Raziya

Ye.

If you ask me, the area of hunters' excellence in regard to damage is in their burst. We can take out specific enemies, like Chromatic Drakonids on Nefarian or Battleguard Sartura's adds, most precisely. We are indeed capable of pulling great sustained numbers, but such occurrences are often aided by many self-buffs, fight mechanics, and occasionally good luck. We don't have any intrusive mechanics to deal with, like the melee have to run from the boss if it has an AoE, the mages might have to decurse... our Tranq Shot only demands we keep a GCD free and not be casting Aimed Shot at the time. That's about it. Otherwise we can easily keep on DPSing whatever target we desire. I'm new to vanilla, myself, so I really don't know anything about how they perform in Naxxramas, but I've been keeping up okay with the rogues, mages, and warriors if I actually try to, so far. We also excel at supporting raids both by buffing melee DPS or tanks and re-positioning adds for tanks. With Deterrence, I've tanked impromptu a couple of times if an add happens to get loose, or we have an asspull or something. You seem to be more focused on raiding, but as a side note, we rock in PvP. We have some of the best zoning, most versatile CC, and awesome burst. Throw Shadowmeld into the mix and become a ranged rogue :D As a point of interest, on some fights in Ahn'qiraj, the melee seem to have a hard time staying in melee on their target. On Skeram, he and the clones you're supposed to kill teleport around, which is easier for a hunter to keep track of than a melee. On Battleguard Sartura, the raid kinda plays hot potato with the adds and the boss. Even on certain trash, a melee DPS is affected far more by the knockback of the Vekniss Warrior than you would be as a hunter, although ideally the adds and raid should be positioned in such a way that it doesn't affect them. Keeping your pet alive in a raid is easier said than done. It helps to speak with your healers about tossing a little HoT your pet's way or something, but ultimately it's up to you to ensure it stays out of AoEs and deals damage simultaneously. On Firemaw, for instance, you must pull your pet back out of harm's way just as you must retreat when the debuff gets too high. On Onyxia, keep it to her side, never under the tail or in front of her face, or it will be set ablaze or knocked with the tail's damage, even if it doesn't knock your pet back. On Ouro, it helps to keep your pet by your side as you flee the popcorn on the ground. And on some fights, especially if your healers aren't helping the hunter pets, it's improbable your pet will remain alive no matter what you do. To be one of the best hunters, you also need to master the rotation for each new weapon you pick up, which changes between, say, Rhok'delar and Ashjre'thul. We don't just spam frostbolt and call it a day :p Either way, hunters are a lot of fun and they're pretty easy to pick up. They're just difficult to master. I'm passionate about them, so maybe I'm biased, but I say give 'em a try! And if you need any pointers, hit me up, fam ^^

>implying hunters aren't one of the most mobile and versatile ranged DPS in the game I call troll.

Hunter pets have uses besides dealing damage too. They're your support - they tank for you, they can stealth and surprise someone who ain't expecting it, they add to caster pushback, some can deal magic damage, keep rogues in combat, help lock down a base... and they do deal decent damage. Just don't be overly reliant on them. You're the hunter, after all. Your pet is a pet. Assistance. Support.

Hi ^^ Umm... here, perhaps you'll find something of use in this thread: https://forum.elysium-project.org/topic/29824-hunter-macros-tips-redux/ See section 3.2.2 for video tutorials. :)

Sadly, I didn't get a recording :s I was busy doing other things at the time I was navigating between the bosses, so I didn't bother to set fraps up. But, I told the story as it happened :p Or at least how I remembered it happened. Oh my gosh, finally! You know, I've been looking for that macro, I knew it existed but I never managed to find it again. Thank you so much for posting it here!! I'm sure it'll come in great handy for everyone. :D

For shame! What a scummy thing to do.

I can confirm this. It does indeed.

