Have You Forgotten Already?
For BM hunters, we’ve been preaching one word for a long, long time. What’s that word?
Balance.
Balanced stats are the key to MQoSRDPS. You may hit like a truck, but if you have no mana, you’re doing nothing. You may have loads of Crit, but if you can’t take an AoE blast from a boss, you’re dead and worthless.
Balance, foshizzle.
Now let’s take a look at some of the gear with which you people are espousing we replace our Vengeful Gladiator’s Waraxe.
Agility, +Hit, and Attack Power, but no Stamina and no +Crit. As we mentioned, we’re already Hit-Capped for the content we’re running. If we’re not Missing, we don’t need more +Hit, so why trade our Stamina, Crit, and Armor Penetration that comes with our S3 axe for extra +Hit we don’t need?
If we see a hunter running Karazhan at level 70 with 167 Hit Rating, what do we say? “You’re over the Hit Cap!” Well right now, anything higher than our current Hit Rating would be over our Hit Cap, and that would not be Balanced.
Just because a hunter can use a piece of gear does not mean he should use that piece of gear. This SCS is a rogue or enhancement shaman or non-Titan’s Grip, DPS-warriors weapon. Melee duel wielders need much more +Hit than we hunters do, and that’s why this weapon is awesome for them, but just so-so for us. If you’re having trouble getting your +Hit over 100, then by all means grab a pair of these. But otherwise, we recommend you pass.
Everything we wrote about the SCS applies here, too. Almost the same weapon, just different sources. At least this one has Stamina, though. For BM hunters, FoT > SCS because this is more balanced.
We got ours, we liked it, but better than our S3 axe it is not. Agility, Stamina, Crit and AP, nice x4, very true. But remember, we’ve got a +35 Agi enchant on our S3. Let’s say the IrBS is equal to the S3 axe. Heck, let’s go so far as to say it’s a little better in terms of raw, on-tooltip DPS. Well then we have to enchant it to make it truly better to what we’ve already got. Do we have to blow 500 gold on enchanting mats for a minimal upgrade? We’d much rather take that cash and put it towards a Nesingwary 4000, which is a huge, massive upgrade. And that is just what we did.
If you don’t have an S3 axe, this is a fabulous reason to get your happy @ss to Zul’Drak and do the Ampitheater ASAP. But it’s not a definitive upgrade to the S3 axe, if for no other reason than money.
Now let’s talk about some interesting possibilities you didn’t mention.
Fist Weapon! Agility, Stamina, and Armor Penetration! We love Armor Pen and Ignor Armor, we do! This is something we’d purchase two of, just to take it to a target dummy and see how the damage meters compare to our S3 axe. Remember, we don’t need +Hit right now. If you’re finding that your damage meter reports are showing that you are Missing, get yourself more +Hit, baby! We don’t need it at the moment, so we’re not going to hunt for gear that has it.
Ooo! A dagger with Armor Penetration? This too would be a fun thing to test.
Is this better than the one-handers? Off the top of our head, we’d say no. But if you can’t get those nice one-handers with the +Hit, this has a ton.
As BM hunters, the usefulness of Haste is not as important as it is for Marksmen and Survivalists. As such, while this looks like a really nice weapon, we’d prefer to dual-wield some of those Armor Penetration one-handers instead of this. The Haste vs Armor Penetration study is coming in the next podcast.
Runeblade of Demonstrable Power
This is a glass-cannon weapon, same as the Savage Cobalt Slicer; loads of all the MQoSRDPS stuff we want, none of the Stamina we need to stay alive in case of an emergency. If you’re not dying in boss fights, either due to your exceptional skill or your healers TLC, go ahead and play with it. But do NOT put the burden of your safety in your healer’s hands. Take care of yourself; that’s your job. If you can’t do it, equip something else.
You’ll notice that all of these weapons are rare and level 187. As soon as we get into the rare level 200s and epics, the S3 axe is easily stat-crushed. However, 187s, regardless of their stats, are not guaranteed to be upgrades over your S3 axe. Don’t let new-ness factor of a fun melee toy overcome your logic and math.
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I’m sorry to pick up on the one thing that isn’t right, I hope you won’t mind… but Shaman of any variety can’t use swords. SCS is not suitable for Enh Shaman for this reason.
