1. [Guide] MM Hunter Gemming and Gearing PvE

    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
    * About the Guide
    * Contents
    * BiS Gearing
    A) BiS Gear Lists
    B) Gemming the BiS gear
    C) Enchants
    D) Glyphs
    E) Professions
    F) Talents
    G) Best Pet
    H) Necessary Consumables
    * Gear Controversies
    A) Leather Item as a Hunter
    B) Signet of Twilight vs. Frostbrood Sapphire Ring
    C) Choosing Trinkets
    D) 2 One-handed or 1 Two-handed melee weapon
    E) Choosing a ranged weapon
    F) Rimetooth Pendant vs. Sindragosa's Cruel Claw
    * Stat Prioritization
    A) Relative Stat Weightage of various stats
    B) The Dynamic Nature of ArP
    * Conclusion
    * Change-Log


    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.

    Simple 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.
    A) Relative Stat Weightage of various stats

    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
    1) Intellect - 0.57 DPS per point of additional intellect, it is your most valuable stat.
    2) Agility - 0.27 DPS per point of additional agility, it is your second most valuable stat.
    3) Scope Damage - 0.25 DPS per point of additional scope damage.
    4) Mp5 - 0.18 DPS per point of additional Mp5
    5) RAP - 0.15 DPS per point of additional RaP
    6) Haste Rating - 0.01 DPS per point of additional Haste rating
    Stats like Critical Strike Rating and Armor Penetration do not even show up in the list as they would contribute 0 DPS at this point. This is a completely pointless illustration, but I just wanted to stress how no stat is dynamic and seemingly useless stats like Mp5 can actually be beneficial at some point. This is because the hunter has a small mana pool to cast shots that it makes Mp5 a valuable commodity, at realistic gear levels Mp5 will cease being of value and at any levels of gear the usage (proper) of Aspect of the Viper will make it a pointless stat.


    II) Let us imagine a second, more likely scenario. A hunter possessing the following gearset :-

    Spoiler: Show
    1) Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Headpiece
    2) Rimetooth Pendant Normal
    3) Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Spaulders
    4) Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape
    5) Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Tunic
    6) Scourge Hunter's Vambraces Normal
    7) Quel'Delar, Ferocity of the Scorned
    8) Njorndar Bone Bow Normal
    9) Whispering Fanged Skull Normal
    10) Mirror of Truth
    11) Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance
    12) Frostbrood Sapphire Ring Normal
    13) Rock-Steady Treads
    14) Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards
    15) Nerub'ar Stalker's Cord Normal
    16) Ahn'Kahar Blood Hunter's Handguards

    No gems or enchants, and the hunter needs to decide what to gem and enchant.
    With this gear the hunter has the following stats :-
    1) Agility - 1804
    2) AP - 6793
    3) Hit - 4.67% (153)
    4) Crit - 49.04% (1159)
    5) ArP - 47.66% (667)
    6) Haste - 0

    The above stats are a distributed average of trinket and talent procs.
    Now, according to Rawr, on a 120-second fight, with no buffs but self-buffs and a Retribution paladin's Judgments (to keep intellect from being the priority stat due to having mana problems). The DPS gain for this hunter with this gearset per point of a stat gained as calculated by Rawr are as follows :-
    1) Hit Rating - 1.28
    2) Agility - 1.18
    3) ArP - 1.13
    4) Crit Rating - 0.99
    5) Scope Damage - 0.77
    6) Intellect - 0.55
    7) RAP - 0.54
    8) Haste rating - 0.19
    As you can see in the new list, several stats such as Mp5 have totally disappeared from the stat priority, the addition of a Ret with mana regen has pushed intellect much lower in the stat priority, and that stats such as Hit, ArP and Crit have climbed up to the top of the ladder.