Hey guys, I just did the Maraudon bosses nude :D I plan on doing a Mara Redux tutorial to address the changes made to Princess, and also to show Landslide, but I figured I would mention it here that I did it without any clothes since folks have been like "but Raziya, you need gear for those bosses!" Just weapons - Warblade of the Hakkari with +15 agil, Fang of the Faceless with +15 agil, and Ashjre'thul with +7 damage. I'm 7/31/13 atm, IAOTH and IRP. Impetus has no +armor from training and, as I just mentioned, there are no BM talents that boost his armor. So it's not so bad! With full clothes, a more tough pet, better pet spec, or better spec of my own, it's much much easier. I replaced Damascus with Impetus because I no longer need Damascus' incredibly tough armor; it's pretty much overcompensation with my gear, but seeing as I can do it without gear despite the pet's weakness, I think that makes it rather clear the farm isn't as difficult as it might seem. While I didn't fraps it since I was in the middle of something else, I did take a couple of screenies. :p http://i.imgur.com/H51oXFC.jpg http://i.imgur.com/vg6xIMx.jpg http://i.imgur.com/c0dS18l.jpg http://i.imgur.com/DHJohLr.jpg I one-shot tinker and princess, they weren't so difficult, although Princess did require some careful maneuvering. Her boulders hit like 500 on an unarmored target and mend mana was pretty scarce, so I'd have to put some distance between us rather often to feign / drink or bandage or mend. Very tedious, but certainly possible. Rotgrip was pretty interesting, though - he took... I think four attempts? Maybe five. First time I got him to 20%, nothing special happened, just forgot to pop burst. Second time I screwed up the initial pull and threat, but nothing else happened. Third and fourth times had evade bugs due to new position, if the last try wasn't the fourth... I thought I got another screenie of Rotgrip's corpse, but I guess not. Sorry! I did get one at 1%, though it's not substantial proof given that he can bite and instantly heal like 5%... but, then again, a hunter can always feign death mid-fight and swap out sets, so there's no proving it without a vid, is there? Guess you'll just have to take my word for it :p Anyway, the last try I'm gonna talk about at length, 'cause it was pretty fun and I think it might help folks who haven't progressed their gear very much to cope with Rotgrip. I don't remember with absolute precision, so maybe it was Mend spam first, maybe it was Rapid Fire first, I don't know, but you'll get the gist of how it went. I jumped down the waterfall after Princess and left an immo trap at the bottom of the pool, then positioned Impetus right behind it. When Rotgrip was in sight, I put up Hawk, checked TSA duration, dropped a Hunter's Mark on Rotgrip, and then used Outfitter to swap out all my gear except weapons. I kept my gear on for prep because my mana pool was higher, so I could set up for the fight and then remove it all. My max mana pool would go down, but being nude, my mana pool was effectively maxed out when the maximum was lowered. To initiate, I sent Impetus at Rotgrip. When his Growl went off, I made him retreat a little bit, then sent him back for another Growl. I did this one more time before Rotgrip was at the Immolation Trap so he'd have plenty of aggro to start. I made sure to hit Rotgrip a little along the way, myself, and proceeded with Auto Shots and rank 1 Multi-Shots. I popped Rapid Fire about halfway through, if I remember correctly. I also used some Aimed Shots. Unfortunately, at some point through Rapid Fire, I accidentally pulled aggro and re-actively feigned Rotgrip off. This is unfortunate because once Rapid Fire was over, I couldn't, uhh... you know what, I think it was mend spam first. Then I popped Rapid Fire to deal as much damage as I possibly could with the little boost I had given Impetus. I remember being too OOM to Distracting Shot... oh, I think that's why I couldn't get aggro. Not that I had feigned the aggro off, I just hadn't garnered enough threat, and was too OOM to force it over. I think pulling aggro during Rapid Fire was during another attempt. Anyway, at 20%, Impetus was almost within one-shot range of Rotgrip, so I toggled off Growl and Lightning Breath and sent him at a hydra far away. With Dive, he easily out-swam Rotgrip and I made him stay before the hydra was pulled. Rotgrip eventually caught up, killed him, and started coming back to me, but he was at 10%. I popped Deterrence and Aspect of the Monkey, but I was completely OOM, as you can see in the screenshot, so I spammed melee. I think I got one or two Mongoose Bites off from natural mana regeneration... and I had to pop a Sapper Charge off to deal enough damage to kill him. Deterrence not only saved me from the 800~ damage his burst attack does to an unarmed target, but it also prevented him from landing that strike and healing 5% of his HP. So, pretty intense fight. Definitely would recommend an armored pet, but you don't really need equipment for it as long as you can keep your pet alive. Pull aggro once to let the bleeds fall off if you must, but other than that it's as it is in the original Maraudon tutorial - light DPS first, burst at end, mend casually. I don't normally just ramble here on my own without someone asking me a question first, so I do hope the above is interesting. :) If you have any questions about the other bosses or whatever before I do Mara Redux, just ask 'em here!

