I was able to mantain a 95.9% up-time by macro'ing it to AS.

World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis

Disengage as a whole doesn't make much sense so finding a complete answer without someone saying yes it works or no it doesn't work is going to be hard. Generally disengage works like how you described. It allowed you to go through cutters on Halion and take damage from a melee while disengage off of lumbermill. However certain mechanics don't treat it like that. Shadow traps on Lich King didn't for example. You couldn't disengage over them. You can't disengage over Magma Traps on Heroic Ragnaros. For some reason certain mechanics take into effect where you actually are, and not just where you took off from. I don't know why there is a difference and I know this is not a very comprehensive list. However from my relatively small experiences these are the two that I distinctly remember just ignoring how the mechanic typically works.

Our hunter had the same issue with a windserpent on our first tries. He decided to manually cast it because otherwise it'd be used way too often... but if it can't be reapplied while active then macroing it should be fine, might need some spamming though if the pet just used an ability.

I always wondered if there is a magic spot for applying hunters mark on short living targets like the tendons on spine or the dragons at Blackhorn. Did anybody come up with a number and would share it?

There is no one definitive answer that fits all situations. The tradeoff for casting HM or not depends on several factors including:
1) Your spec. If you are MM with Marked for Death, you do not cast Hunter's Mark, instead you start with CS or AS to get the pseudo Hunter's Mark.
2) Your DPS on the target, which invloves the folloawing factors:
- What standard buffs you have and what debuffs will be on the target
- Your rotation used
- Whether you have dynamic buffs like RF, BL, trinket procs etc
3) if they are other hunters in the raid that benefit from the mark

For a given scenario, you can figure the value out in a sim for configuring the run per the scenario. Do two runs, one for your DPS with HM and one without HM.
Then find the time where the runs intersect in damage done when you start the DPS for the HM version 1 GCD late due to casting the HM.

Here is an example using my character as SV for a 1m (unfortunately FD cannot do shorter) run with using RF and with all buffs/debuffs immediately on the target (this assumes you can perform a perfect rotation like FD does):

DPS with HM: 47903 = a
DPS w/o HM: 45828 = b

Hence, the formula for the crossing point is:

b * t = a * (t - 1)

Thus,

b * t = a * t - a

(a - b) * t = a

t = a / (a - b)

So for this idealized case: t = 47903 / (47903 - 45828) = 23.09s

Hence, considering how small HM's AP is to our overall buffed AP, the decision to cast HM for you being the only hunter on the target is a lot longer than it was in previous expansions and vanilla. Assuming that your actual DPS scales the same for both cases with and without HM that the timing should still apply.

Just to clarify, you can do shorter on my site- you can enter a decimal place (like 0.2) but it looks like my error checking for it doesn't account for leaving off the 0 before the decimal. I'll add to my list of things to fix.

Note that there may be some things which don't smooth out properly over very short fights as my testing hasn't ever really focused on them. In some cases buffs may be assumed to run full durations which could throw things off (and I believe BA damage is calculated just by casts and not how many ticks completed). I'll take a peek at this as well next time I have some free time.

I'm not 100% certain with the staff but vishanka does not have a ICD if I remember correctly. Or at least it is very short because I see it procc quite often on single or multi target with my hunter alt. Together with the gcd and reset auto shot timer you'd invoke by swapping each time I believe it will not be worth it.
The staff may have an internal CD but the time between proccs is not too long either and I don't think you can unequip kiril one the procc went off because it should fade.
Weapon swapping in general has probably been no benefit to any class since blizzard introduced the gcd after swapping weapons.

No, Kiril (and any other item able to be equipped) invokes the ICD when the item is equipped.
Kiril has a 55 second ICD. You can start combat with it and gain the buff, then 20 seconds later exchange it for Heroic Spire (which in one of the cases, guarantees your hit rating will be either under or over cap, thus wasting stats).
At that point you could DPS with Heroic Spire for 35 more seconds before Kiril's ICD would be finished in your inventory.
However, if you attempt to equip Kiril again, it will immediately initiate the 55 second internal cooldown, making it unable to proc the stacking agility bonus.

This would essentially double the duration of Kiril's ICD (from 55 to 110 seconds) at the gain of using that stats of Heroic Spire for 35 seconds, which surely would be a DPS loss.


Secondly, Vishanka has a 15 second ICD on the Speaking of Rage proc which I personally tested while configuring an addon. Attempting to weapon-swap will again initiate the ICD when you reequip the bow, again making the proc ICD double.

Using this Profile, FD shows the following after accounting for any necessary reforging to cap hit.

