marksmanship, specs

Marksman Week is Go For Launch

28 Comments

I am now officially specced 7/57/7. All I’ve really had time to do so far is some dailies and a little bit of time on the training dummies to de-rustify my rotation.

Things I have noticed so far:

1.) The Marksman rotation feels like you are pressing more buttons despite the fact that in theory, Survival is the one pressing the most buttons. Probably because the Survival buttons tend to be on longer cooldowns.

2.) Questing is hilarious; my pet is better at holding aggro as an MM pet than an SV pet for some reason I can’t ascertain (or maybe it’s just my mind…), a Chimera + Aimed will kill almost all mobs (sometimes I don’t have time to even use Aimed), and Rapid Recuperation is like a dip into AotV without having to use AotV. I’ve had less downtime doing dailies as MM than as any other spec thus far. (Interestingly, Beast Master is the spec where kill-em-all quests take the longest amount of time to do– I’m not killing things nearly as fast and thus I am in Viper much more often.)

I’m actually sort of worried about this week not being a good week for this test; I work evenings Wednesday through Saturday this week which means I have… uh, just tonight and tomorrow to try to get into all the raids I want to test. And tonight is limited because there are already a few I am locked out of. >.> We’ll see how things go.

28 thoughts on “Marksman Week is Go For Launch”

  1. Just stay MM for 2 weeks! 🙂 You know what happened when I switched from BM to MM to test it out… well, that was like 4 months ago and I haven’t switched back since!

  2. What’s your AP looking like as MM spec? Growl scales with AP, so the higher that is, the better your pet will hold aggro naturally.

    Not to mention, isn’t SV heavy on crit? That’s a good way to yank aggro off any tank, pet or not. 🙂

  3. Hi! Could you tell us what rotation you use as MM? is it serpent sting- aimed shot-chimera shot? and then weaving steady shot when things are on cooldown? I’ve been wanting to try it out =)

  4. @Samantha-The shot priority for Marksman should be: Serpent sting (gets refreshed automagically) -> Chimera shot -> Kill Shot ->Arcane Shot ->Aimed Shot -> Steady Shot. Steady shots can be used for other things like casting mend pets, refreshing hunter’s mark, etc. You never want to clip the shots in the priorty with one of lower importance.

    You probably don’t notice the pet’s aggro because you kill things so fast as marks. When I’m doing dailies things are usually dead after the Chim/Serpent punch. If not aimed/arcane finishes it off. Hope you have fun with marksman 🙂

  5. Hey. I’ve been MM since I started WoW and only changed to SV for a week since then (to do a test like yourself).

    Quick MM Tips:

    MM prefers Agility these days – your SV spec should be good enough.

    Spec for Aimed and your rotation starts like this in raids:

    Hunters Mark – Serpent Sting – Rapid Fire – Chimera Shot – Arcane Shot – Aimed Shot – Steady shot…

    Then depending on your haste a couple more steady shots potentially and then hit the main ones when they’re off CD. When RF runs out, hit readiness and start again!

    Having Arcane before Aimed shot helps out your “rotation” a bit, it stops things overlapping so much but after the initial opening, go Aimed over Arcane unless all 3 (Chimera, Arcane and Aimed) are all off CD at the same time.

    Good Hunting!

  6. I’d recommend putting Aimed before Arcane on your priority list _if_ you have piercing shots. I don’t believe Arcane triggers the bleed effect the way Chimera and Aimed do.

    I start with a sting, aimed, arcane, steady only to fill time, chimera as needed (up to you whether you shoot it at 4 seconds left or 2 or whatever), it all depends on the encounter, your distance from the boss, etc. and then go through the cooldowns.

    And I proudly outdps the SV hunters in my group *flex*

  7. Oh, also, Kill Command once a minute, and Kill shot ASAP, maybe blowing readiness to get a second one in with a second rapidfire at the end. Depends on the boss.

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  10. Keep in mind with Piercing Shots you know have two DoTs that may eat your Misdirect. For that purpose, when I open a pull with a MD, I always go Arcane ->Auto ->Aimed, that way if all three crit, the bleed on the Aimed won’t waste a MD, and the cooldowns become more manageable.

  12. Thanks for the reply, guys =] I was also wondering if anyone had a good leveling/PVE talent tree link? I would greatly appreciate it =]

  13. I was B throughout leveling. Afiter I hit 80, I was doing well in raids, but wasn’t in top ten of DPS as BM. After swithcing to MM and playing it for about three months now, I am number 1 or two in 25 Naxx and 10 Ulduar. I really think you will like MM. To me it almost feels like a song when you hit your stride and are just plugging away with your shots. BTW, use silencing shot if you took it during your GCD’s, it’s free dps.

