The Burning Crusade Hunter Arena Specs (5v5)

Not all specs are created equal for 5v5's. However, since most players have to balance between a raiding versus arena spec, I will discuss how each spec can be utilized for 5v5's.

11.1 Beast Master

Beast Master is arguably one of less viable specs for 5v5. It lacks interrupts and burst damage, and also is mediocre on survival and range since BM builds typically put 0 points into survival. In 2v2/3v3's, BM is very powerful because used properly it typically guarantees an early death of one opponent. In 5v5's, bestial wrath is more easily survived through due to the presence of multiple healers. The key to playing BM well is to know when to use Bestial Wrath.

Bestial Wrath
Knowing when to pop The Beast Within will win or lose games. BW is on a long cooldown and thus typically can only be used once per match or at least by the time the cooldown is up, the match may already have been decided. Since I have one chance to burst, my main goal when BM specced is to ensure that one target goes down before one of our guys is killed; this turns the game quickly into a 5v4 and even if I am near useless afterward, we should still win. This is a bit different than playing MM where I provide more sustained burst DPS throughout.

In a typical 5v5, the hunter and pet focus on the main assist and then burn TBW shortly afterward in order to out-DPS the opposing healer. I have found however that unless my team has a priest who can mass dispel a pally BoP, I often end up wasting my BW because the target is bubbled halfway through my BW, forcing my pet to acquire another target and waste BW DPS during travel time. Thus, I often wait until after the BoP wears off before using BW. This gives me more flexibility because I can also use BW to escape an assist train (i.e. when the opposing team's DPS targets and CC's me to burn me down). The advantage of waiting is that my BW will likely be able to actually burn a target versus force a bubble; the disadvantage is that the later I use BW, the less likely I will be able to use it again during the same match. Some players will even do without their PvP trinket and rely on BW as their only means to escape CC. This has some advantages but I don't recommend it for newer players particularly since the trinket breaks all CC including sheeps and adds resilience.

Intimidation
Intimidation is a nice true stun that can hold a target in place or CC a healer. It is however not an instant interrupt because it only happens on the next successful pet attack; thus, it takes a lot of planning in order to use effectively.

The most typical use of intimidation is to hold a target in place while TBW is activated to burn it down. I have found that this is unnecessary in many situations because the target can be dazed or slowed by either our other abilities or another class. Instead, I use intimidation as a harassment tool against the main healer. As I burn a target, I send my pet after the healer (who is usually close by) and blow intimidation. Alternatively, I will send my pet on the healer from the very start of the matchup so he is already there interrupting heals with his normal attacks, and then I can pop intimidation to almost immediately CC the healer. The drawback of this is that I am splitting DPS. Typically splitting the pet to attack a healer is more of a utility for non-BM since there pets are moreso used for harassment than damage, particularly since kill command does not work if the pet and hunter are attacking different targets.

Pets
One caution about BM is that pets tend to be targeted first for burn, this is one of the glaring weaknesses of BM in 5v5's. Spending a minimal amount of time to assist train the pet is extremely effective since DPS pets don't have a high amount of health, have zero resilience, and typically aren't a target for healers or BoPs. Pets can be ressed fairly quickly with improved revive pet, but they come back doing a smaller amount of damage, at less health, and without party buffs. Reviving pets also takes a fair amount of mana, which is a valuable commodity since in most typical long-ish 5v5 games, running out of mana often equates to death or lack of DPS.

For MM and survival spec, pets can get away with having little health/armor and instead stacking resistance, since pets are typically not burned down but rather are just CC'd if necessary. For BM, I split sta and armor and typically send in my pet after we have engaged; this costs a bit of DPS but makes it less likely that my pet will be targeted.

Using pets to break stalemates
In most 5v5's, the team that attacks first is at a disadvantage. Typically, a game will start out with both sides hiding behind a pillar and hoping that the other team will become impatient. BM pets are situationally useful here for harassment because they can be sent at the other team and then quickly ressed and fed after they're killed. Often the other team is baited into charging once my pet dies, but then my pet is ready to go before they get to us. Note that this can be dangerous if the other team charges before I've had a chance to heal my pet and drink up a bit, so it is very situational.

I find that sending my pet ahead is particularly useful against teams that have stealthed DPS. If healers are the only visible opponents, I will send my pet in and harass them, forcing the DPS to either reveal themselves to kill my pet or stand around watching the healers try to take the pet down.

BM build variants
41/20/0 is the classic BM build. Other varients are 41/5/15 for more survivability, or 40/21/0 for scattershot. 41/5/15 is attractive for utility but severely diminishes DPS due to the lack of mortal shots. 40/21/0 is attractive because it gives scattershot as crowd control, but TBW is often seen as too attractive to give up because of its added damage and ability to break CC.

11.2 Marksman

Marksman is one of the more popular specs for 5v5, primarily because it has decent continuous burst damage and gives two interrupts.

Silencing Shot
Silencing shot is an amazing anti-caster ability in 5v5's because it can shut down healers at critical times and thus enable the team to burn down a primary target. Creating a focus macro and setting the focus to the opposing team's main healer can make this trivially easy: start burning down a target, then hit a focused silencing shot on the healer around the target is about to go down. In games with two healers, I can often help burn a target, then silence one healer, tab to the next and scatter and freeze him, then go back to the primary burn target.

Scatter shot
Scatter shot is yet another amazing caster interrupt as well as an escape tool for getting away from melee. Whereas in BGs I typically use scatter shot to gain distance on opponents, in arenas I will rely on blessing of freedom or other teammates to help me with this. I primarily save scatter for the same usage as silencing shot -- that is, to interrupt casters. The other main use for scatter is for interrupting rogues. As soon as a rogue starts to unload on our priest or pally, I will find him and scatter him.

Pets
Since MM pets typically don't do an extreme amount of damage, they are best used to annoy healers and casters. A pet with cobra reflexes can cause all sorts of headache on healers or cause them to waste time dealing with the pet. Note that kill command will not work if the pet is attacking a different target than the hunter; kill command only works on the target that we crit in order to enable it.

Build variants
MM builds tend to have a lot of internal variation versus difference in number of points allocated. MM specs will typically be 0/41/20 or any other variant that has at least 41 points in MM and the rest in surv. One useful talent that is often overlooked is improved stings, for viper sting. Another deceptive one is improved arcane shot, which is utterly useless in PvE but can singificant increase damage in PvP DPS which is all about spamming instants.

11.3 Survival

I have not used survival spec in 5v5's so I have less to say about the spec. Survival is great for burst damage, stronger traps, and additional CC.

Wyvern sting
Wyvern sting is our only form of long distance crowd control. After an opponent wakes up from wyvern sting, a DoT is applied that will break further CC unless it is removed. A common tactic is to scorpid sting a target after it wakes up for wyvern sting if the target needs to be CC'd again immediately. Or, another wyvern sting will also override the DoT.