Auto Shot
| Auto Shot | |
|---|---|
| |
| Properties | |
| Class | Hunter |
| School | Physical |
| Cooldown | None/Global Cooldown |
| Other information | |
| Level learned | 1 |
Auto Shot is a basic attack that allows hunters to fire their ranged weapons repeatedly until canceled. This will automatically activate when a hunter uses any offensive ranged ability (with the exception of 
[Scatter Shot]).
Notes
This is the bread and butter attack for hunters. Generally a hunter will pull the mob and then just turn on Auto Shot and use whatever shots they choose (
[Arcane Shot], 
[Serpent Sting], 
[Concussive Shot], etc).
The actual icon the player will see for the Auto Shot ability will be the icon for the ranged weapon in use. The icon shown on this page is a placeholder, shown when no ranged weapon is equipped.
The 0.5 cast time affects the time between activating this ability and the first shot being fired, or firing the first shot after moving (when Auto Shot will not fire). Between shots, the time only depends on the hunter's weapon speed and haste, just like the auto melee attack.
Auto Shot has a built-in 15% ranged haste effect.
Tips and tactics
The auto-activation when used with any ranged offensive ability can cause you to generate more aggro than you wanted or to break an effect.
Since it is a spell in itself, attempting to use a macro which activates multiple abilities will prevent one or possibly more than one of the abilities from being activated (in other words, you will receive the error message "Another action is in progress").
There is a cast time of 0.5 seconds. This is important to keep it in mind because using another special ability can and will cancel out this casting time to reset Auto Shot.
Due to the 0.5 second cast time on auto-shot, firing a special ability while moving will prevent auto-shot from firing immediately after the special shot goes off. This can be highly helpful when trying to generate aggro on a crowd-controlled mob without breaking the CC.
Patch changes
Patch 11.0.2 (2024-08-13): No longer deals 15% increased damage in PvP combat. 
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Minimum range removed. 
Patch 4.0.6a (2011-02-11): Auto Shot was not firing while the hunter was moving under certain conditions. Auto Shot should now always function correctly while the hunter is moving. - Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): Auto Shot can now be used while moving.
- Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Max range increased to 40 yd, up from 35 yd.
Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): 15% ranged haste is now built into the hunter's Auto Shot. - Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Auto Shot will now continue to fire even while casting other ranged abilities (such as
[Steady Shot]). 
Patch 2.4.0 (2008-03-25): Equipping a thrown weapon while in the middle of an Auto Shot will no longer cause animation issues. - Patch 2.3.0 (2007-11-13): Minimum range reduced to 5 yd., down from 8 yd.
- Patch 2.1.0 (2007-05-22): Hunters now have a UI option Auto Attack/Auto Shot that if turned off means that the hunter will not automatically switch between ranged attack and melee attack difficulty when the range changes.
- Patch 2.0.6 (2007-01-23): Auto Shot will be automatically enabled if the Hunter steps out of melee range while in combat with target.
Patch 1.8.0 (2005-10-10): Auto Shot is now canceled when you die. - Patch 1.7.0 (2005-09-13): Fixed a bug where switching targets would cancel Auto Shot. Switching targets should now continue firing on the newly acquired target.
External links
| ||||||||
