Shots and Stings

Shots and Stings

Quick Reference

No hunter spec uses a true "shot rotation" any more. Each shot has a certain priority: if you have a choice on what shot to fire, you always fire the higher priority.

Shot priority for maximum dps by spec:

BM: Kill > Serpent > Aimed/Multi> Arcane > Steady
MM: Kill > Serpent > Chimera > Aimed > Arcane > Steady
MM arpen: Kill > Serpent > Chimera > Aimed > Steady
SV: Kill > Explosive > Black Arrow > Serpent > Aimed/Multi > Steady



With little to no lag, BM will settle into a tight rotation: Serpent > Arcane > Aimed/Multi > Steady x3 > Arcane > Aimed/Multi > Steady x3 > Arcane > Aimed/Multi > Steady x3 > Serpent

MM will depend on haste, using Steady Shot as filler in between higher priority shots: Serpent > Chimera > Aimed > Arcane > Steady x3-4 > Chimera (MM without Imp Steady should use Arcane on cooldown)

SV will also depend on haste: Explosive > Black Arrow > Serpent > Aimed/Multi > Steady > Explosive > Steady x3-4 > Explosive > Aimed/Multi

SV differs widely from BM and MM because of Lock 'N Load procs. When LnL procs, you immediately fire Explosive > wait 0.5 seconds > Explosive > wait > Explosive and then resume your normal priority. This will prevent your 2nd and 3rd Explosive Shot from "clipping" a tick of damage from the preceding shot. If you routinely experience high latency or do not wish to manually time Explosive, you can use Explosive > Steady > Explosive >Steady > Explosive.

If you have mana to spare, you can spec Aimed Shot and replace a Steady Shot every 10 seconds in all rotations. Aimed does more damage than Steady, but costs double the mana. If you start needing to go into Viper, leave Aimed out of the rotation.


Shot Damage Formula

Auto Shot
BowMax + (AttackPower/14)*BowSpeed + Ammo + Scope

Steady Shot
(2.8 / BowSpeed) * BowMax + 0.1*Attack Power + 252 + Ammo

Steady Shot (Dazed)
(2.8 / BowSpeed) * BowMax + 0.1*Attack Power + 427 + Ammo

Chimera Shot (Nature Damage)
(1.25)(Bowmax + (AP /14)* Bowspeed + Ammo + Scope)

Explosive Shot (Fire Damage)
(AttackPower)*( 0.16) + 516 (every second for 2 seconds - 3 ticks total)

Multi-Shot
BowMax + 2.8*(Attack Power/14) + Ammo + Scope + 408

Aimed Shot
BowMax + 2.8*(Attack Power/14) + Ammo + Scope + 408

Arcane Shot
0.15*Attack Power + 492

Black Arrow (While active, adds +6% to all damage done by you)
0.1*AP + 2765 (damage is applied 5 times over 15 seconds)


Silencing Shot & Scatter Shot
AutoShotMax / 2

Volley Tick
505 + 0.0837*Attackpower


Substitute 'BowMin' for 'BowMax' to find lower bounds. Steady, Multi, Aimed, Arcane, and Volley have a rank based bonus. Formulas given above reflect top rank bonuses.

Note: Above formulas are before general multipliers like Ranged Weapon Specialization, Focus Fire, and Armor mitigation. Multipliers can be applied in any order.


Weapon Tooltip Stats

The min damage, max damage, speed, and DPS listed on a ranged weapon's tooltip are all used in Shot formulas. BowDPS is really just the average of BowMin and BowMax divided by BowSpeed.


Scopes and Ammunition

Scope and Ammo represent how much each is raising damage per shot. Diamond-Cut Refractor Scopes, for example, have a modifier of 15. Crit, haste and Hit scopes have a modifier of 0.

Shells and Arrows also boost per-shot damage like scopes, but their modifier scales with BowSpeed. Terrorshaft Arrow, for example, adds 46.5 damage per second. This really means 46.5 weapon damage per second of BowSpeed. So for a 2.9 second bow: 46.5 * 2.9 = 134 Ammo modifier.

Steady Shot and Arcane Shot ignore bonus damage from scopes, which is the main reason that most hunters get crit or haste scopes instead of +damage scopes.


Stings

Hunters have 4 different "stings" in their arsenal. Each applies a Poison debuff to a target. Only one sting per hunter may be active on any one target at a time. One hunter can have multiple stings up simultaneously on different targets.

Stings do not benefit from crit, Imp Tracking, or Ranged Weapon Specialization. They do benefit from Improved Stings, Noxious Stings, and Focused Fire.

Update: With patch 3.2.2, Serpent Sting gains a 100% crit modifier when equipping 2pT9


Serpent Sting
Serpent Sting is the main damage dealing sting. It ticks 5 times over 15 seconds, doing a total amount equal to:
Attack Power * 0.2 + 1210
Improved Stings multiplies this total damage by another 30%, and Glyph of Serpent Sting adds another tick of damage that does equal damage to the first 5. The glyph does not reduce the damage of any tick.

Serpent Sting is a fundamental part of a PVE hunter’s rotation. Glyph of Steady Shot adds +10% damage to your Steady Shot if you have a sting on the target.

Scorpid Sting

A 20 second non-damaging debuff that turns 3% of the target's ranged and melee attacks into full out misses. This includes most special attacks. Look at it as buffing the tank (and everyone else) with an extra 3% Dodge.

Viper Sting

Viper Sting drains 16% of the target's mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 32% of the hunter''s maximum mana). Improved Stings increases it to 21% drained. Viper Sting will break crowd control such as Freezing Traps.

Wyvern Sting

Wyvern Sting puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds. When the sleep ends, for any reason, the sting does 2082 damage over 6 seconds. Improved Stings multiplies damage by another 30%. Though short, extra crowd control is always welcome.