Elitist Jerks Weekly Recap 8/31/12

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.

Hunter FAQ MoP Edition (original post) 8/26/12

Rivkah started a new thread, Hunter FAQ MoP Edition, “This FAQ is now updated for 5.0.4. [...] If you have any suggestions to be added to this FAQ please PM them to me to keep the clutter low. [Please see the original post for the full FAQ.]

Esoth replied, “Is there some caveat here, perhaps with latency or custom lag tolerance (like in Cata)? In the beta I only get 8 ticks if I spam ES during LnL. ES, ES, AS, ES or ES, AS, ES, ES each result in the full 9.

Rivkah replied, “The question is not how many ticks you get, it’s a question of how much damage each tick is doing. The damage from old ticks is rolled into the new DoT when applied, which sometimes will lead to less total ticks but the total damage done by the ticks should stay correct. So you need to check if the damage from the previous DoT is being rolled in properly if you want to verify the behavior.”

Read full posts

Hunter Simple Questions / Simple Answers : MoP Edition (original post) 8/29/12

Narcosleepy started a new thread: Hunter Simple Questions/Simple Answers: MoP Edition: “This is the thread for simple questions that don’t fit anywhere else. Post here IF:

  • Your question requires a simple, brief answer.
  • Your question does NOT belong in one of our existing threads.
  • Your question is unlikely to spark sufficient discussion to warrant being its own thread.

Please note ALL forum rules still apply. For that reason, this is NOT the thread for:

  • Begging for hand-holding
  • Asking a question that could be answered by reading another thread
  • Inventing new and interesting ways to violate the civil rights of ellipses
  • Whining
  • Violating any of our forum rules, with which you should be familiar before posting anywhere. Especially here.

Read original post

Beast Mastery 5.0.4 (original post) 8/28/12

Nooska started a new thread, [MoP] Beastmastery 5.0.4, “This is the thread for Beastmaster hunter discussion for Mists of Pandaria, places marked as TBD are to be done.”

The Table of Contents for the BM guide is listed below.

Please see the original post for the full BM guide.

Pet AoE Abilities 8/28/12

In the Beast Mastery thread, Rulander asked, “Concerning pet channeled attacks (specifically Burrow Attack and Froststorm Breath): Do these channeled attacks supercede Beast Cleave? If so, is it a dps gain or loss to lose Beast Cleave during these channeled attacks?”

Rivkah replied, “Some data on Froststorm Breath and Burrow Attack since I keep getting asked about these. After verifying the formulas (they’re listed in the FAQ now) I’ve determined that neither ability is a dps increase on single target, just in case anyone was considering that. Both attacks suppress all pet attacks except Kill Command (and using Kill Command during Froststorm Breath will interrupt it). This means that you lose all melee and basic attack damage while they’re up in addition to the Frenzy/Focus Fire uptime. I didn’t spend time determining how many targets you need to be hitting before it becomes a dps increase but with the formulas it shouldn’t be too hard to get a general idea of that.

Also, Beast Cleave wouldn’t work during these attacks as your pet won’t be using his melee and it only works for melee attacks.

If your active pet is a worm or chimaera and your Stampede pets are as well, casting Burrow Attack or Froststorm Breath will cause your Stampede pets to use it as well.

Also note that Burrow Attack does not scale with haste. Froststorm breath cast time strangely seems to scale only with spell haste and not physical haste- I’m reporting this as a bug.

Read original posts

Frenzy Stacks 8/28/12

In the Beast Mastery thread, Namarus asked, “Is anyone else noticing that the amount of time to get 5 stacks of Frenzy is very very long. Right now I’m barely getting one round of Focus Fire before BW is off cooldown.”

Esoth replied, “There seems to have been a change in philosophy where it yields twice the attack speed but it’s only up about half of the time. If you are expecting 100% up time you will be disappointed. In beta, I’ve even had it fall off while attacking a target dummy. Which brings up the question, if you have only two stacks but Frenzy is about to fall off, is it worth using Focus Fire? Is there a minimum number of stacks to absorb before it’s a net gain?”

