Haste Rating

Updated: January 26th 2009

Haste Rating, at the moment, is overrated for Survival Hunters.
I will explain, but first:

Ghostcrawler on the forums:

Haste is a worthwhile stat to some casters but it is not useful for many melee. We are trying some different things to make it more apealing.

Armor Pen I think is just undertuned. It is a good stat in general, but the amount of +armor pen you need to get to something noticeable is too high. We would like to buff it. 

So Haste might get a boost in the future.  As for now, right after the 3.0.8 patch, Haste is not very good for Survival Hunters (it is merely okay).


Facts:
After 3.0.8, Steady Shot damage is nearly cut in half.
This nerf to Steady Shot also lowers the value of Haste Rating, as it was the only shot which benefited from Haste Rating (except for Auto Shot).


Haste Rating and Steady Shot calculations:
2.0 (Steady Shot) / 1.15 (Quiver) * 1.0958 (my 9.58% Haste Rating)
2.0 / 1.26
1.59 Steady Shot cast time with Quiver + Haste Rating


Basic Shot Rotation
Explosive Shot - x3 Steady Shot

1.5 sec (GCD ES) + 1.59 + 1.59 + 1.59 = 6.27 sec

I am slowing down my next Explosive Shot by .27 seconds.

On the Training Dummy:
Since I spam Steady Shot after the Explosive Shot, even with 300ms, I notice that with about .3 seconds left on the third Steady Shot, Explosive is off cooldown.

I noticed that if I did not spam Steady Shot, and waited until the casting time was done, Explosive Shot came off cooldown right after the 2nd Steady Shot.  So lag can be beaten by spamming a key.

After some very limited testing trying a 2 Steady Shot rotation vs. 3 Steady Shot rotation the 3 SS rotation won out by about 150 DPS.

Attribute DPS
+1 Haste Rating at my level of Haste gives only .400 DPS (when Haste is soft capped it's merely .254 DPS).
+1 Agility gives me .829 DPS.
+1 Intellect gives me .773 DPS (I do run out of mana since I mainly run 10 mans).

+2 Attack Power gives me .688 DPS.
+1 Crit gives me .557 DPS.


This page will be a main page on this site and be updated when needed.

Hunter vs. Rogue & 1815 2v2

As a Survival Hunter I have to worry about melee more than a BM Hunter would.  The transition from BM Hunter to Survival Hunter was a rough one, as I didn't know how to vs. Melee without Bestial Wrath.

After dueling my Rogue friend, and learning what most Rogues do when they open on a Hunter, this is the strategy to use vs. Rogues:

Note: The beginning of the fight is the most important part for a Rogue.  Since burst damage is so high at the moment, it's very important for the Hunter as well (since you can die in 5 seconds to a Rogue's burst).

First 5-10 seconds of a fight vs. Rogue

Rogue Cheap Shots Hunter and starts doing massive damage
Hunter Trinkets Cheap Shot and Scatter Shots Rogue
Hunter Disengages from Rogue and Concussive Shots Rogue
Hunter Explosive Shot Rogue and sends pet on Rogue
Rogue Sprints / Vanish toward Hunter
Hunter Flares in between where the Rogue was and where the Hunter is
Hunter Aimed Shots Rogue for more damage
Hunter casts Deterrence and lays a Frost Trap when Rogue gets close

The point is to save Deterrence since it is on a long cooldown.  Scatter Shot is on a relatively short cooldown (30 sec) and so is Disengage.  When the Hunter Trinkets and Scatter Shots the Rogue and Disengages, the Hunter has saved himself from death and has put distance between him and the Rogue.  This is the most important part of the fight.  The Hunter has to be quick on the Trinket and the Scatter Shot.

This strategy has helped me win 90% of the duels with my Rogue friend, and has enabled me to not fear Rogues in Arena.  Whenever our 2v2 (Rogue / Hunter) faces off against a Rogue Healer we win 95% of the time.  Whenever we face off against a Mage / Rogue we win 70% of the time.

Our Arena team ended up at 1815 this week.  We were able to get to 1840 before getting a few back to back losses and dropping a bit.

