Hello everyone, my name is CptBattler and quite recently I read a thread of someone that was struggling with doing good dps as a hunter so I started writing some tips for his rotations, reforges and gems, While doing this I just kept on writing and ended up with 9 pages of content so I figured I’d just turn it into a full guide. Also I in no way claim to be the best hunter or anything like that, I know how to play hunter and felt like It’d be nice if I helped other aswell. Sorry for not including MM but I don't play this spec in PVE and have very little knowledge of it compared to BM and Surv.
I know it’s quite extensive but you can read as little or as much as you want but I figured I’d just give you all I know.
the rest will be located in the posts after this, use CTF+F when looking for a specific thing.
It is also possible your rotation might be a problem, there are some simple guidelines which should help you improve quickly.
BM:
1. Serpent Sting Apply once. Refresh with Cobra Shot.
2. Focus Fire with 5 Frenzy.
3. Kill Command on cooldown.
4. Kill Shot Target below 20% Health.
5. Glaive Toss on cooldown.
6. Arcane Shot when over 70 focus
7. Cobra Shot Build Focus. when under 70 focus
8. Arcane Shot when under 70 focus
Survival:
1. Black Arrow on cooldown.(if you have Assurance use it 1 seconds before it is about to run out)
2. Serpent Sting Apply once. Refresh with Cobra Shot.
3. Explosive Shot on cooldown. Cast multiple with Lock and Load.
4. Kill Shot when target is below 20% Health.
5. Glaive Toss on cooldown.
6. Arcane Shot when over 67 focus.
7. Cobra Shot to build Focus.
if you want to get real in depth, here goes:
On your pull it should look something like this:
BM:
3 seconds before pull: Misdirect on whichever tank starts
2 seconds before pull: Virmen's Bite(agility potion)
1 second before pull: Glaive toss+Bestial Wrath
Pull: Stampede
Rapid Fire+Serpent sting (this is mostly to force trinkets to proc)
Killcomand
and then your normal rotation
Survival
3 seconds before pull: Misdirect on whichever tank starts
2 second before pull:Rapid Fire+Virmen's Bite(agility potion)+Glaive toss
1 second before pull: Black Arrow
Pull: Stampede
Explosive Shot
Serpent Sting
Murder of Crows(if you have)
if anywhere in this process Lock N' Load procs this takes priority.
Some extra info about your offensive cooldowns:
Bestial wrath, when you see this coming up within the next ~4 seconds pool some focus, you want to be around 90 focus once you enter bestial wrath because cobra shotting is a DPS loss during BW.
Stampede, stampede you want to just use off cooldown because of it's strength, if you have pots always sinc up pots with your stampede because stampede is without a doubt your strongest cooldown. If you have AoC it becomes a bit more complicated because you stampede usages changes based on the duration of a fight, if you think/know that you'll be able to stampede 3 times in a fight you just use it off cooldown but if you can't it better to delay your 2nd stampede for the 3rd AoC proc.
Rapid fire, thanks to our 2 set we will have an insane amount of uptime on rapid fire, at higher gear levels you can get really close to 25% on it, Because of our 2-set we just want to use it off cooldown, unless BW is coming up within 10 seconds then you want to save it until it has 5 second cd on BW.
Focus Fire, this is basically the same as Rapid fire except it lgives your pet 30 focus that's why you shouldn't use it if your pet is over 85 focus. Focus fire also lasts 5 seconds longer than Rapid Fire and gives 10% haste lessm that's why you can use it when BW is still at 10 seconds CD so you'll get the full effect of it, if BW is over 15 seconds left on CD you just want to use it off cooldown.
Fervor, Fervor is a talent with a high skillcap, when using Fervor(which I highly recommend) only use it when you are below 50 focus, prefferably when your pet is also below 50 focus to really optimise DPS.
Dire beast, I really don't think you should ever use this talent in it's current state because it just gives less focus than Fervor, and it doesn't give focus to your pet, you might think:"but with BM mastery it will do alot of damage" you sort of right, it does do damage, not alot but it is damage but it is nothing compared to what your pet can do with a well timed Fervor.