    Now, the given arbitrary hunter wants to start gemming with his Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance. A choice can be made by comparing the relative DPS gain from the stats. Because these stats are so high up the ladder he can choose to gem either hit, crit, agility or ArP. The socket is yellow and the bonus is +4 agility.
    * Gemming +20 Hit gem - Hit cap is 164, so you get a gain of 1.28 DPS until you reach the hit cap then a total gain of 0 for the remaining 9 hit. You get 4 extra agility from the socket bonus. So the total DPS gain in this case is 1.28 * 11 + 4 * 1.18 = 18.8 DPS
    * Gemming +20 Agility gem - Simply, 1.18 * 20 = 23.6 DPS
    * Gemming +20 ArP gem - Again, 1.13 * 20 = 22.6 DPS
    * Gemming +20 Crit gem - 20 * 0.99 + 1.18 * 4 = 24.52 DPS
    * Gemming +10 agility and +10 crit - 14 * 1.18 + 10 * 0.99 = 26.42 DPS
    * Gemming +10 agility and +10 hit - 14 * 1.18 + 10 * 1.28 = 29.32 DPS

    Most hunters would choose this gem by default, or at least I would hope so. Let's say the next item to gem is Rimetooth Pendant. Now yellow sockets with a +4 bonus is something that is neglected by most hunters who go with the mainstream agility/ArP gem. Let us evaluate the possible gem combinations we could do. We have already concluded that extra hit is wasted and since we are at 1 below the hit cap, we could gem either agility, ArP or crit, which are the top three damage stats.
    * Gemming +20 Agility gem - As calculated before, a DPS gain of 23.6 DPS.
    * Gemming +20 ArP gem - As calculated before, a DPS gain of 22.6 DPS
    * Gemming +10 agility and +10 crit - Again, as calculated before a net gain of 26.42 DPS which is the highest gain possible and gemming agility and crit is the most optimum way to go for hunters.


    III) Let us consider a third scenario of a near BIS hunter.

    Spoiler: Show
    Now, the DPS gain for the hunter at 1380 ArP per point of stat changes are:-
    1) ArP - 2.37 DPS per point of ArP gain
    2) Agility - 1.52 DPS per point of Agility gain
    3) Critical Strike Rating - 1.43 DPS per point of Critical Strike Rating gain
    4) Scope Damage - 1.02 DPS per point of Scope Damage gain
    5) Intellect - 0.70 DPS per point of Intellect gain
    6) RAP - 0.68 DPS per point of RAP gain
    7) Haste rating - 0.31 DPS per point of Haste Rating gain
    The stat weightage shows how ArP later becomes the most valuable stat over Agility and crit, which approaches really close to Agility. The reasons for this are discussed in later sections.


    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
    Imagine you have 100 dollars. Now a person comes up to you and offers you (unlikely to happen in actual real life) either 200 dollars more or to give you 10% of the amount you have. Obviously, you would choose to get 100 dollars more, as 10% of 100 dollars is a mere 10 dollars and 200 dollars >> 10 dollars.
    Imagine the same person approaches you with the same offer but that you have 10000 dollars. Now you could choose 200 dollars and get it or more wisely choose the other option because 10% of 10000 is 1000 dollars which is significantly greater compared to 200 dollars.
    Now imagine a third scenario where you have 2000 dollars. In this case choosing either option won't matter as the gain will be the exact same or 200 dollars.
    The first scenario can be compared to a hunter with already low AP and low armor penetration, the second for a hunter with already high AP and armor penetration and the third is a threshold point which also exists when talking of AP and ArP.


