Dr. Boom DPS tests 2.7 vs 2.8 speed weapon.

Testing variable:

Testing on Dr. Boom in Netherstorm, no pet damage included, only ranged weapon damage.
Aspect of the Hawk active, no other buffs.
5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk
I drunk a Fel Mana potion at 50% mana in each test
Trinkets: Bladefist’s Breadth (not activated), Mark Of Conquest (to extend the length of testing before OOM)

In each case I simply fired auto/steady until I was OOM, drinking a fel mana pot at 50% mana.

Don Santos with 32 DPS bullets: 474 DPS
Don Santos with 37 DPS bullets: 484 DPS
Steelhawk Xbow with 37 DPS arrows: 502DPS

Both weapons had 28 crit scope fitted, crit % was quite similar in all tests.

The bottom line is as a BM hunter with 5/5 Imp Hawk, I was clipping a lot more autoshots with the 2.7 weapon, and still clipping autos/missing steadies with the 2.8 occasionally.

My latency ranged from 400-800ms during the test.

I think the sad fact is that due to our latency, we are going to have to aim for slower weapons to achieve the best DPS. Sunfury Bow from Prince is 2.9 speed, I don’t have that one unfortunately but maybe if Keiya does she can compare.

This means wolfslayer is probably not going to be much good for a BM hunter with our level of latency, so those that were looking forward to getting it will probably be better off with Sunfury instead. It also makes the Epic bow from Heroic Steamvaults worth a look (3.0 speed).

Why People Hate Hunters

 An answer to the common forum question – Why Do People Seem To Hate Hunters?
People hate hunters because hunters are hard to play.

Just like any other class, 9 out of 10 people who play hunters are stupid. Unfortunately for hunters, a stupid hunter is a much greater liability than a stupid any other class.

1. Hunters are the only class that can wipe a group by accidentally right-clicking a mob.

2. Hunters have pets that can cause wipes if not controlled properly. They can also be blamed for wipes even when the pet would make no difference.

E.G. A monster in an instance runs at low health and isn’t slowed. The hunter pet follows it, hitting it. The monster runs into the next group and the adds wipe the group. Of course the hunter pet gets the blame, but those mobs would have been aggroed by the runner if the pet followed it or not

3. Hunter CC is the most difficult of all to use properly. It also has a higher chance to break than any other classes’ CC, because hunters – being physical damage dealers – do not typically wear equipment that increases their spell hit chance, and traps are “Spells”

4. When a hunter pulls aggro, he will often feign death which will send the mob towards a healer and subsequently wipe the group. When a mage pulls aggro, he will often just die. The group will often still wipe but at least people feel that the mage got what he deserved, whereas the hunter can cause a wipe and be the only person who doesn’t have to corpse run. That pisses a lot of people off.

5. The difference in DPS between a bad hunter and a good hunter is more than any other class. Even the most retarded mage can spam fireball over and over again. Hunters who do not know how to weave their shots, or – even worse – those who melee, do less damage than tanks.

6. Hunters can wear any non-plate armour and wield any weapon except maces and wands. So there is a large amount of equipment that can be used (some that should, some that shouldn’t). Many other classes – especially early in their careers – learn to hate hunters for rolling on “Their Loot”. Rogues especially will hate hunters for their entire WoW experience, because they refuse to accept that we share a lot of gear.

So it’s actually because most people in the game have at some time grouped with hunters who can’t CC, wipe their group for no particular reason, do terrible DPS, and then feign death and avoid repair bills when the %@*% inevitably hits the fan. Then if they do kill anything, they steal all the loot.

Hope that helps.

Current Build

Recently respecced to survival to give me better CC in Kara.

Current build is here.

I still need to free up a point to give me 3/3 expose weakness for raids. I guess I will have to lose either scatter shot or wyvern sting to achieve it. Currently I think both are more useful for instancing/heroics though.

Table Of Racials

This post is an attempt to thoroughly answer the extremely common question “What Is The Best Race For X Class?”

Since the answers are usually quite different depending on whether you prefer PvPing and raids, I have split the choices into 2 columns, 1 for PvE and 1 for Pvp.

I have also divided the races into their factions, since the majority of people choose their faction before choosing a race. For those that have no faction preference, a third table at the end selects what I think is the best race from either faction.

New Classes

This post at Tobold’s blog got me into brainstorming mode. What would be some good new races/classes to add to WoW in future expansions?

As far as races go, I’m not really knowledgable enough about Warcraft lore to suggest what races would be good to play as. I’d love to be a Goblin, Gnoll or a Furbolg myself, but I would predict that if Blizzard DID introduce new playable races, then they would be different to the races that are currently in-game.

So, let’s talk about classes. I have 3 ideas that I think are pretty cool. The chances of any of them ever being put in the game are almost nil, but It’s fun to imagine what they would be like anyway…

Back To The Grind

And I’m not talking reputations here.

Grinding for cash. As in “IRL”.

There’s no escaping it, to play WoW I need a new PC, and to get a new PC I need money. So it’s back to Party Poker to grind sitngos until I can pay off my credit card and afford a schmick new computer.

About $4000 Australian dollars is my target, which I should be able to do in a Month unless I run bad.

Best Class Combo For A Duo

A common question asked by people on the WoW boards concerns what classes to choose if you are levelling up with a friend/partner.

Here’s my answer:

The best (and really only) combination worth considering is 1 tank class, and 1 hybrid/healer class.

The biggest reason is that as the game progresses, you can put a full group together very easily, because any 3 classes can make up the remainder of your group.

So either Warrior/Druid/Paladin and Priest/Shaman/Paladin/Druid.

Racials, Part II

What’s the best race for each class, for the purposes of raiding?

Here are my thoughts:

Mages: Gnomes are better than any Horde race. Draenei + Hit Aura is also good, whether or no that is better than 5% int bonus, I’m not really sure.

Priest: Draeneis have incredible priest racials, not to mention their standard racials. Symbol Of Hope, Fear Ward, Heroic Prescence and Gift Of The Naaru are all excellent racials for priests.

Pally: Draenei

Warlock: Orc, Blood Fury FTW.

Hunter: Orc, Blood Fury FTW.

Warrior: For DPS, Orc (Blood Fury FTW). For Tanking, Tauren.

Shaman: Orc (Blood Fury)

Druid: Tauren

Rogue: A class I don’t feel qualified to speculate on. Orcs seem good here too though (Blood Fury FTW?).

All comments welcomed.

Why Racials Are Important

(reposted from the WoW hunter forums)
I don’t necessarily think its a good idea that some races are better than others. I didn’t create the game and if I did I probably wouldn’t have done it that way, but racials can make a break a character, some characters more than others.

For example, try getting a raid invite as a Night Elf priest. Try going into the priest forums and saying “race isn’t important”.

The difference isn’t so stark with Hunters, but it is still significant.

Trapping

Heh. This post originally just contained these 2 links with no explanation. Since a lot of people have been clicking on them anyway, I guess a short explanation is necessary.

I was trying to explain to a friend how to trap on the side of a pull, rather than behind. The “before” pic shows what my friend was doing. The “after” shows what he should be doing. That’s all

before.gif

after.gif