another "@Howitzer" :-)

[Seymour]

First of all I would like to say "Hello" from Germany, and sorry for eventually bad english (spelling, inproper word-usage, etc)


I am a big fan of Howitzer and all the things he is giving to the community, and I was reading almost everything he wrote at "EJ`s" and here @fusions hunterboard. The result of reading all this was,that our guild`s hunters almost double their dps output.

atm we raid with 3 hunter, 2 of them beeing 41/20, and me who was 41/20, then 5/20/36 and furhter experimenting, as you may see in my Armory (http://armory.wow-europe.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Gorgonnash&n=Seymour) (riding crop is usually DST)

We are working on Morogrim (with the other 2 bosses and lootreaver down), so our progress must seem "sub lower midfield" to you :-)

After nearly 600G spent on respec, my question remains: how do YOU think can my spec be improved (actual spec is bullsh... I know), what would you suggest "should" be best playstyle for personal AND raid contribution?

After endless respecs it becomes more and more confusing to me, ANY advise is welcome.

so far, thx in advance

[Kontested]

My personal thoughts having raided as survival for awhile:

-Imp Hunters Mark vs Efficiency
This really depends on raid makeup, if you're almost always going to get a Spriest in your group and/or you are the only hunter in the raid then you should be taking Imp. Mark. You said you had 2 BM hunters in the raid so efficiency is probably a better choice at the moment. As survival you're already sacking some of your personal dps to be a melee buff though, so you should make sure that the raid is always getting that additional 110AP.

All your other points in marks are fairly standard, not much to debate.

-Entrapment and Imp. Wing Clip
Neither of these are going to effect your dps but usually in a raid having entrapment 3/3 will be more useful then Wing Clip. Basicly anything you can root with Wing Clip in SSC / TK is going to turn around and jib you right after.

-Imp Feign Death
You pretty much have to throw the point away in that part of the tree, and its really Imp. FD, Clever Traps, or Trap Mastery. Imp. FD is probably the best overall b/c you use it in every fight, but 2% blows so its really your call.

-Wyvern Sting
Not a raid talent, the point would be better spent in Master Tactician.

-Imp Hawk vs Master Tactician
If you're already really well practiced at using a DST and changing your rotation based on your current haste you might be better off taking 4/5 Imp Hawk. That of course really depends on your personal ability, lag / latency, and standard group makeup (if you have one, some raids change more then others). If the haste is hard to manage and you already find yourself clipping autoshots then stick with Master Tactician. Lately myself I've been leaning towards MT just because it procs off of everything, where as Imp Hawk only procs off autoshots. The counter argument is that there is a diminishing returns on your crit, and that past that point (~40%) MT is a huge waste of points. If you look through the EJ forums I think this was brought up in one of the Survival Hunter threads, but its been awhile since I read it.


I know you were just asking about spec but gearwise theres a few things that jump out at me as a survival hunter:
-Replace Savagry with 35agi
-All of your gems should have agi, dont use pure crit/ap gems
-Replace your current meta gem with Relentless Earthstorm Diamond
-Get a Cobra / Nethercobra Leg enchant

[Seymour]

Hello Kontested,

first of all thank you for your suggestions.

When I understand correctly, I should replace all my gems with either +8 AGI (red), and in order to get metagem bonus, use in the other gem slots those "combo" gems with mixed + agi and other stats ?

( I have to admit that the haste meta gem is in there because to my understanding +haste, at least until 2.2, was the best single dps contribution for a hunter. But I understand that to much uncontrolled haste screws my rotation, which is because of some lag issues sometimes very close and feels like clipping auto here and there)

I am completely unsure wheter 5/20/36 (http://www.wow-europe.com/de/info/basics/talents/hunter/talents.html?5000000000000000000000550201205000000 000003322000510312300530300) suits me better than 0/20/41.

(raidbuffed I usually have around 33% crit, and almost always have a feral in my group togehter with the 2 BM hunter, which puts me to 38%)

I even wondered about a 0/27/34 (http://www.wow-europe.com/de/info/basics/talents/hunter/talents.html?0000000000000000000000551201205013200 000003322000510312300520200) spec (to get +17% AGI), but it feels "lacking" here and there in theory, not sure.


Anyhow, suggestions about my itemisation are also welcome, I tend to pass a lot of items for the other hunters, and atm top prio is the chest off of hydross.

[Howitzer]

Everything Kont said is true. You need to change your gems, enchants, and spec in either IAoTH or MT depending on your current crit levels. What I noticed though is you have 2-3 hunters all specced Survival? Kind of a waste of DPS since EW doesn't stack at all. All you need is 1 that raids all the time. <3 Kont.

[Seymour]

What I noticed though is you have 2-3 hunters all specced Survival?

We have 2 BM and me as SV for raiding.

After changing the meta and few other gems, my AGI raises again by a good amount, thanks for that.


I am very thankfull for your opinions, keep up the good flow of information in the forums etc :)