Been doing some homework on this with the test dummy in org and I'm still showing steady shot damage > arcane shot, is there something I'm doing wrong? Even with curse of elements on, steady shot is coming out on top.

Edit: I'm specced into 3/3 Improved Arcane Shot

Forgive me if I am re-asking a previous question, but a cursory overview of the thread hasn't shown it.

Are the Beast-Tamer's Shoulders no longer as effective as they once were? The latest release of Cheeky/Shandara's Calculator no longer have them as the top shoulders for a BM hunter (post 3.0.8).

And, as the unofficial hunter guru for my guild, should I recommend people to go BM or SV should the patch go live today in its current PTR form? Calculator's showing one thing, dummy tests are showing another, and I'm hopelessly confused. I mean, we're already running with Ret paladins and Shadow Priests, so our buffs aren't that much of an issue.

I`ve recently specced 53/18 with 3/3 imp arcane shot in anticipation of the new patch, but after reading some posts here i saw that you guys suggested 7 points in survival would produce better dps.
I was wondering how much crit do i need for me to be able to drop 1 point from GftT2 to get those 7 points in surv. I prefer leaving 2 points in GftT and dropping 1 from CS, but i`m not sure which one to give up. How much will 1 less point in CS affect my pet dps ?

I thought it was around 30% buffed crit?

Are you testing on the PTR? If not, then Steady still has it's full damage multiplier; it won't be cut until 3.0.8 goes Live. Unless your Arcane is doing considerably less damage than Steady now, hang onto it since it will likely be better once Steady gets nerfed.

Helliox, I have been able to put up some pretty decent numbers beating a couple hunters in my guild using Mattoas' spec. My gear is nothing special and I just used Dragonhawk with a cat. This is just LIVE right now, but I am sure this will translate somewhat into the patch post 50 /21 Nerf.

So if spec wise your looking for somthing other then the 50 / 21 right now I am using 52 12 7 The World of Warcraft Armory

Only diff btwn Mattoas and myself is he has 2 points in spirit bond last I checked, and I put 4 points into Frenzy. Also he outgears me =)

I don't have the best gear, and have not tried that Aspect of the beast with a scorp with it but its a pretty darn powerful spec with out it. I did pretty well with my gear. I rather not list meters, its nothing to show. It is just a viable spec.

Edit needed to answer the question better. Also tired.

Thanks for the reply, but my main concern was wheter or not my pet will be focus starved with only 1 point in GftT with my current crit ( 29-30% unbuffed ). I checked your armory and your crit is close to what i have, so i might as well respec and give it a shot.

Also, i`d like more feedback on Cobra Strikes, i`ve seen alot of builds where people only put 2 points in this talent in order to get others, so i`m wondering how big a difference there is between 2 and 3 points. Will it gimp my pet dps by a large amount or is it ok to skip 1 point ? Would be good to know if at any point in the future i decide to respec.

Hey Guys, I've been reading for a while and I just need a clarification for a spec that I would like to try post patch. I've recently tamed Loque, so I am planning on raiding with him post patch. I know it won't be the optimal pet/spec to use dps-wise but I just love that pet. So far, I've been thinking of a spec that includes 3/3 Imp Arcane shot and 5/5 Imp Tracking. What I'm not too sure of is what to do with the last point in this build :

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

I cannot decide if it should go in Cobra strikes, Invigoration, Kindered spirits, mortal shots or Survival instincts. What do you guys think? (About invigoration..maybe I could couple it with glyph of arcane shot for the mana regen and therefore spend less time in viper)

EDIT: I just saw in the 3.0.8 PTR changes thread that maybe the 53/11/7 spec with an exotic pet (in that case a devilsaur) would be quite viable. I'm just not sure if dropping imp arcane shot is that great of an idea...

I don't think your pet will be focused starved. 2 points will always be better then 1. But I think you will be able to do more pew pew with 1 point. Your crit is is about 30% and add raid buffs. I will let the math guys break that down. I just copy what I see what works well. I am darn sure you will do well with out the 2nd point. That is unless RNG screws you time to time. But its just a fact of math. Random number generator is random.

hey folks,

Excuse me if i missed this in a previous post, but i'm curious bout the numbers on the PTR pertaining to AotB. I'm assuming since pets are getting nerfed that AotD is gonna be a clearly more beneficial, even w/ the AotB glyph?

Thanks,

Pod

The AotB glyph is being fixed/nerfed to provide the correct AP bonus, rather than double like on live, so you are correct that AotD will almost certainly be superior.

I get around 4-5.5k on that fight depending on how much I have to move, how much I need to reposition my pet, and if I let him die. Sometimes when our drake tank repositions for a lava wave my pet will position itself so that it doesn't get hit, but that's not always the case. I usually have to call my pet back during waves making sure that I'm not standing so that my pet would run at me at an angle that would run it through the wave. Intervene and masters call are handy for quick pet pullbacks.

