Hunter’s received some major buffs to their damage and survivability in Wrath of the Lich King, you will also notice that they are now a respected class in all forms of arena play, where that wasn’t the case in BC.

This guide will discuss the most “efficient” way to level a hunter from 70-80, other players may have a more fun or preferred way to play depending on their playstyle but this build will focus on minimizing downtime and killing mobs as fast as possible to complete quests and get you to 80 the fastest.

The only other way to increase your level speed is to follow a leveling guide that shows you the most efficient routes and quests to do in Northrend, I’ve found Zygor’s Guide to be the most useful and it is all done with an in-game interface.

As of patch 3.0.9, Beast Mastery is the most efficient leveling spec due to a few reasons:

Pet Holds More Aggro

Most of the talents in the beast mastery tree focus on increasing your pets damage, which will make it much harder for you to take aggro off your pet, and a key talent here Intimidation is a great taunt if you do manage to take aggro.

Simple and Efficient Rotation

There is no need to set up every fight, just keep up Serpent Sting and fire off your Steady Shots.

Low Gear Dependency

Beast Mastery is a lot less gear dependent than Marksman, as a lot of talents such as Careful Aim and Combat Experience are multipliers on your stats which won’t be that high before you hit level 80.

Pet

You will be picking any pet from the tenacity line as they have the best armor and can keep threat. Your only limiting factor leveling up is your pets health/armor.

If you are going to be questing in an area with mobs close together and you think you might be in a situation where you are fighting more than 3 mobs, the Gorilla pet is best for this job (and a favourite amongst a, while using Volley. However his ability Thunderstomp will be available to any tenacity pet after patch 3.1 so this will change. I can see Crocolisks and Bears becoming the pet of choice as they have abilities that add to their AoE DPS, where the gorilla will get a pummel (not too useful for leveling)

The Build

(53/15/3) Click here for the build

Glyphs
Glyph of Serpent Sting
Glyph of Steady Shot
Glyph of Aspect of the Viper

Combine this talent build with Zygor’s Leveling guide which has an in-game addon walkthrough for all WOTLK quests for maximum efficiency and to get a level every 2-3 hours. For a free alternative check out my write up about leveling guides in this post.