Shot Rotation (Survival Spec)

I wanted to start a discussion about hunter shot rotation and other DPS increasing topics. First of all I want to share my rotation and see what everyone thinks of it, and see if there is room for improvement.

I should preface this post with the fact that my survival spec/build was created solely for downing raid bosses. The glyphs i use and the gems i have along with enchants all go toward long fights. I assume that I will have full pally and druid buffs along with a mage buff.

Ok, so my rotation begins with black arrow (assuming that hunters mark is already on). BA, is my first shot because it gives a 6% damage increase to all remaining attacks. Next comes serpent sting, because of the glyph of serpent sting. That glyph gives steady shot a damage bonus while Serpent sting is active (i also have the glyph that extends the duration of serpent sting). After serpent sting comes explosive shot, then multi shot, and finally steady shot. I can usually get 3 steady shots off before going back to multi shot and explosive shot.

Depending on the boss, I pop rapid fire in the beginning so that I can have 2 haste bonuses during a fight, one from me and one from heroism. once the boss is below 20%, kill shot is fired as soon as it is ready no matter where in the rotation I am. With the Glyph of kill shot, I can get anywhere from 3 to 6 shots off with it.

I hope some will check my build on armory and have questions comments for me so that we as a hunter community can improve.

for me, when i was survival, i prefered to pop explosive shot as my first shot, cuz after black arrow, serpent sting and aimed shot (which i also recommend dipping into), explosive shot is nearly back and ready.

Now the order of shots to be fired if all are up usually is kill shot > explosive shot > black arrow > serpent sting > steady shot.

as for glyphing that is entirely up for u, as i have changed it from time to time as for a while i had glyph of kill shot, but found that consistent dps > then just the lost 20%.

I don't recommend putting points in improved stings, as overall damage from it is still not really that mana effecient in terms of mana per damage. As for a few talents such as expose weakness and hunting party (well with replenishment changing, it might be wise to keep it at 3 points), if ur crit chance is high enough, usually about 30% unbuffed u wouldn't need to have 100% chance on it, so putting 2 and if u have 40%+ crit unbuffed then maybe even just 1 point in expose will be enough.

As for me, i had wyvern sting , tbh i have no idea y, i just had it just cuz i do use it from time to time if things go bad in trash pulls, even if someoine is targetting the enemy that u are about to sleep, it will still stall the enemy for that nice little second which can make a difference. But wyvern sting is definitely not neccessary.

If u are hit capped, i also recommend not needing to put points in focus aim unless u are going into marksmen.

In terms of gear socketting everything with agility would be the best bet, unless u like th bonus from something.

In terms of what pet to use (pre-patch) i would say the wolf. As it has an ability which is every 45 seconds that gives u a nice little ap boost.

After patch, grabbing a cunning pet is a nice thing as roar of sacrifice will tanks in certain fights. I would say having a cunning and a wolf will be very nice, and just bring out whichever u feel is best for that fight, since we can now just call out our nice little stable every 30 min

Thanks for the reply...about aimed shot... I don't see the point in getting it, since all i care about are raid bosses with this build. Aimed shot does the exact same damage as multi shot, and the 50% reduced healing doesn't really matter for raid bosses any way does it?

The only thing with launching Explosive shot first, is your not getting the damage bonus from Black arrow. Do you think the 6% damage increase is not enough to change up the rotation? I like your point about not putting anything in improved stings, i hadn't thought about mana per damage and such. I feel as though with the gear i have, I should be pulling higher dps . I am not hit capped yet so that could be it too.

I like that we can now set 3 traps at once. I was thinking that setting snake trap or frost trap would be the best bet as you can still hit black arrow.

ah, that is very true, the biggest factor about aimed shot is that although it pretty much does the same damage as multi-shot, but its an instant shot, meaning in movement battles, especially in ulduar where like hodir requires a lot of movement, u can be hitting and running. which means u will never have a delay on ur shots also, as it may seem small, but 0.5 second cast means you are delaying ur other shots which usually means steady shot. Adding those up 2.5 cast time compared to a 2 sec cast time + instant shot can mean a lot.

and on a side note, its 1% base mana cheaper!