    Now, for the mathematical analysis of this for a hunter:-
    Spoiler: Show
    ArP is a seemingly simple to understand stat because of the way it seems to work. The ArP percentage is 1% effective ArP gain per 14 points of ArP rating. The ArP cap is 1400 at which you get the enemy armor reduced "upto 100%" according to the tooltip, and this is where the confusion begins to start.
    The enemy armor is not, always reduced by 100% but by much lesser in some cases.
    In the cases of Wrath of the Lich King bosses, the armor is 10643 for level 83 (shown by a skull) level bosses.
    The formula for armor reduction through armor penetration is:-
    Armor reduction = (Armor + C) / 3
    Where armor is the effective armor on the target. ie. 10643 in this case.
    C is a constant which is 15232.5 and 3 is just the number 3.
    Now, using this formula, we can obtain that the maximum value of armor reduced by 100% Armor Penetration is 8625.16 and that 2017.84 armor still remains in the boss. (There are other sources through which Armor can be reduced further but we will assume no such sources are in play here. Also, note that all mentions of damage henceforth until the Aimed shot damage formula refers to the damage of an individual shot that is physical damage and hence affected by ArP.)
    The formula for damage reduction by armor is:-
    DR = (Armor / (Armor + 15232.5)) * 100%
    So, applying the formula, at 0% ArP and 100% ArP, the respective damage reduction due to armor are 11.69% and 41.13%.
    From this we can calculate that going from 0% to 100% ArP, your damage would increase by an additional 50.00%. ie. If your shots were doing 10000 damage before, with 100% ArP and the same quantity of other stats, they will now be doing 15000 damage.

    Let us assume two scenarios of having 0 ArP and 1386 ArP and having 1 gem socket which we decide to gem with 14 ArP (Perfect Fractured Bloodstone) bringing the ArP to either 14 or 1400. In the case of 0 ArP, the damage reduction by the boss is 41.13%, and that in the case of 100% ArP, it is 11.69% as already calculated. Now let us analyze the value of the +14 ArP just gained.
    The effective armor on the boss when having 14 ArP can be calculated to be 10556.75 and hence the damage reduction at this amount of armor can also be calculated which is equal to 40.93%.
    The effective armor on the boss when having 1386 ArP is 2104.1 and the damage reduction is 12.14%.
    In these two examples, we have observed that the increment of 1 percentage of ArP for the last point is much valuable than that for the initial one. The damage reduction in the two cases differed by 0.2% and 0.45%. In the latter case, it is more than double to that of the initial one.
    The presence of a warrior and feral druid casting Sunder Armor and Faerie fire essentially reduces the Armor on a boss to zero at full ArP. This enhances the value of ArP at any level but the relative difference between the value of ArP will slightly widen between the earlier and final points of ArP.

    Now, at this point that we have obtained these numbers, let us take a hunter Aimed shot for example.
    The damage formula for Aimed Shot is:-
    Aimed Shot damage = (0.2 x RAP) + Weapon Damage + Ammo Damage + 408
    The hunter is assumed to have 1000 AP and 0 ArP and he has a weapon damage of 50 and ammo damage of 50.
    His aimed shot damage will be equal to 708. An increment of 28 AP (Perfect Bright Bloodstone) by gemming it would make this 713.56.
    The damage reduced due to the boss' armor makes this to 416.8 and 420.07 respectively.
    Again, let's assume that he had decided to gem instead for 14 ArP.
    As calculated before the damage was 708 and the addition of 14 ArP gem would cause the Aimed Shot to actually hit for a value of 418.22. It can be observed that gemming AP is clearly the way to go at this point of gear.
    Even if the hunter had had 1386 ArP and 1400 ArP as in an earlier example, ArP would not have been a preferential stat over the AP as the return would still be lower.
    Now let us assume that a hunter has 10000 AP and still magically, 0 ArP, with the same weapon damage and ammo damage.
    The aimed shot raw damage will be 2508. An increment of 28 AP would increase it to 2513.56.
    Damage reduced due to armor on the boss would make these values as 1474.46 and 1479.73.
    If he had gemmed for the 14 ArP instead his damage would have been 1481.48 which is higher than that gained by using just AP.
    This is the exact same scenario discussed in the money example.


    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.

