Hunters are the only archers of the frosty realm of Midgard. Their ability to train in Archery leads them to be one of the best long-ranged damage dealers in the realm. They also can learn how to wield a spear or sword for powerful melee fighting. In addition, blessed by their Norse goddess of the Hunt, Skadi, Hunters are capable of using her blessings to enhance and protect themselves.
Beastcraft is the spell line available to Hunters, which gives them pet summoning and charming spells. While Hunters are neither masters of arms, archery, nor stealth, their combined abilities allow them to battle using tactics and guile over sheer brute strength.
In a pve setting, a hunter which trains fully into archery will cut through mobs quickly and easily, making it one of the easiest characters to level in a solo setting, and also making it useful on specific high level mobs which drop quickly to archery. Beastcraft can also be relatively useful in this setting, as the pet can be used to control adds and extra mobs that come along for the fun (although the pet will at best be several levels below the hunter itself, so don't expect it to tank multiple mobs of decent level for very long). If the hunter instead trains more into a melee style with either the sword or the spear, they are far less efficient overall and relatively useless when it comes to high level pve combat. The downside of the pve hunter (even as full archery) is that it lacks the ability to effectively deal with multiple mobs at a time, and instead needs to focus on quickly killing a single mob and then moving on to the next.
As a general rule, when it comes to leveling with an archery hunter, the easiest way is to simply keep archery at the same spec as your level, with extra points going into either beastcraft or a melee line (typically beastcraft as it brings self buffs). This type of spec, along with a decent set of gear (prioritize items with dexterity, as dexterity affects both archery damage and bow draw time) will allow you to chain pull yellow con mobs for quick and efficient leveling. Done correctly, in most cases the mobs should never reach you before dying.
Insta-cast spell that is PBAE 50% snare lasting 20 seconds with a 350 radius. Also a 60% self speed increase of 15 seconds. Snare breaks on receiving an attack.