We talk a lot about optimizing our hunters for raids, and we’re going to continue to do so. However a lot of hunters don’t have raid access and are taking advantage of the new Dungeon Finder to run heroics until their feet are bloody and their gun barrels melt. So today we’re going to take some time to talk about the facets of doing good heroic DPS, and about being a good heroic group member in general.

So join me after the cut as we take a look at how your shot rotations change in heroics, examine mana conservation, and generally discuss how to be a good group member.

Understanding Your Job

Let’s start by being very clear, and a bit preachy, about your job in a heroic: you need to help your tank maintain aggro, keep your pet under control, protect your healer, and do good, quality DPS without pulling aggro yourself.

We all like to do lots of damage and top the damage meters. We’re a pure DPS class after all. We are death dealers and blowing things apart is what we do. But the goal of the heroic is to finish as quickly as possible without wiping. With decent gear the best ways to do the absolute highest damage involve pulling aggro constantly, pissing off the tanks, putting strain on the healer, risking wipes, and generally being the worst kind of PUG member. Don’t be that person. It’s not a raid and it’s not difficult, but it’s still a team effort.

Note that in all cases, if you pull aggro it is your fault. It is never the tank’s fault, no matter how incompetent they are. It is our job as DPSers to monitor our threat and adjust accordingly.

Furthermore keep in mind that while many of us are grinding the heroics to get our two Emblems of Frost each day, there are people in blues and greens who are there for the gear and the Emblems of Triumph. Don’t be angry with people who are poorly geared or just learning the fights. These heroics were designed for them after all, and they’re doing exactly what they should be doing to get geared up.

The Heroic Shot Rotation

All of the hunter shot rotations you read about are designed specifically for raid boss fights — and moreso the kind of fight where you sit in place for a long time and just shoot and shoot and shoot. Life is very different in heroics, especially these days where most of the group outgears the instances by massive amounts. Fifteen seconds is suddenly a long life expectancy for a mob, and it’s not uncommon for them to drop much faster. I’ve had mobs drop dead just at the sight of my group approaching.

This means that the heroic hunter needs to be aware of what he or she is facing and adjust shot priorities on the fly accordingly. There isn’t a single shot rotation that’s going to be right — the best priority system will change depending on not just the dungeon, but how well your group is doing. Here’s some basic shot priority tips:

* Misdirection: you should MD to your tank on every pull that you can. With the change to the way MD cooldown works, that will usually mean every other pull. Use Volley with your MD to get threat from all the mobs to your tank. On pulls where MD is not available, go a bit slower with your DPS.
* Hunter’s Mark: put it up on your first target of a trash pack while you’re running in, and certainly on bosses. Generally though it’s not going to be worth it to put Hunter’s Mark on any other trash. You won’t get the extra AP for long enough to make up for the loss of a global cooldown.
* Serpent Sting: I prefer to lead off with Serpent Sting on the first mob of a trash pack that I’m not AOEing mostly to give the tank a bit more time to establish aggro. But in general it’s not worth it to Serpent Sting mobs, even with the tier 9 set bonus. They die within a few ticks, and you could have done more damage using that GCD for any other shot. That said on the beefy mobs it can be worthwhile, or if your PUGs DPS is very low.
* Volley: this is going to be your most used and most damaging shot in heroics. Use volley any time there are three or more mobs. One of the nice advantages of Volley is that since it does less damage per target, you’re actually less likely to pull aggro from a good tank than if you single target shoot.
* Explosive Trap: you’re better off using Volley. This is not a part of your standard rotation and is used only in special circumstances.
* Multi-Shot: don’t forget to use Multi-Shot whenever there is more than one target up, unless you’re already volleying. In most cases you’ll want to Multi-Shot two targets and Volley three or more targets. Multi-Shotting three targets can also be just fine.
* Pet: honestly, I’m going to go ahead and risk the wrath of most of the world and suggest you just keep your pet on defensive for heroic runs. With the fast-paced environment it’s easiest to just let your pet take care of itself. As long as you’re shooting the right thing this shouldn’t cause you any problems. Also be sure the new Cower is on your cast bar. If you see your pet taking lots of damage Cower can usually keep it alive without having to waste a GCD on Mend Pet.

A good way to boost your damage meter numbers a bit is to keep track of the mobs’ health when volleying. Once the last couple mobs are about to go down, fire off a Kill Shot rather than finishing the Volley. It will inflate your meter numbers a bit, but realize that it’s not actually helping the group anymore than a couple auto shots would — it’s just making you look better.

Also, keep an eye on your healer. Both bad tanks and bad DPS can cause mobs to be on the loose (it is not always the tank’s fault). Regardless, if you see a mob loose fire a Freezing Arrow at your healer’s feet. I like to do this even if the loose mob isn’t on the healer yet, just to be safe. Your healer will love you for it, even though she probably doesn’t deserve it given how little she heals your pet.

Mana Management

With the pace of heroic runs these days, running out of mana can be a problem, and it’s easy to end up spending far too much time in Aspect of the Viper. Keep an eye out for mobs with a mana bar and preemptively use Viper Sting on them. Don’t wait until you’re low on mana, but do this throughout the instance and it’s possible you’ll never have to dip into Aspect of the Viper. Also be aware that some mobs with mana bars are immune to your Viper Sting. Mechanicals are particularly annoying this way.