The new Arena Rating system is definitely different.  We ended up gaining 6-10 points every time we won and losing 2-8 points every time we lost.  The other strange thing is that my personal rating is only 1787 while my Rogues rating is 1805, and before this week we were only 4 personal rating apart. 

It seems that a lot of teams are finding their personals ratings are seperating from their team rating.  This is going to be very annoying if I find that our Team Rating is enough to get Deadly gear but my personal falls short (and we only 2v2 with each other, no one else to skew the personals).
  

Survival Hunter

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: Survival PvE Spec 0/16/55 (post 3.1)

  

    

Normal Shot Rotation:

Rapid Fire / Blood Fury / Trinkets > Explosive Shot > Kill Shot > Black Arrow > Serpent Sting > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot

 

Aimed Shot only provides a 22 DPS increase from using Multi-Shot in its place.  But I take Aimed Shot because I like to be able to use it on the move.

   

Lock & Load Shot Rotation:

Explosive Shot - 0.5 sec - Explosive Shot - 0.5 sec - Explosive Shot

 

This is the optimal shot rotation to use while under the effects of Lock and Load.  It allows all the ticks to proc after each Explosive Shot since you wait the GCD + 0.5 sec after every ES.

  

If lag is a problem or if you do not want to deal with timing issues this L&L rotation is only slightly less damage:

Explosive Shot - Steady Shot or Aimed Shot or Serpent Sting (if it just fell off) - Explosive Shot - SS or AS or SS - Explosive Shot

 

 

 

Attribute DPS (post 3.1)
  

 

Agility is by far the best stat to stack as a Survival Hunter.  One Agility is worth almost 50% more than two Attack Power. 

 

  

 

Survival Hunter Talent DPS (post 3.1)   

Amazing Talents:
Go for the Throat - 1st point gives over 300 DPS, and the 2nd point even gives over 100 DPS!
Careful Aim - Over 100 DPS per talent point!
Lock and Load - Over 100 DPS per talent point!
Hunter vs Wild - Over 100 DPS per talent point!
Expose Weakness - 150 DPS for the 1st talent point!

Overrated Talents:
Trap Mastery - Only 21 DPS per talent point, merely okay.


 

Survival Hunter Glyph DPS (post 3.1)

The glyphs of Explosive Shot and Kill Shot are must have glyphs for Survival.

For my 3rd glyph I would most likely pick up the Serpent Sting glyph, which would make my shot rotation a bit easier.

Even though the Serpent Sting glyph in theory is less DPS than the Steady Shot or IAotH glyph, in real practice with errors involved, I would bet the Serpent Sting glyph would always be better for DPS.
      

Hunter / Rogue 2v2 @ 1758

Yesterday Siphter and I (my Rogue friend) decided to try our hand at getting to 1720 so we could pick up the Deadly Boots. 

After our first ten games this week going so poorly, (50/50) and coming up against a lot of DK / Paladin teams, my expectations were low.  But we did not queue any Paladin teams (are they all 1800+?) .  Against non-Paladin teams we are about 90% successful, so we managed to perform quite well.  We ended up versing mostly Mage / Rogue or Priest / Rogue teams. 

Priest / Rogue being the easy team for us, as I can pressure the Priest and make the Rogue pop on me and then we just burn down the Rogue.  As BM 50/21 a Rogue is not going to touch me with x2 Deterrence and Bestial Wrath.

Mage / Rogue was still an easy team to face off against, but if luck goes their way, the Mage might get a couple of lucky crits and kill you in the beginning with a Rogue ambush.  If you can LoS the Mage a little bit and force the Rogue to pop on you, without losing half your health, than you should win this game as a Hunter / Rogue.  Just quickly switch to Rogue while LoS'ing Mage and then finish Mage afterwards.

Today Siphter and I finished getting to 1720, as we had to quit early yesterday due to it being too late.  After 1720 (and after picking up our Boots), we thought we might as well try our hand at 1750 for the Deadly Cloaks.  We continued to face non-Paladin teams and were rewarded with win after win.

