Huntard Discussion!

[Naramaska]

Appreciate the answer. Sorry for the noobery, but I'm still curious if anyone knows or has some number guidelines regarding at about what percent will crit begin to put out diminishing returns (especially with regard to SV, with talents pushing the crit on SV hunters up to some pretty high percentages).

Or is +crit a bonus you want to stack more and more of (like haste was in FFXI)?

More, more, more, and more. There aren't really any "increasing returns" stats in WoW aside from armor penetration, but that's itemized so poorly that stacking it cripples your other stats so much that your damage becomes a joke.


Generally speaking, with purples, focus on ones that itemize AP/crit/hit. Once you're hit capped, focus on AP/crit/haste. With a few notable exceptions (Grotesque Handgrips, I'm looking at you), all the mail armor is pretty well itemized already and anything that's from a higher "level" of content (IE: heroic purples -> naxx10 purples) should be an upgrade regardless.

[SamanosukeShiva]

for lvling which spec is best? right now i got BM and it works well sadly cant really take multiple mobs at once. wondering if other spec will give me better result

[Norellicus]

BM is your efficient leveling spec. Once you get to your mid 30s you can tame a gorilla and should have no problem burning down multiple mobs at once.

[sb]

I miss BM. As SV (or MM), my pet can't hold hate for shit compared to BM. Have to burn things down before it gets to me or kite it. BM is EZmode, but that's best for leveling. However I would spent the first 10-15 talent points in MM, then respec to BM once you have enough talent points to make it worthwhile.

p.s. For AoE mode, get a gorilla (as nor said) in STV when you are high enough and talent it to tank.

[fantasticdan]

Trying to AoE grind as hunter sucks honestly. I tried it several times in the 50-65 range and it never worked very well. I was the perfect BM spec for it, gorilla was leveled up and had the latest skills, but it still couldn't hold hate for shit unless BW was up. I'd usually pull threat again even after FDing. It was just overall very messy and inefficient, and certainly slower overall than just plinking mobs off in a couple shots with a ferocity pet. AoE leveling also puts you in a constant bad position for lolworldpvp.

I don't know how you can't handle multiple mobs at once thou as BM thou. You can trap one, and your pet should be able to tank at least 2-3 without much problem.

[Kamiboi]

The latest from the official site:

Looks like they will be adding the 15% haste to Auto Shot :/

Saw it on EJ with this link: World of Warcraft (en) Forums -> [Updated] 3.1.0 PTR Patch Notes

[Noobta]

Looks like they will be adding the 15% haste to Auto Shot :/

Saw it on EJ with this link: World of Warcraft (en) Forums -> [Updated] 3.1.0 PTR Patch Notes

There's nothing wrong with that. GC said that's just to get rid of quivers and that Steady shot will still get the 15% haste.

[SamanosukeShiva]

tested my BM spec dps on lv60 dummy, me lv63, pet trex lv62

750 dps normal, 850 dps with bestial wrath. dunno how that stack up against other dps @ my lvl

[Kamiboi]

There's nothing wrong with that. GC said that's just to get rid of quivers and that Steady shot will still get the 15% haste.

I tried searching for that on blue tracker, and I can't find it :/ Do you mind giving me the link please?
Edit: SamanosukeShiva, is the pet AP scaling with your hunter still bugged?

[Noobta]

I tried searching for that on blue tracker, and I can't find it :/ Do you mind giving me the link please?
Edit: SamanosukeShiva, is the pet AP scaling with your hunter still bugged?

MMO-Champion BlueTracker - 3.1 Hunter Patch Notes Confusion

[Naramaska]

For all the people debating best pets:

BM? Devilsaur.

Non-BM? Wasp if you have no bears in your raid, otherwise cat/raptor.


Wasp's minor armor debuff puts it way ahead of cat/raptor if you don't have a feral providing it--you should see an overall personal DPS buff of 150-300 DPS and a decent increase in RDPS if you've got a large number of physical DD's.

[fantasticdan]

Moth is on par cat/raptor as well, with a tiny bit of added survivability.

[Tomino]

Just started an Hunter, so there are just a few things I'd like to learn:

- best/suggested craft to improve the class?
- could someone please link me the standard BM spec for grinding?

also

- is it ok to use the BoA gun? I noticed hunter dps comes from both the weapon and the ammo and since i cant have BoA ammos I was wondering if the total value of the BoA gun is someone reduced.