Hunter Spec Breakdown

Every hunter spec can perform admirably in heroics, regardless of gear level. Here are a couple of notes specific to each spec:

* Marksman: MM is very strong in heroics with the increased damage from Volley and Multi-Shot. If you are an armor penetration hunter build, keep in mind that your ArP is going to be less useful in heroics than in raids. In general you cannot expect to have ArP debuffs on your targets. Arcane Shot should be back in your rotation for heroic runs.
* Survival: Black Arrow targets should be chosen carefully. You want this on targets that are going to stay alive for a while to maximize the chance of getting Lock & Load. In fact, you probably want to apply Black Arrow to a target that you aren’t DSPing when it comes to mob packs. Heroics also offer SV hunters a great opportunity to use their traps to force Lock & Load procs. Just remember that Explosive Shot, especially combined with Lock & Load, is a lot of burst damage. Make sure your tank has a strong threat lead on a target before you unload. If you pull aggro from your Lock & Load, it’s your fault, not the tank’s.
* Beast Mastery: don’t forget to use your Bestial Wrath at every opportunity unless the mobs are about to be dead. Don’t just save this for bosses. Also, with the great amount of AOE involed in heroics, you may well be better off bringing a Bear as your pet for the multi-target advantages of Swipe and Thunderstomp. Just spec your pet all in damage increasing talents rather than the typical defensive tenacity talents. Be aware that Thunderstomp causes a good amount of threat, but honestly if that’s enough to pull mobs off the tank, you have tank issues and probably want them on your pet instead of you. That said, a Wolf is probably still your best pet choice.

Of Meters and Metrics

Heroics are a horrible metric for your DPS. Your DPS will vary depending on what heroic you get, what classes you’re with, and how well they perform. Generally the better the DPS of the group, the lower your individual DPS will be. Expect your DPS to vary wildly, even between runs of the same instance.

However, we are a pure DPS class and we’re expected to hold up our end of the team. It is certainly possible to be doing too little DPS. In an attempt to set a baseline for the minimum DPS a hunter should ever do in a heroic I did two highly amusing tests*. First I ran UP heroic completely naked except for my gun and ammo. Then I went out and bought a set of green gear, level 76-80. I used no enchants, no gems, no scope, and no talents or glyphs. I ran UP heroic again. I think it’s safe to say no hunter should be doing DPS as low as I was in either of those runs.

* Naked Frostheim UP Heroic: 1,100 DPS overall. I spend about half my time in viper and was really, really squishy.
* Green No Talent Frostheim UP Heroic: 1,000 DPS overall. Didn’t go into viper nearly as much (hardly at all) and still did worse than naked. Talents are indeed more important than your gear.

As a ballpark, your overall heroic DPS should not be below 2,000 DPS, even if you’re in all blues. Once you get good gear, say ilvl 232 or so, you should expect to generally do over 5,000 DPS without alienating your group by pulling aggro constantly. And if there’s one thing that naked science has taught us, it’s to pay attention to your talents. They are more important than your gear!

*No PUGs were harmed while conducting these tests. Very understanding guildmates who are used to my antics kindly helped out.

So join me after the cut as we take a look at Quel’delar, the Ashen Verdict rings, and everything else that drops in ICC worth looking at!

Quel’delar

We dwarves had a saying back in Khaz Modan, “You can batter your beer, but never your pet, and if you batter your hilt you’ll have no regrets.”

Quel’delar is the product of a quest chain starting with the hard to find Battered Hilt drop. The Battered Hilt can drop from any of the elite mobs in the ICC 5-man heroics. There are several versions of Quel’delar, but what we hunters care about is the 2-handed sword, and it is a lovely bit of craftsmanship for a lowly ilvl 251 item. She’s itemized perfectly for hunters: agility, crit, armor penetration, and attack power. The ArP in particular will make this weapon appealing for MM hunters even above many ilvl 264 items.

There are certainly 25-man weapons that stat out equivalent or better than Quel’delar, but I suspect that many hunters will be happy to carry this beauty all the way to the Lich King.

Ashen Band of Vengeance

The Ashen Verdict is the new reputation you can collect in ICC, and they’re not just going to send us to assault the stronghold of the Lich King without assistance. Oh no, they’re gonna give us a ring to help! Well, at least they will if they like us enough.

You get the Ashen Verdict ring for free once you hit friendly with the Ashen Verdict. You then get a free upgrade with every new reputation level. Here are the different Ashen Verdict rings:

* Friendly: Ashen Band of Vengeance
* Honored: Ashen Band of Greater Vengeance
* Revered: Ashen Band of Unmatched Vengeance
* Exalted: Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance

Your Ashen Band is a fantastic ring that gets particularly exciting at revered when the proc appears. The exalted ring is one that every hunter will be sporting eventually. The only possible downside of it is the lack of ArP for ArP stacking MM hunters, but even they will likely be using this. It’s safe to assume that this ring will absolutely be one of your ring slots. Note that it does have hit on it, so plan your gear accordingly.

Ranged Weapons

* Njordnar Bone Bow — Lady Deathwhisper 10-man
* Zod’s Repeating Longbow — Lady Deathwhisper 25-man
* Stakethrower – Queen Lanathel 10-man

Ranged weapons are a bit scarce in ICC and we can only assume the Lich King is hording the really good one, which would logically be a gun. If you’re the type that thinks an effective attack is hurling a wee chunk of tree out of a contraption of twig and twine, then you’ll be happy with the ascension of the bow in ICC. We have both a 10-man and 25-man bow dropping from Lady Deathwhisper, the second boss in the instance. Zod’s Repeating Longbow confused some with the proc, but suffice to say that it is a great weapon, for a bow, and the proc is indeed a good thing. Yes, you want it.

Alas for those that understand and appreciate finely crafted weapons of death, the Stakethrower is currently the only hunter gun in ICC, and in terms of numbers it’s substantially below Zod’s. However I think we can all agree that the sound of gunfire and clouds of smoke grant a benefit beyond the mere numbers on the weapon. As we also say back in Khaz Modan, “Frostheim will never kneel before Zod!”

Melee Weapons

It looks as though the best melee weapons in ICC are again gonna be the 2-handers. The 1-handers can come close, but in general they seem to be statted more for the melee classes, with excessive amounts of haste. While haste certainly helps us, it doesn’t boost our DPS as much as our other stats.