Namarus replied, “I’ve only notice it dropping if i’m on the level 93 dummies”

Nooska replied, “Esoth is absolutely right, FF/Frenzy is very much slower to get up, from a 100% chance on a basic attack its down to a 40% chance, meaning that before we needed 15 seconds between 5 stacks, we will now on average need 37.5 seconds between 5 stacks, so around 50% uptime. This is of course still liable to be screwed up by RNG, especially as 40% chance to get means 60% not to get, so on each basic attack there is a larger chance to not get a stack than to get a stack. On live currently, we also have to remember that most of us will struggle to have our pets hit and exp capped, meaning it will take even longer to get it up.”

Namarus asked, “So would it be better to only use FF after BW has expired? Otherwise you risk delaying BW to get a full stack of Frenzy.”

Namarus added, “So I have been beating on the target dummies now for several hours. 87% of the time I am having to delay my BW in order to get a BW with a 5 stack of Frenzy. I am only using Focus Fire once after BW. Frenzy is definitely dropping one in a while failing to get to 5 stacks resulting in a lot of time being wasted trying to get it back up to 5 stacks. I’m unsure as to whether it is worthwhile even using Focus Fire since delaying BW to get a 5 stack can delay the BW by a lot, sometimes on the order of 30s or more. [See original post for test data]

Nooska replied, “Just to clarify (I’m not sure if what I’ve written under Frenzy/FF is unclear somehow). BW should be used on CD. Exception, if you have a haste cooldown up. Exception from the exception; if delaying BW will cause you to lose one or more BW over the course of the fight.

Bloodlust/Heroism is such practically always an exception from the exception – we gain more from it outside BW, but with a duration of 40 seconds, we will almost certainly lose a BW over the course of a fight by dealying. Bloodlust is also a separate case from FF and RF due to increase the pets attack speed (like frenzy – actually excatly like a full stack of frenzy)

It is correct that you should not spend a 5stack of frenzy just before BW for 2 reasons; FF is a haste cooldown (not useful during BW) and Frenzy is an attack speed increase for the pet. You should not, however, wait for 5 stacks of frenzy to use BW (you never should have, even in cata, though I know some people advocated it).

Read full posts

Kill Command Bugged on Ultraxion 8/28/12

In the Beast Mastery thread, Goldengiff wrote, “There seems to be a bug with Kill Command and mobs that the pet can’t make a path to, especially flying mobs. Easy to replicate on Ultraxion trash and boss.”

Read original post

Unable to Loot after using only Kill Command 8/28/12

In the Beast Mastery thread, Goldengiff wrote, “since Kill Command counts as pet damage, if the target doesn’t take any damage other than KC before it dies it will not be lootable.”

Nooska asked, “Can you confirm this specifically? I’ve left out mention of it because it seems to have been changed on the beta, I have several times been able to go and loot a mob my pet has killed completely by itself because I was busy doing something else and a mob aggroed my pet.”

Goldengiff relied, “I ran into it today when doing the daily cooking quest in northrend. Killed a mob with just KC and it wasn’t lootable. I can do more testing to confirm.”

Nooska replied, “Thank you, I will try going to Northrend in the beta and do some testing and then do some more in Pandaria to see if its just the new mobs that have this feature (or if something else was interacting when I was able to loot – perhaps if another player did some damage or something)”

Lokrick replied, “In the soloing thread, Caribald noted that killing a mob with Chimera might not get you a heal if it dies first from the autoshot. In your case, you might actually have killed the mob with a charge/basic/melee because the Kill Command hit. The only way to determine what actually killed it is a log.”

