That is definitely a legitimate choice someone can make; but there really is no reason MM cannot be successful on a movement fight. With autoshots firing now while moving, that takes advantage of MMs autoshot buff and still allows chances for WQ procs from autoshot while moving.

For short movements, the impact should be small since your can use your instants while moving and your SSs to regain focus after stopping. Remember that a rotation like CS-ASx2-SSx4 or 5 is highly flexible with a wide range of ordering of the shots allowed.

For long movements, you can go into Fox and continue close to a full AS focus dump rotation.

I agree with you. If you are going to use CS, it is best to do so before casting RF so you do not waste as much of its benefit on an instant cast shot.

However, to improve on this some more, there really is no reason to cast CS at the start of the fight. This is not pre-4.0.6 where CS was our hardest hitting shot. AI is now our hardest hitting shot, and it hits even for much more than CS during the initial part of a fight. All CS should be used for during the CA phase is to extend SrS; otherwise, all focus should be spent on casting AI.

Not including pet abilities, potions, or trinkets, I recommend the following default abilities being used at the start of the fight with assuming that Hunter's Mark and MD are cast pre-pull:

SrS (hopefully the one and only cast that is maintained throughout the fight)
RF (can use Readiness here too - refresh RF after it runs out)
AI (prefer casting this first to use focus instead of 2 SSs to gain ISS and lose focus - can also often cast a second one too if have sufficient haste)
SSx2
(repeat AI-SSx2 until CS to refresh SrS)
CS

With using a conservative focus usage approach and always doing SS pairs, the RF portion at the start of the fight looks like with assuming CS/AS/SS glyphs, the recommended 10.52% haste, and 100ms latency:

Shot	End Time	Focus	Notes
	0.000	100.000
SrS	1.100	79.553	Should be one and only cast
RF/Read	2.200	90.966	Readiness can be done immediately since not resetting any CDs going to use soon
AI	3.854	58.128	Prefer AI first to use focus instead of wasting focus with SS pair for ISS
SS	4.954	78.540
SS	6.054	98.953	ISS started
AI	7.493	63.877
SS	8.593	84.289
SS	9.693	100.000	Caps focus
AI	11.131	64.924
SS	12.231	85.336
SS	13.331	100.000	Caps focus
CS	14.431	67.412	Refresh SrS with about 1.6s to spare
SS	15.531	87.825
SS	16.631	100.000	RF runs out during this cast; Caps focus
RF	16.631	100.000
AI	18.070	64.924
SS	19.170	85.336
SS	20.270	100.000	Caps focus
AI	21.708	64.924
SS	22.808	85.336
SS	23.908	100.000	Caps focus
AI	25.347	64.924
SS	26.447	85.336
SS	27.547	100.000
CS	28.647	67.412	Refreshes SrS with abut 0.8s to spare. Can skip an SS to do earlier.
SS	29.747	87.825
SS	30.847	100.000	Caps focus
AI	32.285	64.924	RF runs out during this cast

This does in 32.285s:
CS: 2
AS: 7
SS: 16

The problem with the above is that it wastes some focus and also casts some extra SSs that do not necessarily need to be cast for focus or to maintain ISS. An improvement is:

Shot	End Time	Focus	Notes
	0.000	100.000
SrS	1.100	79.553	Should be one and only cast
RF/Read	2.200	90.966	Readiness can be done immediately since not resetting any CDs going to use soon
AI	3.854	58.128	Prefer AI first to use focus instead of wasting focus with SS pair for ISS
SS	4.954	78.540
SS	6.054	98.953	ISS Started
AI	7.493	63.877
AI	8.931	28.800	Prefer second AI to prevent focus capping
SS	10.031	49.213
SS	11.131	69.625
AI	12.570	34.549
SS	13.670	54.961	Only need single SS to have enough focus for CS
CS	14.770	22.373	Refreshes SrS with about 1.4s to spare
SS	15.870	42.786
SS	16.970	56.794	RF runs out during this cast; Using non-RF focus regen for duration of cast
RF	16.970	56.794
AI	18.408	21.718
SS	19.508	42.130
SS	20.608	62.543
AI	22.047	27.467
SS	23.147	47.879
SS	24.247	68.291
AI	25.685	33.215
SS	26.785	53.627	Only need single SS to have enough focus for CS
CS	27.885	21.040	Refreshes SrS with about 1.9s to spare
SS	28.985	41.452
SS	30.085	61.864
AI	31.524	26.788
SS	32.624	47.200	RF runs out during this cast

This does in 32.624s:
CS: 2
AS: 8
SS: 15

This option takes a little longer since it fires one more AI instead of an SS, but it definitely does more DPS because of it without wasting any focus. The focus situation and number of AIs in both cases is a little higher since I did not factor in the random MMM AI procs. About 2 MMM AI procs should occur. In the first case, I would use them to replace the extra SSs to help reduce the focus overflow a little bit and to not change the timing. In the second case, they can be added in as additional shots since CS always has more than 1.1s to spare before refreshing SrS.

Don't forget about the Piercing shots bleed that does 30% of all the aimed and steady crits you get during careful aim.

Of course, if you are moving, it is best to cast CS and do damage than do no casts and possibly waste focus. In the case of a large movement fight such as Heroic Atramedes where it is difficult to consistently perform cast shots, it is definitely still a good idea to use both SrS and CS. I will make this clear in the OP.

