hunter stat priorities

      Gearing a hunter can be confusing to start with, but it's quite simple once you figure it out. Heres a chart of hunter stat conversions from Wikia. 

      1 Agility = 1 Attack Power

      14 Ranged Attack Power = 1 DPS

      1 Agility = 0.552 Critical Strike Rating

45.91 Critical Strike Rating = +1% Critical Hit

      83.33 Agility = +1% Critical Hit

      1 Agility = 2 Armor

      1 Stamina = 10 Health

      Hit Rating needed for +1% Hit = 32.79

There are 5 statistics listed on the character sheet that are considered Base stats. These are the ones boosted by things like +10 Stats to chest and so forth. These are Strength, Agility, Stamina, Intellect, and Spirit, listed under Attributes on the character sheet.

Strength: Adds +1 melee attack power (no ranged) per point of Strength.

Note that Pets get melee AP from the Hunter's ranged AP, so Strength on the Hunter dies not benefit the pet, but direct Strength buffs to the pet (food and Scrolls and others) will work for the pet.
The only added Strength a Hunter should have on gear besides the naked base amount should come from +6/8/10 Stats to chest and possibly the +4/6/10 Stats gems if you have one.

Agility: Adds +1 melee and 2 ranged Attack Power, +0.551 Crit Rating and 0.012% Dodge per 1 point of Agil

Since Crit is a rating that translates into a %, it can also translate to 83.3 Agil per 1% Crit (at level 80), or 1 Agil = 0.012% Crit.

NOTE: as of 4.0.1 Agility gives 2 Attack Power per point.

Stamina: Adds +10 Health Points per 1 point of stam.

Intellect: "Provides no benefit for your class."

Spirit: "Provides no benefit for your class."

ATTACK POWER

Attack power drives a large portion of our total Damage

14 AP adds 1 damage-per-second to auto shots, which is also part of "ranged weapon damage" used to calculate specialty shots.

SECONDARY AND COMBAT RATING STATS

Note that all Ratings stats take the rating value you have in gear, and convert them into a percent chance. The rating needed per 1% chance is a function of the character level, and a base value per stat.

As such, the ratings you need per 1% go up as you gain levels. This is on purpose, because of more stat values available for higher level gear, and as a result you'll have more total Attack Power at 80 than at 70, but roughly equivalent Hit and Crit ratings.

There is an actual math function you can use for the rating you need per level, which I get from wowwiki and they apparently got from the author of the Ratings Buster add-on:
Rating needed per 1%:
level 1-10 = base / 26
level 10-60 = base*((level-8)/52)
level 60-70 = base*(82 / (262 - 3*level)
level 70-80 = base*(82/52)*(131/63)^((level-70)/10)
Base values are 10 for Hit, 14 for Crit, 4.69 for ArP, 10 for Haste 


Hit Rating:
This adds to percent chance to hit, as a counter to the base chance to miss of the enemy target.

post-4.0.1 Weapon Skill is no longer present as a developed skill, BUT I presume it's still a max-per-level mechanic. So it's level based and doesn't need active training.

The only relevant difference is we no longer have to train the skill
The formula for hits and misses is based in part on your Weapon Skill versus the target's Defense Rating. Post-4.0.1 since we no longer have to develop the skill, it should be more directly based on Level difference.

For a weapon/defense difference less than 10:

Miss Rate = 5% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill)*.04%

For a weapon/defense difference greater than 10:

Miss Rate = 6% + (Defense Skill - Weapon Skill - 10)*.4%

For enemy NPC targets, I'm pretty sure defense skill is set to 5 points per level, equivalent to max you can get as a player at that level.

As such, you'll miss less versus lower level targets, and need less Hit Rating, to the point where you need no rating.

Per the above, you'll never miss a target 5 levels below you, and you need 8% Hit to never miss a raid boss 3 levels above you.

As such, there is a hard cap where adding more rating adds absolutely nothing to ranged attacks, but until you get there, Hit Rating is the most important stat you can have. Basically, a missed attack will do no damage whatsoever, and can't ever get a critical strike if the attack misses.

All of the numbers listed below assume you're capped for weapon skill (400 at level 80)

The base chance to miss is based in part of the relative level of your target:

+0 (same level) = 5% chance to miss, this includes players in PvP.

+1 level = 5.2% chance to miss. This is less relevant since most of what you'll face will be in the 0 to +2 levels range, including questing and instances.

+2 levels = 6% chance to miss. This includes raid trash and Heroic Dungeons including bosses.

+3 levels = 8% chance to miss. This is for bosses in Raids, normal or heroic modes.

To increase your % chance to hit, you increase your rating from gear and enchants, primarily.

Some information may not be up to date