Otherwise a great read as usual!
Love the site!
^^
Well slap our face and call us oatmeal. Post amended to reflect our ignorance.
Cheeky’s DPS worksheet says you’re wrong on several accounts regarding DPS choices and that Axe. I have the axe but Cheeky says that the Icier Barbed is better by 47.17 DPS
well put I am getting the Polearm from the Kualak (sp?) caues i need the+hit
is designed to make gear-decisions based upon an individual’s current equipment, gems, and enchants. If the IrBS is that much better for you, and you have the cash to enchant it properly, we’re not going to argue. /approve
But before you do that, get a Nesingwary 4000. Every hunter should have one. It’s the #1 most important upgrade you can do.
What about the bow from Heroic Utgarde Keep? It’s damn close in stats to the Nesingwary 4000…
I hear ya BRK. <3
I am an engineer but I am going to pass on the Nesingwary and grab the H-UK bow. Not a gun fan (sorry) and it’s free
I am too cheap, 60k gold and I can’t bring myself to spend a dime! I really want the 3-man Mammoth, is it really worth it?
Rima, what good is gold by itself? It’s power lies in its ability to be used not hoarded.
60k in the bank does nothing for your game. Use it to get gear, mounts, profession recipes, etc., or use it to power-level rep or professions (which usually leads to gear, mounts, profession recipes, etc.
)
(If you like bows more than guns, by all means pass on the Nesingwary, but put that gold to use!)
Had a great response typed, but the damn stupid spam filter ate it.
Sorry kids, drink the BRK coolaid on this one, and you’re doing it wrong.
The slicers are better.
I agree with keeping the S3 axe, but hasn’t the hit rating cap gone up at level 80?
*sigh* Loosen the filtration on your spam filter, because it’s eaten this post twice.
I agree that balance is a good thing to have, but the fact that you’d drop the DPS increase that the Slicers offer you for some stamina from the Waraxe is insane. I’m “only” at 11.1k HP unbuffed, and even in UP/CoT:Strat/HoL/Oculus, I haven’t even come close to dying, because I don’t pull threat and I intelligently position myself away from potential threats.
You mention a lack of crit and armor penetration on the Slicers. What you don’t realize is that the 88 Agility from twin Slicers is more crit than the crit rating on the Waraxe. The hit rating, while “wasted” right now in normal level 80 instances, is going to be nigh-mandatory in Naxxramas. Armor Penetration is a pathetic stat, thanks to the way it was redone in Wrath, and the Slicers offer more RAP than the Waraxe can ever hope to.
You lose 62 Stam and a pathetic amount of ArPen for a massive Crit, Hit, and RAP boost. If your goal is truly MQoSRDPS, then it’s a tradeoff that’s easily worth it.
And since I can’t seem to edit my above post, I’ll do the faux paus of double-posting: You’re below the hit cap for Heroics, assuming you don’t have a Draenei with you. Hell, you’re below the hit cap for level 80 mobs.
32.79 hit rating per percent of hit, meaning 163.95 (164) for 80s, 180.345 (180) for 81s, 196.74 (197) for 82s, and a massive 295.11 (295) for 83s/raid bosses.
Saying that you don’t need the hit right now is a falsehood, since you’re only at 149, and last I checked, you aren’t a Draenei.
It is quite possible that my math is wrong, but I’m showing that the Icier Barbed Spear unenchanted is better than the S3 Waraxe enchanted.
62 Agi + 88 AP = 150 AP on the Spear
35 Agi + 92 AP = 127 AP on the Waraxe
62 Agi + 61 CR = 2.07% Crit on the Spear
35 Agi + 46 CR = 1.42% Crit on the Waraxe
The ArP isn’t important for non BM hunters and like you said, the Hit isn’t important for that gear level. So what am I missing?
We’ll say it one more time: If we’re not Missing, we don’t need more Hit. When we run Naxx and we start Missing, that’s a different ballgame.
