Strategies

Druid/Hunter (Therst/Darkalpha)

Authors

Therst
Gorgonnash
US-Rampage
Darkalpha
Gorgonnash
US-Rampage

Top Teams View All

 TeamRatingRecordGuildBattlegroupRealm
8Jekuto made us XFER 2507142 - 21US-StormstrikeArchimonde
 
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Megatf
7
41
13
2507142 - 21
Zna
8
11
42
2505116 - 21
49AJOlympics KEYZ INC LOL 2423133 - 22EU-VerderbnisKargath
 
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Karnee
13
0
48
2423133 - 22
Gnubby
41
20
0
2423133 - 22
64SHE LIK ME LIKA LOLLIPOP 2413172 - 60US-BloodlustTichondrius
 
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Æyo
34
0
27
2413172 - 60
Twixz
7
41
13
2413172 - 60
136Smilez 2378213 - 98US-ShadowburnEmerald Dream
 
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Bearcat
8
11
42
2368213 - 98
Ajex
7
43
11
2368213 - 98
139WILL LOSE FOR BETA KEYS 237781 - 9US-RampageCho'gall
 
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Zekee
23
0
38
237781 - 9
Rammyz
7
20
34
237781 - 9

Top Builds View All

Druid
3402727.5%
13113715.9%
11113914.5%
Hunter
7411340.3%
1141914.9%
4120014.9%

General Information

I realize this is a long guide, but by reading the entire thing, you will get more out of it. I try to repeat important points in each different lineup involving one of the same classes, but it gets tedious and I may forget to add some things that I already have 1 or more times in other strategies involving that class.

Druid/Hunter is in my opinion, one of the most powerful 2v2 compositions that there is. I prefer it to Priest/Hunter for a few reasons, including, Druids are much more durable vs. melee, have more mobility than Priests, have heavy CC, and they compliment my play style. It really doesn't have many hard counter combos when played correctly; my druid, Darkalpha, and I typically only lose to very skilled Warlock/Rogue teams and T6 geared double DPS teams, and we win more often than we lose against them.

Even if you lose games to comps that you shouldn't, don't get discouraged. As long as you learn something from the game, that's all that matters. Points never stay solid, and you can always get more points to make up for any you may lose.

Basic Information

The Druid/Hunter team is all about control and mana drain. Every 15 seconds, every time Viper Sting is up, you need to use it; you cannot overlook this it will cripple your team. You need to develop synergy between your Druid and yourself through excellent communication and experience playing together. To beat some of the best teams, you need to be able to completely shut down melee classes to avoid damage and avoid getting low on mana. With this comp, the games are often very long, so make sure you have plenty of arrows, and you and your Druid both have at least 200 arena water each. I only carry about 160, but Darkalpha has 1200 or more on him at all times. Use Scorpid Sting against melee DPS teams such as Druid/Warrior, especially when they go on your Druid. Always use track hidden. A great way to interrupt spell casts on yourself, mainly CC casts is to Feign Death.

I cannot stress enough how important communication is.

Know where your partner is at all times. It really helps to put up raid markers so you can see each other through obstacles. Never get low on mana, this is mostly true for your Druid. If your Druid gets even remotely low on mana, for example 60%, you need to CC spam your opponents so they can drink. This obviously only holds true for single DPS + healer teams. Double DPS games are over too quickly to warrant drinking. Always have Aspect of the Viper up, unless you encounter a double DPS team.

A message from Darkalpha - Basic overall Druid concepts
Stay mobile and stick close to a pillar. A druid that stands still is a Druid who is vulnerable to any number of CCs/interrupts. Stick to your HoT's, and always be on the move to stay out of your enemy's line of sight. You should never, ever, stand still except when you're casting cyclone and roots, always be trying to gain better positioning on pillars so you can break LOS if they decide to turn to you. Regrowth should almost never be used except on very rare occasions (You baited a counterspell and your partner is below 50% life and taking heavy damage, for example).

