#0 - March 12, 2008, 1:12 p.m.
Click the above link for the full article.
Why would you want a survival hunter in the raid?
Well, survival hunters are very undervalued, but contribute (if geared properly) a huge number to a raid. A good spec would be 5/20/36 though some may disagree. Alternatively you could go for something like 0/20/41 or 0/20/41 which will reduce your haste clippings, and increase overall crit and buff uptime. You should probably communicate with the other hunter to ensure at least one of you has 5/5 improved mark. As BM hunters have less mana ussues it's generally a wise idea to have the BM hunter take this talent, so you can take efficiency.
Raid setup
So, let's take a token raid for example. Hardly optimal I'm sure but this is pretty nicely varied.
* 3 Tanks : 1 Feral tank, 1 Paladin tank, 1 Warrior tank
* 7 Healers : 2 Priest, 1 Druid, 2 Shamans, 2 Paladins
* 10 Ranged : 1 BM Hunter, 1 Survival Hunter, 2 Shadow priests, 3 Warlocks, 2 Mages, 1 Moonkin Druid
* 5 Melee DPS : 2 Rogues, 1 MS Warrior, 1 Enh Shaman, 1 Ret Paladin
Notice that there's quite a few physical DPS in this example raid. 5 melee players, 3 tanks, 2 hunters + 2 pets. Perhaps one of the warlocks might even have a pet out. But let's assume 12 for now. Let's assume (you don't seriously expect me to calculate each player's potential DPS do you?) that the average DPS of each player is ~1000, mid range Tier 5. Some might be higher, some lower.
Hit rating
Depending on your gear, you may want to take or skip the surefooted talent, which adds up to 3% hit chance to your attacks and will lower your regular hit rating cap from 142 to 127, 111 or 95. Most likely you'll want to take it to 3/3.
As our example raid also hosts a moonkin druid with improved Faery fire, he lowers the hit cap by another 3%, which would put the hit cap to a base 95 or 80, 64, 48 with the surefooted talent. You'll quickly see why hunters have so much trouble keeping their hit rating below the cap.
Trinkets with hit rating listed below, Spicy Hot Talbuk, or gems such as Glinting Pyrestone, Glinting Noble Topaz and Glinting Fire Opal can be used to ensure you are as close to the Hit cap as possible.
Beast Master DPS Buff
If the BM hunter were put in a group with the survival hunter, 2 warlocks and 1 of the healing shamans. (I'd give him a shadow priest, but the mages and healers will need them for this fight) The group's unmodified DPS output would be 4*1000 = 4000 DPS. 5000 is more likely, but remember this is just an example.
The BM hunter has an aura called ferocious inspiration, which increases the damage done by 3% of all party members for 10 seconds whenever your pet scores a critical hit. Estimated uptime is between 80-90% depending on the fight. Lets assume 100% for now, though in reality it will be lower.
4000 DPS * 0.03 * 1.00 = 120 DPS added to the group in total.
A good BM hunter's personal DPS will also be higher than that of a survival one. Judging from some of the WWS logs from the same thread it would appear a difference of 100-200 DPS is about average. Your mileage may vary however.
Survival DPS buff
Now, in order to properly analyze the survival hunter's effect on the raid, you need to know his total agility and buff up time. Huh, what buff? Well, survival hunters have a talent called Expose Weakness which applies a debuff on his target whenever the hunter scores a critical hit. The debuff increases the attack power of all physical attacks on the target by 25% of the hunter's agility for 7 seconds. If you have 2 survival hunters the highest one overwrites the lower one, hence there's no point bringing more than one survival hunter along.
So, let's make a little list. You can look at this list for a complete overview. I'm not going to update this blog post every time a new item comes out, but the list on the EJ forum will be updated when i have time for it.
Gear
The difficult part of equipping yourself is to find a balance between maxing agility and keeping your personal DPS high. I'll give you a few suggestions with the below list. It's quite likely your personal preference will vary from this list and that's good, just don't look at it as some kind of holy grail for survival.
For Tier 4 + 5 gear I used +8 agi Delicate Living Ruby and the +12 agi Relentless Earthstorm Diamond for meta sockets.
For Tier 6 + Sunwell I assumed +10 agi Delicate Crimson Spinel.
If you are a Jewelcrafter you could even fill one socket with a Delicate Fire Ruby
Just use the wow gem finder to find some nice agility gems.
Meta Gem
In order to activate the meta gem (Relentless Earthstorm Diamond) you need 2 red gems which should be easy enough, but also 2 blue and 2 yellow. Basically this means you have to sacrifice 4x4 or 4x5 agility to gain 12 agility and 3% crit damage. Since your crit chance will be fairly high as a survival hunter getting this meta gem is highly recommended.
Some gems you could use for this
* Glinting Noble Topaz Red / Yellow
* Glinting Fire Opal Red / Yellow
* Glinting Pyrestone Red / Yellow
* Shifting Nightseye Red / Blue
* Shifting Tanzanite Red / Blue
* Shifting Shadowsong Amethyst Red / Blue
If you socket these gems in items such as the Ranger-General's Chestguard or Void Reaver Greaves, then you'll receive back 2x 4 agility. This should reduce the effect of losing agility from the other gems. At tier 6 there is the Gronnstalker's Chestguard and Cobra-Lash Boots which can be used for the same effect.
