3.1 Piercing Shots = Deep Wounds

Good news for MM hunters today, the new Piercing Shots is intended to act like Deep Wounds. As stated by Ghostcrawler regarding its behavior on the current build of the PTR:

It's a known bug. It should work exactly like Deep Wounds, which is smart enough to average in any new damage applied to the existing dot.

Standard caveat applies that we could run into trouble when trying to do this for some reason.

Why is this such good news for us? Well, let’s use an example of Piercing Shots with Deep Wounds behavior. Let’s say Chimera Shot crits for 6000 damage, and thus procs a bleed of (.3 * 6000) = 1800 damage over 8 seconds, or 225 dps. Six seconds later, Steady Shot crits for 2000 damage, giving a bleed of (.3 * 2000) = 600 damage over 8 seconds, or 75 dps.

However, two seconds of the 225 dps Chimera bleed were still there, so that 450 damage rolls over into the Steady bleed. Thus, the Steady bleed becomes (600 + 450) = 1050 damage, yielding 131.25 dps for 8 seconds. This behavior isn’t present on the current build of the PTR, and that absence is the “known bug” in the quo/r te above. Prior to this confirmation of Piercing Shot’s intended design, hunters were actually attempting to theorize how to delay Steady crits after a Chimera crit, a daunting task to say the least. So, the quote above is excellent news, both for one less theorycrafting headache and the promise of a very good MM talent.

Hunting Ground: Naxxramas 25

Today, we’re going to briefly go over all the bosses in Naxx, 25 man version. Unless there’s demand for such, I won’t be explaining the overall strategy, but rather parts specific to a hunter.

Arachnid Quarter
Anub’Rekhan: Be sure to pull your pet away when he casts Locust Swarm, and be ready to help slaughter adds.

Grand Widow Faerlina: Let me correct a rumor I’ve heard. Tranq Shot does NOT remove her Frenzy. Shoot her in the face until she dies, get out of the Rain of Fire.

Maexxna: Unless your guild specifically assigns this, be ready to help free people from Web Wraps on the wall.

Construct Quarter
Patchwerk: Really, does this fight need explanation? Blow everything you have, this is the “how high can I dps?” ideal fight.

Grobbulus: Be ready to Mend Pet in case your tank doesn’t move far enough for your pet to be clear of the poison rings, and make sure you run your poisons clear of the raid.

Gluth: We either dps here or kite adds. If your raid prefers to CC the adds (which they should), simply unload on Gluth and be sure to Tranq the Frenzies. Otherwise, toss Frost Traps, tag zombies and kite them reasonably far from Gluth.

Thaddius: Sadly our pets don’t get the damage buff of the Polarity charges, but it means we don’t have to really manage them. Just be sure you’re hugging your group for the buff.

Plague Quarter
Noth the Plaguebringer: It’s not entirely needed if your tanks pay attention, but I like to toss the odd Freezing Trap/Freezing Arrow to catch adds and help out.

Heigan the Unclean: A fight where MM hunters shine, as it’s impossible to have your pet on him in phase 2 when the whole raid dances. Try to have an AP boosted Serpent Sting on him, and pepper him with instants as you run, especially Chimera.

Loatheb: Make sure you’re near spores as they die. Enjoy ridiculous 90% crit chance!

Military Quarter
Instructor Razuvious: Shoot him in the face until he dies. Next!

Gothik the Harvester: The Undead side of the room (has bone piles) is immune to magic damage, so you’ll likely be assigned there. Stings, Arcane Shot, and fire traps do work, oddly enough.

The Four Horsemen: If you’re assigned to be a ranged tank on the back two, dismiss your pet as the aggro is based on how close you are to the Horseman. It’s very easy for your pet to get closer as you reposition. Never send the pet in on them until the raid is ready to kill them.

Frostwyrm Lair
Sapphiron: If your healers are on the ball and AE healing melee, it should take care of your pet as well. MM does very well in this fight, just unload and dodge the blizzards.

Kel’Thuzad: Phase 1 is a shooting gallery, but focus your efforts on the skeletons first. They explode if they touch anyone, and we can easily two shot them. Pets can chomp away on Abominations with melee folks. Phase 2 and 3, be ready to move yourself and pet out of big red Shadow Fissures, stand 10 yards away from others in case you’re chosen for Mana Detonation, shoot KT. Grats on beating Naxx!

Basic numbers, pt 2

So haste was complete crap for MM in BC, does that mean we don’t want it in Wrath? Not quite, it’s a useful stat but only up to a certain point, a soft cap, after which it drops sharply in value. The key to this priority shift is unlinked Auto Shots. If you recall, haste was only bad because specials could interrupt or cancel Autos. Do that enough, and your dps suffered for it. BM could get away with this due to Serpent’s Swiftness and how well Steady scaled.

But enough digression about things past, haste is now useful because Autos are unlinked and Steady Shot is a 2.0 second baseline cast. Given that our GCD is 1.5 seconds, the base Steady cast greedily eats two GCDs, leaving a gap of wasted time. Even in 3.0.8, when Steady diminishes down to “shoot this while you wait on your cooldowns”, we’ll still fire it and still not want it wasting perfectly good GCDs.

Thus, we want enough haste to make Steady cast at or within 1.5 seconds. So now that we know that, we need to figure out the following:

base Steady cast / (Quiver * haste) ~= 1.5 seconds
2.0 / (1.15 * H) ~= 1.5

I’ll spare you solving for H; it’s 1.1595 or 15.95% haste. Given that 1% haste is 32.789 haste rating, we need 523 haste rating to get our 1.5 second Steady cast. Additionally, our Autos will now fire roughly every 2.1 seconds, but beyond this, haste drops in usefulness. While Auto Shot is a significant part of our dps, a Marksman who has hit and haste capped is far better served to invest in stats to boost shot damage.

Basic numbers, pt 1

Good thing I never promised regular updates… So Wrath has been out a while, I’m 80 and have smacked all the new bosses in the face, and so the rush has settled down. Perfect opportunity to start writing about things again.

Let’s look at the basic numbers you need as to raid as MM. We’ll assume you’re 80, and all targets are 83, ie, Wrath raid bosses. Before you start on any other stats, get hit capped, then work on haste “cap”.

Hit Rating
It’s recently been discovered that the hit cap in Wrath is 8%, down from BC’s 9%, and this is apparently an intended change. 1% hit chance is 32.789 hit rating, so it’s fairly easy to calculate how much you need. Note that the Draenei hit aura is 1%, so if you regularly get a space goat, you might consider that in your talent and gear choices. The following numbers show amounts needed, at all levels of the Focused Aim talent.

0/3 FA: 263 hit rating
1/3 FA: 230
2/3 FA: 197
3/3 FA: 164

However, it must be kept in mind that Focused Aim does NOT affect our pets, so use it until you can get the full hit cap then respec out. Your pet’s increased dps will be your reward.

Next post, we’ll cover haste rating for MM.