Spamurai

The point of this article is maximizing your damage output, not minimizing your expenditures.

 

Antiganon

In that case, [Scroll of Enchant 2H Weapon - Greater Savagery] should be removed. You wouldn't put Massacre on a 2h you plan to upgrade soon, and likewise, you wouldn't put Accuracy on a 1h you plan to upgrade soon.

 

Hagen

Just want to mention that there are some WotLK mobs that are immune to fire damage (as mentioned regarding Explosive Shot) namely fire elementals in Ahn'kahet and Ulduar. (trash mobs before General Vezax)

Both parts of Chimera Shot are nature damage and I would rephrase the Serpent Sting part to "is based on the damage Serpent Sting does over it's full duration." except if you know it explicitly calculates the damage over 21s even without the glyph. (just a matter of wording but this might keep the fact accurate through possible changes)

As of 3.1.3 Improved Hunter's Mark is better than other filler talents like Improved Barrage or Improved Steady Shot even for your personal DPS, while the glyph isn't worthwhile with less than 3 hunter's in the raid. (Exact numbers have to be checked with the spreadsheet)

Master Marksman now solved the MM mana issues due to the 3.1.3 changes.

Rapid Recuperation is disputed as of 3.1.3 because the mana isn't necessarily needed anymore, before it was a key mana management for MM in longer bossfights.

T.N.T. 6% damage increase to the shot that does 35%-45% of the hunter's damage is more than a good filler I think.
While Lock and Load though having the potential for a big DPS boost is often doubted because of it's unreliable RNG effect.

Professions:
Jewelcrafting can give 33 agility instead of 66 AP too. (just because you mentioned the choice with blacksmithing)
Engineering gives Nitro Boosts to boots (16 crit rating and 2s runspeed increase at 3min CD), Hyperspeed Accelerators (340haste for 10s at 1min CD) or Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket (fire damage every 45s) to gloves.
Tailoring has Swordguard Embroidery (300AP for 15s proc at 45s ICD) to cloaks.


I hope this was helpful and I didn't push things to hard.

 

Rezdan

Great work so far Garby. I'll try to summarize some of the recent extensive theorycrafting regarding the viability of Armor Penetration especially with the increasing availability of ArPen gear for you to add.

Basically, for MM Hunters, once the static (non-proc) value of ArPen reaches approximately 650 (including ArPen from gems), ArPen has the possibility of outweighing Agility as the stat that most contributes to dps. Those with on-proc ArPen trinkets such as [Mjolnir Runestone] would see this threshold much earlier, around the 550 ArPen range.

Theorycrafting shows that MM Hunters at this threshold would procede to spec out of Imp Arcane Shot in favor of Imp Steady Shot and Imp Barrage and subsequently completely remove Arcane Shot from their shot priority for a net dps increase. This would result in an MM Hunter Shot rotation of: Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot x 3(or 4 depending on Haste)

The theorycrafting for ArPen geared MM Hunters also shows the increased value of the Imp Aspect of the Hawk and Steady Shot glyphs over that of the Kill Shot glyph currently described as the best min/max glyph. This also means that it may be best to mention ArPen gems as possible BIS once you're able to achieve the respective thresholds.

The ArPen theorycrafting has only been "proven" as increased dps for MM specced Hunters. You may also wish to add a caveat that while theorycrafting shows ArPen as ideal at the thresholds mentioned above, the theorycrafting is based on a standard stand-and-shoot fight where one is able to execute shots optimally - not something that is true for most RNG based movement-requiring boss fights. Also, the difference between DPS from 1 Agi and DPS from 1 ArPen at these thresholds is still quite small but increases quite fast the more ArPen you have.

Edit:
I would also like to add that Shandara's Spreadsheet has been updated with the ability to model waiting for a better shot. It's possible for users to set this wait time in the spreadsheet.

 

Repaxan

The "Enchant Weapon - Superior Potency" is omitted, provides 65 AP to a weapon.

 

MorikTheMad

I am a new hunter, and have never dealt with shot rotations, so perhaps that is why I didn't understand this comment:
"Shot macros have moved from a sequence system favoring macros to a first come, first serve sequence that is harmed by their use. Macros are now simply a crutch for lazy or poor players, and this section will not list them."

Explaining why macros are out now (why is a first come first serve sequence better? What is meant by that?) would probably be helpful for others like me, who are coming across this class never having played it pre-3.1

What has changed to make a more dynamic approach to shot rotations better than a set, macroed sequence?

 

Spamurai

Simpler wording may be a "shot priority" meaning that if X shot is off cooldown, you always use it before Y shot.

As survival for example, the DPS spreadsheet shows my highest DPS rotation to be:

1. Rapid Fire
2. Explosive Shot
3. Kill Shot
4. Black Arrow
5. Serpent Sting
6. Aimed Shot
7. Steady Shot

So no matter what (for the most part) if #1 is off cooldown, I use it before #2. If #2 is off cooldown, I use it before #3 and so forth. The exception comes with Serpent Sting, since obviously spamming SpS on a target would be detrimental compared to continuing with the other shots (assuming #1-4 are on cooldown.)

Another factor to consider is that sometimes waiting a couple tenths of a second for say Explosive Shot to come off cooldown will offer a DPS boost over just using another Steady Shot and delaying your ES by 1 or more seconds.

Also, this rotation is not set it stone. It will depend on your talents, gear, movement, and a number of other factors that are too small to get into here. Use the DPS spreadsheet to find out what would work best (theoretically) for your hunter.

 

luigithekid

For 1 Handed weapon, you should replace [Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Greater Potency] with [Formula: Enchant Weapon - Superior Potency]

 

CrowdControlFTW

Just wondering if anyone have the exact dps value of the stats we benefit from as hunters?
Ex:
Agi: 2.69
ArP: 2.70
AtP: 2.1:
Int: 1.1

These are just examples ofc.
Would really apreciate if someone had a list of these, so i could finally configure my Pawn addOn.
if you could possibly list them for Surv, MarksMan and possibly Beast Mastery, i would be a very happy hunter

 

Agazane

Not possible. The value of each stat constantly changes with each piece of gear you acquire.

Suggest you download the spreadsheet and plug in yourself, or use Rawr.

 

Ardeaf

If this is still being maintained:

As of 10/27/09, Marked for Death provides the benefit of having Glyph of Steady Shot, without glyphing for it. That is, without the glyph, a target debuffed with your serpent sting will take 10% more damage from your steady shots.

Another excellent post I'd like to see included here would be this post on armor penetration in 3.2. It'd clean up a lot of the posts in the hunter forums about armor penetration.

 

Tolmandary

With the 3.2 changes to engineering it is important to include the benefits this profession applies to hunters.

Cloak: Flexweave Underlay gives +23 agility.
Gloves:
1) Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket for a 1654-2020 critable single damage attack with no GCD every 45 seconds.
2) Hyperspeed Accelerators for 340 haste for 12 seconds out of every 60.
Boots: Nitro Boosts for +24 critical strike rating.

The selection of 3 tinkers you can apply I would argue are significant improvement over alternative enchants. The debate over using Hyperspeed Accelerators or a Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket is also one that I have still not seen settled.

 

• Garby

The article has been updated, and I'll be keeping it as such much more frequently from now on.

 

Andersaal

Dragon's Eye gems are listed as prismatic, which they aren't anymore.

 

Nakari

The "An Overview of Shots" section lists Chimera Shot as doing physical damage and nature damage on the Serpent Sting effect, when in fact both parts do nature damage.