You’re only “not Missing” because of the RNG being random. At 149 hit rating, You have roughly 4.54% +Hit. Assuming you’re in heroics (a decent assumption), you have a .46% chance to miss on trash (which is 80, if I recall) and a 1.46% chance to miss on bosses (which are 82). Now, maybe you have the luck of an Irishman with a wreath of four-leaf clovers woven about his head, but I don’t (sup 1.5 years of Ashjre’thul never dropping, 500+ kills for my Engineering schemata, 250+ renewals for my bombling), so I do not take any chances. If there even exists a 0.01% chance I can miss, you can bet I’ll miss 50 shots out of 200 on my next dungeon run.
So yes, above all else, I cap my Hit. If you find that you don’t need to, then by all means, but I implore you, with the gravity your name carries, do NOT lead other Hunters astray. If there’s anything in this world I hate the most, it’s misinformation. Someone as famous as you can very easily spread it if incorrect, so please make sure you’re as right as you can be.
Called out.
There is NO way I’m forking out for a Nessingwary gun. If I manage to slowly get mats for it, sure, but right now there are other things I need to spend gold on…. and besides, I prefer bows
Rilgon is completely right. With current game mechanics you need 9% plus hit for a raid level boss mob. However the hit rating required for that 9% changes with level.
9% +Hit ? 296 Hit Rating (Level 80) ?197 Hit Rating with Focused Aim (Level 80)
1. Always use Recount to test your own Hit/Miss rates.
2. Remember that the content you’re facing will affect your Hit-Cap.
3. Reaching the Hit-Cap is a good goal, but not the Ultimate Goal.
4. Don’t sacrifice any one stat to max another.
5. Balance.
1) Correct, but I prefer to correct a potential problem (missing) before it happens (by hit-capping above all else).
2) Given. But as I stated, 149 isn’t hit-capped for even normal level 80 instances.
3) Spoken like someone who has never been a member of a Tranquilizing Shot rotation on Huhuran or Flamegor. It is, IMO.
4/5) This is the reason that the concept of statistical weight exists. I would much rather have an item with 60 Hit Rating than an item with 60 Crit Rating, assuming I need 60 or more HR to be capped, as Hit will give me more DPS, point for point, than Crit will until I am capped. Balance, yes, but balance intelligently.
I concur with Rilgon.
(short version of my post here, since I don’t care to have the spam filter eat it again..)
Comparing the slicers (with dual +30int) to the S3 axe with +35 agi I get the following…
+638 health
-116 RAP
-1.98% hit
-.0.08% crit
+1.131% ArPen
What isn’t shown is the additional mana, plus the RAP gained from the Int with the talent.
So there ISN’T a crit difference enough to fuss about.
And I’d MUCH rather have the mana, +RAP and +hit than +ArPen. I’m not dying, so health is not an issue.
The slicers are a great leveling combo if you want the dual enchants.
Plus, the extra hit on them will allow me to dump some gems with +hit.
a lot of the gear I’ve been picking up as a mage in quests from 70-80 have had tons of +hit and +haste on them… which are pretty useless for grinding, haste for a caster is only worth it if you are spamming spells with 2.5 casting time or longer.. so I have a lot of my original gear still.
http://www.wowconfidential.com
to each their own
i had two SCS made for naxx, for me the only melee upgrade (inc naxx) is Betrayer of Humanity.
but i’m not going to run dailes or heroics (mostly lvl 80~lvl 82) with two SCS. Runeblade of Demonstrable Power would be my next pick. there are enough stamina on WotLK armor pieces and i’m over 13K hp in mostly T6 (4pc is hard to break)
If you can figure out how to dual-wield two offhand Unholy Persuaders, let me know.
I didn’t have the axe…I had a dungeon blue from Outland, which I upgraded twice via quest greens and blues. Then I saw the twin Slicers and saw they were a major upgrade for me, so I figured it was worth it (farmed the mats myself in less then an hour).
I also had some fun on the Heroic Boss dummy this morning…if I removed both my Slicers, I’d be getting about a 1% miss on the boss after 1000 arrows fired. With both them on, I’m hitting 100%. I have a 8.56% hit rating when you factor in my racial…so I think I’m gonna consider that I need them for hit cap.