    Change-Log
    Spoiler: Show
    Edit 1 : Added ArP section
    Edit 2 : Updated professions to include alchemy (thanks to purepownage)
    Edit 3 : Multiple grammar and spelling edits, few edits for awkward sentences (thanks to Lynea)
    Edit 4 : (June 1, 2016) Updated armory links which had been obsolete, added a contents and a changelog section
    Edit 5 : Item links fixed
    To-do : Item donation / vote shop guide, give a numerical efficiency value to weapons, explanation on trinket procs


    Under Construction
    Spoiler: Show
    General stuffs:-
    Procs :-

    The most common procs that you will see as an MM hunter are the following :-
    1) Exploit Weakness (2pt10 proc, 15% additional damage done by the hunter and the pet, 10 seconds, 5% proc chance on auto attacks)
    2) Stinger (4pt10 proc, 20% Attack power to the hunter and the pet, 5% proc chance on serpent sting tick)
    3) Piercing Twilight (Sharpened Twilight Scale, 1472 Attack Power for 15 seconds, 45 seconds ICD)
    4) Agility of the Vrykul (DBW Agility Proc, 700 Agility for 30 seconds, 105 seconds ICD)
    5) Power of the Taunka (DBW AP Proc, 1400 Attack Power for 30 seconds, 105 seconds ICD)
    6) Aim of the Iron Dwarves (DBW Crit Proc, 700 Crit for 30 seconds, 105 seconds ICD)
    7) Swordguard Embroidery (Tailoring cloak proc, 400 AP for 15 seconds, 45 seconds ICD)
    8) Frostforged Champion (Ring proc, 480 AP for 10 seconds, 45 seconds ICD)
    9) Culling the Herd (Pet talent, Damage by 3% when the pet critically hits with special abilities for 10 seconds)
    10) Improved Steady Shot (Hunter talent, Increases damage of next chimera, aimed or arcane shot by 15% and decreases mana cost by 20%, 15% chance to proc on steady shot)
    11) Quick Shots (Improved Aspect of the Hawk hunter talent, Increases haste by 15% (21% with glyph) for 12 seconds, 10% chance on all attacks)
    12) Rapid Killing (Hunter talent, Increases Chimera, Aimed or Arcane shot damage by 20% upon getting a killing blow)

    What do these procs mean?

    These are usually the procs you see as a hunter on you. These procs not only increase your DPS, which is an obvious outcome of gaining them but also helps you to decide when to switch to Viper if you need to when they are not active so as to prevent the loss of damage casting shots in viper when you may have your most powerful procs aligned together!

    When to drop Arcane Shot?

    When to drop Arcane Shot depends on three vital factors, the damage it does when compared to Steady Shot, and, whether or not it consumes Improved Steady Shot or Rapid Killing or both of the procs.
    Improved Steady Shot and Rapid Killing are usually utilized for Chimera Shot as it is the highest damage spell/shot which benefits from it. Arcane Shot can be used as long as it does more damage than Steady Shot and in a way that it does not consume the Improved Steady Shot proc or during a fight requiring heavy movement.

    When is Steady Shot better than Arcane Shot?

    Most people wait to drop Arcane Shot until it has identical damage compared to Steady Shot. This is usually a wrong practice because Steady Shot brings multiple benefits to the table, one of them is the Improved Steady Shot proc and another is Piercing Shots on crits.
    So, even when Arcane Shot's damage is still more than that of Steady Shot, in essence, Steady Shot crits could still be doing more due to piercing shots. Since Piercing Shots does 30% of the critical damage done by Steady Shot, it is counted as a Crit Multiplier and added in. A rough formula can be used for determining when to drop Arcane Shot and use only Steady Shot in your rotation.