We have several very attractive 2-handers available to us depending on whether you’re looking for hit, or ArP, or both.

* Hersir’s Greatspear– Blood Princes 10-man
* Shaft of Glacial Ice — Rotface 10-man
* Distant Land — Festergut 25-man
* Bloodfall – Queen Lanathel 25-man

Hersir’s Greatsword wins the ArP competition by far coming in a bit more than Quel’delar and carrying some hit to boost as well as two sockets for more ArP, hit, or agility as needed. It’s massive AP will also make it particularly appealing to BM hunters who refuse to raid as anything else. The Shaft of Glacial Ice wins out in hit rating. Interestingly both of these are 10-man drops!

A final word on our melee options: if an actual melee class needs one of these, they should get priority over us. Yes, I know the weapons are great, but for us it’s just a stat stick; the melee folks will actually use the stats and the DPS. That said if you’re willing to let the melee have Zod’s Repeating Longbow before you, then I guess you can try to grab your melee weapon before them.

Head

I suspect most hunters will choose to go with the Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter’s Headpiece, but the 10 and 25 man raids each have an alternative.

* Taldron’s Short-Sighted Helm — Rotface 10-man
* Snowserpent Mail Helm — Marrowgar 25-man

Taldron’s will probably only be preferred by BM hunters for the additional AP. The Snowserpent helm is desirable for the hit rating. I’m sporting the Ahn’kahar head as my 2nd tier 10.

Neck

* Rimetooth Pendant — Sindragosa 10-man
* Sindragosa’s Collar — Sindragosa 25-man

I think these will be the necks of choice for most endgame hunters; however, if you’re looking for hit there are options that have hit at the expense of ArP. Interestingly the difference between these two is very small – the 10-man is darned near as good as the 25-man.

Shoulders

Honestly, just ignore the drops and buy your Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter’s Spaulders.

Back

You want the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape purchasable with Emblems of Frost.

Chest

If you aren’t going for the Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter’s Tunic (which you probably are) we have some alternative options:

* Hauberk of a Thousand Cuts — Saurfang 10-man
* Carapace of Forgotten Kings — Festergut 25-man

The 10-man Hauberk is nice for its hit rating, but is abnormally low on agility and has no ArP. In 25-man the Carapace is your hit rating alternative to the tier 10 set. If you don’t need the hit and want ArP, you’ll prefer the tier 10 set piece (or more likely the tier 10 set).

Wrists

* Icecrown Rampart Bracers — Gunship 10-man
* Scourge Hunter’s Vambraces — Gunship 25-man

Slim pickings here, but this is it for the wrist slot so we gotta organize our gear around it.

Hands

Again, your Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter’s Handguards are your likely choice if you’re pursuing the 4-piece set bonus. But the tier 10 gloves don’t have any ArP. If you prefer to stack ArP in this slot, you’re best off with the Logsplitters purchasable with Emblems of Frost.

Waist

* Linked Scourge Vertebrae — Marrowgar 10-man
* Nerub’ar Stalker’s Cord – Festergut 25-man

Let’s not forget we have the Band of the Night Raven purchasable with Emblems of Frost, which is our best hit rating option. Nerub’ar Stalker’s Cord is the ArP belt of choice.

Legs

This is the tier 10 set slot that we’re most likely to use something other than our tier 10 set pieces, due to the lack of any ArP on our set legs.

* Legguards of the Twisted Dream — Valithria 10-man
* Leggings of the Northern Lights — Lady Deathwhisper 25-man

The 10-man legs here are stacked with hit and in my opinion Leggings of the Northern Lights is your best bet for ArP legs, and you can avoid the expense of crafting the near-equivalent craftable legs.

Also, hunters hanging on to their tier 9 set for the superior 2-piece set bonus will probably want to keep their tier 9.5 legs for this slot, since the Windrunner Legguards of Triumph have ArP.

Feet

* Taldron’s Long Neglected Boots — Festergut 10-man
* Treads of the Wasteland — Blood Princes 25-man

Treads of the Wasteland are only a choice if you need the hit on them. Otherwise if you’re a 10 or 25-man raider, you’ll very likely just want to purchase the Rock-Steady Treads, craftable with Primordial Saronite. Taldron’s do have more ArP, but the loss of agility and crit isn’t worth it.

Finger

We already know we’re using our Ashen Verdict ring for one of our finger slots. Here’s what we’re looking at for the other one.

* Saurfang’s Cold-Forged Band — Saurfang 10-man
* Seal of the Twilight Queen — Queen Lanathel 10-man
* Frostbrood Sapphire Ring — Valithria 25-man

On the 10-man front Saurfang’s ring will be the MM preference, while Seal of the Twilight Queen will likely be preferred by SV hunters. On the 25 front Frostbrood Sapphire Ring looks to be the ring of choice.

Trinket

* Whispering Fanged Skull — Lady Deathwhisper 10-man
* Deathbringer’s Will — Saurfang 25-man

And last of all we get to the always exciting trinket slot! These are both excellent trinkets that hunters of all specs will appreciate. Whispering Fanged Skull is better than Darkmoon Card: Greatness and depending on your gear, is probably about on par with the non-heroic Death’s Verdict. That said, I’d still prefer Death’s Verdict as it has better benefit when stacking with other cooldowns, but SV hunters passing 69% unbuffed crit will likely prefer Wispering Fanged Skull. However Death’s Verdict and Whispering Fanged Skull are a lovely combo that should both trigger at the same time, giving you the multiplicative advantage (the crit + the AP) without having to think about it.

For Deathbringer’s Will, it is certainly worth taking a moment to look at how it works.

From testing done by people with the trinket, it seems to have a 105 second internal cooldown, with a 30% proc chance. Possibly the cooldown is shorter (90 seconds seems like a more logical one) and the proc chance is lower. However we do know that the uptime on the trinket is close to 30%.

