Hunter Tactics

The following are general principles and playing tips to keep in mind for arenas.

Line of Sight
A vital principle for doing well in arenas is to exploit line of sight. Hunters do not want to be charging an opponent who is near a pillar because the opponent can avoid the hunter and stay out of LoS by running around the pillar. Hunters are not able to effectively chase in this situation because we also have a deadzone to contend with, which becomes problematic when we're chasing someone who is just a few steps ahead of us. The best we can do is send in our pets for minor damage.

Given this, it is imperative to get the other team to charge us instead of vice versa. The best time for hunters to engage a target is when it is in open terrain and does not have any obstacles to hide behind. Be patient and force the other team to make their move.

Traps
Frost traps with entrapment are a favorite CC tool in 5v5's because they can prevent opponents from escaping being burned down. In 5v5's, typically I will use frost traps instead of freezing traps at least until opponents have used their PvP trinkets.

Freezing traps are good for single DPS. Just make sure that your teammates know where the trap is so they won't break it accidentally. I typically put a freezing trap at the feet of a healer if the opposing team has stealth. I will also flare in that spot. All in all, the healer should know that he is in relative safety if I place a trap at his feet.

Snake traps are very effective but somewhat situational. The issue with snake traps is that they are easily killed using AoE. The primarily advantage of using snake traps is against pallies in conjunction with viper sting, since cleanse only removes one effect and is fairly mana-intensive. A pally who has viper sting and a bunch of DoTs on him will either have to suffer through the dots or risk wasting mana on cleansing.

Feign Death
FD should be used to break targetting such as when we are the burn target or an opponent is winding up a long cast spell. FD in conjunction with pets and snake traps can make retargetting difficult, since opponents may suddenly find that they're beating on snakes instead of the hunter even though they know the hunter is feigned. Against targets at range, NEs should macro shadowmeld after feign death to avoid retarget.

Stings
Viper sting is a great tool for draining healer mana or draining mana from opponents who don't have a large mana pool (such as hunters). Since viper sting can be cleansed, one typical use is to apply rank1 viper sting to bait a cleanse. Otherwise, use viper sting when the opponents are not cleansing immediately, or use viper sting once the target is DOT'd with poisons already such as from snake traps or scorpids.

Hunter's Mark
Marking the target our team intends to burn down is usually a dead giveaway to the other team. Instead, mark targets that are likely targets of cleanse, such as a frozen target, so that the cleanse has a chance of removing the mark instead of the trap.

Pets
Keep your scorpid on the pally to stack poison with viper sting. Otherwise, don't put pets on pallies since pet attacks will typically not interrupt pally healing. Other good targets for pets for interrupts are priests and druids.