Conrose
OG
Pooling my experience at lvl 19 as a hunter who emphasizes the use of the Hunter Melee skills interwoven with the ranged skills, I feel I finally know enough about it to make a guide for it for those who may become interested in trying out this build.
General information: A major point about the Skirmisher Hunter is to take advantage of certain important and little known details about the melee skill "Raptor Strike" and manipulating in-game mechanics surrounding the ability to your advantage, and thereby weaving it into your general rotation. There are several things that work to Raptor Strikes advantage, as well as things that simultaneously make it difficult to manage without specifically seeking to gain a mastery over the ability. While I will speak about gearing and talenting specifically for it, I feel it would be easily possible to go with many other specs with 2 points put into Savage Strikes.
Raptor-Strike Information: A strong attack that increases melee damage by 21. What it means is that your next melee white attack will instead be a Raptor Strike that hits for 21 extra damage in addition to your weapon's normal attack range.
Advantages: In other words... it works with "On Next Swing" Mechanics like Rune Strike and Heroic Strike. On Next Swing attacks neither trigger or are delayed by the Global Cooldown. That means you can easily macro another attack to them... such as Mongoose Bite. Another important thing about "On Next Swing" attacks is that they are not "Normalized"... in other words, the slower your weapon, the bigger the benefit from attack power for the attacks. For 2h Weapons, AP bonuses for normalized attacks is treated as the the weapon is 3.3 speed instead of whatever it may be. Raptor Strike is not normalized, so it recieves the full benefit of your melee attack power. Basically, it takes very little AP to boost the damage of Raptor Strike in a noticable fashion if you have a very slow 2h weapon. Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite also both recieve a 20% crit chance bonus from the 2 point "Savage Strikes" talent in the first tier of Survivalist.
Limitations: Unfortunately, there are some shortcomings you'll need to overcome when trying to take advantage of Raptor Strike's unique properties. For one... Raptor Strike is a melee attack. Second off... "On Next Swing" mechanics are tied to your weapon swing timer. Current auto attack mechanics have been set up so that an auto-shot or auto attack sets off the cooldown timers on both for their respective speed. That is to say, if you have a melee weapon with 3.3 speed and a bow with 2.4 speed, to auto-shot will prevent you from autoattacking with the melee weapon for an extra 3.3 seconds. Additionally, Raptor Strike will not be put on the ability que until you are in melee range... stepping out of melee range while it is qued but before it can go off removes it from the que. Also, most any non-cc shot will trigger your auto-shot/attacks.
Overcoming the Limitations: Thankfully, Hunters have a ranged snare or can resort to using pet abilities to overcome the melee range limitation of Raptor Strike... or often can wait for their targets to come to them. After getting into melee range, it is a simple task to wing clip them so that you may weave in and out of melee range in a jousting fashion before pulling back to use your ranged skills. The 6 second cooldown on Raptor Strike actually helps support this as well as I can easily raptor strike/mongoose, pull out to range, multi-shot/auto-shot. The auto-shot resets the 3.8 second cooldown on my BAR's auto-attack 2.44 seconds after the initial Raptor Strike, meaning that after the auto-shot, BAR will be ready to swing 6.24 seconds after the initial Raptor Strike... or .24 seconds after Raptor Strike's cooldown is up. Mongoose Bite's cooldown is set at 5 seconds. Meaning you can go into a Raptor+Mongoose > Arcane-Shot (Multi-shot if it's off cooldown) + Autoshot > Repeat rotation on a target in some situations, though most of the time I can only get into the second Raptor+Mongoose combo.
Now, the major problem to overcome with this sort of approach is the fact that Raptor Strike will only Que when in melee range. This presents a problem because the moment you get into melee range, if your auto-attack is available, you will swing automatically. If your auto-attack is turned on while you spam Raptor Strike trying to get close enough to use it, 9 times out of 10 it will be qued AFTER you auto-swing. The trick to overcoming this is turning off your auto-attacks until you are in range to use Raptor Strike. Using Raptor Strike will automatically enable your auto-attacks and cause your first attack to be a Raptor Strike if you are in melee range. This will take practice, and you'll have to remember to turn off auto attacks if you use any shots or stings during your approach on the target.
2H Weapons: The best weapon for a Raptor-Strike centric build is a very slow 2h. While 3.3 and slower are acceptable, the 3.8 speed of the Bloodied Arcanite Reaper and it's impressive damage range makes it the best for consistency... in addition to the stamina and crit rating. The strength helps with your mongoose and raptor strike damage but not much else. Overall a solid weapon for your raptor strikes.
However... I do note that there are other potential weapons to pick from.
[item]890[/item] is a solid choice at 3.4 speed, and 8 top end damage behind BAR, as well as the purely beneficial Stamina and Int bonuses.
[item]1484[/item] at 3.6 Speed is better for Raptor Strike damage than the TCS, and provides the mana that BAR fails to provide... but it also lacks the stamina that TCS and BAR both can provide. The spellpower is purely a wasted staff. But still, if you want to put out comparable Raptor Strike damage to BAR while keeping a moderate amount of mana for your mana pool, Witching Stave is a decent choice.
Now here's an interesting choice I'm gonna have to get my hands on myself... [ITEM]1318[/ITEM]. It's interesting because the vast majority of your melee attacks will have a Raptor Strike + Mongoose Bite attached to them. While lacking any stats... the potential of tacking on an additional 60-90 shadow damage to your 300+ raptor Strike Crits and 140+ Mongoose Bite Crits all at the same moment... seems like a fun idea to me at least. Another similar item that horde can give a try is [ITEM]3822[/ITEM]
It should be noted that with these weapons, the gap Between swing time cooldown after a 2.44 speed attack, and the end of the Raptor Strike cooldown is either non-existent or very close to it, so practice toggling your auto-attacks off... alot!