Each time it procs you will transform into one of three races: Vyrkul, Taunka, or Iron Dwarf. The transformation will last for 30 seconds and during that time you’ll get a buff specific to each race. The possible buffs for hunters are:

* 600 agility
* 600 crit rating
* 1,200 attack power

As you can see those are some fantastic stats, especially combined with the static 155 ArP that MM hunters will drool over. Other classes will get other stats that are good for them, so this trinket is great for just about every physical DPS class there is (and Blizz recently adjusted some of the stats for other classes to make it better) so there will be a lot of competition for this.

But yes, this is absolutely hunter loot and you want it so bad you’d even be willing to spare a gnome’s life if that’s what it took.

There are two phases in the fight- during one, you have to take out adds and focus down the boss’s mana shield, and as soon as you get the shield down, the adds stop spawning and you can burn the boss down.
Phase one, add management

The ultimate goal of this fight is to take down that mana shield I mentioned. Since all damage done drains it, don’t use viper sting, use serpent sting. Unless you’re about to go onto some adds and you need a convenient mana battery. The DPS on the boss while you’re 100% focused on adds is great, but not better than finishing the adds without going into aspect of the viper.

There are two types of adds that spawn- casters (cult adherents) and melee (cult fanatics). When they first spawn, they are not immune to any types of damage, however the casters will reflect spells back at players. You should always single target casters when you can, allowing your mages and locks to focus on the melee adds.

These adds can get reanimated- when they do, casters become virtually immune to magic damage, and melee become virtually immune to physical damage. When this happens, you need to react by first, prioritizing the target, and second, altering your rotation. If a reanimated fanatic shows up, don’t waste cooldowns on aimed shot or steady shot. If a reanimated adherent shows up, don’t waste things like explosive shot or serpent sting. This will gimp us, as hunters. Luckily, assuming all appropriate DPS switches to the right target, you’ll have some classes that do 100% physical or magic damage to help.

The last metamorphosis we need to worry about is when the boss casts dark empowerment, mutating and empowering random adds. Since the empowered casters still reflect spells, you need to focus them first. Once they’re gone, look for mutated melee- they are usually kited because they hit like a truck but move slow.

Now you know the types of adds. On 10 man, they will alternate spawning on the left and right. On 25 man, they spawn on both sides, as well as a random add from the back. As a hunter, your job will probably include misdirecting to help the tanks.

Assuming you’re running some sort of boss mod, you will get a note occasionally saying that you have curse of torpor. When this happens, try to avoid using any abilities you think you’ll need in the next 15 seconds- a mage or someone  will eventually decurse you, but until they do, you get a 15 second cooldown on every single ability you use. Mages also have to prioritize themselves, because if they don’t, they get a 15 second cooldown on decurse, and nobody wants that.

Also, while you’re mopping up adds and trying to DPS the boss between waves, you will notice that periodically, someone near you becomes enormous and red, and often starts attacking you. This is a mind control, and only happens on 25 man. Typically they will get sheeped or hexed, but don’t let that stop you from throwing a freezing arrow at their feet- it’s often a free lock and load if you’re survival :)

Oh, and of course, there will be massive glowing green void zones for you to not stand in (well, technically death and decays).
Phase two

If you get here, you’re unlikely to wipe. Deathwhisper will start mind-controlling more people on 25 man, and on both 10 and 25, will start summoning untargetable ghosts that will follow someone until they explode. Don’t lead them into the melee, lead them away from the healers, and don’t let them catch you. I find it helpful to angle my camera so I’m looking straight down on my character, and zoom out a bit. If you’re worried that you’ll face away from the boss, remember that steady shot will point you right at her, even if your camera isn’t pointing that way.
Conclusion

This sounds like a much more challenging fight than it is. Especially now that the boss and all the adds have had their health reduced. Still, good execution can take even a lower-gear raid through it.

Itemization

When we talk about itemization, we’re not just talking about having more of each stat, but also how our itemization budget is spent. ICC is the best itemized hunter look of any tier. This means that we’re seeing more of the stats we like — more red sockets, more crit, more armor penetration — and less of the stats we don’t like, such as blue sockets and haste.

The biggest impact we’re going to see from this fantastic itemization is the greatly increased amount of ArP we’ll be seeing on our gear. ArP is all over the place in ICC, in large amounts, and it’s not something you’re going to be able to avoid. MM gains far more benefit from ArP than SV, and the ease with which tons of ArP is now available will shift the balance of best dps spec strongly in the MM direction. MM will no longer have to give up nearly as much to pursue the badass ArP builds. In fact we’re going to see a lot of MM hunters hardcapping their ArP, rather than pursuing a softcap with a trinket like Mjolnir Runestone or Needle-Encrusted Scorpion.

In the ICC endgame of best hunter dps benchmarks, I think we’ll see the gap between SV and MM widen substantially.

A Note on “Best” Gear

I’m going to make an effort to identify some of the best and most desirable hunter loot in ICC. But we need to realize that what gear is the best depends not just on your spec, not just on your specific talents, but also on what other gear you have, and exactly how you play.

So rather than try to identify a Best in Slot, we’re going to look at what gear is generally on the top of the lists.

Tier 10

ICC is also bringing us the unpleasantly named Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter set, complete with two set bonuses we actually like! The tier 10 set 2-piece bonus is absolutely the first thing you should be pursuing with your Emblems of Frost. Let’s take a closer look at these bonuses:

2-piece bonus:

Your Auto Shots have a 5% chance to cause you and your pet to deal 15% additional damage for 10 sec.

This is a phenomenal set bonus that favors BM and MM. BM has a much faster rate of Auto Shot fire with Serpent’s Swiftness and will get the proc more often. Sadly it’s not enough to put BM up into the SV/MM raid dps range, but it’s something. MM has a smaller advantage with the ability to maintain the 15% damage boost to their serpent stings indefinitely with the way Chimera Shot refreshes percentage damage boosts. But for all 3 specs this is a fantastic set bonus that scales beautifully with gear and buffs.

