Definitely noticed this on pre-trapping before boss pulls

Yep I have noticed that too, you can make it work again when you /cancelaura your Trap Launcher buff, after doing this it works instantly, so it might obviously be a bug.

Great to see thread back open to discuss survival. I've written a Survival 4.0.1 guide but lack the post count to start the topic myself.

I really wanted to play Surv, though as most have reported, its pretty focus heavy,having to plan your focus use around the expensive Explosive shot, serpent sting,.and black arrow. This will hopefully be aided when we have access to cobra shot, but until.then it'll just.take some good focus management. The good thing about this though I guess is it'll seperate the great hunters from the good.

My thoughts at present: Open with explosive, followed by black arrow, followed by serpent sting. At this point we need to steady shot some focus back ready for explosive to come off cooldown. It's then a case of ensuring you have 44 focus ready for explosive shot cooldown, with more focus ready to reapply serpent and blackarrow. Whether to prioritize serpent sting over explosive - I am not sure whether the delay is worth the 10% additional damage. When lock n load procs, this is where I am uncertain of the best strategy. I am aware pausing isn't feasible due to the new 1sec GCD, and so we should attempt to weave in other (non arcane) instants. What shots to use varies on black arrow cooldown and remaining duration of serpent sting. If BA is on CD and Serpent has +6 seconds, what's the best plan of action? Kill command? Reapply serpent anyway? Perform an Explosive - Arcane combo?

The above is based on the buffs to explosive shot, and the unannounced buff to Black arrow reported in this thread.

The final thing to report on, is that reforging my crit to mastery once I achieved the hit cap and <1.5 steady shot cast resulted in a significant dps increase on a Target dummy.

I'd think Explosive would always the chosen shot if available, for Survival. We're currently missing a key part of our rotation in not having CoS yet, which will eliminate the need to refresh SrS all the time. In beta, SV feels a lot smoother with having it.

And oddly enough, when I reforged my crit into mastery, once hit capped, I found that I was basically doing the same amount of damage. I basically gave something to get something, and it balanced out. Not really a gain, but not a loss either.

I was thinking opening with BA > Serpent more for the sake of procing LnL earlier, and since the 10% buff would only apply to maybe an autoshot if you applied them the other way around. I guess this for me is just at the start where you know you've got enough focus for both. Mid-combat I find myself prioritizing serpent over black arrow - and yeah I think you are right. Gaining 10% on an autoshot and black arrow tick is most likely more valuable than the chance of procing LnL 1 second earlier.

You can use Trap Launcher before engaging, its throwing ability lasts 15 seconds. Then do Explosive-Serpent and throw ice trap. If it hits right place, you get L'n'L proc instantly.

Maybe its worth me asking for clarification on traps then. Some mobs are bosses seem immune to some traps, or resist. What are the mechanics that govern this? I mean yes opening with trap launcher would seem ideal as long as it hits. I was thinking also, don't traps last 1 minute now? So for the pull wouldn't we be able to throw an immo trap early in time for black arrow to be off cooldown? Could a boss be affected by immo and BA simultaneously? If not perhaps some chaining could be done. Sorry I'm in work so can't investigate myself right now.

Has anyone taken a look at hunting party's 10% agility bonus and tried to match calculations to the in game character sheet? I think it's safe to that it is not a 10% multiplier of your total agility without it, which honestly makes sense because 10% here would be ridiculously over powered.

My in game character sheet data was as follows
1. Naked as BM: 178
2. Naked as Survival, 0 talent points (just Into the Wilderness): 204
3. Naked as SV, fully talented: 208 (with +4 in green)
4. Full gear minus my pants (to prevent the 5% mail buff): 2587
5. Full gear, all mail: 2981

Adding up the raw agi on my gear I get 2243 (215 on the pants). The only way I could resolve all of these is if HP is a 2% agility boost. Corresponding to the above I get:
2. 178*1.15=204.7
3. 178*1.15*1.02=208.794
4. (2243-215+178)*1.15*1.02=2587.638
5. (2243+178)*1.15*1.05*1.02=2 981.82465

TL;DR: Hunting party gives a 2% agility boost, not 10%, in addition to the raid buff. This is still a really good talent investment even if you don't need the raid buff.

Hunting Party was changed to give a 2% agility boost instead of 10% in Cataclysm Beta build 13189, which was put out on the beta realms a few days before 4.0.1 went live. So while the mechanic made it to the patch, the tooltip probably just didn't get updated.

This is my stats weights according to Femaledwarf, with 68.76% crit displayed and 19.35% + damage from mastery

Stat	DPS
Crit Rating + 1	1.645
Mastery Rating + 1	1.449

Removed all the crit --> mastery reforges, DPS gains per rating of both are around 1.56. and overall DPS increased by 50.

Oddly enough, with replacing Black Arrow with Explosive Trap, My SV DPS is 750 higher than my MM dps on spreadsheet. I tested it on Sindragosa 25 HC today, definitely feels better than in MM, Explosive Shot ticks made me happy.

I think right now, if you don't have Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas - Item - World of Warcraft, SV is probably better than MM in Raids. Of course, have to get used to throwing traps first

My testing suggest that it takes 30% of the whole SS, rather then it's short Serpent Spread version.