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7:33 pm
Grunt
June 2, 2009
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Hey all! First off, this site is awesome, big props for all the info on here. It has helped me a lot.
To the task at hand:
I am an MM Hunter and started playing WOW back in Nov. Just hit 
a week and a half ago and I hear gearing is now the thing to do. I'm trying to find out where to start because the whole process seems a bit daunting. I have all blues and most of my stats are okay I think (other than hit rating). I just wanted to write and see if you guys had any ideas on where to start when one hits concerning gearing up a hunter. I have done a lot of research on the top hunters in wow, the gear they roll with and etc, but all that stuff requires 25-mans and I don't think I'm ready for that just yet. I know a lot of the things i need to focus on like ag, hr, stam, intel but i'm still trying to figure out where some, i guess you would call it, low lvl epics are. Thanks for the help!
This is me so you can comment, critique, etc. 
http://www.wowarmory.com/chara…..=Roarbeard
Like I said, I'm just a little confused as to where to start, when to start heroics, how to find comparable gear and I assumed there might be others like me who have the same predicamate. Please feel free to write what you like keeping in mind respect given is respect received. Ty again. ^__^
11:44 pm
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
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Thanks for the compliments on the site Roarbeard.
I'd recommend starting Heroics right away, as the sooner you can grind rep and earn emblems the better. Heroics in WotLK are much easier than in TBC.
For starters, you're gonna want to get that hit rating up. You're less than 5% right now, which isn't gonna cut it. 2 quick and fairly easy fixes would be to grind Kalu'ak rep for their Polearm (Whale-Stick Harpoon), and run Heroic Nexus for the Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood Trinket.
Apart from those two items, other nice upgrades would be the 3 epic craftable LW items: Ice Striker Cloak, Giantmaim Bracers and Legguards. Exalted rep with Argent Crusade gets you a nice chest (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44295) and really nice boots actually, provided you don't mind wearing leather. http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44297 have lots of hit rating and other great stats for a Hunter.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44249 is about the best pre-raid 2h you can easily get your hands on, so you'll want grind rep for KotEB. Revered will get you the sword, shoulders and the head enchant – all nice upgrades.
Heroic VH offers two really nice Hunter drops, http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37886 and http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37883, and is a pretty quick and easy run.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37648 can be picked up from the AH for pretty cheap and will do nicely til you can get Vereesa's.
For a ranged wep, you could try run heroic UK for http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37191 or just get someone to craft you a Nesingwary 4000, which is what I did.
Anyway, those are a few random ideas. There are many other options, but those are just a few that come to mind right off the bat.
11:56 pm
Grunt
June 2, 2009
Offline
wow, that is some much needed information! I'm eng so i'll work on making my nesingwary, its just a bit expensive for mats. Yeah, it was just rough cause every kept saying, "start from the bottom up" all the while I'm saying "where's the bottom?!" lol. Ty again and I look forward to reading more and maybe even dropping a help or two.
9:51 pm
Grunt
June 2, 2009
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That's good advice, methinks. i got the Drake-Mounted Cbow, as well as the Handgrips of the savage Emmisary, they were an excellent boost to my previous, another thing to keep in mind is if you attempt H VH for the Staff And/or Handgrips (which i reccomend, its easy, quick, and very fun to do VH. plus gear. 
" /> ), Another thought is as an Engineer, mining is your other profession, correct? If thats the case, then try an AddOn called " Gatherer" (you can likely find it from Curse, WowMatrix…ect. its pretty popular), which records all gathered items, and comes with a WoWhead downloadable database showing thousand of possible spawn locations, i love it. Yet another thing you can do, is look into a titanium weapon chain for your weapon(s). http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41976 It has a nice Hit boost that can help get it maxed, which should be your priority considering the 2-roll system used w/ hunter shots. the Disarm addition can help too, but i (as a blacksmith) intend to put one on at least one of my weapons. a final piece that's nice, is http://www.wowhead.com/?item=37407, from King Ymiron in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, a 5-man instance a bit tougher than Utgarde Keep, but with a good group its also a great deal of fun. (Theres even a like next-to-impossible drop of http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44151 from Skadi the Ruthless, something i know i'd be hoping for!) Good luck getting geared, and keep me updated! I'm trying to do just the same 
, its just something that popped into mind, but i hope it helps somehow. Later! 
