Hunter Damage

[Necroshen]

Hello everyone,

I recently returned to my hunter after hanging up my tanking hat of my Deathknight and I am currently running BoT with my guild. I want to get a couple of things ironed out so that I am always producing the best DPS that I can be in both raids and hc dungeons.

Armory Link

At the moment I am producing between 10 - 11k dps according to recount and that is single target (boss). My current item level in terms of gear 346 with 346 equipped. Is it the case that with this level of gear on my character I am producing what would be considered an acceptable level of DPS or should I in fact be producing a lot more?

I am currently specced as MM and I never use an alternative spec however there are benifits to SV spec but I was led to understand that it was all about personal choice and play style. Is this still the case?

My gems and reforging "feel" all wrong but I would like to have some feedback on those and also what other people recommend. I have read guides to speccing a hunter and the more detailed information about priorities but I would like an open forum with feedback from people in the know. I appreciate any help you can offer that can aid me in producing some really solid DPS and also help me to continue to spec and refine my stats as my gear gets better.

Note: I am aware there are missing enchants but I am having those resolved at the moment.

Note: The pet I use for raiding is a lion "Sambas" from Twilight Highlands. It falls into the car family on Petopia and therefore I was under the impression it was acceptable for raiding in terms of damage.

[Tengenstein]

I would generally avoid Picking up socket bonuses and just go for pure agility everywhere, 1 agility is worth about the same as 3 crit (i think). Reforging looks good, with it mainly going to crit, however you're more than 3% over your hit cap, so you lose a fair whack of hit rating.


the choice of pet should be base don the buff/debuff it brings, all of them do approximately the same DPS, so as now its your job to use the right pet for your raid makeup. if someone else bring 5% crit, don't take a kitty. if no one can (easily) provide the sunder armour Debuff, you should bring a pet that does. It's up to you to determine which pet will provide the most useful buff/debuff.

[Rigwarl]

To be honest, your hunter is better put together than my hunter alt, but I don't spend any time on mine... that being said, based on what you said your recount shows, I generally blow you out of the water dps-wise. Lets see if we can break it down some. Hunters are amazing right now and you can easily being doing way more.

First, gear:
Shoulders- 40 agi gem, reforge to Hit -> Crit
Cape- reforge hit -> crit
Chest- Double 40 agi gem (kind of a narrow upgrade, skip if gold is tight) reforge hit->crit
Bracers- Hit -> crit
Gloves- 40 agi gem
Belt- Double 40agi gem
Legs- Double 40agi gem
Feet- 40agi or 20agi/20crit, narrow difference, whichever is cheaper
Ring1 Signet- Mastery -> crit
Ring2 Terrath's- hit->crit
trinket1 Key- hit->crit

Now obviously if you did all of those hit reforges, you may go below 8%, so just pay attention and stop tinkering with hit if you are really close to cap, try to get as close as you can. Every single item on your character should have crit. reforge from hit if possible since all extra points are total wastes. If you can not toss hit, get rid of mastery, if that isn't there either... what the hell stats are on the item, spirit?! haha

I would also highly recommend switching to survival. Skill set is easier, and just generally does more damage. Same stat priorities so all the reforging will not go to waste.

If you want to stay marks, you may be falling into the habit of casting instants as soon as you have the focus. What you want to do is Chimera shot followed by as many arcanes(or instant aimed) as you can, then spam SS until your chimera comes off cooldown. The exceptions to this being before 80% on a boss, and during massive haste buffs (rapid fire/lust). EJ has a VERY comprehensive guild for marks hunters under the class mechanics section if you can get through it all without falling asleep or quitting your hunter in frustration.

[Necroshen]

Thanks for the feedback guys I really appreciate you taking time to break down my character the way you have. It really helps me refine my setup. I will carry out the above actions then see how I fair up. I will also take on board what you have said about pet buffs and considerations as well as gemming for agi as you have both shown.

I will create a secondary spec of SV so that I can have it on test, I know what you mean about MM it doesnt allow a lot of movement during encounters due to SS's. The rotation you mentioned is what I tend to lean toward anyways

Many thanks for all your efforts.

[Insahnity]

I've got a baby hunter (60) that gathers dust, and has done so for many years. At the time, I made it BM/MM, BM for questing and MM for instances. Recently, im wondering if I shouldn't go either BM/SV or even MM/SV, any thoughts anyone?

[Pacans]

Rigwarl pretty much said everything.
Here is sum up with gems / enchants / reforges required - http://chardev.org/?profile=111113
You need 8% Hit rating and about 1k Haste to reduce impact from latency. Rest of it all goes to crit.

Regarding rotations in few words:
While target is above 80% health
SS to gain focus, Aimed Shot as focus dump, Chimera Shot as soon as its off cd. You will get used to see when You can go for another Aimed Shot till Chimera is of CD and focus is enough to not spend time on gain focus and waste Chimera cd.
When target is below 80% health
Basically same but instead of Aimed shot as focus dump You use Arcane shot.
On Cooldowns like BL / Rapid Fire - use Aimed Shot as much as possible, but always let focus for Chimera shot when its off CD.

[Rigwarl]

Side note about pets:

Cat = Battle shout from warriors and HoW from DKs and shamans using Str of earth totem, pretty rare that you actually need this pet.
Wolf = 5% crit comes from feral druids, fury warriors, ele shamans and subtlety rogues
As marks if you don't need either of these buffs, I would use a Ravager, it's 4% increased physical damage is only shared by Combat Rogues and Arms warriors, both of which I rarely see personally.

As SV, a wind serpent or dragonhawk is great in a lot of groups. 8% spell damage debuff on target is applied by locks, assassin rogues, unholy dks and balance druids so it is situational but I still find myself using it a lot, especially in 5 mans.

[Theotherone]

I've got a baby hunter (60) that gathers dust, and has done so for many years. At the time, I made it BM/MM, BM for questing and MM for instances. Recently, im wondering if I shouldn't go either BM/SV or even MM/SV, any thoughts anyone?

I level'd as Survival. Got myself a Gorilla, spec'd him tank and send him into mobs. I even use him in Cata Heroics if the tank goes down; dismiss the wolf, call the Gorilla and let him tank. I also use the Gorilla for farming (my hunter mines) and for TB dailies.

That said, BM is fine now also; in fact BM does some decent dps, as long as your pet is alive.

Be careful as a hunter you get attached to your pet. I use my wolf, ChinaCat, almost exclusively in raids/heroics - I am full aware of the whole buff thing and have Ghostcrawler and a Corehound (in case we want hero) for BM and a Wind Serpent, Ravager, Wasp and Spider, but ChinaCat's been with me since Level 10 (when hunter's used to be able to train their beasts) or 2.5 years now. I know it's a game and it's pixels, but.....

[sifuedition]

I started as MM because they had an extra shot. At level 60 (back then) SV picked up explosive shot so I switched. Didn't get dual spec until I had been 80 for a while (it was still expensive and I had a spec to dps already). Picked up BM for the novelty of collecting rare pets.

Now...much different. As SV, I have to md my pet and take it a little easy so I don't pull off of him to quest. As BM, I go ALL out and can't pull off my pet. I have him pick up four mobs at a time and it's no prob. BM is the easiest leveling spec of any class IMO.

SV and MM seem to be pretty even depending on how well you understand te rotation.