I have the utmost confidence in our ability to play any team that does not have a Paladin.  Rogue / BM Hunter seems to do be able to beat almost any team that does not have a Paladin bubble.  After the 3.0.8 patch BM is getting a big hit for PvP as Readiness will not reset Bestial Wrath.  I think BM can do okay without Readiness, but it will be an uphill battle as burst gets lessened.

Looking forward to being able to play with Survival come 3.0.8 as well.  Crossing my fingers for this Tuesday.
 

Changing the World of Warcraft Gun Sound

Updated:  May 14th 2009

The World of Warcraft gun sounds have always been terribly annoying to me.  This insanely loud sound that guns make are the opposite of what I envision Hunters to be in the Warcraft setting.  For the first 4 years of Warcraft I would not touch guns because of the loud gun sound.

About 4 months ago this all changed when I found Silencer Reborn.  It is an "addon" that changes the sounds that all guns make in the game.

Now I call it an "addon" because it's not a normal addon that installs to the interface/addons directory.  It requires you to create a few folders if you have not meddled with game sounds before (this is not illegal or against the terms of service).

This is the required folder structure for all mods that change the gun sounds:
(wowfolder)\Data\Sound\Item\Weapons\Gun\

In the Gun folder you will need these six file types as .ogg (thanks people that commented) files (each addon gives you these files):
GunFire01, GunFire02, GunFire03, GunLoad01, GunLoad02, GunLoad03


4 Gun Sound modification addons:

Silencer Reborn
Makes guns sound more like lasers.

Gun Silencer/Suppressor 
A more realistic Gun Silencer sound.

EarPlugs
Same exact sound that the current Guns in WoW use, but quieter.

Make Guns Sound Like Bows
Self explanatory.


If it weren't for these type of addons, my character would never know the joys of using a gun.
 

Survival Talent & Glyph DPS Guide

For an updated analysis of Survival view my Survival page.


Note: The DPS of each talent for a Survival Hunter can vary with Gear, variance of Spec, Buffs and Shot Rotation. The closer you are to my Gear, Spec, Buffs and Shot Rotation, the more more accurate these Talent DPS numbers will be for you.

Talent DPS

Glyph DPS

The glyphs I will end up using as Survival will be Serpent Sting, Steady Shot and Aimed Shot (as I will not put a point into IAotH).

My Base Survival Spec for 3.0.8

My shot rotation will be this:

Blood Fury / Rapid Fire / Trinket > Explosive Shot > Kill Shot > Serpent Sting > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot


Buffs in my 10 man raid that would affect my talent DPS:

Greater Blessing of Might
Mana Spring Totem
Horn of Winter
Improved Gift of the Wild
Improved Prayer of Fortitude
Replenishment
Blackened Dragonfin
Elixir of Mighty Agility
Judgement of Wisdom
Sunder Armor


Attributes fully buffed in a 10 man raid:

Mana - 11,444
Hit - 8.05%
Crit - 35.79%
Agility - 1,457
Stamina - 1,397
Intellect - 445
Attack Power - 5,121
Haste Rating - 227
ArP Rating - 130

Survival Q&A

Warning: This page is old and outdated, go to my Survival page to view updated information.





What Shot Rotation do I use for Survival in PvE?

Rapid Fire/Blood Fury/Trinket > Serpent Sting > Kill Shot > Explosive Shot > Aimed Shot > Steady Shot

Note: Come 3.0.8 Kill Shot will be on a 15 sec cooldown. This will help make Kill Shot a more interesting ability once a bosses health is lower than 20%.



What Shot Rotation do I use when Lock and Load procs?

Explosive Shot - Steady Shot - Explosive Shot - Steady Shot - Explosive Shot

Note: You could replace a Steady Shot with an Aimed Shot or a Serpent Sting if it has expired.

or

Explosive Shot - 0.5 sec - Explosive Shot - 0.5 sec - Explosive Shot

Note: Waiting for .5 sec in between ES shots is to ensure that your ES gets 3/3 ticks. The reason the 2nd rotation exists is that it allows you to gain almost one whole Explosive Shot in your full rotation every L&L proc. This is because your ES starts its cooldown on the 3rd ES after a L&L proc.

