Advice for high level hunter?

[thatmadgirl]

So I came back to playing WoW after about a year and a half (I played for a few months after Cata hit and then took a break) just before MoP, and now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things in playing my main, a hunter. Even in Cata I ran heroics sometimes but never raided, and I was never topping the damage meters but felt like I was

Comments

[divinite]

Just with a quick glance, your hit is low and I'm guessing your expertise is probably low. For dungeons you want to be at 5.5% of each (IIRC, I always just aim for the 7.5% needed for raids). Getting to hit cap will help a lot. A huge amount of your damage will depend on your ranged weapon. You may want to check the AH for a Ennadee's Twirling Longbow which is a world drop. There's also an ilvl 425 gun, and a a lot of others from quest rewards and other places. Getting your ranged weapon damage up will help your dps considerably

[thatmadgirl]

Hey thanks, this is really helpful

[divinite]

Agi>hit/exp to cap>crit>haste>mastery

For questing I actually use Blink Strike (Lynx Rush for instances). There are advantages to both. If you're going into a group then Lynx Rush will provide a considerable advantage while questing. Blink Strike provides a nice snap aggro for your pet and with its 20 second cooldown is up almost every pull (if not every other). I find if I'm doing dailies as SV (my Lynx Rush build) I pull aggro off whatever it is I'm attacking pretty easy. I also typically forget to change my pets spec from ferocity to tenacity so I'm sure that doesn't help. In BM I just Blink Strike, Kill Command, put up a SS and the pet can take care of it (great for when I have things to gather). I use a spirit beast for the heal and if I get into a tough spot, I use Stampede (also glyphed, all spirit beasts, all pop their special heal at once) and I'm typically no longer in trouble.

[auroraceleste]

What's your starting rotation like? You should have Dire Beast, Lynx Rush, and Glaive Toss in there after Black Arrow (which should be before Explosive Shot). The starting rotation should be:

Serpent - Black Arrow - Rapid Fire - Dire Beast - Lynx Rush - Stampede - Glaive Toss - Explosive Shot - Cobra till Black Arrow - Black Arrow - Readiness - Rapid Fire - Dire Beast- Lynx Rush - Stampede - Glaive Toss - Explosive Shot - regular rotation. Dire Beast, Lynx Rush, Glaive Toss, and Rapid Fire should all be used as soon as their cooldown is up after that.

[thatmadgirl]

Helpful, thanks!

The reason I was hitting Explosive first is that Black Arrow uses so much focus that I always find myself unable to do anything else after, but it probably does make sense to hit it first anyway.

And honestly it didn't occur to me to use dire beast in dungeons. I kind of keep forgetting that I have those since I'm so new to the new talent system. The commenter above also suggested that I switch from Murder of Crows to Lynx Rush though so I'll throw those into the rotation. And I'm not quite 90 yet, but then Glaive will be going in there!

[cupcakeofdoom]

A big thing outside of hit, which has already been mentioned, is Hunters are now using expertise without it a lot of your shots are going to be dodged which is a bad thing.
Also not to knock SV/MM because they are probably my favorite specs to play but you should check out BM right now. It's honestly the top DPS spec for hunters, especially if you get a higher DPS pet. To give you an idea at level 40 with a 465 ilvl in SV I pull roughly about 40k dps, in BM I'm closer to 60k.

Check out askmrrobot.com for reforging advice, and gear advice.

[ghosts]

That's a high ilvl for level 40 :p

[wyndigo]

Good gear with help a lot, so again don't worry until 90 really. As far as Talents go, it doesn't really matter what you pick, but you have to remember to use it! Especially the focus ones. Thrill of the Hunt is what I use, since it procs so often and I don't have to remember to press a button for it. By the way, Aspect of the Iron Hawk doesn't boost your dps. It replaces normal Hawk which is also a 10% boost to attack power. So it goes from 10%AtK to 10%ATk and 15%damagereduction.