History – (WotLK)

Introduction

Character Name: Burx

Guild: Fractured

I’m actively raiding since the start of WotLK and presonally I love how they’ve redesigned hunter specs, rotations and synergy, especially Marksman. In my opinion its really fun to play and i can’t get enough of it. I’m making this little guide based on my experiences and on sources of information that I think have proven to be quite useful in my gearing procedure and maximizing my raid dps, intended for 25man raiding.

Gearing

First and foremost I read EJ and use the hunter excel spreadsheet from the forums. Gotta say that there is simply no better way to optimize your gear, gemming, enchants, pets, rotations and even raidbuffs. There are some online gearupgrade checking sites like “maxdps.com”, but they are nowhere near as accurate and modeled as Shandara’s Spreadsheet. Also it’s wise to read up on the threads of the forums there for tips and possible bugs in the spreadsheet. If you prefer to not install office for just a spreadsheet you can find it online at femaledwarf.com which is pretty much the same only with more eye candy.

There are also small applications in development like Rawr using the .NET framework, but still not as popular as the aforementioned Excel Sheet.

NOTE: You should never rely solely on what a program, website or any source of information is saying. You should always include common sense and some math skills in checking new items if they are worthy upgrades.

Shot Rotation

Since this is a Marksmanship guide (What Else ) I’d like to only cover the MM rotations.
Acronyms:

• RF-RapidFire
• BF-BloodFury
• B-Berserking
• CS-ChimeraShot
• SS-SteadyShot
• AiS-AimedShot
• AS-ArcaneShot
• SiS-SilencingShot
• SerpS-SerpentSting
• KS-KillShot

NOTE: The rotation is different depending on if you’re going for an ArmorPenetration build or simple Agility build. Generally the ArmorPenetration build comes out way better than the Agility one, but you need a certain gearlevel for it to be better.

ArP Rotation: (Mind that you should still use arcane shot in the case when everything is on cooldown and you don’t have time to use a steadyshot or have to move.)

1. SerpS (This needs to be 100% up not to waste ticks.)
2. SiS (Best to use it macroed to everything.)
3. RF (Pop Cooldowns here, but remember to think ahead if you need to keep them for bloodlust, etc.)
4. BF (On longer fights remember that this is on a 2 min. CD not 3 min. so better pop it in between the first two and second wo Rapid Fire combos aswell.)
5. KS (If the boss is under 20%)
6. AiS (This should be on prio to CS to keep your bleed effect up from talents.)
7. CS (You can change the order if there is no Improved SteadyShot proc at the moment when this is up and Aimedshot is still on cooldown)
8. Readiness (Pretty straightforward, use it when everything is on cooldown and after you’ve popped all the cooldowns)
9. SS (Spam it in the meantime.  )

Agility Rotation: (The only place where I recommend using this rotation is Vezax, since arcane shot gets boosted by the black pool a lot )

1. SerpS
2. SiS (Depending on your gearlevel and raidsetup you might want to leave it out, since the AGI rotation is pretty mana heavy.)
3. RF (Cooldowns once again.)
4. BF
5. KS (Under 20%)
6. CS (Agi build will boost Chimera Shot over Aimed and no ArP means no boost for Aimed Shot and therefore no boost for the bleed effect.)
7. AiS / MS (On multiple targets you can use Multishot aswell for additional dps.)
8. ArcaneShot (Use it as a filler between shot cooldowns. NOTE: This will rape your mana for sure :<)
9. Readiness
10. SS

Personally, I love the ArP rotation and gearing, but I’ve seen some hunters with epicly awesome gear going for agility and couldn’t understand the reason since I’ve managed much better numbers with ArP gearing and lesser gear. I’d recommend every1 to go for armor penetration and try to keep up your bleedeffect on the bosses with aimedshot, especially when Improved Steadshot Procs. Use your cooldowns wisely and maximize your shot usage with macros. Once your rotation comes from instinct, you’ll be able to be much more mindful about your enironment and your survivability is likely to increase aswell. Also do not move much at a time since moving will clip your autoshots, move in short cycles if possible and mind your swingtimer so you won’t miss a single autoshot. Use Disengage on larger distances and when you have your instants available or in oh shit situations.