Good observation. As our damage increases, hit rating becomes more and more valuable and is greater than 2 AP. The rub is that we will always be fully hit capped and that the true value of hit rating is the secondary stat (crit, haste, or mastery) that we gain and 1 point in crit, haste, or mastery is on average less than 2 AP. There is also the problem that you may not be able to convert the full 88 hit of the scope into secondary stats and that some of it will be left as extra hit over the cap, while the full benefit of the X-ray scope always applies.

As an example, with my current full 359 gear, here is the current stat ratings from FD:

Hit + 1	2.624
Attack Power + 2	2.354
Haste Rating + 1	2.229
Crit Rating + 1	1.566
Mastery Rating + 1	1.097

Definitely 1 hit is greater than 2 AP, but 2 AP is greater than haste (whose value changes drastically with just a few points often) and much greater than crit and mastery +1. Since I can't figure out a way to utilize all of the hit on the scope, a few points of it result in over hit and are not converted to any benefit. The best I could with the hit scope is about 170 DPS loss.

With a 372 gear set, the state ratings are:

Hit + 1	2.696
Attack Power + 2	2.517
Haste Rating + 1	2.328
Mastery Rating + 1	1.236
Crit Rating + 1	1.053

Once again, hit +1 is greater than AP+2, but AP+2 is still greater than the other stats.

Now in this case, I was actually able to convert all 88 hit into other stats and had the additional benefit of being able to eliminate a glinting for a delicate to gain 10 agi. Despite that, the hit scope was still an 80 DPS loss.

Of course, this data is for an ideal fight with being able to execute every shot on time. In a real game play situations, movement, interrupts, reaction times, your role, etc. will reduce the number of shots you take and the uptime of the X-ray scope. Looking at my most recent logs, X-ray uptime for me varied between 15 and 20%. The fights with the higher uptimes are those where I am attacking more consistently, like Halfus. The fights with the lower uptimes are ones where either I move a lot (such as V&T), the target moves a lot including sometimes out of range (I hate you Arion), or my role decreases my DPS uptime (such as controlling the pillars and worms on Magmaw). The thing is that all of these situations affect the benefit of your crit, haste, and mastery too. Crit and mastery have no affect if you are not attacking beyond the possible autoshots and corresponding WQs. Haste has greatly diminished benefit when not attacking; however, it still provides focus regen, with often this resulting in overcapping focus and focus loss.

Hence, for now, I would recommend still sticking with the X-ray scope.

That is indeed what I am saying for the ideal fight situation. However, as I stated above, in fights where performing cast shots is difficult, then using SrS and CS is probably beneficial.

Concerning the optimal opening rotation, it is not much different than listed but with eliminating the SrS cast at the start and with replacing CSs with AIs, which pushes back following shots. It is pretty simple, perform AI if have sufficient focus to cast it (including back to back AIs sometimes to prevent focus capping) with casting SSs to regen enough focus to cast AI. Sometimes it will take only a single SS to regain enough focus to cast the next AI. This is fine since casting teh AI here is more DPS, prevents focus capping, and will not lose ISS in this ideal cast case with 100 ms latency and 10.52% haste.

Here is the shot table:

Shot	End Time	Focus	Notes
RF	0.000	100.000	Use RF only so do not waste a GCD on Readiness during the RF
AI	1.654	67.162	Prefer AI first to use focus instead of wasting focus with SS pair for ISS
SS	2.754	87.575	Could cast a second AI here to prevent focus capping but that wastes about 0.22s
SS	3.854	100.000	ISS Started, focus capped
AI	5.293	64.924
AI	6.731	29.848	Prefer second AI to prevent focus capping
SS	7.831	50.260
SS	8.931	70.672
AI	10.370	35.596
SS	11.470	56.008
SS	12.570	76.421
AI	14.008	41.344
SS	15.108	61.757	RF runs out late in this cast; Only need single SS to have enough focus for AI, ISS is not lost
Read/RF	16.208	66.310	Use Readiness after RF expires to maximize RF haste on casts; normal regen
AI	17.647	31.234
SS	18.747	51.646
SS	19.847	72.059
AI	21.285	36.982
SS	22.385	57.395
SS	23.485	77.807
AI	24.924	42.731
SS	26.024	63.143	Only need single SS to have enough focus for AI, ISS is not lost
AI	27.462	28.067
SS	28.562	48.479
SS	29.662	68.891
AI	31.100	33.815
SS	32.200	47.824	RF runs out early in this cast

AI: 10
SS: 15

Any MMM AI procs can be just added into the rotation with pushing all other shots back a GCD. The only exception is that an MMM proc that occurs after a single SS cast and before the next SS pair completes must either wait to be used until after the SS pair to refresh ISS or it can replace the hardcast AI in order to maintain ISS uptime. However, if you do still add in the MMM AI cast in these situations, ISS will just run out during the cast of the second SS in the pair to refresh it for minimal ISS uptime loss.

Note that there are basically three choices at the start:
1) SS pair to get ISS buff
2) AI pair to utilize focus
3) single AI then SS pair

I chose option 3) since I believe its the best overall choice. Relative to option 3), option 1) saves about 0.22s on the first AI cast but also over caps focus by over 44 before your first AI is finished casting. That is almost the focus for a full AI. Of course, starting with AI still loses the 17 focus that accrues over its cast, so the real trade off is 0.22s versus 27 focus. I chose the extra focus.

Comparing option 2) to option 3), option 2) takes 0.22s longer but prevents the focus capping in option 2). The amount of focus capped in option 2) is less than 21 focus. This includes both the about 8 over focus that the second SS provides and the focus that accrues during the 2nd AI cast.