I also like the 2nd rotation because half the time your L&L procs right after an ES, and since L&L does not reset the CD on ES, you have to wait 6 seconds before you can even begin the L&L rotation. This leaves you about 6 seconds, at worst, to complete the rotation.

Top 100 Arena Stats: S5 Week 3

For 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 Week 3 Arena Stats, along with other misc. stats, visit WoW Reports.

3.0.8 looks to go live today or next tuesday.  I'm hoping today, as Survival is fun to play, even without burst.  With burst its going to be awesome.  Pew pew Explosive Shot.
  

Scorpid

Post 3.0.8

Scorpid pets are tenacity pets.  Tenacity pets have an okay tree, but not nearly as good as Ferocity for PvE and PvP.  Scorpid Poision is a dot that does 100-130 damage, which scales with the pets attack power (much less than before, and it does not stack).

The major spell they bring as Tenacity is Roar of Sacrifice which is useful in PvP and PvE (mostly on the tank).  30% damage mitigation for 12 seconds for any target you choose is great utility, and its only on a 30 second cooldown (your pet absorbs the damage).

In PvP Scorpids have been popular in drain team setups, as a Paladin has more trouble removing Viper if you have other poisons up.  Drain teams are not quite a part of the game yet, since burst is so powerful at the moment.  Since Scorpids no longer stack their poision, they are no longer popular for drain team setups.

My problem with a Scorpid in PvP is that it is a bit too fragile without Heart of the Phoenix and Lick Your Wounds.  I believe a Tenacity pet will only get better once pets are not so easily killed, but as of right now, if you find your Tenacity pet dieing too quickly I would just switch over to Ferocity at the moment.
 

Hunter / Rogue 1663 2v2 Rating

I had my sights set on 1660 this week so I could pick up the deadly bracers, deadly belt and hateful leggings.

Of course I was using 50/21 to my advantage, as I'm tired of playing with a broken class in arenas.  I figured I might have to partner with a healer, preferably paladin, to get there.  To my surprise I was able to make a good push with my Rogue friend.

We would win 2 and lose 1 pretty consistently all the way up to 1663.  The rating wasn't all that difficult to attain as Hunter / Rogue.  Some teams (any team with a Retribution Paladin or a Death Knight) we would lose to almost every time and other teams we could pretty much destroy every time.  Double dps remains my favorite way to play 2v2, love quick games. 

In the future with the nerf to BM Hunters I plan to try my hand with Survival in both PvE and PvP.  I've tried it currently and it lacks the punch that 3.0.8 provides.  I am very excited to try it again when the patch comes out.

Sidenote: I tried my hand at Marksmanship with my gear and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of burst available to me (BGs).  Having 3 instant shots is very nice in PvP (4 if you count Silencing).  It is definitely the glass cannon spec for Hunters in PvP.
 

WoW Reports goes Live

WoW Reports, my brand new blog, has posted the 2nd week of Arena class statitistics.

I'll give you a hint on which classes are dominating: both wear plate.


Not too much to report on the Hunter side of things.  I am specced into Survival, so I am currently trying to raise my skill level in PvP and PvE as a Survival Hunter. 

One thing I have been immensly enjoying is my 1 minute Wyvern Sting.  In BG's using Wyvern Sting reminds me of the past, pre BC, where I would Wyvern players on their mounts in World PvP...  great times.

Can't believe it is almost 2009.  Happy new years everyone.  Hope 3.0.8 comes with the new year, on the 6th.
 

3.0.8 Survival Hunter Specs

For updated Specs, Shot Rotation, etc., visit my Survival Page.

I have been a BM Hunter ever since WoW 2.0 (The Beast Within). I have occasionally tried out Survival or Marksmanship here or there, but have always come home to Beast Mastery. After 3.0.8 is released, I might not be a BM Hunter anymore.

Explosive Shot is back in power. Which means, my primary damage will no longer be physical. My primary damage will be mainly fire damage, especially in PvP where Auto Shots are limited and Steady Shots go unused.

I plan to respec to Survival this Tuesday, even if 3.0.8 is not released, just so I can start practicing as a Survival Hunter (the practice is mainly for PvP).

