Hardiness which reduces stuns by 10%. Hardiness can be very handy as Hunters are very susceptible during stuns due to them not having any abilities to get them out of stuns, and they are also unable to use any of their defensives while stunned, except for your pet’s Roar of Sacrifice. A full stun is most likely going to be the window you die as a hunter, and having the time reduced to let you have just enough time to get a really low health Deterrence off can potentially save you from death.

Undead: Will of the Forsaken is the reason why many people go Undead. But since fear isn't as powerful as it was in Mists of Pandaria, Undead don't rate that high on the "best race totem pole". They also have Shadow Resistance which is decent against classes like Warlocks, Death Knights, and Priests. They also have Touch of the Grave for extra damage and healing throughout the game, which is minimal but it's something. And of course Cannibalize our favorite ability to disgrace your opponent after slaying them.

Blood Elf: Blood Elf’s racial is Arcane Torrent and an increased critical strike chance of 1%. Although this is all they provide, Arcane Torrent is a handy ability. Now even though it’s still melee range, it can be used defensively if you have casters casting in your face, or offensively if you’re being aggressive to the point that you are pushed up on top of their team’s healer (Or maybe you can just swag in with Posthaste combined with freedom and interrupt an important cast/heal with the silence). You could use it to follow up after a trap or to lead into one, potentially giving you just enough time to get a kill off. Not only does it provide a 2s silence it gives you a free focus which can sometimes allow you to get another damage ability or even a Tranq Shot off. With the removal of our Silencing Shot and many other blanket silences in the game, Blood Elf is now a very strong horde race for Hunters if you can successfully use Arcane Torrent in an effective manner.

Dwarf: Stoneform allows you the remove all diseases, poisons, and now magic effects as well as giving you a 10% damage reduction bonus. So, if you are able to use this RIGHT before you get stunned and take a lot of damage it could save you. Also it’s important to remember that the two things that hunters are weakest against is DoT damage and stuns, and since stoneform can remove pretty much all DoT effects on you, it can save your life. Stoneform->Deterrence at low HP will give you a real immunity as DoT’s will otherwise keep ticking through Deter. Dwarf’s critical strike damage has also been increased by 2%

Goblin: Rocket jump owns. It has great synergy with disengage, and can be used as an extra escape, and extra way to get into battle, or you can use it to cover greater distances with your disengages. It's a really nifty racial and has tons of potential. Also Goblins have passive 1% Haste Which is solid.

Viable Comps: 6.1.0

Jungle (Feral/Hunter/Healer) Gladiator Suite: DRUID available

Cupid (Ret/Hunter/RDruid or RSham)

PHP (Ret/Hunter/Priest)

KFC (Warrior/Hunter/Healer) Gladiator Suite: WARRIOR available

KFChi (Windwalker/Hunter/Healer)

Scatterplay (Shadow Priest/Hunter/RSham) Gladiator Suite: PRIEST available

Beastcleave (Enhance Sham/Hunter/Healer)

Thug (Rogue/Hunter/Healer)

Most of these comps have Combat Routines you can use with them, I recommend Jungle with a Resto Sham personally.

General Spec (Varies game to game)

Survival and Marksmanship Talents

Beastmastery Talents

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT SPIRITBOND SHOULD ONLY BE TAKEN IF YOU WONT BE TRAINED; ON TEAMS THAT GO YOU USE IRON HAWK

Lets Get Into The Details...: (Courtesy of Dillypoo!)

Tier 1: Movement

Posthaste: In 6.0 I prefer this talent over any of the others in the tree. It grants high mobility by giving you 60% movement speed for 8 seconds when you land on the ground. It will also remove you from roots and snares, but it won’t give you a true freedom. It combines very nicely with Master’s Call, and also with traps instantly activating when placed without trap launcher at the targets feet, I feel this talent will allow you to swag in, and swag out in order to get a trap really quickly. To explain this further, you can just disengage towards their teams healer, run in with your Posthaste speed buff, get into melee range of them and then place the non-Trap Launcher Freezing Trap on the healers feet, giving you instant control. Afterwards you can just run back out of their range. Knowing when the right time to do this will be important in WoD, so you may honestly get yourself killed when first learning when it’s appropriate to go for something like that. Also the speed boost stacks with aspect of the cheetah so you can actually run at 90% speed with both buffs activated.