Darn. Okay. I have yet to do the 'Execution' tutorial but for quick retargeting, you can make use of positioning and TargetNearestEnemy to quickly acquire a new target. No need to click on a new target, only need to point your character in the direction and hit any macro. It's pretty precise! Cycling targets rapidly takes a little practice for sure, but it's definitely faster than anything else, with the exception of a macro like that instantly switches target and back. If only mouseover macros were a thing...

Thanks very much! I try my best :D Hmm. If you need to quickly re-acquire the target far away, auto target macros will enable that if you position yourself correctly, but as for a specific macro, I suppose the target-last-target script would be the most precise. I'm afraid I can't hop on right now to test this myself, but hopefully something like this will work: /script ClearTarget() end /script TargetNearestEnemy() end /cast Wing Clip(rank x) /script TargetLastEnemy() end Turn towards target in melee, hit macro. If it works, great! If not, I'll try and figure out an alternative when I'm back. If you'd like to play with it yourself in the meantime, the functions do the following, in case you want the specifics: 1. Clears selected target. 2. Targets anything in front of you. 3. Casts Wing Clip (adjust or omit rank) 4. Targest last enemy. The "TargetLastTarget" command could also work. Here's the API list if you want to toy around with functions: http://vanilla-wow.wikia.com/wiki/World_of_Warcraft_API

It would be more helpful if you offered more information if I'm referencing the wrong place. Link to the right place, please.

Pre-cast Aimed Shot if your tank is pulling, sure. Just don't pull aggro from the get-go, make sure your tank will pick it up just fine or you have FD. If you're already engaged, there is no harm in starting with an Auto Shot before your first Aimed Shot, especially if it can proc Quick Shots. Really? Not even Carapace Spine Crossbow from Strat UD? Well then, go for Blackcrow. Satyr's Bow is absolutely not a good choice, to my knowledge. I believe the racial boosts your hit chance by 3%, but you should be able to get your hit chance up just fine without it. The area where weapon skills really helps is when you're a melee DPS, like a rogue or warrior, which is why so many rogues and warriors roll human on the Alliance - the racial helps to prevent glancing blows, something we hunters don't have to deal with. If you absolutely need the hit for Tranq Shot fights, keep Satyr's Bow on you just for that, or get a Warmonger. It should do crappy DPS compared to Blackcrow but you won't miss your Tranq Shots, and that's the important part.

Ah, Satyr's Bow is a melee bow. I'd recommend replacing it with Bloodseeker or, if it isn't out, Carapace Spine Crossbow. If you still need the hit, Blackcrow. All of those are full-auto weapons, I'm not even sure what Satyr's Bow would be. rais_AutoShot times your Auto Shot's cooldown and charge up time. When the bar's red, your Auto Shot is charging up. Stop and pop off an Auto Shot. When it's white, your Auto Shot is on cooldown. Use your Aimed Shot or Multi-Shot, relocate, whatever you want as long as you're ready for the red again. For "full auto" weapons, like Ashjre'thul, you should let your next Auto Shot fly out before beginning Aimed Shot, even though your Aimed Shot may come off cooldown first. For "clipped auto" weapons, like Rhok'delar, you will clip a bit of your Auto Shot by starting Aimed Shot as soon as it's off cooldown. As for Multi-Shot, just use that any time you have half a second to spare between Auto Shots, preferably as soon as it's off cooldown. One important thing to note about weapon speed is that it actually accounts for the cooldown and charge-up of Auto Shot. So, even with the slowest weapon in the game, Ashjre'thul (or Steelarrow Crossbow, but that's pointless trivia), you will still never be able to fit an Aimed Shot perfectly between Auto Shots. With a 2.9 second cooldown and 0.5 second charge-up, your Auto Shot's charge-up will always be a tenth of a second late after an Aimed Shot. ...The reason this is important to know is so that you don't overestimate the time you have and accidentally clip your Auto Shot with a .5 second Multi-Shot cast, or make other timing-related mistakes or misconceptions. With Rhok'delar's 2.9 weapon speed, for instance, you only have 2.4 seconds to run around while the rais bar is white, and the last .5 is the charge-up time. Hope that helps.

