WoW newbie looking for advice

[Kevin]

The increased range is most useful in PvP/Raids/5-mans/Kiting elite mobs in that order of importance.

Because you have a very buff pet to hold aggro from you, you don't need it nearly as much as would, say, a mage or a warlock.

I think you nailed it. I've had it and I've not had it on various builds. As Mirajj said, you miss it most after you've had it for a long time but you adjust and the deadzone changes really make it less valuable in many situations, the deadzone change was a massive playstyle change for hunters in many ways. But when I don't have it, I miss it the most in PvP and Raiding and the least in soloing. In 5 mans I do miss it but there are a lot of times in 5 mans where you simply can't get at max range anyway, but there is still stuff in raids that 41 yards lets you avoid but 35 doesn't. And there are times I miss it soloing but that is mostly when I'm competing for spawns while farming something and the extra range helps me get tags faster, there are other times, as mentioned, it helps with kiting but you can easily be happy without it.

I can't imagine doing serious PvP without it (casual PvP sure, but it's a big deal when you are really playing to win all the time). But I can see doing serious PvE without it (and have as the top DPS hunter spec is beast and doesn't use the extra range).

And I also miss not having the range talents way more on a mage, lock, and caster shaman than I ever did on my hunter and I missed it a lot on my hunter at times. I adore the S3 healing shaman gloves for that extra 5 yards on shocks I know.