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MM DPS FTW!

by Garwulf on May 12, 2009 · 10 comments

MM DPS Meter for Tenebron in OS 25

Shortly before the server restart tonight I set a new personal best for DPS. 5302DPS for Tenebron in Heroic Obsidian Sanctum. Not too bad for a slacker Marksman Hunter.

I shifted a few talent points around earlier tonight, swapped out a glyph, and managed some decent upgrades this week, which I think helped considerably.

While browsing the auction house earlier tonight, I recalled I still hadn’t gotten a Glyph of Chimera Shot yet. Finally I found some up there for a realistic price, so I nabbed one. As a placeholder, I had a Glyph of Trueshot Aura. My crit is already insanely high, so that glyph probably wasn’t doing a lot for me. Anyway, while re-glyphing I decided to re-visit my spec and see if I could improve upon some things.

I’m always looking for ways to improve my specs, whether it be for PvE or PvP. After reading comments from some of my readers, and doing some critical thinking of my own, I elected to go for Aspect Mastery. Initially, I had tried an 11/53/7 build when I purchased my dual spec. At the time, I wasn’t too crazy about it, and ended up going SV, BM, and eventually settling on a 7/57/7 MM build for raiding.

This build was great, and perhaps it was more so me getting the hang of playing MM, but my DPS shot up considerably. Now, after having raided as Marks for a few weeks, I’m fine-tuning things some.

I’m not a spreadsheet kind of guy, but I do try and analyze things carefully to see where I feel I’d receive the most benefits. I’ve decided to pick up Aspect Mastery again because it just makes sense. My reluctance before stemmed from me not wanting to spend 3 points in non-dps talents in order to obtain it. I felt I could get more value from using all four of the points in the MM tree, and spending all of them on DPS talents.

The points I elected to pull from the MM tree were 3 from Improved Barrage and 1 from Silencing Shot. Many of you will read that and say, well yeah… why the hell didn’t you do that before..?!

Nub!

For starters, I liked having the additional crit for Multi and Aimed for both trash pulls and long boss fights. Silencing Shot was difficult for me to bypass, solely because it’s hard for me to accept being a MM Hunter without it. Yet, in reality, this is PvE we’re talking about, so not that important a talent.

Giving up 3/3 in Improved Barrage was an easy choice for me now. My crit is now at an insane 33% unbuffed, so I wasn’t seeing much benefit from it really. A few weeks ago it may have made a little difference, but not so much now.

Silencing Shot I had macro’d in with my Steady Shot for a little added burst. I never used it on its own, so I doubt I’ll even miss it.

This was my first real outing with this spec, so I won’t really get a good idea of the gains until I raid a bit more. However, I suspect with this new build and my host of upgrades, I may be a new regular member of the 5k club. :D

More on these so-called upgrades later…

Oh shoot, almost forgot… here’s my build:

11/53/7 MM Hunter Build

Tagged as: dps, marksmanship, obsidian sanctum, raid

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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Uryel May 12, 2009 at 7:11 am

Actually the best MM spec for me also after 3.1 changes. The only difference is that in my spec I have 5/5 efficiency instead of Rapid Fire and Imp. Steady. I have tested in many raids and different bosses and even with 5/5 efficiency is really mana consuming. With the rotation having chimera, aimed, arcane and their Global CD u fire less steady shots so Imp Steady and its 3 talend points is a waste for me. For a deep tier talend like Imp Steady and its 3 points the outcome I believe is really low, this talend need to be buffed ..
My 2 cents ;)

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2 Dalaila ShadowosngEU May 12, 2009 at 8:26 am

Gar… you finally realized that Aspect Mastery is just a MUST HAVE. How could you ever play without it, being a MM? ;-) )))

The build you’re using is exactly the same I am using for raids. It works like a charm, gz on your DPS!

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3 Striden May 14, 2009 at 5:55 am

Whats your rotation, Im a Surv hunter and I am full val and ulduar gear and dont pull around the same as you. Cause I checked out your spec and I tested it on a dummy and only got 1900dps, and when i switched back to Surv i got 3200 so if you could hook me up with some ideas that be great.