410 Horn 410 Spire
45025.65 DPS +/-0
403 Vishanka 410 Spire
44889.67 DPS -135.98
410 Horn 403 Kiril
44836.71 DPS -188.94
403 Vishanka 403 Kiril
44683.01 DPS -342.64

Simulation Craft shows the following after accounting for any necessary reforging to cap hit.

410 Horn 410 Spire
44749.5 DPS -84.0
403 Vishanka 410 Spire
44833.5 DPS +/-0
410 Horn 403 Kiril
44568.4 DPS -265.1
403 Vishanka 403 Kiril
44640.1 DPS -193.4

I do not know what to do when two reputable sources disagree. What is the next step in analysis? I could run several LFR's to get real data, but it would take way too much time to get a reliable number of data points.

I am inclined to believe SimC over FD because SimC varies fight length mitigating issues with over valuing haste and shot shifting. However I don't know what, if any, advantages FD has over SimC so I'm not sure how much weight to assign its numbers.

The disagreement is in Horn vs Vishanka, when using Kiril,fury of beasts.

In FemaleDwarf, proc effects are averaged out, and it shows Horn (without proc) > Vishanka (With proc).
In Simulation Crafct, proc effects are simulated, and it shows Vishanka (With a proc) > Horn (Without a proc).

The reason for this disagreement seems to be that Vishanka and kiril,together, give a better profile at the higher end when simulated. Assuming that, on average, both two proc-effects are simulated such that they give the same average as FemaleDwarf, simcraft gives the dual-proc system a higher end because of the dps gain when they go together, instead of loose. This shifts the median value to a bit higher for the dual-proc system, with a certain change in variance due to the fact that the two events don't coincide.

Calling X vishanka, Y kiril, what we have is E (X+Y) = Expected (X+Y) = E(X) + E(Y) in femaledwarf - but it would be E(X+Y) = E(X)+E(Y)+correlation(X,Y). [ I'm not sure about the last term there, but it is a correlation effect, i believe]

This explanation seems plausible, even though I miss the theory to explain it in terms of statistics.

Thank you for your Explanations, here is ze next Questin:


For Survival Hunter, how long do masses of Mobs have to live to have explosive trap being a better choice than Multi Shot with Serpent Spread. For Example, I imagine explosive trap is the choice when the mobs live longer than it's duration, and a poor choice if they die 1 second after it is triggered. Where is the line?

Oke I have a Question about the Initial Rotation for Fights like Ultraxion where you can't appply Hunter's Mark before the fight.

What to do first? Start Attack and cast Hunter's Mark or use other Stuff first, like Kill Command on BM, Explosive Shot on SV? What about Serpent Sting? Is it advised to cast it before Hunter'S Mark or After. Also is it recommended to cast Serpent Sting before or after Using your main Damage Source like Kill Command as BM or Explosive Shot as SV?

Hunter's Mark (HM) is a big AP boost for you and your pet. Hence,...

If you are the only hunter in your raid and the target with live longer than 20-25s (which Ultraxion does for most raids), you want to cast HM as soon as possible and then start specials. For situations like this, its good to have a HM macro that will start attack too when pressed with certian modifiers. Until you cast HM, then all of your attacks are gimped.

If there is more than 1 hunter in the raid, then assign the lowest DPS hunter with the duty to cast HM at the start of combat.

Somethings to remember: If you cast Serpent Sting or Black Arrow before the HM, then the AP for these abilities will be at the lower non-HM amounts until they are recast or refreshed.

And to follow up on Whitefysts repsonse, since you specifically mention BM, you want to do HM, then BW before KC and SrS.

Are you sure?HM Tooltip says it gives Ranged attack power so I didn't think the pet also benefits of HM.

Also, it gives a Set amount of Attax Power while Serpent Sting gives 10% which i believe is very much for when close to BiS in all Items and fully epic Gemmed. Serpent Sting also starts ticking faster if I start with it.

But if you still say HM is better even after this I will change the Rotation.

Our pets inherit from our ranged AP for their AP.

If you can Serpent Sting instead of HM first, Serpent Sting does not start ticking faster, it only ticks 1 GCD sooner. Thus, the only thing you lose by the 1 GCD delay in Serpent Sting is a 33% change to lose the last tick of Serpent Sting depending on where in the 3s Serpent Sting cycle the fight stops.

If you cast HM first, then Serpent Sting does more damage right away due to that extra AP instead of waiting until it gets refreshed/recast to that higher AP if you reversed the order.

