I was researching how to better optimize my attacks while in arenas since mana efficiency even for a hunter is a necessity. A hunter without mana can be almost as useless as any other mana dependent class. Yes I know the argument from some will come that hunters have their pets or that even if the pet is dead they are still able to deal a decent amount of white hit damage. All this is true, but having no mana even as a hunter in the arenas will almost mean a loss for your team.

I noticed that many of the combos I used during PVE were not working as well in arenas and that I quickly was going through mana way to quickly. Then I came across a forums post at elitistjerks.com from last June on just this subject. Lets just say I was amazed at the difference that just some simple adjustments to the way I thought in terms of damage would make overall.

The original poster makes the argument that steady shot will create significantly more damage then any other combo. While his post shows many combos and some well thought out graphs I decided to put his theory to the test with my own 70 hunter on the Maiev server.

According to the poster if you start out your fight with your normal attacks such as a mana drain on casters and maintain these attacks throughout the battle and then simply use an auto shot/steady shot attack in between you will due a significant amount more damage. Well I have to say he was right in every aspect. I used several different combinations for our first five arenas with mixed results.

In our first two fights we won quite easily since our competition was not well coordinated nor geared. Our next three arenas went quite different. In two of these I ran out of mana long before the fight was over and we lost. In the final arena I almost ran out of mana, but thanks to good tactics on the part of my priest friend we won barely.

Over the course of the next five fights I used the method suggested by the poster and was totally shocked to find that not only did I have more then enough mana, but that I saw an increase in my damage totals on average of twenty-five percent. While we did not win every one of these arenas we did manage to win four of them and come out of the days trials with a respectable 7-3 record.

Now while it is true that the flow of a battle in the arena can shift and change constantly depending on the skill of the teams and the team makeup; it can also be said that with a little research and study of your characters strengths and weaknesses you can find a solution to fit any situation you might find in the arenas. Remember that even if you lose in the arenas it is not that bad since you have learned something new and hopefully can find a way not to make those same mistakes again.