Raiding is 20% perspiration and 80% preparation. Ok, so Thomas Edison is being slightly misquoted here, but the gist of the statement remains true. Not to say raiding doesn't take any effort, but going to a fight unprepared is like going into battle with half your gear broken - it simply won't do!
If you look at the top raiders, or even the people who top your own guild's damage chart, 99% of the time, you'll find that these people come to a fight prepared. They bring what they need with them to raids to perform at top efficiency - and that means consumables. When someone talks to me about their damage in raids, the first question I ask is "Are you using (food/flask/elixirs)?" If the answer turns out to be no, well, that's part of the problem right there. Hunters are a DPS class and if there are things that you can do to improve your damage, why wouldn't you do it?
Now yes, I realize that farming materials can be time consuming, or, if you don't have a gathering tradeskill, it can be expensive. But if you have time to complete ten daily quests a day, you have the resources to be prepared for raids.
The guideline I'd use for most raids would be 1 Flask OR 1 Battle Elixir/1 Guardian Elixir, as well as food and mana oil. Whether you choose to use a flask or elixirs is generally up to the player themselves.
Basics
Besides flasks/elixirs and food, there is a basic raid checklist that everyone should get in the habit of following. For the experienced raider, this might seem like obvious preparation. But even the most experienced raiders can be forgetful, so it's a good habit to get into early.
1. Bandages: You probably already carry at least a few bandages around with you anyway. If you're
not, start bringing an entire stack with you (or two). Depending on the fight, it's probably smarter
to save your potion cooldown for mana pots, so having a bandage handy when you know your healers
may be occupied elsewhere never goes amiss. Remember - dead hunters can't do any DPS.
2. Health/Mana Pots: Although, in desperate situations, you can switch to Aspect of the Viper to
help with mana a little, you're doing more DPS if you keep Aspect of the Hawk on at all times.
Obviously, if you've got a shadow priest in your raid group, mana will be less of an issue, which
gives you leeway with your potion timer to drink a health pot instead. Remember, there is a daily
quest in Skettis (Escape from Skettis) that, as a reward, provides either 2 Unstable Health potions
or 2 Unstable Mana potions as a reward. A good way to suppliment your potion supply for free! Play
a few battlegrounds a week, and you can purchase Combat Mana or Combat Health potions with your
extra battleground marks. AND, there are zone specific health and mana potions available like
Bottled Nethergon Vapor/Energy (that can only be used in Tempest Keep instances and stack to
15 instead of 5 and are a random drop inside said instances) or Cenarion Health/Mana Salve (only used inside Serpentshrine instances and also
stack to 15, but unlike the Bottled potions, require exalted reputation with Cenarion Expedition and
a Coilfang Armaments to purchase - but for that, you get 3 of them). Rejuvenation
potions restore both Health AND Mana, but these are on the spendy side, especially since most times
you'll either need health or mana but usually not both at the same time. However, they're not bad
to have if you have the resources.
3. Ammunition: Um, ya. As every hunter knows, for intensive raiding situations, a quiver/ammo pouch
full of ammunition might not cut the mustard. Bring extra. Bemoan the cost if you will, but you
SHOULD be bringing the "good stuff" with you, if not for everything, at least for bosses. Scale of
Sands (faction - Honored) for 53DPS ammo, Cenarion Expedition (faction - Revered) for 37DPS arrows,
Honor Hold (faction - Revered) for 37DPS bullets, Thrallmar (faction - Revered) for 37DPS bullets or,
dependant on the faction that's controlling Halaa, 34DPS ammunition. Most General Goods vendors will
carry the 32DPS ammo that you probably use for grinding.
4. Unbroken Gear: Don't forget to stop by and repair to 100% before you start your raid. Coming to
raids with gear already damaged may force your raid to utilize a repair bot early, and no one likes
using repair bots (expensive to make and expensive to use).
5. Pet Food: I don't care what your talent tree is, you should be using your pet. During a night
of raiding, your pet will lose happiness, especially if it dies! Lower happiness means less damage and
that's no good. A stack of food is usually enough, but that means food that will provide your pet
with 35 happiness a tick. If you tend to use food that gives less happiness, bring more of it. You
also want to have a stack of Sporeling Snacks with you. These little tidbits increase the Stamina
and Spirit of your pet by 20 and last for thirty minutes. You probably won't use them every fight
but on fights you know will be rough on your pet, you'll want these to give them a bit more
survivability.
