Hey everyone. I need some tips for my Orc Survivalist Hunter (armory). I'm new to the Survivalist build and I'm relying on Faceshooter (wowinterface) as my shot priority addon.
Current DPS is usually around 2.9K. What can I do to improve?
Thanks!
Anj
What i can tell you is that you don't have the right gem on this moment.
Take a look at this website
Also you dont are hitcap on this moment (hitcap = 263 hit rating) this meens that some arrows dont hit your target
More information about the hitcap you can found here
And jah the talent build, i'm not sure if thats right for you on this moment. Maybe somebody else can help you with that.
First off you want to gem for Agility not AP. And don't worry about gemming for Crit either, since you get RAP and Crit from Agi gems. Next up (or really first up) you need to get hitcapped as some of your shots are just flat out missing. Do not enchant any of your gear with an AP enchant as a survival hunter either (well not all your gear at any rate, the dps leg enchant and head enchant and shoulder enchant are fine and you can enchant your melee weapons with an AP enchant) mostly you want to enchant for Agi where such an enchant is available for that particular piece of equipment.
As for your meta gem you want the Relentless Earthsiege Diamond (+21 Agi and +3% increased Critical Damage) and don't worry about getting the socket bonus either on your equipment, unless it's an exceptional one such as +6 Agi (pretty sure Garwulf would agree with me on that one). Don't get the split gems either. You are usually better off just putting a +20 Agi gem in there to begin with. And all you need to activate your meta-gem slot is one Nightmare's Tear (which you already have).
You also want to lose the Glyph of Steady Shot and replace it with the Glyph of Serpent Sting. Steady is not a Surv hunter's main shot (it is way down at the bottom of the shot priority list) and should only be used when everything else is on cooldown.
As far as your build goes I'd take 1 point out of Hunting Party and the 1 point out of Aimed Shot and put those two points in Focused Aim and *poof* you're hitcapped. Instead of using Aimed Shot use Multi-Shot in your rotation.
Of course when you do get hit-capped from just gear alone be sure to respec to get Aimed Shot back , ahh the joys of being a hunter 
I am guessing you're using the basic Suvival Hunter shot rotation of Kill Shot>Explosive>Black Arrow>Aimed/Multi>Serpent Sting>Steady. But since I have never used that addon I don't really know what it is telling you in terms of what shots get priority.
I agree with much of what Ceyle said, but here's what I'll add to the conversation.
The best way remedy your hit rating dilemma is this:
Trade down some Emblems of Triumph for
Next, replace the crit gem in your helm with a 20 hit.
Bam! 263 ht rating, an upgraded pair of kicks, and better itemized gems and enchants.
Personally, I'd suggest you keep Aimed Shot if you do decide to go the Focused Aim route. Aimed is more mana efficient than Multi, plus it benefits from Sniper Training, where as Multi does not. Continue to use Multi on trash though of course. Pull the point(s) for FA from Hunting Party as needed.
Your rotation should be this: Kill > Explosive > Serpent Sting > Black Arrow > Aimed > Steady
You have the 2pc T9 bonus, which pushes Serpent up the priority.
Hope this additional info helps some. 
Awesome guys. Thanks for the tips! I'll try these out as soon as I can.
A few more questions. Coming from BM, I'm quite ovewhelmed with shot rotations. How do you efficiently do it? Do you keybind or click? What addons/UI's do you use?
TIA
Anj said:
Awesome guys. Thanks for the tips! I'll try these out as soon as I can.
A few more questions. Coming from BM, I'm quite ovewhelmed with shot rotations. How do you efficiently do it? Do you keybind or click? What addons/UI's do you use?
TIA
Basically I keybind whatever I can and just leave the rest alone, 
. By that I mean traps and shots.
As far as doing it efficiently goes … I will let Garwulf answer that one as what works for me might not work for you and when it comes to Hunter training there's just things he is better at that I am.
That being said, here's a few tips I've picked up in the years (well off and on) that I have played a hunter. First off, Explosive Shot takes priority over all other shots except Kill Shot. In other words if you notice that Serpent Sting is fixing to drop off your target but Ex Shot just came off CD fire that Explosive Shot first then reapply your Serpent.