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4 Garwulf May 14, 2009 at 7:22 am

Striden,

My shot priority is:

Kill Shot (when it’s avail)
Chimera
Aimed
Arcane
Steady

I also throw serpent sting up right away at the start of the fight. Chimera keeps it refreshed, so I don’t cast that shot again unless I’m needing mana and I have to drain a boss using Viper Sting.

For glyphs, I use: Chimera Shot, The Hawk and Serpent Sting.

Do realize that that DPS meter I posted was from an idealistic situation. Typically I’ll be more in the 4.5K range in 25 mans for longer fights. Well executed Readiness was a huge part of my DPS advantage in that fight. Tenebron is a relatively short fight, so I was able to be under Rapid Fire for a good portion of it.

I still “usually” out-dps SV Hunters, but I feel that SV and MM are pretty neck and neck atm.

Oddly enough, I had a really bad night last night in Heroic Vaults. We had only one Pally in the group and he was Prot, so that meant no mana battery or Might for me. As a result, I was competing with a BM Hunter for 4th place. I was also out dps’d by two SV Hunters by a few hundred. MM goes oom very quick unless you have the right group comp.

I do admit it was very strange having only one Pally in a 25 man, let alone no Rets.

In fairness to me though, the BM was pretty well geared and a decent player. It was really good to see actually. He didn’t switch off of Emalon during the add enrages either, so he was able to maintain more sustained DPS. It still bruised my epeen a little. ;)

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5 Dalaila ShadowosngEU May 14, 2009 at 8:31 am

With no mana battery our spec is VERY hard to play due to fast OOM situations. Switching to viper and/or using AotV kills our DPS. Sadly enough, even with Efficiency and other theorically self-replenishment talents our mana pool gets horribly drained no matter what you do.

Problem is with bosses/mobs that have no mana. In that case you’re forced to use AotV instead of Viper Sting… dealing a lot less damage.

If you do not focus on recount, I think MM spec is just fun and full of tricks to play. But if your group does not have any sort of mana battery well… it can make you just HATE this spec, really.

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6 xmcmc May 14, 2009 at 5:18 pm

Hey I’m lvl 70 and I just respecced to MM from BM for better DPS. I started questing today with a bear I just tamed and I’ve been having a really hard time with aggro. I specced my bear like this http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#0Rzhhbzzb but I almost always get aggroed. Could you tell me what I need to do to keep aggro on my pet or if I’m doing something wrong?
Thanks

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7 Garwulf May 14, 2009 at 5:58 pm

xmcmc,

You’re probably going to have to cast Misdirection on him a lot of the time before a pull. Set your pet as the Focus target, and then use this macro:

/cast [target=focus] Misdirection

It will MD your pet without you having to drop your target. After that, just fire off a Multi Shot and start dropping mobs.

Other than that, you may try this build for your bear:

http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#0RkhhbMz

He’ll do a tad more DPS and will generate 10% more threat with his growl. Also, make sure that growl is always on, and that cower is always off.

BM is pretty much hands-down the best spec to level with, so if MM starts to become difficult due to you always pulling aggro with your big hits, you may want to consider going back to BM until 80. DPS isn’t really important until end-game anyway.

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8 Dragonsys May 15, 2009 at 7:53 am

That is awesome! I’m still working out the details on my MM spec, and with only having quest blues I do around 1.3k DPS (at lvl 80).

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9 Max de Rooij June 18, 2009 at 8:13 am

Hey there, i love you’re website. Nice dps that you do there my hunter friend:) anyway… could you tell me you’re addons or upload you’re UI. Thanks.

Mails to lolzftw@live.nl

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10 Garwulf June 18, 2009 at 9:26 am

Glad you like the site Max.

I’m actually giving some hard thought to redoing my UI yet again. It won’t be vastly different from what I’m using now as far as addons go, but the layout may differ slightly. Anyway, addons that I’m using and enjoy:

- Pitbull 4 for the unit frames
- Bartender 4 for the action bars
- Buffalo for the buff icons
- Quartz cast bar replacement and target buff/debuff timers
- SexyMap for the mini map
- Grid for the raid frame
- Prat 3.0 chat mod
- MSBT for my combat text
- Power Auras for spell and buff alerts
- Wintergrasper for that little WG timer just below my map
- Fubar w/ plugins for convenience
- BigWigs boss timers, etc.
- Recount damage meter
- Omen threat meter
- Gladius arena unit frames

That’s the bulk of it.

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