General information: A major point about the Skirmisher Hunter is to take advantage of certain important and little known details about the melee skill "Raptor Strike" and manipulating in-game mechanics surrounding the ability to your advantage, and thereby weaving it into your general rotation. There are several things that work to Raptor Strikes advantage, as well as things that simultaneously make it difficult to manage without specifically seeking to gain a mastery over the ability. While I will speak about gearing and talenting specifically for it, I feel it would be easily possible to go with many other specs with 2 points put into Savage Strikes.
Raptor-Strike Information: A strong attack that increases melee damage by 21. What it means is that your next melee white attack will instead be a Raptor Strike that hits for 21 extra damage in addition to your weapon's normal attack range.
Advantages: In other words... it works with "On Next Swing" Mechanics like Rune Strike and Heroic Strike. On Next Swing attacks neither trigger or are delayed by the Global Cooldown. That means you can easily macro another attack to them... such as Mongoose Bite. Another important thing about "On Next Swing" attacks is that they are not "Normalized"... in other words, the slower your weapon, the bigger the benefit from attack power for the attacks. For 2h Weapons, AP bonuses for normalized attacks is treated as the the weapon is 3.3 speed instead of whatever it may be. Raptor Strike is not normalized, so it recieves the full benefit of your melee attack power. Basically, it takes very little AP to boost the damage of Raptor Strike in a noticable fashion if you have a very slow 2h weapon. Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite also both recieve a 20% crit chance bonus from the 2 point "Savage Strikes" talent in the first tier of Survivalist.
Limitations: Unfortunately, there are some shortcomings you'll need to overcome when trying to take advantage of Raptor Strike's unique properties. For one... Raptor Strike is a melee attack. Second off... "On Next Swing" mechanics are tied to your weapon swing timer. Current auto attack mechanics have been set up so that an auto-shot or auto attack sets off the cooldown timers on both for their respective speed. That is to say, if you have a melee weapon with 3.3 speed and a bow with 2.4 speed, to auto-shot will prevent you from autoattacking with the melee weapon for an extra 3.3 seconds. Additionally, Raptor Strike will not be put on the ability que until you are in melee range... stepping out of melee range while it is qued but before it can go off removes it from the que. Also, most any non-cc shot will trigger your auto-shot/attacks.
Overcoming the Limitations: Thankfully, Hunters have a ranged snare or can resort to using pet abilities to overcome the melee range limitation of Raptor Strike... or often can wait for their targets to come to them. After getting into melee range, it is a simple task to wing clip them so that you may weave in and out of melee range in a jousting fashion before pulling back to use your ranged skills. The 6 second cooldown on Raptor Strike actually helps support this as well as I can easily raptor strike/mongoose, pull out to range, multi-shot/auto-shot. The auto-shot resets the 3.8 second cooldown on my BAR's auto-attack 2.44 seconds after the initial Raptor Strike, meaning that after the auto-shot, BAR will be ready to swing 6.24 seconds after the initial Raptor Strike... or .24 seconds after Raptor Strike's cooldown is up. Mongoose Bite's cooldown is set at 5 seconds. Meaning you can go into a Raptor+Mongoose > Arcane-Shot (Multi-shot if it's off cooldown) + Autoshot > Repeat rotation on a target in some situations, though most of the time I can only get into the second Raptor+Mongoose combo.
Now, the major problem to overcome with this sort of approach is the fact that Raptor Strike will only Que when in melee range. This presents a problem because the moment you get into melee range, if your auto-attack is available, you will swing automatically. If your auto-attack is turned on while you spam Raptor Strike trying to get close enough to use it, 9 times out of 10 it will be qued AFTER you auto-swing. The trick to overcoming this is turning off your auto-attacks until you are in range to use Raptor Strike. Using Raptor Strike will automatically enable your auto-attacks and cause your first attack to be a Raptor Strike if you are in melee range. This will take practice, and you'll have to remember to turn off auto attacks if you use any shots or stings during your approach on the target.
2H Weapons: The best weapon for a Raptor-Strike centric build is a very slow 2h. While 3.3 and slower are acceptable, the 3.8 speed of the Bloodied Arcanite Reaper and it's impressive damage range makes it the best for consistency... in addition to the stamina and crit rating. The strength helps with your mongoose and raptor strike damage but not much else. Overall a solid weapon for your raptor strikes.
However... I do note that there are other potential weapons to pick from.
[item]890[/item] is a solid choice at 3.4 speed, and 8 top end damage behind BAR, as well as the purely beneficial Stamina and Int bonuses.
[item]1484[/item] at 3.6 Speed is better for Raptor Strike damage than the TCS, and provides the mana that BAR fails to provide... but it also lacks the stamina that TCS and BAR both can provide. The spellpower is purely a wasted staff. But still, if you want to put out comparable Raptor Strike damage to BAR while keeping a moderate amount of mana for your mana pool, Witching Stave is a decent choice.
Now here's an interesting choice I'm gonna have to get my hands on myself... [ITEM]1318[/ITEM]. It's interesting because the vast majority of your melee attacks will have a Raptor Strike + Mongoose Bite attached to them. While lacking any stats... the potential of tacking on an additional 60-90 shadow damage to your 300+ raptor Strike Crits and 140+ Mongoose Bite Crits all at the same moment... seems like a fun idea to me at least. Another similar item that horde can give a try is [ITEM]3822[/ITEM]
It should be noted that with these weapons, the gap Between swing time cooldown after a 2.44 speed attack, and the end of the Raptor Strike cooldown is either non-existent or very close to it, so practice toggling your auto-attacks off... alot!
