Does your hunter feel weak at lower gear levels?

[Bigbog987]

I could be dead wrong but back in cata LFR I could do 35-40k dps on a boss I had 388 item level, playing as survival. But no when I do lfr I actually do less dps then I did at 85. I do about 35k as BM and when I burst (Pre-pot, food,flask, hero,burst macro) I do about 60k which is good but im 463 item level and I just feel weak. I know blizzard hate hunters, I love my hunter but my 90 mage might get new love I saw those patch notes for them, yum. But anyway I love my hunter I just feel weak.I did female dwarf so a top geared hunter his ilevel was 511 and his projected dps was only 78k. Does it get better with more gear?

[Nemesis003]

you did something wrong... i have 505 ilvl and FD puts me at 112k

[Zoomin]

My hunter is about 459 iL and I pull around 45-50k on bosses in LFR as survival. Nothing impressive but by no means does it make me feel weak.

[Daetur]

Your combat ratings were better for your level in 388 gear in Cataclysm-- you had a greater % crit, % haste, % mastery, et cetera, because you were in extremely good gear for your level. This is why you feel proportionately weak right now.

This is only the first tier of Mists. It actually most closely equates to 359 gear, the item level of the first tier of Cataclysm, not to 388 gear. A "top geared" player right now would be the equivalent of a 372-geared player at the end of Cataclysm.

[Deleted]

I'm playing a Hunter alt at 476 ilvl, with a 471 Gun. I know my priority rotations and my openers and while I'll never claim 100% perfect execution of them, I don't make too many mistakes. Overall, considering I don't have Taoren yet, my damage is completely fine. I'll record an LFR next week to show you my logs.

TLDR: A lot obviously depends on your ranged weapon, but I don't think Hunters are substantially weaker than several other classes or specializations at lower gear levels.

[shoogo1337]

sadly we hunters are gear dependent (if you hadn't already known) ,but atm i'm BM and I have the crappy blue bow from SM and have a itm lv of 483 and am pulling 70k but my roommate with almost the same gear but better weapon is pushing 80k

[clevin]

Yes, I do. For example, a group of us did the elite in Domination Point (the Warlord) who has 100m hp and is a patchwerk style fight. I lost my pet early and didn't rez, so that's an issue but even then blowing CDs and doing a rotation well as SV I did... 40k. As a 474 geared hunter. Now, yes, we had few/no buffs so raid DPS is better (60ishk in most LFRs) but single target SV DPS blows chunks compared to, say, a mage in similar gear. Would a better weapon help? Sure, I'm using a 463 blue from a scenario upgraded to 471... but there are two clearly better PVE weapons out there, Fang Kung off Will and Taoren off Lei Shi. TWO.

Before people note that SV has great AOE... I know. On trash packs I can pull 100k easily and with a lucky string of crits and a ton of mobs I've actually topped 200k (once). But that's trash. And before people tell me I must be bad... I'm not. I'm not uber, but I keep up Serpent, BA, use abilities on CD, etc. If you grade me on the US school system scale I'm probably a B+/A- hunter usually, depending on mood and stuff.

[Irzerg]

Just saying from LFR POV.

I play my hunter as an alt now with 478ilvl, SV, DPS ranged between 65-72k depending which fight.
For AOE fight such as Windlord, you can easily pull 170k DPS onwards, or padding meter in Stone guard ~100k-110k. I'm using a 463 heroic gun and upgraded to 471. For fight such as Will, i only manage ard 60k due to constant swaping to adds (u know how LFR's are). a weapon upgrade (489, or 496) will be a huge jump in DPS.
If you are comparing a >500ilvl to 478ilvl, the dps is likely to be near double.

[PBitt]

Well, yeah, I felt *weak* when I was in my lower ilvls starting out, and yes, good gear does make a big difference but doing good BM dps really relies on you using your plethora of CDs properly, otherwise your overall dmg is going to suck. And yeah, don't forget at the end of an expansion your stats are going to be off the wall compared to what they are in the beginning of an expansion. If you're doing 60k with that ilvl you are doing just fine, however, that's roughly what I started off doing and I can push over 100k sustained with a 497 ilvl now. Unless you're in a top world guild that's really competitive, hunters are just fine damage-wise, they just don't have the prettiest rotation atm and sustained damage is lacking.

[Jeremypwnz]

Back in Cata, I was in best in slot besides the expertise ring that never dropped. I was doing about 52k patchwerk style. After getting to level 90 with roughly 440-455 gear, I could not for the life of me get over 45k dps. Once I hit 465, I started going over 50k. 470, I was getting like 55k. Something something 496 ilvl doing like 100k now.

[Tehterokkar]

Back in Cata, I was in best in slot besides the expertise ring that never dropped. I was doing about 52k patchwerk style. After getting to level 90 with roughly 440-455 gear, I could not for the life of me get over 45k dps. Once I hit 465, I started going over 50k. 470, I was getting like 55k. Something something 496 ilvl doing like 100k now.

Same for me, did 50-53k DPS each week on Ultraxion with BiS gear, dinged 90 and was doing 40-45k tops. After heroic grinding and our first raid, I believe I did around 60k on our first Feng kill. Now with ~500 ilLvl I do around 110k on Feng HC