I have studied which talents are decent as a Survival Hunter and have come up with three different builds:

Survival PvE

Survival PvP

Survival PvP/PvE Hybrid

Notes:

• 2/3 in Expose Weakness because it should have 98% up time with just 2 talent points.

• Counterattack is in the Hybrid and PvP build because the 50% disarm talents are very nice vs. Rogues, and attaining Counterattack for only one talent point seems like an okay deal (after testing I might revisit it)

The basic rotation for Survival Hunters in PvE should be this:
Explosive Shot - Steady Shot x3 Repeat
While keeping Serpent Sting on the target.

If you have enough haste to bring Steady Shot down to 1.5 sec, than it is possible to fit 4 Steady Shots in between Explosive Shot, but that is with 0ms. And with the nerf to Steady Shot and the huge buff to Explosive Shot, I would not, even minutely, delay Explosive Shot from firing, as its just too much damage.

I plan to have a Survival Talent Guide up in the coming weeks after some experience with the tree.

1st Week Top 100 Arena 2v2 Results

Note: I know that 2v2 is the toughest for Blizzard to balance, but it is the most played bracket.

The end of the first week of Season 5 Arena has come and we begin to see trends of the best classes in 2v2 at the moment.  One team was incomplete (only had one high ranked player), so there were only 199 players out of the usual 200.

Top 100 in Arena 2v2

62 Paladins (31%)
54 Death Knights (27%)
23 Rogues (11.5%)
17 Mages (8.5%)
13 Priests (6.5%)
9 Hunters (4.5%)
8 Shamans (4%)
8 Druids (4%)
5 Warriors (2.5%)
0 Warlocks (0%)

Trends:

• Paladins and Death Knights trending higher than early in the 1st week (didn't think that was possible).

• Mages and Rogues trending lower than early in the 1st week (being replaced by DK's and Paladins).

• Priests trending higher, Hunters trending lower.  Other classes without significant shifts of representation.
  

Hunter in the #1 Arena 2's Team in the World

Doss, a BM Hunter, and Walka, a Holy Paladin, are currently the top Arena 2's team in the World.  They are currently rated 2152.  This is quite an accomplishment for Hunter's even though we are still underrepresented overall in the top 100 in 2's at the moment.

BM Hunters are going to be getting a big nerf come patch (Readiness no longer affecting Bestial Wrath), and that Viper sting will no longer own Retribution Paladins (percentage based mana drains).  These 2 big nerfs will definitely have an effect on the PvP prowess of Hunters.  It will be interesting to see what other specs Hunters will come up with to compete in PvP (especially considering the new Explosive Shot).



Interesting PTR developments:

Beast Mastery

* Master's Call now remove all root and movement impairing effects from itself and its target, and causes your pet and its target to be immune to all such effects for 4 sec. (Old - Didn't affect pet)


Marksmanship

* Arcane Shot mana cost has been reduced from 7% of base mana to 5% of base mana for higher ranks. From 10% of base mana to 7% of base mana for lower ranks.


Survival

* Explosive Shot have been greatly increased but the ability doesn't deal AE damage anymore. (Rank 4: You fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing [ 18% of RAP + 476 ] Fire damage. The charge will blast the target every second for an additional 2 sec.)


Pet

* Spore Cloud (Rank 6) range has been increased from 5 yards to 6 yards.


Others (link):

Glyph of Mend Pet: Now gives +20 Happiness per tick in addition to the 20 on initial application.


Aspects are back on the regular GCD.
Bestial Wrath is now off the GCD.

Scorpid Poison is now using the same spell AP ratio that others are using (~4.28%) rather than the 5% we modeled previously (the spreadsheet uses 5%). I think that is what they meant in the patch notes about making it the same as other abilities.

So it looks like Rake and Scorpid Poison come out of this pretty well intact.
 
 

1st Week of Arena Season 5 Data

If burst is the new king, Paladin's are the queen.  Their anti-burst bubble's make them the best class to counter burst (especially melee).

Note: It is way too early in the season to truly see where the classes are going to end up.  I'm just bringing the facts as they are written.  Just take the facts with a grain of salt; it is too early to make great judgments concerning classes.

