dont look at the survival tree until you hit 65-70. Hunters shoot, never melee. Their melee weapons are nothing more than stat sticks. Concentrate on getting as much Agil gear as possible as you level up.

I leveled up to 60 as marksman and didn't have a problem at all, but people clain that levling up under the BM tree is easier. The BM tree is very handy though even after 60, but if you plan on doing pvp i'd recommend going Marksman. I changed to BM at 60 and swapped back to MM at 63-64 when i primarily did pvp.

Edit: http://www.bigredkitty.net/ is an amazing source for hunter theorycraft

My $0.02 ...

1) Lots of folks swear by Beast Mastery for leveling. I went Marksmanship. No complaints here. You just want your pet to be good enough to hold aggro and maybe save your ass once in a while if you pull too many mobs. I used pet training points to boost Julia's stamina and armor. If you're looking strictly at PVE, you might want to look at Monster Slaying, too, for the damage bonus.

2) I have two pets - a cat (for PVE) and an owl (for PVP, in Halaa or Hellfire). I leveled the cat to 70, then decided I wanted something big and flappy for world PVP. Leveling the bird was a pain in the rear, but I did it during skinning runs through Nagrand. The bird's up to Level 67 and she's plenty annoying. (Just ask the mage I ambushed the other day.) If I had to do it over again, I'd level the pets side by side. Pets level quickly, so there's no chance you'll get too far behind if you're dedicated to keeping them even with one another.

3) I'm a skinner and leatherworker. Thank goodness for armor kits -- everyone needs those. (If I could have named my level 40 mount, I would have called it "Heavyarmorkit.") But mining is a real money-maker right now. Smiths and jewelcrafters (for prospecting) need ore in large quantities, and no one on my server can be arsed to mine it right now. Plus there's something about that "plink-plink-plink" of your pixelated pick against that pixelated node that's just soothing as get-all.

3a) You're smart to have a bank alt like you do. I wasted an unbelievable amount of time going back to capital cities to auction my crap. Plus it's never fun to get an "You've been outbid on XXXXX" message as you're flapping back to the zone you just came from.

P.S. What ranalin said about "stat sticks" is absolutely correct. The only time you should be using your melee weapons is to get out of melee range.

Count me among them. There is no easier way to level in the game. I swears by it. (you really can't exactly go wrong with Marksman either, it's just not quite as good) In fact, I'd say go all BM - Aimed Shot ain't what it used to be. Lethal shots is nice, but the more powerful pet (more quickly) will make up for that.

Consider getting the early twenties named boar in Redridge. I like bears fine, but I'm iffy on their pure DPS output.

Your choice seems fine. I tend to avoid professions where I need the mini map (which means I can't turn my trackings on), but YMMV. My current hunter is skinning and enchanting I think, though he's not really aimed at being the big moneymaker.

Depending on your server's PvE progression, lowbie leather(i.e. light, medium, and heavy) can be the BEST moneymaker right now.

A lot of Sunwell raids are forcing all their DPS to switch to LW for Drums of Battle, so it's a seller's market for those materials.

Between my gear, hybrid-spec (MM & BM), and shot-rotation, I am usually in the top 5 for raid DPS. If you like, you can view the gear and spec on WoWArmory.com , and we could talk shot-rotation off-line. You're right, though, in that a comparibly geared BM Hunter will probably out-DPS you, but not by much. Besides, I still run too many 5-mans and solo quests to give up my hybrid spec for a strictly BM spec.

I'm not being snarky, but is there a special reason you didn't trap one?
I've been practicing my trapping skills out by Whelgar's on my alt and am loving it. I got a few resists last night IN Whelgar's, but outside of it, I'm having no problems keeping one mob trapped for 2 full freezes.

And really, since I probably won't be a raiding hunter, I'm thinking I'd better have my trapping skills really honed so I can get in instances and not be "that huntard", the one that can't CC.

Once I'm happy with my trapping, I'm going to move on to Kiting. I need to download BRK's vids and print out the posts on both Chain Trapping and Kiting. Really good stuff.

Ah, ok. I didn't realize Freezing trap came so late(I got it last year, before quitting).

That said, I am LOVING my hunter. I still love tanking, but it's neat to actually get XP, gain levels, learn new spells/skills/etc.

Very clever. Two thumbs up.

You ought to take your boar to Warsong and own some Horde. Boar is the default hunter pet. My little semi-twinked pally hates them with the white hot passion of a thousand flaming suns.

As for excessive use of Serpant Sting ... who wants to open the discussion that they're a big fat waste of mana?

I've been opening with a Mark+/petattack, and as soon as the pet gets there, sometimes just before, the shot that lowers the mob's stats, whichever one that is. We're killing so fast, and my new Raptor is a LOT tougher than I thought he'd be. I liked my boar, but wanted to try a DPS pet, but didn't find a stablemaster where I found right-level cats.

Anyway, I do notice I run out of mana without realizing it, but it's only after every 4th or 5th fight. Or it was until I stopped using Arcane all the time. Now I can almost just go and go and go if I'm not trapping for multi-pulls.

I always Mark first as well. If I'm pulling a mob out of a group, I use Serpent and wait till he's far enough away to send in the pet. Otherwise, I do as Ducki does and let the pet charge in. I still pop them with Serpent Sting as my first shot. (Even when I had Scorpid Sting, I hardly used it.)

I don't use any macros...yet. I'm still using Ctrl-1 to send my pet in.

Oooh! I want this pig!

I was playing yesterday and chatting with the guild members about a curse that turned my boar into an undead human for a short bit. I was level 25 and hunting 28's and 29's. I never got touched/hit/cursed because my pet was tanking. I don't remember who, but someone made a comment "Oh, you're a hunter. I used to play a hunter but I stopped because it was too easy." WTF? What defines easy? Am I supposed to die on a regular schedule or not be able to fight higher level mobs in order to make my character more legitimate? I don't understand why my character is discounted because I can perform at a certain level. I was very annoyed by the comment. I know, I need to activate Stone Skin and let it roll off.

Smoothbore, Dwarven Hunter

They're just being elitist assholes, Marsman. Don't worry about it.

Hunters do level faster than many character types, because you have two pieces to your character; your pet's worth about half of a PC, and you yourself are worth about three quarters, so you end up both tougher and with more hit power than many other character types. In my not-especially-humble opinion, hunters and druids are the best solo classes, because they can both tank and dps. Druids can heal too, but hunters get better CC, so it's kind of a tossup there.

That makes them an ideal early choice, because you can hit 70 quickly, make money, and then support other characters if you're interested. If you end up raiding, you can stay competitive right into endgame. And you're also very strong in PVP.

I don't think you could choose a better first class, myself.

Thanks, guys. I love my hunter and shouldn't let it get to me.

Speaking of PvP, I got my head handed to me by an even level paladin. (I don't do much PvP.) Then I wind up partying with the guy for a few quests in the excavation site. We split up and I was off whacking cursed sailors when he sends me a whisper asking for help. He needed to take out Snarltooth and can't do it solo. I had taken out Snarltooth (lvl 29) myself already. So I go over to help him out, waiting while he does a corpse run. Just to be a jerk, I ask, "So, you want me to take him out or do you want to help?"

My warpig held aggro the whole time.

Maybe I should be more humble.