There are a lot of players in the World of Warcraft who play hunters because they want to do a good amount of damage, have a pet and be able to handle most of what is thrown at them with relative ease. However, for those who never grouped while leveling and have very limited raid experience they are often confronted with a difficult issue when they finally do raid/run instances: their purpose of CCing. I created this guide recently for my guild alliance's website. I haven't seen anything like it yet and if anyone has any suggestions or notices an error please let me know.

All information of abilities was taken from www.wowhead.com and tips and tricks were taken from various different people, most of whom I never had a plăcere of meeting but have read their posts on this website.

Table of Contents:

1. Traps

I. Damage Dealing Traps

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Immolation Trap
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Exposive Trap

II. Crowd Control Trap

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Freezing Trap
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Frost Trap

III. Other Traps

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Snake Trap

2. Advantages of using traps.

3. Disadvantages of using traps.

4. Using traps effectively in battle.

I. Before the pull

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i. Trap placement with other hunters

II. During the pull

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i. How to pull aggro away from the tank
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ii. LOS pulling.

III. Trap is resisted.

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i. Step 1- Do not panic
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ii. Step 2- Retrap if you can
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iii. Step 3- If all else fails...

5. Other tips

I.If you do not have a trap target and you are in a raid.

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i. Get the love of the healer.
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ii. Consider using Frost trap.

1. Traps

I. Damage Dealing Traps- In World of Warcraft there are 2 different traps that I put into the category of "Damage Dealing Traps" They are Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap. Both deal damage to mobs you will encounter, and both can be affected by the Survival Tree talent Entrapment, giving them 25% to snare the target at 3/3.

i. Immolation trap targets a single enemy and at rank 6 it does damaged based on your ranged attack power. [RAP*0.1+985] over 15 seconds.The mana cost is 305 (182 mana with 3 points in Resourcefulness) So let's say we're taking a look at a normal BM specced hunter going inot Karazhan. Their attack power is probably at 1300. [1300*0.1+985]= 1115/15 seconds. That would be 74.3 damage per second. This trap can be useful for bosses in which hunters and all the rest of the party has to stay close to the boss, I.E. Attunmen. Dropping this trap will increase your DPS by at least 70 if not more.

ii. Explosive Trap is a trap that affects the area around the trap. This kind of ability is called an AOE (area of effect) ability. The trap does [RAP*0.1+263] to [RAP*0.1+337] fire damage and an additional 450 fire damage over 20 seconds to targets within the 10yd range of the trap. Mana cost is 650 Mana (260 mana with 3 points in Resourcefulness). Let's look at the same hunter as before with 1300 RAP. [1300*0.1+ 263]=393 damage and can do up to [1300*0.1+337]=467 damage. This damage is then followed by the 450 damage over 20 seconds.
The purpose of this trap is to enhance the weak ability of Hunters to AOE. It also have other uses versus hunter's other "AOE" trap Snake trap, but that will be stated later on.

II. Crowd Control Traps- In World of Warcraft there are 2 different traps that I put into the category of "Crowd Controlling Traps." They are Freezing trap and Frost Trap. Both either snare (freeze) the target or slow down enemies that cross a particular area. When Hunters are asked to CC, what is generally meant is for them to use Freezing Trap.

i. Freezing trap freezes a single target for UP TO 20 SECONDS. That is capitalized because it will not always be 20 seconds on every single trap. The trap costs 100 mana at rank 3 (40 mana with 3 points in resourcefulness) There are diminishing returns on this trap as well, which means that if the same target is trapped over and over again, odds are, each subsequent trap's duration will be shorter and shorter.The trap will exist for 1 minute if it is not being used.

ii. Frost Trap acts similarly to Freezing trap because it does hinder the movement of the enemy but it does so over a circular area of 10yrds for 30 seconds. The trap is unique because it only has one rank. It costs 60 mana (24 mana with 3 points in Resourcefulness) It does not keep targets still however, just slowing their movement by 60%.

III. Other traps- There is a last trap that has only been mentioned briefly. Snake Trap. Snake trap is unlike the other two because it has elements of both a damage dealing trap and a crowd control trap. It's also very fun to watch and can wreak havoc on enemies, both PVE and PVP.

i. Snake trap releases several snakes which will die after 15 seconds. The snakes do minimal damage (no more than 20 damage per hit) however they do cause DOTs (damage over time). The repede attacking is key to interrupting certain raid bosses and enemie's casting. In a PVP sense it can make most classes' lives hell. It, like frost trap, has only one rank. It costs 305 mana (122 mana with 3 points in resourcefulness). The trap also have the abilities to cause a mind numbing poison effect (slows casting) or a crippling poison effect (slows movement).

2. Advantages of using traps- There are plenty of advantages of using traps, if it's only for a simple DPS boost, to root a target or to slow down an oncoming horde of Fel Orcs.

3. Disadvantages of using traps- There are a few disadvantages though, however these are far outweighed by the advantages. One disadvantage is- they take time to set up and place. That time is not spent DPSing. They cost mana, in long boss fights this becomes even more crucial.

4. How to use traps effectively in battle.. This will be the real meat and potatoes of the post. Herein I will discuss my general rules how I place traps. These are not set in stone and certain situations will require one to adapt to a different method.

I. Before the pull, specifically when the tank is marking the mobs. You will be given a target with it's own raid icon. Find a place, close to or within range of the target, then place the trap. The trap will exist for 1 minute if it's not being used. The cooldown for all traps is 30 seconds. (26 seconds if the hunter posesses two pieces of the Beast lord set, 24 seconds if the hunter is survival specced and has spent 3 talent points in resourcefulness and 20 seconds if the hunter has both the two pieces of the beastlord set and 3 talent points in resourcefulness.) The reason for laying the trap down early is so that when the pull begin, you will be able to lay another trap if it's resisted or will soon be able to.

