A guldie and I got in a rather heated discussion last night about the PvE viability of the Gladiator's Xbow. My opinion is that it's just to slow; I have yet to find a shot cycle that would utilize the white damage range of the xbow enough to out DPS Sunfury. Anyone raiding w/ this thing? If you are what kind of numbers are you putting out? 2.9 w/ a 15% quiver just seems to be the quintessential speed for shot threading. Thanks in advance.


If this has already been talked about I apologize...just shitheap it.

Sunfury Bow with quiver is an attack speed of 2.52

Now take into account 1.5 seconds to release a steady shot, you have 1 second left to make your next move, GCD generally is 1 second so you could fit an arcane or multi-shot in before auto shot...

That all is assuming you have a ping of 0. Now lets go back to reality here where you have a ping of about 100ms or so and you don't have the reflexes of a cat(so to say).

Glad X-Bow with quiver is an attack speed of 2.78

2.78-1.5 for steady is 1.28 seconds to release your second shot before auto gets cut off.

Now maybe it is just me, but it seems that the Glad X-Bow is a lot more realistic of a speed to perform a near perfect shot rotation without cutting off your auto shots. On top of the fact that its bottom and top end are quite a bit higher.

I have used both, and I prefer the Gladiator X-Bow hands down. The shot speed is a lot more realistic for anyone who doesn't live next door to their server.

Auto-Steady-Arcane-Auto-Steady-Multi-Auto-Steady-Arcane-Auto

That's the rotation I use, the only catch to it is that it requires Imp. Arcane Shot. I would love to post damage meters for specific fights, but not everyone is blessed with a Shaman who drops GOA/Spring/SOE, Feral Druid, and a Shadow Priest, which seems to be the group make up for most of the DPS meter shots posted lately. And to be honest, my spec right now is not the best for PVE DPS.

Problem with Glad X-Bow is that hunters spend a lot time under haste effects. Assuming any decent haste effects and Gladiator x-bow looses much of it's appeal as it still is impossible to get decent 2shot rotations with it due to Imp. Aspect of the Pack procs etc.

Steady Shot casting time with 15% quiver = 1.3.
Auto Shot unable to fire for 1.3 + 0.5 = 1.8 seconds.

1.5 seconds.

What you say here I think actually helps the idea of using the Glad X-Bow over Sunfury.

Anyways, whatever these numbers say, I speak from experience here when I say that the Glad X-Bow is a better weapon to use because of the slow speed I can shoot two shots without cutting off my Auto Shot.

I haven't done the math for the two shots between auto shot cycle with a slow weapon because frankly, the damage difference I had when I started using this bow was so noticeable I didn't feel the need to justify it.

The thing about haste effects, at least as a Troll, is when I activate Rapid Fire I am also activating Beserking, and what I have noticed about that is that it is almost perfect shot timer to switch from a 2 shot between auto cycle to a 1 shot between auto cycle based on my current speed.

Basically what I'm saying is that just because unhasted I am shooting 2 shots between my auto doesn't mean that when I pop my haste effects I can't just start shooting with a priority cycle.

Besides looking at just the speed, the pure damage increase itself is enough of an upgrade over sunfury even with a suboptimal shot cycle. I have seen a hunter using this keep up with well-geared affliction locks, even on long fights, so even assuming it was all skill, at the very least it won't gimp you.

Thinking about the rotation just off the top of my head it seems like your going to clip an auto on every other double special shot.

The question is this...is squeezing two specials before an auto in shot rotation optimal for damage or mana? For example I set my shot rotation like this

Multi-auto-steady-auto-steady-auto-arcane(multi timer up)-multi-steady-auto-steady-auto-arcane-(multi timer up)-so on and so forth.

With steelhawk (ewww I know) i'm able to thread my auto's in with what seems like a seemless rotation w/out clipping untill I get to the third rotation or so. I'm at work so I dont have the time to crunch the numbers but I will when I get home.

Yeah, I got the Glad Xbow as well... for PvE, I'm in mostly lvl 70 instance blues with the occasional PvP epic piece thrown in. I came in 3rd on Gruul, which is damn good keeping in mind 2 things:
1) The other hunter in the raid was in a lot of Kharazan epics & used Wolfslayer Sniper & came in around 10th
2) Our guild has 2 groups clearing Khara, so most of our casters have at least some epics from there, of which I have none.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I agree with the above guy - I'm by no stretch of the imagination the best PvE hunter. I'd say I'm above average, good even... which just goes to show how much the Glad Xbow helps

And besides, who can resist those 3.5k Aimed Shot misdirected hits?

It would be close..your looking at 1.3+1.3 on a 2.8ish atk speed...factoring lag and everything else your probably clipping your auto most of the time.

Auto Shot requires 0.5 seconds to cast.
In other words, double Steady Shot with 15% quiver, no lag / reaction time:
1.5 + (1.5/1.15) + 0.5 = 3.30
This is the fastest you can fire an Auto Shot if you insist on placing two Steady Shots inbetween.
This equals a 3.80 weapon, pre-quiver.
Of course, so slow weapons don't exist, and this is without lag / reaction time.
In other words, if you insist on placing double Steady Shots between each Auto Shot, you will delay each Auto Shot, albeit possibly not by any large amount.

Edit: Corrected figures.

Well it goes without saying that the white damage on the xbow is the best you can get by far with the current bow selection. As far as stats go there is better out there to suppliment your arcane/steady shot.

I'm hoping to see something silly from Lady V. but all I can do is hope.