Currently if you have some decent gear (wow-heroes score ~2800 or above), MM is the best dps spec. Imo MM playstyle is not much different from that of Survival but there are a few things need to be careful. Below are some tips for those who are interested in raiding as MM.
1) Spec
Some sample specs:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZ0eVsRhzGIsguqox00bhttp://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZ0eAoRhzGIsguqox00bhttp://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxbZ0eVoRuzGIsguAox00b- because of our high crit rate at current level of gear, 1 point in Go for the Throat is usually enough.
- I recommend spending one point in Trueshot Aura. Even though only one hunter or Blood DK is needed to provide the 10% AP buff for the whole raid, you can't guarantee there is always someone else doing this, especially in 10-man. Besides, for certain fights there is range problem if the buff is provided by someone else.
- Whether to spec Imp Arcane Shot (and actually using it in your rotation) depends on how much ArmPen you have on your gear. If you have at least ~300 ArmPen, it is probably a dps gain to take out Arcane Shot. You can play with
http://www.femaledwarf.com to see which is better for you.
- If you specced 3/3 Imp Hunter's Mark, you should consider getting Glyph of Hunter's Mark too as their effect multiply. In that case, try your best to keep your own Hunter's Mark on the boss all the time as it can be overwritten by lower ranks from other hunters.
2) Gear:
Stats Priority:
1.
Hit rating (until hit cap)
2.
Agility3. ArmPen actually becomes quite good at higher level. Nevertheless, it is normally not recommended to gem for it as Agility produces higher dps gain. Again, check it with femaledwarf.com if in doubt.
3. Attack Power and Crit rating: may enchant AP on bracers and 2-hander, as well as crit on Icewalker and Accuracy, but normally we don't gem for these stats except +10 agi/10 crit gems for yellow sockets with agi bonus.
4. Intellect: useful but normally don't enchant or gem for it
5. Haste rating: the weakest dps stats for hunters of any spec. NEVER enchant or gem for it!
Hit rating needed for Hit cap:
No point in Focused Aim: 263 hit rating
1 point: 230
2 points: 197
3 points: 164
Any hit rating above Hit cap is useless, so make sure your hit rating isn't overshot too much.
So the gem choices are obvious following the above rules:
Meta:
Relentless Earthsiege Diamond is the best choice, miles ahead of any other meta gems
Red:
+20 agi, or
+10 agi/+10 hit if not hit-capped
Yellow:
+20 hit or
+10 agi/+10 hit. If you don't need hit,
+10 agi/+10 crit if the socket bonus is agi, otherwise
+20 agi and ignore the socket bonus.
Blue:
+10 all stat (i.e.
Nightmare Tear. Every hunter should have one of this to activate the meta, as all other blue gems suck), or ignore the socket bonus and put in any red, orange or yellow gems mentioned above. Use
+10 agi/+15 sta or
+10 hit/+15 sta ONLY if the socket bonus is something like +8 agi or +6 hit
Enchant:
Head: Knight of the Ebon Blade enchant
Shoulder: Son of the Hodir AP/Crit enchant
Chest: +8 all stats or +10 all stats
Belt: remember the Eternal Belt Buckle!
Legs: Icescale Leg Armor (+75 AP/+22 Crit)
Boots: Icewalker (+12 hit and crit), or +16 agi if you don't need the hit, or Nitro Boost if you are engineer
Wrist: +50 AP, or LW enchant if you are LW
Gloves: +20 hit, or +20 agi if you don't need the hit, or Hyperspeed Accelerator if you are engineer
Rings: +AP if you are enchanter
Cloak: +22 agi, or Flexweave Underlay if you are engineer
Gun: +40 crit scope
1-hand weapon: Accuracy (+25 hit and crit), or +26 agi if don't need the hit
2-hand weapon: Accuracy (+25 hit and crit), or Massacre (+110 AP)
3) Shot priority:
This may vary a bit depending on your gear and spec.
(0. Hunter's Mark)
1. Serpent Sting (normally you only need to cast this once per mob, as Chimera Shot will refresh it.)
2. Chimera Shot (always make sure Serpent Sting debuff is on the mob before firing Chimera!)
3. Kill Shot
4. (Arcane Shot) (you may or may not have Arcane Shot in your normal rotation, as explained above.)
5. Aimed Shot
6. Steady Shot
NOTE: Silencing Shot should be fired on every cooldown but I don't list it here because you should have it macro'ed into all your other shots! This is because Silencing Shot is off global cooldown, so macro'ing it into all other shots and you will automatically fire two shots hitting one button every 20 seconds. Check my macro thread for the exact macro.
When to use Rapid Fire and Readiness?Use Rapid Fire early. Combined with Misdirection, you don't need to worry about pulling aggro even if you use it immediately after pull. Use Readiness when both Chimera Shot and Rapid Fire are on cooldown. When the first Rapid Fire wear off, use it again. For the subsequence Readiness, I usually wait for Rapid Fire to finish CD first, so that I can Rapid Fire > Readiness > Rapid Fire again.
Also, it is better not to have Rapid Fire overlapping with shamans' Bloodlust, as you may overshoot the haste soft-cap which means part of the speed boost is not utilized efficiently.
Remember to order your pet to attack! (Seriously, I frequently see hunters don't use the pet, which means 15-20% lower dps even for MM/Survival Hunters.) Make sure your pets' special attacks are on autocast.
4) Addons: (please check the addons thread for details)
Recount
Deadly Boss Mods
Omen
Power Auras Classic
5) Links:
http://tkasomething.com/ A very good hunter forum
http://forums.tkasomething.com/showthread.php?t=13970 An excellent hunter guide at tkasomething.com
http://www.femaledwarf.com/ A web based adaptation of Shandara's Hunter DPS Spreadsheet. Use this to plan your gear and maximize your dps!
http://elitistjerks.com/f74/ EJ's hunter subforum
Hope this helps. Feel free to add your comments or tips here.
