About the Guide:-
Hi, I am Mocofana / Pasangla from <Clockwork> and <Royal Bloodline> guild. I decided to write up a guide due to all the questions in the gear controversy section asked to me or in guild chat during the period of some time. This guide, focuses more on gearing, gemming and other "passive" aspects of gameplay and only contains minor information about the actual gameply. I'd like to thank Iceraze (flipsydes - forum name) from <The Forgotten Kings> and <Clockwork> for playing together with me and experimenting some weird stuff with hunters and Acrimony (Darkenedhue - forum name) from <Royal Bloodline> for teaching me some stuffs back in the days. This guide is mainly built up using two valuable resources :-
1) Shandara's Spreadsheet
2) Rawr 2.3.22 for WotLK
I would love to have any reviews and criticisms too regarding the content of this post, any sort of criticism or suggestion that would lead to an improvement in the guide would be welcome as long as it does not create any drama too. Also, I won't mind feedbacks about grammatical errors that could make it difficult to understand as English is not my primary language.
Contents
Spoiler:Show
BiS Gearing
This part will cover the general to-do on gear, with preset BIS gears, gems, glyphs and talents setup.
A) BIS Gear Lists:-
1) Head - Sanctified Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Headpiece
2) Shoulder - Sanctified Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Spaulders
3) Chest - Sanctified Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Tunic
4) Hands - Sanctified Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Handguards
5) Legs - Leggings of Northern Lights
6) Neck - Sindragosa's Cruel Claw
7) Cloak - Vereesa's Dexterity/Sylvanas' Cunning
8) Bracers - Scourge Hunter's Vambraces
9) Belt - Nerub'ar Stalker's Cord
10) Feet - Returning Footfalls
11) Ring1 - Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
12) Ring2 - Frostbrood Sapphire Ring
13) Trinket1 - Deathbringer's Will
14) Trinket2 - Sharpened Twilight Scale
15) Melee Weapon - Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General
16) Ranged Weapon - Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'Thalas
B) Gemming the BIS Gear:-
1) Head - 21 Agility and 3% increased critical damage (Relentless Earthsiege Diamond), +20 ArP (Fractured Cardinal Ruby)
2) Shoulder - +20 ArP
3) Chest - +20 ArP, +20 ArP
4) Hands - +20 ArP
5) Legs - +20 Agility (Delicate Cardinal Ruby), +20 ArP, +20 ArP
6) Neck - +20 Agility
7) Cloak - +20 ArP
8) Bracers - +20 ArP
9) Belt - +10 Agility and +10 Critical Strike Rating (Deadly Ametrine), +20 ArP, +20 ArP
10) Feet - +20 ArP, +10 Agility and +10 Critical Strike Rating
11) Ring1 - +10 Agility and +10 Critical Strike Rating
12) Ring2 - +20 Agility
13) Melee Weapon - +34 Agility (Delicate Dragon's Eye), +10 All Stats (Nightmare Tear), +34 Hit Rating (Rigid Dragon's Eye)
14) Ranged Weapon - +34 Agility
All the same colored gems (ie. Red and Red or Yellow and Yellow/Orange) are interchangeable with their respective colors, of course, just make sure you have the proper amount of stats.
C) Enchants :-
1) Head - +50 AP and +20 Critical Strike Rating (Arcanum of Torment)
2) Shoulders - +40 AP and +15 Critical Strike Rating (Greater Inscription of the Axe)
3) Cloak - +23 Agility, On-use Parachute (Flexweave Underlay)
4) Chest - +10 All Stats (Powerful Stats)
5) Bracers - +50 AP (Greater Assault)
6) Hands - +340 Haste on use for 12 seconds on a 1-minute cooldown (Hyperspeed Accelerators)
7) Belt - +1 Extra Prismatic Socket (Eternal Belt Buckle)
8) Legs - +75 AP and +22 Critical Strike Rating (Icescale Leg Armor)
9) Boots - +24 Critical Strike Rating and "Greatly increased" (150%) run speed for 5 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown (Nitro Boosts)
10) Melee Weapon - +110 AP (Massacre) : Great for an overall use, +140 AP against undead (Scourgebane) : For ICC and other instances with abundance of undead creatures
11) Ranged Weapon - +40 Critical Strike Rating (Heartseeker scope)
D) Glyphs :-
1) Glyph of Serpent Sting - Increases the duration of serpent sting by 6 seconds, hence increasing the damage of one of Chimera Shot's damage components, Chimera-Serpent.
