Hunter levelling: AP or Agi?

On May 16, 1:54 pm, Sean <sean_dor....RemoveThis@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> Monkey gear until 57, Bandit gear until 70, with quests giving you
> better / blue improvements.
> AGI, AP and STR directly contribute to your melee and ranged AP.
> So focus on those three stats; crits shouldn't even be considered.


Monkey (agility, stamina) and Bandit (AP, agility, stamina) gear is
very good for hunters. Hunters don't make good use of Strength because
it only increases melee AP and they should be doing most of their
damage via ranged. Every point of agility also adds 1 AP, 2 armor and
a tiny amount of dodge and crit.

A rule of thumb is that an item needs more than 2X AP to be better
than an otherwise identical item with 1X agility instead.

Other generalities are that AP is more important for MM hunters than
BM hunters and agility most important for SV hunters.

There are about twenty level 40 to 50 mail items with AP.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=4.3&filter=minrl=40;maxrl=50;cr=38;crs=1;crv=0

Here's a guide for the best Hunter gear.
http://www.wow-loot.com/hunter.htm

Leveling a hunter via solo leveling is easy even with poor gear. Gear
is much more important for PVP and instances.
 >> Stay informed about: Hunter levelling: AP or Agi? 

Jobbles <jjobbles DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:
> Keep in mind this question is for LEVELLING a hunter. What these stats do
> for a hunter at L70 is not part of the question.

Ok.

> Is it better to go for +agi or +AP when getting gear?

I'd actually say that if you'd get 2 RAP or 1 Agi get the RAP. But the point is
moot as you won't really see much attack power before burning crusade.
Of course if you happen to grab more adds than your pet can handle agi gives
some survivability for you too.

> I know +agi gear
> (tiger, monkey, falcon, wolf) helps raise your accuracy and crit%

It doesn't help your accuracy in any way. It gives you 1 point of melee and
ranged AP, increases your crit chance and gives a bit of armor and dodge.
(Strength gives you 2 melee attack power but no ranged though, stay away
from that.

So 1 agility gives you always more than 1 AP. The breakeven point with them
is up to how you feel, as it isn't really that useful to start theorycrafting
optimums when leveling one of the easiest classes to level.

> but only
> increases ranged AP. If you're like most hunters I see, you've got the dual
> weapons (or the big honking sword or axe) and you're ready to close when
> needed, so wouldn't +AP help, since it increases your melee damage as well
> as ranged?

Eh, if we're talking about leveling a hunter and not pvp, then don't melee.
Your ranged abilities and autoshot both do a lot more damage than what you could
with your melee attacks and your pet is the one who is supposed to get hit,
not you.

Of course there are situations where you will end up with a mob beating on you
(ie. multiple mobs, trap on cooldown and you need to heal your pet) but even then
it's better to kill one with ranged and to get your pet grab the extra mob off
you when it can.

PVP is of course a different beast with different tactics, and there melee skills
are occasionally needed.

--
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on
society." -Mark Twain
 >> Stay informed about: Hunter levelling: AP or Agi? 

"Urbin" <urbin DeleteThis @invalid.invalid> wrote...

> On Fri, 16 May 2008 09:49:17 +0100, Ronny wrote:
>
>> I would say when leveling a hunter nothing really matters, just stick
>> with
>> agility and keep all talents in the BM tree, your pet will do all the
>> hard
>> work and you will just finish off the mobs.
>
> I agree on this
>

The only disagreement I have with this statement is that hunters should
consider spending 3 points in the Survival talent Hawk Eye. You might think
6 extra yards of range is hardly anything, but consider that it's 6 extra
yards on ALL your ranged attacks. Mages only get extra range on Fire at the
second level of talents and have to delve deeply into the Frost tree to get
the same range bonus for their frost spells. Plus from experience that 6
yards is a godsend when you suddenly need to slap down a trap to weaken or
delay an add.

-Jobbles
 >> Stay informed about: Hunter levelling: AP or Agi?