Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Spec haggling: Improved Hunter's Mark and the EJ's Armor Pen Results

Now that I'm finally somewhere that actually relies on their fellow raiders for buffs and spec compromise accordingly, I'm taking another look at my spec.

Once I joined the guild hunter channel, we started discussing builds. I was neither the Armor Pen build, nor the Hunter's Mark build, since I dislike relying on another individual to provide the buffs and stats I need (i.e. hit). But it's got me thinking.

Right now, my ArP is a lackluster 208 (~17%). Reading the Elitist Jerks thread, I came to the conclusion that while it all works in theory, it's relying heavily on the reliance of others and good ol' fashion chance. Also, the spreadsheet faults latency, making cooldown-reducing glyphs useless, not to mention using the complete BiS for Ulduar, where 1-3 of those are usually icky leather and have both of the rings from the Algalon quest line. There is nothing about survivability or mana issues in there, just pumping out the damage, which is, of course, it's intention. I can upgrade my shoulders and belt to give me an additional 100 ArP easily enough.

The Armor Pen spec also focuses on removing Arcane Shot from the rotation completely, instead making the normal rotation (not priority) Chimera -> Aimed -> Steady -> Steady -> Steady -> Steady, since it is working on upping physical damage over magic. This I find very interesting, and since I am currently hit capped (and more) and with the surplus of hit on gear, I have no intentions of going into Focused Aim. So, maybe Hunter's Mark instead?

Here is what I am thinking. The only difference is moving a point out of Imp. Steady Shot (which is where I am now) back into Trueshot, since I can't stand the thought of not having my precious symbol of Marksmanship, and remaining glyphed for it. I would loose a point in Rapid Recuperation overall.

Thoughts? I can easily be swayed on my glyphs, now that I'm not the only one bringing 10% increase AP to the raids, and Blizzard still hasn't fixed the overwrite bug. But since I am dropping Arcane Shot, I want to buff my Aimed as much as possible (hence going back into 3/3 Imp. Barrage) We also have one hunter that evidently refuses to waste a GCD on trivial things such as Hunter's Mark, Misdirection, or Feign Death and others who will happily stop marking, so I'm not too concerned about it being overwritten.

Already I have some reservations about spamming Steady Shot like that - that is a lot of standing time.

5 comments:

Fig said...

Personally, I use this http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZceAoRhzrIotuAox00b:fai as my current build, using Steady Shot glyph over TSA. Since we're relying on pure physical damage steady shots will be fired at a greater frequency once Aimed and Chim are on cooldown, so to me, buffing that consistent damage is worth more than buffing the crit chance of aimed shot since under a full contingent of raid buffs I'm running at roughly 54.75% crit not factoring in my troll racial bonus.

I use focused aim because I'm having trouble getting gear to drop that has hit, but I honestly can't find any better place to put those points if I were to cap hit through gear alone and I can pick up gear that itemizes for straight DPS stats that would outweigh the 'lost' 3 talent points in such a build. Compare the Boots of Living Scale to the Greaves of Swift Vengeance for example.

Kheldul said...

OutDPS has had a few good posts on MM ArP that you may want to read. Not all that glowing!

Negathle said...

I did read that post, and the reservations are the same as mine: The movement heavy fights in Ulduar.

Negathle said...

@Shagrat

You are killing Aimed Shot with that spec and a lot of damage comes from it. It has priority before Arcane.

Fig said...

Neg-You're right. Bad spec is bad /facepalm *tweaks*

I've been running without Arcane for quite some time now and even though my ArP isn't spectactular either, the DPS increase has still been noticeable. I still stand by using the Steady Shot glyph over TSA though.