    Arcane Shot Non-Crit Damage (1 + (1.472 * Critical Strike Rating / 100)) < {Steady Shot Non-Crit Damage (1 + (2.436 * Critical Strike Rating / 100)) + Chimera Shot Non-Crit Damage ((900+ 21.924 * Critical Strike Rating) / 40000)}
    This formula, however, makes the following assumptions :-
    1) You are utilizing every Improved Steady Shot Proc for Chimera Shot.
    2) The Theory of Large Numbers holds true even for a small sample space. ie. We are assuming that if you have 50% Critical Strike Rating, exactly 50% of the will be crits no matter whatever number (ideally even) of shots you fire. And that exactly 15% of times Improved Steady Shot will proc. ie. For every 20 shots, Improved Steady Shot will proc three times. Please note that the theory of large numbers may not (and usually will certainly not) hold true for a small sample space (ie. the number of shots fired) and hence, this formula will not guarantee or justify the use of Steady Shot over Arcane Shot but is more of a generalization.
    3) You are not moving. LOL. You can not cast steady shots when moving, whereas, Arcane Shot is an instant cast and it may still be helpful when you are in situations where you need to move a lot.

    How to track cooldowns, procs and buffs?
    Recommended addons :- Powerauras Classic, Heatsink, Quartz, Omen3
    Powerauras Classic helps you track your individual pros and buffs. Heatsink displays the cooldowns on all spells, trinkets, ring etc. Quartz shows you the current cast bar, GCD bar and the auto shot timer. Omen3 shows the aggro on the current target.

    The 2p-t10 Serpent Sting Refresh
    The proc from the tier 10 2pc bonus, Exploit Weakness also buffs the damage of Serpent Sting permanently if it is casted while the proc is active. Generally, this is not as much of an increase as it may seem as it does not, however, buff the Chimera-Serpent portion of Chimera Shot's damage, and using that GCD to cast another steady shot might be more beneficial. However, in the event of a 2p-t10 proc very early into the fight, it can be worth manually refreshing serpent sting on the boss, and would translate as a slight DPS increase. Even better would be if Culling the Herd and Tricks of the Trade can also be aligned in time with such a refresh.
    Edited: February 17, 2018 Reason: In change-log

  2. Awesome write up. A lot of fresh material in here for some actual Hunter theorycrafting.

    A note on professions - I align most strongly with JC/BS for min-maxing DPS, but would always run with Engineering as one of my professions because of (what I've come to regard as) the invaluable utility of Nitro Boosts.

  3. I love you. Someone who knows how to gear hunters instead of brainlessly copy pasting some BiS list of some guy who thinks he figured it out. I also enjoyed rimetooth pendant more than sindragosa's cruel claw, but everyone else (who doesn't know what they're talking about) just laughed at me, because they just looked at the ilvl and not the stats (haste being a relatively bad stat compared to agi/arp).

  4. You forgot to mention Alchemy as a profession. It yields you 82 extra attack power (through Endless rage flasks), as well as endless mana potions (invaluable at the moment on Lordaeron, as mana is a big issue with t7 gear, and also considering how FD is glitched with potion CDs) and 2 hour flask timers. Definitely not the choice if you're looking to min/max, but if you're a casual raider who wants to spend less time ingame farming it is an incredibly obvious choice, in my opinion.

    I also took the liberty to enter the Lordaeron PTR, and I can confirm that TSA modifies temporary attack power buffs, which means that the Tailoring enchant would give 400 + 40 AP over 15 seconds, which using your math means that you're looking at 146,6 (which will be rounded up to 147) passive AP, assuming it procs perfectly of course. If we assume that 1 agility = 2 AP, JC would yield 148 AP worth of stats, and BS 144 AP. These are values that however are in constant change as your gear changes, so I do not truly believe that you can assume that 1 AGI = 2 AP when doing more precise calculations like this. I only use it for general purposes, really. But, I would argue that 1 AGI > 2 AP even, as the benefit from crit scales with increased damage, even. This I can't be too sure off though. I don't play with ICC level gear so I'm not sure how often and easy you reach a crit cap/soft cap. Either way, a TL;DR to this would be that you could (in terms of pure DPS) rank these three professions as such: JC > Tailoring/BS, not JC > BS > Tailoring. I would still pick BS over Tailoring any day either way, seeing as you get to pick the stats you put in the sockets (which means more utility), whereas you only get to choose AP when using Tailoring.