Regardless of whether you do HM-SrS-then start the rotation or SrS-HM-start the rotation, Serpent Sting is still on the target before you cast any other damage ability (except maybe one autoshot - but it may be hitting the target anyway before the SrS debuff is up for the extra damage). However, the Serpent Sting damage bonus only affects our ranged attacks; hence, if you do Serpent Sting first then HM, your pet's initial attacks will be at lower damage (unless it was in the process of running to the target).

Either way, in the grand scheme of things, it really does not matter which you cast first, but casting HM first works out slightly better from my math.

Is there a particular pet I should be leveling with or is it purely a personal preference pre-85.

Personal preference, although I would suggest a Cat as their special buff is the Agi/Str buff like Battle Shout or Horn of Winter.

If you level over Quests purely Cat does indeed slightly more DPS but if you also use dungeon finder, there may be warriors and Deathknights who apply that buff and you may also have a Wolf or a Wind Serpent in addition to your Cat to gain more Buffs.
If you are Questing, you may want to have a Turtle or Beetle with you because then you can solo the quests where a Party is recommended.




Also I have a Question: Does Tailoring have a better Perk for BM Hunters than a random +80 Profession? Here is what I collected so far: Swordguard Embroidery procs 1300 AP for 15seconds with ICD of 55sec, and if we are generous we say that it takes 5sec to proc again after the ICD is over, thus it gives 1300 AP for 15sec every minute, or 325 permanent AP. So is 325 permanent AP better than permanent 80 Agility and 65 crit?
Apart from that, Shadowguard embroidery should do slightly more damage because, at least for the first proc, you can combine it with Rapid Fire and also it does more Damage than it's Average if the fight does not end exactly when it has cooled down.

80 agility is 88 agility with the 10% buff from the mail bonus and the stat buff.

88 agility is 176 AP directly and 193.6 AP with the 10% AP buff. Hence, it is short about 131 AP.

However, the 88 agility is also worth 0.271% crit or the equivalent of about 49 crit rating.

Then you need to account for the 65 crit you lose by replacing the cloak enchant, which is 114 crit rating.

Since crit rating is valued much more for BM than AP, the tailoring enchant loses out on straight averages. FD shows it as an about 150 DPS loss for my character.

However, there are other factors, some of which you mentioned already, such as where the following line up with the tailor buff procs versus constant agi:
- Culling of the Herd
- Call of the Wild (since you can control when it occurs you can stack it on top of the tailor buff)
- Trinket procs

Hence, the tailor buff can be superior when it is lined up with other procs for huge bursts, especially at the start of fights with RF, CoW, trinket procs, etc. However, the gain is not much on average but does help on certain fights.

2 things

1) BM get an additional 30% ap bonus, so the 80 agility is 251.5 AP for a BM.
2) Since you should be using the Agi cloak enchant, you won't be losing 65 crit rating, but 22 agi, or 69 AP
That means you loose a total of 320.5 constant RAP for 325 averaged AP (swordguard only procs 1k ap, not 1300 - and assuming that your assumed 1 minute ICD is correct) - remember that there is a difference between AP and RAP - swordguard increases your AP, not your RAP.

Also, AP is still worth more than crit for BM, its just not listed in the priority list as we don't have any options for enchanting AP, except on the legs, where there isn't an alternative.

Edit: changed the calculations as Fincher correctly pointed out I was using the old animal Handler value of 25%.

1)The Animal Handler Grants 30% Bonus to Attack power.
2) amplified by the AP Bonus, Swordguard Embroidery pros for 130% * 1000 = 1300.

About what you Said tto AP, WoWWiki states: "1 AP = 1 Ranged Attack Power (RAP). Unless an item or effect specifically says "+__ to Melee Attack Power" or "+__ to Ranged Attack Power" then this is true." This makes Sense because the BM Perk, Animal Handler, increases Attack Power and would be absolutely useless if it wouldn't also affect Ranged Attack Power. I used to switch between BM and MM back in the Day and noticed that Arcane Shots hit harder in BM spec.





Anyways I think I'll level Tailor for the PErk instead Alchemy, because the Fights are either very Short so the Proc comes more into effect than it's average OR in the Long fights, Spine (Wduring rolls where you deterrence anyway) or Madness (Druing PLatform Jumps) there are phases where the Internal cooldown can work for you, and hence Tailoring is Superior in Terms of DPS. So my Simple Question of this Post is if there is a Flaw in any of what I said above ^^

When lv90 is Available in Beta, hopefully I can provide you all with more Answers rather than the heap of Questions you are undergoing currently