Thread: MM Hunter Guide (4.3)

Everyone is open to contribute to this thread, if you have some information / numbers that are valid and/or other information, feel free to post and I will see to it that the thread is updated.

Note: This is a gathering of info from various sites + some of my personal opinions. I do not take credit for everything in this guide. This guide is posted to give a overview of the basics, if you wish to go deeper into the World of Theorycrafting, follow my links.

Table of Content

1.0 Introduction
1.1 A few words
1.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms

2.0 Your Character
2.1 Talents
2.2 Glyphs
- 2.2.1 Prime
- 2.2.2 Major
- 2.2.3 Minor
2.3 Race
2.4 Profession
2.5 Consumables
2.6 Macros

3.0 Your Gear
3.1 Stats
- 3.1.1 Hit
- 3.1.2 Crit
- 3.1.3 Haste
- 3.1.4 Mastery
3.2 Reforging
3.3 Gems
3.4 Enchants

4.0 Haste Plateaus

5.0 Rotations / Priority system

6.0 Pets

7.0 Set Bonuses

8.0 Mods / Tools / Addons

9.0 Change log

10.0 Posters notes

1.0 Introduction

1.1 A few words

In this guide I will gather information found across several sources, and put them in a clean and easy way for the reader to comprehend and understand the material. This guide is meant for PvE purposes only, and should not be followed for PvP or Solo / Dungeons. Most of the DPS comparisons in this thread was done in a 378 T12 set using Femaledwarf.


1.2 Abbreviations / Acronyms


Props to Whitefyst of Elitistjerks for this table.



2.0 Your Character

2.1 Talents

Choosing the correct talents for a raiding MM hunter is fairly simple, as there are few choices to be made. However, there are slight variations, depending on your raid composition.
This 7/31/3 MM spec is the most usual you'll find in raids. This is considered the "cookie-cutter" MM spec, and is usually a good idea.
However, you can safely spec out of Trueshot Aura, if you have a Enhancement Shaman or a Paladin for Blessing of Might present. This can then be placed in Termination, Silencing Shot, etc. This is a personal preference.

The 1/2 in Rapid Killing is to take advantage of the 50 Focus you get from Rapid Recuperation, after you kill a enemy or a player. This is golden on fights with AoE such as Beth'ilac, Ragnaros, Lord Rhyolith, etc. Spamming Multishot might make you get the killing blow, instantly granting you 50 focus, plus of course a 10% damage on your next Aimed / SS.



2.2 Glyphs

2.2.1 Prime Glyphs
There are a few choices to Prime glyphs for MM.
For more detailed information regarding glyphs, please go here.

Glyph of Steady Shot - This is a must have glyph.
Glyph of Arcane Shot
Glyph of Aimed Shot

Choose the glyph based on your playstyle. If you use Aimed Shot as your focus dump, use the Aimed Shot glyph. If you find yourself frequently using Arcane Shot, use the Arcane Shot glyph.

Glyph of Rapid Fire - You'll want to use this glyph as your 3rd slot, as the ones below are sub-par. The Chimera Shot glyph's value isn't what it used to be, specially since you'll be able to achieve high level of haste with Dragon Soul gear, meaning you'll use Aimed Shot to dump focus with, which means you dont have to cast Chimera Shot on cooldown-

These glyphs are your other "real" options, but the above glyphs are my recommendation.
Glyph of Chimera Shot
Glyph of Kill Shot


2.2.2 Major Glyphs

There are no major glyphs that are really "mandatory", they are all pretty useless when it comes to additional DPS. However, there are some used for utility which are a great option.

Glyph of Disengage Is a great option for extra mobility.
Glyph of Trap Launcher Trap Launcher will only cast 10 Focus, which is great when you need to cast a trap further away.
Glyph of Raptor Strike This glyph might seem a weird choice to some, but it's actually really helpful to reduce stress on your healers. Using this before a hard hitting AoE or similar on a boss (If in melee range of course, Ragnaros comes to mind), it will help you survive.

These are the major glyphs I personally recommend, and they've worked really well for me.

2.2.3 Minor Glyphs

There are no minor glyphs worth noting other than Glyph of Revive Pet, which makes it easier for you to ress your pet if it dies. Glyph of Feign Death is also a good choice. The 3rd usually goes to Aspect of the Pack, but it's up to you. It wont impact your dps.


