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.
- Marksmanship
- Haste Softcap for Marksmanship 4/30/12
- Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit
- High Priestess Kilnara Part II 4/30/12
Haste Softcap for Marksmanship 4/30/12
In the Marksmanship thread, Venekathas asked, “[…] Once you get heroic gear, what do you think our haste softcap should be?”
Whitefyst replied, “As is the answer with all such questions: ‘It depends.'”
It depends on the following:
- What trinkets do you have? Do you use Starcatcher Compass to provide haste once in a while or not?
- How do you want to optimize? For maximum DPS potential (i.e, in a stand-still fight)? For best DPS in heroic fights with high-movement?
- What is your playstyle and preferences? Do you try to always hardcast AI? Do you use AS when moving or in threat of interruption and when unhasted?
- Other considerations, such as SS and AI haste hard caps.
The guide and posts in this thread provide many such options depending on various situations, so I will not repeat all the gory details here.
My personal preference (although I am not currently playing MM since SV is much easier to perform well on the high movement, frequent target switching fights that exist in DS) is a balanced approach with casting AIs and ASs that accommodates moving as well as possible while still maximizing DPS.
Doing a quick FD analysis to illustrate one situation, here [are] some results of various options with casting AI when below the 1.8s cast time and with using Starcatcher Compass as the second trinket (since Vial has not ever dropped in my raid once). All reforges are quick reforges and not necessarily optimal.
1) All “heroic T13” gear with standard gemming and enchants and unreforged (this case is low hit rating):
Hit: 495
Crit: 2398
Haste : 1767
Mastery: 1291
DPS: 487812) Reforge mastery/haste to hit cap but do no other optimizing reforges (this case serves as the basis for comparison):
Hit: 965
Crit: 2398
Haste : 1671 (13.04% haste from gear; 47.29% overall static haste – 1.36s SS and 1.97s AI cast
Mastery: 917
DPS: 502083) Reforge to the 12.93% haste from gear and Pathing case that was the base recommendation in previous tiers with moving as much of the haste into crit as the priority.
Hit: 963
Crit: 2735
Haste : 1240 (9.68% haste from gear; 42.91% overall static haste – 1.40s SS and 2.03s AI cast
Mastery: 1013
DPS: 50275 (+67 DPS over 2))This case did 42 AS and 52 AIs.
4) Reforge to the 14.98% haste from gear and Pathing (ended up about 50 haste above).
Hit: 965
Crit: 2633
Haste : 1540 (12.03% haste from gear; 45.97% overall static haste – 1.37s SS and 1.97s AI cast
Mastery: 1013
DPS: 50342 (+134 DPS over 2))This case did 40 AS and 53 AIs.
5) Reforge to the 18.50% haste from gear and Pathing (ended up about 50 haste above).
Hit: 967
Crit: 2231
Haste : 1940 (15.15% haste from gear; 50.03% overall static haste – 1.33s SS and 1.93s AI cast
Mastery: 1013
DPS: 50221 (+13 DPS over 2))This case did 41 AS and 54 AIs.
With the gear I selected for this case, I could not reforge to the next haste level of 21.20% from gear and pathing, even with re-enchanting a few slots that did not lose agi. Thus, for this case, it appears that some where around 1500 haste rating is ideal; however, this is not a big change in DPS amongst the options.
Other cases can use the Vial instead of the Compass or the staff instead of the polearm for additional stats to work with. Yet other cases can have the cast speed for casting AI adjusted to higher cast times to explore those options; however, those are not as balanced with AS to AI casts to accommodate moving and target switching as much.
High Priestess Kilnara Part II 4/30/12
In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Tydas had a couple of questions regarding the High Priestess Kilnara encounter discussed last week: “On every single encounter she keep using Lash when my Intervene in on CD. […] Is there any way to survive a Lash when you have no CD ? And if not, is there any way to avoid or deny her Lash?”
I actually tried to reduce damages with raptor and deterrence but it’s not enough if you are not at 100% health (or close to). I also use stamina scroll, food and BOK from items to improve my stamina which got me to 180K HP. I assume that it’s enough to succeed this encounter since I saw few videos with lot less HP.
Renato suggested, “Line of sight her around a corner with your pet still in line of sight and just shoot her when she is channeling Tears or you have intervene up.”
Steevnash replied, “It’s a very RNG based solo encounter, if she decides to hit you while Intervene is on CD, just gauge it and see if it’s something you can recover from. If Deterrence is off CD, as well as bandage, it might be recoverable if the next ability she uses is the Wave.”
As I mentioned in the video, don’t hesitate to put Bandage on CD if you can use most of its healing, just toss a Mend Pet out, LOS the boss, and Bandage. As long as she’s not in the middle of casting her AOE spell as that has a tick at the end that penetrates LoS. Always save Readiness for a double Chimera for heals, no reason to use it for DPS in first phase really. If you don’t think you can recover just dismiss pet and reset the fight with a FD. I would recommend only using Mythical Healing Potions for setting up a reset as you’ll probably need your potion CD for a Potion of the Tol’Vir in 2nd phase.
It’s a very frustrating encounter to solo as the DPS race in the 2nd phase is so tight. After checking your armory you have much better gear than I currently do. With better gear the LoS strat, that Goldschakal mentioned 3 posts above, might be possible. Currently in my level of gear it’s not possible for me to do as it sets up a sloppy transition into Phase 2 and I’m not even close to being able to tear through her health in a smaller window of time. Sadly I can only make videos of strats that my gear allows for, besides the fact that making a video of a strat that only people in heroic gear could accomplish would be a little narrow reaching for me.
Goldschakal replied, “You can also attack her while she casts Shadow Bolt. It’s only a time window within 1 second, but it’s enough for a chimera shot/mend pet.”
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.
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