Hunter Basics
The hunter class is a pure ranged fighter, but there is more too it than just standing in one spot and using autoshot. A hunter needs to juggle shots and stings, manage his pet and watch his threat and mana all at once.
The core of ranged fighting is keeping as much distance as possible between yourself and your enemy. If they get too close to you they will be inside your ranged weapons dead zone and you won't be able to shoot them. So a successful hunter needs to be very mobile and can't stand in one spot firring like other ranged classes.
Aspects
Aspects are small buffs cast by the hunter. Most of them can only be used by the hunter, but some will affect your party as well. Each aspect is designed to be used with a specific play style. If you are doing lots of ranged damage you would want to use Aspect of the Hawk for the extra attack power. But if you were going up against a monster that does nature damage you would want to use Aspect of the Wild to increase your parties nature resistance. You can only have one aspect up at a time and they last until you die or put another one up.
Shots
Shots are special attacks that deal damage and usually have a special effect as well. Each shot has a unique ability like dealing extra damage, dazing the enemy or manipulating threat. Though most are designed to deal damage. Because most shots have a cooldown you can't spam them, so instead you will need to rotate them in between your autoshoot.
Stings
Stings are the hunters primary way of debuffing an enemy. They fire like a regular autoshoot but when they land they inflict a nasty poison on the enemy. Most deal some type of damage over time but there are other effects like putting the target to sleep or lowering their base stats. You can only have one sting per hunter on a target so you need to treat them like aspects and pick the best one for the situation.

Traps
Traps are a very unique ability for a hunter. When activated a trap will be laid at your feet and the first enemy that gets close will be hit. Generally they can either do large amounts of damage, or help immobilize an enemy. Damage traps are primarily used when soloing or farming. Immobilizing traps are a lot more useful though because they can help keep a distance between you and your enemy. They are also one of the best ways of keeping enemies crowd controlled in groups and PVP. You can use a trap once every thirty seconds even if you are in combat and you don't need any tools or supplies to make one.
Tracking
When activated a tracking spells shows the locations of a specific type of mob on your mini map. If you have track beasts active you will see several red dots on your map for every beast type mob in the immediate area. Tracking spells are very situational but can be very helpful when working with a group or doing PVP. One problem with tracking spells is that you can only have one active at a time. This includes resource tracking like find minerals or herbs.
Ranged DPS
Shot Rotations
Being able to DPS effectively requires more then just sitting back and auto shooting, you need to use all of your shots and stings as well. But you can't just button mash and spam your abilities either. The key to hunter DPS is to create what is known as a Shot Rotation. A shot rotation revolves around your Auto Shots and the window of time between each one. During this time you can use one of your other abilities like Arcane or Multi shot. But if you don't time your shots right you will go long and cancel out one of your auto shots, losing DPS.

The greatest difficulty for creating a shot rotation is dealing with cooldowns and global cooldowns. If you had a weapon with a 2.50 attack speed you would have two and a half seconds to use one of your special shots before auto shot was fired again. Most of your damage dealing shots are instant cast so even if they have a cast time two and a half seconds should be enough. But if they have a cooldown you won't be able to use it right away on your next auto shot window. If you were to use Arcane Shot on your first window you will have to wait six seconds to use it again. Which with a 2.50 speed bow

