Here is the updated shot rotation for MM hunters in Cataclysm beta. I’ve included a bit more detail about the rotation and what your priority is and why, etc. Obviously in most PVE fights you’d also want to macro silencing shot into your other shots.
I’m planning to get to both SV and BM rotations this weekend, so please don’t yell at me about doing MM again : )
I wonder if focus is going to be the thing that kills the hunter class for a few players.
How different a mechanic is focus? Is it different enough to scare players away from the class? Or even different enough to make certain players roll a hunter?
Just something I’ve been wondering for a while
AAAARRRRGGGHHH! FROST HATES ALL SPECS BUT MM! WHY U NO DO BM FIRST RARRRRGG! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. All caps imbecillic rant aside (my sincere apologies if it breaks some comment rule, it’s just a joke) It actually looks pretty sharp overall, I like the idea of a more dynamic shot priority for MM. The only thing i’m concerned with: how tenable is it in an actual fight? I play SV on movement heavy fights right now and it can feel alot like trying to type one-handed while piloting your character with the mouse. Do you feel like you could watch all that, stay out of the fire, and watch out for timed boss effects/phase changes? And MD adds, trap, and all the other stuff that puts us above the -lesser- classes? Along that thought line, could i beg a AotF video sometime in the mix? Am i too needy yet?
much obliged for the peek in side the beta, and the time you sunk into re-downloading the entire patch.
I have a feeling that we will loose alot of hunters in Cataclysm. Now, people roll them because we rock (ovbiously) and because they think it is easy.
)
With this new rotation, and the thing that we need to kinda “work” more to be as good as we are, i really think alot of people will go.
(hopefully the huntards ofc
Bah…being a hunter is not hard…being a good one is. The whole concept of moving us to focus lines us up with our class much better but these rotations will surely change to optimize that shifting talent builds as they are today versus when they become fully baked for live play. I am curious about something…I did not see you utilize a pet on the dummy or even have one out and parked. Part of the hunter-pet dynamic I had sort of envisioned was that not only does pet focus regen come from the hunter but vice-versa as well. (Something like when your pet crits then the hunter gains “x” focus regen).
I have not really paid attention to the talents yet (because they seemingly are still not done making changes) so maybe that sort of attribute is, in fact, in the design currently. While it may not alter our rotation per se I am curious as to what extent “pet procs” might affect the rotation if at all (keeping in mind this test was in MM spec).
Would be fun to see a recoun with dps to compare to the dps we do now
May i ask why you open the fight on a serpent/venom option?
I cant see any reason to use venom as a fixed starter. Seems more like an utility option if you know you’ll need the heal trough chimera or to counter the mobs healing. Or has their damage been implemented that its worth using now – in which case the question is why you dont refresh it every 30sec?
On the same note, why dont you open on aimed? Seems highly likely we’ll open each fight on aimed, especially with that insane 80+% crit thanks to that talent and the camo damage bonus. I know you dont have camo yet, but still seems a no-brainer that we will open on that.
As far as i know, with venoms not dealing damage, shouldnt the opening rotation be along the lines of aimed-serpent/silence-steady-steady?
You want to use scorpid venom because that is the major armor debuff, which lowers the opponent’s armor by 12%. You theoretically *could* open with aimed if you time it well and your tank really needs the opening threat. The problem with aimed is auto-shot does not fire during the long cast time, and after it fires it *resets* the auto-shot timer — so you lose a lot of auto-shots by casting aimed shot.
If your tank is counting down when he will charge, using aimed is okay — but if your tank just runs in, you want to start doing damage at once, and aimed is probably a poor choice then.
In that case, with it being used for debuff, shouldnt you also put the venom in the rotation every 30 sec or so for upkeep?
As far as aimed, the tank running in and grabbing initial agro takes by rule of thumb 2-3 GCD’s once he’s attacking. Might be more now with cata making tanking harder again. Doesnt that give more then enough time to get away with aimed every time? Even if something goes wrong (target=tanktarget and he switches during cast) you always got MD and FD which dont cost focus anyway.
Scorpid Venom is refreshed by steady/cobra shot, so once you put it up its up forever
Aye, as Hawkeye says, steady or cobra shot will refresh scorpid venom’s duration indefinitely.
Ultimately from the way it looks right now, using the cast version of aimed shot is a dps loss. If it was advantageous we’d use it in the rotation as well : ) Again, if you’re tank is counting his charge and you can pre-cast it with MD and without it landing early, then that could be worthwhile in some circumstances when you really need that snap threat — but then you’ll have a gap in applying your dot and debuff as you recharge your mana, as well as the auto-shot gap.
The improved Steady Shot haste buff mechanic is kinda odd.
We’d be practiaclly forced to use some kind of addon wich automaticly cancels the buff when we are firing the second Steady Shot.
You’d actually have to cancel the buff before casting your *first* of the two steady shots. If the buff is up when the first one fires, it doesn’t count as one of the two. There is no way to avoid a bit of downtime.
As an interesting aside, it also only counts if your steady shot hits — if one misses, that doesn’t count as a shot fired.
Has it been confirmed that Improved Steady Shot is working as intended? I hope not; it just seems broken to me. Maybe it’s not so bad on a stationary fight, but if you have to move I’m worried it’ll feel more like fighting against your own rotation rather than fighting the boss.
Once again Frost, I gotta thank you for making things a little easier for me. I’m in beta too, but the majority of my time is learning how to set up the interface for my situation. No real problems yet, other than the Hyjal quest chain of Wave1/2, but I’ve found a solution to that and let Blizzard know. Your vid is a great help.
“but then you’ll have a gap in applying your dot and debuff as you recharge your mana, as well as the auto-shot gap.”
old habbits are hard to break eh?
Hmmm and where is rapid fire in that rotation and readlines ?
Cooldowns are something different from your rotation. When to use them depends on the fight.
Genor, thats completely changed now. They no longer just affect dps as a plain cooldown that you want to maximize in terms of uptime. Your focus generation is also affected by it trough talents, which means you might want to save it for other moments. Take something like using rapid fire on movement, to use the 6 focus/3sec regeneration to counter steady shot losses.
Even if you do just use it for dps, you will likely still change the rotation due to the extra focus you get which means you’ll likely use it a few GCD’s after the start (you dont want to waste the regen on a capped 100 focus).
but isnt it the same now ?
i dont pop rapid fire imedietly at the begining of the fight, its just perfect after first chimera and aimed shot just before i start to steady. besides early poping rapid can guarantee an extra one later in the fight.
besides in 99% of encounters hunters have those 30 sec free before the “moving” part of encounter occures. this is the time when we dump our strongest cds. its gonna be like that in cata,
after applying scorpid and serpent shouldnt we shoot chimera and go for readlines (that will generate extra focus) hit another chimera then go for steady or if the focus regen is good enough spam arcane ? or just ater 2nd chimera shoot 2 steady then spam arcane ? that would make insane focus regen ! becaue in meanwhile we would pop 2nd rapid ! probably just before the chimera is off the cd (it would be good to be at 0 focus at this point, so when we get 2nd rapid we shoot chimera just after) then steady ?
are we still going to want to refresh serpent sting as we get AP improving procs (trinkets, set bonuses) for highest possible damage out?
I wasn’t sure where exactly to post this, but now that Chimera is changed….are you planning on posting new videos of the new (VERY BORING) Chimera shot? No venoms, no different affects, how boring….I think this kinda ruined MM in my opinion. Thoughts?