What is the best strategy for fighting a hunter and his or her pet as a druid???

Sleep pet, root him, stand in between their melee and ranged zones and nuke away. Don't forget to cleanse any poisons.

First off Hibernate pet. If they have Bestial Fury, you are screwed.

Second, root the hunter, and get in his 'dead zone'. Then as hertz said, nuke away. You can do this ad nauseum till hunter is dead. If you are going to try to kill him in forms, watch out for the traps. A good hunter will always be standing on a frost trap, so that once you get close to him you are frozen, allowing him time to get range and kite you. Run off to the side a bit then feral charge him.

Always keep his pet hibernated.

Abolishing poison on yourself is key. Their stings are nasty.

I always start by sleeping his pet (except for those who decide to use bat, whihc is immune to sleep), but if its me.. I almost always stay in my bear form except for when I need to heal myself.. trough out the fight, i basically ignore the pet and keep going for the hunter with feral charge, this way they'll be in their dead zone.. (arcane shot 3X = dead druid GG)
never charge from the front, because they will most likely have put frost trap in front so always attack them from an angle... if they're OOM.. just nuke them with spells!

i usually leave the pet, i think its nice to build up my rage faster and it doesnt do much dmg anway.

Didn't know bout the dead spot ... nice to know for the BGs. As for pets not doing much dmg...combined with the hunter's blasts, a 60 pet will eat your bear balls up + it's hard to get a sleep on em when they're already clawing your eyes out.

If u have enough mana, u can beat a hunter by using up all his/her mana. bear form pretty much drains them out, but have to keep healing and dotting them. just another way of dealing with hunters.

feral charge them and just maul them to death. most hunters are too stupid to do anything other than just melee you back. If they actually manage to get you low enough use the rage to frenz regen and finish whipping them.

From what I have seen in BG's if you are running around alone you are just asking for a whipping.

Most hunters will choose a fast attack speed pet (1.5 or faster) for PvP - the ZG bat is a pre-made level 60 1.0 speed pet. This means you will find it difficult to get a hibernate/root spell off while it's beating on you.

At the beginning of the fight - your best bet is to run away (either travel form or cat+dash) to get out of the hunter's range, then either root or hibernate the pet. By itself, it's not going to do enough damage to kill you immediately. Keep in mind that with talents, a hunter's range is around 42 yards - longer than any other ranged atk in the game (spells included). Then circle back and root the hunter and exploit the dead zone (5-8 yards). Their only defenses at that range are traps and scattershot.

Avoid going into melee range - you'll get trapped if the hunter has a clue. Also avoid cat/bear forms, as most hunters are smart enough to fear you.

Hey Bovus,
Totally agree with the post. You just get feared if trying to go Feral against hunters. Many hunters that I come across do outrageous DPS and a couple fears really hurts. They definately like to trap you when close and scatter shot you when you go to caster out of feral.

**Will be nice if we can start using trinkets in Feral forms though. I will definately try out the PVP trinket against hunters trying to fear me. With the diminishing effects on fear type spells, would make me much more viable in a Feral vs Hunter match.

Bulldoser
60 Druid of Spinebreaker
Denizens of Defilement

Bovus, great info, but if cat/bear forms are really that ineffective, caster can't be much better...soooo what else is there?

Most, but not all pets can be completely ignored IMO. I occasionally run into a hunter that has put enough TPs into the Beast Mastery tree to make their sidekick a major nuisance, in which case hibernate is the trick (or green whelp armor - although I'm told, it's now nerfed with 1.10 /sob). I usually take them on in bear form for the AC, bash, and frenzied regeneration if and when necessary - also because I usually ignore their pet, who consequently is chewing on yer ass; this is only because I am currently feral spec. I also attack them from an angle too, for the reason mentioned above: traps. Watch for FD, a good hunter will often FD to pull their pet to them, AND so they can lay another freeze trap. Gotta remember to abolish poison, otherwise yer screwed out of mana, if the hunter has any clue what they are doing. If you're bal spec in any way shape or form, best bet is to sleep the pet, MF and then root the hunter, staying in that dead zone (4-8yds). Fire away with impunity. When root breaks, they will rush you for wingclip - and then run away for ranged attacks (once again, IF they know what they are doing), in which case I save a stun for this very thing (charge/bash in bear, or stomp in Tauren), good time to re-root and heal up in that dead zone you just re-created :elfbiggri .

Fear can be a bit annoying, but is not typically a decisive factor in battle... as with all pvp encounters, assume your enemy has a full health pot, as should you...that way when you see his/her health shoot back up and the match basically resets, you are not surprised - but rather prepared.

Hunter's biggest threat is aimed shot, which can crit huge, that's why it's important to close or create more distance, fast. AS has a 3 sec cast and 6 sec cd, thank god.

a hunter @ similar gear level should only ever beat a druid by getting lucky with imp conc shot and/or critting aimed+multi in succession. It's even more true now in 1.10 since you can use your PVP trinket to get out of the first fear in bear form. Hunters who can use BW are harmless because they don't have scattershot! BW hurts, but it's not going to do really bad things to you if you stay in bear, and it's a ton of free rage for frenzied regen. Position is everything vs a hunter, don't hesitate to use travel form to get where you want to be. Even better if they start a fear that doesn't finish before you shift back and they lose that time to do dmg. Get them frustrated in their deadzone and trick them into blowing scatter when you want them to instead of when they have you @ 40% and you've got it. A lot of hunters who aren't expert pvpers will blow scatter as soon as you start an HT, even if you're sitting at 80% with regens up.

Oh and don't forget you can barkskin to help with those stupidly fast bats.

edit: remember to have self-smart casting enabled to make keeping abolish poison up easy. If it's a really sharp hunter you might want to check that they're not using rank1 serpent sting to trick you into blowing mana curing it too.