Narrow Escape: While this was preferred in 5.4 for the use of Scatter>Narrow Escape>trapping or silence>Narrow Escape>trapping that would keep their healer effectively stunned granting you a guaranteed trap, the removal of both Scatter and Silencing Shot as well as the trap changes makes this talent unnecessary. It was used as a more offensive talent because it allowed easier CC, but in 6.0 I’d say Posthaste is better both offensively and defensively.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera: This ability can be potentially useful vs some wizard compositions, potentially against Ret Paladins, and against other Hunter teams. The benefits of this talent aren’t really in the 10 second Disengage Cooldown, which is only really useful against Ret Paladins, but mainly the 2 minute Cooldown Deterrence. The reasoning for the strength of the 2 minute Deter is that vs wizards you’re super squishy as a Hunter so having more deters can save your life. Also 2 minute CD Deterrence is useful against Ret Paladins due to their wings having a 2 minute Cooldown as well, meaning you can match every single wings with a deterrence, and against other Hunters you can match their rapid fire with a deterrence. This talent is situational, but don’t underestimate how game changing it can be.

Tier 2: CC

Binding Shot: This is a decent talent, mainly useful if you need to land a trap in a pinch or if you need to peel melee off a healer (TSG, Smokebomb cleave, Vanguards, etc...) I would recommend using this if you wont DR your arena partners stuns (If you arent running with a rogue, for example) Overall, this talent falls behind Wyvern Sting, especially with the 6.1 changes that were made to trap; wyvern is a nice way to tide over our CC until we have another trap back up.

Intimidation: NEVER USE.

Wyvern Sting: As a MoP hunter this ability brought me into this world. This ability was absurdly broken in 5.4. However because our playstyle has been changed and it now has a cast time it will not be used as often, especially in a Wyvern>half trap scenario. However it is still a good choice for when you want to cross CC, which I think is a better design for this ability. If you’re playing with a Rogue, Warrior (Prot mainly, since Arms uses whirlwind as their main filler which will potentially break it), or a Feral Druid, you’ll use this ability to get controls on multiple targets. With the rogue you’ll use the Wyvern as cross CC when he has Cheap>Kidney available for the kill target. Cast your Wyvern on the off target, and run up to their healer and land a trap, or if they are too far away you can try to cast the Wyvern on them and trap the other dps. With a Prot Warrior, you should try to cross CC if he gets a shockwave on both dps. Just like with the Rogue you should try to cast the Wyvern on the dps and then get a trap on their healer when the Wyvern finishes casting, or you can go for a Wyvern on their healer and trap their dps. When playing Hunter Feral Priest (aka junglecleave) I’d say that cross CCing has always been a very high priority of this comp, so getting clones/Wyverns on one target and fears/traps on another since fear and clone now share the same DR category will be your main focus as this comp.

Tier 3: Defensives

Exhiliration: NEVER USE.

Iron Hawk: Passive 10% damage reduction. Take this talent almost always when you are with a healer, as many comps will have high amounts of burst and as a hunter you are very squishy.

Spirit Bond: This talent is good because it gives you passive healing, and that is something hunters lack. It is good when you are in a situation without a healer (duels, world pvp, and double dps 2v2), and also if you are fighting a 3v3 team that has more DoT damage than burst, like a team with an Affliction Warlock or a team with a Survival Hunter. However both of those classes can still deal high burst to you, especially with their partners so spirit bond will not always be useful in that situation, and iron hawk can potentially save you more. It’s situational in 3v3, but it can change games if you pick it at the right time.

Tier 4: Focus

Thrill of the Hunt: In 5.4 hunters would choose between thrill for more consistent damage or Fervor for higher burst potential, and better synergy for Tranq Shot spam. However since Fervor has been removed and is now replaced with Steady Focus, I think all the other talent choices besides this one are garbage.

Tier 5: Pet Damage

A Murder of Crows: Drop crows on ‘em. This is one of our main and best burst abilities, so I’d take this ability pretty much all the time. It has a 1 minute CD in 6.0 and if you’re playing human that also means you can use it with your on-use trinket every time it’s up. Any target that dies with AMoC’s effect on them will reset the cooldown, so I guess that’s kind of useful if you use crows on a Water Ele or another Hunter’s pet, but I wouldn’t really do that often. Also it puts crows on people that eat their skull or something like wtf that’s op.

Blink Strikes: This talent was more useful in 5.4 for killing Shaman totems quickly, but even then I took Crows for the extra burst damage. Now the usefulness of this is even more limited so I wouldn’t take it.

