Black Arrow vs Fire traps

[Deleted]

Mastery only buffs elemental damage, so not our Black Arrow, right?

Just wondering, since it fire traps are so focus-cheap.

Why am I using Black Arrow anyway?

[3clipse]

Black Arrow deals more damage and is technically "Elemental" damage (Elemental damage is anything not Physical).

[gutsandguns]

Lock and load procs

Edit - ignore me

[deadlok]

what both of them said above together.

[gront]

Fire traps nonetheless do procc l'n'l more often than BA.

[Tbandit]

Yeah black arrow is still your best bet. But there could be situations to use the traps, very few though...

[pateuvasiliu]

Fire traps nonetheless do procc l'n'l more often than BA.

no,they don't

Black Arrow,takes less time to put(considering you have to use Trap Launcher and aim it)

[Deleted]

Mastery
All of our "spell" (non-physical) damage is affected by this stat. This is almost all of our abilities except for auto shot and multi shot. By specializing in Survival you get 8% elemental damage plus 1% per percent of mastery. At level 85, 179.28 mastery (same as crit) gives 1% damage. Mastery also reportedly affects various non-hunter abilities and procs, such as [Darkmoon Card: Hurricane] and engineering effects.

(Source)

[Deleted]

Black Arrow is still better that traps in single target.Its have more damage done and are instant effect unlike the time you will lose to launch a trap.Also trap can broke someone CC ability in multiple mobs fight (rings of Frost and DK frost Tombs).
If you want Lock and Load launch freeze/Frost trap so you wont broke some close CC and chances are better

[Deleted]

Last time I checked only Frost/Freezing Trap procced Lock and Load.

Black Arrow should be essential to your SV rotation regardless. The damage is insane and with 4p T11 black arrow becomes even more insane.

[xuros]

Last time I checked only Frost/Freezing Trap procced Lock and Load.

Black Arrow should be essential to your SV rotation regardless. The damage is insane and with 4p T11 black arrow becomes even more insane.

Explosive trap procs lock and load. I use it instead of BA on fights like Halfus when I'm AEing the whelps down. Fast ticks and more ticks on a shit ton of targets at one time.

Single Target go BA.

[tibben]

Last time I checked only Frost/Freezing Trap procced Lock and Load.

Black Arrow should be essential to your SV rotation regardless. The damage is insane and with 4p T11 black arrow becomes even more insane.

You apparently didn't spec into TNT like all the other SV hunters then. It's that ability just below Lock and Load with the arrow pointing to it for future reference.

Explosive Trap is best used on targets that will remain stationary throughout the duration of the trap or on AoE packs. Black Arrow is better used on bosses that will be moving out of your trap before it's duration has expired. Explosive trap not only has more ticks in the same time period for more chances to proc LnL, but it also costs substantially less focus if you use the glyph of trap launcher.

And back on topic, Black Arrow is considered "elemental" damage for the purposes of the SV mastery and does benefit from it. If you have any doubts that the boss will be remaining stationary for the entire duration of an Explosive Trap then just use Black Arrow.

[Luphy]

In AoE fights you should be using explosive trap, on single targets or CC fights (something like that?) you should use black arrow but only if it will last for most of it duration. No point using it on a person with 100k health if the entire groups hitting it.

[harky]

no,they don't

Black Arrow,takes less time to put(considering you have to use Trap Launcher and aim it)

Unless you're bad and not used to Trap Launcher this is absolutely wrong. Explosive Trap does indeed give you a better chance to proc Lock and Load. Both have a 12% chance per hit, but Explosive hits 10 times rather than 5. This means Black Arrow procs LNL around 48% of the time, while Explosive Trap procs LNL around 73% of the time.

Since the buff to Black Arrow it's not worth using Explosive Trap anymore. The slightly higher proc rate on LNL is not worth the damage loss from the trap. ET has been out of the rotation since the buff to BA hit live two weeks before Cata launch.

[Arrowsong]

My Black Arrow ticks for about 4-7k in Heroics compared to the total damage of 6k my Explosive Trap causes on single target fights. Correct me if I'm work but isn't there an internal CD for LNL? So once it procs your not going to see it again regardless of you using Black Arrow or Explosive Trap.

[seraphien]

Well for me, my lock and load proc back to back using Explosive trap. Not sure what causing it but my guess is the game calculate the chance to proc on a mob by mob basis. I.e I explosive trap 3 mob, 1st Mob proc lock and load for me, within 4 second, I discharge 2 shot of explosive shot, while the explosive trap is still active, chances are 2nd or 3rd mob on it still can proc it for me.

Not confirmed but just a theory from me, cause there are many instances of lock and load procing for me when I using explosive trap.

[Deleted]

Well for me, my lock and load proc back to back using Explosive trap. Not sure what causing it but my guess is the game calculate the chance to proc on a mob by mob basis. I.e I explosive trap 3 mob, 1st Mob proc lock and load for me, within 4 second, I discharge 2 shot of explosive shot, while the explosive trap is still active, chances are 2nd or 3rd mob on it still can proc it for me.

Not confirmed but just a theory from me, cause there are many instances of lock and load procing for me when I using explosive trap.

Seen the same, Exp trap seems to procc multiple L&L proccs within the same trap.

[Deleted]

Experienced the same, when i throw my explosive trap on a bunch of mobs L&L does proc, sometimes more than 1 time!

[Aroo]

My Black Arrow ticks for about 4-7k in Heroics compared to the total damage of 6k my Explosive Trap causes on single target fights. Correct me if I'm work but isn't there an internal CD for LNL? So once it procs your not going to see it again regardless of you using Black Arrow or Explosive Trap.

There is an iCD on LnL. However, I think they separate them out into two categories: damage-based procs, and ice-trap based procs. I've never seen a back to back LnL off using BA and then launching a fire trap. But I have seen back to back LnL from a BA and an Ice trap.
I've also seen back to back LnL when using Explosive or Fire traps by themselves.
It's buggy... let's just say that. And given the 6 (or 4) second cooldown on Explosive, I think the 22-second iCD is pretty lame.

Also keep in mind that only one Hunter can effectively use Explosive trap at a time. There's no overlap of area, so the mobs will only take ticks off one trap.