Lethal Shots

Another week, another round of maintenance.

• Extended maintenance today. Last day of my vacation that won’t be spent driving and I can’t play until 2:00 pm local time, or later if they extend maintenance.
• Believe it or not, another patch is being pushed out today.
• The patch notes for today look very similar to the one’s from last week. Especially the talent reset part. Do we get another talent reset?
• My Shaman is getting awful close to 79. Hopefully he’ll be to 80 in another week.
• Noblegarden started and I haven’t even thought about participating. Follows the trend of me ignoring almost all in-game holidays this year.
• Boy I bet the down-time today is really eating at the masochists going for the Violet Proto-Drake.
• I’m going to try and go to Kara with some friends Sunday. People going range anywhere from 70 to 80. Should be a real quick, but insanely fun run.
• Should I take my Hunter or Shaman to Kara? Both would be OP for the place. I’d like the achievement on my Hunter, but the Shaman might be wanted for the healing.
• Honestly, even though I wanted to play this morning, I’m glad Blizz is actively trying to fix bugs instead of waiting to try and fix them all with one patch. I think the hot-fixes and mini-patches might be the better way to go.

Well, dryer just dinged at me, time to go fold clothes so they can be packed up. Catch back up with everyone Friday.

Last week we talked about we talked about shot rotations for the Beast Master tree. The Marksmanship rotation follows the same basic principles of priority but involves more shots, making it slightly more complex.

The basic Marks rotation involves the following seven shots. They should be used in the priority listed:

1. Hunter’s Mark
2. Kill Shot
3. Serpent Sting
4. Chimera Shot
5. Aimed Shot / Multi-Shot
6. Arcane Shot
7. Steady Shot

You should only have to fire Serpent Sting once per fight. After that Chimera Shot will keep it refreshed. Aimed and Multi-Shot share a cooldown, so you will want to use Aimed in a single target situation. Only use Multi-Shot when you have at least 2 targets or you waste mana. You will also want to mix in long cooldown abilities such trinkets, Rapid Fire, and Readiness at your own discretion.

Remember, don’t develop tunnel vision. Stay flexible. Move out of AOE, Misdirect, Feign Death, and drop traps when needed.

Survival got quite the overhaul in 3.1, which means that the spec changed too. Even more talents in the tree that a player can’t live without. Below is a quick summary of my recommended build and glyphs. Click here to see it in WowHead for mouse-over pop-up goodness.

• Beast Mastery (0 points)
  • None
• Marksmanship (15 points)
  • 5/5 Lethal Shots
  • 3/3 Careful Aim
  • 5/5 Mortal Shots
  • 1/2 Go for the Throat
  • 1/1 Aimed Shot
• Survival (56 points)
  • 5/5 Improved Tracking
  • 3/3 Trap Mastery
  • 2/2 Survival Instincts
  • 5/5 Survivalist
  • 3/3 T.N.T.
  • 3/3 Lock and Load
  • 3/3 Hunter vs. Wild
  • 3/3 Killer Instinct
  • 5/5 Lightning Reflexes
  • 3/3 Resourcefulness
  • 2/3 Expose Weakness
  • 1/1 Wyvern Sting
  • 3/3 Thrill of the Hunt
  • 5/5 Master Tactician
  • 3/3 Noxious Stings
  • 1/1 Black Arrow
  • 3/3 Sniper Training
  • 2/3 Hunting Party
  • 1/1 Explosive Shot

Glyphs:

• Major
  • Explosive Shot
  • Serpent Sting
  • Steady Shot
• Minor
  • Feign Death
  • Revive Pet
  • Mend Pet

As with Marksmanship, you have two basic options to spec your pet. You can either go for Shark Attack or Wild Hunt. Also the same, you can only take one point in either. Pike suggested that Shark Attack is the better DPS alternative in the comments on my Marks spec post, but as I’ve still yet to test which is the best in terms of DPS I’m not going to stand behind it 100%.