Trinkets
As stated trinkets are not include in the below list. Depending on geat and hit rating balance however here's a few options.
* Madness of the Betrayer (T6) +20 Hit
* Tsunami Talisman (T5) +10 Hit
* Berserker's Call (T5)
* Romulo's Poison Vial (T4) +35 Hit
* Dragonspine Trophy (T4)
* Bloodlust Brooch
* Hourglass of the Unraveller
* Abacus of Violent Odds
* badge of tenacity +25 Agi average
* Alchemist's Stone +15 Agi
* Dark Iron Scorpid +9 Agi
Tier 4
40 : Legacy (Karazhan - Opera)
55 : 35+8+12 Demon Stalker Greathelm (Karazhan - Prince)
37 : 21+16 Necklace of the Deep (Crafted)
48 : 32+16 Merciless Gladiator's Chain Spaulders (PvP)
24 : Drape of the Dark Reavers (KZ - Aran)
55 : 31+24 Merciless Gladiator's Chain Armor (pvp)
31 : 23+8 Vindicator's Chain Bracers (pvp)
51 : 35+16 Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation (KZ)
37 : 18+16+3 Girdle of Treachery (KZ)
65 : 37+24+4 Scaled Greaves of the Marksman (Kazzak BoE)
45 : 29+16 Nyn'jah's Tabi Boots (Badge vendor)
20 : Garona's Signet Ring (KZ - Curator)
21 : Truestrike Ring (World drop)
19 : Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix (Karazhan)
Total : 548 Agi, 73 Hit
Tier 5
21 : Dagger of Bad Mojo (ZA)
21 : Dagger of Bad Mojo (ZA)
60 : 40+12+8 Rift Stalker Helm (Serpentshrine Cavern - Vashj)
27 : Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem (TK)
48 : 32+16 Merciless Gladiator's Chain Spaulders (pvp)
28 : Thalassian Wildercloak (TK - Kael)
60 : 36+24 Ranger-General's Chestguard (SSC - Hydross)
32 : 24+8 Vambraces of Ending (TKE - Solarian)
36 : 20+16 Gauntlets of Sniping (Badge Vendor)
48 : 32+16 Belt of Deep Shadow (Crafted)
61 : 37+24 Void Reaver Greaves (TKE - VR)
49 : 33+16 Cobra-Lash Boots (SSC - Vashj)
24 : Ring of Lethality (SSC - Hydross)
28 : Signet of Primal Wrath (ZA)
20 : Arcanite Steam-Pistol (The Eye)
Tsunami Talisman (SSC Leotheras) +10 Hit
Total : 563 Agi, 85 Hit
Tier 6
21 : Dagger of Bad Mojo (ZA)
21 : Dagger of Bad Mojo (ZA)
67 : 45+10+12 Gronnstalker's Helmet (Hyjal)
27 : Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem (TK)
54 : 34+20 Gronnstalker's Spaulders (BT - Shaz)
28 : Thalassian Wildercloak (TK - Kael)
70 : 40+30 Gronnstalker's Chestguard (BT - illidan)
38 : 28+10 Insidious Bands (BT - Teron gorefiend)
45 : 35+10 Gronnstalker's Gloves (Hy)
49 : 29+20 Don Alejandro's Money Belt (Hyjal)
72 : 42+30 Bow-stitched Leggings (Hyjal)
48 : 28+20 Cobra-Lash Boots (SSC - Vashj)
27 : Band of the Eternal Champion (Hy Rep)
28 : Signet of Primal Wrath (ZA)
21 : Legionkiller (BT - Supremus)
Madness of the Betrayer (BT Council) +20 Hit
Tsunami Talisman (SSC Leotheras) +10 Hit
Total : 625 Agi, 57 Hit
Sunwell
25 : Shiv of Exsanguination (Sunwell)
25 : Shiv of Exsanguination
67 : 45+10+12 Gronnstalker's Helmet (Hyjal)
27 : Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem (TK)
63 : 40+20+3 Mantle of the Golden Forest (Sunwell)
28 : Thalassian Wildercloak (TK - Kael)
72 : 42+30 Bladed Chaos Tunic (Sunwell)
35 : 22+10+2 Gronnstalker's Bracers (Sunwell)
50 : 30+20 Gloves of Immortal Dusk
39 : 29+10 Gronnstalker's Belt (Sunwell)
87 : 57+30 Starstalker Legguards (Sunwell)
40 : 30+10 Gronnstalker's Boots (Sunwell)
28 : Signet of Primal Wrath (ZA)
29 : Angelista's Revenge (Sunwell badge vendor)
17 : Thori'dal, the stars' fury (Sunwell)
Madness of the Betrayer (BT Council) +20 Hit
Tsunami Talisman (SSC Leotheras) +10 Hit
Total : 642 Agi, 88 Hit
Also : 1554 Armor ignore, 4 piece T6 set bonus.
