I scoff at Intelligence. I scoff at stamina. Neither has any bearing in my decision to take one piece of gear over another.
So I’ve been reworking my gear-weighting system that I use to quickly evaluate what gear to take. I know there are other systems out there, like HAEP — but I disagree with some of the assumptions in that system, plus it just isn’t simple enough. You shouldn’t have to consult a chart before deciding if a piece of gear is an upgrade. When I want exact answers I have the Elitist Jerks hunter spreadsheet to consult.
So, the point isn’t my system, the point is that I completely ignore Int and Stam when making gear decisions. You see, I’m a dps whore. I want to do as much damage as possible. That is pretty much the sole purpose for my being in a raid, so that’s what I itemize for.
Obviously stam doesn’t increase my dps (except in that it keeps me alive) and if you have good gear, you’ll have enough health without ever choosing one piece over another for stam reasons. (PVP is different, of course.)
While many hunters can get on board with the stam thing, they have problems with completely ignoring Int. After all, it is simple fact that more mana on long boss fights means you will do more dps overall, even if you’re doing less dps in the short run. I do not disagree.
But, there’s a but.
Hunters do great damage, but our damage is very steady. We don’t burst well. Many boss fights, particularly when they’re progression fights, require the raid to burst dps at certain phases (such as the tank just died at 3% phase). Higher dps at the expense of longevity lets me burst better.
Plus, I’ve no problems with guzzling mana pots on boss fights. After all, as a member of the WHU I have to pay my dues. And shame on me if I was deliberately doing less damage to avoid buying stacks of consumables for every raid.
So that’s why I ignore int and stam. Overall, it’s paid off well for me. I’m not the top dpsing hunter in my guild, but in the quiet between my tears I tell myself that’s just a gear difference. I am, however, regularly wrastling with one other hunter for number two dps on any given raid. I use this to justify my theorycrafting.
Then I assume you didn’t take 3/3 Careful Aim, and are not getting 1 RAP for each Int … oh the shame.
Yeah, 3/3 Careful Aim is teh pqwn!
You are aware that you can only drink 1 potion per combat now, right? That include ANY potion. So if you pop a haste potion (just an example, no idea if these are worth a damn for hunters) no mana pot for you until the fight ends. Or does FD break this rule and start your cooldown timer?
I’m aware of the new potion rule – I’m guessing that the FD trick will not work. Blizz really cracked down on feign/drinking in BC so I’m guessing that it will be even more so in wrath.
On the other hand, for BM hunters, one mana pot is usually enough to dps straight through a normal boss fight (assuming you have some kind of shadow priest or other mana battery — which there are a *lot* of now).
Oh yeah, and no room for careful aim in my current leveling build, but it’s definitely something I’d look at for a raiding build. Just a matter of determining whether 33% of int as AP is better than +1% damage.