WoW Classic Hunter Guide: Weapon Skills, Abilities, Trainers, & Gear

The Hunter in WoW Classic is known for its independence, and is often a top pick for solo content due to its combination of damage output, mobility, control, and survivability. They are the only ranged physical damage dealers in the game, and most raid groups will want at least one or two for the unique utility they bring in the form of Tranquilizing Shot and Distracting Shot.

The core feature of the Hunter class is the beast pets they can tame to fight alongside them. These pets bring a variety of abilities of their own which vary according to their type, and most Hunters keep a few different types of pets stabled for when they are needed. Hunters can also use their pets to distract mobs, which can allow them to very efficiently farm gathering nodes, chests, and other resources, or simply to escape unscathed while their pet takes the hits instead.

Survival Hunter

Marksmanship Hunter

Beast Mastery Hunter

Melee Hunter

Hunter Talent Calculator

Hunter Leveling Guide

Hunter Enchantments

Rhok’delar Quest Guide

Hunter Pre-Raid & Best in Slot (BiS)

19 Hunter Twink

29 Hunter Twink

39 Hunter Twink

Roles and Specializations

The three talent trees for Hunters are Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival.

• Beast Mastery
  • Offers talents for maximizing pet utility and damage.
  • Weaker damage in group content, but strong for solo content.
• Marksmanship
  • Buffs the Hunter’s ranged damage output.
  • Considered the optimal choice for raids, offering the highest potential DPS.
• Survival
  • Contains talents for improving traps, melee abilities, and utility.
  • Strong for solo play and PvP, but not optimal for raids.

View the complete Hunter talent tree in our Hunter Talent Calculator.

Class Feature: Pets

Hunters are able to use Tame Beast on almost any Beast type creature in the world, recruiting them as a pet to fight permanently alongside the Hunter. Different types of Beasts offer different abilities and buffs to the Hunter and their allies. Most pet types are optimized for offense, defense, or a balance of the two.

Pets can be stored and accessed at Stable Masters, who can usually be found in any major quest hub or city. They need to be fed regularly in order to maintain their happiness. A pet’s happiness affects its damage output. Each pet type has a specific diet of foods it can be fed.

Pets also need to be trained, and you will find Pet Trainers anywhere you find a Hunter Trainer. Pets have their own experience bar and level up by fighting alongside the Hunter. Leveling increases their stats and unlocks new skills to be trained.

Be sure to check out our Hunter pets guides below for all kinds of useful info about Hunter pets!

Class Feature: Quivers and Ammo

One other small but significant feature that is somewhat unique to Hunters is their need to carry around a lot of ammo for their ranged weapons. Bows and Crossbows require arrows while Guns require bullets. A Hunter who has run out of ammo is not a very effective one! To carry around all their ammo, Hunters must use at least one bag slot for a Quiver or Ammo Pouch, which means that Hunters usually have less inventory space available than other classes.

Resources

Hunters use Mana as their main ability resource.

Races

Hunters have a few Race options for each faction.

Racial Abilities

Starting Stats

Alliance

Stat	Dwarf	Night Elf
Stamina	24	20
Strength	22	17
Agility	19	28
Intellect	19	20
Spirit	20	21

Horde

Stat	Orc	Tauren	Troll
Stamina	23	23	22
Strength	23	25	21
Agility	20	18	25
Intellect	17	15	16
Spirit	24	23	22

Weapon Skills and Armor Proficiencies

Hunters can equip Cloth or Leather armor from level 1, and can learn to use Mail at level 40 from their class trainer.

Below is a table of weapon types that Hunters can use and where the initial skill can be trained. They can use every type of weapon except Maces and Thrown weapons.

