General BM stuff...

So this library section is kinda empty...so I'm gonna fill it up a bit. I'm not an expert, I'm sure other people in guild know more about it, but hell, if I do write something noobish atleast I'll learn from it...

This is my spec: http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-talents.xml?r=Anachronos&n=Iosina

It wasn't always like this, I respecced many times, It's all about personal preferences I guess.

Anyway...uhm (I'm really bad at this) basicly as a BM hunter in raids your shot rotation is spamming steady shot. I have a macro that I don't know off the top of my head, that helps you prevent clipping. If someone wants the macro, say so, I'll put it up.

Quartz is a good addon, it shows the autoshot and steadyshot timers (allong with other things) If you don't know it http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/quartz.aspx

Daz put some stats up for paladins, so here goes.

Stats you should look for at low levels are agility, stamina, intellect and spirit(I personally never have spirit on my armor, but some people like it) in that order.
At higer levels Attack power, crit rating, hit rating

These are what your aimed minimum stats should be at 70 (I don't know about 80, if anyone does please post)

Health: 7000
mana: 5000
Attack power: 1250
Critical strike: 20%
Hit chance: 100 (I myself only have 72, I'm working on it)

Agility is more important for a BM hunter than attack power, because agility also increases your pets attack power, armor with attack power bonus won't affect your pet. (unless they changed it in the patch, as far as I know it doesn't)


http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/ is a very handy site for choosing pets. And don't forget to feed your pet, cuz unlike minions it'll run away. Also for people who don't know, you can name your pet by right-clicking your pet's portrait and choosing "rename pet". You can normally only name it once but with inscription you can make a scroll to rename it.

The naming might seem obvious, but it anoys me to no end to see a level 70+ with the default specie name. Most of them are probably gold farmers...but still.

Oh, and by spamming I mean autoshot/steadyshot/autoshot/steadyshot etc. The point is to maximize dps by weaving in a steadyshot between each autoshot, this is why I prefer a slow bow (3.00).

For leveling however I rarely use steadyshot, you will mostly rely on traps and stings. Your pet will most likely lose aggro if you keep cranking out steady shot.

Pets have talents now aswel, but there is really no way you can screw those up.

Iosina wrote:

Oh, and by spamming I mean autoshot/steadyshot/autoshot/steadyshot etc. The point is to maximize dps by weaving in a steadyshot between each autoshot, this is why I prefer a slow bow (3.00).

There is no need to time that anymore. Autoshot fires off, even if you are casting steadyshot. So now you can just chain-cast steadyshot without even looking to your autoshot, it will go off anyway.

Few things about the pet: As a BM hunter you have acces to all pets in the game. This comes along with a few buffs/debuffs:

Wolves can boost the whole party/raid's dps, for the same amount as an aspect of the hawk.
Worms* reduce enemy armor by 785, stacks up to 5 times on a single target.
Wasps reduce enemy armor by 1260 and prevent them to turn invisible.
Core Hounds* increase casting time by 50% for 10 sec.

*: Only tameable by BM hunters with beastmastery talent.
Note: Make sure you have a normal dps pet as well, using 2 of the same pets by 2 hunters will not make their buffs stack, so using 2 hunters with the same type of pet (out of these 4) is pretty much a waste of special ability.

I also remember you asked about haste rating once: Haste is good, increases your casting and autoshot speed, but becomes useless once you have steadyshot at 1.5 sec casting time (which requires sick amount of haste, note). When you achieve that you can just spam steadyshots to max out your dps.

Out of all the things I wrote I only got one thing wrong(because blizz changed it) That's pretty good :p

Good to know, but the quartz addon is still very convenient, as it show the timers of your stings and hunters mark.

Haste is something I never understood. How much haste do you need, and how important is haste... I mean should you get it at the cost of AP or agility?

Iosina

I am learning more about hunters here than I ever did. Still not sure if I want to roll one though, I have enough trouble keeping myself alive without having to worry about a pet as well.

Anyways, since I know very little about hunters, I can't answer the "Haste" question for you, but I was confused about haste myself until yesterday, when I went and looked it up a bit further.
See below for a cut'n'paste direct from WowWiki

Haste
From WoWWiki

Haste increases Attack Speed.

Haste stacks multiplicatively. This means that it is beneficial to stack multiple haste effects. For instance, stacking Slice and Dice with Blade Flurry gives a total of 56% haste (130% * 120% = 156% of the base attack speed). Haste Rating stacks additively with itself (two sources of 100 Haste Rating give 200 Haste Rating stacked together) and then is converted into a percentage that stacks multiplicatively with other sources of haste. For every 15.87 Points of Haste rating you will have 1% faster Attack Speed at level 70.

The formula for determining hasted weapon speed is:

Hasted Speed = Weapon Speed / ( (1+(Haste1 %)) * (1+(Haste2 %)) * (1+(((Haste Rating 1 + Haste Rating 2 + ... )/100)/15.7)) )
Example: Beast Master Hunter
Bow Speed / ( Serpents Swiftness (20%) * Quiver Speed (15%) * haste from added up haste ratings )
3.0 / ( (1+(20/100)) * (1+(15/100)) * (1+((30+45+25)/1570)) )
3.0 / (1.20*1.15*1.064) = 3.0 / 1.468 = 2.04 sec. attack speed.

Haste Rating
Haste Rating Required Per 1%
Level 60
10

level 70
15.77

level 80
32.79

Not sure if the above helps any.....

So you'd need over 600 haste rating to get steady shot from 2sec cast to 1.5 sec cast... Go for ap and crit lol.