4:23 pm
Grunt
June 2, 2009
Offline
definitely. way ahead of ya on gatherer. it has made me much money so far. Never heard of the titanium chain though. I shall have to hunt this thing down. Thanks for the tip!
5:41 pm
Grunt
June 2, 2009
Offline
K guys, I figured it was time to stop in a give ya'll an update on the gearing. So far, I think it is going pretty good besides I'm having trouble getting into heroics. (guild is a bit too small). That will hopefully change soon though.
Wowranked and the armory havent updated yet, but my ap is 3k, ag 600's, stam 1k, crit 26.6%, and hr 189. I found out my hit rating now is great because I have points in Focused Aim so I only needed 165 hr to have 8% hit chance according to what I have read.
I opted for http://www.wowwiki.com/Staff_o…..ral_Furies with a titanium weapon chain instead of the koteb sword because I liked the stats on it a bit more. I have begun chasing down honor and pvp gear with my pally buddy as we have found it to be much easier to get pvp epics quickly and then push into heroics (not to mention we are having fun rolling together and busting up some wg). I am up to 4 heroic runs which makes me really happy and I'm hoping to hit more.
As far as stats go, I reeeeally want to get my agility up. Almost every hunter i see who is topping on wowranked.com has at least 1k ag and 4k ap so i'm trying to work my way up to that. I'm thinking about getting http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40684 next as it seems pretty good, but I really want to get that H Nexus trinket.
Lemme know what you think about the stats. I'm trying to figure out what my base raiding stats should be so I can know when I'm ready to put in for a raid w/out being useless or mocked for my ignorance. I'm also thinking about dropping some points from efficiency into some other talent as I hear the boost in efficiency isn't worth the payoff. " />
Once again, the armory wasn't posted so if you want when ever you see the post just lookup Roarbeard of Chromaggus from guild Thou Shalt Not Covet and hopefully it will have updated my gems, gloves, and trinket. ty!
6:36 pm
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
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Hi Roarbeard,
I'm still using my Mirror of Truth. It's definitely a great value for 40 badges and is an excellent pickup for when you're just starting raids. Either Incisor Fragment or preferably the Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood would have you set until you could get a better one from 10 or 25 man Naxx.
If your current armory is showing your would-be raiding gear (some PvP pcs) I think you could sneak into a few raids. I would say that you could easily slip into an OS run as long as they're not trying to do it with any drakes up. You could probably even hit up a 25 man Naxx. As long as you're able to pull around 2.5-3K in a 25 man I doubt anyone would give you too much grief. In a 10 man you may be counted on a bit more to be bringing some big numbers, so you may skip those for awhile.
Gear's not everything though. If you manage your cooldowns and aspects well that can count for a lot.
Here are a few things you can do right now that will increase your DPS a fair mount…
You need new glyphs. I'd recommend going with Serpent Sting, Steady Shot and Hawk. As MM, it is absolutely necessary for you to have Glyph of Serpent Sting because it adds damage to Chimera. The extra 10% damage from the Steady Shot glyph makes it a top choice still. Lastly, Chimera Shot is a decent glyph in theory but many players don't see the benefits of it due to latency and improper cooldown management. You could keep it until you replace Fezzik's Pocketwatch, but you might consider Hawk after you get the Sphere from Nexus.
Move the points from Efficieny and Rapid Recuperation into Improved Arcane Shot and Improved Steady Shot, putting the last point into Wild Quiver. Unless you're PvPing a lot with the MM spec, I'd also recommend dropping Silencing Shot at least until you're in better gear with more Int and playing in larger groups with mana batteries. The mana usage is too much considering the damage return.
This spec with changed glyphs should improve your DPS by a fair amount. The lost mana efficency won't be too noticeable due to the recent changes to Master Marksman, your ISS procs as well as removing Silencing Shot from your shot selection.