Read full posts

Marksmanship Guide Quick Reference (original post) 8/27/12

Whitefyst started a new thread, [MoP] 5.0.4/5.1 Marksmanship Guide, “Marksmanship Guide Quick Reference. This post serves as a quick reference guide for the complete World of Warcraft:Mists of Pandaria Marksmanship Guide, which follows in the subsequent post. This guide is meant to be accurate for the release of 5.0.4, although there are a few holes that still need to be completed and some fine tunings of information. Furthermore, with all of the tinkering that Blizzard has been doing and will continue to do to hunter abilities in an effort to balance DPS, the information in this guide may be a little out of date, but I will do my best to keep reasonably on top of the changes.”

Since 5.0.4 only lasts a month, this guide is targeted to provide information for MM hunters at level 90. However, most of the information in this guide should be fairly applicable at level 85 as well.

See the original post for the complete quick reference guide to Marksmanship.

MoP Marksmanship Detailed Guide 8/27/12

Whitefyst wrote, “This is a compendium of information on raiding as a Marksmanship Hunter in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. It contains everything a beginner needs to achieve basic competence at raid DPS, as well more detailed discussion for people more interested in understanding the theory or more advanced play. This guide is designed to provide information for raiding (PvE). It is not meant to be a complete or accurate source for PvP, soloing, or dungeons.”

This guide will be updated as gear level progresses and Blizzard changes the game to attempt to be up to the current end game raiding. This guide is currently updated for patch 5.0.4 with providing information for the start of Mists of Pandaria. This guide does provide some information on spells, talents, and abilities that will not be available until Mists of Pandaria is released.

See the original post for Whitefyst’s complete, detailed guide to Marksmanship.

Level 75 Talents 8/29/12

In the Marksmanship thread, Tornn wrote, “I would like to challenge your recommendation for Murder of Crows and also note that the currently linked tooltip for Lynx Rush and Blink Strike are incorrect based on the current live data.”

Lynx Rush is 9 attacks at 200% pet damage with a 1.5 minute CD.
Blink Strike is 1 attack at 600% pet damage on a 20 second CD.
Murder of Crows has a 2 minute CD.

Based on current live data Blink Strike is by far the best choice as long as your pet has a path to the boss. The very short cooldown and massive damage boost of Blink Strike puts it far ahead of the other two options even when accounting for the number of GCDs it costs to cast it off CD. Of course, during non-nerfed progression content Murder of Crows may pull ahead as long as the sub 20% phase is long enough to cast at least two within it but that remains to be seen.

Whitefyst replied, “As I stated previously, the recommendations are based on information and knowledge available at any time and are subject to change. Also, the recommendations are also affected by playstyle and preferences.”

From my understanding of the current state of simulations and live testing, BS is indeed better than MoC, but Lynx Rush is even better, especially if you align it with Rabid procs. So LR is currently the best option for MM but to mention that BS is a good option as well. However, I am not bothering to explicitly update the complete guide for this change yet since we are likely to gain even more knowledge and encounter additional changes. I probably will not do a complete update until after MoP is released. [...]

Namarus replied, “Also in regards to Blink Strike and Lynx Rush are the number of GCD used.”

Lynx Rush uses 2 GCD every 3 mins.
Blink Strike uses 9 GCD every 3 mins.

That is a difference of 7 addition GCD a hunter could use for other dps boosting abilities.

Whitefyst replied, “Well, its not really the fact that you “save” GCDs that matters but the fact of the overall DPS benefits of using those GCDs for these abilities over using AS. [See original post for theorycrafting] So from this “quick” napkin math, MoC is clearly the favorite currently, with LR next and BS last. The large damage of MoC and LR are greatly favored by Readiness while BS benefits from its focus savings requiring less SSs to be cast. FD seems to roughly agree with this with showing MoC as the best with LR -1100 DPS behind and BS -2600 DPS behind.

Anyway, its a good thing that I did not update the complete post for LR being better since the Rabid nerf (which is already included in the FD data in this post) puts MoC back on top for MMs.

Read full posts

[MoP] Survival Hunter Guide (original post) 8/29/12

Esoth started a new thread, [MoP] Survival Hunter Guide, “This is the thread for Survival hunter discussion for Cataclysm. For an explanation of acronyms used, see here.”