In the top 100 in 2's, there are 57 paladins (28.5% representation, half the teams had at least one paladin)!
Source: http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/team/2/all/all/all/all/all/

There are in fact a few Hunter's in the top 100 (12 at the moment, 6% representation).  Almost all of them are 50/21, which is getting a severe nerf come next patch.

The rest of the classes in the top 100:

37 Death Knights (18.5%)
36 Mages (18%)
34 Rogues (17%)
8 Druids (4%)
6 Priests (3%)
5 Shamans (2.5%)
4 Warriors (2%)
1 Warlock (0.5%)

From the data, right now, in the first week, it looks like Paladins, Death Knights, Mages & Rogues are doing very well in some combo's in 2's.  Every other class has much less representation at the moment.

Now I also know that on my server Death Knights and Paladins are the most played class at 80, representing 26% of the player base at 80.  If this is true for most servers, than Paladins and Death Knights should do above average just because of their higher player representation (opposite goes for lower played classes).

My 2's experience this week (Hunter/Rogue):

We can blow up half the teams real fast and I can kite around pillars (except in the terrible Ring of Valor arena).  We have extreme trouble with Paladin and Death Knight teams.  This is unfortunate because we play these 2 classes in half of our games.


My 3's experience this week (Hunter/Rogue/Death Knight):

I die so fast, it hurts so bad.  Please oh god, the pain...  Cannot wait for new Deterrence... anything to stop the murdering of my poor, poor Hunter...  It did not help that almost every game was in the Ring of Valor, which was suppose to help Hunters, but in my experience, it is my worst arena by far since Hunters have terrible defensive abilities.
 

Nuramoc Tamed

 
@6:26 (Server Time), December 16th, on Blackrock, Nuramoc was tamed.


Details and information after pic.

Siphter, my loyal Rogue friend, spotted her for me.  Luckily I was logged out right by the bridge.  I logged in and flew about 50 yards to the left of this image and tamed Nuramoc.

It had been an interesting day since earlier in the day I had seen my first Nuramoc in the wild (it was on the PTR).  She flies in a figure 8 wherever she spawns.  She does not despawn in one hour if no one touches her like some people have suggested (I was afk with her for over an hour and a half).  She does fly fast, about normal mount speed.

She doesn't fly as high as some people have suggested, about only 10 yards up most the time.  Here are some pics:

 

  

  

Wow.  It has been a lot of camping and flying to try to find this rare beast.  I tried to tame her after the 3.0.2 patch came out and there was just too much competition, and I finally gave up.  But this time around, I stuck with it as there was hardly any competition so I knew I could eventually snag me a Nuramoc.  She is beautiful.

Oh, and by the way, the Arena season has begun...  I will have to jump in this week and see how I fair...  We will see if there is any type of PvP balance at 80...
 

Patch 3.0.8 Hunter Changes

Hunter

• All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
• The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Venom (Scorpid) has been lowered.

Skills
Marksmanship

• Volley damage has been reduced by 30%. (From 505 to 353 damage for Rank 6)   
• Viper Sting now Stings the target, draining 16% of mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 32% of the caster's maximum mana).
• Steady Shot now only gains 10% of attack power as damage (down from 20%).
• Kill Shot cooldown lowered from 35 to 15 seconds.

Survival

• Deterrence changed to - When activated, increases parry chance by 100% and grants a 100% chance to deflect spells cast by targets in front of you. While Deterrence is active, you cannot attack.  Lasts 5 sec. 1 min cooldown.
• Aspect of the Wild now affects raid members.

Pet

• Prowl (Rank 2) level requirement lowered from 40 to 30.

Talents
Beast Mastery

• Unleashed Fury now increases the damage done by your pets by 3/6/9/12/15%. (Down from 4/8/12/16/20%)
• Serpent's Swiftness now increases pet's melee attack speed by 2/4/6/8/10%. (Down from 4/8/12/16/20%)
• Kindred Spirits now increases pet's damage by 3/6/9/12/15%. (Down from 4/8/12/16/20%)

Survival

• Improved Tracking changed to While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Trap Mastery now only increases periodic damage done by Immolation and Explosive Trap. (Old - All damage)

Marksmanship

• Readiness doesn't affect Bestial Wrath anymore.
• Marked for Death now also affects Arcane Shot.