[Jodwahh]

Personally I went skinning/LW as a hunter but that was when there was some decent BoP craftables. The skinning trait is still nice for a hunter (32 crit) and lw gives a fairly sexy 114ap enchant on wrists and cheap 75ap/22crit on legs (a lot cheaper than the one you can buy from the ah). As for a standard BM spec I really wouldn't worry about it, it's a retardedly easy job to level with.

Cant really help with the boa gun as I really have no idea how it scales.

Good luck

[fantasticdan]

Just started an Hunter, so there are just a few things I'd like to learn:

- best/suggested craft to improve the class?
- could someone please link me the standard BM spec for grinding?

also

- is it ok to use the BoA gun? I noticed hunter dps comes from both the weapon and the ammo and since i cant have BoA ammos I was wondering if the total value of the BoA gun is someone reduced.

For leveling up, you're probably better off just going with 2 of herbalism/skinning/mining. At 80, BS and JC are by far the best stat boost profession for hunters, since they are the only ones that provide agility bonuses (+27 agi gems, 2 extra sockets for agi gems). The AP boosts you can get from LW, enchanting, alchemy or inscription are not as good.

Personally I'm JC + engineering, but eng isn't that useful right now outside of doing some fun stuff with disengage + parachute, or battle ressing people during certain fights with army knife (there are a few fights where you can FD out of combat between phases and res people, like I've done it on malygos). There are some buffs coming the engineering in 3.1 to make the tinkers competitive with normal enchants in addition to their use ability, but who knows how that will turn out.

The BoA gun and bow are bugged and always uses it's level 1 dmg for steady shot, so I wouldn't recommend getting it right now. It's a known issue and blizz has failed to fix it in the past few patches, so there's a good chance it will still be broken in 3.1.

BM spec for leveling is mostly just common sense. Spec straight down the BM tree to BW getting DPS talents wherever you can, in addition to 2/2 revive pet, mend pet, and spirit bond. Than you can pick up the standard 15 points in marks and than go back to putting points in BM. You could do the reverse if you really want to get a exotic pet earlier, but they aren't really worth it.

[sb]

Just started an Hunter, so there are just a few things I'd like to learn:
- is it ok to use the BoA gun?.

You shouldn't need res. for leveling, though the crit is nice. The Bow should be a better option(besides you get 80 levels of not having to listen to the gunshot sounds). But that steady shot glitch kind of negates either unless it get patched.

[Tomino]

Yes, BoA Bow definitely looks better but I'm saving Emblems for my offspec so wasting 325 shards on the BoA Gun sounded much more reasonable.

Even with that steady glith, is the BoA Gun recomendable over the majority of the grinding gear?
Being new to Hunter i really dont know how much of my dps steady shot accounts for

[Noobta]

Yes, BoA Bow definitely looks better but I'm saving Emblems for my offspec so wasting 325 shards on the BoA Gun sounded much more reasonable.

Even with that steady glith, is the BoA Gun recomendable over the majority of the grinding gear?
Being new to Hunter i really dont know how much of my dps steady shot accounts for

Steady shot is your main shot once you get it.

[fantasticdan]

As BM while leveling it's probably in the neighborhood of 30-40% since they buffed arcane shot, but you don't get the first rank of steady shot until 50.

The reason the other BoA weapons are nice thou is that you can just stick a lifestealing or +30 spell damage enchant on them and not worry about the slot at all while leveling. For hunters on the other hand, there's no awesome scope to stick on an ilvl1 gun, in fact the best you can do to my knowledge is +2dmg... Really the only thing getting either of the ranged weapons would do is save you the trouble of occasionally looking for upgrades, they aren't really better than normal dungeon drops, or blue quest rewards. Once you get steady shot they're obviously significantly worse.

[SamanosukeShiva]

For all the people debating best pets:

BM? Devilsaur.

Non-BM? Wasp if you have no bears in your raid, otherwise cat/raptor.


Wasp's minor armor debuff puts it way ahead of cat/raptor if you don't have a feral providing it--you should see an overall personal DPS buff of 150-300 DPS and a decent increase in RDPS if you've got a large number of physical DD's.

for BM somehow i prefer gorillia over devilsaur, gotta love those 2k+ aoe thunderstomps @ instances