Weapon Type	Where to Learn
Bows	Ilyenia Moonfire in Darnassus Hanashi in Orgrimmar Sayoc in Orgrimmar
Crossbows	Bixi Wobblebonk in Ironforge Woo Ping in Stormwind Archibald in Undercity
Daggers	Ilyenia Moonfire in Darnassus Bixi Wobblebonk in Ironforge Woo Ping in Stormwind Sayoc in Orgrimmar Archibald in Undercity
Fist Weapons	Ilyenia Moonfire in Darnassus Buliwyf Stonehand in Ironforge Sayoc in Orgrimmar
Guns	Buliwyf Stonehand in Ironforge Ansekhwa in Thunder Bluff
One-Handed Axes	Buliwyf Stonehand in Ironforge Hanashi in Orgrimmar Sayoc in Orgrimmar
One-Handed Swords	Woo Ping in Stormwind Archibald in Undercity
Polearms (Requires level 20)	Woo Ping in Stormwind Archibald in Undercity
Staves	Ilyenia Moonfire in Darnassus Woo Ping in Stormwind Hanashi in Orgrimmar Sayoc in Orgrimmar Ansekhwa in Thunder Bluff
Two-Handed Axes	Buliwyf Stonehand in Ironforge Hanashi in Orgrimmar Sayoc in Orgrimmar
Two-Handed Swords	Woo Ping in Stormwind Archibald in Undercity

Notable Abilities

Hunters have a lot of useful abilities that will make them a welcome addition to any group.

Utility

• Beast Lore
• Eagle Eye
• Flare
• Track Beasts
• Track Demons
• Track Dragonkin
• Track Elementals
• Track Giants
• Track Humanoids
• Track Undead
• Track Hidden

Movement

• Aspect of the Cheetah
• Aspect of the Pack

Dispels

• Tranquilizing Shot (from Tome of Tranquilizing Shot)

Crowd Control

• Concussive Shot
• Counterattack (Survival talent)
• Freezing Trap
• Frost Trap
• Scare Beast
• Wing Clip
• Wyvern Sting (Survival talent)

Threat

• Disengage
• Distracting Shot
• Feign Death
• Intimidation (Beast Mastery talent)

Buffs

• Aspect of the Pack
• Aspect of the Wild
• Trueshot Aura (Marksmanship talent)

Debuffs

• Hunter’s Mark
• Viper Sting

Hunter Trainer Locations

Hunter class trainers can be found in starting zones and in a few other locations depending upon your faction.

Trainer	Faction	Location	Coordinates
Danlaar Nightstride	Alliance	Ashenvale – Silverwind Refuge	50.0, 67.8
Alenndaar Lapidaar	Alliance	Ashenvale – Bolyun’s Camp	18.0, 59.8
Dorion	Alliance	Darnassus – Cenarion Enclave	42.2, 7.6
Jeen’ra Nightrunner	Alliance	Darnassus – Cenarion Enclave	39.6, 5.8
Jocaste	Alliance	Darnassus – Cenarion Enclave	40.2, 9.8
Thorgas Grimson*	Alliance	Dun Morogh – Coldridge Valley	29.0, 67.6
Grif Wildheart	Alliance	Dun Morogh – Kharanos	45.8, 53.0
Jen’shan*	Horde	Durotar – Valley of Trials	42.8, 69.2
Thotar	Horde	Durotar – Razor Hill	51.8, 43.6
Kaerbrus	Alliance	Felwood – Talonbranch Glade	61.8, 23.6
Daera Brightspear	Alliance	Ironforge – Hall of Arms	71.6, 88.8
Olmin Burningbeard	Alliance	Ironforge – Hall of Arms	70.6, 83.8
Regnus Thundergranite	Alliance	Ironforge – Hall of Arms	69.8, 83.6
Dargh Trueaim	Alliance	Loch Modan – The Farstrider Lodge	82.4, 62.4
Lanka Farshot*	Horde	Mulgore – Red Cloud Mesa	44.2, 75.8
Thotar	Horde	Mulgore – Bloodhoof Village	51.8, 43.6
Yaw Sharpmane	Horde	Mulgore – Bloodhoof Village	47.8, 55.6
Ormak Grimshot	Horde	Orgrimmar – Valley of Honor	66.2, 18.6
Sian’dur	Horde	Orgrimmar – Valley of Honor	67.8, 18.4
Xor’juul	Horde	Orgrimmar – Valley of Honor	67.0, 20.0
Einris Brightspear	Alliance	Stormwind – Dwarven District	61.8, 15.6
Thorfin Stoneshield	Alliance	Stormwind – Dwarven District	62.4, 14.6
Ulfir Ironbeard	Alliance	Stormwind – Dwarven District	62.0, 15.0
Kragg	Horde	Stranglethorn Vale – Grom’gol Base Camp	31.2, 28.6
Orgromm	Horde	Swamp of Sorrows – Stonard	47.2, 53.2
Ayanna Everstride	Alliance	Teldrassil – Shadowglen	58.5, 40.4
Dazalar	Alliance	Teldrassil – Dolanaar	56.6, 59.6
Holt Thunderhorn	Horde	Thunder Bluff – Hunter’s Rise	57.6, 88.6
Kary Thunderhorn	Horde	Thunder Bluff – Hunter’s Rise	58.2, 87.8
Urek Thunderhorn	Horde	Thunder Bluff – Hunter’s Rise	58.8, 86.6