Lock and Load is pure goodness on a stick, that said it can also gunk up your rotation. If you don't know what L-n-L is well here it is. L-n-L procs off your Black Arrow ticks (that is not all it can proc off of of course but for the purposes of this discussion and to keep things simple BA ticks is what I am going to talk about), when it goes off this is what it does – Your next two Explosive Shots will trigger no CD (except the global cd of 1.5 seconds which I'll talk about in a second) cost no mana and no ammo. Pure awesomesauce. Now, here's the problem: When L-n-L procs your first instinct might be to just spam that shot right? Wrong. Explosive Shot is a DoT that ticks for 2 seconds so you want that shot to tick for it's full duration. Course then the question becomes what do I do for that 2 seconds? Some will say fire off another shot such as Aimed then hit Explosive again. Sounds good, the only problem I have with it is that any other shot will trigger the global cooldown of 1.5 secs. So what I do is just wait, plink an autoshot then fire that Explosive Shot, wait again plink an Autoshot then fire Explosive again. Wait, plink an Autoshot then fire Explosive. (Yeah you technically get three Explosive Shots but the third one costs mana and ammo and starts the CD on Ex Shot) You just have to kind of count it off, but after awhile it becomes second nature and you will just know when to fire Explosive again.
As far addons, these are a must for pretty much all Hunters:
Omen – Threat Meter
Power Auras Classic – Lets you know when a goodie has proc'd.
Deadly Boss Mods – It tells you what is going on in a fight.
Recount – Damage Meter
I have a few other add-ons as well, but I wouldn't call them a "must" for anyone.
As far as my UI? It's one I modified myself from back when I was a hard core PvP'er (Ahh the days of warriors being king in PvP). I was so used to it I just changed a few things around for raiding and it works like a charm. One of these days I may have to post a screenie of it, but eh … I'm real lazy 
Postscript: I just looked at your Armory and not only are you now Hitcapped, but you have achieved the rare distinction of ... Wait for it ... Hit Cap Perfection. Hearty congratulations are warranted.
Honestly I am not being sarcastic, getting right at the Hard Cap of 263 is an achievement in and of itself. I'm rolling at 266 hit which sounds good, only 3 pts over the cap, right? One problem I'm a Draenei .... 
.
Anj said:
Awesome guys. Thanks for the tips! I'll try these out as soon as I can.
A few more questions. Coming from BM, I'm quite ovewhelmed with shot rotations. How do you efficiently do it? Do you keybind or click? What addons/UI's do you use?
TIA
More good info there from Ceyle. Thanks. 🙂 Makes my job much easier.
I suggest you work on keybinds if you're not using them already. It may set you back a little while you're getting used to them, but once you do your game should be better than ever.
There are some great clickers out there, but honestly I don't know how they do it. Most encounters these days require a lot of movement on the part of the hunter. I don't see how ayone can effectively do that while using their kb to move and mouse to click. In PvP, forget it. I don't know how a hunter could play effectively as a clicker.
Bartender 4 is awesome for getting keybinds assigned. Just type in /kb, hover over the actyion bar ability you want to keybind, then press the key you want it bound to. That's all there is to it.
Ceyle, reading yours and Garwulf's tips made me get that Hit Cap Perfection achievement. 😉 Thanks so much!
Now let me get used to this keybinding thing...
Anj said:
Ceyle, reading yours and Garwulf's tips made me get that Hit Cap Perfection achievement. 😉 Thanks so much!
Now let me get used to this keybinding thing...
With the better itemization and gems - not to mention being hitcapped - you will notice your dps improves.
That said, getting used to keybindings might make your dps hover around the same point it was before regemming and whatnot. Do not get discouraged, getting used to keybindings takes practice, for some a lot of practice (Ugg I remember the hours and hours I spent at the target dummy in IF just re-learning how to actually play my hunter again, it almost made me want to take my warrior back from the friend I left him to when I server transferred). In the end though you'll be glad you spent the time getting used to them as they make it far more easier to play your Hunter. Not to mention for those times you feel like PvP'ing and you smoke everyone 
.