A Murder of Crows, this is basically your go-to talent as Survival an most of the fights, you just use this off cooldown but only when you are 100% sure it will be able to stay on the boss and do damage for the full duration.
This is the end of the first part, more will come in the next posts.
I know it’s quite extensive but you can read as little or as much as you want but I figured I’d just give you all I know.
the rest will be located in the posts after this, use CTF+F when looking for a specific thing.
It is also possible your rotation might be a problem, there are some simple guidelines which should help you improve quickly.
BM:
1. Serpent Sting Apply once. Refresh with Cobra Shot.
2. Focus Fire with 5 Frenzy.
3. Kill Command on cooldown.
4. Kill Shot Target below 20% Health.
5. Glaive Toss on cooldown.
6. Arcane Shot when over 70 focus
7. Cobra Shot Build Focus. when under 70 focus
8. Arcane Shot when under 70 focus
Survival:
1. Black Arrow on cooldown.(if you have Assurance use it 1 seconds before it is about to run out)
2. Serpent Sting Apply once. Refresh with Cobra Shot.
3. Explosive Shot on cooldown. Cast multiple with Lock and Load.
4. Kill Shot when target is below 20% Health.
5. Glaive Toss on cooldown.
6. Arcane Shot when over 67 focus.
7. Cobra Shot to build Focus.
if you want to get real in depth, here goes:
On your pull it should look something like this:
BM:
3 seconds before pull: Misdirect on whichever tank starts
2 seconds before pull: Virmen's Bite(agility potion)
1 second before pull: Glaive toss+Bestial Wrath
Pull: Stampede
Rapid Fire+Serpent sting (this is mostly to force trinkets to proc)
Killcomand
and then your normal rotation
Survival
3 seconds before pull: Misdirect on whichever tank starts
2 second before pull:Rapid Fire+Virmen's Bite(agility potion)+Glaive toss
1 second before pull: Black Arrow
Pull: Stampede
Explosive Shot
Serpent Sting
Murder of Crows(if you have)
if anywhere in this process Lock N' Load procs this takes priority.
Some extra info about your offensive cooldowns:
Bestial wrath, when you see this coming up within the next ~4 seconds pool some focus, you want to be around 90 focus once you enter bestial wrath because cobra shotting is a DPS loss during BW.
Stampede, stampede you want to just use off cooldown because of it's strength, if you have pots always sinc up pots with your stampede because stampede is without a doubt your strongest cooldown. If you have AoC it becomes a bit more complicated because you stampede usages changes based on the duration of a fight, if you think/know that you'll be able to stampede 3 times in a fight you just use it off cooldown but if you can't it better to delay your 2nd stampede for the 3rd AoC proc.
Rapid fire, thanks to our 2 set we will have an insane amount of uptime on rapid fire, at higher gear levels you can get really close to 25% on it, Because of our 2-set we just want to use it off cooldown, unless BW is coming up within 10 seconds then you want to save it until it has 5 second cd on BW.
Focus Fire, this is basically the same as Rapid fire except it lgives your pet 30 focus that's why you shouldn't use it if your pet is over 85 focus. Focus fire also lasts 5 seconds longer than Rapid Fire and gives 10% haste lessm that's why you can use it when BW is still at 10 seconds CD so you'll get the full effect of it, if BW is over 15 seconds left on CD you just want to use it off cooldown.
Fervor, Fervor is a talent with a high skillcap, when using Fervor(which I highly recommend) only use it when you are below 50 focus, prefferably when your pet is also below 50 focus to really optimise DPS.
Dire beast, I really don't think you should ever use this talent in it's current state because it just gives less focus than Fervor, and it doesn't give focus to your pet, you might think:"but with BM mastery it will do alot of damage" you sort of right, it does do damage, not alot but it is damage but it is nothing compared to what your pet can do with a well timed Fervor.
A Murder of Crows, this is basically your go-to talent as Survival an most of the fights, you just use this off cooldown but only when you are 100% sure it will be able to stay on the boss and do damage for the full duration.
This is the end of the first part, more will come in the next posts.
