The Hunter Dance – Part I (I’ll continue to put previous version links at the top for reference and for ease)
What’s one of the biggest terms, aside from Huntard, when talking about a Hunter and their skill? Their “Shot Rotation”. Ironically enough, it’s no different from “Spell Rotation” on other classes. After all, the other DPS are using their spells/hits in the best order for the most Damage, healers for their healing, tanks for threat, etc. Yet you don’t hear about the others quite as often. Why? Because a slight change for everyone else doesn’t have such an amazing affect. I won’t go into full theory crafting here for which rotations are best, pull out a target dummy, etc. because I just don’t have the time. All it takes is one boss fight to understand what I discuss here. And the main point too, is that there is no best “rotation”, but rather a Hunter needs to be flexible and able to change in the middle of a fight rather than mash buttons in a pre-determined order.
First – The primary timer we’re looking at is not the casting timer. Most of our shots are instant cast (aside from Steady Shot, of course, or Volley which is channeled, but you know what I mean). Thus the real timer for hunters is cooldowns (CD’s) combined with the GCD.
Shot rotations have changed over time. Many people have focused on spamming steady shot. It gives you extra damage (especially now that autoshot is no longer clip’d) and it’s brainless. Easy Huntard thing to do. No. There is way more to it now. Here’s a couple reasons why:
- No more clipping of autoshot.
- Arcane Shot had it’s mana requirement nerfed.
- We have endless mana ßThis one will be covered in a later section.
- You can be more effective by doing additional shots
Ok, so now we ask – what else should we be doing? Well, there’s a couple shots out there to play with.
The first is Arcane Shot. Instant cast shot that packs a punch (especially depending on your talent tree). If the CD on this one is up – use it. No further discussion.
Next? Multi-Shot. Again, instant cast, hits 3 targets, and packs a punch. For me, this one regularly crits, and each bullet has a chance to crit, so you could theoretically (and I often do) do 6 times as much damage in one blast with this sucker (yes, I’ve done combined dmg of 7.5k with it). It’s also useful when combined with a MD, as referenced in Part I. A lot goes on with this one, so it’s not a “Is the CD up? Yes – fire!”. For starters – this is an easy way to be called a Huntard when what you really have is a Retardin or similar tank. The reason? If a CC’d mob is too near the tanking center – your Multi-Shot will hit the CC’d mob. I have no physical proof, but I think Bliz coded it in so that happens. You know – 20 mobs attacking the tank, one CC’d 10 yards away and another 20 yards the other direction, Multi-Shot hits one good shot and breaks both CC’s… But I digress. A smart tank, will ensure everyone knows when and where to use their CC. That way, the CC is in one area, and the tank in another. Many tanks don’t know how Multi-Shot works, so they don’t understand that there needs to be more distance between them and the CC than simply the distance of their AoE. They need to be far enough that you have a clear shot at the 3+ targets on them. Teach the tank about Multi-Shot and they will be happy to see your DPS rise dramatically because they are now a better tank. Now, if the tank repeatedly tanks in a manner that does not allow you to use your Multi-Shot even though the instance allows for it – you’re a Huntard for not telling them. Also in consideration with Multi-Shot is Aimed Shot. They share CD’s, so you’ll need to balance the two. Multi-Shot is for when with multiple targets – Aimed Shot for when with one. It’s a big shot and helps reduce healing to that target. Awesome for PvP! But aside from the DPS, it’s also useful on some trash & bosses! In fact, sometimes it’s more important to lose some of your DPS by casting Aimed Shot than Multi-Shot. And for those, I’m sure I’ll cover it later…
And now for the 3 stings – Serpent Sting, Viper Sting, and Scorpid Sting. Considering they share a CD, you obviously need to determine which one you want to keep up on a mob, or in which order at what times…
We’re a DPS class – Serpent Sting should be your primary choice. I may catch flak from this one, but no joke – of the 3, this is the only one that does damage. Use it. Previously, people said not to use it due to mana drain, which was arguable, but now with endless mana – use the thing. I have been in multiple situations where a Serpent Sting actually killed the boss after I (and most of the group) had died. Use it.
Oh, you’re in PvP? Then use Viper Sting. Mana drain… This is the only place it’s useful. PvE is either too short (aka you kill them before their mana is gone) or the mob is immune (aka a Boss). Simple as that.
Scorpid Sting? This is the one to switch out with Serpent Sting on occasion. First occasion – you’re with another Hunter so you figure out who is using what and split it up. Second occasion? You’re ->| |<- close to finishing the boss, but the tank keeps dying. They just need a little bit more to push them over the edge. Thus you toss this on and the boss does roughly 3% less damage to them (no, not theory crafting here, just a rough estimate based on its intended affect). That may be more important than you doing extra dmg, so be conscientious of this during each fight.
Wow, so much to juggle… Am I done? Nope… Can’t forget Concussive Shot! Well, the only place it is really helpful is on either regular leveling mobs, or possibly trash. Though once you get into Heroics or Raids, everything suddenly seems immune. However, when it works – 50% movement speed is rather effective. This doesn’t help your DPS much, since the mob should never be hitting you, but it does help your pet. Or tank. Neither one of those like being hit more than necessary, so anything you can do to help limit that is good. Happy pet/tank with more health? You’re alive longer to do more dmg.
Traps? Unless you’re survival, they’re generally not worth it. Other than CC (other discussion here)... Simply put, they don’t do enough dmg to outweigh you running into mele range, setting a trap, and then disengaging out. However, if the fight(s) already require a lot of movement, it may be simple and effective to add in a trap.
Btw, don’t forget Mend Pet… It has a CD too… While it doesn’t do DPS itself, it helps keep your pet alive, who is helping your DPS. And if your pet is taking any dmg at all, it’s a good idea to keep this one up. No blaming your pets death on your healer if you didn’t have mend pet up from the start, and your pet wasn’t doing anything to specifically commit suicide.
Less than 20% health on the boss? Of course that means we have an additional shot to think about and use… Kill Shot! Mmmmmmm… Deee Peee eSsss. 3k AP means: (roughly 130 weapon dmg? And it’s doubled so…) 260 + 1.2k + 650 which means you do a base hit of 2,110 dmg. However, and this is one of the reasons I don’t really theorycraft, I regularly do between 6 & 8k dmg on this with crits. Either way, this one gets used every time it comes up on a boss fight. And that’s over every other shot you’ve got.
I should probably also point out the Volley can be useful too. No, we’re not an AoE class. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t AoE – it just means we only AoE when there’s a good reason. Such as, there’s 20 mobs w/ little to no health attacking the tank. If there’s 4 or 5? Volley is a waste of mana because you can do more damage with other shots and use less mana.
And on top of all those that you’re balancing… There’s aspects too. Thankfully they’re off the GCD (finally!) so you can pretty much pop in and out of them as necessary, but that is for another section.
So now that I’ve outlined the different shots that Hunters have and general rules of how and when to use each one individually… The Hunter Dance is the ability to weave them together, shot after shot, for maximum effect. Any idiot can say “my shot rotation is steady arcane steady steady arcane”. You can even make macros that do it for you! However, that idiot would also be labeled Huntard. Thus, in any given fight, a Hunter will juggle the above as necessary. I can look at a fight and decide if I will need to use arcane, concussive shot, scorpid sting and aimed shot. The next fight it could be better to use arcane, multi and serpent. Or, in the middle of the fight, different needs arise and you need to change up what you’re doing right then and there. Thus the dance of bouncing between them all to maximum effect for each fight.
