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Hunting High and Low: Encounter tips and tricks

This thread is dedicated to encounter-specific tips and tricks for hunters.
The contents of this thread will be presented in the form of a break-down per tier, instance, and bosses respectively to provide a clean, and effective overview. The aim of this thread is to share usage of mechanics which generally increase the performance of a hunter inside a raid environment, or provide a gain towards the raid as a whole in some way.

Note: some of the tips and tricks presented in this thread could widely be viewed as common sense. However this may be true sometimes, they do still contribute to the goal of becoming more efficient in a raid encounter, and are therefore listed.

Also note:

Tips and tricks specific to heroic encounters are marked with an H+asterik (H*) combination, normal mode encounters are generally assumed.
This thread has also borrowed the general layout from the Survival hunter thread by Esoth, so credits to him for that one.
Don't expect to be blown away by every single thing listed here. The intention of this thread is more to make you think "Hey, I didn't know that one!" rather than "Holy cow! How come no one ever noticed this?!".
We do not condone exploits. Period.
For talent spec-specific tips and tricks, the spec is indicated.

[top] Tier 11

[top] Blackwing Descent

[top] Omnitron Defense System

Golem Abilities
Acquiring Target can be dropped with Feign, or blocked with Deterrence. In fact, Deterrence blocks a ton of things here, including Poison Bomb explosions, Lightning Conductor (from someone else) and Incineration Security Measure (the fire aoe). Be cautious, as eg. Acquiring Target (and possibly other boss abilities) will immediately be cast on another raid member if you FD it!

[top] Magmaw

Rapid Fire
Conserving your rapid fire for an "exposed head" phase.

[top] Maloriak

Focus dispel Remedy - Spell - World of Warcraft
While this is always specific to your guild, and raid, this buff is either spellstolen or dispelled. As a hunter, if you're assigned to dispelling this, you may encounter problems when not targeting the boss - especially during the "green phase".
The following simple macro will allow you to dispel the boss, regardless of your target:

Code:

/cast [target=focus]Tranquilizing Shot



or; for non-focus:



/cast [@Maloriak] Tranquilizing Shot

The only pre-requisity for this is that you have Maloriak as your focus target.

Explosive Trap
Conserving your Black Arrow/Fire trap cooldown for use during the green phase can pose a reasonable increase in damage done to the adds.

Absolute Zero (Frost orbs in P2)
These can be deflected by deterrence.

Green phase AoE
Before entering a green phase, ensure you are (nearly) at full focus, this will allow you to deal more AOE damage to the adds.

[top] Atramedes

Disengage Sonic Breath
You are able - if not being tracked - to disengage through the Sonic Breath. You will receive damage as long as the breath does not hit your first position before you land.
(The server registers you as being on the spot you came from while flying in the air, and registers your "new" location when you land. Therefore - to the server - you never were in the breath.)

Do not do this when you are being tracked, it will be extremely counter-efficient.

Deterrence
Sonic breath can be deflected by Deterrence.

Tracking
Using Feign Death while being tracked in either air phase or ground phase cancels the spell entirely.

[top] Chimaeron

Conserving focus
Conserving your focus and Explosive Shot on Chimaeron for use while not affected by Caustic Slime will allow for significantly more DPS.
Also, during Feud there is a small time window where the player is not affected by Caustic Slime. It is - although requires some practice - possible to have one or two Cobra Shots, and an Explosive Shot to go off during that time.

Intervene (H*)
When using a Turtle (or any Tenacity pet), one can spec into Intervene to intercept the Double Strike during Feud. This can save your tank from getting gibbed.
When using a Turtle, using Shell Shield in the same macro can sometimes (possibly) save your pets live, thus removing the need to ress it, thus more DPS!

[top] Nefarian and Onyxia

Pet
Keeping your pet on passive, and specifically assigning its targets will keep it alive during phase two, where the lava would normally kill it.
You may also need to position it on your assigned platform manually, since it tends to stand in the lava even when assigned to attack the add on the platform.

Shadowflame Barrage
This small-range AoE spell can be deflected by deterrence.

[top] Throne of the Four Winds

[top] Conclave of Winds

Master's Call
While active, provides immunity to frost patches on Nezir.

