Every Friday Tabana brings you the latest discussions straight from the Elitist Jerks forums with a recap of what was discussed and links to the full posts so you can stay on top of the latest in hunter theorycrafting.
- Simple Questions/Simple Answers
- Shot Cycles
- Basic Rules for Marksmanship 9/4/11
- Marksmanship
- MM: Talents
- Frenzy vs. Pathing 8/26/11
- Best Possible DPS with Rivkah’s DPS Analyzer (femaledwarf.com)
- Best DPS: MM with Arcane Template Updates
- Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit
- General Comments and Questions
- Wrath of the Lich King
9/4/11
In the Simple Questions/Simple Answers thread, Axillary, a returning hunter, asked for clarification of the basic rules for Marksmanship hunters:
I was a progression hunter in LK and after taking some time off am coming back for 4.3 and beyond but I have missed a lot of the hunter changes. Although brilliant, Whitefyst’s 37,000 word post (about as long as my thesis) is a bit hard to digest. I hope to clarify here that I understand it correctly.
The basic rules seem to be:
- Never cap focus
- Use SS as focus regen, always in pairs and always in enough time to maintain ISS
- Use CS whenever off CD provided it does not break rule 2
- Use AS as focus dump during periods of normal haste when target is at or below 90%.
- Use instant cast AI procs whenever possible, provided it does not break rule 2, although KS and CS still take priority.
- During periods of increased haste or when the target is above 90% HP hard cast AI to replace AS.
- As always, use RF, readiness when appropriate, maintain a mark of some sort on the target and reapply SrS if it drops off.
Please let me know if/where I have gone wrong.
KaneParker7 replied
I’m guessing you will have 0 pieces of tier 11/12 gear when you do come back, so this immediately means that you will be aiming for 1235 haste rating with 3/3 Pathing Talents. You will need to run with Rapid/Steady/Arcane glyphs on your character to optimise this haste level. [...]
As to whether you use Arcane Shot or Aimed Shot [...] is personal choice. The later means you take more haste than mastery where you can. [...] [The Arcane Shot rotation] is amazing for movement heavy fights and the increase in Mastery (instead of Haste) means you can do some nice AoE numbers with Multi Shot.
Final pieces of advise are:
- Use Rapid Fire at the start of fights (over 90%) and during Termination Phase for maximum effectiveness
- [...] Focus on keeping up Improved Steady Shot and Firing Chimera off cool down.
- If you know you have to move soon, begin stacking focus [...].
- Make sure you’re bringing the correct pet for the job. They have changed a lot since Wrath!
Whitefyst advised that “Never cap focus” is not an absolute rule:
Although it is never ideal to cap focus, sometimes it just cannot be avoided, especially with the T12 4-set when doing a AS focus dump CS cycle.
BTW.. a good recap of the MM guide may be found at the WoWHuntersHall.
8/26/11
In the Marksmanship thread, Nawit asked if it would be better to take 3 points in Frenzy or 3 points in Pathing:
If one is able to reach 12.93% haste from gear with 2/3 pathing, is it more beneficial to spec 2/3 pathing and 3/3 frenzy or spec 3/3 pathing and 2/3 frenzy and gain more mastery from gear instead of having to reach a higher haste rating from gear?
Vulkrin88 replied “Based solely on Femaledwarf, it has always given me better dps value going with 3/3 pathing over 2/3 pathing.”
Whitefyst said “The result seems situational depending on your gear and pet Wild Hunt uptime. For my character it was a 29 DPS loss. But then again I still have 2 359 pieces and no 391 pieces yet.”
KaneParker7 added:
I found that if I dropped 1 point of Pathing [...] and place that point into Frenzy, I gain +91.18 dps. This is as a Troll Hunter. If I ask FD to change my characters race to an Orc, I lose 398.63dps. [...]
Damage with 2/3 Frenzy and 3/3 Pathing:
Combined: 33,966.10 dps 100%
Hunter: 29,982.06 dps 88.27% of the damage
Pet: 3984.04 dps 11.73% of the damageDamage with 3/3 Frenzy and 2/3 Pathing:
Combined: 34057.28 dps 100%
Hunter: 29897.96 dps 87.79% of the damage
Pet: 4159.32 dps 12.21% of the damage(Tested using a Cat while fully raid buff’d)
KaneParker7 concluded that while 3/3 Frenzy is theoretically better in this case, 3/3 Pathing might be better in fights where pets are not able to maintain 100% uptime.
9/2/11
Flickering Shoulders of the Stormblast for MM Arcane
In the Best Possible DPS thread, Gada linked an improved MM Arcane template using Flickering Shoulders of the Stormblast instead of Flickering Shoulders of the Zephyr:
Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer 39882.28 with Arcane Shot (Based on Whitefyst profile settings )
Eurytos replied that the template in the original post had been updated using Gada’s suggestion:
He actually used the Crit/Hit shoulders instead of the Crit/Haste ones and ended up with 1 wasted point of hit rating. Still… he found a sweet spot with haste that raised the DPS enough to make up for that.
9/3/11
Combat Rating System for lower level raid bosses
In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Bonestorm asked how the combat rating system applied for lower level raid bosses:
Are raid bosses from 60-80 content still thought to be calculated as your level +3, in terms of hit/resist/crit chance/etc.? I remember there being some debate about this in wrath, but I’m not sure if a conclusion was ever reached.
Onin replied “Yes, [you] need 8% not to miss.”
9/2/11
Gluth and Thaddius in Naxxramas
In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, daero announced soloing both Gluth and Thaddius for world-first kills. Of the bosses in Naxxramas, only Instructor Razuvious now remains to be soloed by a hunter.
See our WHH recap with videos of the solo kills here.
9/3/11
Malygos (10 player) in The Eye of Eternity Part II
In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Onin commented on last week’s discussion regarding the phase 2 transition in the Malygos encounter:
Turns out I just FD’d too late all the time. If you FD before the Scions enter combat they won’t start chucking bolts at you, but once they do get in combat there’s nothing you can do to stop them from killing you. Now I just gotta beat the berserk timer :<
A full index of all Elitist Jerks posts recapped at the Wow Hunter’s Hall is maintained in the Index of Elitist Jerks Hunter Forum Posts.
