Shortly after logging in today I hit up the random heroic with a Wyrmfoe guildmate to get my 2 Emblems of Frost. But these weren’t any 2 emblems — they were the two that brought me up to 95 emblems and allowed me to get my Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter’s Headpiece… and the 2-piece bonus that comes with it!
I promptly set up my Power Auras to let me know when it procs (the ability is called Exploit Weakness, by the way) and played around on the target dummies for far too long. Words cannot express my glee the first time the proc went up and I reapplied my Serpent Sting as soon as I hit the Steady Shot portion of my cycle. Thereafter Chimera Shot refreshed the 15% boost to serpent sting like some kind of convoluted theoretical physics concept — it just kept going… forever.
I brought my shiny new set bonus to ICC last night as well, and again I experienced the same delightful glee every time it procced. It was all I could do not to redundantly reapply serpent sting on every proc.
The only downside was at the end of Festergut: my 2-piece set procced at the same time as Death’s Verdict and my Needle-Encrusted Scorpion — and I promptly got nailed with the disorient and wasted most of the magical proc combo puking. Can you imagine how awesome all of then at once would have been? With Kill Shot?
For those interested, here is my 2-piece Power Aura string. It just puts some random symbol at the bottom of the screen and plays the loudest sound I could find 
gcd:bofalse; soundfile:stReadyCheck; owntex:bofalse; b:nu0.35686274509804; anim1:nu3; duration:nu0; g:nu0.30980392156863; thresholdinvert:bofalse; ignoremaj:botrue; opt2:nu0; speed:nu1; finish:nu1; icon:stInterface\Icons\Ability_Hunter_PiercingShots; size:nu0.93999999761581; torsion:nu1; multiids:st; stacksOperator:st=; realaura:nu1; sound:nu10; mine:bofalse; optunitn:bofalse; symetrie:nu0; begin:nu0; off:bofalse; texmode:nu1; x:nu0; customname:st; timerduration:nu0; target:bofalse; wowtex:bofalse; groupany:bofalse; customsound:st; combat:nu0; y:nu-230; randomcolor:bofalse; unitn:stOnly for raid/group.; bufftype:nu1; r:nu1; aurastextfont:nu1; party:bofalse; opt1:nu0; focus:bofalse; isenchant:bofalse; raid:bofalse; isdebufftype:bofalse; texture:nu24; anim2:nu0; buffname:stExploit Weakness; customtex:bofalse; stacks:nu0; threshold:nu50; exact:bofalse; alpha:nu0.75; aurastext:st; textaura:bofalse; isdebuff:bofalse; inverse:bofalse; ismounted:bofalse; targetfriend:bofalse; timer:bofalse; isinraid:bofalse; stance:nu10
My Festergut dps sadly plummeted without the feral druid to give me crits and bleed damage boosts.
Fun Geist pack tip: there are so many of them that you hit the aoe cap -- so if you disengage in and drop an explosive trap you can get a big aoe gain from having both aoes ticking at once. Just make sure you MD first.
Frost, Great website and an awesome place for anyone’s hunter resources. Question though, why do you reapply serpent sting on every proc? As Chimera reapplies this why waste a GCD? Did I miss something in the set bonus or did I just read your post wrong? I have the 2 set on my hunter (shoulders and chest) and also love the DPS boost from the proc.
Grats man, the reapplication with the proc takes the new dmg set of parameters so your serpent sting will take in the +15% dealing more dmg if you just refresh it, it will continue with the same dmg as when you put it up at the start (i.e. less the +15% from Exploit Weakness)
well thats to say if I’ve understood it correctly lol.
“Can you imagine how awesome all of then at once would have been? With Kill Shot?”
I could easily see a 100k+ crit Kill Shot (especially seeing that massive 67k one you dropped on Icehowl!!!). I know you don’t like to brag
, but you need to start taking vids of your fights to capture such an event!
I knew this was going to be great. I’ve got the shoulders and I’m about 1/3 to the gloves… can’t wait.
I’m slowly working my way to getting this gear and it looks great…but merciful gawd !! that Power Aura string looks like some strange alien language
Frost,
How about a full article on setting up power aura’s?
@Selissia:
The crit wouldnt be nowhere near that 67K crit on Icehowl. That crit must have happened during him being dazed and that is the time he takes 200% damage. Im not saying 34K is not awesome (what procs were on? Death’s Verdict + Greatness (or Mjolnir Runestone/Needle-Encrusted Scorpion) + Culling the Herd + ???) but still you cant just do that high damage (with current gear) without some external damage modificators
@Tri:
It has been already posted here: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/09/frostheims-power-auras/
@Kay:
there has been an article about this before (http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/12/chimera-shot-secrets-for-mm-hunters/)
Basically, if you have some AP proc, you refresh your Serpent sting normal way with chimera and this AP buff will be preserved. While if you have some damage % proc, you want to refresh you Serpent by actually firing it and it WILL preserve the damage % buff when you refresh it next time with chimera. Isnt it cool?
