Raid consumables for Hunters

Getting ready to run heroics and raids takes time. You need certain gear, enchants, glyphs and plenty of ammo to see you through the content you face, and there's one more thing you can add to your bag of tricks to help give you the extra edge you need to down those bosses and top the damage meters: consumables. Flasks, elixirs and that handy Well Fed buff are there to help you maximize your performance and it's important to know, as a Hunter, which ones you should be looking for on the Auction House or farming before it's time to zone into your instance of choice.

Flasks

We'll start with the easy one first, since there's really only one flask (at least for Wrath-level content) that Hunters need to be aware of: the Flask of Endless Rage. This flask increases your attack power by 180 for two hours, and the effect lasts through death so if you wipe for some reason you're not out the cost of the consumable itself or the materials you used to make it.

Now, there are certainly elixirs out there that are likely better for your spec (which we'll get to in a moment), so why are flasks so popular? The answer to that is simple: progression content. When you're working on bosses that you haven't gotten on farm status yet, having a consumable that you don't have to constantly re-apply (and thus waste) each time you die is invaluable, so when you're unsure about the outcome of a certain encounter, always make sure you're using a flask rather than an elixir.

The Flask of Endless Rage requires 7 Lichbloom, 3 Fire Leaf, 1 Frost Lotus and 1 Enchanted Vial to craft. If you're an Herbalist, these materials should be relatively easy to farm up. If you're not, you may find that the raw materials to craft this flask may be cheaper than the flask itself on the Auction House depending on your server's economy. If that's the case, ask around to see if you have any friends or guildmates that would be willing to do the brewing for you.

Elixirs

For those nights when you're working on farm content but still want to boost your stats to improve your performance, there are plenty of Guardian and Battle elixirs for you to choose from depending on the stat you wish to improve. You can only have one guardian and one battle elixir active at a time, so choose wisely. The effects of elixirs last one hour, and do not persist through death.

For battle elixirs, there are a number of choices available to you. If you're looking for some additional hit rating to get you over the cap, the Elixir of Accuracy provides an additional 45 hit rating. The Elixir of Deadly Strikes provides 45 crit rating and the Elixir of Lightning Speed will increase your haste rating by 45 as well, which is handy if you need to get to the haste cap. Otherwise, you'll want to use either the Elixir of Mighty Agility which will give you a bonus of 45 agility or the Wrath Elixir which will increase your attack power by 90. So here are your options:

Elixir of Accuracy (2 Tiger Lily, 1 Talandra's Rose, 1 Imbued Vial)
Elixir
of Deadly Strikes (1 Goldclover, 2 Adder's Tongue, 1 Imbued Vial)
Elixir of
Lightning Speed (1 Deadnettle, 1 Crystallized Life, 1 Imbued Vial)
Elixir of
Mighty Agility (2 Goldclover, 2 Adder's Tongue, 1 Imbued Vial)
Wrath Elixir
(1 Goldclover, 2 Deadnettle, 1 Imbued Vial)

Now, there are really only two guardian elixirs that Hunters will be interested in: the Elixir of Mighty Fortitude or the Elixir of Mighty Thoughts. If you've got points in Careful Aim, the Elixir of Mighty Thoughts (which increases your intellect by 45) is an excellent choice to help further boost your attack power. Otherwise, the Elixir of Mighty Fortitude provides a nice buff to your survivability with its health bonus and regenerative properties.

Food

There are tons of different foods available to help you boost various stats, so the food you choose will largely depend on your spec and any key stats you may be short on (such as hit). Now, if you're still below the hit cap when raid time comes, Snapper Extreme will increase your hit rating by 40. If you're already hit capped, there are several other options open to you. For example, Survival Hunters will want to be looking for Blackened Dragonfin which increases agility (and stamina) by 40. There are a number of different foods that can help increase your attack power as well. Grilled Sculpin, Mammoth Meal and Dalaran Clam Chowder will all provide a bonus of 60 attack power and Mega Mammoth Meal and Poached Northern Sculpin will both give you an additional 80 attack power if you've got the Northern Spices to spare. If more crit rating is what you're after, there's food for that as well. Poached Nettlefin and Wyrm Delight will both give you an additional 30 crit rating and if you've got Northern Spices, Spiced Wyrm Burger and Spicy Blue Nettlefish will increase your crit rating by 40. So here's your list of possibilities:

Snapper Extreme (3 Bonescale Snapper, 1 Northern Spices)
Blackened Dragonfin
(2 Dragonfin Angelfish, 1 Northern Spices)
Grilled Sculpin (1 Musselback
Sculpin)
Mammoth Meal (1 Chunk o' Mammoth)
Dalaran Clam Chowder (2
Succulent Clam Meat)
Mega Mammoth Meal (2 Chunk o' Mammoth, 1 Northern
Spices)
Poached Northern Sculpin (1 Musselback Sculpin, 1 Northern Spices)
Poached Nettlefish (1 Nettlefish)
Wyrm Delight (1 Worm Meat)
Spiced
Wyrm Burger (2 Worm Meat, 1 Northern Spices)
Spicy Blue Nettlefish (1
Nettlefish, 1 Northern Spices)
And lets not forget our furry friends, shall
we? There are foods that will give your pets bonuses as well. Wrather introduced
Spiced Mammoth Treats which will increase your pet's strength and stamina by 30.
However, if you'd rather not waste the mammoth meat and spices, Kibler's Bits
from The Burning Crusade will provide the same buff for less costly materials.

There are plenty of ways to help improve your performance in instances and raids, and consumables are just one part of the puzzle. If you want to give yourself every possible advantage, making sure you've got the proper consumables on hand is an important thing not to overlook. Farming up foods and potions before raid (or instance) time and keeping your picnic basket well stocked is just as important as making sure there's ammo in your bags, so don't forget to level up that Cooking skill and pick up those potions!