Oh, sorry, didn't see this question. Serpent Sting is frowned upon for being very poor damage (except on nature-vulnerable enemies in Blackwing Lair) and eating up mana. More importantly, it takes up a debuff slot. Unless you're in a PuG that doesn't care, and you don't care, don't use it. Auto Shot, Multi-Shot, and Aimed-shot only is standard, clipping or full Auto depending on the weapon you're wielding. Hope that helps.

You're very welcome! It's my pleasure. Landslide is just plain annoying. Has a stun, summons adds, don't really like him. Princess at least drops two items after she pelts you with rocks, you know? That said, Landslide's most expensive item sells for like 3g. My current route with tinker > Princess > croc takes just enough time to fit five runs into the reset window, if I'm actually paying attention and running at maximum speed. Usually I just kinda AFK in there and come back once in a while to kill a boss or reset. :p Sure, there are plenty of alternatives. There's E'ko, which is always valuable, at least on Anathema. You can raid Winterspring for specific sorts of E'ko and it will drop for everyone in your party, so there's no harm in bringing friends! This is why casters sometimes attend Frostmaul E'ko raids - they don't necessarily need them themselves, but they still get some from being in the raid. You'll have to check your server's E'ko prices to see if it's any worth it. If you do need to level a pet, my recommendation of the Altar of Storms in the Blasted Lands will net you a steady income as you grind. Just return to Nethergarde or Stonard every time your bags get full to sell the gray vendor trash and mail off the cloth, potions, greens, etc. Not only did I (with two free 16-slot bags) make like ~10-15g each trip while leveling Impetus from ~50-60 there purely from vendor trash, but I also gained a lot more from AHing the potions, cloth, and enchanting mats I got from the greens. Speaking of which, there is no better way to make gold than by learning to play the auction house. I really, really don't like to do it, so I try to avoid it, but I recommend it anyway. You may be surprised by how easy it is to take advantage of some markets. Just get yourself an addon, like Aux (which I believe has this function in vanilla), that can scan the AH over the course of a few days to see how market prices fluctuate. Then, if it sees anything below regular market value, it will buy it out for you so you can repost it higher. Easy, but tedious. Have fun with that. My other recommendation for the auction house is simply to use it. If some lowbie begs me for a gold, whether I give him a bit or not, I tell 'em first, "Auction off your cloth and greens while leveling." It makes such a huge difference! I had my mount, a few 16-slot bags, and enough gold to powerlevel my engineering at level 40 just from casual AH use on the way up back on Nost 1.0. And I still had some to spare! Nowadays I'm content living on the bread line so long as I can afford consumables for raids. Clearing Blackwing Lair and Molten Core nets you a healthy amount of gold each week, enough to afford consumables and have a little to spare, so that's cool. Hope that helps. Good luck, and happy hunting. You can find level 60 boars in Terrordale, EPL. However, you will need to gain loyalty with it anyway, so take it everywhere for a while, kill a bunch of things, or check some locations in the pet tutorial where you can grind up some XP... if you decide to get one. As for which would be the best way, there is no faster way than grinding! Have fun ;) Yes, Maraudon is doable with a 60 cat, but the difference in tankiness is noticeable. You may want to practice with some Beast Mastery talents, or figure out how to fit Thick Hide into your current build, then spec your cat into high armor and, if you'd like, nature resistance. Princess has windfury, at least on Anathema, which is not supposed to be a thing! So be extra diligent about pulling your pet out for Dust Clouds, send it back in time, make sure you keep enough mana for Mend Pet until she's low enough for you to just dump it all on Multi-Shots and Aimed Shots, you get the idea. I'm wearing full T1 and Ashjre'thul at the moment (7/8 T2 ;~; pls halp), and the pet I currently run with is my Wind Serpent, Impetus. He has a crapload of HP, nearly 4k, but doesn't have any armor. So, I do a little bit of kiting when he's low, then send him back in when he's patched up, which only needs to be done like once or twice every Princess at the speed I kill her. As a bonus, he can attack during Dust Cloud with Lightning Breath, which also pierces her thick armor. Toggling Cheetah on and off depending on boulders, I can easily outrun Princess and stop to DPS each Dust Cloud. Certainly makes the fight more interesting. As for Rotgrip and Tinker, they're very much the same. Just feign Tinker off the first time you get aggro off your pet and he shouldn't run to you again, watch the fears, pop burst, enjoy loot. Rotgrip, glass cannon - hits like a truck, gets hit like a truck. DPS him down to a point you can burst him, mend your pet up to full, feign death, pop burst, enjoy loot. Hope that helps. Good luck, and happy hunting.

