So I eagerly logged on last night to start measuring the effects of patch 3.0.8. True to it’s name, the Icedown server was crashing left and right — specifically the northrend server.
However, I did manage to escape to Ironforge and do a bit of testing on the boss target dummy.
Before the patch I was doing about 2,000 dps against the boss target dummy, self buffed, using no cooldowns.
Last night I was doing around 1700 dps. So around a 15% reduction, which wasn’t as bad as I feared.
But there’s hope!
Then I played around with arcane shot a bit — it’s now the same mana cost as Steady Shot, and with the Steady Shot nerf, Arcane now does a LOT more damage than Steady Shot. I mean a lot. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get an accurate measure because by then swarms of other people were attacking the target dummy and applying armor reducing effects, which would mess with my measurements.
But the point is that we BM is going to be able to get some of our nerfed damage back by introducing Arance Shot into the BM shot cycle.
I hope to be able to get on to do some serious science tonight. I plan to retest BM with Arcane Shot in the cycle, then respec to MM, then try a couple of different survival builds. However, before I can do all that I have to get a level 80 cat or wolf… I have found myself with almost all exotic pets, alas.
I have used Arcane shot in my BM rotation for awhile now. I was at 2200dps pre-patch and 1850dps after using the same spec and macro with Arcane in it.
I went Survival to test out the changes with explosive shot, I like it. Solid dps at 1800, with the pet I am at 2000.
I am readiness spec’d and of course that is going to cut down on the DPS with the nerf on rediness not reseting BW… i still on avg only lost around 300-450 DPS (pet dps included) so not bad but enough to knock me down from my top 3 spot… i was on avg doing around 2500+ DPS in 5mans now up and down from 2.1k – 2.3k so i suppose i need to just respec out of rediness and go for some more DPS talent points
Survival build works, I was number 1 in DPS for 2 raids, with around 3k in a 25-man and 2,3k in a 10-man. I have this build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxbZ0eVZe00i0cIhxuAhcz
I still spam steady shot, keep Serpent Sting up if there are cooldowns. Explosive shot and Multi-Shot when CD is ready. Survival pwns.
thanks im at work so i can’t see the actual spec yet (damn government computers… but i will look into this and respec once i get home… hope it works but i am going to miss the hell out of BW… o btw what pet do you have?
I have a wolf at the moment, pretty good DPS and the AP boost.
Hey, i was interested into the SV build also. But i figure it won’t be good till im better geared. (Still mostly blues)
On a side note, what is your explosive shot hitting, and ticking. And what is your character name/server?
*Directed at Dan, but anyone else SV spec can awnser plz.
Thanks,
Mytho.
Dan,
What kinda DPS do you do in 5 Man Heroics?
i used to rock out at like 2.2k now its like 1.7k-1.8k but i think its due to not getting the rotation right.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Smolderthorn&n=Bolg
Ran some Naxx last night as survival, I was dual boxing my healer as main, hunter on follow with /assist tank, and was doing 2200dps raid buffed!
I made this macro, you’ll have to adjust the reset based on your sting, and move the “Explosive Shot’s” around based on your attack speed.
/castsequence reset=target/21 serpent sting, Explosive Shot, steady shot, steady shot, Explosive Shot, steady shot, steady shot, steady shot, Explosive Shot, steady shot, steady shot, steady shot
I found this macro on the internets and it seems to work pretty decently. It even checks to keep up Hunters Mark which is really nice for longer fights and it gets in killshot pretty much as much as possible.
#showtooltip Auto Shot
/cast Kill Shot
/castsequence reset=shift/target Hunter’s Mark, null
/castsequence reset=target/3/alt Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot
Against the Dummy i was around 3000dps compared to 2700dps with my old SS macro and manually putting in Serpent sting. What’s great about it is that it’s especially good for moving fights since it cuts down on staring at buffs/debuffs.
My hunter’s name is Kalendaria from Uther, and yes, my pants suck. The spec rocks though, and I’m staying BM, don’t care what blizzard tries to do.
Figured I’d weigh in on my experiences with staying BM post-patch.
Before the patch, I was doing about 2200 DPS in 5-mans, dropping to ~1850 DPS in anything heroic. Post-patch (also picking up the Giantmain Legs / Bracers) I was about 1900 DPS in a heroic 5 man, still about 1700-1800 DPS in Naxx 10man.