This is what it would look like : http://www.wowhead.com/?talent…..Aox00b:fib
2:19 pm
Grunt
June 2, 2009
Offline
Cool, I'll definitely give that a shot today. Yah, from what i've seen i've been averaging like 2k-2.5k when properly buffed in Heroics so I'm still working on that. I think that agility and crit chance from the rest of the pvp epics will really give me a boost there. I've thought about dropping some wg marks for some of the titanforged gear as they have gem slots on basically every piece so you get pvp gear with a little bit of customizing ability. Yeah, I've been thinking about the glyphs thing some because I was noticing thanks to lag that I wasnt really getting my chimera shot right off anyway so the 1 sec boost wasnt really benefiting me that greatly. Ty for the tips and I think I shall be off to give them a whirl right now! lol.
Oh yeah, as a side note i've been doing some farming and things with bm lately, MAN I MISS BM! So much fun to let the pet tank and just plug shots away. ^__^
K, I went for the Glyph of Serpent Sting and Steady Shot, but a 20% ap boost for Hunter's Mark is beast. I dont know if Hawk could make up for that marked damage.
4:04 pm
Hai thar fellow hunters.
I also (after I stopped raiding in May) feel I fell off the chart a bit, in regards to gearing and so on. I have as far as I can remember been running a BM spec, and I just made the transition to Survival and my old guild is just about to start raiding again.We ran 25naxx so my gear was (except a few) best in slot when naxx was the place to be. We will start focusing on Ulduar 10-man and hopefully we`ll be running 25-man in the near future.
I have been reading alot of posts around the different hunter communities (elitistjerks, brk etc) and I always find myself on my ass in regards to the shear amount of information there is out there. But I tend to be a bit put off by it all, and feel I need some help when it comes to gearing my toon.
My specc seems it`s pretty much the way it should be, that is in my opinion ofc, and I`m the only hunter in my guild so brainstorming with other seems a bit hard. The glyphs is also pretty ok, so i guess my main concern is my hit rating, and I need some advice when it comes to reach my hit cap (263).
armory link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/charac…..p;n=Abnorm
So please, give me some pointers. It would be very much appreciated.
PS:Also I would like to thank you, Garwulf, for your informative, interesting and great hunter resource. And I hope you will keep this page active for as long as WoW exists
/Abnorm
1:44 am
Hi,
Can I also have some advice? (I'm probably going to apply a lot of what you said to Roarbeard). I'm trying to get geared and glyphed – my gear's below the average for , but I'm not really sure where to start looking in order to pick up the best things for me.
My primary Spec is BM – (I love my exotics too much to give them up). My secondary spec was MM but I have just altered this to SV on the advice of a guild member because I'm not doing enough damage.
http://armory.wow-europe.com/c…..mp;n=Inara
I love playing Hunter and I want to be the best I can, any help is greatfully appreciated!
Thanks
Inara
2:19 am
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
Offline
Abnorm said:
Hai thar fellow hunters.
I also (after I stopped raiding in May) feel I fell off the chart a bit, in regards to gearing and so on. I have as far as I can remember been running a BM spec, and I just made the transition to Survival and my old guild is just about to start raiding again.We ran 25naxx so my gear was (except a few) best in slot when naxx was the place to be. We will start focusing on Ulduar 10-man and hopefully we`ll be running 25-man in the near future.
I have been reading alot of posts around the different hunter communities (elitistjerks, brk etc) and I always find myself on my ass in regards to the shear amount of information there is out there. But I tend to be a bit put off by it all, and feel I need some help when it comes to gearing my toon.
My specc seems it`s pretty much the way it should be, that is in my opinion ofc, and I`m the only hunter in my guild so brainstorming with other seems a bit hard. The glyphs is also pretty ok, so i guess my main concern is my hit rating, and I need some advice when it comes to reach my hit cap (263).armory link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/charac…..p;n=Abnorm
So please, give me some pointers. It would be very much appreciated.
PS:Also I would like to thank you, Garwulf, for your informative, interesting and great hunter resource. And I hope you will keep this page active for as long as WoW exists
/Abnorm
Hi Abnorm,
My advice would be to settle on which spec you want to raid as primarily. You're gemmed for attack power mostly, which is great for BM, but lousy for SV.
If you like BM, then maybe go that route. You're already gemmed for it, and with your racial plus the 2 pc valorous bonus, you should do alright. If you want to continue as SV, then you should start gemming agility all the way once you get upgrades.
The glaring problem I see is that you're points under hit cap. That's going to hurt your dps a ton.
A quick remedy to this would involve two things:
Swap out the +16 crit gem in your gloves for a 16 hit one.