Do you mean... Leggings of Destruction? From DM N? It's tough. According to my friend's spreadsheet, Beaststalker's Pants are better overall; you get 52 RAP and 0.49% crit from them as opposed to 28 RAP and 1.26% crit from Leggings of Destruction. There's been some debate in this thread here: https://forum.elysium-project.org/topic/39599-hunter-stat-priority-and-stat-values/ About stat weights. It might be worth a look if you'd like more insight or speculation, but the gist of it is that losing 0.77 crit for 24 AP is probably worth it.

Aye. Sadly, DM N farming isn't possible unless you're on Kronos, and that's a walk in the park. Lots of fun, lots of gold. However, we can still solo Maraudon, and you'll find a guide to that in section 3.2.2 in the OP. There is a comment that suggests farming only Tinker is more efficient, and that some servers may not have the instance lockout in effect! If that notion intrigues you, please refer to the comments.

Err, Multi has a .5 second cast time. Should use it between Auto Shots, preferably when it won't bother the charge-up time. Aimed Shot, yeah, just clip your Auto Shot by using it off cooldown. You shouldn't need to clip too much each cycle... Never heard about that crit thing. I've been working with a dwarf hunter in my guild to determine the benefits of the dwarf racial, and what I expected is that it gives hit, but is not as effective a racial as, say, the human swords racial for a rogue or warrior because we hunters don't need to deal with glancing blows. Haven't really looked into it enough yet to have any conclusions for you about weapon skill.

You mean over Deathmaw? :p I'm gonna give you a raiding-oriented response: The LBRS wolf is an important tame for hunters on account of having Bite 8. Coincidentally also has Dash 3 and Furious Howl 4. If you want the BiS wolf, Lupos (if he still does shadow damage) is indubitably the most powerful raiding pet. He has been nerfed on Anathema only, to my knowledge. Otherwise, the Slavering Worg from SFK or Deathmaw, the Burning Steppes rare, have 1.2 attack speeds and are considered marginally better than other wolves. Cats are competitors for damage in raids. Some speculate they're even better than wolves, and it's important to know how exactly Furious Howl works to figure this: Not only does it have a 15 yard range, so it may not be applied the first time in the fight, among other moments where your pet may be out, and it's applied at the end of calculations. If a crit is 1000, and Furious Howl is applied to it, it's going to be added after the crit is calculated, so it'll be like 1050 or something, not very much higher. With four melee being buffed ideally, roughly an extra 200 damage every 10 seconds, 1200 every minute, that's 20 extra DPS your wolf is providing the raid. If a cat can do 20 DPS more than a wolf is dealing via its own attacks, it's safe to say it's, uhh... doing more overall damage, but that's just the theory. A very sought-after cat for PvP is Broken Tooth, and he's a little monster you can see in the pet tutorial. Normal cats? *shrugs* They go up to 2.0 speed, but I'd say faster is generally better, even for PvE. Pardon, kind of scatterbrained right now. Hope I answered your question :)

Umm... hmm... Well, I know of sorren's hunter timers. Does the same thing, not sure that's it though. Looks a little different. Maybe just a different version. Either way, check out sorren's, that may be what you're looking for!

Sure thing! It's great to have a good conversation about hunter stuff. I love theorycrafting. I look forward to the results of your testing with FAR with great curiosity! You will be testing it as you have planned, won't you?