If there are other hunters in your group and more than one is assigned a trapping target, idealy they should spread their traps far apart. However, in some situations this isn't always possible... I've developed a method to deal with this. Say the target is a 5 mob pull, there is a mage who is sheeping on guy, the tank is tanking two of them and two hunters are there and they're each trapping one of the other two remaining mobs. However, the pull is down a long and narrow corridor which will force people to remain close. This has the possibility to cause one hunter's trap target to go to the wrong trap and vice versa. To fix this one hunter would pull his target off the tank immediately and his trap would be further up the corridor, closer to where the fighting is. The other hunter would then pull his target off the tank not more than a second later, and his trap would be further down the corridor, away from the battle. Hunters have to work together, communicate effectively, and mostly have faith in the other hunters abilities. If a hunter's trap resists, give the hunter a second to try to trap the target again, do not immediately pull the target.

II. During the pull,

i. How to pull aggro away from the tank. This could mean different things, depending on the tank. From my experience it is MUCH easier to pull aggro off a warrior tank at the start of a fight rather than a paladin tank. (Have had little experience with Druid Tanks although I don't think it would be any harder than the paladin tank.) With your trap secure below your feet fire off a distracting shot (rank 7 please!) and hope for the best. After you have used Distracting Shot Rank 7 on your target and he or she is crashing down upon you all you need to do is back up and have them land squarely on your trap. If you are concerned that the mob may get a hit in before he is trapped then my advice would be to pop Aspect of the Monkey and pray. Note- if you are grouped with a paladin tank, they may be able to generate a large amount of aggro quicker than you can. My suggestion is to communicate with them, but before all else be fast with your movements and do not hesitate.

ii. LOS Pulling- "But... Gonglez! The bad guy won't come to my trap! He just keeps throwing spears at me! OUCH!" This is where a technique comes in handy that must be learned by all hunters in order for them to achieve full usefullness in groups/raids and everyday questing/grinding. LOS pulling. LOS is an acronym for line of sight.
The theory is simple... think about a time where you are trying to pull a guy you know is in a building but you can't see them... You can target them, perhaps even slightly see them but still when you shoot you get the big red letters in front of your face that says "Target Not in Line of Sight." The same rules apply to your enemies. Let's take a hallway in Heroic Underbog. After your group kills a bunch of giants you come to a place where there are Naga and Broken Draenei patrolling the hallways. In each of these groups are either casters or spearmen who attack from range. Using the doors to the hallway you can pop a trap BEFORE your tank initiates the pull, then after you use Distracting Shot (Rank 7) you can lead your target past the door (where nearby you should've laid your freezing trap) and laugh to your self knowing you just duped some poor simpleton. This can be used off ledges, (enemies won't jump down ledges) and has other uses. Practice this out in the world. And most of all, become good at it.

III. Trap is Resisted - Happens. But what you do after it happens is what's important.

i. Do not panic! You now have the attention of a big baddy... First thing you must do if your trap fails is to NOT lose the attention of him. Because odds are, you are nearby the healer. The healer is generating quite a bit of aggro by healing the tank and anyone else in the group. If you die and/or run away... the mob is most likely going to attack the healer and thus your group could be in for a wipe.

ii. If you have set a trap early, (20 seconds or so before the pull) it shouldn't be a problem to last up to 10 seconds with this guy crashing down on you. The important thing is to act immediatly. Let everyone know your trap was resisted. I suggest every hunter creates a macro that is nearby which simply states "Freezing Trap was resisted." Maybe making it into a /yell wouldn't be a bad idea either. If your retrap was sucessful then you have held the beast at bay... for now. Traps have no certain time that they'll last. Some will last only a few seconds. Keep your eye on your target, getting an addon that can keep track of the time left on your trap will help. But if you communicate effectively with the rest of your group/raid they will be there to help.

iii. So you laid a trap 20 seconds before the pull and the mob resisted. No worries your cooldown was up so you laid another trap... but that resisted to... now what? First... see section 4.III.i. Then pop your aspect of the monkey (if it isn't already on) announce your trap has been resisted (again) and make a mad dash to the tank. True the tank cannot always handle plenty of mobs on him but he or she can always handle 3 or more mobs beating on them more than you can. This may seem paradoxial at times because it will often call for you to run directly at the guy who is coming at you... the habit of running away when things hit the fan must be unlearned.
5. Below is a list of other hints and tricks I have learned over my long carreer of being a hunter. Most of these are very situational, but all should be known and memorized.

I. If you do not have a trap target and you are in a raid-.

i. Get the love of the healer- Put a trap under a healer. They'll love you for it! If the expletive deleted hits the fan then at least the healers will be able to have a few seconds to possibly prevent a wipe.

ii. Consider using frost trap- Did the expletive deleted just hit the fan? Is everyone running? Best thing here is to throw down a frost trap and hope for the best. Having those enemies' speed significantly lowered could prevent a wipe.

II. The wonderful possibilities of MD (misdirection)- First of all before I start... All hunters should have misdirection and must know how to use it effectively. You WILL be called upon in 25 man raids to misdirect, perhaps sometimes in 10 man raids. Back to the topic at hand. Let's say you want to trap one of your enemies in the corner of the room, but you want to be out in the open so you can be within healing range. By simply having your pet stay in the corner, placing the trap next to it and misdirecting to your pet you can keep one enemy far away from everyone else for quite some time. After the enemy is trapped have your pet attack the kill target. If everyone goes according to plan, the mob you MDed to your pet will come back to where everyone is fighting and the tank can pick it up without even moving.