2) Glyph of Steady Shot - Increases the steady shot damage by 10% on a target with Serpent Sting. Another obvious glyph.
3) Glyph of the Hawk - Increases haste gained from Quick Shots (BM tier 1 talent, Improved Aspect of the Hawk) by 6%
3) Glyph of Kill Shot - The glyph I previously used before I was suggested Hawk by a friend, Glyph of Kill shot reduces the cooldown on Kill Shot by 6 seconds. Situational best, depending on fights. Use either of the (3) glyphs based on preference. My personal preference is Glyph of the Hawk.
4) Glyph of Hunter's Mark - Increases attack power bonus of Hunter's Mark by 20%. ie. Hunter's mark will increase the ranged attack power against the marked target from 500 to 600. Beneficial if you are a low geared hunter and also using talent (3) to boost the DPS of other hunters in the raid.
5) Glyph of Explosive Trap - This glyph allows the periodic ticks of explosive trap with the ability to crit upon your crit chance.
E) Professions :-
1) JC - Gives you 3 gems with extra stats (+34) instead of the normal (+20) giving a total of +42 extra stats. The single profession with the highest static stats, JC is a certain must. Another added extra of JC profession is that it allows you to exactly cap hit with a +34 Hit gem in BiS gear, bringing your hit up to 164, and hence not having to waste +6 hit or else be -4 to the hit cap, thus wasting valuable stats.
2) Engineering - Engineering is certainly not the most amazing profession in terms of the stats it gives. Engineering is more about utility, chiefly Nitro Boosts which increase the run speed by 150% for 5 seconds, which is certainly useful for both PvE and PvP situations. Kiting oozes or LK or getting out of slime or fire, it is certainly a good thing to have. After all, a hunter with slightly lesser stats is better than a hunter that is dead. Also has cloak parachute enchant which combined with Disengage can really help "soar through" impossible distances if done correctly. It also gives +24 Critical Strike Rating enchant on boots which is slightly superior to the +16 agility enchant and +23 agility enchant on back, which is +1 more than the normal enchant.
3) Blacksmithing - A good third choice in case you can not / do not want to have Jewelcrafting or Engineering for some reason (Not recommended to do so). Blacksmithing gives two extra gem sockets where you can gem agility / ArP as per your requirements.
4) Enchanting / Leatherworking / Inscription / Alchemy - +80 extra AP (or +88 in effect, due to Trueshot Aura), certainly not recommended due to inferior stats.
5) Skinning - Slightly superior to the professions listed under (4), Skinning gives +40 Critical Strike Rating, however, it is not recommended as a DPS gain profession either.
6) Herbalism / Mining - Herbalism gives a weak self-heal (Lifeblood), which is mostly pointless in PvE situations as it can not and will not save you if you are going to die. Mining gives +60 Stamina, which is again, not useful as a DPS stat.
7) Tailoring - Tailoring is considered by many people to be the "BiS profession". It is NOT however so. Tailoring replaces the Cloak enchant with Swordguard Embroidery, which gives +400 ap for 15 seconds on a 45 seconds ICD. This AP gain is modified to 440 AP due to the effect of Trueshot Aura. Assuming it always procs on the very first attack and always stays up, we can assume that it gives 440/45*15 = 146.67 AP as constant AP. However, JC would have provided +42 extra agility (We are just assuming that we are not using the JC gem for hit, in which case stat gain will be slightly even higher) and adding up the +23 that would have been lost if tailoring enchant as used instead, it brings the agility gain from JC at +65. Buffed with GBoK and the MM tier 6 talent Combat experience, this translates as ~74 (rounded off) Agility which makes it superior to Tailoring. Despite the AP gain, the relative benefit of having 2 AP never exceeds that of having 1 agility (More on this is explained in the stats section) and it also brings us to the conclusion that BS with slightly lower stats compared to JC (72 agility, again, rounded off) also ends up being better than Tailoring. Tailoring is still not totally bad, it can certainly be helpful in higher burst situations and if your procs line up. however, the static stats from Jewelcrafting is still generally more preferable.