would be in your third auto shot window. This leaves you with an empty window and a missed opportunity for extra DPS. During that empty window you could weave in a different shot like Steady Shot or Multi Shot for extra DPS.
Your other major problem is dealing with a global cooldown. When you use an ability your global cooldown activates and for 1.5 seconds you can't use any other abilities. If you didn't have this you would be able to spam all of your instant cast shots almost at the same time and your burst damage would be huge. The global cooldown won't effect your auto shot, but it will effect when you can use another special shot. If your weapon is very fast your global cooldown might carry over into your next auto shot window and prevent you from getting in another shot.
Now that you understand the basics of a shot rotation its time to go over the specifics. The best shot to use in a rotation is Steady Shot (You won't be able to use this till level 62 though.) It has a very low cast time and is more mana efficient than some of your other shots. It is possible to have a rotation of nothing but Steady Shot and auto shot. But what is better is to use that as a base and throw in other shots as well. Arcane shot should be thrown in by your second or third window because it won't be reduced by armor like Steady Shot. Multi Shot should be thrown in after your second arcane shot to make sure the tank has built up enough aggro. After opening with a sting and aimed shot the sequence I usually use is auto, steady, auto, arcane, auto, steady, auto, steady, auto, arcane, auto, multi...Then start over from the beginning.
When using a shot rotation there are some important things to remember. First and foremost is that Aimed Shot should not be incorporated. Using it resets your auto shoot and its long cast time makes it hard to squeeze in. On that note, your weapons speed will determine what type of rotation you will be able to pull off. Faster weapons give you a smaller window to work with and your cooldowns will often prevent you from getting in an extra shot. You also need to be careful with your mana when using a shot rotation. Hunter mana efficiency is poor compared to other classes and Arcane Shot and Multi Shot suck up a lot of MP. The easiest solution to this is to gage your DPS off of what you are fighting. If it is a regular mob or trash mob in a instance use a simple Steady Shot and auto shot rotation. If it is

trash in a raid weave in an occasional arcane shot. If you are fighting a boss slowly DPS so you will regenerate some mana then go all out once the tank has secured threat.
Threat Management
An important factor to watch out for when DPSing is how much threat you are generating. When fighting in a group, the target monster always goes after what it thinks is the biggest threat. The role of the tank is to keep himself at the top of the threat list because he has the best survivability. But there is a limit on how much and how quickly a tank can build threat, so if you go all out DPS you'll quickly surpass him.
The first stage of threat management is keeping threat in check. When a tank first engages the enemy they need time to build a buffer of threat, so hold off DPS until they say it is ok. Usually this is after one or two sunders for warriors, a few seconds of bleed effects for a druid and four seconds of holy damage for a paladin. After they give the go ahead slowly start to DPS. This would include Auto shoot and stings but avoid your heavy damage dealing shots for a few more seconds. After the tank has established enough threat you can move on to your regular shot rotation. This process becomes much simpler if you install a threat meter like Omen and you will know exactly when to start DPSing.

The second stage of threat management is reducing your actual threat. The simplest way is to back off on your DPS. If you see you have landed several big critical strikes and have jumped up significantly on the threat meter step out of combat so you don't cause anymore damage. During this time you can chug a potion or bandage yourself.. A problem with stopping combat though is that you are no longer DPSing. So I only really use this when questing with another player or when fighting trash mobs in a raid.
Other more effective ways of reducing threat depend on your spells. The first one, Disengage, immediately reduces your threat by a set amount. But since it can only be used in melee range you won't be able to use it regularly. Instead you should be ready to use it when you have pulled aggro and the mob starts to beat on you. In a small group environment you'll be able to take the hits before the tank can get aggro back. But in a raid you will usually be dead before you even have a chance to use it.
A more useful aggro wiping ability is Feign Death. Once you activate it you lose all of your aggro and exit combat. If you see you have topped the threat meter chart you can immediately use it and the mob won't come after you. This is especially true in boss fights. On long fights try and make sure to use it every time it is available. This way you can DPS without fear of pulling the enemy's attention.
Melee Fighting
Compared to their ranged abilities, a hunters melee strength is very weak. We have hardly any melee abilities besides Raptor Strike and our melee AP formula is lower than pure melee fighters. On top of that hunters should pick weapons that help their ranged damage stats and will usually be weaker than melee weapons.
A hunter shouldn't abandon melee completely though. Instead of focusing on damage dealing focus on hindering. Abilities like Wingclip, Counter Attack and immobilizing traps are very useful in PVP situations but can only be done in melee range. Other times the terrain won't allow you enough line of sight to shoot your enemies and you will need to kite them to a more suitable location. When your enemy gets close to you attack him and root him in place, then run away till it is safe enough to shoot.

