Every Friday Tabana brings you the latest discussions straight from the Elitist Jerks forums with a recap of what was discussed and links to the full posts so you can stay on top of the latest in hunter theorycrafting.
- Simple Questions/Simple Answers
- User Interface
- Focus Bar Bug 7/29/11
- Beast Mastery
- Marksmanship
- MM: Gear
- MM: Shot Cycles
- MM: Stats
- Survival
- SV: Shot Mechanics
- Explosive Shot Clipping Part II 7/31/11
- Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer at FemaleDwarf
- FD: Suggestions
- Lavabolt Crossbow Stat Bug 7/26/11
- FD: Updates
- SimulationCraft for Hunters
- SimC: Updates and Suggested Improvements
- Kill Shot Formula 7/31/11
7/29/11
In the Simple Questions/Simple Answers thread, Geff asked if anyone else had experienced a bug where the actual amount of focus is up to 10 focus below what the focus bar says. “It’s annoying having to wait for 60 to [cast] Aimed Shot and not being sure if I can do 2 Aimed Shots at 100 focus!”
Dralmoo replied “Yes, I see this all the time, although I only notice it when spamming Aimed Shot so I’m not sure if the focus is actually off by 10, or for some reason Aimed Shot won’t cast until I have 60 focus.”
8/3/11
AOE fights using a worm pet: focus problem, pet swapping Part II
In the Beast Mastery thread, Dorney posted in response to a previous question:
I talented out of Wild Hunt for my Worm and never have an issue with Burrow and focus anymore. I also switch to another pet after AoE is done (e.g. Beth’tilac) but that is partly due to bringing the 5% crit buff. That’s the only fight you should need to switch (except for maybe Rhyolith depending on your role).
8/2/11
Tier 12 Four-Piece Bonus Proc Bug Fixed
In the Marksmanship thread, Bikiniwax reported that the Hunter 4T12 Bug thread stated that the hunter 4T12 bonus for Arcane Shot had been fixed. [Bug] Hunter Tier 12, 4 Piece Bonus – Forums – World of Warcraft
Whitefyst confirmed that the T12 AS bug was fixed with Arcane Shot being a focus free shot when it consumes the T12 4-set proc.
7/29/11
Handling Tier 12 Four-piece Proc RNG
In the Marksmanship thread, RaXoR considered an alternative thought process for handling the Tier 12 four-piece proc:
It may be beneficial to think of it in terms of “how many and what combination of shots can evenly divide into the remaining CS cooldown?” rather than “since it proc’d here, I need to replace a SS with an AS to balance focus.” This alternative approach can work just the same because [...] with the introduction of T12 4-piece procs, you’re still only firing two different speeds of shots: globals (1s) and SS (~1.4s @ 12.93% haste).
This pretty much boils down to judging whether or not to replace 3 instant focus dumps with 2 SS’s, or vice-versa, depending on current focus. For example: you get a proc during a chain of SSs, consume it with a KC, and notice you have exactly 5s left on CS cooldown. You know you’ll have to fire off 2xAS and 2xSS before you do CS again. Similarly, if you notice 3s left on CS cooldown after a proc and you’re about to focus cap, you know it has to be 3xAS. If low on focus, 2xSS.
Whitefyst agreed:
To be clear, all I try to provide is the ideal rotation to be performed as a guideline. [...] I understand clearly from a practical sense that the implementation is more a reaction to procs and your current focus levels. [...] If you are high on focus and ISS does not need to be refreshed, dump focus; otherwise, cast SS. That is the simple rule to follow in all cases.
8/2/11
Paragon’s Haste Recommendation
In the Marksmanship thread, Whitefyst was asked to comment on Paragon’s hunters suggesting 1850 haste (~14.45%) rating from gear plus 3/3 Pathing with the Glyph of Chimera Shot when using 4T12 in the Paragon Hunter forum:
Paragon | View topic – The 1850 Haste plateau
Paragon | View topic – 1235 Haste vs 1850 Haste
A shot analysis using the CS-ASx2-SSx4 (MMM AI procs replace an AS; extra SS for focus replaces an AS) cycle was performed:
It pretty much totally wastes the benefit of the T12 4-set. Furthermore, Termination and the addition of the KS results in additional focus wasting for unhasted rotations. From a timing consideration, it leaves 0.64s of deadtime in the normal cycles. This means that even at 200 ms of latency, you still have some deadtime in your cycle. This haste amount seems ideal for the CS glyph and someone with around 200-250 ms latency. It does not seem ideal for players with very low latency. Hence, this cycle does not seem to make sense at this haste level since it wastes focus and has deadtime for low latency situations.
A second analysis was performed adding another Arcane Shot to the cycle: CS-ASx3-SSx4 (MMM AI procs replace an AS; extra SS for focus replaces an AS).
With the T12 4-set [...] the cycle is exactly focus balanced with replacing the 3rd AS with an extra SS on every 4th cycle when all procs are consumed by AS. With all procs consumed by CS, the cycle is slightly focus positive with no extra SS cycle. Thus, the cycle is close to focus neutral with mixed AS and CS consumption of the T12 4-set proc without any extra SSs and works out ideally.
From a timing consideration, the 3rd AS results in 0.36s delay in your CS cycle, eating into a little bit of the benefit of the CS glyph. This still leaves about 0.64s of CS glyph benefit. Hence, this option is good if you have low latency with getting about half the benefit of the CS glyph at 50 ms latency. At around 200 ms latency, you have pretty much eaten up the benefit of the CS glyph and are better off using the RF glyph instead at this haste level.
