Basics: 3. Shot Rotations

Ok well lots of people may have different rotations. I’ll show you what i believe to be the best type for different situations.

PvP

Ok, for this you want to unleash what you can when you can. This often means unloading all you got. So..

Rapid Fire –> Aimed Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot –> Arcane Shot –> Auto Shot –> Multi Shot –> Auto Shot –> Steady Shot… etc.

If your opponent has little health maybe leave out the auto shots. Only use aimed shot at the beginning because it resets your auto shot cooldown and don’t use it at all if something is attacking you, it will take too long to cast.

Only use rapid fire with aimed or steady shot, as well as auto, as it is the only real skills it affects.

Raid

For this you want to have high dps, but not to go crazy and use up all your mana too fast…

Mark –> Misdirect –> Aimed Shot –> Steady Shot –> Arcane Shot –> Auto Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot……

A multi shot and arcane shot can be nice as long as you let the auto shot go off after. Don’t use these too often so your mana drains too quickly however.

Only use an aimed shot when your auto shot is broken e.g. running away to a new spot, if you lose your auto shot by using this you will be most likely losing dps, not gaining. Remember to use a arcane, multi or steady shot right after and get back onto auto shot.

Use rapid fire when your dps is needed, but don’t use it too much to get aggro, remember FD if this happens.

Another shot rotation i use is (as a macro)

/castsequence reset=10 Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Multi-Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot

For BM’s : auto-shot –> Steady –> Auto-shot –> KC –> Steady –> Auto-shot etc.
For BM’s steady shot is the only viable shot! Anything else costs higher mana, though do use multishot if there are multiple target’s. Use KC AFTER auto shot otherwise it will delay the next auto shot! Use an addon like Sorren’s Timer for easier timing.

Grinding/Questing

slow dps leaving your pet with the aggro, while saving mana. This means you’ll get less down time and you should find things a lot easier.

Mark –> Misdirect (if no cooldown) –> Aimed Shot (if used misdirect)–> Steady Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot……

Use mend pet when necessary, easy now as it’s a hot. Just heal when it’s losing health 🙂 Only use aimed shot if you use misdirect. Only use this if your pet will not hold aggro and your FD is on cooldown. The more often you use this the faster your mana will drain giving you more down time.

If you gain aggro then the best thing is to feign death. This loses all your aggro but your pet keeps it, letting you start dps again without gaining aggro.

Lay a freeze/frost trap. I always used to use a freeze trap. This will stop the target trapped from moving for around 30 secs. This is great if you are against two targets as it lets your pet take one while you hit it, and leaves the other doing nothing. The frost trap is great for if you have three or more targets. It lets your pet take one, and lets you damage another and the extra(s) will not be able to get to you so fast. Just keep running across the trap every time they get near you. This will mean they will hardly hit you and buy you some time till you get down to 2 for a freeze trap.

Boss/Elite

This is where you have to do some fast damage before your pet dies, but need to try and keep your pet keep aggro.

Mark –> Misdirect –> Aimed Shot –> Arcane Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot –> Steady Shot –> Auto Shot…

Keep your pet up with mend pet, not letting the buff run out. If your pet will not make it try freezing your target and heal your pet up. FD whenever you can to make sure you don’t over aggro your pet. The rest of the time just try to do high dps to kill your target quicker if your pet won’t survive, because if it dies it will become a lot harder.

Snake trap is great for bosses as it gives them less hits as it keeps interrupting, does damage and damage over time. Use frost trap if your pet dies and use the tactic above.

Use scorpid sting if melee so your target hits your pet for less, and viper sting for mana users so they run out of mana fast and have to use low damage melee.

For ranged weapon speeds i believe that the slower the bow/gun the higher the damage it will cause, and the quicker it is the more often you get shots. As a mark hunter the slower the speed the better as it means each hit will cause even more damage.

As a survival hunter you want faster shots to get crits more often since your chance is a lot more than others, and having more damage each shot isn’t really that worth it.

As a BM hunter you want something in the middle for the best of both and so your pet causes the damage without you over aggroing him.

~ by Arty on July 21, 2007.