WotLK Hunter Stats

[sxgt]

So recount is telling me that my auto shot is doing the most damage f or a boss fight. That makes me thing that Haste would be a priority state and I did that in BC with great sucess but for WOTLK on Warmane is Armor Penn really better? is Haste build viable?

[Sky]

Assuming Marksmanship, the short answer would be 1) Yes Armor Pen is really good and 2) No, based on stat weight of haste.

I would recommend referring to the following subsection of this Hunter guide. It covers what you want to know, and you can find more about the value of Armor Penetration within the guide.

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.

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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 :-

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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.

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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.