Ceyle, bullseye. I *was* discouraged earlier because my dps was the same as before. At one point, I just wanted to go back to my old two-key-spam-BM-and-KingKrush spec. I slept it off and I feel much better now -- even more so after reading your post. It will definitely take a lot of practice and now I understand that I should not take the easy way out. 🙂
Back to the boss dummy!
Just reporting that I've steadily increased my DPS to 3K average, thanks to keybindings and Faceshooter. When I'm more confident, I'll drop that addon and will see what happens. One thing's for sure, I'm beginning to understand, and love, shot priority!
And guess what? Spiked Toestompers and Orca Hunter's Harpoon dropped at HoR. Earlier, I also got the Hoarfrost Gauntlets (which I'm not equipping because I'd lose the T9 set bonus).
Should I enchant and equip these? Will a Shifting Dreadstone do for the polearm?
Anj said:
Just reporting that I've steadily increased my DPS to 3K average, thanks to keybindings and Faceshooter. When I'm more confident, I'll drop that addon and will see what happens. One thing's for sure, I'm beginning to understand, and love, shot priority!
And guess what? Spiked Toestompers and Orca Hunter's Harpoon dropped at HoR. Earlier, I also got the Hoarfrost Gauntlets (which I'm not equipping because I'd lose the T9 set bonus).
Should I enchant and equip these? Will a Shifting Dreadstone do for the polearm?
Awesome news, congrats! Just keep practicing and those numbers will do nothing but go up.
And grats on the new loots, I speak for every hunter when I say we love getting new lootz!
The Polearm is a tough one, yes it will put you over the hitcap by 84 but you'll be able to lose the 39 hit on your boots not to mention another 30 hit that your getting from gems and be just a tad over the hitcap by approximately 15. Not hit cap perfection, but close enough. And speaking just for myself I like having a little hitrating to play with just in case of emergencies. And I notice that you have two 232 Axes already, that said I'd equip the polearm just because you can re-gem your gear because of the extra hitrating it gives you and the gem slot in the polearm itself is awesomesauce. (I really think I am spending too much time reading Frostheim.) Put the Massacre enchant on it (+110 AP), hunter's love the Massacre enchant for their 2 handers. The boots? No brainer. Wear them and put the +16 Agi enchant on those puppies.
Gem for the polearm? Drop a +20 Agi gem in there (Delicate Cardinal Ruby) as the socket bonus of +4 Agi really isn't worth it in my opinion.
When you regem be really sure you actually need the socket bonus that putting the correct gem in there will give you. My own personal cut-off is a socket bonus of +6 Agi (I never worry and I do mean never worry if the socket bonus will give me crit or AP as hunter's get crit and ranged attack power from Agility anyway), and even then I really have to talk myself into it, as dropping a +20 Agi gem in there will usually generate more net damage for yours truly and as I see the world through Frostheim Goggles… (okay, now I know I am spending waaay too much time reading Frostheim.)
Thanks! Awesome suggestions. The polearm with the enchant looks great! I also found out that my keystrokes are matching what the addon is suggesting.
Now I have to figure out who/what Frostheim is. lol.
Anj said:
Thanks! Awesome suggestions. The polearm with the enchant looks great! I also found out that my keystrokes are matching what the addon is suggesting.
Now I have to figure out who/what Frostheim is. lol.
The term "Frostheim Googles" is something of a running joke on his blog as he always views the world through how he can improve his DPS. He does ridiculous numbers, 8.2k on some fights, yet he's never happy with them. Which is a source of constant amusement for his readers and sometimes just ticks him off to no end. Although him being ticked off is, for the most part, pretend hence the running joke part.
For the record he's a MM hunter, as am I. I just recently made the switch back to the Marks tree for raiding and while my numbers in 25's aren't Frost numbers they come decently close and I do more damage as MM than I ever did as SV. Hence why I've taken to wearing "Frostheim Googles". 
Ceyle, once upon a time, I was content with being BM. I was "geared" to hunt all the Spirit Beasts *and* almost passed out when I finally trained King Krush. I have to thank Garwulf for that. Now I have to thank you for making me curious about what SV and now MM has to offer. 🙂
Btw, I hit 4.4K when we went after Omen earlier. It went down to 2.8K at HoL but the funny thing was, I was #1 at Recount and it made our tank shut up, who went in all cocky and overconfident. Love it!