As a side note, you still don’t want to stack haste to try to get this proc more often. The amount of useful stats you’d give up just aren’t worth it. That said, if you aren’t already using the Improved Aspect of the Hawk talent, this set bonus might just be enough to push you over the edge!

4-piece bonus:

When your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting abilities deal damage, you have a 5% chance to gain 20% attack power for 10 sec.

This set bonus isn’t nearly as attractive; however, it’s still a good set bonus. Using some paper napkin math, this bonus looks worse than the tier 9 2-piece bonus (Serpent Sting crits!), though certainly with much better stats on the items. Proccing off of your sting damage means that on single-target fights, this ability will be proccing very seldom. The proc gets much stronger in fights where you have multiple targets up for a sustained amount of time, and you can keep your Serpent Sting on two targets at once (which you’re doing anyway when you have the chance, right?).

Overall it’s generally a good move for hunters of all specs to pursue the 4-piece set bonus. I suspect we’ll see most hunters getting the head, shoulders, chest, and hands for their set, and leaving the legs out of the set. The Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter legs and hands have no ArP, and there’s some hefty ArP legs available elsewhere that is likely to make it the logical non-set piece.

Emblem of Frost Gear

We have some fantastic gear options purchasable with our Emblems of Frost. There’s a generic Emblem of Frost vendor in Dalaran, but the set vendor is located just inside the entrance to the ICC raid instance, as well as one in the Dalaran Leather & Links shop near the south bank.

* Ahn’Kahar Blood Hunter set
o Spaulders, Handguards– 60 emblems
o Headpiece, Tunic, Legguards– 95 emblems
* Back: Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape — 50 emblems
* Chest: Longstrider’s Vest — 95 emblems
* Hands: Logsplitters – 60 emblems
* Waist: Band of the Night Raven — 60 emblems
* Trinket: Herkuml War Token — 60 emblems

My recommendation (certainly what I’m doing) is to pursue your 2-piece tier 10 set bonus first, right out of the gate. Exactly which two pieces you get first will depend on what gear you currently have. I’m keeping my tier 9.5 legs and hands as long as I can, for example, so I’m stuck purchasing one of the expensive ones for my second piece and it’ll be another week before I have enough emblems.

Once you have your 2-piece Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter bonus, you probably want to get the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape next. There’s not a lot of options for the back slot from ICC drops (and none in 10-man from any loot list I’ve seen). Maybe the Lich King is hoarding our cloaks (and our guns!). However this emblem cloak is currently the best back slot item available to us, and we can just buy it whenever we want!

The chest and hand pieces are probably going to be used for your set, so these aren’t terribly attractive (unless you really want the ArP on the Logsplitters). The trinket is filled with Haste, which makes it far less desirable for hunters as opposed to other physical dps classes. You can get a better waist via drops (in 25 man anyway) but if you still haven’t gotten a better waist by the time you’ve collected your entire tier 10 set and back, this could be a nice little upgrade to hang onto until something better comes around.

Crafted Gear

ICC also brings us new crafted gear pieces that can be made with Primodial Saronite, the extremely costly by-product of the god of death. These include:

* Shatter Rounds
* Iceblade Arrows
* Legs: Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards — 8 Primordial Saronite
* Feet: Rock-Steady Treads — 5 Primordial Saronite

The epic ammo is epic. The AH prices have come down, and of course you want to use this stuff. ‘Nuff said.

The Rock-Steady Treads are competitive for the best mail feet out there. You can get a bit more ArP from drops if that’s what your after, and if you need hit rating you may prefer something else; however, in general you’ll probably be content keeping these puppies throughout ICC. This is on my wish list as the Primordial Saronite prices continue to drop.

The Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards are also very good, though there is equivalent or better available through drops in early 25-man ICC as well as options with hit rating. In general if you are raiding 25-man ICC I think these are worth skipping; however, if you have deep pockets or only raid 10-man (or not at all) these are an excellent purchase.

In an effort keep the carnage at a minimum let’s try to keep a few things in mind. We’re only reviewing raid loot and how each item affects your hunter and favorite raiding pet’s performance. Which means, we’re not going to talk about where else to go and get geared. Nor are we going to debate what is and is not considered “Best in Slot” or not. And if you’re looking for PvP alternatives? I promise, we’ll tackle all of those later on in a different guide.

Now if you’re wondering why we’re not talking about what’s over on the PTR for patch 3.3. We’ll make sure and cover all of Icecrown when it’s released. Then head on back to the other Northrend raids and finish up where we left off.

With that said, let’s walk through the swirly portal and head into Trial of the Crusader and it’s heroic sibling Trial of the Grand Crusader.

Introduced in patch 3.2, Trial of the Crusader (TOC) is the normal version, and Trial of the Grand Crusader (TOGC) it’s heroic counterpart. Their purpose is to make sure that all of the heroes heading off to challenge Arthas and his minions in Icecrown are ready. Set with 5 different boss fights: the Beasts of Northrend, Lord Jaraxxus, the Faction Champions, Twin Val’kyr, and finally Anub’arak.

Today we’ll visit the work our way through these feared bosses and look at the gear drops from both the 10 and 25-man Normal and Hard modes. We’ll also look at what is hidden for us in the tribute chests, another feature introduced in TOGC. So let’s get started and see what these guys have to offer. First up, Beasts of Northrend.