Hunter Pet Trainer Locations

Trainer	Faction	Location	Coordinates
Bolyun	Alliance	Ashenvale – Bolyun’s Camp	18.0, 60.0
Caelyb	Alliance	Ashenvale – Silverwind Refuge	49.8, 67.0
Silvaria	Alliance	Darnassus – Cenarion Enclave	42.2, 8.8
Peria Lamenur	Alliance	Dun Morogh – Kharanos	46.6, 53.8
Harruk	Horde	Durotar – Razor Hill	52.0, 43.6
Nalesette Wildbringer	Alliance	Felwood – Talonbranch Glade	62.2, 24.2
Belia Thundergranite	Alliance	Ironforge – Hall of Arms	70.8, 85.6
Claude Erksine	Alliance	Loch Modan – The Farstrider Lodge	82.2, 62.8
Reban Freerunner	Horde	Mulgore – Bloodhoof Village	47.6, 55.6
Xao’tsu	Horde	Orgrimmar – Valley of Honor	66.6, 14.8
Karrina Mekenda	Alliance	Stormwind – Dwarven District	61.6, 15.8
Zudd	Horde	Stranglethorn Vale – Grom’gol Base Camp	31.2, 28.8
Grokar	Horde	Swamp of Sorrows – Stonard	47.2, 53.0
Keldas	Alliance	Teldrassil – Dolanaar	56.8, 59.6
Hesuwa Thunderhorn	Horde	Thunder Bluff – Hunter’s Rise	54.6, 83.0

Gear Sets

Here are all of the equipment sets for Hunters in Classic WoW, including dungeon sets, raid tier sets, and PvP sets.

• Beaststalker Armor (Dungeon Set 1 or Tier 0)
• Beastmaster Armor (Dungeon Set 2 or Tier 0.5)
• Giantstalker Armor (Tier 1 – Molten Core)
• Predator’s Armor (Tier 1.5 – Zul’Gurub)
• Dragonstalker Armor (Tier 2 – Blackwing Lair)
• Trappings of the Unseen Path (Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj)
• Striker’s Garb (Tier 2.5 – Temple of Ahn’Qiraj)
• Cryptstalker Armor (Tier 3 – Naxxramas)
• The Highlander’s Determination/ The Defiler’s Determination (Arathi Basin)
• Lieutenant Commander’s Pursuit/ Champion’s Pursuit (Rare PvP)
• Field Marshal’s Pursuit/ Warlord’s Pursuit (Epic PvP)

Notable Items

• Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers: This epic bow is the reward for a challenging quest that begins with a drop in the Molten Core raid. (Rhok’delar Guide)
• Lok’delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers: The melee counterpart of Rhok’delar, which is earned through the same quest.

Skill Books

Below are all of the skill books that are available for Hunters in WoW Classic. These books teach new abilities or ability ranks that cannot be learned from trainers. The books are not Soulbound and can therefore be traded or purchased from the Auction House.