Pet
I use a Scorpid pet for Scorpid poison, in order to cheese the dispel mechanic with Viper Stings. He has Avoidance, Cobra Reflexes, Frost Resistance (Rank 3), Great Stamina (Rank 3), Growl, Natural Armor (Rank 3), Nature Resistance (Rank 5), Scorpid Poison (Rank 5), and Shadow Resistance (Rank 5). Max out Shadow Resist to help it survive vs. Warlock/Healer teams, and max Nature Resist to help resist Entangling Roots and Hibernates on it vs. Druid/DPS teams.

Builds

Hunter

0/42/19
This is a very basic hunter PvP spec. It is good for 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5, as well as BG's. I used this spec for a quite a while and some Hunters still do. There are many variations of this spec. You can place 20 in Survival, and cut out 1 point from Careful Aim to put into Wing Clip, or take 1 point out of Entrapment and place it into Improved Wing Clip. Basically just 1-2 point variations of the same spec based on your preference.

11/41/9 - Recommended
This is my current build, as well as Megatf's. It is a tri-spec built specifically for 2v2 and 3v3. The idea behind this build is being able to prevent your opponents from drinking as easily (especially Druids) and making a pet revive mid-game viable. Most good teams love to kill hunter pets. This is for good reason. Whenever your pet dies, you can simply Freeze Trap/Wing Clip/Cyclone/Root and get him back up in 4 seconds for minimal mana.

Comparison with 0/42/19
You lose 10% HP from Survivalist, 1% damage and crit bonus damage from Humanoid Slaying, 16% chance from Entrapment, Deterrence, and most importantly, Surefooted. To make up for the loss in hit, I elected to find get a 30+ hit scope. You can also socket your gear with +hit gems.
You gain 10% pet health, 5% health, from Endurance Training, 7% pet armor and 4% armor to yourself from Thick Hide, 2% damage from Focused Fire, Improved Revive Pet, and Bestial Swiftness.

Bestial Swiftness is the other great part of a tri-spec, it makes it 10x harder for casters, Druids especially to get out of combat to drink, and they get less mana from jumping off the Blade's Edge Arena bridge to get in drink ticks; your pet runs just as fast as they do in travel form.
I recommend this build but there may be variations of these specs, so experiment if you so choose.

Losing Humanoid Slaying is made up by Focused Fire; losing Survivalist is made up by Endurance Training; losing Deterrence hurts, but if you are relying on it, you're doing something wrong. The only talent that I really hate losing is Surefooted, and that's because I had to switch from a 28 crit scope to a 30+ hit to reach the 5% hit minimum. However, teams LOVE to kill pets, and we need them to keep our opponents in combat and from bandaging. If your pet dies and you cannot resurrect it against a healer/DPS team, you've lost the game because they can drink whenever they want to. Improved Revive Pet makes it possible (and incredibly easy) and it reduces the mana cost to around 1600, and the cast time down to 4 seconds. Within a trap timer and a cyclone, you can have it back up easily.

Druid

A Message from Darkalpha - 8/11/42
While I feel that Insect Swarm builds (13/11/37) are very strong, they are not my play style. I am a very, very defensive player, and losing the +heal from Empowered Rejuvenation and the other talents that you can choose is not worth it, at least to me. I can avoid LOS enough to where I don't need the extra range on Cyclone and Roots - although I can really see it helping, especially for new Druids. Don't be afraid to try the Insect Swarm build, you may it a better match for your play style.

Gear

Hunter

Get all of the S3 honor gear. I recommend at least 335-350 resilience, and it's incredible to have over 400 for double DPS teams. Bow > Gear > Melee weapons. Get everything enchanted with the best possible, and socket with Black Temple gems if available. Pick up 2x one handers and enchant them both with 30+ intellect, and a two hander with 35 agility. Use the one handers as your standard weapons; they are incredible for mana and mana regeneration you gain from Viper. Whenever you run up against a double DPS team, swap onto your two hander for the added resilience and higher Raptor Strikes.

