As promised, here is Pike’s Official Intro to Shot Rotations Movie!
Couple things before I begin:
1.) Kill Command is a move that you can use anytime you crit. You learn it at level 66, not level 68 like I said in the movie… sorry about the oral typo there. /blush
2.) I apologize that my voice sounds somewhat congested, my allergies are pretty terrible this time of year.
3.) My Kill Command is keybound to alt-tilde, hence the sound of a frantic jamming of keys anytime I use it.
4.) I was originally going to have a quiet background music track as well (because honestly you just can’t go wrong with The Safety Dance) but I decided it was too distracting. So hopefully just my voice by its lonesome can hold your interest. =P
Enjoy and hopefully you can learn something from this, I worry that maybe it’s not the clearest video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxLGFv1skh0&hl=en]
Good movie. Good explination of the 1:1 shot rotation. One comment about the macro. I also hate using it BUT when I am raiding in anything but Kara, the extra damage is much appriciated (I know that I spelled wrong but I can’t remember how to spell it right) by all classes for faster kills and lower repair bills because they get beat on less. Once again, very nicely done!
Gunsnbutter Excelsior/Uther
Wait… what mob was that in Blasted Lands? That doesn’t die?
Awesome video. I love the 1:1 shot rotation. I only use “The Macro” for some boss fights just because there’s a million other things I have to be watching for and sometimes it’s just easier (and better dps) to just spam a button when I can stop moving for two seconds (like on Shade of Aran). One thing that I’ve found that makes Kill Command easy for me, is that I have my Steady Shot bound to “6” and then Kill Command bound to “Y” which is just below it.
@ Adam – The mob is called “Servent of Allistarj”.
Further, I snuck a peek at your blog, and I believe I have seen you around VeCo. /wave
Great movie Pike 🙂 I’m loving weaving my shots and now I know I’m doing it ‘right’ – phew! I’ve yet to try a macro but I think if I was raiding it would probably be worth considering for the higher dps… not planning on raiding with my hunter anytime soon though, poor thing is left as a gatherbot /sigh
Nice explanation. But I get confused by one thing… I hear time and again that you can’t use Kill Command while casting Steady Shot, but I do that a lot, and it goes off just like normal. I actually prefer to cast it while casting steady, since I do it by key bindings, and if I try to do things between auto and steady, I fall out of the rhythm… ^^; So is my pet just trying to fool me when she growls after I hit KC while casting steady, or have I come to an amazing revelation without knowing it? ^^;
You really should have a macro for every one of your abilities that has /cast Kill Command appended to it. Roll your face around the keyboard and win, right? =D
@ Souvraya – I dunno, I have never successfully been able to cast Kill Command mid-Steady-Shot. If I recall correctly it will sort of “look” like I’m using it and the button will flash, but it doesn’t actually do it and it is never actually cast.
But if it works for you, then I envy ya! =P
Hmm… Now I’m even more unsure… Will have to test this closer. I do hope I can keep doing it the way I’m now. But will have to test… Thanks for the warning. ^^
Another reason not to use a macro: depending on your lag and weapon speed, using a macro can actually lead to a drop in DPS. Macros only work if your auto shots are slower than steady_shot+0.5s+lag.
Nice movie; I’m a little surprised to see you’re a clicker, but I think I can forgive you. ^_^ I’m basically at the very, very other extreme; I have a special keyboard with extra keys on it.
Also, it’s nice to see the Servant of Allistarj getting some love. My first blog post was about beating the poor guy up.
One suggestion: you said that Kill Command is on Alt+`, which requires you to move your hand (I assume.) Have you ever considered swapping out your Steady Shot button with a macro along these lines (prays that Blogger doesn’t eat this…)
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:alt,target=pettarget]Kill Command; Steady Shot
That way, to use Kill Command, you just have to hold Alt and click your Steady Shot button, meaning no hand movements. I use something similar to manually weave KCs. I tried using a macro that auto-cast it, but I found that it was interfering with SS, so I dropped it.
@ itsnoteasy –
I consider myself to be a dual clicker/keyborder– I will move using either or, depending on the situation, and my shots are done via a combination of clicking (Steady Shot) and keybinds (Kill Command, Mend Pet, some other stuff).
Ha, I’m glad you spotted me. I actually added you to my friend’s list a while back and have meant to say hi, but I always forget. Been reading your blog since BRK showed off the avatar you made for him. I started on Vent Co around the same time you started Lunapike in order to play with some RL friends. Glad you’re still raising that cow lady. Hope to group with you one of these days!
Like I said to you last night, this is a great video. I understood everything I had to do to shot rotate as soon as I hit 62, and I’ve been doing it pretty epically since. The visual guide was a major part of that!
Huzzah for Auntie Pike!
Stupid question – how can you tell you got a crit?
@ Mister Adequate: <3
@ Ester: Admittedly I sort of cheat, I have Scrolling Combat Text installed and it makes my crits big and blue, it also pops up a little “Kill Command!” warning. However, you don’t need an addon, you can also use the in-game combat text (you can enable it somewhere in the menu, it will display your damage, etc.) or you can just keep an eye on your Kill Command button and wait for it to light up.
AWESOME video…I have a hunter at 68, and I had read about the shot rotation, but never really looking into it much. I never noticed how EASY it was…I also am not a macro person, so I think I will stick to the manual way.
Thanks for that though…and I loved your comment when looting…
“Ohhh…Stuff!”
@ ester
There is an add on called Critical Alert that will make sounds when you get a crit.
Pretty simple mechanics..I hear “bwooop”, I mash button.
Great Video Pike!
*Sings*
You can crit if you want to, you can leave your friends behind.
Cause your friends don’t crit, and if you don’t crit then you’re no friend of mine.
Lovely movie miss Pike 🙂 As you know I too prefer the zen art of shot rotation hehe.
On the matter of casting kill command mid steady shot – I can get away with this purely because of latency (I’m in Australia so 500-600ms is normal *cry*). I use Quartz so I can see when I hit latency in my cast bar and if kill command is up then I can hit it.
Awesome awesome. -coughs- I only use 2-3 steady shots in my rotation because I’m a mana whore and like to see that blue bar as close to full as possible …. but I am practicing a 1-1 ratio and really appreciate being able to see it done. BTW, how does one macro Hunter’s Mark to your pet attack button? I’m sure I’ve seen this info somewhere but can’t remember where ….
@beowulfa
/cast Hunters Mark
/petattack
/point
/yell Sic ’em!
bind that to an easy to hit key (for a long time I had it bound to the click of the mouse wheel and it worked beautifully). Some folks don’t like to mark every target they send their pet after, but it’s entirely up to your playing style.
(P.S. you don’t actually need those last 2 lines)
Also, mana conservation is nice, but your party will praise you when you use the 3:2 rotation and top the damage meters. Just make sure you carry mage food with you. I usually do a round of AV at the start of each night for a full stock of mage food. Never have to worry about mana when grinding anymore.
Oh I sorry. Just realized no one has mentioned the 3:2 rotation. Pike shows the 1:1 rotation in her video. The 3:2 technically pumps out more damage, but burns through mana faster. It relies on a specific macro, and casts 2 steady shots between each autoshot. It also automatically becomes a 1:1 rotation when you are under Haste effects. It’s a magic macro that promises maximum DPS, but I won’t post it here. It’s easy to find on the forums if you’re into macro mashing (I admit, I am a macro masher).
What an excellent blog, I’ve added your feed to my RSS reader. 🙂