Moaaaar DPS

There are some tips that I’d like to share on how-to improve on your dps. Some of them are pretty easy things, others need some practice and knowledge of specific fights.

Cooldown Management.

You should always try to stack your buff cooldowns (rapidfire, bloodfury, berserking, trinkets, potions etc) so they’d be up at the same time. Example: Shooting for 120% more dmg while shooting 2 times faster is much better than popping the same cooldowns right after each other.
Also it is wise to try to time your cooldowns when there are some specific buffs in a bossfight (Hodir – storm cloud, Icehowl – When Stunned, Valkyrs – Empowered, BQL-Vampire thingie etc) this needs accurate bossmods, timers, but more on that later on. It is also a good idea to macro together most of your CDs also more on this in the macros paragraph.

Ooptimizing your keybinds.

The best layout for dps abilites is the vicinity of the keys “WASD”, “0-5″ bindings are perfect for your main dps skills in my opinion ordering them by priority of the shots though that will change throughout fights anyway.
Also important to choose a good spam key like “0″ or “~” on english keyboards or even better put your spammable abilities on your mouse. (I personally have my steadyshot macroed to my mouse scroll-up and Volley bound to middle click.)
Other then these you can custumize other important abilities, but preferably also around your movement keys.

Tips & Tricks.

Prepotting: – Most of the bossfights allow you to pop a potion before you get into combat, like Sindragosa, BQL, Festergut etc. The advantage of this is that you pop the potion 1-2 seconds before getting into combat and having about 13 secs buff while still being able to use another potion later in the fight. And since it is wise to pop your CDs in conjuction with your pots its also good to pop a speed or Wild Magic (yes the 200 crit rating can be that good at times) potion before pull, then pop CDs while Misdirecting to the MT -> Readiness -> Misdirection again / Possibly Feign Death if there are threat issues -> Cooldowns once again so you can pop them again hopefully before the fight ends. It is also good to know how long the fight will last, if you should pop everything in the start or wait for a specific buff in the fight (Valkyrs normal or Bloodlust etc).

Compiled list of the effect of Hunter abilities tested during ICC encounters

*source* thnx for prime311 and EJ

This list shall contain the following format:
Ability – Encounter – <Tested> Y / <Needs to be Tested> N – Functionality being tested

Examples:
————————————————-
DT – BQ – Y – Does not deflect Incite Terror
————————————————-
DT – BQ – N – Deflects Bloodbolt Splashes sourced from other players.
————————————————-

The 1st example says that Deterrence has been tested to deflect Incite Terror during the Blood-Queen encounter and does not deflect it.
The 2nd example says that Deterrence has not been tested yet to see if it will deflect Bloodbolt Splashes from other players being hit by Twilight Bloodbolt.

Abbreviation List – Possible Hunter Abilities

FD – Feign Death
DT – Deterrence
DE – Disengage
TS – Tranquilizing Shot
AS – Aimed Shot
SS – Silencing Shot
DS – Distracting Shot
MD – Misdirection
ET – Explosive Trap
MC – Master’s Call
AP – Aspect of the Pack
NA – Not a Hunter ability, line item refers to functionality not particular to any Hunter abilities

Abbreviation List – Encounters

LM – Lord Marrowgar
LD – Lady Deathwhisper
GB – Gunship Battle
DS – Deathbringer Saurfang
FG – Festergut
RF – Rotface
PP – Professor Putricide
BP – Blood Prince Council
BQ – Blood-Queen Lana’thel
VD – Valithria Dreamwalker
SG – Sindragosa
LK – Lich King Arthas

If anyone has suggestions to flesh out this list of abilities and their effects during ICC encounters then please list the results of your testing. Results can also include the effect of using certain Racials or other non-Hunter specific items but still relevant to Hunter’s. Anecdotal information is not satisfactory, only solid 100% true facts. Any results should be backed up by logs whenever possible.