Leading hunter’s astray? That’s comments a little out of hand. I don’t see anywhere in his post where he’s stating hunters don’t require hit, nor is by far leading hunter’s “astray.” That’s silly. Astray from what? A 1-2% chance to miss? We arn’t talking raid environment’s anyways, level 80-81 bosses, that low of a chance to miss isn’t gonna be a huge dsp drop off. He also frequently suggests to balance according to “your” stats. He suggests that he is not missing therefore he feels hit is not currently a problem for him, and I see nothing wrong with that. Don’t come here and berate the man for not maxing his hit cap to avoid a 1% chance to miss against pre-raid content, thats just rediculous,
While personally I would take the higher AP and agil payout from a few of the above weapons, the man clearly isn’t worried about it and suggests that while the blue axes are nice, the minor upgrades in AP from his enchanted S2 arn’t nesecary for HIM. He would prefer to wait for level 200 weapons, and I see where hes coming from.
Not only that I don’t see Hunter’s going out stacking stamina over hit due to this post. Lighten up.
*Shrugs* Stam is nice…but with 16k health (unbuffed) the only time I die before everyone else in the group is when I’m the unlucky one to get the random dot more then twice in a row….or stupid enough not to dodge the orb/spike/pit/etc of doom. I don’t think losing out on the stam on the axe will make that big a difference…not vs the gains on more AP, hit and crit.
I’m running mostly heroics. I did 2880 dps on Mal’Ganis this morning, and got slept twice during the fight that lasted less then a minute. I may not be using a glass cannon spec, but I’m doing much better then I thought I was earlier this week.
Lets take one of your own quotes and edit it some:
“If we’re not dying, we don’t need more Stam.”
Stamina is not a DPS stat. 9/10 times, if you’re choosing the optimal DPS oriented item, its going to provide a suitable amount of stam. To actively choose it over an item with better DPS stats doesn’t really make a bit of sense. That theoretical AoE? If you have to specifically choose stamina to survive it, you’re under the encounters gear level. The stam you need will come on its own.
As someone above showed, the only thing the S3 Axe has over the Slicers (you bought a mammoth, spend the 150g on +Int enchants) is armor pen. Its inferior in every other way. While were on the subject of Armor Pen, why are you still actively looking for it? Did you miss the changes made in Wrath? Its a pretty poor stat now.
Whether your ready to admit it or not, dual Slicers is a significant upgrade over the S3 Axe. To edit your quotes once again
“Don’t let a fun but outdated melee toy overcome your logic and math.”
Also, the spam filter man. Its getting a bit ridiculous.
“Leading hunter’s astray? That’s comments a little out of hand. I don’t see anywhere in his post where he’s stating hunters don’t require hit, nor is by far leading hunter’s ‘astray.’ ”
Its maybe a bit overboard, but think about it for a sec. How many hunters out there learned how to play from reading this site? On top of that, how many of them do you think see something like “If you’re having trouble getting your +Hit over 100, then by all means grab a pair of these. But otherwise, we recommend you pass.” and never give the item a second look? A lot, I would imagine.
The problem in this is that, as has been shown above, BRKs math is wrong. Hes funny, he writes an entertaining blog, and hes got a lot of great hunter tips but hes not the guy to go to when it comes to the numbers ( as shown by him mistakenly believing that SCSx2 is less crit then the axe.)
BRK isn’t perfect, and sometimes the people who leave comments are right. This is one of those cases, and I personally feel that if BRK is going to continue to be the preferred source of info for hunters…his info has to be correct. Opinions differ, and that’s fine, but this is a case of numbers and they don’t lie.
Rilgon, you may be right. Personally I can’t stand number crunching, but your presentation comes across as just plain rude. Just my two coppers.
Regardless, love what you do here BRK! Keep it up!
Ooh, I hadn’t looked at melee weapons from Kalu’ak rep at all yet, but that dagger looks very fun. Just one more daily and I get to play around with it…
I’m a little disappointed that you only covered blue items, though–I was looking forward to hearing what you think about Black Ice (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40497#), I’ve been drooling over it since someone linked it in guild chat, and it even kind of matches the Nesingwary 4000…
I’m crossing my fingers for when my guild gets into raiding, most of the warriors are protection specced and most of the paladins are holy, so maybe I’ve got a shot at it.
Runeblade of Demonstrable Power is not rare. its obtainable reputation with Ebon Blade (Revered) and it is the only ilvl 200 weapon in this list – you mentioned that everything here was 187.
I definitely understand that having stamina is important but I’m sitting around 15k unbuffed.
