Guide to ranged weapon upgrades
by Juggernaught | 27/11/2007 08:53:45 I recently compiled this for our guild, but thought it may be nice to share. There are a few generalisations in the post, but it is aimed at offering understanding without overloading. -------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Due to the complicated relationship between weapon speed and shot rotation, the listed weapon dps has only a tertiary effect on your actual dps: Weapon speed and weapon stats are both more important than the listed weapon dps. This makes it very hard to tell which weapons are actually upgrades, and which will give you a bit of a nerfing, and as it is central to our class, I have spent some time on this post to explain it in an easy to understand way (I hope). --------------------------------------------------------------- ----- I'll be using my own current spec (SV), and our guilds top BM hunters' with Cheeky's awesome hunter dps calc spreadhseet for the theorycrafting. Rotations. There are really only two viable shot rotations to use inorder to max your dps, depending on your spec. BM hunters: Quicker shots - One special shot between each autoshot. The most damaging special shot should be used if available. That means use Multi-shot first, then arcane shot, and finally steady shot if the others are on CD.
MM/SV hunters: Slower shots - can add an additional 'instant' shot after every other steady shot.
(If you are not using these rotations, you are not reaching your full dps potential) Weapons sorted by actual theorycrafted dps SV/MM Hunter: Theorycrafted using Juggernaught's gear:
SV/MM Summary: a) 2.7 speed weapons and faster cause delays to your autoshots and you loose a good chunk of dps as a result. (note speed of bottom 3 places on the dps chart.) These weapons are not suitable for a MM/SV hunter. b) 2.8 speed weapons cause a minor delay to autoshots and with it a minor loss of dps, but are still viable for SV/MM Hunters. (notice Steelhawk compared to Wrathtide) BM Hunter: Theorycrafted using BM Hunters' gear:
BM Summary: a) BM hunters main source of dps comes from the steady shots they fire between each autoshot due to the special way in which steady shot damage is calculated (and this bit is quite important)
That is why a fast weapon speed is so important for BM hunters, as steady shot dps directly increases with weapon speed. Summary How to sum that up? Well... 1. 2.7 or faster weapons come top of the BM dps list and bottom of the SV/MM list. These are designed for BM hunters using an autoshot, steady shot rotation. 2. 2.8 speed weapons are equally as ok for either spec. 3. 2.9 or slower weapons come top of the MM/SV list and bottom of the BM list. These are designed for MM/SV hunters. Secondly, weapon stats are sometimes more important than raw weapon dps alone: For example Tuskbreaker is the same speed as the Sunfury, but has 3dps more. However, for SV/MM spec it will do less actual dps due to it's lack of decent stats. ---------------------------------------------------------- *A lthough the actual dps value you achieve with each weapon will change with your own gear/talents, the order of the weapons in the lists will not change. Wrathtide will always give more dps that Steelhawk for example. **BM hunters can use Multi-shot or Arcane Shot in your rotation inplace of Steady Shot when they are avilable for a small dps increase (depending on the target's armor) ***Note: The BM hunter dps listed does not include pet dps which is why it seems lower than SV/MM hunter. ****I have excluded the Rfile of the Stoic Guardian - at 1.9 speed it is way too fast to be of any use to a hunter, and actually comes dead last on both lists. *****Cheeky's hunter dps calc spreadsheet - http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t9816-hunter_spreadsheets_development/ [ Post edited by Juggernaught ] Hunters: Designed to Grind... |
by Vaneras | 27/11/2007 15:34:12 This thread has been added to the “Informative and useful hunter threads” compilations sticky: Informative and useful Hunter threads http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=304172592 |
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