Abilities (2)

Shots: Ranged attacks requiring at least 5 yards of distance. Early on, Arcane Shot provides instant damage. Aimed Shot can be gained through talents. Concussive Shot is versatile for slowing enemies or managing aggro, especially when drawing aggro away from your pet. Some shots share cooldowns.

Stings: Only one of each sting can be active. While Serpent Sting is common, knowing your opponent determines the best sting to use.

Traps: The choice of trap depends on your enemies. Ice Trap is effective for crowd control (CC). Snake Trap can apply poisons to nearby enemies. Fire traps deal significant damage but share a cooldown with Survival Hunters' Black Arrow. As of a patch, you can deploy one Ice, one Snake, and one Fire trap simultaneously.

Aspects: These are frequently changed and can be bound to number keys. Hawk is the base aspect. Viper is for mana regeneration. Beast is for finishing off close enemies. Monkey helps avoid attacks. Cheetah increases movement speed when not under attack. Dragonhawk combines Hawk and Monkey aspects for level 80 characters. A common rotation involves using Dragonhawk while attacking, switching to Viper for mana, and then back to Dragonhawk before the next attack.

Tracking: Tracking specific enemy types can provide a small perk if you have the Survival talent for it. Otherwise, it's primarily for identifying enemy types. If you have the talent, check the tooltip for each boss to maximize DPS. Track Hidden can be useful in PvP, but Ice Trap or Flare can serve a similar purpose.

Misdirection: A powerful raiding tool available at level 70 and above, granting 3 free attacks to divert aggro to a target, including your pet. This allows for a respec into a true DPS spec.

Multi-Shot/Aimed Shot: These share the same cooldown (CD). Use Multi-Shot for multiple enemies and Aimed Shot for single targets. Aimed Shot is a talent ability, but all hunters should aim to acquire it; otherwise, use Multi-Shot consistently.

Volley: This is your primary area-of-effect (AoE) attack, significantly enhanced in the Marksman tree. It is recommended to use Misdirection before deploying Volley.

Deterrence, Feign Death, Disengage: These are avoidance abilities. Feign Death can also act as an aggro dump on raid bosses.