Intermediate Level
So, now we've covered the basics. Time to take the next step, to intermediate level - flasks, battle/guardian elixirs and food.
Flasks: Flasks count as both a battle elixir and a guardian elixir, remains through
death and last for two hours. Flasks stack to five. For hunters, there is really only one choice for most situations
as to what to use:
Flask of Relentless Assault (1 Fel Lotus, 3 Mana Thistle, 7 Terocone and 1 Imbued Vial). It
increases attack power by 120.
Shattrath Flask of Relentless Assault has the same effect and can be purchased at Exalted faction
with either Aldor/Scryer if you have a Mark of the Illidari which drop off NPCs in the Burning
Crusade raiding zones (Serpentshrine Cavern, The Eye, Black Temple). However, the Shattrath flasks
only function in said raiding zones, as well as Caverns of Time: Mount Hyjal. The other alternative
are the Unstable Flasks that can be obtained in Blade's Edge Mountains, but these will only
function in the plateaus (fly only areas) and Gruul's Lair of Blade's Edge Mountains. The best
choice for hunters is the Unstable Flask of the Bandit (20AGI, 40AP, 30STA) that can only be
purchased if the event 'Assault on Bashir's Landing' is completed successfully. In a pinch, you can
also use an Unstable Flask of the Beast (20AGI, 20STR, 30STA) which can be created via the Fel
Manaforge in Forge Camp: Terror for the cost of 10 Apexis Shards.
Elixirs: There are two categories of elixirs - battle elixirs and guardian elixirs. You can only use one of each. Elixirs last for an hour, do not remain if you die and stack to twenty.
Battle Elixirs: Now, obviously some of these battle elixirs are not the best ones that you can use. The point of listing what's available for hunters is to encouarge you to at least use SOMETHING. If the choice is using something cheaper as compared to using nothing at all... well, you already know where I stand on that. The flipside is, don't turn around and use something like an Elixir of Minor Agility, because I guarantee that your raid leader won't take kindly to someone who's THAT cheap!
1. Fel Strength Elixir (1 Terocone, 2 Nightmare Vine and 1 Imbued Vial): Increases attack power
by 90 and decreases stamina by 10.
2. Elixir of Major Agility (1 Terocone, 2 Felweed and 1 Imbued Vial): Increases your Agility by 35
and your critical strike rating by 20.
3. Onslaught Elixir (1 Mountain Silversage, 1 Felweed and 1 Imbued Vial): Increases attack power
by 60.
4. Elixir of the Mongoose (2 Mountain Silversage, 2 Plaguebloom and 1 Crystal Vial): Increases
Agility by 25 and critical strike rating by 28.
5. Elixir of Greater Agility (1 Sungrass, 1 Goldthorn and 1 Crystal Vial): Increases Agility by 25.
In addition to elixirs created via alchemy, there are other items you can pick up like the Ground Scorpok Assay (25AGI) from a repeatable quest in the Blasted Lands that also count as a battle elixir.
Guardian Elixirs: Again, I am not trying to dictate to you which elixirs to use, but more to make you aware of what's available. Look over the list. Some will be more situationally appropriate than others. If, for example, you have a shadow priest in your group, mana may not be as much a concern, so instead of mana regen you might choose health or intellect, depending on the fight.
1. Elixir of Major Mageblood (1 Ancient Lichen, 1 Netherbloom and 1 Imbued Vial): Regenerate 16 mana
per 5 sec.
2. Elixir of Draenic Wisdom (1 Terocone, 1 Felweed and 1 Imbued Vial): Increases Intellect and
Spirit by 30.
3. Elixir of Major Fortitude (2 Ragveil, 1 Felweed and 1 Imbued Vial): Increases maximum health by
250 and restores 10 health every 5 seconds.
4. Earthen Elixir (2 Ragveil, 1 Dreaming Glory and 1 Imbued Vial): Prevents up to 20 damage done by
a physical or magical attack.
5. Mageblood Potion (1 Dreamfoil, 2 Plaguebloom and 1 Crystal Vial): Regenerate 12 mana per 5 sec.
6. Major Troll's Blood Potion (1 Gromsblood, 2 Plaguebloom and 1 Crystal Vial): Regenerate 12 health per 5 sec.
7. Elixir of Greater Intellect (1 Blindweed, 1 Khadgar's Whisker and 1 Crystal Vial): Increases Intellect by 25.
8. Elixir of Fortitude (1 Wild Steelbloom, 1 Goldthorn and 1 Leaded Vial): Increases the player's
maximum health by 120.