Rilgon, while you may be correct on math you surely didn’t have to be rude about it, that’s just silly. Any experienced Hunter will take BRK’s tips and suggestions and the ones posted here in comments simply as that; information. With that they should do their own research and figure out what is best for them. That’s the whole point.
In my opinion Savage Cobalt Slicer is just amazing. Equipping 2x[Savage Cobalt Slicer] gives you a ton of AGI and other pretty good stats. It’s a BOE item, so no queue/wait/luck involved. You find it on AH for 250G more or less, a very good price.
You have to be kidding.
Rilgon, don’t even bother. BRK has proved his stubborness in his responses to you already. This post has so many flaws and reeks of ‘I’m saying it so it must be right’.
Your ‘work’ has decreased in quality dramatically, but I didn’t think I would see the day when you are simply wrong, corrected by someone who knows more than you, and dismiss them out of hand based on flawed information.
Runnning out of reasons to read this self serving cerebral masturbation any more.
BRK this is probably the only thing I have ever disagreed with you on, but I compared the stats of the S3 Axe with a +35agil enchant to a Icier Bared Spear and there is no way I would keep the S3 Axe. There is a 27 Agility difference along with a 15 crit rating. That alone is CLOSE to the S3 Axe with the armor pen in calculation but the crit and AP difference is HUGE. Then for a small cost you can have someone throw a Greater Savagery enchant on the spear for +85 more attack power, and now you’re looking at ..
+27 Agility
+81 Attack Power (not factored with the agility AP)
+15 Crit Rating
Thanks SuperElk for responding politely! I completley understand what many people are commenting on, personally I’m carrying a ZG Trollbane right now slotted with crit/ap gems and a savagery enchant (mind you Im 75) which I plan to get rid of as soon as possible, just for the sake of even minor upgrades and the sense of having something “new and shiny.” I understand the hit cap is important, it just seemed to me like some people were taking it way too seriously,for the level of content he’s currently during as well as the fact that Iv’e never considered BRK a hardcore resource for information like that. I mean by no means BRK, don’t take this the wrong way
, I love the blog, I enjoy the hunter topics as well as the off military insight and general humour, but as you’ve (BRK) frequently said yourself there are other places to find that information (Elitist Jerks) that can do it way better and in much greater detail. Just seems a bit much to be calling the man out while reading his blog about his armor/weapons.
And I havn’t checked out the armor penetration changes, although I never liked the idea of the stat itself anyways, PVE kind of a bust with the additianal armor added to mobbs/bosses (10%) and PVP I never liked how it was situationaly beneficial (ie clothy vs plate). Meh
@Rakuen
You contradicted your own point there (whichever point you were trying to make). If they’re smart enough to do research and do the math on their own. Then they don’t need the approval of a blogger they’ve probably never met before. If you were trying to say that it’s all just information to get a general idea of whats going on, then BRK did mislead the naive by posting false information. The comments that followed were all corrections that are apparently just “information” and have the same value as his words.
Rilgon was fine this entire time. Disagreeing with BRK doesn’t mean he’s being a jerk. Hell, most of the people seem to disagree with his thoughts posted in there. Just because he’s saying -why- they are bad choices doesn’t make him any worse a person.
@Abelo
You seem to have gotten lost on your way to the Elitist Jerks forums. Try going back and taking a left at Albuquerque.
Whatever’s happening with your Client and the lack of misses BRK…
I want.
4.5% hit and capped?
I want.
=(
Rilgon, while you may be correct on math you surely didn’t have to be rude about it, that’s just silly.
I wasn’t aware I was being “rude” in the slightest. And while you’re right that experienced Hunters will take BRK’s teachings as simply one part of an overall larger compendium of Hunter knowledge and mathematica, newer Hunters may not. Like it or not, BRK’s name carries a very, very large level of clout – that is why I implored him to be as accurate as he can at all times. It’s not the experienced players that I’m worried about – it’s the young, impressionable newbies.
I meant no rudeness or affront. As I said, I respect how knowledgeable BRK is, and admit and embrace how prolific and known he is. I just ask that he understand how much what he says can mean to some people, and make sure what he says is right. That’s all.
Actually, why not Equip a SCS in the main hand and the FoT in the off-hand? You have balance, and a lot of nice stats, plus hit, with is needed for leveling 74’s.