Normal 10-Man

Collar of Unending Torment (Horde) / Collar of Ceaseless Torment (Alliance)

Hunter Improvements

* +11.71 base DPS = (57 Agility + 97 Attack Power) / 14 Damage Per Second
* +82.98 CSR = (67 Agility * .552 Critical Strike Rating) + 46 CSR, +3.63% Critical Strike = (82.98 CSR/22.08 CSR)
* +42 Armor Penetration

Pet Improvements

* +25.65 Stam = 57 Stamina *35%
* +24.25 AP = 97 Attack Power * 22%
* +1.73 base DPS = 24.25 AP / 14 DPS
* +12.125 Spell Power = 97 AP *12.5%

Bracers of the Northern Stalker (Horde) / Armbands of the Northern Stalker (Alliance)

Hunter Improvements

* +11.14 base DPS
* +13.64 base DPS (with 3/3 Careful Aim) = (67 Agi + 35 Intellect + 89 AP)/14 DPS
* +36.984 CSR, +1.622% Crit
* +45 Hit Rating, +1.37% Hit = 45 HR/ 32.79
* +35 Haste

Pet Improvement

* +203 Armor
* +11.25 Stam
* +22.25 AP
* +1.589 base DPS
* +11.125 SP

Acidmaw Treads (Horde) / Acidmaw Boots (Alliance)

These are primarily rogue boots so they should have the loot priority. Even so, these can still offer some positive benefits for a hunter if you need an upgrade.

If you’re Marksman or Survival skip the +4 Crit socket bonus and go with a Delicate Cardinal Ruby (+20 Agi). This will give you an added 2.85 base DPS and give you a +11 CSR (.5% Crit). On the other hand if you’re raiding as Beast Master get the Bright Cardinal Ruby (+40 AP). Using this will end up giving you a 2.85 base DPS increase but also give your pet +10 AP or +.7 base DPS.

Hunter Improvements

* +14.5 base DPS
* +46.92 CSR
* +2.05% Crit
* +63 HR, +1.92% Hit

Pet Improvements

* +143.5 Armor
* +35.1 Stam
* +29.5 AP
* +2.1 base DPS
* +14.75 SP
* +1.92% Hit

10-Man Heroic

Collar of Unending Torment (Horde) / Collar of Ceaseless Torment (Alliance)

Don’t let the blue socket fool you, the +4 agi Socket bonus is tempting and if you really want it then use the Balanced Dreadstone. However you will probably see a bigger gain if you just forget the socket bonus and go with the Delicate Cardinal Ruby for the +20 agi instead. And if you want the AP bonus for your pet, socket it’s counterpart Bright Cardinal Ruby for the +40 AP.

Hunter Improvements

* +12.57 base DPS
* +90.64 CSR
* +3.975% Crit
* +40 ArPen

Pet Improvements

* +29.25 Stam
* +26.5 AP
* +1.89 base DPS
* +13.25 SP

Bracers of the Northern Stalker (Horde)/ Armbands of the Northern Stalker (Alliance)

Unlike it’s normal mode cousin, this version has a red gem socket. So it’s stick with the program and use the Delicate Cardinal Ruby (MM/SV) or Bright Cardinal Ruby (BM).

Hunter Improvements

* +11.35 base DPS, +14.213 base DPS with 3/3 Careful Aim
* +38.64 CSR
* +1.694% Crit
* +50 HR, +1.5% Hit
* +36 Haste

Pet Improvement

* +211.75 Armor
* +18 Stam
* +22.26 AP
* +1.589 base DPS
* +11.125 SP
* +1.52% Hit

Acidmaw Treads (Horde) / Acidmaw Boots (Alliance)

These are still rogue boots so they still have loot priority.

The Acidemaw Treads or Boots are a solid upgrade over the normal version. Besides having improved stats, you’ll notice they have 2 yellow sockets. If you want the added crit bonus go with an orange gem like Wicked Ametrine (+10 AP and +10 CSR) or go with the Deadly Ametrin (+10 Agi and +10 CSR).

Hunter Improvements

* +15.714 base DPS
* +51.336 CSR
* +2.251% Crit
* +79 HR, +2.409% Hit

Pet Improvements

* +149.8 Armor
* +38.25 Stam
* +31.75 AP
* +2.257 base DPS
* +15.875 SP
* +2.409% Hit

Normal 25-Man

Cuirass of Cruel Intent (Horde) / Breastplate of Cruel Intent (Alliance)

We’ve already talked about what Red gems you should get (Delicate Cardinal Ruby or Bright Cardinal Ruby) when the Cuirass or Breastplate of Cruel Intent drops. And as we said for the Color of Unending or Ceaseless Torment go with the purple Balanced Dreadstone as your blue gem. This will give allow you to get the +14 AP socket bonus. The added bonus of this is your pet will see a direct benefit from both the added Attack Power and the Stamina.

Hunter Improvements

* +23.5 base DPS, +28.57 DPS with 3/3 Careful Aim
* +122.84 CSR
* +5.388% Crit
* +71 Haste

Pet Improvements

* +506.8 Armor
* +48.15 Stam
* +63.75 AP
* +4.55 base DPS
* +31.875 SP

Cloak of the Untamed Predator (Horde) / Drape of the Untamed Predator (Alliance)

Hunter Improvements

* +12.64 base DPS
* +91.952 CSR
* +4.032% Crit
* +50 Haste

Pet Improvements

* +74.7 Armor
* +34.2 Stam
* +25.25 AP
* +1.803 base DPS
* +12.625 SP

Legwraps of the Broken Beast (Horde) / Leggings of the Broken Beast (Alliance)

Since this is a leather drop the polite thing to do would be to let rogues and feral druids have priority on this. However, if they aren’t around, don’t let it go to waste. It’s a solid item for any marks or survival hunter that might be below the hit cap.

Hunter Improvements

* +19.214 base DPS
* +66.24 CSR
* +2.905% Crit
* +74 HR, +2.25% Hit

Pet Improvements

* +245.25 Armor
* +61.2 Stam
* +37.25 AP
* +2.66 base DPS
* +18.625 SP
* +2.25% Hit

Stygian Bladebreaker (Horde) / Steel Bladebreaker (Alliance)

I know that running around as a hunter dual wielding daggers isn’t the most popular thing, but there are some out there that kinda like it. And when you look at these stats I can see why they’re tempting. However it is good to remember, this particular item is truly a feral druid item, so let them have it if you see it drop.