The Table of Contents for the SV guide is listed below.

Please see the original post for the full SV guide.

Letting Serpent Sting Fall Off and other notes 8/28/12

In the Survival thread, Rivkah wrote, “A few notes to consider:”

  • Snake Trap may be worth including in the rotation, especially for SV which gets extra snakes, until they nerf it. Currently it scales pretty well at 90 (haven’t tested 85) since it now scales with RAP, haste and crit.
  • In my sims I was noticing that if you have a burst of high focus where you actually have to choose between prioritizing Cobra Shot to keep your sting from falling off, or just manually reapplying it later, it looks like it’s actually more beneficial to just reapply later. This is a combination of the fact that improved Serpent Sting is not bad damage and the fact that we have a lot more focus flow than we used to so spending 25 focus to reapply it isn’t as big a problem.
  • Lynx Rush and Murder of Crows are giving different results depending on the sim. This is partly due the timing of Rabid lining up with Lynx Rush (especially if you time readiness where you can get 2 Lynx Rush off during rabid). Murder is likely to be a more reliable and less timing sensitive talent, but simc actually puts Lynx Rush above Murder.
  • Since Barrage suppresses your Autoshot (Powershot no longer does) it doesn’t scale as well with haste as Powershot

Read original post

Effects of Latency and Mobility on Spec Preference 8/24/12

In the Mists of Pandaria thread, Whitefyst wrote, “Here are some observations I have on the hunter spec numbers from FD:”

  • BM is the spec that is most friendly to latency since much of the higher pet damage than that from the other specs is unaffected by latency. The FD numbers were all done using 150 ms latency. If the latency is reduced to 50 ms, the improvements for SV and MM are about 50% higher than that for BM, helping those specs to close a little of the gap. Although, they are still well behind, but now by only about 5% at level 90.
  • SV is by far the most mobile of the hunter specs with doing the least amount of cast time shots. In the FD Sims, I see the following for each spec over a 7.5 min fight:
    • BM: 107 CoS at 1.708s cast unhasted and 1.314 during FF
    • MM: 149 SS at 1.298s cast unhasted and 21 AI casts all at under 1.5s or better
    • SV: 97 CoS at 1.623 unhastedThis means that SVs are more likely to be able to perform closer to their maximum DPS potential on movement fights than the other specs, helping them to close the gap some on BM on those type of fights. MMs are a lot more mobile than they used to be with doing less SSs and AI casts.
  • Of course, the higher damage from the pet for BMs while the hunter is moving but the pet is attacking as normal, helps BM’s DPS while moving.
    • With not including Stampede or DB, here is how much damage the sims show the pets doing for each spec:BM: 49.68%
      MM: 14.37%
      SV: 14.60%Hence, the same BM pet is doing about 3.6x as much damage as for MM or SV. This may be one place that Blizzard could buff MM and SV damage to help even things out a bit.

Esoth replied, “That’s interesting because BM will go through periods where you string so many instant shots that you actually risk Serpent Sting falling off and may need to risk hitting focus cap or casting Cobra during BW just to maintain the DoT. The problem is amplified if you use Fervor and in fact may be a point against it if you don’t manage it perfectly. I was only able to experience this with SV during execute range at times. Slightly different playstyles (how aggressive or conservative you are with your focus pool) probably change those CoS numbers slightly but either way – SV and BM are close with MM having significantly more cast-time shots.”

Also, aren’t there still issues with latency on instant cast shots due to WoW’s spell queuing behavior? MM would gain more favor in that respect.

Nooska replied, “On BM, I’ve found it necessary to mix priority and rotation (and will be including that in my guide), namely to be able to continuously keep up SrS with CoS having a 6 second extension, you will need to cast at least 1 CoS every KC – this hasn’t been a problem really (in regards to focus-capping), and means that you can safely go through BW without CoS as long as you do a CoS immediately after. It will be better to focus cap slightly from that CoS than having to spend focus (and a gcd) on replying SrS. I should mention that it is easy enough to do with TotH, I haven’t played extensively with DB or Fervor yet.”