Cause you can’t offhand a Fang until 78, and SCS > FoT.
Are you ever going to make a post about which glyphs are best for each spec to provide MQoSRDPS? Out of all my characters, I’m having the hardest time deciding on glyphs for my hunter.
I would argue that holding on to your axe because “it has stamina” is a silly mindset for a hunter, aside from afew bossfights in bc where you need a minimum amount of hp (where you can swap in pvp gear) a hunter should NEVER chase stamina for any reason….
your role is MQoSRDPS and if you keep dying on a boss fight either you are doing something wrong or your tanks and healers are…
I would also argue that its irresponsible to encourage all the hunters who look up to you to go out and spend 3k on a nessingwary 4000.
The crossbow from heroic UK is only marginally weaker in terms of dps and it costs nothing (i got mine second try and my guildies say its all they see drop), its even crazier to buy it when patchwork in naxx-25 (which many guilds hit first as a gearcheck) drops a far superior upgrade…. why spend 3-4k on a gun that you will potentially replace in a week?
Just a quick comment on the hit cap debate…
I think part of the confusion is that half of the comments are arguing a 197 cap (6%, assuming 3/3 in Focused Aim)… which is the required amount for skull level bosses.
As far as I can tell though, BRK hasnt started Naxx yet… so he isnt seeing any skull level bosses. The dungeon bosses are level 81 or 82 elites, which would put them at requiring 6% base hit, still have the 3/3 in Focused Aim, so only 3% (I avoid counting on the racial reduction generally). If all you need is 3%, then the cap for non-raid content is just under 100
I have been using the Wyrmrest swords to finish leveling… was having trouble getting Saronite at 74 and by the time the price came down I was close to 78 already. The best thing about the rep swords is the weapon speed… fast to skill up the weapon skill (havent used swords in a LONG time) and useful for jumping in to AoV and refilling fast. Leveling polearm skill takes so fricking long =(
assuming 3/3 in Focused Aim
That’s the problem. BRK doesn’t have it. The build that he stated he was using when the issue of the axe first arose is completely devoid of Focused Aim, meaning his cap against 82s is 6%, not 3%.
“threestars” what do you mean by “useful for jumping in to AoV and refilling fast” ? is AoTV not based on your RANGED weapon speed? also why not continue your rotation while you regen? works fine for me and i fill up in seconds…
FYI on the hit debate : I was in naxx afew nights ago with 212 hit (not specced for focused aim) and i still had 2 misses at the end of the night but that said: hit cap is not and has never been as important for hunters as other dps classes… if you can run for 4 hrs and miss twice then i dont think it was game breaking hwen it happened (and you were probably better off with whatever stats you took instead).
I’m interested that im the only one to comment on his “it has stamina” comment, i would have assumed that would be the one to draw criticism (im still laughing at that btw).
BRK you’ve always been a good starting point for little hunters (hell i started out here) but lately you seem to have strayed waaay too far from your old solid advice and just started slinging whatever you “think” might be a good idea out for the masses… while i understand thats what blogging is about you were always a pretty solid “theorycraft it” kind of guy and im somewhat disappointed
This is not a theorycraft site — it’s an entertaining blog by a guy who has put some very useful information out there for many hunters and made many of them better in the process. If people are casual hunters, BRK’s advice will help them tremendously. If they become very serious hunters, they will be able to weigh their own opinions with what they read here.
People who need to will go to OOburL33tKrunchyness dot bomb and people looking to be entertained, get some advice, and get some news about our part of the game, come here.
it used to be only ranged weapon attacks for AotV, but in a recent patch it was changed, check your tooltip. I havent really played with it much from a theorycrafting perspective, just noticed it when leveling weapon skill. It still does mana regen amount based on your ranged weapon speed, but any ranged or melee attack counts… so if you are using a 3.0 speed ranged weapon, but are dual wielding 1.5 melee weapons you see very fast gain. that said, I dont think it will have hunters running in get their mana up.