2.3 Race

Since both me and the author of the MM guide on Elitistjerks are a Orc Hunter, it's easier to just copy / paste what he wrote.

Since my character is an Orc, I used him for the basis of comparison. When doing the comparison, I used the same ranged weapon throughout and adjusted crit rating appropriately for assuming the weapon was the kind favored (or not) by that race. Hence, it does not take into account the stats on the currently available best ranged weapon of each type. Analysis was done using Female Dwarf. Note that Female Dwarf averages the benefit of abilities like Blood Fury and Berserking; hence, in game use of the abilities at the correct time with stacking other abilities can result in better DPS than shown below. The difference in DPS between the races with no DPS racial is their base stats at 85.

Troll w/ Bow: Bow Specialization for 1% crit, Berserking for haste, Da Voodoo Shuffle for snare resistance, and Regeneration. The increased value of haste for hunters have made Trolls now the best race. +125 DPS

Orc: Blood Fury for increased AP, Command for increased pet damage, and Hardiness for recovering from stuns/snares faster. Although no longer the best race, orcs are still competitive, especially on fights where your pet is attacking 100% of the time and the hunter is moving a lot and not taking advantage as much of haste effects.

Worgen: Viciousness for 1% crit. Darkflight for increased movement speed and Aberration for decreased curse durations. -125 DPS

Dwarf w/ Gun: Gun Specialization for 1% crit, Frost Resistance, and Stoneform to remove some status ailments. -158 DPS

Troll w/o Bow: Berserking for haste, Da Voodoo Shuffle for snare resistance, and Regeneration. With the increase value of haste for MM hunters, even without a bow, a troll does good DPS. -165 DPS

Draenei: Heroic Presence for 1% hit, Shadow Resistance, and Gift of the Naaru for a heal. -254 DPS

Goblins: Time is Money for 1% attack speed. Rocket Jump for short burst movements and Rocket Barrage for some damage. -277 DPS

Night Elf: Shadowmeld, Nature Resistance, Quickness to avoid damage. -408 DPS

Human: Every Man for Himself to shake off speed reduction and traps. -426 DPS

Blood Elf: Arcane Torrent for silencing nearby enemies and 15 focus every 2 mins and resistance to magic. -427 DPS

Forsaken: Will of the Forsaken to remove certain status effects and Shadow Resistance. -433 DPS

Dwarf w/o Gun: Frost Resistance, and Stoneform to remove some status ailments. -440 DPS

Taurens: War Stomp for a stun, Nature Resistance, and Endurance for extra health. -440 DPS

2.4 Professions

Almost every profession now comes with a +80 agility boost, meaning it doesn't really matter which you take. Some people prefer Engineering and JC, where you can use the Synapse on the Engineering gloves in conjunction with other other cooldowns to improve it's effect.

Herbalism gives a 480 haste rating boost for 20s every 2 minutes, which averages around 40 agility. As Engineering, used with other cooldowns / procs this can more valuable.

The only professions not worth taking are Tailoring, Skinning, Mining.


2.5 Consumables

The only Consumables you should take are

Flask of the Winds
Skewered Eel
Potion of the Tol'vir


2.6 Macros

Macro for Rapid Fire, Racial, Potion of the Tol'vir, and pet Ability
#showtooltip Rapid Fire
/cast Call of the Wild (Ferocity pet)
/cast Roar of Recovery (Cunning pet, might not want to use this with Rapid Fire.)
/cast Blood Fury (Replace with your own racial)
/cast Rapid Fire
/use Potion of the Tol'vir


Macro to Misdirect your Focus, if you have no focus, it will misdirect your pet instead.
#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,exists] Misdirection;[@pet,exists] Misdirection

Usefull macro: /castsequence !Aspect of the Hawk, !Aspect of the Fox
This will make you cast hawk first time you press the button, fox second. I've bound it to mousewheel down so I can click it while on the move easily, to switch between the aspects as needs be.


#showtooltip Deterrence
/stopcasting
/cancelaura Deterrence
/cast deterrence
This macro will make you stop casting your current cobra/steady/aimed shot (can't activate deterrence in the middle of a cast, so if you're in fox, you might get pwnt by whatever is flying your way before it finishes). It will also cancel any current deterrence up (first thing happening). After canceling, if you have deterrence off cooldown, it'll use deterrence.
Basically, this is another button that pops deterrence first click, takes it off second (no need to waste 4 seconds of dps time if you dodged the big hit in the first second of it, is there?). Along with that, the stopcasting line is really useful on fights like heroic rag, where you go into fox to dodge engulfings, if you happen to find yourself caught and can't get out in time.