Then, follow my prescription here for godly BM DPS:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent…..oZx00b:Vib
…and yes, replace Glyph of Kill Shot with Hawk. Even though BM is hasted to the hilt, this glyph adds more DPS than any other after Steady Shot. Trust me.
This spec will put you at about 264 hit rating which is near perfect.
I'd recommend a spec like this for Survival:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent…..edAhsz:NAb
I'm also wondering about the 20 stam gem in your helm. Since you need a blue for your meta, at least put a shifting dreadstone in there.
Get a 40 crit scope for your bow too.
You should see a pretty good DPS increase if you implement those changes.
Hope that helps. 
" />
2:31 am
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
Offline
Inara said:
Hi,
Can I also have some advice? (I'm probably going to apply a lot of what you said to Roarbeard). I'm trying to get geared and glyphed – my gear's below the average for
My primary Spec is BM – (I love my exotics too much to give them up). My secondary spec was MM but I have just altered this to SV on the advice of a guild member because I'm not doing enough damage.
http://armory.wow-europe.com/c…..mp;n=Inara
I love playing Hunter and I want to be the best I can, any help is greatfully appreciated!
Thanks
Inara
I'll have to get back to you tomorrow Inara. I need some sleep.
The good news is, I can help.
For starters, remove all of your jewelry… pendant, rings and trinkets. The stats on those pcs are not itemized for Hunters. Put on blue or green quest reward items, or buy some replacements from the auction house. Those 5 pcs are killing your dps.
You want: agility, attack power, intellect, crit, hit, haste,and so on…
Stay away from: strength, spellpower, defense
I'll be back tomorrow.
5:52 am
Garwulf said:
Hi Abnorm,
My advice would be to settle on which spec you want to raid as primarily. You're gemmed for attack power mostly, which is great for BM, but lousy for SV.
If you like BM, then maybe go that route. You're already gemmed for it, and with your racial plus the 2 pc valorous bonus, you should do alright. If you want to continue as SV, then you should start gemming agility all the way once you get upgrades.
The glaring problem I see is that you're
A quick remedy to this would involve two things:
Swap out the +16 crit gem in your gloves for a 16 hit one.
Then, follow my prescription here for godly BM DPS:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent…..oZx00b:Vib
…and yes, replace Glyph of Kill Shot with Hawk. Even though BM is hasted to the hilt, this glyph adds more DPS than any other after Steady Shot. Trust me.
This spec will put you at about 264 hit rating which is near perfect.
I'd recommend a spec like this for Survival:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent…..edAhsz:NAb
I'm also wondering about the 20 stam gem in your helm. Since you need a blue for your meta, at least put a shifting dreadstone in there.
Get a 40 crit scope for your bow too.
You should see a pretty good DPS increase if you implement those changes.
Hope that helps.
Hello again Garwulf,
Well I`ve decided to run a SV build for raiding, think theres about 5-600dps difference from BM after a few testruns the difference will be much higher with your tips I guess I havent tried to respec with the specs you pasted yet, but i was also looking at focused aim to help the hit-problem to some extent.
So alrighty, I will try to re-gem with more weight on hit & agility and try re-speccing
Thanks alot for the quick and informative reply Garwulf! I really appreciate it
3:17 pm
Well, It worked as a charm been testing a bit on training dummies, peak dps about 4,4k great advice again Garwulf! thanks 
5:29 pm
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
Offline
Fantastic!
I'm all warm and fuzzy now.
3:04 pm
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
Offline
Inara,
Sorry it's taken me more than a few days to get back to you. Just been busy again is all…
Alrighty, so here's my advice for you…
If you like BM but switched to SV for the damage boost, I recommend going to higher DPS BM build and enjoying yourself. The "best spec" is the one that suits you, not the one that's best on paper or… errr… the internets.
Survival is a complicated spec to play and I find that most Hunters don't know how best to utilize it to benefit from the added DPS potential. If you like exotics, and you like the Beast Mastery tree, then I say go with a BM DPS build like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent…..oZx00o:Vib
I guarantee that if you follow that build to a tee, you will see massive gains in DPS as a Beast Master.