FD – LM – Y – Does not free you from Bone Spikes
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LM – Y – Prevents damage from Bone Storm
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LM – Y – Prevents damage from Coldflame
——————————————————————————————————————————
TS – LD – Y – Does not remove Fanatic/Adherent Determination from Reanimated Fanatic/Adherent.
——————————————————————————————————————————
TS – LD – Y – Removes ‘Shroud of the Occult’ magic shield from all Adherent types.
——————————————————————————————————————————
DS – DS – Y – Can be used to force Blood Beasts to attack you for DS duration.
——————————————————————————————————————————
ET – DS – Y – Blood Beast AE dmg reduction does not apply to the DoT effect of Explosive Traps
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – FG – N – If used in the instant he targets you will stop a Vile Gas attack
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – FG – Y – Does not deflect a Vile Gas attack
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – FG – Y – Does not prevent damage from Gaseous Blight
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – FG – Y – Does not prevent damage from Pungent Blight
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – RF – Y – Does not prevent damage from Slime Spray
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DS – RF – Y – Can be used to force ‘Big Ooze’ to follow you for DS duration
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – RF – N – Can be used to prevent damage from Radiating Ooze and Weak Radiating Ooze
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – RF – Y – Does not prevent damage and slowing effect from Ooze Flood.
——————————————————————————————————————————
MC – RF – Y – Provides immunity to Ooze Flood slowing effect.
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – PP – Y – Does not prevent you from being frozen by Tear Gas
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – PP – Y – Can be used when targeted by Volatile Ooze to force it to pick a new target. Ooze new target selection also takes several additional seconds. Best used in the second before the Ooze would hit you and blow everyone up.
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – PP – Y – Does not prevent you from being frozen by Tear Gas
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – PP – Y – Does not prevent you from being struck by Volatile ‘Ooze Eruption’
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BP – Y – Prevents damage from ‘Shadow Lance’
——————————————————————————————————————————
NA – BP – Y – Dark Nucleus will stick to whoever attacked them last. Use Scorpid Sting to keep them on you if tanking.
——————————————————————————————————————————
NA – BP – Y – Pets can prevent Kinetic Bomb from landing indefinitely. Should be on passive and manually sent in to attack to accomplish this. Note that Kinetic Bombs will despawn during the encounter and your pet will need to be resent in to attack a new one.
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – BQ – Y – Does not prevent being hit by Incite Terror
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – Y – Does not prevent being hit by Incite Terror
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – Y – Prevents damage from Twilight Bloodbolt
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – Y – Prevents damage from Shroud of Sorrow
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – N – Prevents damage from Swarming Shadows
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – N – Prevents damage from Pact of the Darkfallen
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – N – Prevents damage from Bloodbolt Splash caused by other players
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – BQ – N – Prevents Bloodbolt Splash from happening on Twilight Bloodbolts cast on you
——————————————————————————————————————————
DE – BQ – Y – If player is targeted by Twilight Bloodbolt during Bloodbolt Whirl, and has not yet landed, splash occurs at players original position. If Disengaging out be aware that this functionality could cause additional damage from splash to other raid members and so you should avoid Disengaging in the couple seconds prior to and during Bloodbolt Whirl for positioning to be clear.
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – VD – Y – Prevents damage from Lay Waste (although you should be shooting, not hiding)
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – VD – N – Prevents damage from Column of Frost
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – VD – N – Prevents damage from Acid Splash
——————————————————————————————————————————
DS – VD – Y – Can be used to force Blistering Zombies to follow you for the duration (and the casters, technically)
——————————————————————————————————————————
DE – SG – Y – Can be used while being Icy Grip’d to jump back sooner
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – SG – Y – Can be used to prevent being hit by Icy Grip
——————————————————————————————————————————
AP – SG – Y – Frost Aura damage does not cause Daze affect from Aspect
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – SG – N – Prevents damage from Frost Aura
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – SG – N – Prevents damage from Blistering Cold
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – SG – N – Prevents damage from Chilled to the Bone
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – SG – Y – Does not prevent the application of Mystic Buffet debuff
——————————————————————————————————————————
NA – SG – Y – Shots that cause magical damage do not proc Backlash or Chilled to the Bone
——————————————————————————————————————————
NA – SG – Y – Icy Grip can be avoided by using the Frost Tomb to get out of LOS
——————————————————————————————————————————
DE – LK – Y – If you are being carried by a Valk and it is killed with you in midair, you can disengage back onto the platform. However if the Valk drops you then you will be too low to Disengage back
——————————————————————————————————————————
TS – LK – Y – Shambling Horror Enrage can and should be Tranq’d. Their enrage has a cast time.
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage from Shockwave(shambling horror)
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – LK – N – Prevents Hunter from being targeted by Valkyrie’s
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents throwback(Ice Burst) from Ice Sphere
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage from Ice Pulse(Ice Sphere)
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage from Pain and Suffering(Lich King)
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage from Remorseless Winter
——————————————————————————————————————————
FD – LK – N – Prevents being targeted for Raging Spirit or in anyway interferes with Raging Spirit spawn
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage from Soul Shriek(Raging Spirit)
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage/trigger of Defile
——————————————————————————————————————————
DE – LK – Y – The mechanics of Disengage leave the Hunter at their original position until landing. Do not try to Disengage out of Defile or away if you get Defile
——————————————————————————————————————————
NA – LK – Y – Turn on chat bubbles and use the DBM Alpha version to easily see who has Defile so you can move away from them
——————————————————————————————————————————
DT – LK – N – Prevents damage from Spirit Burst(Vile Spirit)

