Greeting folks. Today I’m blogging from 30,000 feet as I fly home from the big 100th episode extravaganza. I’ll post about that tomorrow, but suffice it to say a great time was had by all, although Minnesota was a little too cold for my tastes (yes, even at this time of year).
Today I wanted to briefly talk about the the T13 set bonuses that Blizzard announced yesterday.
- 2P — Steady Shot and Cobra Shot generate double the amount of focus.
- 4P — Your Arcane Shot ability has a chance to grant 25% haste to you and your pet for 10 sec.
No math or science here, this is just me “eye balling” it. I like that fact that the two bonuses compliment each other, and I think Beast Mastery and Survival will benefit greatly from them.
Think about it, more focus regen from Cobra Shot, means fewer Cobra Shots in our rotation. Fewer Cobra Shots means more Arcane Shots. More Arcane Shots means more haste, which in turn means faster Cobra Shots. As I said, this is very nice for BM and SV, but what about Marksman?
I think these bonuses will be less than ideal for Marksman. The problem is they will still need to cast Steady Shot in pairs to get the ISS buff. It may be harder for MM to reduce Steady Shots from their rotation, which means they may quickly find themselves focus capped more often than not.
Not only that, but they’ll need to fire Arcane Shot for the haste buff, which could reduce the number of Aimed Shots and make it harder to use Aimed Shot for their focus dump. We’ll know more once we start testing.
Anywho, this is all sleep deprived, sub-standard coffee, sitting in a cramped airplane speculation on my part. Be sure to tune into the Hunting Party Podcast episode 101 this week to get the full set bonus scoop.
Oh and if you find yourself traveling on a plane that offers wi-fi, just pony-up and pay for it. It’s so worth it.
Good Hunting!
I was in Firelands last night when I read the news about the initial bonuses. So as we were clearing trash, I thought about it a little…
My initial reaction, as an MM hunter (as a hunter in general, really) was "omg, that 2pc bonus is sick!"
My follow-up initial reaction was that perhaps the two bonuses will be Blizzard's way of discouraging MM hunters hard-casting Aimed Shot. And it led me to wonder how much this will foul up the MM rotation, and as you mentioned, how much we'll be focus-capped – – and you mentioned all of those issues.
Thinking about it today, though, I felt optimistic about it. Because, ultimately, the current MM rotation, at least for me, requires 5 Steadies between Chimera Shots right now, and I'm always clipping the Improved Steady Shot buff by a huge amount. It seems that the two-piece bonus alone will provide for the ability for MM hunters to replace a Steady Shot with an Arcane Shot (perhaps right after a Chimera, for instance), since we'll theoretically have much more focus to play with. And then the 4pc bonus will only enhance that.
One thing that's certain: as I (and perhaps other MM hunters) get my tier gear, I'll definitely have to go back to the targeting dummy and restructure my rotation a bit, in order to find something that works with my haste level etc. but doesn't result in focus cap issues.
But, like you, this is me "eye-balling" it. Just some thoughts. 🙂
Great show yesterday! Lots of fun to listen to.
Seems like this could potentially go a long way to bringing SV (if not BM) closer to MM dps in raids. Maybe? I'm not the best at math. Maybe this isn't an accurate assessment, and maybe it's not what Bliz intends. I'll look forward to hearing what others think, even though I'm not going to be doing as much raiding moving forward and may not see T13 4pc.
Maybe I've been doin' it wrong, but I barely ever hardcast aimed shot, I fire my steady shots in pairs and put an arcane after each pair, which seems to give me a pretty solid rotation and what seems to me to be pretty damn good dps. I'm slightly behind our mage and warlock, both of whom are better geared than I. I don't tend to run out of focus or get capped, even when I use my procced aimed shot. Given my current rotation, I'm seeing the potential for a substantial dps boost if I can just suddenly jam in extra arcanes.
@ Sam
Generally, if fights require movement (or the chance that movement could potentially cause me to interrupt a cast), I will mix Arcanes in between Steady pairs. However, on some fights – Baleroc, for instance, as well as stationary phases (and burn phases) during Alysrazor/Beth'tilac/Majordomo/Occu'thar/etc. – I find that I do more DPS by hard-casting Aimed Shot. In doing so, I've followed the guidance of Frostheim/Euripides, Elitist Jerks, and other sources. For me, it's definitely situational, and using Arcanes is not currently a big DPS difference, from what I can tell.
I'm interested to see what the rotation will look like as MM hunters start getting the 2pc and 4pc bonuses. Will hard-casting AiS still be "viable" (lol at the HPP drinking game)? Will it be "Arcanes only" for the MM rotation except when Master Marksman procs? Hard to say at this juncture. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out to see what happens. I can certainly foresee hard-cast Aimed Shots going situationally out of style in 4.3, particularly since my (totally un-knowing) vision of The Dragon Soul raid is that we won't be standing around much…
Also, glad to see you having success and holding your own against better-geared players of different classes. I try for the same thing: my goal in our raids is to play the fight strategy correctly while also beating the SV hunter, arcane mage, and warrior who are better geared than me. Good luck to you. 🙂