Skirmisher Hunter Guide

This is not exactly a new idea. This is something every decent hunter has been doing against healers trying to los for example. I wouldnt go as far as using bar as weapon but the cd rotation melee-range-melee-range is nothing new. If I am not completely wrong 2 points in savage strikes is quite standard spec for a hunter in arena. Its nice guide for cd rotating but you shouldnt advertise it as a play style but rather something every hunter needs to be able to pull off in certain situations.
 
Rayu said:
*rolling on the floor laughing at Goma not even reading the thread before trying to make a serious comment*
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any hunter,melee or not will want a 2 second stun for arenas

if you dont get one you are just hurting yourself off the bat
 
btw Goma, I was bubbleboii yesterday with Deadshockxx in arena :( You killed me and I wasn't hurting you. But I can tell you that you are fucking amazing.
 
Conrose said:
[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.
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No it's not. TCS is better for raptor strike, higher top damage = higher white hits = higher crits = higher yellow damage = higher yellow crits. more int and more stam. Owns it in every aspect.



Edit: Why do people think that speed has everything to do with how it hits? The general rule is that if 2 weapons of same level and same rarity has different speeds, the slowest will hit hardest.

That is for people who can't read numbers. It's the damage range (i.e. in this case 55-80something) that matters, so simple.
 
Conrose said:
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.



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.



...



[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.
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You want to know what other attack isn't normalized? Your basic white auto-attack that you replaced with a raptor strike.



Witchling Stave is fail. FAIL. "Well, you won't swing as often as you would with the TCS, but when you do swing, it will be almost as hard."



If an attack is "on next melee swing" it will typically do more sustained DPS with a FAST weapon. Why? Because you can use it more often. Look at tanking warriors, all their weapons are fast. If Heroic Strike "adds x damage to your next melee swing", would you rather have a 1.7 second weapon doing X extra damage every 1.7 seconds or a 2.8 second weapon doing X extra damage every 2.8 seconds? I understand that Raptor Strike has a CD so you can't do it every swing, but with a faster weapon there is a better chance of your swing coming up faster to send it on CD again. +21 damage is +21 damage, no matter what speed the weapon is.



I will say that "slow" is better for burst, but only if its a slower weapon with the same DPS as a faster weapon. In the case of the witchling stave, it needs the slower swing just to have its damage range EQUAL to the TCS. The TCS is actually slightly better for burst despite being faster.



An attack being not normalized only matters if you can do it in ADDITION to your normal autoattack. Like Stormstrike for enhance shamans and Slam for warriors.
 
Lets say you have 215 Melee attack power (About the average I observe on non-int build hunters). That would be 15.36 DPS.



3.4 x 15.36 = 52.224

52.224 damage turns a 55 - 84 damage range to a 107.224 - 136.224





3.6 x 15.36 = 55.296



55.296 damage turns a 55 - 83 Damage range to a 110.296 - 138.296



Giving the latter weapon a 2 damage advantage on the high end. Because I'm not aiming to swing with my melee weapon every time it is ready to swing, but rather after it is ready to swing after the filler auto-shot between any two raptor strikes, hence why I'm not looking for an overall higher "Melee DPS". This is why the near identical damage range despite TCS's faster speed bore little consequence in my choosing the Witching Stave as the better Raptor Strike weapon. Ideallically, all my melee swings should be raptor strikes accompanied by mongoose bites. At higher levels of Attack Power (Via gear, consumables and buffs), the damage gap between the two staves increases. If you choose the TCS over the Witching Stave, it is because you want the stats.



The reason I feel the fact that Raptor Strike not being normalized is of particular importance even though it's practically the same as Heroic Strike is because of the Savage Strikes talent that increases its critical strike chance by 20% for 2 points... in addition to doing the same for Mongoose Bite, making it a fairly reliable burst option.



PS: Editted the pets list to include locations for lvl 19 and near 19 tameables pets.
 
Alot of hunters are Range and wingclip when melee and back out to range again. So good guide though.
 
Managed to screen cap two combat logs of my Melee-combo-macro double critting (I estimate that happens roughly 16% of the time I use the macro).



MeleeCombo.jpg




In the latter screenshot, I had the Berzerker buff (Mongoose Bite has no "Damage Range" that it hits between. The first example was a clothee at lvl 18, the second was a rogue twink at 19.



145 + 30% = 188.5, second target was a higher armor level, so the 170 seems about right to me at least, don't feel like doing more math though.



Yes, I named my wolf Sokolnikii the same as my hunter.



I estimate that if I had not had the zerker buff for the second one, my crit would have been around a 393 damage total.
 
WSG said:
You want to know what other attack isn't normalized? Your basic white auto-attack that you replaced with a raptor strike.



Witchling Stave is fail. FAIL. "Well, you won't swing as often as you would with the TCS, but when you do swing, it will be almost as hard."



If an attack is "on next melee swing" it will typically do more sustained DPS with a FAST weapon. Why? Because you can use it more often. Look at tanking warriors, all their weapons are fast. If Heroic Strike "adds x damage to your next melee swing", would you rather have a 1.7 second weapon doing X extra damage every 1.7 seconds or a 2.8 second weapon doing X extra damage every 2.8 seconds? I understand that Raptor Strike has a CD so you can't do it every swing, but with a faster weapon there is a better chance of your swing coming up faster to send it on CD again. +21 damage is +21 damage, no matter what speed the weapon is.



I will say that "slow" is better for burst, but only if its a slower weapon with the same DPS as a faster weapon. In the case of the witchling stave, it needs the slower swing just to have its damage range EQUAL to the TCS. The TCS is actually slightly better for burst despite being faster.



An attack being not normalized only matters if you can do it in ADDITION to your normal autoattack. Like Stormstrike for enhance shamans and Slam for warriors.
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Actually youre are correct to this point but you leave out Savage Strikes (although admittingly not everyone specs that).



First off Raptor strike has a 6 second cooldown, so we're talking about a difference of no more than 1 raptor strike per 9.6 seconds (assuming the cd ends right after you auto attack) or 1 in 6. Its ofcourse a difference and it agrees with what you've said so far.



Savage strikes however increases the crit chance of a raptor strike. If the damage of a weapon is high, the damage that is doubled is high aswell (durrrrr). Giving slow weapons an advantage to counter the advantage of raptorstriking more often. Ofcourse this still assumes they have the same DPS overall.



One could theorycraft all that. But theres really no point. Hunters are a ranged class, their melee weapon should be chosen for the improvement to their ranged attacks. Melee damage is something that sometimes comes up but isn't your standard niche. You pick a 2handed weapon because its better for Raptorstrike, but you pick Twisted Chanters Staff because its better for your ranged damage / mana.



As others have said, swapping from range to melee and back to range is a great way to add allot of damage, but to build a hunter based on that melee damage is getting carried away.
 
So in your opinion, I'm getting carried away then? That's cool ^_^ I do it because I found it fun, find it funny and ironic, and I like big yellow numbers and lots of em (My favorite Rogue PvE spec is HAT).



The fact that my 29 Hunter was originally built around finishing players of with the Strike/Bite combo + a sapper charge before Melee/Range timers were tied together plays a part of my love for the approach as well. Now if only I could dare someone else (Preferably an orc) to try it out as well to provide a second opinion.
 
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