After running a lot of 5mans without one of the many ret paladins in the guild, I did a quick run last night with one, and was surprised at how different the play style was, not having to drop in to AotV on shorter elite kills (Amphitheater of Anguish chain)
The Runeblade of Demonstrable power is a HUGE upgrade over the S3 axe. Like stinking, honking, ridiculous, stupid upgrade, ESPECIALLY if, as you say, you’re not hurting for +hit (which I’m sort of curious about, since the hit cap against raid bosses is now way, way higher than 100!) That’s a gain of 63 agility, 76 AP, 21 crit, and 33 haste. Yes, haste, is bad, but it’s better than ArPen!
Unenchanted, Icier Barbed Spear is a clear universal upgrade over the S3 axe for Hunters within a reasonable range of +hit values. But! Greater Savagery, an enchant costing perhaps 50 gold in mats (all of mine have been free from leveling enchanters,) dominates 35 agility at level 80 for MM or BM. Now, we’re not only talking about a better weapon, but a better weapon with a better enchant!
BRK, I hate to say it, but this post is just dripping with misinformation. Cutting your DPS to keep yourself alive doesn’t help your healers one shiny bit, especially since Hunters provide more DPS than any other class right now. The burden of DPS falls largely on our shoulders; stacking Stam saves your healers nothing; getting hit by a heavy AoE requires a heal that costs the same amount of mana whether you’re at 80% or 75%. I know you’re talking about Heroics, but when Patchwerk falls over within a few seconds of his enrage, it’s a damn good thing that the two Hunters at the top of the meters didn’t stack Stamina.
I’m with Rilgon here. Don’t lead your readers astray. Hunters are a DPS class. Balancing stats is wise to a point, but don’t make the mistake of gearing to be good at no one thing. Know your stat priorities, and gear to do the job you need to do. In PvE, that’s DPS. If you need to stack Stam to survive, something is horribly wrong, and you’re no longer doing your job.
ok, time to voice my opinion about some facts
you need to be alive to dps: yes this is true, but that is usually brought about by not standing in the fire or where an aoe is going to hit. unavoidable aoe’s are survived by having enough health to survive the initial aoe and group heals to make sure you can survive the next one.
your gear needs to be balanced: true, but balancing you gear isnt at 5% hit rating. its a lot closer to 8% hit rating until other stats will give you more dps for itemization points. yes 5% is hit capped for 5 mans, but if you are in a raiding guild (which brk is), 5 mans dont matter, the whole point of them is to gear up for raids (which require 9% to hit cap).
brk’s site isnt for experienced raiding hunters: true, this site is mostly for the beginning hunters. brk tends to get hunters half way to good, but it rarely gives good numbers that experianced hunters want to know (theorycrafting). brk’s site is for the mass number of people who are either casual or have hunters as their alts. the elitist jerks forums will have better information (just be careful with posting questions, they are called elitist for a reason)
brk’s ego is a little too big: true. the numbers at this site has made him believe he is blizzard’s gift to hunters. yes he does get alot of people to view his site, but it is also dumbed down enough to fit the amount of people. like i said earlier, this site is for casuals, not serious raiding hunters. if you want to seriously raid, you shouldn’t be getting all of your info here (maybe watching the videos, but if brk needs extra stam to survive im beginning to doubt their worth too).
also, for info on how to edit. right click the “click to edit” button and open it in a new tab. it works
also sorry if that came off attacking, that wasnt meant to be an attack on brk and his ego (might be separate entities by now, probably being called brain)
@Shmii
If you read it clearly I never said Rilgon is some horrible person. Correcting BRK with math/facts isn’t a terrible terrible thing and it’s good he is letting Hunters know what the correct facts are.
However, with being naive, if that’s what some of the Hunters do by coming here and see BRK’s info as the “always correct information”, then that is their mistake. I simply am stating that people should do the research on their class.
There wasn’t any contradiction in my previous comment.
Re: Shamans with swords. Maybe BRK was confused by the fact that a lot of 70-75ish Shamans are running around with Keleseth’s Blade of Evocation, from UK. Since it drops from a giant-sized mob, it’s bigger than most daggers, in fact on a Tauren it’s bigger than most swords, about the same size as the King’s Defender on my Troll.
I’m rather shocked that Fang of Truth is considered here, but not the Ebon Blade Reaper of Dark Souls. More AP than the Wyrmrest 1 hander plus a touch of crit. Yes, no agility. Slap a +26 agility chant on a pair and give them a whirl.