*Profession credits :-- Thanks to Purepownage for mentioning Trueshot Aura which I had completely forgotten, and the profession Alchemy which I had completely ignored. However, because of the sheer superiority of Agility as a stat compared to RAP ensures that all conclusions on professions still remain the same.
F) Talents :-
1) The 7/57/7 talent tree with Improved Barrage
This is your primary "DPS" talent and good for overall use. Use glyphs (1), (2), and (3).
2) The 7/54/10 talent tree with Hawk Eye
The extra 6 yards range gives you extra mobility and is useful for fights like BPC, PP (In my personal opinion), VDW, and LK fight to DPS LK during the transition phases. Use glyphs (1), (2), and (3).
3) The 7/57/7 talent tree with Improved Hunter's Mark
Increases the AP bonus of Hunter's mark by 30%. ie. Hunter's mark will now increase ranged attack power against the marked target by 500*1.3 + 500 * 0.2 (with the glyph) = 750 instead of 500. Use this spec if you are a low geared hunter to boost the DPS of other hunters in the raid and increase overall raid DPS. Use glyphs (1), (2) and (4).
4) 7/54/10 talent tree with Trap Mastery - Uses glyph (1), (2), and (5).
G) Best Pet :-
Wolf :-
1) Furious Howl - 320 AP for 20 seconds on a 40 seconds cooldown to the hunter and the pet.
H) Necessary Consumables :-
1) Blackened Dragonfin - +40 Agility for 1 hour, superior to the standard "Fish Feast".
2) Flask of Endless Rage - +180 AP for 1 hour, no question on this one.
3) Spiced Mammoth Treats - +30 Strength to pet
4) Potion of Speed - +500 haste for 15 seconds / 1 minute CD which resets when out of combat.
Gear Controversies :-
This part will cover commonly confused topics about hunters whether a certain item is correct for a hunter or not.
A) Leather Item as a Hunter?
Leather Items are usually inferior to Mail items for a hunter. Mail items give Intellect which translates to AP due to the MM tier 2 talent Careful Aim which converts 100% of your Intellect as AP. In addition, intellect is also multiplied by GBoK and Combat Experience, and increases your mana pool, hence making mail items more valuable than leather items. A rough benchmark that can be used is that a leather item is almost equivalent to a mail item that is one tier lower. i.e. Frostbitten Fur Boots (iLvL 277, Drops from Lord Marrowgar on ICC25HC) ~ Returning Footfalls (iLvL 271, Drops from Ruby Sanctum 25Normal) for example. In fact, Frostbitten could have been slightly superior at all times in terms of DPS if not for its inferior sockets. If we do, however, have to ignore the socket bonuses in both cases, or if you are really close to the ArP Cap, then Frostbitten could be superior. RS boots, however also provide a bigger mana pool, so it can be superior in mana-intensive fights (RS is such a fight for me especially if there are multiple low geared alts, in p3 the Rets are inside the twilight realm and I tend to go out of mana sometimes in the Physical realm). Leather gear should usually be left to other classes that use leather, except if there are no other classes that need it.
B) Signet of Twilight vs. Frostbrood Sapphire Ring?
The hit cap on molten previously used to be 8.57(?)/8.63(?)%. Hence, Signet of Twilight used to be the BIS item. However, it is no longer the case as the hit is fixed and correctly capped at 8% (164.85 from gear + 3% from talents). This leads to Frostbrood Sapphire Ring being the new BIS instead of Signet of Twilight. However, some people, like those who have only recently returned to the game and are unaware of this still assume Signet of Twilight to be BiS.
Let us assume an arbitrary item that is not a ring with two sockets. Let us also assume that we are at 1300 ArP and hence not capped for ArP.
Now we have 3 total sockets including the one in the rings themselves. When using SOT, the 3 sockets are gemmed with ArP (which leads to the maximum stat gain at this level of gear) and when using FSR, they are gemmed with 2x Hit gems and 1x agility gem (An agility gem does not give the maximum stat gain but I am assuming it for the sake of the example). The total stats in each case would be:-
Signet of Twilight - 109 Agility, 145 AP, 73 Crit, 60 ArP, 57 Hit
Frostbrood Sapphire Ring - 122 Agility, 120 AP, 60 Crit, 68 ArP, 40 Hit
SoT - FSR = -13 agility, +25 AP, +13 crit, -8 ArP, which is a slight loss. (13 agility + 8 Arp > 25 AP + 13 Crit, at near BiS gear levels)
The hit from both cases is ignored as both cap the hit and are a bit above the cap, extra hit is pointless. It is entirely possible that FSR would place you a bit above ArP cap (In fact, it does. 1403 to be precise in BIS gear, so 3 above), however, SoT also places you at 1403, so the extra ArP from the FSR is not really "wasted" if compared to a SoT gear setup. Hence, FSR is slightly superior.