The spec above is actually quite flexible. You can skip Hunting Part if your raid has other sources of Replenishment. You could also take a point out of T.N.T. (but only 1). Don’t like maintaining a sting? You can drop Wyvern Sting and Noxious Stings. (From a DPS standpoint, I don’t recommend dropping Noxious Stings. You will be hard pressed making up the DPS from it with the lower level talents in the other trees. I’m just saying it’s an option.) Aimed Shot could also be dropped if you don’t use it in your rotation. As for Glyphs, Explosive Shot is obvious. Steady Shot is still fired a lot, so why not glyph for it. And Serpent Sting is important for Noxious Stings and Steady Shot, so again, go ahead and glyph for it.

Again, the spec above is merely my recommendation. Play with it, tweak it, do whatever tickles your fancy. I do ask you to post your spec and glyph choices in the comments though. I’m always interested in seeing what other people have went with.

Ah Marksmanship, our friendly mail-wearing Mages (sorry Rilgon, I’m still not convinced otherwise). For their Trueshot Aura I love them. They got some changes in 3.1, definitely for the better. Below is a quick summary of my recommended build and glyphs. Click here to see it in WowHead for mouse-over pop-up goodness.

• Beast Mastery (7 points)
  • 5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk
  • 2/2 Focused Fire
• Marksmanship (57 points)
  • 5/5 Lethal Shots
  • 3/3 Careful Aim
  • 5/5 Mortal Shots
  • 1/2 Go for the Throat
  • 3/3 Improved Arcane Shot
  • 1/1 Aimed Shot
  • 2/2 Rapid Killing
  • 3/3 Improved Stings
  • 1/1 Readiness
  • 3/3 Barrage
  • 2/2 Combat Experience
  • 3/3 Ranged Weapon Specialization
  • 3/3 Piercing Shots
  • 1/1 Trueshot Aura
  • 2/3 Improved Barrage
  • 5/5 Master Marksman
  • 2/2 Rapid Recuperation
  • 3/3 Wild Quiver
  • 3/3 Improved Steady Shot
  • 5/5 Marked for Death
  • 1/1 Chimera Shot
• Survival (7 points)
  • 5/5 Improved Tracking
  • 2/2 Survival Instincts

Glyphs:

• Major
  • Chimera Shot
  • Serpent Sting
  • Arcane Shot
• Minor
  • Feign Death
  • Revive Pet
  • Mend Pet

For a pet spec, you have two basic options. You can either spec for Shark Attack or Wild Hunt. Regretfully, you can only take one point in either. I’ve yet to test which option is the best in terms of DPS, but once I have I will be sure to let you know.

There is very little flexibility in the spec. You could take the two points out of Improved Barrage and one point out of Barrage if you need to take Focused Aim or want to take Silencing Shot. If you need more points than that you would want to take them out of the Survival tree. The Chimera Shot and Serpent Sting glyphs no-brainers. Your third major glyph slot is open to debate. I chose Arcane Shot, though there are several other viable options. It really boils down to personal preference.

As always, the spec above is merely my recommendation. Feel free to play with it, adjust it, or completely redesign it. Leave a link in the comments to the spec you decided on for everyone to look at.

Maintenance today, might as well put my thoughts to screen while waiting for the servers to come back up.

• Dual specs are fun. Now Blizz just needs to give us triple specs to make me really happy.
• Not much WoW playing lately. But I have been playing Guitar Hero. Didn’t think I would like it, but it is actually pretty fun.
• I’m still on vacation, so the beach is taking up a lot of my time. But I’m ok with that.
• I think I finally have specs ironed out for my Hunter. I’ve been putting off spending any talents points on him until I had it all figured out.
• I’m liking the numbers the spreadsheet is showing from the changes in the patch. In-game testing is looking real promising too. I can’t wait to see what kind of numbers I do in a real raid environment.

That’s all for now, time for me to get back to the sand and the waves.