3.0 Gear


3.1 Stats

Agility is obviously the best stat for Hunters. Ranged DPS will always be better, meaning a higher itemlevel weapon will usually always be an upgrade.
The stat priority is as follows: Agility > Hit to cap (961) > Crit > Haste > Mastery >> Stamina

3.1.1 Hit rating

120.109 hit rating = 1% hit, and we need 961 (841 if Draenei), or 8% hit, to hit cap our yellow shots. This is an easy cap to reach through reforging, and shouldn't be gemmed for unless the socket bonus makes it worthwhile.

Note that a boss can block your ranged attacks, so it's usually a good idea to try to stand behind the boss, or at least not in front of him.

3.1.2 Crit rating

179.28 crit rating = 1% crit, and Crit is our most important stats, at least as of now. It's discussed that with BiS gear, haste becomes the best, but that will probably require more testing.
During the Careful Aim phase of the boss, your Steady Shot and Aimed Shot recieves a 60% boost to Crit Chance. Then, you're basically hit a cap of 40.6% Crit with those two spells. You should not try to stay at this crit chance though, crit is still good beyond this "Soft Cap".

3.1.3 Haste rating

128.057 haste rating = 1% haste, our second most important secondary stat. Haste is a bit tricky when it comes to MM, as there are certain "plateaus" where you can squeeze in an extra shot in your rotation. This will be covered further down in the guide.


3.1.4 Mastery rating

Mastery is our least favored secondary stat, at least until you've reached a haste plateau and don't really want more haste after that, if you're one of those. Wild Quiver is pretty awesome when it comes to AoE, as each shot of your multishot has a chance to proc it.

179.28 mastery rating adds a 2.1% chance to proc Wild Quiver.


3.2 Reforging

With reforging you can change 40% of one of the secondary stat on your gear. This means we're able to more easily control the secondary stats on our gear, and change them accordingly to our Stat weights.

It is preferred to reforge your Mastery Rating to reach the hit cap of 961 hit rating fist. If you are above the cap, you should reforge Hit to Crit where possible, otherwise Haste, or lastly Mastery. You should never really reforge out of Crit.

A good reforging tool is http://wowreforge.com/ input your own stat weights and you can easily see how to exactly hit the 961 hit rating cap through reforging. You can also make it show you how to reforge while having exactly 1300 haste, or similar.


3.3 Gems

Meta Gem: Agile Shadowspirit Diamond is the best meta gem for any spec.

You should gem +50 agility in ANY SOCKET, unless there is a +20 agility bonus. If you have a leg item with a red and yellow gem, with a +20 agility socket bonus, you should gem a +50 agility and a +25 Agility +25 Crit rating gem. If a blue gem, fill it with a +25 agility +25 hit rating gem.

Red gem: Delicate Queen's Garnet
Yellow Gem: Deadly Lava Coral
Blue gem: Glinting Shadow Spinel

Old Gems:
Red gem: Delicate Inferno Ruby
Yellow Gem: Deadly Ember Topaz
Blue gem: Glinting Demonseye


You should really never gem anything else, as you do not want to waste gems with secondary stats instead of gems with your main stat, Agility. Never use +40 hit rating gems or similar, reforge to get your hit cap up.


3.4 Enchants

Head: Arcanum of the Ramkahen
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
Cloak: Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
Wrist:Enchant Bracer - Agility
Gloves: Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
Belt: Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Pants: Dragonscale Leg Armor
Boots: Enchant Boots - Assassin's Step
2h Weapon: Enchant 2H Weapon - Mighty Agility
Ranged: Flintlocke's Woodchucker



4.0 Haste Plateaus

The value of haste plateaus has declined. It's my recommendation that you ignore them, and dont gear towards specific haste plateaus. Instead, I recommend that you simply reforge with Crit being the priority, and try to get your haste level as high as you can, at the expense of mastery or exessive hit. Try to never reforge Crit to Haste.

I strongly, strongly recommend that you use the Aimed Shot dump method in T13 content. Most of the movement on the different boss fights can be very predictable, meaning you should know when to Aimed Shot safely, and when you should switch to Arcane Shot.