C) Choosing Trinkets
WFS or Banner of victory?
STS and DBW are the uncontested best trinkets, but what about the others?
WFS and STS have their mini equivalent trinkets in the form of Mirror of truth (84 Critical Strike Rating, 1008 ap for 10 / 45 seconds) and Banner of Victory (84 arp, 1008 ap for 10 / 45 seconds). A question faced by many hunters, usually when close to the ArP cap is whether to use WFS or Banner of Victory. (I too have been guilty of using Banner of Victory in the distant past despite possessing a Whispering Fanged Skull. Most hunter guides tend to treat ArP cap as a priority stat to the point that it almost makes you believe that that other stats do not exist or are entirely pointless.) Let us take a look at Whispering Fanged Skull trinkets:-
WFS Normal - 131 Critical Strike Rating, 1100 AP for 15 / 45 seconds
WFS Heroic - 148 Critical Strike Rating, 1250 AP for 15 /45 seconds
Imagine you are at 1316 ArP, meaning that if you use Banner of Victory, you get exactly capped. The stat weightage of ArP at this point relative to ranged attack power is 4.23 and that of crit is 2.54. At 1397, it increases to roughly 4.4. Even taking the latter value of 4.40, the total stat weightage from Banner of victory is 84 * 4.4 = 369.6 whereas that of Whispering fanged skull normal is 332.74 and 375.92. Even just the passive crit from WFS HC is superior to Banner of Victory's passive ArP even if it that ArP puts you at the exact cap. WFS Normal / WFS HC are both superior to Banner of Victory due to their powerful procs at any level of ArP and it is not worth using Banner of Victory over them.
A rough trinket order for hunters can be :-
STS HC > DBW HC > STS Normal > DBW Normal > WFS HC > Death's Choice Heroic > WFS Normal > Death's Choice Normal > Herkuml War Token > Banner of Victory > DMC : Greatness > Dark Matter > Comet's Trail > WrathStone > Mirror of Truth > Loatheb's Shadow > Meteorite Whetstone
This trinket order assumes that you are already at the hit cap and close to ArP cap. Hit trinkets like Mark of Supremacy and Shard of the Crystal Heart are superior if you are low on hit and would fall roughly behind Herkuml War Token but be superior to even Deathbringer's Will. Common Sense, however, should easily dictate that it is better to get that hit from elsewhere and use DBW instead assuming you possess it. Also, ArP trinkets such as STS, DBW, Banner of Victory and ArP on proc trinkets such as Needle-Encrusted Scorpion from PoS HC fluctuate in their values, and can not always be compared accurately (or even as accurately as the last list was possible), however, STS and DBW are always decent trinkets at any gear level and should be coveted by any hunter. Banner of Victory is roughly equivalent to Mirror of Truth at around 500-550 ArP, and its value is lower when you are below that point. Needle-Encrusted Scorpion has a powerful ArP proc which procs for 678 ArP. Needle Encrusted Scorpion is an "okay" trinket if you do not have anything else, and if the ArP gained from it is not wasted by exceeding the cap.
D) 2 One-handed or 1 Two-handed melee weapon?
As a ranged DPS class, choosing either option does not matter, however, Two-handed weapons usually offer more stats and are preferred over One-handed weapons. For example, Quel'Delar, Ferocity of the Scorned gives more stats than 2xFrost Giant's Cleaver despite being the same iLvL. However if you get a higher stat gain compared to your current weapon, using 2 one-handed weapons is fine too. Also, 2 one-handed weapons can be enchanted with +65 AP enchant (Superior Potency) for a total of +130 AP.
