I...am so very frustrated.

[Zalen]

Alright...so here is my ordeal. I have good gear, good enchants, good gems, the works. But I -still- am not pulling what I believe I ought to in raids on bosses. In ICC I have been doing about 4.2-4.8 k in DPS...and I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. This is my armory link.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&cn=Ridi%C3%A7

My rotation is as follows:
Hunter's mark>serpent sting>aimed shot>chimera shot>steady shot x4, rinse repeat. Naturally I hit kill shot as much and often as I can. Can anybody please tell me what I am doing wrong, or if maybe my perfectionist side is getting the best of me? I would GREATLY appreciate it.

[Volador]

Your hit rating is incredibly high (about 100 points higher than where it needs to be). Your enchants on your legs and chest can be upgraded/changed. Your 1 point into imp arcane shot can be moved to GftT (2/2). You could level viable tradeskills to at least the point of receiving a bonus for them (mining isn't on the list for hunters).

There is no rotation for hunters, there is a priority list: Serpent Sting, Kill Shot, Silencing Shot (this is off the GCD and can be macro'd to all of your shots), Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot (sub in Arcane Shot if you have to move and your other instant shots are on CD). Mark should be up on all targets that stay alive long enough to receive a bonus from it. Kill Command can also be macro'd to all of your shots, or you can use it at specific points (I macro it).

Rapid Fire and Readiness are going to be raid dependent. My normal boss fight opener goes something like this: Mark, Misdirect, Rapid Fire, rotation until Rapid Fire drops (making sure Chimera and Aimed have JUST been fired), Readiness, Rapid Fire, Misdirect, rotation. Usually by the time heroism/bloodlust is called for Readiness and Rapid Fire will be back up, and I'll repeat the process (without MD).

[Theotherone]

Go Survival. Upgrade your two lower grade agility gems; put agility on your gloves, upgrade your chest enchant to 10 all stats. Going Survival should give you a nice dps boost. MM is great when you get into the realm of uber Armor Pen, but until you hit the 700/800 level of Ar Pen from gear, Survival is your best bet.

My Survival spec is a basic one. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...za&cn=Wharfrat

If you need a rotation, just holler.

[Bashal]

There's a hunter raid guide stickied in the DPS forum here, if you haven't yet, take a look at it.

Like Survival, MM has a "priority-based" rotation (the highest damage ability that is off cooldown has priority), rather than a fixed cycle. From the sound of it, you are using more of a static cycle, unless I misunderstood.

Your weapon is also going to hold you back a bit. You're also way over hit cap, when you are able to find (or buy in AH) pieces that don't have hit, do so. With the higher level gear though, you'll probably always struggle to keep from being over hit cap, but shedding that hit rating for some other useful stat will help.

I know ArPen is also an important stat for MM, and you aren't soft-capped yet. I'm not sure if you are at a point where regemming from Agi to ArPen would boost your dps, as I'm more familiar with SV than MM.

EDIT: aha, Theotherone answered the ArPen issue.

[Bashal]

Go Survival.

If he does, he'll probably want to ditch the NES trinket, as ArPen is of small value to SV.

[Volador]

ArPen is not the deciding factor in going MM over Survival. If your gear is (on average) Uld25+, MM will outdps Surv (given a player skilled with both specs). The only time Surv will outdps MM is when the fight is mana intensive (it usually happens when there is lots of target switching and the hunter doesn't have the appropriate buffs/debuffs needed to regen mana effectively).

[Theotherone]

The appropriate glyphs for MM are: Aimed Shot, Serpent Sting, and Chimera Shot.

Personally, I prefer the Steady Shot glyph over Serpent Sting, since Chim Shot's refreshing your sting and Steady Shot's getting a bonus with the glyph for Serpent Sting being up; and Kill Shot over Aimed Shot since you're spamming Steady Shot you'll still get the benefit of Piercing Shots and don't need a shorter cooldown on Aimed Shot.

[Theotherone]

If he does, he'll probably want to ditch the NES trinket, as ArPen is of small value to SV.

Yeah, but the Crit is nice.

[Theotherone]

ArPen is not the deciding factor in going MM over Survival. If your gear is (on average) Uld25+, MM will outdps Surv (given a player skilled with both specs). The only time Surv will outdps MM is when the fight is mana intensive (it usually happens when there is lots of target switching and the hunter doesn't have the appropriate buffs/debuffs needed to regen mana effectively).

This has not been my experience and MM is very Ar Pen dependent because of auto-shot and Steady Shot.

[Volador]

Serpent Sting glyph will increase the damage of Chimera Shot.
Chimera and Aimed Shot Glyphs are more personal taste (as are the rest of the choices in glyphs). For me, the cooldown reduction from the two glyphs make them fit nicely into my rotation. Kill Shot was actually a DPS decrease for me due to the limited time spent in the sub 20% health range (which is only shortening with the ICC buff increasing again).

[Volador]

This has not been my experience and MM is very Ar Pen dependent because of auto-shot and Steady Shot.

Eh, there are several echelons of ArPen. As you said, having more ArPen will benefit a MM spec (and not do much for Surv), BUT regardless of how much ArPen you have MM will outdps Surv. The disparity just gets larger the higher your ArPen is.

[Theotherone]

Serpent Sting glyph will increase the damage of Chimera Shot.
Chimera and Aimed Shot Glyphs are more personal taste (as are the rest of the choices in glyphs). For me, the cooldown reduction from the two glyphs make them fit nicely into my rotation. Kill Shot was actually a DPS decrease for me due to the limited time spent in the sub 20% health range (which is only shortening with the ICC buff increasing again).

Yeah, but Steady Shot is the constant filler for the rotation, so buffing helps. Also, Chim Shot's always refreshing Serpent Sting so I view it as kind of a waste to give it a longer duration.

[Volador]

Yeah, but Steady Shot is the constant filler for the rotation, so buffing helps. Also, Chim Shot's always refreshing Serpent Sting so I view it as kind of a waste to give it a longer duration.

Eh, overall I think glyphs have a bit of personal taste to them. I'll remove that from my original post as it's not 100% accurate.

[Theotherone]

Eh, overall I think glyphs have a bit of personal taste to them. I'll remove that from my original post as it's not 100% accurate.

No it's fine, I was playing with the femaledwarf speadsheet and the Serpent Sting glyph is coming up better then Steady Shot, which surprised me - I've never played with glyphs before.

It really is all so fight dependent. Now that we're purely farming ICC on some toons, I'm putting together a Survival set to go with my MM set. I actually miss Survival and found on movement fights, it's more forgiving then MM. We have some well geared hunters in my guild (I rank about 3rd), and Survival hunters keep right up and sometimes surpass the MM hunters.

[Mend]

There are a few things that can be improved in your gear/spec:

- Dropping near the hitcap is a good idea.

- Use the Glyphs people have recommended And upgrade your gems and enchants.

- Try out survival since it is very nice at lower gear levels.

- Watch this video, since most dps increases come from your playstyle rather than your gear and spec. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgDjG_0ecTI