  14. Do give MM longer than one calendar week, Pike. It’s an awesome spec and I think you will really enjoy developing into it.
    I find it’s a spec I’m always learning and refining which is very rewarding.

    Rotation seems to be a point of debate here, and I too am torn on what is better, Aimed before Arcane or vica-versa. It definitely depends on spec.

    Speaking of which, what is your spec and glyph set? I am really looking forward to this experiment and your findings!

  15. “Rotation seems to be a point of debate here, and I too am torn on what is better, Aimed before Arcane or vica-versa. It definitely depends on spec.”

    If you prioritize Arcane over Aimed, you should, over time, be able to fire more Arcane Shots, and fewer Steady Shot fillers. I have a hard time with this, however, so I usually prioritize Aimed over Arcane. That means I have some “slack” in my “rotation”, but I use that slack to take stock of the unfolding situation, and plan 2-3 shots ahead. (You can change the priority at any time, even during a fight.)

    Trinkets, racials, and other long cooldown abilities I try to fit in place of a Steady Shot.

    The point Negathle made about Misdirect is important to remember. The temptation is to macro Silencing Shot into all of your other specials, but doing so will gimp Misdirect. So either use Silencing Shot with a separate button or key, or macro it to a shot you’ll never use with Misdirect, like Steady Shot.

    Improved Hunter’s Mark and Marked for Death mean you want to mark any mob that will live for more than a few GCD’s. I’m going to try macro’ing HM into my Serpent Sting, so I don’t forget it.

    Not every hunter is aware that their weak-a** HM’s will overwrite your buffed one. It’s nice if BM’s and SV’s mark trash mobs and adds, so you don’t have to, but let ’em know that you’ll mark the boss, for their benefit. If a MM in the group has the Glyph of Hunter’s Mark, as well as 3/3 IHM, then they’re on marking duty.

    If you open with HM, Serpent, Chimera, Readiness, Chimera… you’ll generate ‘uge tracts o’ threat. Particularly if you get “lucky”. Either Misdirect beforehand, or hold off for a few seconds for the tank to establish Really Solid Aggro. (This is -never- a problem when I roll as BM…)

    There are a lot of fine points to MM, but it’s turning out a lot easier than I expected. Mana doesn’t seem to be a huge issue. Mobs die fast, and the crits are huge. The ego-buffing is nice, too. 🙂

  16. Good point on Silencing Shot interfering with Misdirect, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll re-evaluate my macro of the shot and see what else might fit.

    As for Silencing Shot being free DPS, that’s not entirely true. It’s still a 6% base mana shot for 50% damage which is expensive. Using Silencing on every CD is only really advisable if you’ve got a steady Replenishment stream going. Otherwise that “free” DPS is costing a lot of mana which means trouble down the road (sort of like considering credit cards as free money).

    I do really wish Blizzard would reconsider the “working as intended” stance on lesser Hunter’s Marks overwriting Improved (and Glyphed) Marks; that’s just poor design in my opinion. Most Hunters throw Marks without thinking about it out of habit or just have it macroed to something like their pet attack or other shot(s). I liked it back when you’d get the “a more powerful spell is active” response when trying to Mark with a lesser ranked HM.

    @Samantha – For leveling I’d recommend investing in Efficiency to ease up mana consumption and minimise down time. You don’t need a min-max DPS build for leveling so focus on mana efficiency balanced with damage. I like going with Aspect Mastery as well from the BM tree.

  17. @ Tchann – does Growl still scale with AP? I wasn’t sure if they had changed it or not, so I wasn’t sure if that was the reason. /nod

    @ The people asking for spec and glyphs – here ya go! http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Silver+Hand&n=Tawyn&group=2 currently.

    @ the Hunter’s Mark discussion – eeep. I have Hunter’s Mark macro’d in to Pet Attack so that means I literally mark everything with my non-improved as soon as the fight starts. Now I have to look into that /grumble at Blizz

    @ The people suggesting I stay MM for more than a week – we will see how it goes! =P

  18. Yayay! MM! Oggity boogity! *does the MM dance*

    Not sure whether Growl scales with AP, but MM has the lovely Careful Aim which converts Int to AP, so I guess MM hunter pets would hit harder due to that 🙂

  19. @ Mazil – I think every spec takes Careful Aim now. =P Honestly I am mostly surprised because SV gets the talent that specifically increases your pet’s attack power by 30% of your stamina while MM doesn’t really have any similar talents… except Marked for Death maybe. Trueshot Aura then, perhaps?

