Despite having evade 7, they are the softest of the melee targets you will face. Get as much bow damage as possible, but don’t be afraid to stand and fight to finish up. Get your dog in the rear or side arc as their evade works only in the front arc. You can do this by walking backwards.
Be tactical with your purge. Sometimes if you are getting no traction in the fight it’s a good idea to purge weapon skill debuff and attack speed reductions. If you know you’re going to have to use ip, save the purge until right before the ip so that you aren’t replenishing a HP pool still depleted by con debuff.
Walk backwards off bridges before using zephyr so they can’t ride zephyr and hide around a corner – you want them in sight when the ride’s over.
Note on nightshades: have insta-spells; you can’t count on too much bow damage after a zephyr with them because they will interrupt you as they are incoming.
Rangers
are currently underperforming, and they have always been badly matched against
hunters anyway – you have more interrupt/kiting tools, the same ranged
capabilities, and often better melee DPS. Pay attention and you should always
win these fights.
Scouts can perform very well, but most are not thoughtfully equipped with well balanced set ups. Put your pet in the front arc; their small shields will only block one attacker per round. If they switch to your pet get in their rear arc and let loose on the high growth rate styles. Smart scouts will zephyr you to remove the pet early in the fight—try to keep notes on who has first aid because a phase shift on the way back from a zephyr ride takes a full 10 seconds. Get your pet up quickly so that it interrupts their shooting while you are slammed. Run through if engaged. Don’t stand and shoot while they’re backing up with shield out – chase them. If they switch to bow, interrupt with RF and keep chasing. If you pay attention you should win these fights.
You should count on a good amount of bow damage against these classes. Open at full range, get your dog on them early, and watch your logs for garrotes or diseases. Kite as much as possible. Once you’re in melee range you’ll be taking a lot of damage, but if you can soften them up enough before hand you can do well.
Note on vamps: really go to town with the bow here, kite, have endo pots ready, and do as much damage as possible without letting them power up on you—the claw is a PITA.
Shield users have an edge in the game right now. You can’t count on much bow damage against these guys, and bow spec hunters will have a very hard time killing them. You can kite all day and you still won’t do much bow damage if they have MoB and a decent solo set up. Try throwing the pet on passive while kiting so you can restealth and get crits from behind. Purge slam. Don’t feel bad about disengaging if it’s not going to happen.
When you’re in melee, try running through to land styles. Weapons with ABS/AF debuff procs are particularly nice against these targets (see Dragonfury/Bloodfrost Battle Spear).
Note on reavers: What can I say about reavers? Besides necros and perhaps maulers, they are the worst class in the game for hunters to fight. We just don't have the spike dps to put them down. As well as the life taps, they snare and interupt. Don't try without purge. In fact, it's best not to try at all.
Note on mercs: Kite through dirty tricks.
Note on armsmen: Again, very tough class atm. And difficult to kite as they have crossbow, unlike their hib counterpart, Heroes—beware in engaging these targets.
Strategy when engaging casters depends largely on your spec. Melee oriented hunters will want to open at close range so that they can close the gap with PS after initial crowd control, if they use bow at all. Bow spec archers can open at range and may do enough damage to drop a caster before he is in CC range. Also, a crit and 2 or 3 PBs will finish many casters if you choose to open at close range—remember to follow crit up with rapid fire to remove bubble and brittle guard.
If the caster has a pet try to open close enough that you can close the gap for melee—you will be interrupted by the pet quite quickly.
Note on MoC: If you see MoC, especially with life tapping targets, zephyr, put pet on passive, and restealth. Wait 20 more seconds then have at it. If zephyr is down, try phase shifting out of range. If they’re both down, try and run through to break line of sight. A razor’s edge will be particularly handy in this situation.