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| Reviewed 12/30/09 Patch 3.3 OUTDATED |
Warning: This is an outdated Wrath guide. For current information, see the level 85 Cataclysm version of the guide Here.
I was recently reminded that I don’t have a guide on hunter raiding consumables, even though it’s been on my to-do list forever. Somehow I had trained my eyes to skip over that line.
Consumables are another way that the raiding hunter can squeeze out just a bit more dps on progression raids. As a dps class, we are of course interested in doing the most dps we can, and the advantage gained from hunter consumables is generally greater than upgrading a few pieces of gear to the next tier – in other words, don’t dismiss it unless you’re also prepared to dismiss gear upgrades.
In general, every hunter should have the following consumables at every progression raid:
- Ammunition: Shatter Rounds or Iceblade Arrows. Do not skimp here, the difference between epic ammo and the next best thing is massive.
- Flask: Flask of Endless Rage. Some hunters prefer to combine the Elixir of Mighty Agility and the Elixir of Mighty Thoughts. This is technically a bit better, and feel free, but they do not last through death so quickly grow very expensive on progression nights. The flask is perfectly acceptable and is the hunter standard.
- Hunter Food: Blackened Dragonfin if you’re a SV or MM hunter. If you’re BM you’ll prefer Mega Mammoth Meal or the Fish Feast. Sorry MM and SV, fish feasts are not for you and you’re slacking if you use them instead of the dragonfin.
- Pet Food: You’ll need Spiced Mammoth Treats for your pet.
- Scrolls: You only need scrolls if you don’t have a shaman or a death knight in your group. But if you don’t, you should have Scroll of Agility VIII for yourself and Scroll of Strength VIII for your pet.
Replacing Class Buffs
While this doesn’t necessarily fall under the hunter’s responsibility to do this, there are a few class buffs that can be replicated even if the class isn’t there (generally in 10-mans), and it’s something that you definitely want at your raid if you don’t have that class:
- Runescroll of Fortitude if you don’t have a priest in your raid.
- Drums of the Wild if you don’t have a druid.
- Drums of Forgotten Kings if you don’t have enough pallies to get all the pally buffs you need.
Again, it’s not necessarily the hunter’s job to bring these; however, if you want to maximize your dps you want to be sure that you have every available buff.
As an alternative for BM hunters, Poached Northern Sculpin provides the same buffs as the Mega Mammoth Meal, and requires only one musselback sculpin instead of two chunks o’ mammoth.
so, you can use two elixirs simultaneously (agilitiy and mighty thoughts) also, you can use a scroll of agi if you have an elixir up already? I recall being prevented from doing this.
Thanks for posting this, it made me re-think my food choices. Pet food of course, but for my SV hunter I was picking the +40 Crit food (Spiced Wyrmburgers or the fish equivalent I believe) out of habit. Of course, my crit is now up to the mid 40s unbuffed, so its probably unnecessary to keep stacking it.
I’d also forgotten about the LW drums until just recently as well, but I find they are also useful for PUGs. I’m picking up the mats just by skinning mobs during the heroics anyways, and every little boost helps if one or more of the party members is under geared or new.
Wow, I can just hear the clinking of gold coins. :-/
Thanks for the post. Really good information.
Hey Frost just curious, what is the actual dps difference between the fish feast and dragon fin foods for mm and sv. I’m not asking because I want to be slack, I just would like to know the exact numbers. I usually take the feast unless its progression or fights we struggle on, but I would like to know how much dps I am loosing. I am like you and wear “goggles” but sometimes I get a little lazy haha.
This post just drives home that thought I keep burying in the back of my mind. Quit procrastinating and go Fishing!
I used to hate LW, but have grown to love it since the drums were introduced. I mostly run 10M content, so they come in handy frequently. Especially Kings, since it’s often beneficial even when there’s 1-2 pallys depending on the fight and situation.
Heh I still use the old drums. Drums of speed helps if you know people fail at hm beasts or hm anub and you are in their group. Drums of fear (can’t remember exact name) I use on faction champs if a melee focuses me.
Don’t forget Hearty Rhino for 40 ArP too, if that’s your thing.
you forgot potions in the consummable part as wild magic for us
and using it just before the pull to have 2 pot in the fight 
Frost, I’ve looked at the spreadsheets and I’ve done some “real world” testing, the new ammo isn’t as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. New ammo isn’t as beneficial as a new piece of gear, especially a new trinket. The spreadsheet’s only show a 60-70 or so dps increase and during my guilds failed attempts at Deathwhisper 25 man, the ammo won’t make or break your dps.
I swear Frost you have to love all of the “your math is bad” posts, I bet you get the biggest smile ever when you read them haha.
To Maltak : I respectfully disagree. It may be that with your gear and spec the new ammo does not make a lot of difference, but to me it’s just over 100dps. Other than getting a new epic gun, I can’t think of anything that gives me 100dps.
