Infraction for Namarus: General Idiocy

Kaubel · 12/08/08, 7:21 PM

Post: The Survival Hunter in WotLK
User: Namarus
Infraction: General Idiocy
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/a34-forum_rules/, #2 (quote-splitting).

Original Post:

1. Haste- Since we have a tremendous amount of haste on our t7/t7.5 gear, coupled with the haste we get from rings/boots/capes/weapons, i believe that IAOTH is a beginning talent at best. I currently have 303 haste rating and will only tack on more from gear stats alone when i acquire another 2 pieces for the 4set bonus. We need 523 haste rating to cap steady shot casts, and i firmly believe that hunters can come close to that number with naxx tier pieces and off pieces (10 and 25man respectively). That being said, i think IAOTH is a talent that can be spec'd out of when you acquire more gear upgrades.

It is going to take a long long time before you can spec out of IAOTH, and rather than aiming for gear with haste, you should just accept gear with haste, and try for other pieces that do not have haste. IAOTH is a stepping stone for Focus Fire. I really do not see any reasonable survival hunter spec'ing out of this for a long time.

2. Hit- Hit is a bit of a bigger issue, as hunters have to compete with rogues (and sometimes warriors and pallies) for off pieces that have hit on them. Again, just like haste, as more hit is gained with off pieces and/or weapons, you can drop points in focused aim. It's just a bit harder to get hit IMO because of different classes needing hit. Of course there is theorycrafting that supports the notion that focused aim is not needed at all, but i like to be capped anyways. I also dislike gemming for hit.

I also suffer the problems with hit, especially trying to pick up melee weapons with hit, since rogues are trying to get them all. 2-handers paladins, deathknights, and warriors all want them. Leaving hunters with a hard choice for a stat stick melee weapon that melee do not want.

3. Master Tactician/Sniper Training- I never liked MT in BC and for some reason i don't like it in Wrath. I still believe that 5pts to spend for that 10% chance proc is way too much. But, Sniper Training is not really a better option. It seems to me that Sniper Training is a pvp talent for when you are in the open fields ( or in arena) mowing people down. As has been said in this thread numerous times, being 30+ yards away from the boss means you are also 30+ yards away from a healer or buffer. IIRC shaman totems have a 40 yard range. I tried Master Tactician for awhile, and i still didn't like the proc rates on it. However, Sniper Training doesn't seem like a very feasible talent either. So it's a tossup imo between whichever talent is mechanically more sound for you.

Master tactician is a solid talent when you have low crit. In BC this became a mediocre talent as people geared up because they had so much crit, and it suffered from diminishing returns as such. However, right now, when people are still gearing up, it is an excellent filler talent to increase dps.

With regards to sniper training. Unless your healers are sitting right on the mob, there is no way your out of range of your healers while using sniper training. In terms of being out of range of totem, get your deathknights to horn of winter or sit with your elemental shaman. There are many fights in all content instances where you can use your sniper training to good effect. It's just a matter of looking for the opportunities to use it.

4. Expose Weakness- Since i have been combing these forums since Wrath came out, i have found that 3/3 EW is not necessary anymore (wasn't really in BC either in endgame). As Smogh said, with the rogue poison bug still going strong critting and keeping EW up is not a real big issue. Also with a feral druid in raid, any decent gear surv hunter imo should/could be sitting on 40% crit (relative to the current ingame gear levels). I will be speccing to 2/3 very soon as unbuffed im at 33%.

Unless your crit is terribly low at the moment raid buffed, you should put 3 points in, however, with 2 your uptime should still be excellent.

My biggest annoyance at the moment is with lock and load, when it procs 90% of the time my explosive shot is on cooldown, rather than immediately refreshing your explosive shot, you have to wait for your cooldown to complete before you get the benefit of your lock and load, this often wastes about half the total cooldown time. Often as a result I am having to substitute a sub-optimal ES->AS->ES to use up the proc.