Didn't find this in a search for 'viper' or 'aotv,' so here it is:

I'm trying to figure out the general rules that govern when to use Aspect of the Viper and what abilities to use it in conjunction with; that is, in a raid environment (obviously) at what point do you switch to Viper and while it is active what skills do you use to maximize its effectiveness and minimize the loss in damage output?

I imagine that it depends somewhat on spec, pet, and gear, but let's assume in this case it's the currently popular Survival build with a couple of points in Hunting Party, a cat or raptor pet, and no gear that has any out of the ordinary effect on mana regeneration. In those circumstances I was under the impression that it was generally considered wise to use AotV when your mana reached about 5-10%, as well as holding on to Rapid Fire until you swapped into Viper to minimize the amount of time you need to remain in the Aspect for.

Is that correct? If not, in what way(s)? Also, while in Viper, do you stop using skills and just auto-shot, or do you continue to use ES/StS/etc.? I can see arguments for both cases (more rapid mana recovery vs. continuous, albeit reduced, damage output), but I'm uncertain which approach is more efficient.

Input will be greatly appreciated.

Keep using ES/StS as Steady is cheaper than the gain and Explosive shot ticks 3 times. Furthermore if you have Thrill of the Hunt you get 40% mana back on specials when they crit and in Explosives case it can crit 3 times so you end up getting more mana back than the original cost of the shot anyway. I have never been a fan of using Rapid Fire during AoTV simply because i use it as a DPS cooldown at the same time as Call of the Wild and besides you get majority of your mana back from using Explosive in viper.

Personally i jump into Viper at certain times during certain fights to make my downtime as efficient as possible for example: On Thaddius when polarities change you can jump into viper and gain mana back in between people running to your side and giving you the % damage buff. Or on Malygos during a vortex when often you are put at melee range and/or have no access to using your pet. Or when your behind an iceblock during Saph. There are plenty of encounters that have "breathers" where you can take advantage of using viper.

Explosive Shot's ticks each award only 1/3 of the mana cost of the shot (source). This prevents Explosive Shot from being mana-positive.

I often use Viper to top-up my mana just before all my DPS cooldowns are up. That way I can hit all my cooldowns with full mana and concentrate on trying to perfect the burst damage of all my scaling multipliers instead of worrying about running out of mana while they are still active.

This means that I may use just a short time in Viper to go from, say, 30% to 80% mana -- then switch to Dragonhawk and pop my burst DPS macro.

With a lot more variable mana generation these days your mana use is not always a steady thing. How crits proc, what items proc, where you are in relation to totems, what's happening to the Shadow Priest, all these can change during a fight, so I prefer to avoid the risk of going oom when my best DPS is in progress.

In addition I do the same as Moshi: during the phases of a fight when staying alive is the most important thing, you are not sacrificing much over-all damage. Better to be full mana when it is the time to go all-out DPS.

Correction: Explosive shot with Thrill of the Hunt awards 1/3 per crit; however, each tick awards the full viper restoration. I have tested this extensively; when I run low, I usually switch to Viper, fire ES and the MS and a few Steadies, then I have several thousand mana back and am ready to jump back into DH again.

Does a Nether Ray's Nether Shock auto-cast every time the cooldown is up because it's also a damage source, or is it like a Felhunter and only Nether Shocks when the target is casting? Was wondering if getting both a hunter with a Nether Ray and a Warlock with a Felhound out would make the Less-rabi achievement easy because the pet AI casts interrupts almost flawlessly (or at least for Felhounds).

Yes your steady shot can go below a 1.5 shot speed, but it wont matter as the GCD for hunters cannot be changed. (Even with Heroism/Bloodlust). From My experience though, rapid fire will stack with Heroism for your auto shot speed as auto shots do not rely on your global cool down. You would probably be better off spreading out your haste procs, /use, and heroism over a long fight rather than burning them all at the same time.

We have the same haste mechanics as most physical dps because of our auto-shot. Thus we cannot lower our GCD. Although this issue has been under discussion by Blizzard devs as to if this should change, but we probably will not see it change for quite some time.

I was wondering about whether the higher iLevel on some items justifies the ArP on that item for survival hunters, specifically the boots of the renewed flight. Due to ArP not working for explosive shots and the whole % thing, is the increased iLevel really worth sacrificing hit and whatnot for ArP? I've seen many people list it as best in slot, but exactly how much better is it compared to a 213 piece without ArP?

Since when does ilvl translate to DPS? Shots don't hit harder because my boots are ilvl 213 instead of 200. If the stats are better, use it. Spreadsheets and statistical math are there for a reason, to figure out if getting some ArP is better than dropping some crit or something.

According to the spreadsheet on these forums, the boots are best in slot. I believe the question of whether or not ArP is worth it for survival hunters is still valid.

It's not like ArP lowers your DPS. If you're not sacrificing other stats (barring hit if losing the hit rating does not bring you below the cap), ArP is a DPS increase. If you don't know if the stat sacrifice is worth it, that's what spreadsheets are for. My point was that ilvl is pointless. I'd use an ilvl 30 item if it had better stats than an ilvl 225 item.

The Survival Hunter in WotLK, post #459

The conclusion, reprinted for convenience, though the original post is worth reading for the equations and assumptions behind the results:

Should my optimal shot rotation be sting explosive aimed and two steadies or should it be sting explosive steady x3?

There is no rotation anymore; there is a priority queue.

1. Explosive
2. Aimed or Multi
3. Serpent
4. Steady.

so aimed being a differenc ein mana cost what actually yields more DPs aimed or multi?

Setting aside the mana cost difference, they have the exact same coefficients and bonus damage; the rest should be self explanatory.

• Multishot will be more valuable if there is more than one target
• Aimed Shot is more valuable if you are taking advantage of Sniper Training

They are otherwise identical.

Whenever you cast any other +AP buffs such as trinkets.

Any else noticed that Call of the Wild doesn't stack anymore with Unleashed Rage (and probably the 2 other +10% ap buffs)?

In 3.0.8 Blizz fixed CotW from stacking with itself; I wouldn't be surprised if this extended to stacking with buffs that provide an identical benefit.

I'd say this + rapid fire.

On the COTW nerf: can anyone confirm this? I'm currently at work so I can't check myself. Also wondering how this works with TSA. Personally I didn't notice this last Naxx 25, but I could have just missed it.

Hitting my first Naxx alt run with my fresh level 80 Hunter, and I was wondering if the Scourgebane enchant and the static +140 AP vs undead it provides thrown on a [Runeblade of Demonstrable Power] would give me a decent DPS boost until I got myself a proper raid weapon or set. I know it isn't a long term solution, but even if it would give me a week or two of use I'm thinking it may be worth the 20g I'd drop on the enchant (scrolls of it are cheap on the AH as I guess people are using it to level enchanting).

Thanks for your time.

The only two bosses where you would not benefit from your Scourgebane in Naxx are Grand Widow Faerlina and Maexxna. So yes, I'd rate Scourgebane quite highly when you focus mainly on just clearing Naxxramas.