Hunters Weakest Class in Season 6 (week 1)

WoW Reports has just posted the Week 1 Arena Stats for the Top 100.

Hunters are now the weakest class in Arena, according to representation.  We are back to being the underdog, just how I like it (hate being overpowered, but would rather be balanced more than anything).
  
If Hunter representation continues to be abysmal (0.5% representation in 2's and 2% representation in 3's) over the next few weeks I hope Blizzard creates a quick hotfix or patch that helps Hunters out a bit in Arena (as well as other classes that are not performing well).

I would like to see Marksmanship and BM get some PvP buffs to help Hunters in Arena, as Survival is still the only tree that seems viable for serious play.

Without being able to mana drain teams anymore (thank God), Hunters need to be able to apply plenty of pressure.  Since we are almost always moving in Arena, we usually do not do much damage from Auto Shot or Steady Shot.

Here are my ideas that might help boost our representation to more of a balanced state:

• Increase Arcane Shot damage by 10-15%

This would help BM and Marksmanship while not buffing Survival.
  
 

• Allow Auto Shot to be used while moving; however, make Auto Shot do 50% less damage while moving

This would help increase the damage of Hunters on the move, while not increasing it too much.  We would still need to stand still to do 100% Auto Shot damage and Steady Shot.
  
   

• Allow Deterrence to work from all angles and reduce damage taken by 100%

No more frantically trying to maintain a frontal cone on enemies.  This would also give Hunters a little bit of defense against other Hunters, and a little bit of help vs Dots (although it would not remove Dots).
  
   

• Allow Feign Death to remove one debuff from self

Hunters have no way to clear debuffs and that is one of the reasons why they are not very good on Double DPS teams.  This would give them a little help in that regard.
  
   

• Allow pets to scale very well with all attributes and make them immune to buffs

This would be a very big change that I think Blizzard is currently thinking about for the long term future.  Basically, Hunter pets do not scale very well from gear, but amazingly well from buffs.  So in 2v2 and 3v3 a pet does not have very many buffs and therefor is lacking in potential no matter what gear level the Hunter has (basically BM is not very good in a small PvP setting because of this).
  
   
I will be gone the next few days as I move back to Michigan, hope everyone has a great week, see ya.
  

2050 Hunter / Rogue 1st Week of Season 6

Updated: April 25th 2009 (Spec & Rating)

Siphter and I started out discouraged this season as we got off to a not so hot start.  Our hidden rating started out around 1950.

I tried out the new Marks PvP style that I've been playing so much in BG's.  It was a disappointment.  I had some burst, but it was a little slow and inconsistent.  In truth, Marks just didn't mesh well with our Double DPS burst mentality.  As Marks our hidden rating dropped to about 1800.

I switched back to a BM burst spec, 52/16/3, see below.

   

After switching back to BM, Siphter and did much better, as we were able to totally dominate every Warlock, and almost every Rogue.  Our burst in the first 10 seconds of a fight is incredible, and if the team we verse does not have a Paladin (DS and HoP are so so devastating) we have a solid chance every match.  And so our hidden rating climbed as we kept winning vs teams that have no Paladin.
  
Our hidden rating is currently residing around 2050, and our team rating is currently 2050, which places us, currently, as the top Hunter / Rogue in the world (only five days into Season 6 mind you)!

I play with a Wasp pet, as Ferocity is still the dominate damage tree.  And the Wasps Sting is still an amazing ability vs Rogues.  Below is the spec of my pet.
  

   
I'm kind of excited to see that Paladins and especially Death Knights are not dominating in 2's so far this season.  This might spell good news for us the rest of the season... who knows.
 

Busy Week Ahead

I plan to move back to Michigan come Tuesday / Wednesday of next week.  So I do not plan on any major posts for a week or two.

I have updated the BM PvP page and the Pet page for 3.1.  I will continue to update the Marks, Survival and BM PvE pages as well when new information or spreadsheets become available.

I have been raiding Ulduar this past week and am starting to arena this week as BM and Marks.  I might post about Season 6 Arena PvP when we get more games under our belt.
     

Hunter PvE 3.1

My Survival PvE post has been updated for 3.1.

I have finished the major work for the 3.1 PvE guides for each Hunter talent tree.

Theoretical DPS for Shaedon with each spec (86e spreadsheet):

6597 DPS - Survival
6118 DPS - Marksmanship
6089 DPS - Beast Mastery


The spec that has gained the most DPS, come 3.1, is Marksmanship by far.

In the current 3.0.9, when I spec Marksmanship, I do 5312 theoretical DPS.  So Marksmanship is getting about an 800 DPS boost, which puts it much closer to Survival.
 
Surprisingly Beast Mastery is, theoretically, right on the heels of Marksmanship.  It will be interesting to see if many Ulduar fights are pet friendly.
  
My next project is to update the BM PvP page for 3.1, as I still have the most experience in Arena as a BM Hunter (got up to 2108 this season).
  

