This is an inclusive overview in which I will address Solo, PvP, Dungeon and Raid applications all to an extent.

So, back in 2006, Hunters had a tonne of different ways of dealing damage. Some of their attacks dealt physical damage, some of them dealt Arcane, some dealt Fire, and some dealt Nature damage. And while their non-physical attacks didn’t act like spells in most ways, they still benefitted from the Spell Damage stat that you usually find on Cloth gear. So some Hunters decided to start wearing Robes to turn their Arcane Shots into superweapons.

This was in opposition to the standards of the time, of course, but if there’s anything that Hunters do well, it’s steal gear that’s intended for others!

The following is a transcript of the YouTube video

Pros

Before getting into the specifics, let’s go over the benefits: First off, Arcane Shot, Volley, Serpent Sting, and Wyvern Sting all benefit pretty well from Spell Damage buffs. No other Hunter spells do (but Explosive/Immolation Traps may or may not, and Mend Pet benefits from +healing, but that’s a build for another day!).

Anyway, Hunters can actually get pretty good at damage-over-time (I’ve even heard some say that they felt more like they were playing an Affliction Warlock with how much damage their Serpent Stings were doing). Volley also becomes much better at handling large groups of mobs with a set of Spell Damage gear, and some Hunters have used this kind of gear to farm up lower-level areas or help lower-level friends speed-level. And because Arcane Shot is an instant-damage attack, it does very well in PvP, where burst damage is king. It also does very well against Plate-or-Mail-wearing enemies (and Druid bear tanks) because it ignores armor, unlike most Hunter attacks.

Cons

Now for the downsides: spell damage gear rarely has any Agility on it, making your regular shots and your physical damage abilities suffer. It’s also usually difficult to obtain this gear as a Hunter, as you are now competing with even more classes than normal for your gear (although if you’re Alliance, you can try to get your hands on some Shaman mail gear at levels 40+ because you won’t any have Shamans to compete with! maybe some desperate Healadins).

However, most Spell Damage gear is Cloth (with a few outliers), so you’re probably going to take a hit in the survivability department. And last but not least, the average damage-per-second you’re going be doing is usually going be worse than the other Hunter builds (unless you’ve got some crazy robes on).

Practical Applications

So in Solo applications, this build is really nice for AoE farming. It’s still not as good as what Mages can do, but it wasn’t uncommon to see Hunters in Vanilla put together cheap sets of Arcane Damage gear on the side to amplify their Volleys when they needed it. Now, in non-AoE situations, Arcane Spell Damage gear isn’t great because of how mana inefficient Arcane Shot is. For mana efficiency, nothing beats a Serpent Sting that’s been souped up with Spell Damage, but Serpent Sting deals Nature damage, not Arcane, so it won’t benefit from Arcane damage robes until you can get some generic +All Spell Damage on there.

But the place this build was practically designed for is PvP. And in the testing I’ve read about and in the videos I’ve seen, it got that job done fairly well. Usually better than the other Hunter builds against high-armor enemies, and usually worse than the other Hunter builds against low-armor enemies. Although, the application of the damage is also a point of differentiation — you get to be far more mobile with this build than with one revolving around Aimed Shot (which has a 3 second cast time AND which shares it’s cooldown with Arcane Shot), and you’ll also be getting more of those nifty spell pushbacks against casters because of just how many extra auto-shots are heading their way.

In Dungeons, you’ll probably be going oom in most longer fights. Same deal with Raids, and your overall dps will be lower than most unless you’re up against enemies that specifically have arcane weaknesses. Now, there’s potential for this here build to overcome such problems through some out-of-the-box thinking, but I haven’t seen it yet.

Talents

When it comes to talents, things get a little strange. Arcane Shot benefits from spell damage and ignores armor but in all other ways it acts as a regular ranged attack. This means it gets full benefit from Lethal Shots, Hawk Eye, Mortal Shots, Ranged Weapon Specialization, Surefooted, and the Critical chance from the extra Agility gained by Lightning Reflexes. And when relying on Arcane Shot so much, Efficiency is very handy to have around (less so for PvP when you don’t run out of mana as often, but still). Improved Aspect of the Hawk is an interesting consideration because you’re putting so many normal shots downrange along with your regular rotation. And last but not least, Improved Arcane Shot and Improved Serpent Sting are both very useful to have around.

The Math

So as I said earlier, Arcane Shot is treated as a spell for purposes of spell damage increases and enemy resistances. Specifically, it adds 42.5% of +spell damage or +arcane damage to it’s total damage. Serpent Shot and Wyvern Sting gain 100% of spell damage divided evenly over their entire durations, while Volley gains only 33% because it pays the area damage tax. Hunters can use most spell damage gear that clothies can, so technically they can get pretty high spell damage. But there’s one trick up their sleeve that sets them apart.

Gear

Now, there are two things that DPS casters often use on their weapons: Wizard Oil and Enchant Weapon: Spell Power. Both of these are very powerful buffs to spell damage, but no other caster class can dual wield. Hunters get to apply these buffs on both of their weapons, double-dipping into a very nice boost to your damage. And unlike Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King, there are plenty of powerful Spell Damage weapons you can wield in your off-hand (and are not locked to your main hand). Just remember: greed before need! Oh, and there are still some situations where a Spell power Staff might be better than whatever dualies you have at the time.

There’s also a unique Hunter trinket known as the Arcane Infused Gem. It Infuses you with Arcane Energy, and grants your next Arcane Shot 100% damage from Spell Power instead of just 42%, and explodes and deals full damage to every enemy within 8 yards. It does come with a 2 minute cooldown, but this Gem is very nice for that AoE farming or powerlevelling, and also for larger-scale PvP and those epic crit montages.

When it comes to gear and weapons, you have to remember that going full spell damage comes at a steep sacrifice. Arcane Shot still has that 6 second cooldown, meaning that you’ll still be auto-shooting people most of the time. If you sacrifice too much agility, which provides much of your ranged attack power, your overall damage is going to suffer. Striking a balance between the two is necessary if you want to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. Although, if you really just want to dunk on people with a very bursty, on-and-off rollercoaster of a damage build, you do have that option!

Here’s a basic overview of Spell Damage, assuming you’re level 60 and only shooting one enemy, without counting for armor, spell resist, or critical strikes:

1 Spell Damage = .086 damage-per-second when using Arcane Shot every 5 seconds.

1 Spell Damage also = .067 DPS when using Serpent Sting on one target without talents.

The total magical DPS gained from 1 Spell Damage is therefore .153 DPS

Arcane Shot also still gets to miss just like any other shot if your ranged hit chance is low AND it can be blocked by shields. It’s crits, however, are double the damage of a regular hit (instead of just 1.5x like other spells), which is another factor making this build very bursty.

Final Thoughts

Well, conclusion time! I’m gonna personally rate this spec Good for PvP as it stands now. Again, judging from those who’ve actually used it back in the year of our lord, two-thousand and six, the Arcane Hunter will be difficult to get going in the damage department in PvE. Also again, maybe there’s some weird way it might end up being the optimal spec for PvE. Who knows. I guess we’ll find out sooner or later in Classic.