So with the t8 and t9 2 piece bonuses both being good for us is it the t8 we replace first ? or did i fail something somewhere ?
@Zymry:
T8 2PC bonus is not as good to make up for for lost of stats compared to T9 equivalent gear so if you still wear it, feel free to replace it as fast as you are able to. However, try to keep the T9 2pc bonus as long as possible (if you are MM) – basically only replace it once you have T10 4pc set, otherwise you will most likely gain a net loss to your DPS
I…forgot about the Chimera Shot modifier. And I get mine tomorrow. Epic.
Gratz Frost! Can’t wait to get my tw pieces.
Off topic: Could you find time in your busy schedule to talk about Hunter (and Pet) use of Focus and Focus macros? I never use it and I think I’m doing myself a diservice. Thanks.
Prelious,
Read the Hunter Macros pages on this site under the guides tab. That should clear up your question as well as give you more to think about when it comes to macros. XD
The Scorpion dropped for me for the first time in 9 runs last night, and was ‘needed’ and ninja-ed by the tank. I actually said “really?” when he clicked need – the response was “LOL – OOPS” and then he promptly left group.
Ok, enough of the proverbial QQ.
GRATS Frost…and your Power Aura’s Fu is great!
Different note – has anyone made/worn any of the Ashen Verdict Mail patterns yet?
I have the 2 peice t10 bonus as well.. hands and shoulders..
I <3 it.
Matt "code"
The Kill Shots are way more hilarious on Valks when all procs are up – I had a 96k crit this past Monday.
@Zymry
Quote: T8 2PC bonus is not as good to make up for for lost of stats compared to T9 equivalent gear
That’s not what the DPS analyzer is telling me. IT probably depends on your gear composition. My t8 2pc is worth 265 dps with 1200 crit rating, which is greater than the stat differential dps between 2pc t8 and the offset 264 mail gear.
Kill Shots during beasts or the Val’kyr are definately some of the most fun and jaw dropping moments I’ve had in WoW. As late as tonight I went from having 90% tank threat to 170% during the stun on Icehowl in ToC. Those Piercing Shots afterwards are also quite amazing to look at.
Congrats Frost can’t wait to get mine , glad it really made a difference for you and hopefully it will keep us hunters on top of the DPS charts.
What do u have frost the head and the…?
“Head and Shoulders” Obviously really hairy dwarves suffer heavily from dandruff issues!
@Zaor:
I guess you must be talking about T9 2pc bonus (serpent can crit), not T8 2pc bonus (Serpent does 10% additional damage) – in this case you are absolutely right and it is in line with what I said (“try to keep the T9 2pc bonus as long as possible (if you are MM)”). If you really meant T8 2pc than it would mean that your serpent + serpent portion of chimera is making up over close to 2500 DPS and that is obviuosly impossible with any available gear, let alone with T8 gear.
The only issue wioth teh T10 gear, is that the gear itself is only so-so.
OK, I’m oversimplifying here, but I just as most hunters started teh ICC out with a mixture of T9 Conquest gear, T9 Triumph gear and some non-tier gear either dropped or bought. The thing is, if we forget the T10 2pc bonus, the stats itself of the T10 are an upgrade to T9 Conquest gear, but a downgrade to some T9 Triumph gear and only a so-so upgrade to the non-tier gear .
Also the T10 peaces are awfull expensive.
So what to replace? Replacing all my T9 Conquest gear would give a nice stat upgrade, but I’d loose my T9 2pc bonus. Replacing some of the non-tear geasr would have meant I get hardly any upgrade for the first T10 peace.
Also because hit is spread differentt on T10 that it was on T9, I need to take that into account too.
Overall, depending on your gear, the T10 by itself may not be such a good upgrade relativly seen.
For me it wasn’t, and there are alternatives. I decided to go first for the cloak and waist. Not as cool/sexy as the T10 2pc, but they were a better upgrade path, overall cheaper, but also a better upgrade overall by a pretty large marging.
Frost…. Do you use ur Pyro glove enchant in your rotation?
Um…. the 2-piece tier 10 set bonus is massive and incredible. I cannot imagine anyone who would not get a BIG upgrade by going to t10 2-piece. You can still keep your tier 9 2-piece after all.
The issue is if you are in a very casual raid team that are not upto scratch. If all goes well I can pick up 21 Frost emblems a week. 6 weeks for hands and shoulders (forcing me to downgrade my helm to keep the 2-piece T9) and pushing me way over the hit cap.
Or you can buy the back in less than 3 weeks and get a massive upgrade. Its hard to ignore the massive instant dps upgrade of that cloak… However I found that if going for the 2 piece will produce a bigger (much bigger) dps increase than getting the cloak first and than a piece of T10.