Do you keep your pet attacking during the Shadron+Vesperon phases? I find if I do so it usually dies to Twilight Torment.

We go down and kill the disciples to remove TT.

is this a new reduction?
# Unleashed Fury: This talent now grants only 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.

I could not find a change to this in earlier notes.

I'm surprised you are getting 4-5.5k while constantly pulling your pet back. That confirms I'm doing something seriously wrong. I'll try intervene and MC as well. Didn't think about that.

Dralmoo, I do keep my pet attacking during TT. I'll have to pull him back. Again, I can't figure out how to maximize DPS with my pet at my side though.

What about pet specs? I'm a cookie cutter 50/21. I'm also using a cat with a typical high dps build. Should I sacrifice DPS for better survivability?

Alright, so with the new 3.0.8 patch breathing down my back, I don't want to waste any gold redoing my BM spec for a week before switching to SV, so my current build isn't great: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
I know my gear is lacking as well: The World of Warcraft Armory

But here is my dilemma. I'm looking to raid once I get my gear to a decent level. What I need to know is what kind of dps should I be looking at with my current build/gear? A lot of people are saying 1400 dps is a good starting point for heroics, yet half the groups I go with have at least one guy doing 1300 dps or less. Then there are other people saying 1800 is the minimum for running heroics, and as a hunter I should be doing nearly 2-2.2k dps to start heroics. Can I get some input on what my dps should look like for heroics?

Holy crap! Nonono... Heroics aren't a DPS race. If you want to do a good number of the achievements, then yes you have to put out a massive amount of DPS, but then even 1800 seems somewhat low.
About 1600 DPS is enough for 10-man Naxx mostly, and heroics... Pah, whatever you pack is generally enough. Don't be afraid of heroics, they are not as tough as the TBC heroics, you don't really need to gear for it if you have geared yourself correctly while leveling. Of course if people are talking about doing Gotta Go! (and it hasn't been changed), then you should perhaps pass.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. I usually put out 1500 dps (more or less, depending on the instance), so did you by chance mean 2600 dps for Naxx? If I redo my talents and get a couple more epics I'm sure I could do 1600 DPS.

In any case, reading the new patch notes for the PTR, explosive shot's damage is being "greatly increased" (hence SV being the new raiding spec), but how much is greatly? I can't seem to find anything saying what how the damage will be increased (ie. base damage, AP scaling, etc.) Do I need to install the test realm and see for myself?

No, 1600. I suppose coming here and seeing people post these impressive numbers leaves you feeling a little underachieving. Understandable. I'm good at both gearing and playing it, and I can't match those numbers at all either (though way closer). You are not required to match these numbers, if you can, great, if not, then know that you can always improve, you have something to look towards.

I have seen plenty horrible players running Naxx with crap DPS. They will never do any DPS related achievements, that's for sure (and I doubt any of the others too), but they still get bosses down and slowly progress. That's what Blizzard meant when they intended Naxx to be more open to the 'public'. And I'll call it a success. Naxx is not hard, it is not intended to be a place you have to gear for much (level 80 quest blues and a few instances blues should cover it well enough). Your 1500 DPS should easily be 1700 in a 10-man raid. You can do better than that, but don't worry too much.

*tumbleweed*

Dear lord... This thread really is deserted. Heh... much like the Survival thread was until the buffed ES numbers showed up.

Anyway, I find it somewhat strange that Blizzard hasn't added Aimed Shot to Cobra Strikes procs. If we look at the aproximately similar talent in Survival, Sniper Training, it includes Aimed, despite Aimed being somewhat of a 'luxury' shot, so to say. Adding Aimed to Cobra Strikes would be a welcome DPS booster (right now it really seems pointless to use Aimed for BM, and the spreadsheet backs me up), as well as a nice pointer towards the entire "use moar shots plx!"
I guess it all comes down to the time when the talents were designed and BM looked to be great again. No need for Aimed and it was forgotten in the rush when the PTR for 3.0.8 came out.

But of course, as it looks BM is as dead as this thread indicates. I'm just not willing to let it go yet.

In other interesting news. I found this 54/14/3 to be the best BM DPS. For me that is. But since it is with the default buffs and debuffs it isn't that far from optimal raidbuffs. What surprised me was the value of Invigoration. It beat out Mortal Shots and even Imp Tracking. That's more than just a lot. This goes against a lot of posted specs, and I suppose Invigoration is sort of overvalued due to the 6 min bossfights, but we shouldn't forget that JoW has been nerfed to 2% base mana, which is about 25% less than it is now for many of us (around 13k mana buffed up). And we can't always expect mana spring totem, making it more valuable again.

My polite and pithy advice: reach the hit cap, fix your gems (+24 stam, haste, no gems in legs?), and enchant everything and you'll see a notable improvement.

e: Impolite advice: fix your shit and get outta AoTV.