Whitefyst concluded that choice of haste level (1235/12.93% vs. 1850/14.45%) depended on latency, gear level, and preference:
The haste recommendation from Paragon is a feasible option depending on your latency levels and preferences. It also keeps your shot timings about the same during the unhasted cycles as they were with the T11 4-set if you utilized the low haste option with it.
Whether it is better than my 12.93% haste recommendation is difficult to state. Assuming 3/3 Pathing, it requires about 615 more itemization in haste instead of crit and mastery. At lower T12 gear levels, this is likely to be more costly than at higher T12 gear levels. You also lose the benefit of alternative glyphs over the CS glyph and the possibility to move a point in Pathing into Frenzy.
Using Female Dwarf to do a rough and quick analysis with a 378 gear set with realizing FD does not model these rotations perfectly and at 75ms latency, the changes from my recommendation to the Paragon one ranged from -152 when all the haste came from crit to +76 when all the haste came from mastery. Considering that a decent mix of mastery and crit is needed to make up this additional haste amount, the difference between the two approaches at the 378 gear level is close to a wash. I have not done any analysis with 391 gear yet, but I anticipate that the two options will still be relatively close with the Paragon approach gaining a little at the higher gear itemization where more haste is naturally available on gear.
7/31/11
Explosive Shot Clipping Part II
Replying to last week’s discussion in the Survival thread concerning SimC modeling of Lock and Load, evanmartyr said:
I’ve been doing ‘ES [very slight delay] ES CS (if not near cap) ES” or “ES [very slight delay] ES AS (if near cap) ES.’
I’m not 100% certain this is right, but I’ve managed to reset the first ES dot with the second shot without losing ticks consistently, which puts it at or near 3 seconds, so the ‘filler’ after those two is just to let it tick down and not lose ticks. The shot sequence you gave (ES ES CS AS ES) delays the third ES unnecessarily, barring a bloodlust/rapid fire/absurd haste on your gear.
Lokrick responded:
The interesting realization from the sim is that it is necessary. The timing of the first two ES ES is such that any latency at all is sufficient to ensure that they don’t clip. The second ES must land just a little more than a GCD after the first one in order to extend the ES dot out the full extra three ticks. However [...] the third ES must land after tick 2b (at 5 seconds) in order not to clip. With just a single AS interposed, the third ES lands a full 0.8 seconds early [...] clipping at least one tick.
Since there should be a gap of 3 seconds between the second and third ES (one of which is spent as the GCD of the second ES), the ideal might be to squeeze in two AS (for ES ES AS AS ES), but that requires almost full focus. That’s why the simulation mixes AS and CS between those last two shots: a single shot is insufficient, and there’s usually not enough focus to afford two AS shots and still have enough focus for the follow-up ES [...]. Having enough focus for that in general is unlikely given that this is responding to a proc that could happen at any time.
Lockrick presented results from experiments using various Explosive Shot sequences, talent points, and pets. A profile resulting in almost 600 higher dps than the current profile is attached to the post.
8/4/11
In the Hunter DPS Analyzer thread, Helfarch posted that the Lavabolt Crossbow stats are currently bugged on some servers:
Hi guys – just wanted to draw your attention to this s/shot: http://i479.photobucket.com/albums/r…611_224242.jpg, in case it required a change to FD, from this thread on MMOC: lavabolt crossbow. Can anyone else confirm this? I play on the EU servers which are down for maintenance right now so I can’t check in-game. Apparently armory and Wowhead links are unaltered.
pichuca replied: “Mine at least is crit/haste.”
Kilroy responded:
I’m also on an EU server and mine too is crit/mastery. I spoke to a GM about the issue and he adviced me to run the repair tool and if that didn’t fix the problem just wait it out since development is aware of the issue (along with it sounding like a gun). It’s supposedly a tooltip issue which makes it impossible to reforge right now since the reforger guy supposedly uses tooltip information while the server uses proper item stats.
7/30/11
Kill Command, pre-Cataclysm Items, Translations
In the Hunter DPS Analyzer thread, Rivkah announced a couple of updates to FemaleDwarf and requested help with translations:
I’ve added a new option to the site which allows you to disable the use of Kill Command when 4pc T12 is not active. Note that there is also still the option to disable Kill Command when LnL isn’t active. If you turn on either of these options, Kill Command will be suppressed unless either of the criteria (when enabled) is met. So if you’re SV and both options are on, Kill Command will only be considered for use if LnL is procced or 4pc T12 is procced. If only one option is on, that’s the only one that it’ll use Kill Command for.
I’ve also removed almost all pre-Cataclysm items from the site. I left in a few ranged weapons and trinkets and the T10 set in case anyone recently leveled might still have a reason to use those temporarily.
I also ran my import scripts to get the item names up to date for the translated versions of the site. Note that some of the volunteer translators are no longer working actively on the site. If the translation for a language you speak seems to be out of date and you want to help keep it current, please send me a PM and I can get you setup with access to update the translation.
7/26/11
In the SimulationCraft for Hunters thread, Rivkah suggested that the formula for Kill Shot be updated:
Based on my recent testing of kill shot, it looks like the correct formula seems to be: ((avg weapon dmg + RAP / 14 * 2.8) + RAP * 45% + 543) * 150%
I’m fairly sure that simc is using an older formula based on the damage results I’m seeing (I didn’t check the code itself). I suspect the format of the formula changed when aimed shot did back in 4.0.6. So it probably should be updated.
Zimeron replied “Thanks for the report, this has been fixed in SVN and will be available in the next release.”
A full index of all Elitist Jerks posts recapped at the Wow Hunter’s Hall is maintained in the Index of Elitist Jerks Hunter Forum Posts