    Final EDIT: Decided to read through more of your guide (great writeup, by the way), and noticed that you included equivalence points based on calculations you had done with Rawr. This can only confirm what I suspected, and as such even despite how TSA affects the Tailor enchant you made the right conclusion. JC > BS > Tailoring is definitely right, seeing as Agility carries 2,23 times the value of RAP when you are decked out in BiS gear.

    I still believe that if you are dealing with tier 7 level gear you can consider Tailoring superior to BS in terms of raw DPS gain though. Simply because you don't get those nice +20 agility gems, but have to deal with +16 ones instead (this is, of course, only true on Lordaeron. If you play on a 'true' 3.3.5 realm which has epic gem cuts unlocked, BS evens out with Tailoring). However, if you do know what you're doing, you would know that SV beats out MM with t7 gear, which means that a sweet 15/16/17% modifier on your agillity on top of kings is going to make BS even out with Tailoring using +16 gems, and make it a clear winner if you use +20 ones.

    So really, you can go back and forth on this, but unless you have any specific reason to want to pick up Tailoring, you really shouldn't bother doing so when you have things like JC, Engineering, and BS instead.
    Edited: April 20, 2016

  5. @purepownage - Yeah, I completely forgot about the existence of Alchemy profession apparently xD. Also, Rawr already includes TSA and other modifiers for agility which makes Tailoring still trails way behind JC and BS. Though however, as professions was the only section where I multiplied agility with kings and did not multiply AP with TSA, it is the only section that requires change (which I have already done), however, the conclusion is mostly unchanged as agility is still way superior. Thanks for the feedback and the crucial information that I seemed to have ignored.

    @Xypher - I love you too baby haha. I have read every single hunter post here since the very first post and your comments have been pretty helpful to me too. Pity all that exchange between you and DarkenedHue in Donorbashed's guide is deleted, though.. there was a lot of information there too..

  6. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why you`d gem your Nightmare Tear into your Weapon.

  7. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why you`d gem your Nightmare Tear into your Weapon.
    Best socket bonus might have something in common with it :-). Its either weapon or legs.

  8. Best socket bonus might have something in common with it :-). Its either weapon or legs.
    No. That`s a fallacy. A rainbow is at most 4 (considering that you will never ever gem a B other than with a tear), because you`re basically gemming B for 4 and Y for 4. If there is a RB item (I think there isn`t for the Hunter bislist?), then it`s just worth 2, at which point you`re definetly not looking for doing that. However, iirc, gemming the tear into the Y of an RY is the best option available.

    EDIT: Hunters do have an RB item, the T10 chest. So gemming the Tear into that one is definitely your course of action.
    Edited: April 20, 2016

  9. Hi Selaya, the reason for putting the Nightmare tear, as Jendah noted, is because of the socket bonus. In my example, I am using JC gems and a hit gem in Oathbinder, but let's just substitute those for Agility gem and an Agility + Crit gem. The total gain of stats in each case would be 96 total agility for using the Nightmare Tear in the T10 Chest and 88 Agility and 10 crit for using it in Oathbinder. I am discounting Intellect as the gain, in either case, is just +10; the addition (or lack of it) of that to each case won't affect the results. According to Rawr's assessment of DPS gained per increase of a stat point that I have written in the third example of the stat weightage section, the DPS gain in each of these cases can be evaluated to be 96 * 1.52 = 145.92 for using the Nightmare Tear in the chest, whereas using it in Oathbinder would result in a total gain of 88 * 1.52 + 10 * 1.43 = 148.06. Hence, using the Nightmare Tear in an item like Oathbinder or Leggings of Northern Lights is a superior choice by a small margin. In other scenarios, like the one I illustrated in example II of my stat weightage section, T10 chest could be the better choice, but in the BIS gear, the usage of Nightmare Tear in Oathbinder is a better option. The value of crit is real close to agility and it is highly unlikely that you will exceed the crit cap, so it is worth exploiting every single point of crit that you possibly can.