Hunter Improvements

* +10.5 base DPS
* +75.016 CSR
* +3.33% Crit
* +30 ArPen

Pet Improvements

* +25.1 Stam
* +22.25 AP
* +1.58 base DPS
* +11.125 SP

25-Man Heroic

Cuirass of Cruel Intent (Horde) / Breastplate of Cruel Intent (Alliance)

When we reviewed the normal mode we talked about how you would want to gem the red socket with Delicate Cardinal Ruby or Bright Cardinal Ruby. Then in the blue socket we said go with a purple Balanced Dreadstone.

The heroic version adds a yellow socket. We’ll stick with the Wicked Ametrine or go with the Deadly Ametrin.

Hunter Improvements

* +25.714 base DPS, +31.428 with 3/3 Careful Aim
* +133.472 CSR
* +5.854% Crit
* +80 Haste

Pet Improvements

* +506.8 Armor
* +54.45 Stam
* +68.5 AP
* +4.892 base DPS
* +34.25 SP

Cloak of the Untamed Predator (Horde) / Drape of the Untamed Predator (Alliance)

Make sure to socket it with a purple Balanced Dreadstone.

Hunter Improvements

* +12.5 base DPS
* +99.54 CSR
* +4.364% Crit
* +57 Haste

Pet Improvements

* +60.55 Armor
* +38.25 Stam
* +24.5 AP
* +1.75 base DPS
* +12.25 SP

Legwraps of the Broken Beast (Horde) / Leggings of the Broken Beast (Alliance)

Just like before, hunters should be polite and let the feral druids and rogues get priority on this.

Also, with this upgrade you now have the opportunity to use three different gems. The Balanced Dreadstone for the blue socket. Then use a Delicate Cardinal Ruby or Bright Cardinal Ruby for the red one. Finally, in the yellow socket use the orange Deadly Ametrin or Wicked Ametrine.

Hunter Improvements

* +22.071 base DPS
* +75.624 CSR
* +3.316% Crit
* +86 HR, +2.622% Hit
* +86 Haste

Pet Improvements

* +199.5 Armor
* +68.85 Stam
* +42 AP
* +3.071 base DPS
* +21.5 SP
* +2.622% Hit

Stygian Bladebreaker (Horde) / Steel Bladebreaker (Alliance)

Since we covered this in the normal 25-man I thought it was only right we go ahead and review the heroic model. The same loot rules apply though, this is still very much a feral druid dagger.

If you decide to roll on it and get this dagger make sure to use the Deadly Ametrin or Wicked Ametrine for the yellow socket.

Hunter Improvements

* +10.142 base DPS
* +82.016 CSR
* +3.597% Crit
* +33 ArPen

Pet Improvements

* +29.7 Stam
* +21 AP
* +1.5 base DPS
* +10.5 SP

There you have it folks. That wraps up part 2 of our “Picking the right hunter loot” guide.

Reward(s): 13g 23s and 350 Reputation for The Sons of Hodir

Pick up this quest from Frostworg Denmother located in Dun Niffelem (63,59) in Storm Peaks. Use the provided Ethereal Worg’s Fang while standing near the Corpse of the Fallen Worg (57, 63) in the Valley of Ancient Winters. Follow the summoned Ethereal Worg until he reveals a Stormforged Infiltrator and help kill the dwarf. Repeat this process two more times then return to the Frostworg Denmother to complete the quest.

You can make this achievement easier:

1. Switch to Track Beasts

2. make a macro: /tar Wild Turkey
/cast Hunter’s Mark

3. Follow this route:

Alliance version
Horde version

Credit for Alli route: AwF
Credit for Horde route: jerry_teps

Unfortunately, we tend not to explain why or how they help your spec of choice. And forget it if you’re a Beast Master, you might never learn how to improve your pet’s performance to help increase your own raid performance. (Okay, I’ll admit to having a bit of a bias for letting people raid the spec of their choice instead of whatever is today’s maximum dps darling.)

Anyways, let’s take a look at what we call hunter stats and how they impact your hunter.

Hit Rating

Hit rating is probably the single most important stat you need to track as a hunter. So important it’s even one of the few stats that Ghostcrawler has opened up and said hunters would need to stack even in Cataclysm.

You can check WoWWiki and it’ll give a long explanation on how Hit is defined as the percentage chance you will miss a target. I don’t know about you, but talking about reducing your chance of missing as a definition of hit is a bit confusing. So let’s make it a bit simpler.

With each percentage of Hit you achieve, the better the chance you’ll hit your target. Simply put, you can’t hurt it if you can’t hit it. So you stack Hit to make sure you hit the raid bosses.

Also, keep in mind that Hit impacts your pet also. Based on the patch notes of 3.2.0, your pet receives 100% of your hit. Meaning, every 1% below Hit cap the hunter is your pet will be 1% under cap also. So if you’re at 8% Hit, you’re pet will be capped and can’t miss.

Now let’s talk about what we need for our hunter and our pets to reach our Hit cap.

* 32.79 Hit rating: 1 % Hit
* Base Hit Cap: 263 Hit Rating or 8% Hit
* Draenei Hit Cap: 230 Hit Rating or 7% Hit
* Hunter Pets: Hunters need to reach 263 Hit Rating (8% Hit) unless Draenei. Draenei hunters need to have a 230 Hit Rating (7% Hit)

Agility

Agility has always been known as the main stat to stack for hunters. This is still true for hunters that raid as Survival and the same for Marksman until they switch to stacking Armor Penetration. Beast Masters take heart, you still get benefits from using Agility it just doesn’t transfer to your pet like Attack Power does. Of course when Cataclysm is eventually released we’ll probably see that change some.

