Originally Posted by snail
I currently do not subscribe to the focused armor-pen philosophy for my hunter. I realize on a static mob with full debuffs it is easily the most effective method of maximizing dps, but for my play-style I find it detrimental on any fight requiring mobility or frequent target changes -- at least at my current gear level and options.
The question I had relates directly to armor penetration however. At what point of passive armor penetration (I suppose based on the PTR data rather than live) does it become more effective to ignore arcane shot and its respective talents and place those 3 points into talents such as improved barrage or improved steady shot?
Per the spreadsheet I'm finding that even with my paltry 350ish armor penetration rating and unusual spec (HM hunter for our raids) I may find a dps increase by dropping arcane shot from my shot selections and using 3 points in imp. steady shot or imp. barrage instead.
|
I was originally writing this response as a private message, but decided to post it in the thread instead since it may have value to others.
The answer to your question does not only have to do with ArP (although that is a factor). It does not take much ArP at all to make the switch worthwhile. How much depends on a lot of other factors due to cross-coupling of stat effects so it is not worthwhile to quantify a number.
In addition to ArP, what I find to be a another discriminating factor on whether to drop IAS and switch to the ArP rotation is your crit rate. Since 3.1 and the introduction of Piercing Shots, crit rate has become more important for MM hunters. If your crit rate is high enough (which yours is more than high enough at over 50% unbuffed), then it pays to drop ArS and use an extra SS since it procs PS and ArS doesn't.
Other benefits of this change include:
1) A slight mana savings since Master Marksman reduces the cost of SS but not ArS
2) If you move the points in IAS into IB, it will greatly increase your AiS damage as well as your AoE damage
3) Easier and more consistent rotation to implement since it is always CS->AiS->SSx4
Here is a comparison with your current spec and the priority rotation on the left and the updated spec and ArP rotation on the right:
ArS: 5109 / 4443
SS: 4768 / 4768
AiS: 7199 / 8050
DPS: 8070 / 8112
This is a 42 increase in DPS with the 337 ArP you currently have. The SS that replaces your old ArS does do about 340 less damage (510 if you average 1.5 ArS per old rotation) but your AiS does about 850 more damage more than making up for that difference. Plus, as your ArP/crit % increases, the difference will become even larger.
Of course, you will still need to use ArS on certain fights like Hodir and Vezax where magic damage is buffed. In addition, when moving and having no other instant cast shots available, you will want to use ArS too, but even in these movement fights that you are concerned about, the loss in damage in ArS by losing IAS is made up for by having those points in IB buffing your AiS instead (with assuming a single ArS per rotation).