  10. Yeah, I just realised that Crit has such a high REV for Hunters which I certainly didn`t anticipate. That`s curious indeed. Still, seeing anyone else than a caster gemming a rainbow triggers my OCD hard xd

  11. @purepownage - Yeah, I completely forgot about the existence of Alchemy profession apparently xD. Also, Rawr already includes TSA and other modifiers for agility which makes Tailoring still trails way behind JC and BS. Though however, as professions was the only section where I multiplied agility with kings and did not multiply AP with TSA, it is the only section that requires change (which I have already done), however, the conclusion is mostly unchanged as agility is still way superior. Thanks for the feedback and the crucial information that I seemed to have ignored.

    @Xypher - I love you too baby haha. I have read every single hunter post here since the very first post and your comments have been pretty helpful to me too. Pity all that exchange between you and DarkenedHue in Donorbashed's guide is deleted, though.. there was a lot of information there too..
    Yes, DarkenedHue is one of the small pool of hunters that knows what he's talking about. I quit WoW quite a while before I got in contact with him, but it was very easy for me to tell that he knows what's up. Same goes for you.

    It's a shame those posts got deleted, but it's probably possible to recover them if someone were to ask a moderator to do so.

    By the way, I love the comparison between frostbrood sapphire ring and signet of twilight. Signet always has been superior when I played, even though most people thought FSR was superior because it was in an old BiS list, but with the hit cap fix it seems that FSR indeed pulls ahead.
    Edited: April 21, 2016

  12. By the way, I love the comparison between frostbrood sapphire ring and signet of twilight. Signet always has been superior when I played, even though most people thought FSR was superior because it was in an old BiS list, but with the hit cap fix it seems that FSR indeed pulls ahead.
    I start to believe you don't know **** about what you're talking about then.

    FSR was always superior following the standards that you need to follow and not RAWR Values that are wrong 50% of the times.
    Edited: April 21, 2016

  13. It wasn't back when the hit cap was bugged and you needed something like 6% or so from gear to never miss; but that was an adaptation to a bug that no longer exists so that's all irrelevant and in the past now.

    The Relative Stat Values that have been put forward so far in the thread are extremely consistent with those from other spreadsheets and were pretty commonly accepted, so there isn't really a case for disagreement unless you're pointing out that those figures wouldn't be applicable to Warmane for whatever reasons.

  14. The Relative Stat Values that have been put forward so far in the thread are extremely consistent with those from other spreadsheets and were pretty commonly accepted, so there isn't really a case for disagreement unless you're pointing out that those figures wouldn't be applicable to Warmane for whatever reasons.
    That reminds me of when people said that the Explosive Trap damage was working properly when it clearly wasn't. I really don't know in what values you guys follow yourselfs but doing the proper math with Retail numbers I always get a way different output - Double dipping traps, as an example, is not a retail number and for some reason you didn't see those hunters in live content doing it. Same goes for those hunters that used to love to exploit professions in order to get that extra crit and extra agility.

    Short note: I do my values with two different settings - Retail numbers and Warmane numbers since they tend to differ in several aspects.

    It wasn't back when the hit cap was bugged and you needed something like 6% or so from gear to never miss; but that was an adaptation to a bug that no longer exists so that's all irrelevant and in the past now.
    That 6% could be obtained through other resources that didn't require the SoT use. I've always used the 5% hit and I've never seen my white hits or abilities miss even when that supposed hit bug was a thing. We might call it RNG but I never had that problem, personally. SoT is a ring that prevails strong in short encounters but loses all his strength on a hunter in long encounters since that's when FSR shines the most. And that's the main reason why FSR is BiS since you get a better balance of stats out of it in longer fights.
    Edited: April 21, 2016

  15. Well then I'd be interested to know what your sources are for your retail damage formulas, because they'd have to be egregiously and hilariously wrong to arrive at such a conclusion as double-dipping traps.

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