So your hunter is 70 and you hate PvP?
Anyone that's levelled any class whatsoever to 70 recently has almost certainly heard the chorus of "PvP! PvP!" when they ask for advice on gearing up. The sad truth is that a lot of the season 2, 3, and 4 gear is itemized so well that it is really good for PvE. So if you're willing to grind a million hours of AV, then congratulations on your purples. For some of us, however, it's just not worth it. To that end, I've assembled the following list, some combination of which is more than suitable for starting in on heroics and Karazhan. And although the gear in Kara is, with a couple exceptions, quite poor, it is a reliable source of lots of badges, and with badges you can get some very, very nice gear.
The list is organized by item slot, and each slot is organized in ascending order, so the first item listed is the least preferred, and the last item is the most preferred. The first item is also almost always a quest reward, and if it's not a quest reward it's a reputation reward. These items, then, are the ones you can wear while you're running a lot of instances trying to get the drop items. There are also a couple of BoE items you can buy on the auction house. This gear was also selected with a beast mastery hunter in mind, and specifically one using the standard 41/20/0 spec.
Head:
Earthwarden's Coif
Beast Lord Helm
Neck:
Talon Lord's Collar
Shoulders:
Consortium Mantle of Phasing
Dragonbone Shoulders
Beast Lord Mantle (This one will last you until you get T5 shoulders. Seriously, it's better than T4.)
Back:
Delicate Green Poncho
Cloak of the Inciter
Chest:
Feralfen Beastmaster's Hauberk
Breastplate of Rapid Striking
Beast Lord Cuirass
Wrists:
Oronok's Old Bracers
Lykul Bloodbands
Hands:
Gauntlets of the Redeemed Vindicator
Beast Lord Handguards
Waist:
Shattrath's Champion Belt
Girdle of Ferocity
Legs:
Mag'hari Huntsman's Leggings (from my absolute favorite questline in the game)
Sunfury Legguards are a decent alternative for Alliance hunters
Beast Lord Leggings
Boots:
Duro Footgear
Boots of the Endless Hunt
Rings:
Lightwarden's Band
Slayer's Mark of the Redemption
Ring of the Shadow Deeps
Ravenclaw Band
Trinkets:
Bladefist's Breadth
Terokkar Tablet of Precision
Abacus of Violent Odds
Hourglass of the Unraveller
Melee Weapon:
Terokk's Quill
Dual-wield Sunbreakers
(Or Bombardier's Blades if you prefer daggers.)
Sonic Spear
Ranged Weapons:
Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart
You can easily use Lohn'goron until you get a Steelhawk or Wolfslayer from Kara, and you can use those until you've got 150 badges for the chocobow. You can (and should!) use the chocobow until you get Archimonde to drop his bow, so once you've got that, you're set. It also looks really, really cool.
Valanos' Longbow is a nice bow too, and you don't have to do the super-long Cipher questline to get it.
Part of gearing a 70 is also gemming and enchanting. To begin with, the metagem you want is a Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. This meta is such an enormous boost to hunter damage that it is always worth equipping one, even (for example) in the Earthwarden's Coif, above. The Coif will last you until you get your T4 helm off of Prince, so why not put a real meta in it? That said, while you're still farming the mats or the gold for the earthstorm, don't leave your meta slot empty, pick up a Swift Windfire Diamond until you've got the real gem. After your meta, you've got all these other sockets of various colors, and you're probably wondering what to do with those. Here are some general rules of thumb:
1. Gem to activate your meta. The earthstorm needs two of each, so remember that purple, orange, and green gems count as two colors each. A single green gem counts as one yellow and one blue gem, so a very popular option for hunters is to find somewhere to socket two Jagged Talasite.
2. Gem to achieve the hitcap. Until you're part of a 25-man raid, you should be specced Beast Mastery. This means that your hitcap is 142: this is the number you have to reach to never miss a level 73 mob, i.e.: a boss. It's one of the single most important numbers for increasing your DPS. The two best gems to use for this are Rigid Dawnstone and Glinting Noble Topaz.
3. Once you've achieved goals one and two, fill the rest of your sockets with Delicate Living Rubies. Ignore socket bonuses to do so. The way I do socket bonuses is I find the ones that I like, generally bonus agility, and I place the gems that I'm using to meet goals one and two to get those sockets. Everything else gets agility gems.
Enchants are generally pretty easy:
Glyph of Ferocity for your hat, the shoulder enchant from Scryer/Aldor (whichever you are), 12 aglity to cloak, +6 stats to chest, 24 AP to bracers, 15 agility to gloves, Cobrahide armor kit for legs, dexterity to boots, agility to 1h weapon or agility to 2h weapon, and finally a scope for your ranged weapon.