Let’s take a quick look at what Agility gives us and why it’s makes such a great stat for hunters.

* 1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power (This will change to 1:2 with Cataclsym)
* 1 Agility = .552 Critical Strike (83.33 Agility = 1% Crit)
* 1 Agility = 2 Armor
* 79 Agility = 1% Dodge

That’s a ton of benefit from a single stat. You get two critical bonuses from Agility that is key for both Survival and Marksmanship hunters. First for every point in Agility you get a point of added Attack power. The next major bonus is increasing your Critical Strike Rating and having more consistent crits mean doing consistently more damage.
This is why even today some of the recognized theorycrafters out there will still recommend stacking Agility over Armor Penetration for Marksman hunters today.

Attack Power

Now that we’ve talked about the “King Hunter Stat” Agility, let’s talk a little about another base stat, Attack Power.

Attack power is often overlooked as a primary stat for hunters. Mostly because stacking Attack Power is more beneficial for Beast Mastery than Survival or Marksman hunters. That being said, and with BM starting to be be recognized as viable in raids, let’s look at Attack Power a little more and see how AP can help a hunter and their pet.

The nice thing about Attack Power is how you can easily convert your Attack Power directly into DPS. You can calculate your base DPS by converting each point of Attack Power into 14 DPS. Just remember this is your base DPS and it doesn’t take into consideration any modifiers like Critical Strike, Hit, or Armor Penetration. But it is a good rule of thumb when comparing gear and want to check to see if it’s potential upgrade or not.

Now, for Beast Mastery hunters we see that Attack Power also transfers to our pets. This is where Attack Power shines as a preferred stat for BM hunters.

Let’s take a look at how Attack Power helps our Hunter.

* 14 AP = 1 DPS
* Hunter Pets: At the base, 1 Attack Power gives the pet 0.22 AP and 0.1287 spell damage. If you spec your pet with 2/2 Wild Hunt 1 Attack Power gives your pet 0.338 AP and 0.18 spell damage.

Critical Strike Rating

The higher your Critical Strike Rating the higher the chance you’ll score a Critical Strike and do double the damage. This is another core component of Survival and Marksman hunters. Typically, when choosing gear, SV or MM hunters will look for the combination of added Agility and Critical Strike Rating. And BM hunters will look to see a combination of Attack Power and Critical Strike Rating.

So how does it help with your hunter?

* 22.08 CSR = 1% Critical Strike
* 83.3 Agility = 1% Critical Strike

When do you reach the cap for Crit? You don’t. You might hear people saying when you reach 35% (772.8 CSR) or even higher. I guess the real cap would be reaching 100% crit. Others might argue that point and say there really is one. But this isn’t so for hunters because our shots can’t miss if we’re at our Hit cap.

Armor Penetration

And now finally the most confusing stat that has become the darling of Marksman Hunters out there, Armor Penetration.
Armor Penetration is the stat that tells you what percentage of your targets armor will be ignored. How this happens is more complicated than I’ll go over here, but you can feel free to check out some of the more detailed analysis done by Euripides of OutDPS! or Drotara of Less QQ, More Pew Pew.

But really, the easiest thing to remember is that Armor Penetration reduces a percentage of the bosses’ armor so your attacks are more effective.

The major point of confusion is how much Armor Penetration you need to make it worth ignoring Agility and stacking ArPen exclusively. (This is a tactic I personally don’t fully agree with, but it is a very viable and accepted stat choice.)

* 13.99 ArPen = 1% Armor Ignore
* Minimum ArPen Rating Target = 400-500 (28%-30% Armor Ignore)
* Minimum ArPen to Ignore Agility = 850 (61% Armor Ignore)
* Armor Penetration Cap = 1,400 (100%)

Personally, I think MM hunters that decide to stack some ArPen have a solid strategy. However, I’m not one to support the current trend of stacking ArPen to the exclusion of Agility. Mostly because I know that we’re going to see it fade away come Cataclysm.

There you have it. We’ve discussed the different stats and how they impact your gear selection.

First, we talked about how and why every hunter needs to strive for the Hit Cap. Then we discussed how Agility and Critical Strike is typically chosen by Survival. And Marks tend to look at Agility and Critical Strike mixed with ArPen. And finally, we talked how Beast Mastery hunters can help increase the combined damage from Attack Power and Critical Strike Rating.

This addon has functionality added for Warriors, Hunters, Warlocks, Pets and Argent Tournament mounts so far.

Support has been added for the addons: Bartender, Dominos, Extra Bars, nUI and OpenRDX.

Please let me know what you think! I would appreciate any feedback I can get. I have not been able to extensively test this addon out other than with a trial account, because I have ran out of game time and can not afford to buy any more at the moment.

If you like this addon please rate it.

To open the SpellFlash options window, you may use the following slash commands:
/spellflash
/sflash
/sf

I have been trying to use these colors for labeling what kinds of spells are being flashed:
White: Default
Yellow: Limited Time or No Global Cooldown
Purple: AOE or Positional Damage
Blue: AOE Debuff
Orange: Finishing Move
Aqua: Spell Interrupt, Reflect or Dispel
Green: Self Buff or Turn Autocast On
Red: Emergency Mitigation Cooldowns or Turn Autocast Off
Pink: Optional

Will flash a macro if the macro itself is named/labeled with the desired spell name with the upper case letter F attached to the end of the macro name/label.
Example: Heroic StrikeF
Example: Commanding ShouF
The spell name must be in the language of the used game client with the capital letter F at the end of it.
If the macro name/label is renamed,
then you will need to move the macro off of or onto one of the action bars for the change to be detected.
This will not be able to flash more then one spell for each macro since a macro may only have one macro name/label.
If you like this addon please rate it.

If you got errors, or bugs you encounter please use the Ticket System