Ela's Guide to BC Hunter Gear and DPS v2.1 (STEP 3:BEYOND THE NUMBERS)

STEP 3: BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Date: 05/07/2007

Specs:

As many have discussed on these boards, each of our three trees has arguable viability in instances, pvp, and raid environments. A brief review of the perks of each before we talk gear:

BEASTMASTER:
How they do dps: Increased bow speed. More shots = more damage, more procs for other talents/trinkets How they add to your raid: Ferocious inspiration. 3% damage increase for party. How they succeed in pvp: The Beast Within, which has a host of immunities and damage potential Notes: What it lacks in splashy numbers (like ap and crit bonuses) it makes up for with a staggering 20% speed boost.

MARKSMAN:
How they do dps: straight up bonus to damage dealt and buff to AP. Lower rate of procs for talents/trinkets, but enough high damage to make up for it depending on gear. How they add to your raid: Trueshot aura. 125 ap to your party How they succeed in pvp: Scattershot (which you can't have in other trees w/o giving up valuable 41-point talents) and silencing shot. Notes: Marksman has become the most popular tree, but some question its scalability for end-game gear compared to other trees. But with the amount of ap itemized in our gear, Marksmen aren’t going away anytime soon.

SURVIVAL:
How they do dps: Bonus to agility and a 3% direct boost to crit, which means more procs on trinkets/talents. Readiness to get double rapid fires in boss fights. How they add to your raid: Expose Weakness. 3 points = 100% proc in 2.1. That's a buff to any melee in the raid on every crit. How they succeed in pvp: Great traps, readiness (which can finish your trap cooldown instantly) and wyvern sting. Notes: As agility becomes more relevant in your gearset, survival becomes more and more viable.

Ultimately, the inherent mana efficiency (thrill of the hunt) and hit rating (surefooted) in survival have made some suggest this tree’s greatness is in the fact that the “pure dps set” discussed in this guide can be used with less penalty.

For others, remarkable damage is equally possible, but a bit more planning for hit rating and mana (particularly for the quick shot beastmasters) is absolutely necessary.

There is little question that all three specs are viable, and in a raid scenario the three can synergize. A group with all 3 types of hunters would be an amazing dps experiment.

Shot Rotation:

Though some hunters prefer to time their shots manually, and argue great success in doing so, many hunters want to minimize their error rate and have started using shot rotation macros. We won’t cover it in this guide, but realize that different shots have different damage calculations.

While the paperdoll is a good model for maximizing damage on ANY type of shot, it should be noted that for those truly committed to dps may want to explore beyond this guide for tools modeling full shot rotations.

Pets:

Also not covered in this guide is a full discussion of pets, which is a more than worthy topic to cover in detail.

For our stat-valuation purposes, it is important to note that AP scales into your pet’s attack power, raising the relative value of your AP.

And of course, those with the Go for the Throat talent will see remarkable returns from their crits adding into your pet’s capability for special attacks. Many recommend hunters have in their endgame stable a good “focus dump” pet – one who has the ability to burn through special attacks without cumbersome cooldowns. Ravagers, Boars and Windserpents currently seem to be the choice pets for focus dump, but the discussion is still evolving.

Either way, as of 2.1, pets have remarkable survivability in raiding scenarios, and the capacity to be a big part of your dps.

Closing Thoughts:

Itemization is still evolving, but there is no question that a one-size-fits-all approach to hunter gear isn’t optimal. The best tool you can have to improve your own dps is curiosity. Browse the armory. Inspect hunters around you. Try all the specs, and learn what makes them work.

Ultimately, maximizing your uberness requires you to find the spec to match your playstyle, mastering the skills that come with that tree (and with the class in general) and gearing yourself appropriately.

There are a lot of challenges facing hunters in Outland. But if you’re willing to put in the work…the gear is there to make yourself viable in any raid.

Good Luck, Hunters.

-Elakuan, Vashj