The belt…Marrowgar has mine reserved!
Hi,
I have been testing the 2 pc t10 bonus for a while now. I was a bit skeptical if this worked and so i decided to go and test it for myself.
I unequipped all my gear except for the following peices – t10 shoulders+t10 gloves along with zod’s repeating bow and epic ammo. I started testing on a lvl 60 target dummy in darnassus (lvl 60 since i was pretty low on hit almost naked).
Serpent Sting applied without proc and chimera shot on every cooldown – dmg from chimera (serpent sting part) was a constant 526 with crit dmg of 1210. After a pretty long while the 2 set bonus procs and i manually reapply serpent sting and chimera. chimera serpent hits for 609 which figures. 2 set bonus drops and to my surprise the next chimera serpent hits for the old 526. Needless to say i was pretty disappointed. Could anyone confirm with a bit more testing?
Oh and i forgot to mention that i was in aspect of the viper for the above numbers. I tested it out again in aspect of the dragonhawk with the same conclusion.
I misunderstood what you were saying and just did a slew of target dummy tests to prove the wrong thing
It does not preserve your chimera shot damage increase — instead it preserves the extra damage that your serpent sting *ticks* do. So if you reapply serpent sting while the 15% damage is active, you can keep that extra 15% damage to your serpent sting tick up forever as long as you keep it refreshed with Chimera Shot.
@ DeepFriendEgg
Yeah, we were saying the same thing, I misread that one.
Frost, well it is not that hard to imagine anyone who would not get a BIG upgrade by going to t10 2-piece. Just put it in the spreadsheet or do common sense by calculating average uptime. This is a theoretical EAP calculation. (Now of course we all know the spreadsheets are not law but it is a good indication. Real raid canot be controlled and your proc may go to waste or may actually be excelent in use.) It shows that even though the upgrade is big, it is not a complete different league.
My point was therefore not that it is not an upgrade, just that other upgrades can give you the same type of dps upgrade depending on starting gear.
This is because:
1) You can not always still keep your tier 9 2-piece without a price. It depends on your starting gear. In my case, I needed to upgrade my best items first to T10 in order to keep my T9 bonus. This would have reduced the T10 2pc gain because that some of that gear was statswise (so without the bonus) almost as good or statewise even better than T10 emblems items.
2) Your first T10 upgrade won’t help your dps that much compared to some of the T9/non-tier gears. So that is 60/95 batches for depending on replacement almost no dps upgrade. Of course you plan for long term, but then there are other options which cost the same: 60+95 batches is huge. So you also need to take into account dps per batch. For 60+95 I can almost also get 50+60+60 giving me perhaps a bigger upgrade. (And in my case it does).
My overall point was certainly not that T10 2pc is not good, as it is clearly very, very good. Just that you shouldn’t blindly disregard al other options as they good be just as good.
I see many hunters on my server just skipping the T10 at all. Spending emblems at other items and getting ICC drops is for them a better upgrade, so I’m definitly not the only one noticing this.
In the end I for sure will get the T10 2pc as well, but for me the priority is first the other stuff
I have you gear question that i would like to get your opinion on. I am in a 10man strict guild and i was wondering if buying the ilvl 264 gear from frost emblems would be better that getting my ilvl 251 tier gear? The stats only are way better and the cost is about the same. I have no way of testing this, and i dont like using spreadsheets as a definitive answer to all my questions.
Instead of Power Auras, is there some sort of simpler addon that uses less memory in order to notify when Exploit Weakness proc is up?
@ Armin: Don’t forget that you need the “basic” T10 set pieces in order to upgrade them to T10.5 or T10.9(?) later.
@Saf: yes, try out one called: Tellmewhen which is a little more lowtech, but does a great job for simple notification of procs and timers. I think you can find it on Curse.
Question, as I’ve tried to search this on the forum and Elitist Jerks and found nothing:
Here is my dilemma.
I have three t10 pieces (helm, gloves, chest). I am currently wearing 264 Leggings of Northern Lights. I already have the matching legs to complete the 4 piece t10 set for the bonus: serpent sting 5% chance to give 20% attack power for 5 seconds. The issue is that my t10 set bonus legs are 251, not 264.
So that’s my question. Is it worth downgrading my 264 legs to the 251 legs just for the set bonus? Is the set bonus even worth it at all? I also heard, but couldn’t confirm, that the legs are the weakest part of the set.
I have the badges to buy the shoulders instead, but it’s the same issue. My shoulders (Pauldrons of Lost Hope) are currently 264, so I would still be downgrading them to 251.
Any suggestions on this would be great. And if anyone knows a place where this has been discussed in detail, please link me, because I couldn’t find anything in my Google searches. Thank you.