Pet

• Call of the Wild now benefits only the hunter and his or her pet.

I have been following the Hunter changes since they first appeared on the Damage Dealing forums. Let's break down the main 3 nerfs and the main 2 buffs...

Three Main Nerfs

• Readiness doesn't affect Bestial Wrath anymore.

This is the largest nerf to BM Hunters, as the 50/21 spec was unbelievably amazing in PvE and PvP.  Readiness in conjuction with Bestial Wrath was just too powerful.  I totally agree that this needed to happen.

• BM Talent Nerfs (Unleashed Fury, Serpent's Swiftness & Kindred Spirits)

These three talents were crucial talents and pretty much had to be picked up because of their damage increase.  I am okay with this nerf, as these talents are still very good after the nerf.

• Steady Shot now only gains 10% of attack power as damage (down from 20%).

This is a big nerf to Steady Shot for all Hunters.  This actually ends up hurting Survival the most as it is the most important part of Survival's damage (BM Hunters have their pets which do more damage than Steady Shot).  All Hunters will see their damage decrease with this nerf.

I love this change.  I can only hope they go a few steps further with the idea of Steady Shot being a filler shot and not our most important shot.  As a BM Hunter I must say PvE is ridiculously easy and extremely boring as I have to spam Steady Shot to do maximum damage.

I believe Blizz will have to buff Arcane Shot for it to be weaved into a BM Hunters rotation, even with the nerfs to Steady Shot (as Steady Shot still scales with weapon damage and ammo, while Arcane Shot does not).  Introducing more scaling with Arcane Shot would be a good boost to Hunters in PvP and allowing us to use more complex rotations for damage in PvE.


Two Main Buffs

• Kill Shot cooldown lowered from 35 to 15 seconds.

This is a solid buff to a very nice ability.  Being able to use it 2-4 times instead of 1-2 times on bosses is a dps boost, and having to wait on the cooldown in PvP will be a lot less painful.

• Deterrence changed to - When activated, increases parry chance by 100% grants a 100% chance to deflect spells cast by targets in front of you. While Deterrence is active, you cannot attack. Lasts 5 sec. 1 min cooldown.

This is a huge change.  Deterrence is now totally different than before.

If facing the target is taken out of the requirements, than Deterrence becomes a solid ability.  If facing the target remains, than when you might need Deterrence most (during a stun), Deterrence probably will not help you (as the attacker will now be behind you).

I do not like that I cannot attack the target during Deterrence, but I understand why they would have that limitation with the ability.  I wonder if Deterrence stops the damage from ticking dots when you enter Deterrence...  Basically, time will tell if Deterrence is a good ability or not, but any change to the mechanics of Deterrence is good in my book.
 

Best PvE Hunter Pet

For an updated post about 3.1 Hunter Pet DPS, view my new BM PvE page.


I have done some testing on level 80 test dummies with a Cat, Devilsaur, Wasp, Wind Serpent and Gorilla.

Pet families (tenacity, ferocity, cunning) have a large part to do with a pets damage; however, pet special abilities also factor in to pet damage.

Ferocity is the best tree for PvE (dps) and PvP.  That's just the way it works at the moment, and it is unfortunate that a whole pet family is inferior because the Cunning tree is lackluster.

Wind Serpent: Worst dps of the bunch (wait, isn't their a gorilla in the mix?...  yes there is...).  Go for the Throat makes Owl's Focus pretty worthless.  Cornered and Feeding Frenzy are trivial compared to a Ferocity's 9% crit and Rabid.  Wolverine Bite is actually okay in PvE (bad on target dummies), but does not make up the damage loss of the other abilities.  Anyways...  basically you just can't go with a Cunning pet in PvE or PvP (for min/maxing purposes)...  ; (

Gorilla: 2nd worst dps of the bunch.  Yes, Thunderstomp is just that overpowered, even for single target dps.  I'm not sure why it hits much harder that other pet special abilities, since it also hits every enemy nearby.  But there ya go, a tenacity pet that can carry its own weight in a dps fight.  I thought about taming and leveling a Scorpid but just didn't see great application for one (as they are only decent vs single target long boss fights, and I only participate in few 10 mans, and no 25 man raids), not to mention, that I just do not like the tenacity pet for PvE dps situations, the Ferocity in my opinion offers much better survival options (lick your wounds & heart of the phoenix).