  20. Have fun with MM! That is Boogga’s second spec, and it’s a ton of fun when I want a little change of pace.

    I don’t know whether most people use chimera as part of their rotation or whether they use it only when Serpent needs refreshed. Boo uses it as part of his rotation, hitting it every time it’s off CD, and it hits like a truck. Usual rotation is SS just at the start, then Chimera-Kill shot when available-Arcane-Aimed-Steady if the others are still on CD.

  21. I hit more buttons as mm then survival (looks at bar, yup. 5 shots, and 3 other buttons to boot).

    As others have said, be careful with misdirect, and also be careful with threat. I win the Omen Game more as MM then any other spec. Others may be outdpsing me (I’m looking at you crit-chickens) but man I win the Omen race. Thank goodness for misdirect and fd.

    And yup, a Chimera+aimed kills just about anything. It’s one of the reasons I love MM so.

  23. For the rotation part, I start with Arcane before Aimed otherwise you end up with arcane and Chimera coming off CD at the same time. After the start it’s aimed over arcane because of the bleeds…unless all are off CD again (effectively like at the start).

    TSA is a good talent and glyph to go with only if there is no blood DK/Enhansement Shaman in the raid as they will override the buff 🙁

    Someone mentioned macroing Serpent stung with hunters mark, well I don’t believe you can because they both trigger the GCD.

    And on some bosses, L2 Viper Sting! I still go OOM faster than the SV hunter in my raid even with 2/2 in RR and the one that reduces RF by 2 mins (I would have looked up bhe name but I’m on my iPhone)

  24. My Marks rotation is:

    Kill Shot > Serpent > Chim Shot > Aimed Shot > Arcane Shot >Silence Shot > Steady x 2/3

    This is the typical, EJ preferred, rotation for Marks Hunters I’m finding. Once you find your groove it’s very simple to follow this pattern for the most part, even if you need to move around.

    Before a fight begins, I’ll Hunter’s Mark the boss (I have 3/3 in Imp Hunter’s Mark), open with Serpent > Chim Shot > Aimed > Rapid Fire > Readiness >Chim Shot > Aimed > Arc > Silent Shot > Steady . . . and I’ll re-throw my 2nd Rapid Fire into the mix with the first one expires.

    I also highly suggest, like someone did earlier, macro your Silent Shot into Steady Shot. Silent is NOT on the global cooldown with the other shots so it’s like having a free shot even if the damage is halved. I’ve seen myself crit for over 2k on a Silent Shot and that adds up over a fight.

  25. I was reviewing your spec and wondering why you did not grab improved steady shot?

  27. I’m waiting for Rilgon and Nassira (Negathle would be the other person in my MM triumvirate… and she already posted) to comment on the shot priority. In the mean time here’s my thoughts…

    You should fire Chimera as early and often as possible. So that means Serpent Sting –> Chimera Shot to start. Unless you are Misdirecting, then be aware that any tick on anything will eat up a Misdirect be it a Serpent tick, a Piercing Shots tick, or a Chimera + Serpent tick. So then it is more advisable to open with the Arcane/Auto/Aimed if you’re Misdirecting as Negs mentioned above.

    To me, Improved Steady is a wash, take it or don’t take it either way. The only people I’ve known to take ISS are the uber elitists that eschew True Shot Aura as well, relying on other raid members for a similar buff. Personally, I don’t take it. It’s definitely not a must have or a must leave.

    And I suspect that Pike has already read the following posts, but for those of you looking to dabble in the arts of Marksmanship, you might want to check out the following links:

    Under the banner of Greatness, unite!
    Marksmanship Shot Rotations

    Nass’ post is pretty evident from the title (the 2nd link). Rilgon’s post (the 1st link) covers pretty much everything from gems/food/potions, etc.

    I love Marks, and have played it since it first became available way back in the day. It’s still incredibly fun for me. I’ve never been tempted to try anything else. But I’m like that, even with my alts. I pick a spec and stay with it for life. :p

    Enjoy, and maybe you’ll stick around longer than a week. But if you find out after all of this, BM is where you’re at, then stay with what’s most enjoyable to you. Even though I’ve always played MM, I’m an equal opportunity hunter. Just like your toons in your previous story, a hunter is a hunter. I’ll salute you wherever you are and be proud of you when you beat me on the damage meters no matter what spec. 🙂

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