If you still feel haste plateaus are the way to go for you, Elitistjerks recommends any haste level between the old 12.93% and up to 26.48%. It all depends on your situation.

5.0 Rotation / Priority system

Hunters has a few different "phases" for their DPS rotation. The "Careful Aim phase", The "normal phase", the "Termination phase", and the "Kill Shot phase".

Careful Aim Phase
This phase is when the health of your target is at 100>90% health. This is where you want to make sure you pre-pot if possible, and you blow 2 Rapid Fire, while dumping focus with Aimed Shot. With the 2cp T13 bonus you should in general be able to maintain a 2 SS > Aimed > SS > Aimed > SS Aimed > SS Aimed, "rotation" going. Just remember to keep Improved Steady Shot up.

Use Readiness after the first Rapid Fire has ended.

Normal Phase
This is basically the phase from 90>25% health, which consists of your normal priority system. To be quite honest there isn't a rotation for Hunters. You just work based on a priority system, which consists of:
Ensuring ISS is up > Keeping Chimera Shot on cooldown > Keeping SrS up > MMM AI procs > Dumping focus with Aimed/Arcane > Steady Shot for focus.

Using the Aimed Shot build you should get off as many Aimed Shots as you can, while of course using Steady Shot in pairs when ISS has 3-4 sec left on it's duration. You should also use Chimera Shot as soon as possible, since it's quite focus effective - but it's not dangerous to extend it by some seconds. You should try to use Arcane Shot whenever your 4cp T13 bonus is off the ICD (110 seconds or so), to ensure a high uptime of the haste buffs, which is quite amazing.

Using the Arcane Shot build, you can in theory use a SS > SS > AS > AS > AS > SS > SS > CS cycle, however you would most likely end up focus capped with the T13 2cp bonus, specially during the Termination phase. You should, however, ALWAYS dump with Aimed Shot whenever you are under a haste effect such as Rapid Fire, Bloodlust, or the T13 4cp bonus.

Termination Phase
This is when the boss is at 25>0% health. This makes your Steady Shot generate more focus, isn't it amazing, more focus! Anyway, not much changes here as you are getting a LOT of focus already with the 2cp T13 bonus. Dump more focus.

Kill Shot Phase
Kill shot is a focus free shot, and should be used on Cooldown. You will most likely end up focus capped here, not much can help that.

For the guys at EJ's view, visit this link.


6.0 Pets

Now that all pets do more or less the same DPS, you should chose your pet based on your raid composition. If your raid is lacking 5% crit, you should go with a Wolf pet, as it grants the raid 5% crit, and so on.

If all buffs are filled, it's a matter of preference. I quote this from Elitistjerks:

Even if a Cunning pet and a Ferocity pet provide you with the exact same DPS, there are still choices to make. The Cunning pet does more of the overall DPS while the hunter does with a Ferocity pet. Thus, if its a fight with high hunter DPS uptime and lower pet attack uptime, a Ferocity pet choice will be better. Conversely, if the fight has high pet attack uptime but low hunter DPS uptime, the Cunning pet is better, especially since it relies less on its focus regen from the hunter who is doing less attacks to regen its focus.

Contrary to popular belief, the Sporebat is not really the best pet for DPS.


7.0 Set bonuses


T11 Set bonuses

The 2cp gives you +5% Crit on SrS. This is a very, very weak bonus for MM, worth around 18 DPS in Normal T11 gear, and 19.9 DPS in Heroic Tier11 gear. This bonus is better for Survival due to their SrS spread on Multi Shot, and 100% bonus dmg on SrS tick crits.

The 4cp gives you 0.2 sec faster Steady / Cobra Shot cast times. The 4cp is determined to be worth around 550-600 DPS.


T12 Set bonuses

The 2-set bonus is that SS casts have a 10% chance to trigger a Flaming Arrow (FA), doing 80% of weapon damage as a fire damage. This is around a 400 DPS increase, with full raid buffs. If you have 8% spell damage debuff on the buss, the bonus will deal 94% (1.80 * 1.08 = 1.94400) damage, instead of just 80%.

The 4-set bonus is that autoshots have a 10% chance to cause our next shot or Kill Command to cost not focus. There is such overwhelming amount of Theorycrafting about this set bonus, I will have to redirect to you this post. It is determined to give from 300-600 DPS increase, if played right.

