This guide provides an overview of the most popular hunter  talent builds, how to use them and what they are for, please read the follows.

The Hunter is unique in that they deal ranged DPS as spellcasters do, but most of the damage they deal is physical in the vein of the melee classes. The combination, coupled with the most fleshed-out and powerful pets in the game, make the Hunter one of the easiest classes to level with while dealing consistent damage and keeping their opponents at bay. Played well, the trapping and kiting abilities of the Hunter make it one of the most useful classes to have anywhere.

Beast Mastery - 46/12/3
The Beast Mastery Hunter is regarded as a strong contender for a leveling build. As you get deeper into the three, your pet becomes a killing machine, dealing a surprising amount of consistent damage while keeping mobs focused on it rather than you, making for quick, efficient grinding. Twelve points in Marksmanship are well spent; 5% crit for you, quite a bit of attack power for your pet, and a significant chunk of extra Focus every time you crit help overall damage considerably. The tree gains considerable PvP viability through Beastial Wrath, The Beast Within, and Serpent's Swiftness, allowing the hunter and his pet to ignore almost all crowd control other players can throw at you while dealing considerable damage. Ferocious Inspiration and your pet's increased offtanking capabilities make it a viable choice for small five-man groups, but if you ever plan on raiding with a hunter, you may want to consider something else.

Survival - 4/5/52
Survival is an odd tree. Rather than increasing the damage viability of either the hunter or its pet, the focus is on getting the hunter out of dangerous situations alive while creating ever-necessary distance between the hunter and his opponent. Hunter talents such as Clever Traps, Entrapment, and Resourcefulness make your traps common and deadly, be that deadliness by damage or by stuns. Deflection, Deterrence, and Counterattack combine to make you almost able to stunluck at close range, certainly enough to lay a trap and get distance on your foes. Expose Weakness, Master Tactician, and Thrill of the Hunt help give you some of the damage and stamina of a Marksmanship Hunter. While it doesn't have a purpose as clear-cut as the other trees, Survival can help tremendously in getting out of sticky situations and keeping you alive for a good, long time.

PvP Marksmanship - 0/52/9
Marksmanship's focus is on raising your own damage, dealing out huge crits and consistent DPS; going a fair bit into Marksmanship is very common for all Hunters, but as you get deeper it really starts to shine for PvP. This build focuses on the burst damage that PvP is built on, with talents such as Barrage and Improved Barrage, Rapid Killing, and Mortal Shots creating some very large numbers. Scatter Shot and Improved Concussive Shot are invaluable at keeping opponents at bay. A quick trip into Survival yields increased range, higher damage versus Humanoids (which includes all PvP opponents), and Entrapment, great at stopping advancing foes. There are some difficult decisions to make for the Marksmanship tree, so you'll want to poke around and see what works for you, but I've found success with this.

PvE Marksmanship - 0/43/18
Losing some of the more PvP-oriented talents such as Improved Concussive Shot and Concussive Barrage, this build picks up on Survival talents up to Surefooted, the hit bonus from which aids in boss and raid DPS considerably. The additional health from Survivalist helps you contend with the AE attacks many raid bosses seem to have these days, while back in Marksmanship Efficiency helps your mana go the extra mile, increasing your sustained damage over a long fight. While you sacrifice some of the burst damage that helped you against other human opponents, you gain a solid chunk of sustained output that will help secure your place in the raid.

Beast Mastery/Marksmanship Hybrid - 37/21/3
This hunter build attempts to supply some of the benefits of a strong pet -- having it hold aggro while the hunter attacks, a powerful annoyer against PvP opponents, a decent offtank -- with the strong survival benefits of Scatter Shot. Striking a good balance between a powerful pet and strong ranged attacks from the hunter, it can potentially be a good PvP build, using Scatter Shot to maintain distance as you and your pet wear the opponent down. Two extra points go into Animal Handling for faster travel. With some tweaking to suit your play style, you and your pet could become a team to be reckoned with.