I’m not whooping the DPS charts like I used to, but still lead a 5man, was 4th in Naxx. (1-3 all have better gear than I do, but a far cry.).
I’m going to stick it out as BM for now. I haven’t heard anyone in the raid / group wonder why I’m still BM, or complain my DPS was low, so until I hear that…BM FOR LIFE!
Kale What pet are you using i can’t check on your spec yet to see if you are with one of those exotic pets or not… i have a demon raptor from blades edge and i am religious behind her DPS she is part of the family and my core group won’t allow me to change nor do i want to lol…
also on another note is there anyone that has went from BM to Surv and actually boosted DPS compared to Pre Patch Hunter DPS? anyone else agree after each patch we should have oppurtunity to respec twice for free incase we don’t like the new spec…. just sayin.
I’m using Dino, my idiot of a t-rex. He’s stupid in many fights and tanks complain about him often enough…but he hits like a truck and he never gets mad at me, so i keep him around. I guess it’s a love/hate relationship
Do I did a fair bit of testing with several survival builds, shot rotations, tried MM, tried BM…
I was able to get to about 2100 on the boss dummy with a survival spec, around 1900 with my pre-patch BM spec, and around 1950 with a marksman spec. But, when I went into a heroic, I found that it was pretty difficult to keep my dps up. The survival shot rotation is not terribly complicated, but I don’t use macros and now I think I’m going to have to. Also, Sniper Training is very impractical except for boss fights, so you’re gonna suffer on the meter with trash pulls most likely. I’m still tweaking, but I think with practice, Survival is going to be my spec for now. What’s sad is that none of the specs are really very good anymore. Damn Blizzard.
I play a Survival Hunter (I joined the bandwagon) and I find it’s quite a nice change from mashing Steady Shot the entire time. I only mash it to fill in the gaps now. From 3.8k AP I went to 4.2AP and 22% crit went to 28%ish crit. My rotation is something like this:
1) Serpent sting, 2) Explosive Shot 3) Steady shot x3, 4) Go back to 2)
If Lock’n'Load procs I use Explosive Shot, wait .5 seconds (till the debuff on mob goes away) then re-shoot it.
I know I’m not maximizing my dps while Lock’n'Load is active but I’m kinda lazy to time an aimed/multi shot in too.
Though I have noticed several interesting/odd things about explosive shot.
1) If you shoot explosive shot while Aspect of the Viper is up, you regain mana EACH tick of explosive shot.
2) If Lock’n'Load procs while ES is on CD you have to wait for CD to finish before being able to shoot your free ES’s.
Oh and depending on the fight my DPS ranges from 1.8k to 3.5k. Explosive shot also has high threat pulling potential so make sure your tank can pull it off you when you agro.
I was against spec’ing Marksman for a long time and loved BM. I have noticed tho, that since the patch I’ve done a lot better with survival than all the builds. Survival is pretty fun and at the same time, if your pet dies you don’t lose too much dps as you would with BM. I was doing 2.7k dps with BM. Now since BM isn’t the high DPS build anymore it doesn’t seem logical to switch back to or stay with it. I did 2.9k+ last night on 25 Vault with my opening being a little null since I accidentally had aspect of viper up for about 30 seconds. While the better geared hunter in my guild that is marksman did 2.7k dps. The buff to explosive shot and the utility that the survival tree (Mana regen w crits 40% of cost back to you, and the regen talent to the raid) is very useful and I find it hard to run out of mana even without using aspect of the viper. I don’t see why people are spec’ing W-sting? Do you use it against any of the bosses? I’m primarily focused on PVE instancing and raids. Idealarrow is my SN. Orc hunter, I hate to say it but I actually like the new patch and what it brings to the table, the survival tree is really fun to play and I still keep up a very good amount of dps. I don’t use any other macros accept killshot/killcommand with my steady shot button. Survival is situational on the dps, but it’s not as mindless as Trinket/BW steadyshot spam and any event can bring about situational dps being low or high.
Interesting…Arcane shot no longer shares the same CD as Chimera Shot…that is going to be a huge help for the MM shot rotation… let me do some playing around with my spec as MM and try out some new rotations and Ill get back to you all with my findings =)