If you want to be cheap against a team that you know consists of a warlock or healer, you can use SR, though if you were going to do that, I wouldn't wear more than 125 or so because you sacrifice a lot of damage for it. Additionally, resilience is kind of worthless against DoT's, honestly, so put on some PvE gear while maintaining at least 11k health. If you REALLY want to be cheap, I guess you could wear like 300 SR, but only if your druid had it, too.

Personally, I wear 2x T6 occasionally for the +5% Viper mana regen bonus and a little extra damage. I have 335 resilience with one handers on and T6 shoulders + legs. Don't use T6 gloves, because you won't want to sacrifice the 5% Multi-Shot damage bonus. Also, you'll need to use a Talisman of the Alliance or Horde to make up for the loss of resilience. I've been refraining from this lately because of an influx of double DPS teams, but if your BG supports a lot of single DPS, its great for mana regeneration.

Check my Armory profile for information regarding gemming your PvP gear.

Matchups


Comments:

ThordokMar 25, 2008 - 6:00 PM (HideShow)
what do you think of BM hunters?
AlyxisApr 4, 2008 - 4:43 PM (HideShow)
BM hunters fail with druids, improved stings and scatter shot are too important. Bestial wrath will not be much of a boon against healer+DPS even if it makes things a little easier on double DPS.
DargoneApr 8, 2008 - 2:34 AM (HideShow)
I have tried MM and I lost all the time. when the game begin they now that I can silence, scatter or any else, so they rush me and kill me quick as they can, they slow me and i can't move. Now I'm BM, when they rush to me i just put freezing trap and cast bestial wrath with the beast within, and run away. Thats so easy they lost interest to kill me. Also Intimidation is better than scatter shot because we can attack him while he can't move so that puts more dps.
BigimotApr 14, 2008 - 7:51 PM (HideShow)
you are not supposed to do die if you got a resto druid in your team.
DellricApr 23, 2008 - 10:39 AM (HideShow)
I have a reasonably good spec designed for CC 0/30/31 gives you aimed shot scatter shot wyren stings improved traps and improved stings what I like to do is either freeze one person or lay a frost trap around the healer so he/she can kite around it and I can sleep someone and just dps the guy on the healer I think this technique/spec works better with 3v3 I have a good team make-up with a ret pally druid and me but are team is rather low cause we got raped like 10 times in a row by the same team even though we took like a half hour break O.o!?!!?!
SarndoApr 24, 2008 - 6:27 AM (HideShow)
Regarding pet training: What's the idea behind Frost Resistance in 2's? Mages are relatively weak in 2's, they only really work with rogues, and they're one of the easiest 2 DPS teams to beat, and a fight where losing your pet isn't a big deal. Just thinking that frost resistance seems a little wasted.

I'm only talking 2's, mages are much more prevalent in 3's than 2's.
MorkageApr 30, 2008 - 7:39 AM (HideShow)
good morning guys, yesterday we played druid hunter setup again, first time since s1 was closed. i really liked it because with a lot of supporting my hunter, he was really able to ruin opponents healer, all double dps setups werent a problem. But than we played against rouge/warrior for a few times, both full s3. we lost every game, unable to heal their dps for more than one minute. they played really good, but we even havent had just a little chance. need some help against their playstyle.

warrior started with nuking my hunter, after about 10 seconds, rouge didnt found me he also went on my hunter, i went out of stealth for healing, depending on their dps i healed a bit diffrent every game. after that i hotted me because of knowing they will switch target on me after detecting me behind the pillow. 4-5 seconds after coming out of stealth, rouge was shadowstepping me, stunnig me, warrior kept dps on my hunter, i cycloned the rouge, than intercept of the warrior came. he was making amazing dps so i ran around the pillar, to come away from the rouge, just to feral charge him, to come away from warrior. in this time my hunter dps the rouge as much as possible. but their rougestun and intercept rotation were unhealable.

during the games i had a few ideas to minimize their dps, but their burst dps in the beginning made it impossible.

so, you got an idea what i am donig wrong, what my hunter has got to do, to protect me, ect... ect...

we are not trained in our hunter-druid setup, but even havent had a chance.