Macros

In order to maximize your usage of abilites and therefore maximizing your dps output it is good to have some spells macroed together to ease up on using them as fast as possible.

First of all let’s try to macro Silencing Shot and Kill Command to every DPS ability and even Cooldowns we have. Then bind together all your buff cooldowns (RF, Racials etc) so you don’t have to waste time on pushing them separately and make a spam macro for steadyshot, our lowest priority shot so we can spam it when everything is on cooldown.

Abilities Macros:
#showtooltip Aimed Shot
/cast !auto shot
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Aimed Shot(Rank 9)

/cast !auto shot
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Multi-Shot(Rank 8)

#showtooltip Kill Shot
/cast !auto shot
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Kill Shot(Rank 3)

#showtooltip Chimera Shot
/cast !auto shot
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Chimera Shot

/cast !auto shot
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast Serpent Sting(Rank 12)
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command

Spam Macro:
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast !auto shot
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Steady Shot

/cast !Volley(Rank 6)

Cooldown Macros:
#showtooltip Readiness
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Readiness

#showtooltip Rapid Fire
/cast Berserking
/cast Rapid Fire
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast Call of the Wild
/use Potion of Wild Magic
/cast Steady Shot

#showtooltip Rapid Fire
/cast Berserking
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast Rapid Fire
/cast Steady Shot

Focus MD Macro: (Gives a small edge, to pop more Kill Commands in the fight itself)
#showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [target=Focus] Misdirection
/cast Kill Command
/e casts misdirect on %F

Addons
It is good to have them and it’s bad to have too many of them.
Some essentials:

• ForteXorcist / NeedToKnow / PowerAuras

I use or have used each of these and if you want a lightweight way of tracking your stings, buffs, procs, debuffs the way to go is NeedToKnow, but you have to configure every single spell yourself for it to show, while Forte does most of that autmatically tho’ it’s much more complex with so much more options and looks cooler Lastly PowerAuras provide the easiest way to see the same with customizable textures and also lots of options.

• Omen

Threat Meter is a musthave, nothing more to add here.

• Heatsink

Tracks internal cooldowns of your trinkets so you can see when they’re likely to proc again to time your other cooldowns to pop with them.

• InlineAura

Shows a glowing border on your action buttons so you can see easily if you have your debuffs applied on a mob/boss.

• DXE

BossMods essential for pretty much everyone, and I find this one simple, minimalistic and configurable. Alos i think it has pretty much the most accurate timers around boss mods.

• Quartz

Safe to say that it’s one if not the only one of the best castbar AddOns out there with swing timer, latency embedding and other nice functions that helps you time your casts better.

Optionals:

UnitFrames, Dmg meters, etc

• Recount (Nice to have if you need to know how you’re doing on the meters )
• Pitbull 4 (UnitFrames of awesome, a bit complicated, but the looks are worth it.)
• Grid (+GridStatusRaidDebuff useful to know who has what debuff on specific bossfights like BQL.)
• Parrot/MSBT (Scrolling combat texts of awesome!)
• Dominos (ActionBars of greatness!)

Other addons are not really related to the raiding experience so maybe some othertime in an other page I’ll go into my UI aswell.

There’s also some visual aid already present for most of things I’ve already scribed down up there (Cheers to Kripparrian for making them)