E) Choosing a Ranged Weapon
Unless you have Falin'rush, which is simply the most superior ranged weapon in the game, depending upon race, the ranged weapon priority is:-
I) Troll - Fal'inrush HC > Wrathful Gladiator's Recurve > Zod's Repeating Longbow HC > Windrunner's Heartseeker HC > Fal'inrush Normal > Wrathful Gladiator's Repeater = Wrathful Gladiator's Shotgun > Njordnar Bone Bow HC > Stakethrower HC > Wrathful Gladiator's Longbow > Wrathful Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow = Wrathful Gladiator's Rifle > Windrunner's Heartseeker Normal > Zod's Repeating Longbow Normal > Talonstrike HC* > Dreamhunter's Carbine HC > Njordnar Bone Bow Normal > Stakethrower Normal > Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets > Other bows generally by iLvL
II) Dwarf - Fal'inrush HC > Wrathful Gladiator's Shotgun > Windrunner's Heartseeker HC > Fal'inrush Normal > Wrathful Gladiator's Recurve = Wrathful Gladiator's Repeater > Zod's Repeating Longbow HC > Stakethrower HC > Wrathful Gladiator's Rifle > Njordnar Bone Bow HC > Windrunner's Heartseeker Normal > Talonstrike HC* > Wrathful Gladiator's Longbow = Wrathful Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow > Zod's Repeating Longbow Normal > Dreamhunter's Carbine HC > Stakethrower Normal > Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets > Njordnar Bone Bow Normal > Other bows generally by iLvL
III) Other races - Fal'inrush HC > Windrunner's Heartseeker HC > Fal'inrush Normal > Wrathful Gladiator's Recurve = Wrathful Gladiator's Repeater = Wrathful Gladiator's Shotgun > Zod's Repeating Longbow HC > Stakethrower HC > Njordnar Bone Bow HC > Windrunner's Heartseeker Normal > Wrathful Gladiator's Longbow = Wrathful Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow = Wrathful Gladiator's Rifle > Talonstrike HC* > Zod's Repeating Longbow Normal > Stakethrower Normal > Dreamhunter's Carbine HC > Njordnar Bone Bow Normal > Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets > Other bows generally by iLvL
*Note :- The horde equivalent of this bow is Death's Head Crossbow HC.
For all these weapons, they are measured on a hunter lacking the exact amount of stat that they possess. ie. They are assumed to cap hit or ArP, depending on what stat they provide. Weapons with ArP are capped to hit with hit gems and weapons with hit are capped to ArP with ArP gems, weapons without hit or ArP are capped with hit and ArP gems, not additional ones but just substituting the existing Agility gems with ArP or Hit as appropriate. This order is generally true for the given races of hunters except for in some rare cases.
Explanation :-
The value of ranged weapons differs depending on the race being troll or orc or a race that isn't either of them because of the racial bonuses of those classes. Dwarves gain 1% extra Critical Strike rating when using guns due to their passive racial and Trolls gain 1% extra Critical Strike Rating when using bows due to their passive racial. The primary DPS stat for a hunter is Ranged Weapon damage and this list normally follows an order based on it except when there is a significant loss of stats.
Other questions:-
I) But Doesn't Zod's Repeating Longbow suck?
Yes, it does. It was relatively weaker stats, however, it is still worth picking up over any 251 iLvL bow. I have seen hunters with iLvL 232, 239 and 251 weapons refuse to roll for Zod's Repeating longbow. Despite the poor stats and weak proc, Zod's Repeating Longbow is still superior to most lower iLvL weapons by virtue of its weapon damage.
II) Isn't Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets a tank gun?
Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets is indeed a tank gun with "tanky" stats, however, it offers excellent ranged weapon damage and as illustrated by the lists above, it is the best DPS weapon you can get until you enter ICC. Do not be dismayed by people calling you "n00b" but trump them with your superior DPS. In fact, the lead hunter of Warcraft Hunter's Union WHU used a Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets all his WHU career and passed an actual hunter bow Zod's Repeating longbow!
III) Which arrow / bullet should be used?
Always use the Engineering Epic crafted bullets / arrows. Arrow / Bullet DPS is one of the most important DPS stat and lower level arrows / bullets are quite a significant DPS loss.