Wasp: Right in the middle of the 5 test pets sits the Wasp.  This is my PvP pet.  The Sting is just too good against mages and rogues (and the debuff is good against all for the 1200 armor ignore at level 80).  However, in PvE, the Wasp seems to lose a bit of its dominance as other classes can bring their own abilities that lower enemies armor which override my Wasps sting.  Basically the Wasp is good but not great PvE dps.  For min/maxing, the Wasp does not cut it.

Devilsaur/Cat: Easily top dps.  They are both very close in terms of dps.  On a target dummy the cat wins by a small margin, but buffs help a Devilsaurs Monstrous Bite, which makes them about equal in actuality.  However, there is one major flaw that a Devilsaur has... and that is Monstrous Bite, which makes the Devilsaur grow... growing its hit box with it.  This makes your Devilsaur sometimes aggro other mobs or bug out (not to mention the pounding steps).  Basically it is just a little too much of a hassle to bring a Devilsaur and since a Cat is about equal dps, I prefer the small and silent Cat instead of a Devilsaur.

Going with a Cat also allows you more options with speccing since you do not have to go a full 51 points into the BM tree.

Basically I'm just trying to stay interested in the game now that I have almost every piece of gear that I want and almost full honor points.  Can't wait for the Arena Season 5 to begin...  17th...  I feel like I'm waiting for Wrath of the Lich King all over again.
 

Hunter BM PvE at 80

Since we are still 2 weeks away from true PvP, I have been gearing up through all of the heroic 5 man dungeons that Wrath of the Lich King has to offer me.

I am enjoying my best PvE damage with this spec (I believe this to be a very popular spec):
  
 

Volley is still the bread and butter of PvE and Serpent's Swiftness and Mortal Shots help make it very strong.  And on boss fights BM is great.  So there is really no downside except for the constant spam of Steady Shot making it the most bland raiding spec (luckily Volley is still fun for me).

I believe pretty much everyone will be sporting heavy PvE gear throughout half of the 5th season of arena.  Burst damage will be key, and Paladins will be strong in Arena's because of their negation of burst (Divine Shield and Hand of Protection).

I'm going to be playing mainly in 2's with a Rogue and in 3's with a Rogue and a Death Knight.  Hopefully we will have some success somewhere.  I really hope Hunter's get a few more survival buffs and a few more on the run damage buffs before too long into arena season 5.
 

Wasp

Sting: 64 to 86 Nature damage, decreases target's armor by 1260 for 20 seconds (level 80).  While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible.

The damage from Sting is actually a little bit less than the focus dump Smack, but it also costs only 20 focus, where Smack costs 25.  This leads me to believe that a Wasp is not even losing a tiny bit of damage with this special on auto-cast, but the Wasp probably does not gain any damage either.

The affect of Sting besides the damage is the real reason to get a Wasp.  Lowering your targets armor by 1260 is amazing vs. anyone with low armor.  Also the affect of not allowing stealth or invisibility is a big counter to a Rogues and Mages (great counter to instant invis from Arcane Mages).

Being a Ferocity pet, Wasps end up with the best tree for a BM hunter.  They can easily crit in PvP and can be instantly rezzed with Heart of the Phoenix.

Overall I love my Wasp for PvP and PvE.  The only thing I would change about it is the annoying sound of its wings buzzing... and now you can get rid of that noise by doing the following:

You basically just need to make a blank file (I just made an empty text file and renamed it accordingly) called "SilithidWingLoop2.wav" and put it here in your Wow game folder:

*wow program path* \Data\Sound\Creature\SilithidWasp\SilithidWingLoop2.wav"

That will override the default buzzing sound with nothing at all, which is blessed compared to what they do now. All their other sounds will play normally.

It seems all wasps at the moment use this same sound resource.