Whitefyst replied, “The reason that BM is more latency friendly has very little to do with the ratio of instant cast and cast times shots that BM does relative to the other hunter specs. It has to do with the fact that the BM pet does 3 to 4 times the damage of the pets for MM and SV while the BM hunter does considerably less damage than the MM or SV hunter. Since most of the pet attacks are much less affected by our button pressing and are done automatically by the pet AI, pet DPS is a lot less affected by latency than hunter DPS. Regardless of whether the BM hunter does more instant cast abilities than the other hunter spec or not, the hunter damage is so mcuh less that the affects of the latency is less transparent since it is affecting a smaller amount of the DPS.”

Read full posts

Aimed Shot vs. Arcane Shot as MM Focus Dump 8/25/12

In the Mists of Pandaria thread, Whitefyst wrote, “I have done more tests of the trade off of using AI or AS as the focus dump, and it does not look good for AI with the current numbers at level 90. [...] Outside the CA phase it is not beneficial to cast AI during BL at all with reasonable haste ratings in T14H gear. Even during RF, it is only worthwhile to use AI if you have the T14 4P. It is still beneficial to use AI during the CA phase at all times though. The moral of the story is that I think that AI needs to be buffed (at least outside the CA phase) so that it is at least beneficial to cast during large dynamic haste effects and so that it is not lower on the priority list than everything but SS and AS when not sufficiently hasted.”

Read full post

SimC Spec Comparison at Level 85 8/29/12

In the Mists of Pandaria thread, Rivkah wrote, “For those looking for level 85 numbers, I ran a simc report using the latest version with T13H profiles and posted it at: Simulationcraft Results.”

I did 2 versions, one with Lynx Rush and one with Murder of Crows (both versions used Dire Beast). I set the race to worgen so that orc pet bonus wouldn’t throw off the cross spec comparison. Obviously this is a sim and not necessarily reflective of real performance, but I know a lot of folks have been looking for data about level 85 specs. According to the sim, the difference between the specs is extremely small.

Pichuca replied, “It is kinda strange (and good) how all 3 specs are that close together. It also seems a little odd how haste overtakes every other stat by a lot, when it should be bottom at least for SV and BM since we will use less cast-time shots on every spec.”

Nooska replied, “Haste doesn’t overtake every other stat for BM, it is dead last (ignore the valuation given, and switch out other stats for haste, it is a loss) – haste doesn’t do anything significant for BM thanks to Focus Fire (40% haste with what should be ~50% uptime) and the fact that to fit in anything more we need to be at 33% haste for 1 more instant in 2xCoS cycles, and 100% haste (1 sec casttime CoS) for another instant in a 1CoS cycle without delaying KC. Figuring in latency we need a little less than that, as we can delay KC by 0.3 seconds without a loss of dps – thats 0.3 real seconds though.”

Pichuca replied, “[...] In the lvl 85 sim the stat priority is the same for all 3 specs: Stat Ranking Wdps > Agi > Exp > Hit > Haste > Crit = Mastery > AP. While in SV the difference is small (2.1 haste 1.9 crit) for BM and MM the gap is a lot higher, 2.8 to 1.8/1.9″

Nooska replied, “I am fairly certain that the value of haste given in the valuation has to do with shot shifting and at certain points a specific amount of haste will give one more AS over a CoS or including a KC more over the simulation due to the way the priority works, and the non-linearly value-scaling of haste.”

Rivkah replied, “Also keep in mind that Dire Beast scales with haste, so it’s possible that certain haste sweet spots are reliably giving extra hits and more focus, which could be translating into additional dps. BM also has less pet focus regen than it used to, so more haste may be giving the pet more wild hunt uptime.”

