MM Talents Overview: Tier 6

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Combat ExperienceCombat Experience

2 Point Talent

Increases your total Agility and Intellect by 2/4%.

Overview

Combat Experience increases both your agility and intellect by up to 4% depending upon the points invested.

Why take it?

Combat Experience is another bread and butter talent for Marksmanship Hunters. It’s a pretty necessary place to stick two points while making your way down the MM tree.

It may not seem like much, but if you have 1000 agility and 400 Intellect for example, this talent would give you 40 additional agility and 16 intellect. With 3/3 in Careful Aim, this will translate into:

  • 56 more RAP
  • .48% additional crit chance
  • 240 mana
  • 80 armor
  • and some dodge…

So as you can see, it’s sort of like adding two uber gems to your build without using up any gem slots. 2 points in Combat Experience provides a subtle, yet noticeable difference to overall DPS. Plus, any talents such as these are always nice when scaling raid buffs like Blessing of Kings come into play.

Why not take it?

Apart from being Beast Mastery or Survival specced, I can’t really think of a strong argument against it for most MM builds.

The only case where I could see a MM Hunter passing on this talent would be for PvP. In this case, Concussive Barrage would be the talent of choice over Combat Experience. CE won’t be as much of a factor in short bursty fights, where as Concussive Barrage is a big difference maker in PvP.

All in all, I’d consider Combat Experience to be an expendable talent for PvP. Some Hunters may want it for a little added crit, but its use for PvP is negligible.

Ranged Weapon SpecializationRanged Weapon Specialization

3 Point Talent

Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 1/3/5%.

Overview

Ranged Weapon Specialization increases all ranged damage by up to 5%, plain and simple.

Why take it?

5% additional damage for 3 points is a cheap boost to overall DPS. The caveat is that you need to invest all three points in here in order to get the best value from the talent. However, sticking 3 points in here is a no brainer in my opinion. Keep in mind that Chimera Shot‘s damage is based off of weapon damage and not attack power, so the more weapon damage, the more whallop Chimera will be packing.

3 points in RWS. Do it.

Why not take it?

If you’re Beast Mastery or Survival.

8 thoughts on “MM Talents Overview: Tier 6”

  1. Yep sure am, and guess what! I got another Crypstalker piece last night from Naxx 10 so now I can use the gloves I got from ToC. I also got enough emblems for one of the T8 set pieces. I’m moving right along. We did the 100 club achievement on Sapphiron too, a ton of fun I finally got the see the last two bosses in Naxx!

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  3. I also picked up Marrowstrike from heroic ToC, and the neck piece. That instance has 5 pieces for hunters, there is also a chest piece I’m going to try and get if I don’t get the emblem tier piece first.

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    • Hey Dracky,

      I wasn’t necessarily saying it was a poor talent, I was trying to state that it could probably be left out in favor of two points better spent elsewhere.

      Using my PvP stats as an example, I’d gain .53% dodge and just 240 mana. I’d rather have the daze from Concussive Barrage over the minor stats boost. The two points I would put into CE I feel would serve me better in the SV tree.

      If I were to go full on MM for PvP, my build might look like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cZ0eVfohdhIsxuVoe0odobh

      Oh, and by the way, grats on that gun!

      I saw your comment in passing a few days back, but forgot to reply.

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  6. I haven’t actually gotten to those talents yet. I was lagging behind and then recently revived this series of posts.

    I have 7 points in those talents myself. I get loads of Improved Steady Shot Procs on boss fights. I have Power Auras configured to sound a gong when it procs. I usually try to cast a few Steadies then hit my Chimera, but if it procs just after I’ve cast it, then I typically blow it on Aimed or Arcane – whichever is available.

    I’m guessing you must be 11 points into BM if you’re having too few points for all three talents. You may want to give my 7/57/7 spec a go.

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  7. I think you should hit up Silencing Shot again, as well as Wild Quiver and Improved Steady Shot. I’ve noticed in the 7/57/7 build it comes down to whether or not you want silencing shot as to having an extra point in Improved barrage. Also, I have 3 in Wild Quiver currently, but I’m not seeing any big difference so I think I might hit up ISS. I haven’t done the numerical calculations, but it may just be the fact that I like having a few big hitters instead of 6 little shots. Also, I don’t know when it procs to see if its doing its job. I’m thinking power auras may help with that.

    In regards to Combat Experience, 1 Ag= 1 AP for hunters. Yeah, its a must. Why go for AP boosts when you can get crit, ap, and regen. No brainer fo sho! 😀

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