Theorycraft From the Comfort of Your Browser

My guild-leader and fellow hunter has just brought to our attention something that should be of interest to the hunter community: Shandara's Hunter DPS Spreadsheet is now available for use in-browser, no Excel necessary!

Blizzard Has My Back

The very day I conclude that my DPS would benefit from shifting a few talent points around, BAM! - free re-specs.

So, ever since 3.1 dropped, I've been snubbing the new Sniper Training - Ulduar, and even much of Naxx, just has too many fires that must not be stood in, and I believed those points would be better spent in Entrapment, mainly for kiting Gluth's zombies.

I still stand by those basic assertions, but now that Naxx is slowly being phased out of my regular raiding schedule, Entrapment is looking less appealing, whereas the extra crit to Kill Shot, especially in conjunction with its glyph, is pushing Sniper Training ahead. My only concern regarding the loss of Entrapment is controlling the adds during Ignis, but I'm hoping the interplay of 3/3 Trap Mastery and 2/3 Resourcefulness will allow for a constant ice sheet to keep them in line.

This is all just theoretical right now, as I won't be testing anything until this weekend at the earliest. As always, if your experience contradics my suppositions, tell me how wrong I am!

*Gaaasp*

Now that I've stopped holding my breath in antici...
...
...pation of patch 3.1, I think I can feel fairly confident in where I'll be assigning my talent points later tonight (I'm slightly less confident that the servers will actually be up and stable later tonight...).

It's fairly similar to my current spec, with the most significant difference being that I'm foregoing Wyvern Sting and Noxious Stings to allow for the new 3-point Trap Mastery, and an additional point in Resourcefulness; the damage bonus during Black Arrow uptime is twice that of what Noxious Stings provided for Serpent Sting, so I really can't rationalize not buffing its DPS/mana ratio. Also, without the mana-discount from its glyph, I'm shunting Aimed Shot out of my rotation.

I've already covered the glyphs I'll be using, and my thoughts haven't changed on that front.

Sadly, although it still lingers in the patch notes, the proposed change to T.N.T. allowing Explosive Shot to refresh Explosive Trap seems to have never materialized (Confession time - I haven't been on the PTR much at all. I just can't justify spending my limited playing-time on something so ephemeral; huge props to all of you out there who have been testing and exploring the upcoming changes for the rest of us. Anyway, my point is: if the Explosive Shot change, or anything else I've covered, is incorrect, let me know! I'm running on rumors and innuendo here!).

Ahhh. It feels good just to think about playing my Hunter again. We're comin' for ya, Yoggie!

I Can't Read Your Crazy Moon Language!

Among other things, patch 3.1 will be changing the outlay of glyphs available to Hunters, both introducing new ones, and changing old ones. For your convenience, here they are:

· Glyph - Aimed Shot -- Reduces the cooldown of your Aimed Shot ability by 2 sec. (Old: Reduces the mana cost of your aimed shot ability by 20%)

· Glyph of the Monkey -- While Aspect of the Monkey or Aspect of the Dragonhawk are active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec. Can only occur every 20 sec. This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects. (Old: Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey -- While Aspect of the Monkey or Aspect of the Dragonhawk are active, each time you dodge you gain 30% increased movement speed for 6 sec. This speed does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.)

· Glyph of Wyvern Sting -- Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 6 sec. (Old: Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 15 sec., but decreases the damage it deals by 20%.)

· Glyph of Snake Trap -- Snakes generated by your Snake Trap take 90% reduced damge from area of effect spells. (Old: Your Snake Trap creates 2 additional snakes)

· Glyph of the Hawk -- Increases the haste bonus of the Improved Aspect of the Hawk effect by an additional 6%. (Old: Renamed from Glyph of Improved Aspect of the Hawk)

· Glyph of Chimera Shot *new* -- Reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by 1 sec.

· Glyph of Explosive Shot *new* -- Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 4%.

· Glyph of Kill Shot *new* -- Reduces the cooldown of Kill Shot by 6 sec.

· Glyph of Explosive Trap *new* -- The periodic damage from your Explosive Trap can now be critical strikes.

· Glyph of Scatter Shot *new* -- Increases the range of Scatter Shot by 3 yards.

· Glyph of Raptor Strike *new* -- For 5 sec. after using Raptor Strike, you take 20% less damage.

Obviously, your choice of glyphs will depend upon your spec, style, and whether you’re focusing on PvP or PvE. That being said, I have some initial thoughts:

· The fact that Glyph of Aimed Shot no longer reduces its mana cost by 20% would seem to invalidate it as a regular part of most shot rotations. The only thing Aimed Shot seems useful for now is its healing reduction effect, so reducing the shot’s cooldown below that effect’s duration is pointless. I know I’ll be dropping it.

· The 20 second cooldown on Glyph of the Monkey is certainly a nerf to its PvP efficacy (I imagine – I don’t use it, and I only occasionally PvP).

· The revised Glyph of Wyvern Sting and new Glyph of Scatter Shot, on the other hand, might be more worthwhile for PvP.

· Glyph of Kill Shot: Yes, please. Especially in 25-person raids, where that last 20% can last a while.

· Glyph of Explosive Shot: Yes, please. Now that we don’t get a crit boost from T.N.T , this looks like a good choice.

For myself, I’ll probably be running with Glyphs of Explosive Shot, Kill Shot, and Steady Shot, come 3.1. What about you? And hey, Marks Hunters, is Glyph of Chimera Shot going to be worth it? Spec-curious Hunters want to know!

Hunters, Grab Your Napkins!

Because it’s time for some math.

So, as you’ve probably heard by now, Blizzard’s imprecise language regarding changes to ammo and the removal of quivers was just that – the 15% ranged haste still applies to steady shot.

Things look less rosy for Explosive Shot, however – the reduction to base damage and attack power scaling will cut the shot’s damage by a little over 11%, a gap that will become fractionally larger as attack power increases.

As much as I hate to agree with a nerf to my own spec, Explosive Shot probably was a bit overpowered compared to talents equally deep in other trees, like Chimera Shot.

Now hand me that napkin, I need to dry my tears.