Question about Recount n da DPS - Builds, Talents and Class Mechanics - Hunter Forums

Hello! First thing, thanks Garwulf - I love your site, and you've been a terrific help. Many thanks for all your efforts on our behalf; it's greatly appreciated

Hi Agio I've also found that a BW/Burst macro has been essential for both PvP and PvE, although mine differs somewhat. Here's what I use:

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/petattack
/use Potion of the Tol’vir
/use 13
/cast Bestial Wrath
/cast Call of the Wild
/cast Rabid
/cast Furious Howl
/cast Roar of Courage
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Slot 13 is my on-use trinket for both PvP/PvE, just to keep things simple, naturally. The various pet abilities cover each different pet I tend to favor, and won't interfere with each other, which means I don't need to worry about which pet I have out at any given time. The abilities on long cooldowns will trigger when ready. While adding Kill Command in there isn't a bad idea, the only issue is the possibility that it may not activate if your pet isn't on the target when you trigger the macro. To avoid this, I'd recommend using a pet attack macro (which Garwulf has so kindly provided) bound to a separate key, which will give the Tank time to grab the aggro while your pet runs in. I've found this to be very effective.

The one area where I differ from the above opinions is in the use of Rapid Fire during Bestial Wrath. This is because RF is strictly a haste booster, and haste does not affect our instant shots at all - it serves (for you, the Hunter) only to reduce the cast time of Cobra Shot, and increase the rate of your Auto Shots and Focus regeneration. Since Focus regen isn't a concern during this time, Rapid Fire will basically be wasted for the sake of a few extra Auto Shots. For the same reason, using Focus Fire during BW will also provide no real benefit, and in fact will rob your pet of the extra attack speed from the Frenzy stacks, something which Garwulf has already mentioned in another post. I like having Focus Fire on a separate keybind so I can choose whether to use it or not, although the new duration makes this less of an issue. Fervor is better to use to restore Focus since it's instant, and you'll want to use it for the last half of BW every time you can (which is every other time) - using Cobra will cost you almost two Arcane Shots due to the cast time, and also won't proc Cobra Strikes, essentially negating nearly 20% of your most powerful attack and doing substantially less damage in the process.

Using Rapid Fire after BW ends is when you will gain the most benefit from the increased Focus regeneration and Auto Shots, since more is always better, but also in this case because the Tol'vir potion will still be active for the entire duration, which will boost your Cobra and Auto Shot damage considerably, along with the occasional Arcanes and Kill Commands for balance. If you have your PvP on-use agility trinket equipped, that will still be active as well, and essentially turns this into a 20 second burst, with the ability to blast your target with a few more Arcane Shots immediately afterward (if you even need to).

When using a target dummy, the things that affect my overall dps the most are the absence of buffs from other players, and the fact that since a dummy never gets below 20% health, I never get to use Kill Shot, which crits hard and pretty often, especially when glyphed. Recount shows my damage to be around 20% or so lower in that situation, and my Auto Shot percentage is about the same as yours, which puts it consistently in the top three with Arcane Shot and Kill Command.

One other thing I've found to be a big help is to bind a separate macro with Rabid, Furious Howl, and whatever other pet abilities are on a 30 second CD to make sure they're up constantly - I've noticed they don't always trigger automatically, and when they do, there's usually a substantial delay - so while this may not be truly necessary, I like forcing them to activate so they'll be ready the next time I use the BW macro.

By the way, I really enjoy your posts, Agio - you have a great sense of humor