Just curious. I am trying to find out what i should do about raid dps to possibly enhance it on long, drawn out fights, or simply just trying to save my mana till my mana pot cooldown is up. Should i use any lower rank shots? right now i just spam my highest rank ones and switch to R1 multi shot if i need to in order to wait for my mana pot cooldown. Lookin to see if there is a more efficient way to dps. I also dont use stings on raids.

do you guys do any down-ranking?

Demonic Runes, Superior Mana Potions, Mana Oil, Nightfin soup, etc.

Lower ranks of Multi-shot and Aimed Shot are more DPM than their max-rank counterparts, so could be very useful depending on the fight. I know I've seen the math for when to downrank in a good thread somewhere on the EU boards but can't find it atm.

Also, you could consider getting Black Grasp of the Destroyer made, assuming you're not breaking 8/8 DS to wear them. Are you horde or alliance?

I use a mix of Major Mana Potions, Dark / Demonic Runes, Nightfin Soup, Lesser Mana Oil (x2), Mageblood Potion -- depends on how long the fight'll last. I don't downrank.

i'm horde. doesn't black grasp only work on mobs that have mana? dunno if it's worth it dropping my general's gloves for those.
What ranks exactly would show to be the best DPM? I'm also kind of looking to be somewhat jewish about using my consumables on the longer, yet easier fights.
here is my profile. http://ctprofiles.net/1830429

While I'm not hearin' ya on the religious/ethnic slur, the best damage per mana rank of multi shot is rank1. Rank1 Aimed Shot is similarly the best mana -> damage, but if you combo r1/r1 you'll have way less consumption than you could chew through on just about any boss fight. I typically opt to keep with r6 Aimed / r1 Multi.

Black Grasp is absolutely terrible if you're currently using DS, Vek'lor's, or CS. The hit to your damage is not worth the mana you regenerate.

Not on my home computer atm, but iirc for me the DPM values of Multi-shot rank 5 is something like 2.3 and Multi-shot rank 1 is something like 7.1. And no, Black Grasp only drains from mobs with mana but you gain 8 mana every shot, regardless of the mob or the shot.

EDIT:

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you're alliance, but I think that 26+ mp5 (For me, with Rhok) is worth more than the 12 AP and .37 crit difference between Grasp and DS, or the 14 AP and .41 crit difference between Vek'lor's and Grasp, especially pre-naxx where Mp5 hunter gear is pretty scarce.

Black grasp's mana gain works on all mobs/players. No, the dps on R12 gloves is better than Black Grasp, just use some consumables, and sell the gloves/mats you would have used to create the gloves to buy more consumables ;).

i think im just gonna get those gloves and use them when i'm tryin to save myself from using consumeables. tbh i save almost all my consumeables for naxx or when im tryin to get epeen +.

Yeah, I'm alliance~> so I have the benefit of JoW and BoW.

The mana regen is only valuable if you're having mana issues that can't be resolved with simple (and cheap) consumables. Even then, the use of r1 multi shot will alleviate much of the mana woes. Black Grasp is about the only mana regen item worth considering, and it can be circumvented with appropriate buffs/consumables.

If you can preserve your mana bar throughout a fight using consumables, do so.
If you can't, or choose not to use full consumables, use rank 1 multi shot for efficiency.
If you refuse to use r1 multi-shot, or the situation doesn't warrant it (need as much burst as possible) then concede to mana regen gear if the amount of regen is efficient.

For optimal sustained damage, just spend the few gold on mana potions and farm up Demonic Runes.

Well, like was stated above, rank 12 gloves would be alot of trade-off for damage, but there's not really anything else to spend the obsidian shards on, so yeah I'd suggest getting your guild to craft a BGotD if you can. I recently replaced my GS gloves for them and have been really happy with the results. But, IMO, you should be putting in the time to farm consumables for raiding anyways, and on new fights you'd probably wanna use Rank 12 Gloves with alot of consumables, should help your mana issues enough :D