[top] Al'Akir

Disengage
This ability provides a lot of benefits for a hunter on this fight, especially in the first phase:

The tornadoes can be disengaged through, similar to the Atramedes breath, as long as they do not cross your "from" spot before you land, you will not be caught in them.
On Wind Burst, one can simply disengage back onto the platform. This removes the need of moving into melee range.
One can disengage "around" the tornadoes, by jumping off the platform when they meet the player, and then disengaging back onto it.

Master's Call
While active, provides immunity to frost patches.

[top] Bastion of Twilight

[top] Halfus Wyrmbreaker

None currently known.

[top] Valiona and Theralion

Deterrence
Valiona's breath can be avoided by using deterrence. (This won't last for an entire breath, though!)
It is also possible to re- or deflect the targeted component of Valiona's Twilight Meteorite on at least normal difficulty. The small AOE-effect however, can't.

[top] Twilight Ascendant Council / Elementium Monstrosity

Ignacious' Charge
Using Disengage right after Ignacious charges you reverts the effect, allowing you to return to combat in a much faster manner.

[top] Cho'gall

Mind Control
Any "loose" mind controls can be broken using either Scatter Shot or Wyvern Sting, the former favoured over the latter.

Congealed Blood, traps, and you
When Cho'gall spawns congealed blood, using your "offensive" trap cooldown rather than Black Arrow is the way to go. Dropping a Frost Trap on top of that, and using Multi Shot with Serpent Spread will take care of the adds effectively.

[top] Sinestra

Courtesy of Timor @ Firetree US.

P1 Tips

Pull: If your guild is resetting the boss for raid positioning, make sure your pet stays close to the boss. Feign Death works for resetting the encounter (don’t forget to dismiss your pet).
Orbs: if your position allows, kite your orb in a way that you can always dps while using Aspect of the Fox. Make sure to warn your healers if you have the Wrack debuff while moving. It’s not recommended to use Aspect of the Cheetah while kiting orbs because of the Wrack debuff.
Whelps: If you are assigned to kill whelps, make sure you know where they will be positioned and launch a trap at the location. Don’t kill adds before they get into position though. You can start single target dpsing them (careful with agro) and Multi-shot when they are positioned. Make sure you use MDs to help the add tank.

P2 Tips

Eggs: [MM only] Make sure to time your steady shots in a way that you have near full focus when the eggs are attackable, so you can start with 2 Aimed Shots at CA phase.
Spitecallers: If you are set to dps spitecallers at the back of the room, remember their Unleashed Essence cast is not interruptible, but you can use disorient effects. Since most of the time rogues will be using Gauge, be ready to use Scatter Shot as a backup, specially on upcoming adds that can start casting immediately and let the group know when Scatter is usable again.

P3 Tips

Orbs: Same as P1. Be careful with the purple void zones at the back of the room as they start to grow as the phase goes on, giving you less space to disengage or run.
Whelps: same as P1. Each pack of whelps will die at a different location now, so make sure you don’t miss your trap or start MSing to early.
During haste buff: [MM only] make sure to cast as many Aimed Shots as possible, casting Chimera Shot only when Serpent Sting is about to fade.
Damage: If your group chooses to position in front of the boss, especially at the end of the phase, make sure to use glyphed Raptor Strike a few seconds before each Flame Breath to help your healers.

Overall Tips

[MM only] With a typical encounter length ranging from 7 to 9 minutes, it's safe to consider that you will be using three sets of cooldowns. Start with a pre-pot and all your cooldowns except for Call of the Wild to maximize dps while benefiting from an extra agility potion, even if it’s not a CA phase (boss starts at 60% and phases at 30%). The only reason for not using CDs in phase 1, is when you are assigned to dps eggs at phase 2 and your group is having problems dpsing them down (for guilds that killed Cho’gall heroic, that shouldn’t be a problem anyways). The other 2 sets of cooldowns should be used in phase 3. With the 3 minutes 100% haste buff, you should be using CDs as soon as P3 starts (or if your guild pushes 2 eggs at the same time, CDs may not be usable until 30 seconds into P3), including agility potion and Call of the Wild, for a maximum dps increase at CA phase. After 3 minutes the buff will go down and the boss should be around 15% to 30%. Use CDs again because the boss must die as quick as possible since healing is pretty intense at this part of the fight. If your group is having low % wipes, try using Call of the Wild at P1 and once again now, and save the second agility potion to the third set of CDs for a better DPS when the buff fades.

[top] Tier 12