3.0 Tips and Tricks

[Kailand]

Hi,

After reading the various theory crafting and playing around with kailand, 3.0 has seen hunters get some big buffs. I've also noticed by grouping with other hunters, that they have not realized that hunters are now first class AoErs - Volley has no cooldown and has been buffed big time. Whenever there is 3 or more guys use volley... it's major DPS. Just to give you an idea of the amount of damage volley does: I out damaged warlocks and mages who out geared me on a MC retro run on the AOE packs. Serpent sting is now a bread and butter ability since it buffs other hunter abilties: use it. Steady shot can now be spammed without worrying about autoshot push back, so spam it when your other shots are on cooldown. MM hunters will want to use chimera shot whenever possible (damn sexy ability), and survival hunters will be spamming Explosive shot (ignore arcane except when there is a risk of CC breakage than use arcane instead of explosive: they share the same cooldown but explosive is more DPS). Survival hunters with explosive shot == never running out of mana, since ever time it crits, you get 40% of the original cost of its mana back due to thrill of the hunt, and that includes crits on nearby mobs and for every pulse. This means that in aoe packs, you can go from 0 mana to full mana with one explosive shot, plus the hunting party replenishment.

Now, many hunter who aren't MM are going BM/MM or SV/MM hybrids. Right now there is no reason to go more than 51 points in SV or BM, as you are severly nerfing your DPS if you do. All hunter will need to put 5 points into mortal shots (20% more crit damage) as in pre 3.0 case. Leave careful aim alone for now, its not worth the points right now unless your crit is absolutely horrible (say less than 20% or 25%), and put as many points in Focused aim as you need to get to the hit cap, and put the remainder into lethal shots (so something like this).

I haven't played around with MM or BM, but with SV you have 2 choices on how to choose your talents: DPS or CC. right now, even warriors can AOE tank half decently so the extra CC really isn't needed and I can trap fine with out them even non talented, so I chose the DPS route. The DPS route you don't pick up any trap talents, scatter shot, or wyvernsting, but in exchange you have super crit for explosive shot, as well as damage boosting talents. The CC route is probably more meant for PvP and would look some thing like this (the lack of focused aim is due to not needing as much hit in PvP, and aimed shot is now an instant and that debuff in PvP is worth more than the 51 point talent).

For BM hunters, there is two builds that seem popular, one with exotic pets and one without. The one without is a bit more DPS at 70 according to test, but really the separation isn't huge. Again, shift points from careful aim and lethal shots into focused aim if you need the hit.

For MM hunters, the build that I've seen that promises to be the high MM DPS build is this. Again take points out of lethal shots or carefulful aim and put them into focused aim if you need the hit.

Now for pets.... I love my gorilladin, yes a tamed gorilla speced right is an awesome AOE tanking pet. Devilsaurs are great DPS pets and corehounds are good hybrid tank/DPS pets from what I've heard. For non-BM hunters, it looks like cats and raptors are the big DPS pets, but not by a huge margin. Choose a tenacity pet for tanking, Ferocity for DPS, and Cunning for Mana Return/DPS/survivability.

I welcome others to put in the various tips and tricks they've learned for 3.0.

Edited October 17, 2008 by Kailand

[Kailand]

Hunter rejoice! Shandara has taken over from Cheeky and Lactose and has updated the Hunter DPS Spreadsheet (http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t30710-hunter_wotlk_dps_spreadsheet/). I've also gotten some questions in regard to gearing, and see other hunters confused as to what is an upgrade so I also have a rough ranking of gear below for Pre-T6 gear.

Some of the interesting theory crafting tidbits:

- I was wrong in the above post regarding Careful aim: if you have no more than 2 leather pieces, then spec 3/3 careful aim, and 2/5 mortal shots.

- Haste is only worthwhile to have until you get your steadyshot cast time to 1.5 sec, after that haste will only increase your auto shot DPS (which is less than 30% of hunter DPS). This means that for BM hunters, haste is next to useless, but for MM and SV hunters it is good (hit, agility, haste, 2AP, crit, Armor Pen, int, sta for MM/SV stat DPS ratings, for BM haste comes after int). If you are currently specced BM and have alot of haste, you may want to try out MM.

Some gear rankings for Pre-T6

-The best neck is still the Worgen Claw necklace (Attuman) if you are not hit capped, otherwise it is the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might. if you are scryer or a survival hunter, Telonicus's Pendant of might (Verdant SPhere/Kael'thas) is comparable ot the shattered sun pendant of might.

-Drape of the dark reavers (Kara) remains the best pre-hit capped cloak, then there is the Thalassian wildercloak (Kael'thas), cloak of fiends (ZA chest) then the badge cloak. The Talassian Wilder cloak is slightly better than the cloak of fiends if you are SV or BM, otherwise the Cloak of fiends is better.

-Badge gear and ZA gear is better than the T5 pieces (the chest being the exception if you are not hit capped)

-The DST is worse than quest blues now for BM hunters, and is #1 for SV and MM hunters (a complete reversal). This means that the rankings are now: DST (MM/SV only, from gruul), Tsunami Talisman (Leo), Beserkers Call (Zul'jin), Shadowsong panther (JC), Bloodlust Brooch (BadgE), Direbrew Mug, Assassin's Alchemist stone (Alchemists), Hourglass of the unraveller (Black Morass). Romeo's poison vial is worse than all of these for a hunter, even if you need the hit.

-For rings the ranking is: the Ring of lethality (Hydross), Angelista's Revenge (Badge), Signet of Primal Wrath (ZA Chest), Band of the Ranger-General (Kael'thas), Garona's Signet Ring (Curator), ring of a thousand marks(Prince), and then a few Quested lvl 70 blue rings. Note that the kara rep ring is bad for hunters if they have any of the other rings in this list, hit capped or not.

-The Badge X-Bow is #1 until sunwell for all specs

-For melee weapons: the Badge Axe is #1 for MM/SV, and the Twinblade of the Pheonix (Kael'thas) is #1 for BM (#2 for MM/SV). After those, a combo of onehanders become good: Umbral Shiv (ZA-Chest), the badge fist weapons, Daggers of bad mojo (Malacrass), Breeching Comet(Magisters terrace). These are followed by TRollbane (ZA chest), and the Vengeful waraxe (Arena welfare axe). These are followed by the Alar Melee weapons, then the the ZA haste weapons (unless you are BM/SV), then finally the kara daggers/sword.

-The PvP Bracers Remain #1, with the Badge bracers #2

-The ZA leather belt is #1, followed by the SSC craftable belts, then the badge belt, and then the PvP belt

-For boots the #1 are the leather badge boots (Nyn'jah's Tabi boots), the za chest reward boots, the Boots from vashj, boots from Solarion, and then the fiend slayer boots (kara)

Pets

-Currently the highest DPS pet is the non-exotic cat. after the next incremental patch hits (3.0.3), then the devilsaur will be #1, with the cat still being the #1 non-exotic pet.

-The highest DPS pet spec for ferocity pets is:

2/2 Cobra Reflexes, 1/1 Dash, 3/3 Spiked Collar, 3/3 Avoidance, 3/3 Spiders Bite, 1/1 Rabid.

Edited October 30, 2008 by Kailand

[Rhoach]

A hunter was owning me in pvp today with a spider pet. Kept stunning/webbing me and junk. Food for thought.

[Waldonnis]

The spider was stunning your junk...huh?

[Kailand]

A hunter was owning me in pvp today with a spider pet. Kept stunning/webbing me and junk. Food for thought.

My post was primarily for PvE... Spiders, crabs, and chimeras seem to be neato pvp pets.