As with the battle elixirs, there are other things you can pick up that function as a guardian elixir, such as the Zanzas from Zul'Gurub (the Zanzas also last an extended period, two hours). Gift of Arthas is also considered a guardian elixir and gives a small boost to shadow resistance in addition to its other effects (on those big shadow resistance fights).
Food: I really hoped you picked up cooking. Not only can it be used to feed your pets, you can give yourself some pretty decent buffs in the process. Fishing too, as you'll see from the list, can net similiar buffs but requires a bit more patience to raise. Unless you're buying the food from the Auction House, all foodstuffs listed require a cooking fire to bake to perfection. The new recipes from Burning Crusade last thirty minutes. Others (like Winter Squid), considerably less.
1. Grilled Mudfish (Figluster's Mudfish): 20 Agility and 20 Spirit.
2. Ravager Dog (Ravager Flesh): 40 Attack Power and 20 Spirit.
3. Warp Burger (Warped Flesh): 20 Agility and 20 Spirit.
4. Blackened Sporefish (Zangarian Sporefish): 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds.
There are also quite a few recipes that provide stamina (20 or 30, depending on food quality) as well as lower level versions of agility (Winter Squid which provides 10 Agility), mana regeneration (Sagefish Delight which provides 6 mana per 5 seconds) and health regeneration (Poached Sunscale Salmon which provides 6 health every 5 seconds). There are also some beverages (Rumsey Rum Black Label and Gordok Green Grog to name a few) that also give statistic bonuses, but these cannot be used in addition to food bonuses. You'll need to choose one or the other.
Mana Oil: Mana oil, made by enchanters, can be applied to weapons, remains through death and last for thirty minutes. The best mana oil (Superior: 3 Arcane Dust, 1 Netherbloom and 1 Imbued Vial) restores 14 mana per 5 seconds.
Advanced
We've covered the basics and the intermediate levels of raid consumables. Now we move onto the final, advanced level. What does this consist of? Read on.
Scrolls: Scrolls now stack with nearly everything. Scroll of Agility V is obviously the most optimal, providing an additional 20 Agility for 30 minutes. However, unlike most consumables, scrolls can't really be farmed. Sure, you'll get lucky occasionally with an NPC drop and there's usually a scroll inside most dungeon chests. You can sometimes pick scrolls up off of NPC vendors (Dealer Hazzin in Netherstorm, for example, will occasionally have various scrolls for sale). Every little bit helps, so browsing the auction house or said scroll vendors can give an extra boost. Scrolls come in Agility, Intellect, Protection (armor class), Spirit, Stamina and Strength. Don't scoff at lower level scrolls either, more agility never hurts, and the ones you don't need to use on yourself you can always use on your pet!
Potions: But I thought we covered potions, you're asking yourself. Well, we covered health and mana potions, definately important, but not the other alchemical creations available. These are things that can be consumed and not count against either your battle or guardian elixir. As your raid progresses in content, one of the big potion types you'll find are very important are resistance potions (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature and Shadow). When resistance gear isn't enough, potions are your fallback position, as they absorb X amount of said type of damage. Haste Potions increase haste rating by 400 for 15 seconds. Purification and Restorative potions remove negative effects - good if your raid cures might be stretched thin. The Magic Resistance Potion, unlike the other resistance potions, do not absorb incoming spell damage but instead increase your resistance to those schools by 50 for three minutes. Swiftness potions (while often used more in PVP situations) might not go amiss if you need to move out of an area quickly to avoid AE damage.
Other items: Charged Crystal Focus (restores 2000 health, and does not share the health potion timer, but does share the Warlock Healthstone timer).
Other ways to make your fellow raiders love you
Ask your guild mage for food/water before the raid starts. If you need any buffs (or your pet does), don't wait until the last minute to ask for them. If you're new to an encounter and there are players more experienced, ask them for a rundown of the fight so you go into it at least somewhat prepared. Ask your fellow hunters what your specific role is during any given fight (establish Misdirect targets, know your positioning, etc). I can't stress being prepared enough, be it bringing consumables, learning what you can about the event beforehand, what have you. You will see an improvement in your raid performance, guaranteed. And, you will gain the respect of your guild leader/raid leader because I promise you, people who are 100% prepared are the people who are proving how much they want to be in the guild and be a contributing member.