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at very high gear levels in wotlk, we're not supposed to use arcane shot anymore in our rotation (only when standing though, as it is a dps gain to use it on the move when everything else if off cooldown). My question was : how big of a deal is it? I really like using arcane shot, and i'd like to keept using it at high gear levels, if it means i'll lose just a little dps, nothing serious, i'm fine with that, really.
Thank you
When to drop Arcane Shot is determined first and foremost by the DPS of your bow, since Steady Shot's damage scales with the DPS of your bow, whereas Arcane Shot's damage is determined solely by your RAP and is completely independent of your bow/ammo. If, for instance, you donated or voted for Fal'inrush nm/hc (and that should be the first piece of gear you get if you're going to donate/vote at all), it would be optimal to drop Arcane Shot from your rotation even at 0 arp. Conversely, if you had a pathetically weak bow, say a level 20 green bow, you'd always want to Arcane Shot in place of Steady Shot even if you were Arp-capped at 1400. These are both obviously unrealistic scenarios, yeah, but the point is that it's more your bow than your Arp that determines when to stop using Arcane Shot.
As to how much you're losing.... well, cast lots of Steady Shots and Arcane Shots on a dummy, and then compare their average damage (or alternatively, you could just get an addon like DrDamage to do all those calculations for you so you wouldn't have to get entangled in that kind of tomfoolery yourself). Not only is the difference between their damage what you lose, but you also lose damage from Arcane Shot proccing neither Piercing Shots nor Improved Steady Shot, and even consuming the Improved Steady Shot buff sometimes for itself if you don't use it carefully. Additionally, you'll sometimes run into scenarios where you have to move, but your Arcane Shot is on CD because you decided to do something inoptimal and cast it when you didn't need to. Someone who didn't use it on the other hand is always guaranteed to have at least 1 instant cast he can use when the need to move suddenly arises.