F) Rimetooth Pendant vs. Sindragosa's Cruel Claw
In terms of Stat Weightage Rimetooth Pendant is slightly; by a small amount, ahead of Sindragosa's Cruel Claw at some levels of gear whereas Sindragosa's Cruel Claw is ahead in others, also, the balance could tip in either neck's favor as to which lets you approach the ArP cap with the minimum loss of stats too. Use either one, it is entirely preferential. Personally, I use Rimetooth Pendant because of my obsession with having a 0 haste hunter. xD
Stat Prioritization
This section will cover the various stats used by / useful for a hunter and their importance relative to each other so as to make a clearer concept about how to choose the correct gear and gems for a hunter.
A) Relative Stat Weightage of various statsSimple explanation of damage increasing stats:-
1) Hit Rating - Reduces the chance that your shots will miss. The cap is 5%+ 3% with talents, at which none of your shots will miss.
2) Agility - Increases Ranged attack power and Critical Strike Rating
3) ArP - Short for Armor Penetration, Reduces the amount of armor of the target by up to the said percentage.
4) Crit Rating - Crit rating or Critical Strike Rating is the percentage chance that your shots will do critical damage.
5) Scope Damage - The damage of scope, which is a Ranged Weapon Enchant.
6) Intellect - Increases AP and total mana pool.
7) RAP - Ranged Attack Power, probably the blandest stat, simply increases the "attack power" or the damage of your shots.
8) Haste Rating - Decreases casting speed of steady shot and auto shot rates.
I will be using a spreadsheet tool called Rawr to evaluate the result of stat upgrades and observe multiple scenarios:-
I) In the first scenario, let us imagine an insta-80ed hunter with the starting bow. The hunter has talented himself with the 7/57/7 spec with aimed crit spec and glyphs. Let us evaluate the hunter's DPS gain per point of stat he gains.
Spoiler:Show
II) Let us imagine a second, more likely scenario. A hunter possessing the following gearset :-
Spoiler:Show
III) Let us consider a third scenario of a near BIS hunter.
Spoiler:Show
Section-conclusion:-
1) Different stats have different priority at different gear levels, however at almost any gear level, Agility, ArP, and Crit are the most important stats.
2) Intellect varies in its stat value depending on the availability of mana replinishment source in the raid. A raid composition with sufficient source of mana replenishment is important for a hunter to minimize Aspect of the Viper usage, and hence, maximize DPS, as hunters do not ideally gem for intellect.
B) The dynamic nature of ArP
ArP or Armor Penetration is one of the most dynamic, beautiful, mysterious and usually confused stat for a hunter or any other physical DPS class in general. The reason why the value of ArP varies so much compared to other stats which stay more or less the same is because stats like AP provide a linear gain whereas ArP is multiplicative in nature.
To illustrate this let us compare it to a real-life scenario first and evaluate ArP and RAP with an analysis of how armor works in more mathematical detail later.
Spoiler:Show
Now, for the mathematical analysis of this for a hunter:-
Spoiler:Show
Most of these are unlikely examples but help paint a better picture to more easily grasp the concepts mentioned.
Section-Conclusion:-
The observation of formulas and the maths that was done can let us arrive at the following conclusions:-
1) The value of ArP changes based on the amount of other stats you have.
2) The value of ArP changes based on the value of ArP you already have. At higher amounts of ArP, it gets more valuable.
3) The value of ArP also changes depending on your playstyle. Most physical shots require you to be still while casting, and hence if you move a lot, the value of ArP will decrease.
3) There is a threshold point for the equivalence of Agility and ArP which cannot be easily determined for every level of gear.
4) Since not all hunter shots are affected by ArP, Agility is still a priority stat until decently geared and ArP increases the damage of your individual shots by more than Agility because there are still other shots to consider.
5) Weapon damage and Ammo damage are crucially important stats as they interact directly to increase damage or DPS. Arguably, they are two of the most important stats for a hunter.
Additional notes:-
The armor reduction by Sunder Armor / Fairie fire does not reduce your ArP cap, it is still 100%. It instead reduces the total armor on the boss before its interaction with ArP. Some classes like Blood DK, however, have talents which are additive to their ArP, ie ArP cap for Blood DKs is 1260 and not 1400.
Conclusion on gearing :-
1) Critical Strike Rating is extremely valuable. It almost approaches agility in terms of sheer stat weightage and firmly consolidates its position slightly behind Agility and ArP.