Beast Mastery Hunter PvE

Updated: April 23rd 2009 
(Updated DPS on Go for the Throat & Bestial Discipline)


Talent, Glyph, Attribute and Pet DPS are calculated given the following:
My base spec, shot rotation, 25 man raid buffs (all class buffs) and gear.

The closer you are to my spec, shot rotation and gear, the more accurate the following DPS #'s will be for you.

All of these #'s come from Shandara's Spreadsheet.

Base Spec: Beast Mastery PvE 54/15/2 (post 3.1)

  

 

Normal Shot Rotation:
Rapid Fire / Blood Fury / Trinkets / Bestial Wrath / Kill Command > Kill Shot > Serpent Sting > Arcane Shot > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot

Beast Mastery Attribute DPS (post 3.1)

  

 

Attack Power is the backbone stat of the Beast Mastery tree.  Two Attack Power is about 15% better than one Agility.
 

 

Beast Mastery Talent DPS (post 3.1)
   

    
Amazing Talents:
Bestial Discipline - About 115 DPS per point!
Frenzy - 1st point is over 300 DPS!
Serpent's Swiftness - Each of the 5 points is worth over 100 DPS!
Beast Mastery - Finally!  The 51 point talent is now worth extra DPS, 253 DPS to be exact!
Go for the Throat - 500 DPS for the 1st talent point!
 
Overrated Talents:
Frenzy - 4th talent point gives 5 DPS and the 5th talent point gives 1 DPS.
Ferocious Inspiration - Most likely your group will have either a Ret Paladin or an Enhancement Shaman which means FI only increases Arcane Shot damage... but it is necessary to pick up the 1st point in Invigoration.
  
 
 
 

Beast Mastery Glyph DPS (post 3.1)

    

 
Bestial Wrath is really the only must have glyph.  Wish there was a glyph that gave BM a little more flavor in PvE.
 
 
 
 

Beast Mastery Pet DPS

   

 
The Devilsaur, Wolf and Raptor lead the pack of Ferocity pets by a good 100+ DPS.
    
After my experience with a Devilsaur in PvE, I do not recommend them as they tend to aggro extra mobs and get hit by more things since they grow so large.

Some of the pets do not use their special as it would be an actual decrease in DPS (from just spamming Bite, Claw or Smack).

 
   

PvE Pet Talent Trees

  

   

This build is for maximum DPS.  If Heart of the Phoenix is a required talent for you, than you would have to take a point out of Boar's Speed and Shark Attack.

   

    

    

Owl's Focus does not increase DPS when you are using a shot rotation with 1 point in Go for the Throat (along with 2 points in Bestial Discipline).

    

Marksmanship Hunter PvE

Updated: April 23rd 2009
(Updated DPS on Go for the Throat)


Talent, Glyph and Attribute DPS are calculated given the following:
My base spec, shot rotation, 25 man raid buffs (all class buffs) and gear.

The closer you are to my spec, shot rotation, buffs and gear, the more accurate the following DPS #'s will be for you.

All of these #'s come from Shandara's Spreadsheet.


 

Base Spec: Marksmanship PvE 11/52/8 (post 3.1)

  

  

      

Normal Shot Rotation:

Rapid Fire / Blood Fury / Trinkets > Silencing Shot > Kill Shot > Serpent Sting > Chimera Shot > Arcane Shot > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot

 

Silencing Shot is off the GCD and can be macro'd to shots like Kill Shot was prior to 3.1.

  

  

Marksmanship Attribute DPS (post 3.1)  

   

Agility is still the best stat for a Marksmanship Hunter (given you are Hit capped).  Agility is king because of the 4% bonus Agility from Combat Experience, the 30% crit damage on Aimed, Steady and Chimera (Piercing Shots), and raid buffs (Blessing of Kings).  Not to mention the other crit bonuses from Mortal Shots and Marked for Death...

So stat priority is Hit (if not at 8%) > Agility > Attack Power > Crit > Armor Pen > Intellect > Haste

With Steady Shot being such a small portion of our damage, Haste is not much of a DPS boost, wish they would make Haste (and Armor Pen) affect our pet.

   

 

   

Marksmanship Talent DPS (post 3.1) 

  

 

Amazing Talents:

Careful Aim - Each talent point gives over 100 DPS!

Go for the Throat - First talent point gives over 300 DPS, and the 2nd even gives over 100 DPS!

  

Overrated Talents:

Improved Steady Shot - 21 DPS per talent point, merely okay.

   

   

     

Marksmanship Glyph DPS (post 3.1)   

  

The Glyph of Chimera Shot is increasingly better as my ms increases.  At 300ms the Glyph is worth 168 DPS, at 200ms, according to the spreadsheet, the Glyph is worth 0 DPS.  I'm guessing in actual play it will always be useful and increase DPS by a solid amount.