Namarus replied, “The problem is I’m not getting anywhere near 50% uptime with focus fire. Not to mention haste affects a number of different things”

Pet melee attacks
Auto shots
Cobra Shot cast time (not really getting many of these though)
Dire Beast attack speed (more damage+ focus)

Rivkah replied, “Looking at simulationcraft output, the expected uptime in high end gear and raid buffs for focus fire is somewhere between 40-45%. Due to the weakness in pet regen, it would be lower in dummy tests or other non-buffed environments (fervor would probably bring it up a bit if your pet is having trouble keeping basic attacks on schedule).”

Namarus replied, “This would justify having as much crit as possible then? for increased GFTT procs? By the same token would not haste have a knock on effect of increasing autoshots and increase focus regeneration passively.”

Rivkah replied, “The fastest you can realistically expect the pet to cast his basic attack is roughly every 3.3sec (due to latency and the cooldown). So to maximize focus fire uptime you’d want your pet’s focus regen to be high enough that he can keep that up (taking into account that bursts of focus such as those received when you activate focus fire will be turned into wild hunt attacks so it’s possible your basic attack uptime may be choppy). ”

Both crit and haste increase your pet’s focus regen in different ways (go for the throat focus will be more bursty and may produce more wild hunt attacks, haste is a smaller more consistent increase- this is ignoring the comparative value of the stat buck). Once you have sufficient focus to keep your basic attack uptime to maximum, there’s nothing you can do to increase your focus fire uptime, since there’s still a fair amount of RNG involved in the frenzy proc.

Namarus replied, “Thinking about what you have stated there. It would make sense then to use Rapid Fire as a means of supplying ones pet with an over abundance of focus to get frenzy stacks?”

Rivkah wrote, “I’ve run another simc report for reference at level 85, which includes the various [...] talents for all specs, as well as several variations for SV which skip Explosive Shot except for during LnL procs. Details at: Simulationcraft Results

This doesn’t reflect the Rabid nerf announced today, which should drop the value of LR, especially for MM/SV. But it should be noted that the simc which uses Dire Beast + Explosive Shot on cooldown and the version which uses Thrill and Explosive Shot only when LnL procs are virtually identical in damage. This does not hold true in level 90 sims but in level 85 sims with the 2pc T13 bonus it seems to make very little difference.

Update- I applied the Snake Trap and Rabid changes to my site. This removed the benefit of keeping Snake Trap in a rotation.

Here’s my before and after results using the T14 normal gearset that simc is using (I’ve switched from using the T14H as this one is a bit more relevant):

BM before: 91490.73 (DB/LR/GT) after: 89314.37 (DB/LR/GT) – Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer
MM before: 86220.59 (DB/LR/GT) after: 85373.95 (DB/MC/GT) – Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer
SV before: 82594.47 (DB/LR/GT) after: 82475.14 (DB/MC/GT) – Zeherah’s Hunter DPS Analyzer

Note that although my site was showing MC above LR before, I was using LR because that’s what simc was using (simc was seeing it higher due to rabid stacking). I switched to using MC after since I’m presuming LR will no longer be higher in simc after the change, although I haven’t checked yet.

Read original posts

SimC profiles from Femaledwarf 8/26/12

In the Hunter DPS Analyzer thread, Rivkah wrote, “Just an FYI for folks who use both my site and simulationcraft- you can now get a simc profile with most of your setting data (excluding action lists and buffs) from your dps output. If you enable the debug data option the simc profile is displayed below your simulated shot breakdown. This should hopefully make it easier to transfer settings into simc (I may consider adding the ability to parse a simc profile in a future release, but that’d be a lot harder to implement).”

Read original post

Snake Trap Supported 8/28/12

In the Hunter DPS Analyzer thread, Rivkah wrote, “I added Snake Trap support to my site based on my initial testing on the formula for the snake attacks which indicates that it’s likely a dps increase to include it in the rotation (assuming you don’t spend too long fumbling with the trap). I expect they’ll probably nerf it soon, but in the meantime people should be aware that snake trap now scales with haste, crit and RAP and does a noticable amount of damage (especially for SV which gets 2 extra snakes of each type). Snake trap does not benefit from BM or SV mastery. I posted the formulas I’m currently using for the snakes on the FAQ thread- note that these are at level 90 so I’m not sure if they’re as effective at 85.”