T13 Set bonuses

The 2-set bonus grants your Steady / Cobra twice the amount of focus. This bonus is quite good, and you should drop T12 4cp for it, even if you're going from 391 ilvl to 384 Raid Finder version (The T13 armor has more gem slots, which makes you get more agility by actually downgrading in ilevel). You want this bonus.

The 4-set bonus makes your Arcane Shot grant you and your pet 30% haste for 15 seconds. You definitively want this bonus. It's quite awesome for the Aimed Shot dumping method, as long as you remember to use Arcane Shot when the ICD is off. The proc chance is about 40% and the ICD is around 100 to 110 seconds.

8.0 Mods / Tools


WarcraftHuntersUnion is a great site for all Hunters, with tons of guides. Go there. But come back here on MMO Champion to post stuff!
Petopia, all you need to know about pets, and then some more.
Femaledwarf, great simulator for Hunter DPS and stuff.
wowreforge, I use this site to change my reforging then import it to Femaledwarf. Make sure you edit the stat weights though, they might be off.

Serenity , great addon for tracking buffs, debuffs, focus bar, etc.


9.0 Change log


18.12.2011 18:36 - Updated some to 4.3, should be fine.
18.12.2011 18:35 - Realized I have completely forgotten about the changelog.
25.08.2011 08:56 - Fixed some spelling, fixed some links.
24.08.2011 15:29 - Added Macros
24.08.2011 15:19 - Added Set bonuses.


10.0 Posters notes


After some testing with the 2cp T13 bonus, not much has changed for the Arcane Shot rotation.

Request for sticky.

GJ, sticky imo, I'll go through it later and see if I have any specific suggestions =p

While its been quite a while since I've dpsed on hunter, in patch 4.1 I believe aimed shot was a better focus dump with ISS up than arcane shot. Whats changed since then to bring arcane shot back into the picture?

Very well done. Definitely shorter than the guide on EJ, more up to date, and simpler for obvious reasons.
Requesting sticky kthx.

AI was nerfed, i think before 4.1 even. It is a better dump if you can stand still enough to cast it, but it's so close to dumping AS' that in most cases it's not worth it outside of dynamic haste effects or RF.

If I may, please include that using Haste or Mastery as your secondary stat after crit, and getting to haste plateaus beyond the first one is a very low change in dps, therefore making it more of a personal choice than anything.

Originally Posted by Carni

While its been quite a while since I've dpsed on hunter but in patch 4.1 I believe aimed shot was a better focus filling with ISS than arcane shot. Whats changed since then to bring arcane shot back into the picture?

Arcane shot is better atm because of gear scaling and the fact that most of the time you will be moving so AiS can't be hardcast. I used to prefer AiS hardcasting, but now Arcane Shot dumping is just much more reliable damage.

Originally Posted by CedricDur

Glyph of Serpent Sting as a good third option for MM? Ouch. 50-ish DPS is not a good option, SV we are not.

I listed the options for the third slot that was a dps increase.


As for hardcasting Aimed vs Arcane Shot, Hardcasting Aimed is better at Best in Slot gear levels. Arcane Shot for focus dump has gives a 40301.64 DPS in the sim tools, while hardcasting aimed gives a 40909.84 DPS. It's hardly a difference. I'll update the thread later to reflect this.

Also, hardcasting aimed has one flaw, if you cancel one aimed cause you have to move, it's a huge DPS loss. Which is why Arcane Shot as focus dump is preferred.

Stickied! Thanks Asrialol!

Great guide. Very well done.

Excellent Guide. I need to go through this when I get home.

Thanks a bunch. Once 4.3 comes a long with all the juicy Hunter changes (No nerfs of course, right Blizzard?) I'll see to it that it is updated. If, of course, there are any Hunter changes..

Originally Posted by HubbleBearth

Copy/pasted your misdirect macro and my character will /say "/cast [@focus,exists]...etc." Doesn't cast the spell, there a typo in it?

Nah, it works fine for me. You sure you didn't accidentally delete parts of it?

As for the poster above, I removed the Serpent Sting glyph. Also, I'll add the optimal femaledwarf settings after the raid today / tomorrow to show the best settings for both Arcane Shot dump and Aimed Shot dump.

Added your macros, and edited a bit on the haste plateau text. Check and see if it's more appropriate now, if you may.