#0 - Nov. 27, 2007, 8:53 p.m.
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Due to the complicated relationship between weapon speed and shot rotation, the listed weapon dps has only a tertiary effect on your actual dps: Weapon speed and weapon stats are both more important than the listed weapon dps.
This makes it very hard to tell which weapons are actually upgrades, and which will give you a bit of a nerfing, and as it is central to our class, I have spent some time on this post to explain it in an easy to understand way (I hope).
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I'll be using my own current spec (SV), and our guilds top BM hunters' with Cheeky's awesome hunter dps calc spreadhseet for the theorycrafting.
Rotations.
There are really only two viable shot rotations to use inorder to max your dps, depending on your spec.
BM hunters: Quicker shots - One special shot between each autoshot. The most damaging special shot should be used if available. That means use Multi-shot first, then arcane shot, and finally steady shot if the others are on CD.
Q u o t e:
Autoshot, (Multi-shot/Arcane Shot/Steady Shot), <repeat>
MM/SV hunters: Slower shots - can add an additional 'instant' shot after every other steady shot.
Q u o t e:
Autoshot, Steady Shot, Multi-shot
Autoshot, Steady Shot
Autoshot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot
Autoshot, Steady Shot
<repeat>
(If you are not using these rotations, you are not reaching your full dps potential)
Weapons sorted by actual theorycrafted dps
SV/MM Hunter: Theorycrafted using Juggernaught's gear:
Q u o t e:
1. Bristleblitz Striker: 95.8 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 973.36 dps
2. Black Bow of the Betrayer: 95.8 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 968.21 dps
3. Serpent Spine Longbow: 90.7 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 965.67 dps
4. Ancient Sin'dorei Longbow: 86.3 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 955.22 dps
5. Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow: 82.4 dps, 3.1 - Actual hunter dps: 954.88 dps
6. Legionkiller: 90.7 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 949.6 dps
7. Arcanite Steam-Pistol: 87.2 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 941.74 dps
8. Sunfury Bow: 83.3 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 938.71 dps
9. Tuskbreaker: 86.4 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 936.81 dps
10. Wrathtide Longbow: 75.5 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 929.33 dps
11. Steelhaw Crossbow: 79.1 dps, 2.8 - Actual hunter dps: 905.48 dps
12. Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle: 79.1 dps, 2.7 - Actual hunter dps: 900.81 dps
13. Barrel-Blade Longrifle: 81.2 dps, 2.6 - Actual hunter dps: 896.45 dps
14. Don Santos' Famous Hunting Rifle: 73.7 dps, 2.7 - Actual hunter dps: 893.59 dps
SV/MM Summary:
a) 2.7 speed weapons and faster cause delays to your autoshots and you loose a good chunk of dps as a result. (note speed of bottom 3 places on the dps chart.) These weapons are not suitable for a MM/SV hunter.
b) 2.8 speed weapons cause a minor delay to autoshots and with it a minor loss of dps, but are still viable for SV/MM Hunters. (notice Steelhawk compared to Wrathtide)
BM Hunter: Theorycrafted using BM Hunters' gear:
Q u o t e:
1. Barrel-Blade Longrifle: 81.2 dps, 2.6 - Actual hunter dps: 881.33dps
2. Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle: 79.1 dps, 2.7 - Actual hunter dps: 879.44 dps
3. Don Santos' Famous Hunting Rifle: 73.7 dps, 2.7 - Actual hunter dps: 874.95 dps
4. Arcanite Steam-Pistol: 87.2 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 868.82 dps
5. Legionkiller: 90.7 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 868.81 dps
6. Bristleblitz Striker: 95.8 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 868.59 dps
7. Tuskbreaker: 86.4 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 867.14 dps
8. Black Bow of the Betrayer: 95.8 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 863.68 dps
9. Serpent Spine Longbow: 90.7 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 860.24 dps
10. Steelhaw Crossbow: 79.1 dps, 2.8 - Actual hunter dps: 858.55 dps
11. Sunfury Bow: 83.3 dps, 2.9 - Actual hunter dps: 857.08 dps
12. Ancient Sin'dorei Longbow: 86.3 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 849.97 dps
13. Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow: 82.4 dps, 3.1 - Actual hunter dps: 824.64 dps
14. Wrathtide Longbow: 75.5 dps, 3.0 - Actual hunter dps: 822.04 dps
BM Summary:
a) BM hunters main source of dps comes from the steady shots they fire between each autoshot due to the special way in which steady shot damage is calculated (and this bit is quite important)
Q u o t e:
Steady shot damage is calculated using a normalised weapon speed of 2.8.
What this means is that if you take two identical dps weapons, one with 2.8 speed and one with 2.0 speed, the steady shots fired from the two weapons will do exactly the same damage.
However, with the fast weapon you can fire more steady shots over a given time than with the slower weapon, greatly increasing your steady shot dps.
That is why a fast weapon speed is so important for BM hunters, as steady shot dps directly increases with weapon speed.
Summary
How to sum that up? Well...
1. 2.7 or faster weapons come top of the BM dps list and bottom of the SV/MM list. These are designed for BM hunters using an autoshot, steady shot rotation.
2. 2.8 speed weapons are equally as ok for either spec.
3. 2.9 or slower weapons come top of the MM/SV list and bottom of the BM list. These are designed for MM/SV hunters.
Secondly, weapon stats are sometimes more important than raw weapon dps alone:
For example Tuskbreaker is the same speed as the Sunfury, but has 3dps more. However, for SV/MM spec it will do less actual dps due to it's lack of decent stats.
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*Although the actual dps value you achieve with each weapon will change with your own gear/talents, the order of the weapons in the lists will not change. Wrathtide will always give more dps that Steelhawk for example.
**BM hunters can use Multi-shot or Arcane Shot in your rotation inplace of Steady Shot when they are avilable for a small dps increase (depending on the target's armor)
***Note: The BM hunter dps listed does not include pet dps which is why it seems lower than SV/MM hunter.
****I have excluded the Rfile of the Stoic Guardian - at 1.9 speed it is way too fast to be of any use to a hunter, and actually comes dead last on both lists.
*****Cheeky's hunter dps calc spreadsheet - http://elitistjerks.com/f31/t9816-hunter_spreadsheets_development/
