Hunter Changes

[Gemui]

Really? Aimed seemed quite poor for BM, and for MM I assumed multi would be far more useful due to the talents. I think arcane is poor exactly for the mana issues - I think its painfully expensive, but perhaps this gets better @ 80? To me damage isn't that important for an ability - it mana efficency that I valued more for raiding.

EDIT PS - got to 78 last night. Any advice for must do hunter Qs for gear etc? Or even attunement stuff that I should start now?

[Vecko]

Really? Aimed seemed quite poor for BM, and for MM I assumed multi would be far more useful due to the talents. I think arcane is poor exactly for the mana issues - I think its painfully expensive, but perhaps this gets better @ 80? To me damage isn't that important for an ability - it mana efficency that I valued more for raiding.

EDIT PS - got to 78 last night. Any advice for must do hunter Qs for gear etc? Or even attunement stuff that I should start now?

Yes there is this very important attunement heh thingy you need to do before you can enter any heroic instance. You need to travel to desolace and there is eum some npc which will give you the quest

Hm no seriously can't think of anything special you need to do and can't say I did a quest with some item that you should really have.

[Greentitch]

EDIT PS - got to 78 last night. Any advice for must do hunter Qs for gear etc? Or even attunement stuff that I should start now?

Not really but there are some nice blue rewards from some of the dungeon quests. Gundrak has 2 that have no prequest (pick them up from the flightpoint nearby) and 1 that is the end of a chain that pretty much covers the whole of Zul'Drak (not worth it if you haven't quested there anyway). You will want to get started with your Sons of Hodir rep though (which also gives 2 dungeon quests for Halls of Lightning). That chain starts in Storm Peaks at K3. Something about rescuing people from Brunnhildar Village. You need rep with these guys for shoulders enchants.

There's also quests inside CoT:Stratholme and Utgarde Pinnacle which you can do at 78 if you find a group (and one for the Occulus somewhere I think). I don't know if they give good hunter rewards in particular but they are some of the only blue quest rewards you'll find.

You might also want to do the Knights of the Ebon Blade quests in Icecrown (start at the airship). They give the DPS head enchant from rep and also some decent rep rewards I believe.

There's no actual attunement though. As soon as you hit 80 you can enter every raid and heroic

Basically, dungeon quests, Sons of Hodir chain so you can start doing dailies with them and enough rep with the Ebon Blade to get a tabard so you can gather rep in instances.

[Beckie]

If u want to come to naxx ever make sure you have winter flying skill if you havent already! Im shocked and amazed by the number of people who dont have it :s.

Also make sure you have vent + configured it!

[Gemui]

Thanks for the advice. I have flying already (and damn, questing is much easier now!) but I'll sort vent out tonight.

[tomas]

Really? Aimed seemed quite poor for BM, and for MM I assumed multi would be far more useful due to the talents. I think arcane is poor exactly for the mana issues - I think its painfully expensive, but perhaps this gets better @ 80? To me damage isn't that important for an ability - it mana efficency that I valued more for raiding.

All the talents that effect Multi effect Aimed if i'm remembering correctly. This is so you can take those talents and them not be wasted as soon as your group uses CC.

Arcane is expensive, I'm just saying it already does on average more than a Steady Shot damage wise.

[Greentitch]

I'm not sure how it is for hunters but mana consumption while in a raid is a total different ball game. There are a lot of mana regen buffs these days in 10 and 25 mans.

[Gemui]

Right, patch has his and as expected quite a big blow to my dps. I'm now survival spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxoZ0eVoZe00i0cIhxdAhck

Training dummy testing seems to show this as *very* mana intensive (which was unexpected), and still not great dps. Anybody got tips/advice?

[Smuigh]

Im finding it quite the oppisite. Can pull 2.3k ish on target dummies compared to just under 2k as my old MM spec, and was averaging 2.5-2.6k ish in heroics this evening. Mana wasn't an issue at all, but I did have JoW.

1131 agi, 4409 ap, 34.59% crit, 264 hit (raid capped with draenei aura), 292 haste.

Very slightly different build: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=chZ0eVooZe00i0cIhxdAhcu
I guess I don't need 3 in hunting party. 2 is probably best. I'm using glyph of imp aspect of the hawk so only 3 points are necessary to get the same effect.

Might drop aimed shot and 1 from hunting party to pick up 2/3 focused aim so I can change my hit to a crit trinket.

[tomas]

Right, patch has his and as expected quite a big blow to my dps. I'm now survival spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxoZ0eVoZe00i0cIhxdAhck

Training dummy testing seems to show this as *very* mana intensive (which was unexpected), and still not great dps. Anybody got tips/advice?

Pity I can't take a look at this from work :p

I take it you have the full three points in Thrill of the Hunt. Also, you don't need more than 2 points in Hunting Party, unless your crit is low, in which case you might want 3/4

With Thrill of the Hunt, mana wise, and Expose Weakness, damage wise, critting is important. What is your crit Gem?

Also bear in mind that Hunting Party works off your max mana, so having a larger mana pool means you'll regen faster. Personally, last 25 man Naxx I did, I think I went into Viper twice for the entire raid.

I'm looking at around 38% Crit, which raid buffed can get to 45% easily, and bear in mind that Explosive Shot is getting +14% Crit chance...

[Gemui]

Well I can't look either atm, and I've forgotten the name of all these new abilities! But I I have full points in the 40% mana return (TotH?), and a low number of points in the raid mana buff (HP?).

The big problem I think is my less that stellar gear, which was aimed at BM. In fact I have less than 1000agi! And my crit isn't awesome either...

I can re enchant & re gem my gear if I'm sure I'm staying Surv, but this only comes to changing 3 gems and one enchant so it won't have much of an impact.

On a side note, it seems to me that I'm missing my shots a heck of a lot more. It might be the fairly small test sample I did (only spent about 15 min testing).

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EDIT: Also, I'm having a tricky time getting used to L&L procs. Half the time I don't notice it and the other half I mistime the shots and waste the dot.

Also as per the glyph - isn't it still worth maxing out AotH even with the glyph? Any hast cap seems fairly soft.

[tomas]

Well I can't look either atm, and I've forgotten the name of all these new abilities! But I I have full points in the 40% mana return (TotH?), and a low number of points in the raid mana buff (HP?).

Thats right.

As far as Mana costs from gear goes, it's mostly about how much Int you have, and how much Crit. I can't see Int being much different between gear for BM and gear for SV. Crit on the other hand will be different.

A SV hunter with less than 30% Crit will struggle. I've always been pretty upset with less than 33.33% and am always trying to aim for at least 40% (so Master Tactician takes it up to 50%, yes, I like my clear cut 1 in 3 or 1 in 2 chances).

Crit is more important than AP, so I always try and get a couple of Crit trinkets (although it's hard to find 2 good ones sometimes). I've also seen several items with higher Agility, but overall a bit less AP than another item. And that extra crit needs to be factored in.

Finally, Armour Penetration and Haste are both a bit rubbish. They're obviously useful, but since Armour Penetration will only effect 30% or so of your damage, and haste will only effect the same... so if you ignore those (you'll pick up those stats anyway) and focus on Crit after being Hit capped.

[ash]

Gemui has 31.65% crit rating currently according to armoury

[Gemui]

Cheers everyone. Guess I have to re-gear a bit then.

I'll be needing on everything that drops! xD

[Demonheart]

I went survival today, ~29% crit and I think I'm doing silly damage alreasy.. Loving the spec