Some of the enchants are pretty expensive, and if you want to use Savagery or 26 AP to gloves for a while instead, that totally makes sense. And if you happen to be just swimming in primal air, cobra scales, and primal nethers, it might be worth it for you to put a nethercobra kit on your blue leggings, but most people will save that for the badge leggings or T5.
The list is organized by item slot, and each slot is organized in ascending order, so the first item listed is the least preferred, and the last item is the most preferred. The first item is also almost always a quest reward, and if it's not a quest reward it's a reputation reward. These items, then, are the ones you can wear while you're running a lot of instances trying to get the drop items. There are also a couple of BoE items you can buy on the auction house. This gear was also selected with a beast mastery hunter in mind, and specifically one using the standard 41/20/0 spec.
Head:
Earthwarden's Coif
Beast Lord Helm
Neck:
Talon Lord's Collar
Shoulders:
Consortium Mantle of Phasing
Dragonbone Shoulders
Beast Lord Mantle (This one will last you until you get T5 shoulders. Seriously, it's better than T4.)
Back:
Delicate Green Poncho
Cloak of the Inciter
Chest:
Feralfen Beastmaster's Hauberk
Breastplate of Rapid Striking
Beast Lord Cuirass
Wrists:
Oronok's Old Bracers
Lykul Bloodbands
Hands:
Gauntlets of the Redeemed Vindicator
Beast Lord Handguards
Waist:
Shattrath's Champion Belt
Girdle of Ferocity
Legs:
Mag'hari Huntsman's Leggings (from my absolute favorite questline in the game)
Sunfury Legguards are a decent alternative for Alliance hunters
Beast Lord Leggings
Boots:
Duro Footgear
Boots of the Endless Hunt
Rings:
Lightwarden's Band
Slayer's Mark of the Redemption
Ring of the Shadow Deeps
Ravenclaw Band
Trinkets:
Bladefist's Breadth
Terokkar Tablet of Precision
Abacus of Violent Odds
Hourglass of the Unraveller
Melee Weapon:
Terokk's Quill
Dual-wield Sunbreakers
(Or Bombardier's Blades if you prefer daggers.)
Sonic Spear
Ranged Weapons:
Lohn'goron, Bow of the Torn-heart
You can easily use Lohn'goron until you get a Steelhawk or Wolfslayer from Kara, and you can use those until you've got 150 badges for the chocobow. You can (and should!) use the chocobow until you get Archimonde to drop his bow, so once you've got that, you're set. It also looks really, really cool.
Valanos' Longbow is a nice bow too, and you don't have to do the super-long Cipher questline to get it.
Part of gearing a 70 is also gemming and enchanting. To begin with, the metagem you want is a Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. This meta is such an enormous boost to hunter damage that it is always worth equipping one, even (for example) in the Earthwarden's Coif, above. The Coif will last you until you get your T4 helm off of Prince, so why not put a real meta in it? That said, while you're still farming the mats or the gold for the earthstorm, don't leave your meta slot empty, pick up a Swift Windfire Diamond until you've got the real gem. After your meta, you've got all these other sockets of various colors, and you're probably wondering what to do with those. Here are some general rules of thumb:
1. Gem to activate your meta. The earthstorm needs two of each, so remember that purple, orange, and green gems count as two colors each. A single green gem counts as one yellow and one blue gem, so a very popular option for hunters is to find somewhere to socket two Jagged Talasite.
2. Gem to achieve the hitcap. Until you're part of a 25-man raid, you should be specced Beast Mastery. This means that your hitcap is 142: this is the number you have to reach to never miss a level 73 mob, i.e.: a boss. It's one of the single most important numbers for increasing your DPS. The two best gems to use for this are Rigid Dawnstone and Glinting Noble Topaz.
3. Once you've achieved goals one and two, fill the rest of your sockets with Delicate Living Rubies. Ignore socket bonuses to do so. The way I do socket bonuses is I find the ones that I like, generally bonus agility, and I place the gems that I'm using to meet goals one and two to get those sockets. Everything else gets agility gems.
Enchants are generally pretty easy:
Glyph of Ferocity for your hat, the shoulder enchant from Scryer/Aldor (whichever you are), 12 aglity to cloak, +6 stats to chest, 24 AP to bracers, 15 agility to gloves, Cobrahide armor kit for legs, dexterity to boots, agility to 1h weapon or agility to 2h weapon, and finally a scope for your ranged weapon.
Some of the enchants are pretty expensive, and if you want to use Savagery or 26 AP to gloves for a while instead, that totally makes sense. And if you happen to be just swimming in primal air, cobra scales, and primal nethers, it might be worth it for you to put a nethercobra kit on your blue leggings, but most people will save that for the badge leggings or T5.