Stampede: Well Stampede is a talent now and because you’d have to give up Crows for it I wouldn’t consider the tradeoff worthwhile. In 5.4 it was baseline to all Hunter specs so it was a lot more useful, but even then it didn’t do that much damage. The real utility of the spell came from the fact that Psychic Scream and Howl of Terror could only AoE fear 5 targets, so you could use this ability to prevent fears. It was also the same reasoning for using Snake Trap in PvP (glyph isn’t worth it as marks) since the trap would summon multiple snakes that could eat the fear for you or your team mates. However with Psychic Scream now having a 45 second CD, and Howl of Terror being on the same tree as Shadowfury and Mortal Coil, you won’t really be needing to use Snakes or Stampede to stop those fears, especially because the pace of the game has changed so that each of those fears aren’t as important as they had been in 5.4. Seriously though, giving up Crows sucks, so don’t take this talent. Crows owns. CAW CAW

Tier 6: Damoogez

Glaive Toss: Short CD, instant cast, 15 focus, has an AoE slow and also does decent damage. It also will give you a quick way to proc ToTH. Make sure not to break CC with it as it is going to hit any targets in the way of its travel. I’d consider it cookie cutter because it’s the most reliable in the tree and gives you an instant cast that does solid damage.

Power Shot: Does a little bit more damage than aimed shot. Also has a knockback attached to it, but I don’t consider it too useful since we already have glyphed Explosive Trap which is more reliable and stronger. It requires you to stand still while moving (of course aspect of the fox will let you cast it on the move). It also has a 45 second CD, so I honestly don’t consider this ability very good in arenas. It can be fun to mess around with, but I wouldn’t use it in any serious form of PvP.

Barrage: This talent provides pretty good damage I guess, but I just still don’t think it’s that great in arenas. Honestly I think it’s flat out terrible in 3v3 arenas. It’s channeled with a really high focus cost, so I just don’t see it as something you could use off Cooldown like you would in maybe a PvE environment. Those 3 seconds of you not really doing anything are not really too worth it to give up, plus it’ll break CC way easier than the other talents. I just don’t think it’s a reliable choice, and I think Glaive Toss is a better option overall for PvP. You’ll use glaive toss more and it’ll fit your rotation better.

Tier 7: Warlords of Frozen Ammo

Focusing Shot: NEVER USE.

Lone Wolf: I feel like this talent is a noob trap because I actually see a decent amount of hunters that PvP get excited for this ability. Giving up Roar of Sacrifice and Master’s Call is pretty terrible in an arena setting, especially in 3v3. The only time I’d choose this is very very very rarely when you are playing with a Rogue and trying to gib someone in the opener. If you don’t kill that target in the opener I feel the loss of RoS and freedom is detrimental and the amount of damage gained doesn’t make up for it.

Exotic Munitions: Exotic Munitions can actually be really useful with the frozen ammo. Since your auto shots will apply a slow on the target you are hitting, you can now effectively permanently slow two targets as a hunter. The frost ammo will slow one target, and the other will be slowed by your concussive shot. This will be most useful when running with a Ret Paladin, as it provides an easier form for them to hit their target, and also for anyone else on your team that either has a weak slowing effect or a melee that will get controlled a lot. Frost ammo is also pretty solid in duels as it will allow you no to even use a GCD on Conc Shot when dueling a melee, and also 2v2s when your partner does not provide a slow. Other than that, poison ammo is what I would use if my melee (best example is a Rogue) is going to always have our kill target slowed. Incendiary ammo is useless, just use Frost or Poison.

It is important to note that Minor Glyphs dont actually make any difference

Your options for major glyphs include:

Glyph of Snake Trap

Glyph of Solace (Recommended)

Glyph of Explosive Trap (Recommended)

Glyph of Animal Bond

Glyph of Camouflage

Glad Suite Settings! (What You Actually Were Looking For)

Offensive:

I dont use Fox on Burst because I manually use it when my healer needs a pet freedom, this is up to you though

Defensive:

Interrupt:

Trap:

Pet:

I dont use freedom on myself because I have Posthaste, slows are 50% and the 60% sprint counteracts it

I use mend pet glyph at 99% so that it dispels anything that could prevent my pet from connecting (assuming im running the glyph)

Freezing Trap CC

Wyvern Sting/Binding Shot CC

I use this to automatically wyvern the DPS we arent attacking and it prioritizes them by CDs etc etc

Play Tips!

Use Explosive Trap on your healer during Stuns+Burst to relieve pressure

Use Snake Trap roots with Frozen Ammo to kite warriors forever

Use Concussive Shot to juke a Grounding Totem into a full trap/wyvern

Use Fox to prevent DKs from Grip-Stopping casts

Use Fox as Marksman to keep Sniper Training active during burst

Keybind Trap to your ShortPause hotkey to manually use traps

Start your burst when you have a weapon/trinket/and on use proc

Disengage breaks roots, utilize this.

Pets (by Comp)!

BeastMastery Pets

Jungle/HLS/Scatterplay/PHP: