THREAD PRETTY MUCH DISCONTINUED, I WILL LIKELY BE WORKING THIS THREAD INTO THE FAQ FOR CATACLYSM. FOR NOW JUST GRIND HEROICS FOR EMBLEMS AND GO RAID.
How to prepare your new hunter for raids:
Step 1: Grind emblems until you get nauseous.
Step 2: Puke.
Step 3: Go to step 1.
This topic is made for hunters new to raiding.
As Naxx10/25 won't teach you jack sh*t about raiding, I'm going to do so here.
This thread will focus on learning how, when and most importantly why you do things.
I will, hopefully, help you find your place in raids as a hunter.
NOTES:
- Reworking the list, from now on do not expect a cut and clear list of options.
I'll be focusing more on how to pick gear and how to develop the skills you need for raiding making this more of a "Hunter, Preparing to raid!" sticky as opposed to a gearlist.
- Major construction going on right now, the gearlist in it's old form is gone and will soon be replaced with a guide on how to gear yourself up.
Speccing and Glyphing
'Cookie-Cutter' raid builds:
BM 53/11/7
Priority: Kill Shot, Arcane, Serpent Sting, Multi-Shot, Steady Shot.
Why don't you go for imp. arcane shot in MM?
Simply because Arcane shot is not 20% of your dps, and the talents in SV all give about 1% more dps.
MM 7/57/7, agility
Priority: Silencing Shot, Serpent Sting, Chimera Shot, Kill Shot, Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot.
When do I use readiness?
Right after you've used Rapid Fire, Chimera shot and Kill shot (if usable).
MM 7/57/7, Armor Penetration
Priority: Silencing Shot, Serpent Sting, Chimera Shot, Kill Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot.
What's different about this build?
You drop arcane shot from your rotation in favor of more physical damage.
To make this work you do need very good gear, armor penetration gems and one of the two armor penetration trinkets.
SV 0/15/56
Priority: Kill Shot, Explosive Shot, Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot.
This is, by all means, the standard raiding build.
It's mana efficient, high dps.
SV 6/14/51
Priority: Kill Shot, Explosive Shot, Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, Multi-Shot, Steady Shot.
Why the points in BM?
Because they give additional dps, you do however trade in your mana efficiency for that dps.
Raiding Glyphs:
BM
Bestial Wrath, not going to explain this one it's beyond obvious.
Kill Shot, Why glyph a shot that you can only shoot at 20% mob hp or lower? because the damn thing crits for 12-15k in 25 man raids.
Serpent Sting, not so impressive but it helps. It is slightly higher dps than steady shot (depending on gear), is a tiny bit more mana effecient and makes your rotation a little easier.
MM
Serpent Sting, why glyph for 6 extra seconds of SrS when it's refreshed every 10 seconds?
Because that's 2 extra ticks, or 40% more damage from the SrS part of chimera.
Kill Shot, Same as above only it crits for a bit more.
Steady Shot, not impressive but it increases dps.
Why no Chimera/Aimed shot glyphs? because they mess up your rotation.
SV
Explosive shot, obvious.
Kill Shot, same as MM only now it also crits more often!
Serpent Sting, same as BM.
Why Cookie Cutter?
Because Cookie Cutters are Cookie Cutters for a reason.
I could go type out pages of text here about how much it annoys me to see a hunter specced 0/71/0 thinking he's awesome.
Cookie Cutters are simply proven to be the optimal build for dps, using your own unique build isn't going to make you special, it will make you special.
Now, there is a catch to this.
You can alter your spec if you know it will be beneficial to the raid.
For example, I used Hawk Eye instead of trap mastery when I was SV.
Why? because that extra 6 yards of range help a lot when doing ulduar hardmodes and staying out of AoE, spreading out and a higher dps time on the boss.
It's that flexibility that I valued over the ~60-70dps trap mastery would give me, as it not only made it easier for me to dps and move, but also for other people in my raid on fights where you need to spread out.
Now as MM, I'm using a spec with 2/2 GftT and 1/3 Focused Aim instead of 2/3 Imp. Steady shot.
Why? because the spreadsheet says it's higher dps (Focused aim is per definition if you can use the hit) with my current gear.
And logical thinking makes the switch away from cookie cutter easier.
2/2 GftT will counter your pet getting out of focus on bad streaks easier and both the hit and GftT are always good while steady shot is the first thing to get cut out on movement.
Putting points in say.... Imp. Hunter's Mark instead of imp. Arcane because you think the talent is cooler is a bad idea.
Doing so because you are usually in raids with 3+ hunters and you're the mark ***** is a good idea.
Point one overrides point two here, the key to altering a cookie cutter spec is to know why you are doing it, what it costs you and what you gain from it.
Pets:
check Petopia for more and detailed information.
In raiding you want your pet to enhance your dps as much as possible.
You do not want it to have utility, because those utility things are very rarely useful in a raiding environment.
A list of popular (raiding) pets:
Wolf: The current top dps pet for MM and SV, only slightly behind devilsaurs for BM.
Their Howl giving 320 AP for 20 seconds every 40 seconds (for an average 160 AP) gives the hunter a great boost.
Raptor: Not the top dps anymore, but as BM they still have potential.
Cat: Solid dps, not top but they're solid, always have been and always will be.
Wasp: Wasps are great if you do not have Faerie Fire in your raidgroup as they apply the debuff.
If you have a druid/warlock who applies Faerie Fire/Curse of Recklessness, they're fairly weak.
Ravager: Used to be good in BC, is crap now.
Wind Serpent: Same as the ravager, they got killed by being put into the cunning category.
Scorpid: Had it's spike in BC, got nerfed, spiked again in Wrath and is now nerfed again.
51pt BM pets:
Devilsaur: The top dps pet for BM, but they have 1 major disadvantage.
Their size, it is quite massive to begin with, and it's special boosts it up by quite a bit which hinders visibility for the melee, and more importantly it gives devilsaurs the ability to get hit by every possible AoE.
Which, of course, causes them to die fairly easily. (especially on Sartharion, where they almost can't avoid lava waves if they have their special and BW stacked)
Worm: A tenacity pet, and low damage. however if you do not have Expose armor/Sunder armor the worm's debuff more than makes up for it's lack in dps.
Spirit beast: Yes you like the way it looks, and it's "rare" but because it's a rare spawn it'll never be competitive dps.
I'm sorry, but it really is just for show.
Pet specs:
Ferocity
Cunning*
Tenacity*
* Note: I do not advise using pets other than the ones listed above as good raiding pets, however these are specs I would use should you want to ignore my advise.
General rules of thumb:
* Your pet is melee, that means that you should place it where the other melee is.
* If melee has to run, so does your pet. (with the exception of some AoE, as your pet avoids 75%)
* Your pet is roughly 20% of your damage (45%+ for BM), keeping it alive is worth mana and time.
Gearing yourself up:
In contrary to the previous incarnations of this thread, this will now only be a small part of it.
When you're gearing up, you'll have to be smart about it.
Just endlessly running heroics of which the last boss can drop an epic that is slightly better than your blue isn't going to get you ready for raids very quickly.
There are a lot of crafted pieces and BoE raid drops.
Pick your gear from these, based on your budget and the overall quality of the item.
There's a sweet pair of ulduar10 bracers that are BoE, they're also not too uncommon so the price is probably not that high.
The gloves from Naxx10 are loaded with hit and thus can be a valuable piece for you.
The Argent tournament is another easy way to guaranteed epics, both the gun and the staff are worth getting.
Then, there are certain pieces that you really want to at least try to get from heroics.
The new trial of the crusader provides insanely good gear to anyone with about 10% of their brain functioning, it's worth running daily on heroic and farming it on normal until you have all it gives as the drops are some of the best for their ilevel.
You're going to have to research for yourself what you can get, what you have to work towards and how you're going to do that.
Yes it will take some time, but wowhead and Femaledwarf will help you pick your gear.
The great thing about femaledwarf is that you can experiment without the penalty of paying tons of gold.
And it also shows values for stats so it's easier to see if a piece of gear is worth it or not.
Note: Picking up sidegrades where you can (taking things that would otherwise be disenchanted for example) and not instantly throwing away your previous piece of gear when you get a new one is helpful as it allows you to play with gear to get the best setup for you.
Gemming & Enchanting:
Detailed hunter gemlist
All Credits are for Feardeal on Elitist Jerks who made this.
[sm]Original Thread
This part of the thread is to provide a quick reference of gem prioritization for hunters in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. It is still recommended to consult the Hunter spreadsheet for a more detailed assessment of your personal gearing.
Red:
Bright Scarlet Ruby +32 Attack Power or Delicate Scarlet Ruby +16 Agility.
Yellow:
Rigid Autumn's Glow + 16 Hit Rating. (*when 16 hit rating or more from Hit cap.)
Blue:
Not recommended.
Orange:
Pristine Monarch Topaz +16 Attack Power, +8 Hit Rating or Glinting Monarch Topaz +8 Agility, +8 Hit Rating. (*if under hit cap)
Wicked Monarch Topaz +16 Attack Power, +8 Critical Strike Rating or Deadly Monarch Topaz +8 Agility, +8 Critical Strike Rating. (*if hit capped)
Purple
Balanced Twilight Opal +16 Attack Power, +12 Stamina or Shifting Twilight Opal +8 agility, +12 Stamina.
Green:
Vivid Forest Emerald +8 Hit Rating, +12 Stamina (*if not hit capped.)
Jagged Forest Emerald +8 Critical Strike Rating, +12 Stamina. (*if hit capped.)
Prismatic:
Enchanted Tear (*fills all Meta requirements)
Meta:
Relentless Earthsiege Diamond +21 Agility, +3% increased Critical Strike damage.
But this list has multiple options! How do I know which one to choose?
Well, you'll have to put that grey stuff between your ears to work.
Think about what your talents do to enhance certain stats, what raidbuffs do for you, and how stats scale with your pet.
Socketbonuses
They're just not worth it.
Fulfill your meta requirements with either a +6 to all stats gem, a +8hit/12 stam gem or +8 hit/8 agi (or 16AP) and a +8 agi (or 16 AP)/12 stam gem.
Pick up the best bonuses you can with that and gem all other sockets for Agility or Attack Power.
This might sound unnatural, but look at the socketbonuses.
Take the T7.5 legs for example.
Getting this socket bonus requires a blue gem, so to get it we use one +16 agility gem and 1 +8 agi/12 stam gem.
What we get is +24 agility, 12 stamina and 12 attack power.
What we get if we gem for straight agility is +32 agility.
So it's 8 agility vs 12 stamina and 12 attack power, that looks good for the purple gem right?
Well, no not really.
Stamina gives no dps unless you're survival, in which case it's an extra 4 attack power.
1 agility is better than 2 attack power for anyone not BM specced.
And agility scales with Blessing of Kings to boost.
So it ends up as 8 agility vs 12(16) attack power and 120(132) health, giving straight up agility gems the edge.
The epic gems coming in 3.2 will only make socketbonuses less worth it.
Hunter Macro's
Note: to make a macro open chat and type /macro
You will then get a nice box where you can make new macro's, give them a nice picture (the ? shows the icon of the ability it will use) and a name.
Addons
Super Sites and threads you need to read:
TKAsomething forums More advanced math and theory than here, and very helpful to get you from good to great. :)
Elitist Jerks The place where most of the hardcore theorycrafting happens.
Cheeky's Spreadsheet (last page See wich upgrade/rotation gets you the best dps.
Thank cheeky for this, on your bare knees. And Thank Shandara for continuing it.
www.FemaleDwarf.com
The online version of the spreadsheet, thank you Zeherah!
Hunter Consumable List+info
Thanks to TKA.
Preparing for raids:
Step 1: Know the damn tactics.
Step 2: Come prepared, all your gear is properly gemmed and enchanted, you have enough flasks and statfood for the entire raid (and then some) without relying on someone to drop fish feasts for you all night long, you have enough ammo with you to last you well over one raid, you have enough food and drink to last you the entire night if there is no mage and your gear better be repaired and at 100%.
Step 3: Know your limits, don't try to get into raids you can't handle dps wise.
You might get some fat loot there, but you'll also make a bad impression on the raid.
Making a good impression and building a good reputation for yourself will get you much further.
Step 4: ASK QUESTIONS. really, you'll make a much better impression on people by saying "Hey, I haven't done this boss before. I know all the strats but could you give me a quick run through of how you do the fight?" than by keeping quiet and @#%^ing up or performing badly.
There's a few key elements that make you an awesome raider.
And suprisingly (*cough*NOT*cough*) is that it's all between your ears.
Use your brain, learn from your mistakes, pay attention to your surroundings.
Don't stand in the fire for 2 seconds, know that it can come and be prepared to run out (run, don't jump! jumping can cause WoW to think you're at the place you jumped from until you land making you take extra ticks of damage).
Being able to not @#%^ up is a massive part of being a good raider.
It's a normal thing for everyone to mess up from time to time, it happens and if you're unlucky it even wipes your raid.
No big deal, as long as you're man (or woman) enough to admit that you made a mistake and smart enough to learn from it.
Another thing you need to do is have vent/ts and a microphone.
Announce when things happen to you that changes how people interact with you.
Do you need extra healing? did you mess up and need someone to cover you in whatever you had to do? are you taking over for someone because they can't make it? need to do something people need to react to? SAY SO!
But your guildies don't have/use microphones? so @#%^ing what, you can.
You can't use it for another reason? find a way to fix that.
You don't have a mic? they're only $5 for a cheap one, no point not having one.
You're afraid to talk over vent/ts? stop being shy and just talk, people won't hate you for it.
Even if your voice is annoying as hell they'll appreciate the communication.
Applying to a guild:
Fill in the questions properly and be honest.
Use proper english and don't answer questions with one word.
Tell the guild as much relevant info about yourself.
(relevant is the keyword here, I want to know that you tinker with your gear, spec, enchants etc on femaledwarf.com for an hour before you go to sleep. I do not want to know that you ********** while doing so.)
This guide is also very nice.
It's outdated but the main points are still true.
Any constructive critisism, gear I missed, enchants I missed or other tips/tricks that should be added (or removed) are very welcome so please post them.
Thanks in advance for any help,
-Æthien
The credits for making this are not just for me, I couldnt have made it anywhere near as complete as it is now without all the people from Allakhazam and TKA that helped.
Edited, Nov 8th 2008 12:53pm by Azuarc. Yay for sticky![/sm]
Edited, Sep 4th 2010 1:03pm by Aethien