Read original post

Prioritizing Rapid Fire and Focus Fire 8/28/12

In the Hunter DPS Analyzer thread, Nooska asked, “Could I ask for a setting for BM to not overlap FF and RF?

Also can I ask if you did something to change TotH lately – its now showing as a rather massive 3.3% increase to take DB over TotH, and a 3% increase to take Fervor – while TotH has been simming behind fervor (I know DB has changed due to other stuff), it hasn’t been this far behind in previous calcs I’ve done, so I’m wondering if its broken/bugged currently.

Rivkah replied, “I don’t think there’s been any changes to Fervor for awhile. ToTH mostly has been changing as a result of Arcane Shot nerfs- I don’t think there’s been anything recently. When I was simming before, DB and Fervor were both pretty high above ToTH so I’m not sure if maybe it’s just related to the config you have (or perhaps indirectly affected by the frenzy change?). DB went up significantly when I added in support for haste scaling on the DB pet.

With regards to FF and RF, it occurs to me that I probably should just setup FF to be limited by the “minimum focus shot speed to activate haste cooldowns” setting. Right now if you use that, RF won’t activate during FF (assuming the speed is set appropriately), but I don’t think FF is configured to limit itself in the other direction. Would that address the issue?

Nooska replied, “It would. It’s mainly a problem of prioritizing RF and FF, and since they only affect CoS (and Auto) they are right above and below each other, with no difference regardless of which is first (which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if you want to spread them out).”

Read original posts

Lady Vashj Tips 8/25/12

In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, lysharp asked Caribald, “I’ve seen your video, and could you tell me how to kill vashj with only 5 stacks in p2 like you, i’ve tried many times, the best is 25 stacks [...]?”

Caribald replied, “Vashj is very possible with 25+ stacks, pretty sure my first kill was with almost 40 or something like that. Anyway, you’ll want to stay in the middle, kill any elemental that comes up from the stairs to the platform, then when you see a poison bolt, disengage in its direction, kill and loot asap, and get back right away. Only once have I managed to reach phase 3 with 0 stacks solo, usually I get around 3-5. [...]”

Lysharp replied, “But every time when tainted elemental spawns, there is a stalker spawns with it, and maybe beside the tainted elemental, how you deal with the stalker?”

Caribald replied, “Cast Misdirection when standing at the top of the stairs, shoot the stalker once, then when you have looted the tainted elemental, you can go up and slow it, take aggro and kite it.”

Natural20 added, “If you’re not flasking on Vashj then elemental resist potions end up being really helpful if you can’t keep the stacks low. The majority of the damage you’re taking is from forked lightning, a nature based attack, so those probably give you leeway for an extra five stacks or so.”

Caribald added, “A few more tips I just thought of: Use Aspect of the Cheetah when you can, when just running. The damage from Forked Lightning is delayed a little bit compared to the animation, and sometimes she’ll cast it on your pet, so depending on the angle your pet is at, you might not get hit. Use this to your advantage and stay in Cheetah until you see the Forked Lightning hitting you, then turn Cheetah off until the damage shows up on your screen, and then turn it on again.”

Additionally, if she has gotten a lot of stacks and you need healing, keep in mind auto shot has a faster travel time than the other hunter shots, so you’ll want to auto shot one elemental, then Chimera Shot another before auto shot is ready again. If you target an elemental without rightclicking and then cast Chimera Shot, it will automatically start autoshooting, and the CS will never connect, which means you don’t get the heal.

Lysharp replied, “yeah, i just want to limit the stacks, to improve my skill. Actually, with less than 50 stacks vashj is easily doable. I’m just curious about these guys who kill her with less than 10 stacks lol.”