Also, you're still wearing a few pieces of gear that are not itemized properly for Hunters. Dump the strength and defense items and throw on something with useful stats like agility & attack power. Even if you swap them out for green items you'll still benefit more from them that what you're currently wearing.
A Stained Glass Shard ring can be picked up off of the auction house for pretty cheap. I'd suggest buying one right away. If you can afford one, a Titanium Impact Band would be great for your other hand.
When you get an upgrade to your ranged wep, throw a 40 crit scope on it. You'll be a lot better off than with a 40 haste scope.
Lastly, look for trinkets that give you attack power as opposed to crit. Crit is nice, but it doesn't translate to your pet like AP does.
Well, those are a few tidbits of advice to chew on.
7:44 am
Grunt
June 2, 2009
Offline
Garwulf said:
The "best spec" is the one that suits you, not the one that's best on paper or… errr… the internets
Truth, And nothing but it. Beautifully said :3
…*Edit*…I fail…at quoteing. lol
7:04 am
Heya guys
As this topic states "Gearing For A noob" I hope this helps.
Before WOTLK I would never dream of "Pugging" instances or raids but times have changed. I'm in a great Guild and have the chance to raid in the TOC & Ulduar 25's every week. But thats about it. All the rest I pug.
The "LFG" button on your interface is your best tool in the game.
Goto your Armory link and use the the "Find Upgrade" button next to all of your items and make a list of what you want and where it comes from. Dont set your sights on items that are way out of your reach. Focus initially of Normal Dungeons, then Heroic Dungeons, then maybe a 10man Naxramas. You can pug 10man Nax, VoA (wintergrasp), Sartharion & Twighlight Drakes. These are all relitively easy encounters that you can get nice gear from.
Heroics are the easiest way to get started. Grab your daily quest, sign up in LFG and then head out and do whatever it is you do until you are invited.
By doing the "Daily Heroic" every day you earn badges from the run itself and "Triumph Badges" from the quest reward, that you can use to purchase epic gear. Off memory I think the cheapest Armor piece is 30 Triumph Badges. 2 weeks work.
When my Guild first started raiding in Nax, i had my sheet of paper next to me with all the items I wanted and knew which boss dropped what. The only downside in a Pug is you basically have to win the roll to get your prize. Most Pug raid leaders are fair and try to make sure that 1 person doesn't get all the loot.
After a few weeks of Daily heroics and maybe the odd raid, you will find that your gear will look after itself. Dont go over board on Gems and Enchants because your probably going to change that item fairly quickly.
If you do get a nice item and know that the next upgrade maybe a fair way off then go for a good enchant and Gems. You can make several hundred gold a day just from dailies.
(I highly recommend Sons of Hodir daily's be top priority for the best Shoulder enchant available @ exalted)
Also Kirin Tor have a nice Head enchant @ exalted so wear your Tabard everywhere.
Other than that its really up to you to do your homework and read sites like this and use the links that are available.
Just my 2 cents worth.
9:02 pm
Proprietor
June 21, 2008
Offline
Great advice Striyka. Since I finally managed to level my 2nd , I'll be doing precisely this.
I think you were referring to the Arcanum of Torment from Knights of the Ebon Blade when you mentioned Kirin Tor. Other than that, spot on advice.
I just hope I can find some groups who are still running Naxx. :-|
7:18 am
Hey Everybody!
First off, big props to Garwulf for keeping this site up, running, updated, and so freaking full of valuable info! I've been playing WoW for a little over 5 months I think and I just dinged last Sunday….I guess you can say I'm a noob! I've been lurking here for a couple of months, basically reading what I can and trying to follow everything that Garwulf says to a T. Now that I've hit , and I've started the arduous task of upgrading all of my gear I've run in to a question.
First things first http://www.wowarmory.com/chara…..tampedimus I hope I linked right…
I'm a BM hunter and I'm very concerned about my dps. I know my gear needs to be updated and I'm currently rep grinding and running dailies to get it up to par as quick a s possible.
I saw in some earlier posts the link that Gar shows detailing beastly BM dps, so I re-spec'd. I'm just curious if this is still accurate for my build? I think whats throwing me off is the absence of aimed shot. I thought that I had read before somewhere else on this site that he stood strongly behind that talent…..maybe I'm wrong.
PS – please feel free to critique everything about me….I welcome any and all comments if it makes me a better player
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