Hunter.
Your Arena of Champions guide.

Your Hunter game plan

Hunter asks you to manage space and Focus while deciding how much of the team's pressure belongs to a pet. Marksmanship creates threatening shot windows; Beast Mastery makes pet access and pet commands central to the plan. Both retain slowing shots, traps and survival tools, so neither is simply a stationary damage turret. Our preferred learning goal is to preserve a useful firing lane without retreating beyond your partner's support. A trap that changes the enemy response and a well-timed interrupt can be more valuable than another shot into an already protected target.

Choose your Hunter specialization

Marksmanship

DamageA tier

Marksmanship supplies a coordinated partner with clear shooting windows and access to Hunter control. This profile rewards the ability to separate a pressure target from a controlled opponent, provided the pair creates space for committed shots.

Aimed Shot

A committed shot at the center of the specialization’s pressure.

Rapid Fire

A dedicated offensive shooting window.

Freezing Trap

A shared control whose placement and damage-break behavior matter.

Watch the tradeoff: A strong shot is not useful when the position cannot support it. Chasing an angle can also pull the Hunter away from recovery.

Try this: Arrange the control first, then choose a shooting position that leaves an understandable route back to your partner.

See the placement notes →

Beast Mastery

DamageB tier

Beast Mastery can give a partner a clear offensive signal through its pet window. Its placement reflects the additional responsibility of keeping the selected companion and personal utility aligned with the same team objective.

Kill Command

An instruction that makes the pet central to the attack.

Barbed Shot

A supporting shot within the pet-focused plan.

Bestial Wrath

The specialization’s dedicated pet-pressure window.

Watch the tradeoff: Pet choice and availability are part of the plan, not decoration. Pressure becomes harder to coordinate when the companion and hero pursue different targets.

Try this: Confirm which beast the talent selection supplies and keep the partner informed before committing Bestial Wrath.

See the placement notes →

Make movement serve the Focus cycle

Steady Shot generates Focus and is explicitly castable while moving. Arcane Shot spends that resource, so continuously using spenders without rebuilding can leave a pressure window empty. Marksmanship adds Aimed Shot, with a cast to protect, and Rapid Fire, a moving channel that also returns Focus. We would use control or a favorable position to make Aimed Shot practical rather than cancel it repeatedly under pressure. Lock and Load, if selected, changes that cast through its proc. Keep Counter Shot assigned to a meaningful enemy cast instead of treating it as a required step in every offensive sequence.

Land control without breaking your own setup

Freezing Trap is placed on the ground; it is not the same as applying an instant targeted incapacitate. Scatter Shot can create an opening, but both effects are broken by damage, so agree where your partner should direct attacks. Tar Trap controls movement, while Disengage moves the Hunter backward. We would check the escape direction before using it near an obstacle or away from a healer. Aspect of the Turtle grants immunity and pacifies you: it is a survival interval, not uninterrupted shooting time. Exhilaration restores your health and also heals an active pet, making its condition another useful signal.

Treat Beast Mastery as a two-unit plan

Kill Command acts through the pet and explicitly requires the owner's sight of the target. A pet reaching the opponent does not by itself prove every command is available. Barbed Shot supports pet Frenzy and Focus recovery, while Bestial Wrath requires a pet and empowers that pet. Use Pet Attack and Pet Follow deliberately so pressure does not continue into a target your team wants controlled. Master's Call, when selected, attaches its movement rescue to Pet Follow. Our advice is to learn those commands before adding more elaborate burst plans; losing track of the pet can remove both damage and a chosen utility answer.