nice day....
moritz christensen
CloduMay 1, 2008 - 6:56 PM (HideShow)
is your hunter having deterence? anyway ... any tips against ench shaman + druid healer ?
ManloreMay 26, 2008 - 2:50 AM (HideShow)
ok for the shamans.. wat u wanna do is get away from them and there poles and while u killing htem have ur partner take out the totem poles..... then when that is done just take his butt out.. ok for the druid see it depends resto or feral..... pst me and tell me ok
JackellekcajMay 30, 2008 - 10:37 AM (HideShow)
I find enhance shammans to be squishy so it seams like a similar but an easier druid/war combo
JackellekcajMay 30, 2008 - 10:38 AM (HideShow)
my spelling sucks seems***
HuntpowerJun 3, 2008 - 9:11 AM (HideShow)
anyone can tell smth about what he said he uses 2 t6... Should i also use 3/5 a3 and 2/8 gronn and other vindicators to have the best results?
AkravatardJun 16, 2008 - 4:27 PM (HideShow)
I've read that you rarely use Regrowth in 2v2 so what is the reasoning behind picking up 5/5 imp regrowth. When you could pick up living spirit or tree of life to help win the mana war?
KookuJun 29, 2008 - 6:38 PM (HideShow)
feral druid hunter strat plz
XaniduJul 3, 2008 - 3:23 PM (HideShow)
Why not swap the one point in Careful Aim to Go For The Throat? If you do then everytime you multi shot and get 3 crits, your pet will recieve 75 focus. (That is, unless you dont get three crits, like only 2 or none at all)
DesJul 9, 2008 - 1:53 PM (HideShow)
I have a question: How can I avoid being poly while rogue stunning me or mage frost nova me. Can do nothing while stunned, Silencing shot, 3s and 0.5-1s allow flying time, there left <0.5s(or less with haste frost veil), An arcane shot will make me unable to use it, So do Feint Death. And even you can, 3s silence+ FD interrupt adding up less than 6seconds frost nova. There is no way to escape from being sheep.
SoladrashJul 11, 2008 - 4:49 PM (HideShow)
I don't know what we are doing wrong against rogues, but my druid with 406 resilience, 1882 +healing gets blown up fast by any rog/dps team. All it takes is a full 6 second kidney shot. I know we have to be doing something wrong but don't know what.
GreysonwolfJul 16, 2008 - 12:26 AM (HideShow)
If your healer is being assaulted by a rogue, just scatter shotand scorpid sting the rogue, the 1-2 seconds between him trinketing saves life (and if he doesn't trinket then yougot the full 4 seconds...) and the xtra 5+% chance to miss is pretty good. Also drop a flare so he can't vanish and chain another stun... this should help your rogue issues :)
PollymorphJul 28, 2008 - 6:22 PM (HideShow)
What do you do when your completely undergeared for your rating level? lol im in the 1700's and we are facing full s3 teams....we beat them half the time....but the other half they rock us simply because of their gear. my hunter's gear is decent, but im in full merc/guardians
ZiraAug 11, 2008 - 5:19 AM (HideShow)
Get better gear? I'm not too sure what answer you were looking for but the gap between S2 and 3 or even 4 probably isn't the reason you're losing as it isn't that big.
LingchouSep 2, 2008 - 1:56 PM (HideShow)
Mage/Mage strat?
BraskaSep 8, 2008 - 5:33 AM (HideShow)
If it helps, any time you go up against a druid/warrior or druid/rogue team, start the battle off with no pet. The sole purpose of a pet against a druid team is to keep the druid from drinking. Also, if its a rogue with a druid, he will waste his time tring to find a stealthed pet. Shapeshift and LoS games make the scorpid debuff nearly useless against druids. Once you get your CC rotation in, and the opposing teams druid starts to run and hide, call your pet and keep him from drinking. Dismissing your pet is just as important as Rezing. An isntant whistle with full HP is much better than a 4 sec cast with half health.
MarcopoloOct 2, 2008 - 5:50 PM (HideShow)
hey is it worth to respec to 0/42/19. my spec is 0/48/13

Reply:


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