2) The DPS gained per gain of stat may vary at different gear levels. The only possible solution to find which stat is the best for you at a given gear level is to use a spreadsheet to calculate best possible gemming and gearing when you get a new gear.
3) Yellow sockets are almost always worth getting, the only exception would be if you are close enough to the ArP cap for ArP's value to exceed that of both the crit and the bonus agility.
4) Blue sockets are almost never worth getting, even in the case that you are stuck at 1390 ArP, which is a bad place to get stuck in, The gain from an Agi gem would be 30.4 DPS, that from an ArP + Stam gem would be 29.78 including a +4 socket bonus. It is worth using 1 Puissant Dreadstone which results in a greater overall gain of stats if only the socket bonus is +6 or +8, but it is also usually better finding an alternate gearing pattern by switching the JC bonus ArP and Agility gems around.
5) The BIS gears and gems at the top of the guide is calculated using the stat weightages just discussed.
6) Haste is an extremely bad stat for an MM hunter, there is only one item that is a contested BiS that contains haste, and all your haste should be limited to it. Do not ever gem or enchant for haste.
7) As a low geared hunter, mana can be a residual issue, as observed from the stat weightages. If that is the case, consider investing some points into Rapid Recuperation. Points should be subtracted from improved barrage, improved hunter's mark or hawk eye for that purpose.
8) Do not blindly rush after the ArP cap, it is better advised to gem agility and agility / crit at lower levels of gear. In the example above, at 667 passive ArP, ArP and Agility were really close. The threshold point where ArP overtakes agility comes at around 700 passive ArP from gear, until then Agility is superior.
9) Always use the highest DPS crafted arrows / bullets. They are pretty easy to make if you are an engineer (which you should be) or else also pretty cheap on the auction house.
General hunter playstyle :-
This section will cover the general playstyle and rotation of MM hunter in very short.
Rotation :-
A hunter's DPS revolves around priority stats which are to be executed as soon as they come off cooldown. A hunter's shot priority is as follows:-
1) Serpent Sting
2) Silencing Shot
3) Rapid Fire
4) Readiness
5) Kill Shot
6) Chimera Shot
7) Aimed Shot
8) Explosive Trap / Steady Shot
9) Arcane Shot
Serpent Sting should always remain on the boss, usually, it is only cast once per fight, but there is more to it which will be discussed later. Silencing shot does not consume a global cooldown and hence takes priority over every other hunter ability. Rapid Fire and Readiness soon follow with Kill Shot, Chimera Shot, and Aimed Shot behind with Explosive Trap and Steady Shot as the filler spells. This priority order takes the form of a rotation with it being Serpent + Rapid Fire > Aimed > Chimera > Readiness > Chimera > Aimed > 4xSteady > Chimera > Aimed and repeat with the steady shot cycle. Chimera shots should always be cast first in the cycle to ensure that it gets the benefits of Improved Steady Shot Proc rather than Aimed Shot. In the first instance of the opener, however, I prefer to use Aimed first as I have had an instance of trinkets not proccing with the first autos and had to cast a Chimera Shot without trinket proc at the start of a fight! (/cry)
For a hunter using Explosive trap glyph and the spec, the rotation would look like :-
-> Silencing Shot + Serpent Sting > Explosive Trap + Rapid Fire > Aimed Shot > Chimera Shot > Readiness > Chimera Shot > Aimed Shot > Explosive Trap > 3xSteady Shots > Chimera Shot > Aimed Shot > Explosive Trap > 3xSteady Shot... and so on
For a hunter not using Explosive trap spec, the rotation would be :-
-> -> Silencing Shot + Serpent Sting + Rapid Fire > Aimed Shot > Chimera Shot > Readiness > Chimera Shot > Aimed Shot > 4xSteady Shots > Chimera Shot > Aimed Shot > 4xSteady Shot... and so on
For a lower geared hunter for whom using Arcane Shot would actually be more beneficial than Steady Shot, an Arcane Shot should directly follow the Aimed Shot (or the Chimera Shot in the original opener) and used after every aimed shot. Kill Shot takes priority over every other shot when it comes off cooldown after the boss reaches 20% once. Silencing Shot should ideally be bound to Chimera &/ Aimed Shot so it is fired as soon as it comes off cooldown and does not require manual usage of it, and as it is not on a gcd with any other shots, it does not delay them either.
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