Dragonfin is definitely the way to go for SV and MM. Remember too, that in patch 3.2 they lowered the reagent cost to make (it takes one fish not two), so you don’t have to spend that much time fishing to get a stack or two.
Also, potion of speed, runic healing, and runic mana are other consumables that Hunters should consider having in their inventory.
Female Dwarf.com #s for my MM Toon.. your results may vary of course
Kings +189 dps
Improved Might +287 dps
Major Agility + Major Int pots +86 dps
Scroll of Agility 8 +28 dps
Blacken Fish +38 dps
Fish Feast +33 dps
Spiced Worm Burger +35dps
Giving your pet
Kings +11 dps
Improved Might +95dps
Spiced Mammoth Treats +8dps
Strength 8 scroll +8dps
Best Raid Buffs Enabled : +2156 dps
Oh.. missed one
Flask of Endless Rage – +76dps
If there is no mage in the raid, Scroll of Intellect 8 adds a little extra dps and mana pool.
“fish feasts are not for you and you’re slacking if you use them instead of the dragonfin”
I beg to differ with the statement here and simply would say that if you don’t have your gear fully gemmed or enchanted or don’t pot/elixir/flask up, you’re slacking. If you have both dragonfin and feasts in your bag and you drop a feast for your 25 man raid, you’re being economical, not slacking. If people choose to buff better on their own, it’s their choice.
If it were the case, you should say that using the flask of endless rage instead of major agility and thoughts is slacking.
Frost is all about getting every last fraction of a dps out of everything. His version of slacking is not doing absolutely everything you can to maximize your dps. The Dragonfin is better than the fish feast. That being said, I slack off quite frequently. Not everyone has the time to farm and/or the gold to buy fish from AH.
a few of the top dps spreadsheets are listing hearty rhino ArP food as better than dragonfin
in the ArP mm ones on femaledwarf check the public ones
Armor pen food is only better in the right circumstances, and the majority of hunters are not in those circumstances.
You would need to have enough passive armor pen to make it worthwhile to drop arcane from your rotation (doesn’t really happen until around 450 passive armor pen or so), and then you’d need to be able to execute the armor pen rotation correctly (so many hunters hit the armor pen point and drop arcane and don’t understand why their dps goes way down – it requires a high level of movement skills.)
great post mate but i like to ask a noob question do this stack with other items what i mean to say will fish feast stack with blackened dragonfin to make 2 different buffs and will drum increas stats even if kings are gives by pallies thus giving 18 % increase
A buddy of mine reminded me about the old Dark Runes from Stratholme and Scholomance:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=20520
Not wildly useful, true. But they aren’t on the same cooldown as pots, and I’ve found uses for them on mana-intensive fights.
This wouldn’t fall under necessary consumables, but this seemed like the best place to mention them.
adohokanda – neither items stacks – you can have only one food buff, and only one Kings buff.
you forgot to add Potion of speed.
Also another good food would be [link=http://www.wowhead.com/?item=42995][/link] for ArP MM
Scourgebane Draught
Binds when picked up
Item Level 10
Use: Increases attack power by 30 against undead. Lasts 30 min.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22779
apparently its a repeatable horde quest and stacks with elixirs and flasks
what can i say blizz loves horde
Heya.
Now that we have the Love event goin on, you can get these Perfumes that increase 75+ Ap and they stack, and 75 ap is still nice lil boost.
The “tokens” you need to get in order to purchase these perfumes is quite easy to obtain all you need to do is get a friend of yours(or why not get a full raid there),go to ulduar and kill those lil iron dwarfs
Best way i found to farm them (if you went in with just one person) is one of you gets a bike and one on a Demo, the one on the bike collects alot of em,brings em to you “BOOM” lots and lots of things you turn into bracelets and which you can also sell to get some gold if you are low
Maybe you could make a post about World Event consumables that are usefull in raids, i know they only last during the event,but why not take the most of them aswell
I did a rough and ready EAP comparison and the Flask still looks better than the two Elixirs. I want all the dps edge I can get right now, so I’m willing to use those less-convenient Elixirs if I can see the technical edge.
How is the Agility+Int Elixir combo “Techically a bit better?” What talents, shot considerations, etc. should be used to get the most from it?
Curious, you mention that you should have a scroll if not Shaman or DK. Can you please be clear, is it a Shaman or DK in your group or in your raid? Also, what are the buffs that prevent / override the use of the scrolls? Thank you!
[url=http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=58643]Strength of Earth[/url] and [url=http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=57623]Horn of Winter[/url] provide strength and agility buffs, but don’t stack with scrolls.
What about potions?
speed potion or wild magic?!
anyone able to think of an Elixir of Mighty Thoughts replacement now we don’t have mana?