Atramedes 25 Trash Packs 8/28/12

In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Durendil wrote, “So, I’ve finished my soloing adventures for patch 4.something. Now, with the patch, I’m sure a lot of bosses will be down before Pandaria. Just wanted to say that after many tries on Atramedes 25 (best one: 9 minutes-90%) I’m sure he is possible. But when the trash respawned… I hoped they didn’t. But I am uploading the video of my soloing of trash packs before him, in 25-man of course Maimgor (a joke), right dwarfs (easy) and dragonspawns (very hard, but becomes easy once the 2 drakeadons are dead). And now, new patch, so gogo soloing!

Read original post

Soloing Onyxia post-patch 5.0.4 8/29/12

In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Arcane36 wrote, ” [...] killed [Onyxia] as a BM even though it was a real pain in the ass without the healing [from Chimera Shot]. The 30% insta-heal did not help as much as I thought it would, my pet was dying pretty rapidly if I forgot to heal him and so did I. I don’t know if it is bug because of my addons or what, but when there were so many dragons, the name plates were scattered all over the place and I could not find out If I killed them or not.

Rawbb replied, “Onyxia was a pain as BM, as Kill Command can’t hit her when she’s in the air. I’ve been finding quite a few fights that aren’t working with kill command as well as I’d like to believe.”

Caribald replied, “The no healing part of BM should be no problem with Spirit Bond or doesn’t it work properly? 2% passive healing (2.2% with Animal Bond Glyph) every 2 seconds should be more than enough for Onyxia, but of course with Exhilaration it would be a different story.”

Read full posts

Soloing Kael’thas post-patch 5.0.4 8/29/12

In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Rawbb wrote, “Kael’thas was the first thing I tried today.. found to be annoying since we can’t equip the staff any more. Need to kill the darkener at the back of the room and start the phase transition with only him around so you can burn him down ASAP.. or the rends get you while you’re conflagged/feared/stunned. Didn’t have much of an issue after that, other than leaving the fear guy up instead of the engineer last to clear out my remote toy.”

Read original post

High Priestess Kilnara post-patch 5.0.4 8/29/12

In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Tydas wrote, “I tried Kilnara today with 90% HM gear and stamina spec and the pet just tank less than before. With practice I think I’ll be able to manage it but it’s gonna be a lot harder than it was before.”

I noticed theses nerf that make the pet tank less :

  • 15%HP (survival talent deleted ) so -15% heal too
  • Silverback pet talent removed

From now on I can go to P2 if I take the risk of getting a dash. As we have no more intervention it make a very high amount of damages and the nerf of Chimera Shot ( -2% if you don’t glyph it, as we have 3 slot for 4 useful glyph ) it’s really dangerous to do that. Also strange thing, as I began P2, the FD trick didn’t made the add ” despawn ” (go back to sleep). Didn’t figured out if it was a change on FD or just bad luck.

Read original post

Icecrown Citadel post-patch 5.0.4 8/30/12

In the Soloing Old Instances for Fun and Profit thread, Durendil wrote, ” I did lower Citadel + Plageworks yesterday, and noticed 3 things:”

  • Spirit Bond bugs. It just keeps going on and off my hunter if I am attacking something. I have no idea if it’s working correctly on my pet. I’ve used Exhilaration on the Plagueworks bosses, and it works fine.
  • When I summon my pet, he respawns with the health he had when he despawned. I actually found it easier on Festergut to let him kill my pet, then rez him and cast Taunt.
  • I’m currently doing in Marksmanship the same dps on complex boss fights than I did on Brutallus with flask and everything, and I’m still focus capping, losing Steady Focus and forgetting to use some cooldowns. Funnily, I don’t do more dps in Survival but maybe it’s because I never really used it for soloing.
  • Resistance is still working, so don’t throw away your Prismatic Elixirs.

Either way, my pet did have trouble surviving.

Caribald replied, “I messed around in Zul’gurub (never tried soloing it before) and noticed Spirit Bond being bugged as well. what a surprise >.< I really miss intervene lol. Durendil, I suppose that’s if you keep summoning the same pet? You could try using 3 different turtles instead of letting it die. [...]”

Read original posts

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...Loading...