She has indeed been buffed. She has Windfury now, meaning she can strike thrice in an instant. To counter this, I pull my pet out every Dust Cloud, not just when it's low. Not only because Dust Cloud can deal damage, but she will strike in melee or throw boulders even while Dust Cloud is going. Less damage taken, less mending needs to be done. I also do a little bit of kiting around her arena, but not very much. Boulders are RNG and can happen really often or not at all, so if you do run in to too many boulders, try and run away from Princess, feign and eat, or bandage, but leave your pet out so she doesn't totally reset. She should catch up after you've recuperated a bit. 7/31/13 RDD Powerhouse spec at the moment.

That's very thoroughly thought out! Now, I haven't had time to confirm much about the dwarf racial, though I'm workin' on it, and my guild is considering it as well because if a dwarf can use Larvae of the Great Worm with Sniper Scope instead of Accurascope, that could justify its use, or at least its priority for dwarf hunters over night elf hunters. If you are correct and it does indeed reduce the hit chance by that much, maybe you could use some better pre-raid BiS pieces with superior damage-boosting stats and make it work better than Blackcrow. I mean, that's a LOT of attack power you say you'd be missing. I suppose the only way to find out is to test. :) But, of course, you said you'd be swapping out Barbarous Blade for Warmonger... You don't need a Warmonger to get 9% hit for pre-raid BiS. It's good to have in case you ever lack the hit needed to tranq shot proper, but the attack power from weapons is really important. You can get hit in plenty of other ways - two Tarnished Elven Rings are great, Truestrike Shoulders, while not the best shoulders you can find, will provide another 2% hit... it sounds to me like if you found more alternatives for hit, you could further reduce the appeal of FAR. BC is indeed a full auto weapon, whereas FAR is clipped auto. FAR is ranked 15 on the damage cycles thread, here: https://forum.elysium-project.org/topic/31461-hunter-damage-cycles-breakdown-ej-repost/ And... hang on, you said you have a Barbarous Blade, right? Isn't AV out on your server? 'Cause Bloodseeker would be pre-raid BiS in that case... Pardon me if I'm asking more questions than I'm answering. I'm trying to take everything you've said and everything I've heard lately into consideration, and think of alternatives. What I would recommend is having another look at other equipment than melee weapon for achieving 9% hit, and testing the damage of FAR vs BC with this alternative equipment. In addition, you'll definitely be using weapons other than guns as you pick up Rhok'delar and Ashjre'thul, so it would be a worthwhile investment to figure out the hit you can have now and what hit you expect to have with some tier. I'm still trying to figure this out, myself. So, hopefully what I've said helps at least a little. :p

Oh, yeah, sorry, forgot to mention that. While I'm at it, I'll cover arrows for raiding and stuff, since you asked about pre-raid BiS... For hardcore progression, you may impress your guild by keeping a stock of Doomshots from LBRS around. It should come in handy in places like AQ and Naxx. Miniature Cannon Balls from Strat UD are the bullet counterpart, but unless you have Larvae of the Great Worm and really crappy luck on getting Ashjre'thul, Crossbow of Smiting, they're kind of unimportant. Otherwise, Thorium-Headed Arrows or Thorium Shells is what I would ask hunters to keep for raids. I actually don't always use Thorium-Headed, like in Blackwing Lair, I pull for suppression room. So, I use Jagged Arrows to nab hatchers with my rank 1 Arcane Shots to avoid wasting more valuable ammo... but that's kind of a niche position to be in. Ice-threaded arrows and their equivalent bullets from Alterac Valley can be conveniently bought from the vendor, but don't be a casual! Just mine or buy some thorium and dense stone and stock up on THAs. With the gold that drops from raid bosses, it ain't too hard to keep enough of 'em around. As for quiver, you can find a 16s, 15% RAS Harpy Hide Quiver through Alterac Valley. from either the Stormpike or Frostwolf Supply Officers. Leveling up, you can find quivers from leatherworkers or from certain vendors in cities. The level 30 Heavy Quiver, 14s and 12% RAS, can be found off a vendor in Undercity or Ironforge and I'd certainly recommend it at 30. Quickdraw Quiver is another good one at level 40, and that's a leatherworker's job. Once you get the Ancient Petrified Leaf from Molten Core, you can get an 18s 15% RAS quiver by turning in blue dragon sinew to the Ancient who gives you the bow.