Damage dealing melee shouldn't be completely forgotten though. Ammo is expensive, so if your enemy is very low on health or you are farming much weaker mobs charge in and start hitting. If your pet is still holding aggro this is even more reason. But in a group or raid stick to shooting.
Kiting
Kiting is a special technique where you attack your enemy while running and eventually wear them down. Kitting is very useful when soloing elite monsters and other players in PVP because while it takes a long time to accomplish, if done correctly you can take down almost any monster.
The basic strategy of kiting is to attack from maximum distance and shoot as much as possible. When the enemy gets in melee range use a snare ability then run away to maximum range again. Your first shots are critical because this will be the only chance you have to use heavy damage abilities like Aimed Shot. Abilities with cast times are not as efficient in the long run as using autoshoot or instant cast shots. After you have opened up use Concussive Shot to give you some extra shooting time. Before the mob reaches you set your freezing trap and run away so it is between you and the mob. When the mob is frozen and you are out of range immediately turn around and shoot it again. If it has taken less than ten seconds for you to get out of range you might want to use a hard hitting attack again like Aimed Shot. A nice strategy is to set you trap before you pull and wait about twenty five seconds. This will let your traps cooldown expire and you can set another one when it gets near the second time. If you can't set anymore traps or they are resisted wait for the target to get in melee range and then hit them with Wingclip or if possible Counter Attack. This will slow them down and give you a chance to run away.
Strategies for kiting also depend on what you are trying to kite. PVE mobs will always follow you in a straight line and won't stop unless you get too far away from their spawn point. In general if you are kitting something you will want to try and go in a big circle, avoiding other mobs so you don't get adds. In PVP the target is another thinking person and kitting is more difficult. If they get too low on health they may run away and if your are too far you won't be able to catch up. When kitting another player you don't want to get too far ahead and will rely more on stuns and snares than distance.

Pets can be a hindrance while kiting unless you manage them correctly. They can break freezing traps and if you aren't careful they will pull aggro. You want to always have the monsters attention so turn Growl off and have them lightly DPS. Stings are another thing to watch out for while kitting. Serpent Sting is dangerous until you have passed the trap phase. Viper sting is safe though and should be up at all times if the target is a mana user.
Pulling
One of our most used roles in a group is to pull mobs back to the other party members. In fact hunters are arguably the best pullers in the game. If the pull goes bad they can instantly abort it and reset the encounter. If you accidentally pull two groups instead of one you can use Feign Death. Feign Death wipes all of your aggro and the mobs will run back to their original places. (Note, this doesn't work if you use Misdirection, but more on that in a bit.)
Hunters are also great pullers because they can crowd control (CC) right when the pull starts. By setting down a Freezing Trap the front runner of the mobs will be frozen in ice for twenty seconds, enough time for the group to burn through one or two of the other mobs.
A hunter puller is also great because they are able to manipulate threat onto the tank. At level seventy hunters get the ability Misdirection, which transfers all of the threat from your next three attacks to another party member. If you do a misdirection pull your tank will start off with a large amount of aggro and be able start DPSing sooner. A problem with Misdirection though is that most shots and stings will also use an Auto shoot charge and you will only be able to use two attacks to give threat. There is a way around this though below.

Now its time to learn how to actually pull. Your first job is to cast Misdirection onto the Tank. It will only last for thirty seconds though so hurry and head towards the targeted mobs. Lay down a freezing trap and use Aimed Shot on the first target. You should use Aimed shot because you will have time to cancel Auto shoot before it eats up one of your charges. When the mobs get into range use Multishot. Even though it hits

multiple targets it still only counts as one attack. When doing a Multipull, mobs that don't take damage and simply link have less aggro than mobs that do take damage. By using a Multishot you give the tank aggro over all of the mobs at once. You can then use your final attack on the tanks target. If the first target is almost dead though and you still have misdirection up use a shot on the tanks next target. At this point you can assist the tank and begin DPSing the enemies down.