I don't think a stopcasting command would always work. Any time other than when the GCD is finished and you're still casting steady (with pushback or if you're not hastecapped), stopcasting wouldn't let you cast your explosive any faster than waiting for the shot to finish.

Ahh, I was under the impression that all effects from ST only apply if the range requirement is met. Thank you for clrearing that up.

Not bashing anyone, but all the BM hunters that are switching to SV this week need to realize as well that there is NO easy SV rotation. I'm not bashing those that wanted to change, but I have seen way too many posts now with people asking for hand-holding in this spec. The ideal rotations have been posted....over and over again. There is a set shot priority that is generally agreed on:

Explosive -> Aimed (if specced)/ Multi -> SrS -> Steady

No, there is not a macro at this time that can weave these together without a significant loss in dps.

Next, Lock and Load procs: again, this thread has covered many, many times good addons for this if you are having problems; simply scroll back through the last few pages; at least 4 different addons have been mentioned in case one is unfavorable to you. They are all fairly customizable. There are two ways to deal with LnL procs:

ES -> .5s delay -> ES -> .5s delay -> ES (my preferred method unless sting/HM is dropping off)
or
ES -> SS/SrS/HM/Aimed -> ES -> SS/SrS/HM/Aimed -> ES

The first has been showed to be a dps increase, although marginal; if you have lag of any kind, interleaving your shots as in the second example is the way to go. NEVER clip an ES tick, or you will lose sustantial dps.

Next, Sniper Training vs Trapdancing. Both are dps increases; both are generally different playstyles. Neither is inherently superior; if you don't like trapdancing, don't. Take Sniper Training and stay way back instead. Like being at the front? Learn how to trapdance your LnL procs with each boss. It's that simple. Resourcefullness is, at this time, a waste of talent points in most circumstances due to the 30s hidden CD on LnL. Yes, Frost Trap currently bypasses this, but this is obviously a bug, so I would not recommend getting too used to it. Spend your talent points in either Sniper Training (for increased KS crit) or Tactician to get to ES.

Hunting Party: Due to the lack of other available good talents, at least 2 points in HP is usually recommended; you bring a little more utility as a SV hunter this way, and 2/5 is usually enough for it to stay up 90% or more of the time with a 30% crit rate unbuffed.

Take your time with SV; it takes quite a while to get used to all the priorities and choices at any given moment. Yes, it is more busy. Yes, choices abound where previously there were few. It isn't terribly complicated in the end, however. I hope this general summation helps though!

Honestly, I don't feel this is the case. When you can see what cooldowns are up and how long the others have left, you can make a decision (based on a variety of factors) on what to cast. It's not hard to do that with a button bar (excluding LnL procs).

What I'm talking about is something that knows your shot priorities, lag, etc, and can highlight (glowing green or such) which one should be hitting next. Basically, taking out the need to see how long ES has left before hitting SteadyShot, etc.

I noticed this, and I wondered if I was doing something wrong since others seem to be reporting different things. I'm seeing a 1/19/51 replenishment build as the highest DPS, with 3/3 EW and 4/5 HP.

I am just wondering how is everyone using their big CD like rapid fire, trinket, Call of the wild and KC (I guess). Do you pop all of those at once and then keep using trinket, CotW and KC whenever it's off CD? And when you pop them, at the beginning of the fight, mid fight, or heroism?

While my guild doesnt have the composition nor the gear to do 10 drake Sarth+3, I was only seeing around 3400 dps on 2 drake with Tenebron and Shadron. We took 2 rogues, a death knight, and me for dps. Sadly they all do more aoe damage than hunters now, especially for sarth where the add tank and myself are moving around so much.

The usage of your cooldowns depends mostly on the fight duration, and if/when you get bloodlust (heroism).

KC is a negligible DPS increase, so just pop it on cooldown regardless of anything else. If you have a raptor, you may as well tie it to savage rend since they both share a 1 min cooldown.

On a normal 3 minute fight, with a bloodlust around 35% (execute/molten fury range) I suggest the following:
1. KC (+ Savage Rend if you use a Raptor pet) every time it's up.
2. Rapid Fire + Trinket at the start of the fight.
3. CotW during bloodlust, combined with 2nd use of your clicky-trinket.

There's no sense stacking haste buffs as a hunter, since only our whites get anything from it, and the relative value diminishes as we stack more haste buffs.

If you do not have a lust, stack CotW with rapid fire/trinket and use it at the start. On longer, you will be able to get a 2nd rapid fire which you can possibly couple with a trinket activation and a second CotW if you delay the trinket usage.

Of course, if you don't have a clicky-trinket (neither current best in slot has a "use" effect), it's worth delaying your rapid fire by a few seconds and using it when you have a trinket proc (such as the AP from mirror).

Unlike Mages, who live and die by their ability to stack cooldowns, Hunters don't have nearly as much to worry about. Effectively, the goal is just to stack any attack power buffs you can with a haste effect.

is there a purpose to going down the wyvern sting tree, other than nowhere else to put the points? I've noticed that no one is including ws in their shot priorities...

To get noxious stings. It has a secondary effect of causing all dmg to be increased by 3% as long as you have serpent up.

ahh, for some reason I thought the bonus to SrS was only if the first condition hit.