This will be a more in depth post about raiding with hunters covering the ins and outs of shot rotation.
One of the most overlooked and most essential things of the Hunter class is the shot rotation. Prior to level 62 a shot rotation is your basic auto shot with stings and arcane shot thrown in where ever. Once you hit 62 however, you gain a spell called Steady shot.
First thing, do not ever use aimed shot mid shot rotation. Aimed shot is a 3 second cast that barley increase damage output. It also wastes mana and screws up your rotation.
Steady shot that has a cast time of 1 second and a base mana usage of 110. The great thing about steady shot is that because of the short cast time and scaling with ranged attack power (RAP * 0.2 + 150), it is a great way to boost your dps. The hardest part however is working in steady shot with your auto shot to create a shot rotation that optimizes DPS with the least amount of mana used.
The basic shot rotation is a 1:1.
Here is the macro:
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence reset=3 steady shot,!auto shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] kill command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
This means that for every auto shot you get to fire off one steady shot. This normally boosts your DPS by a large amount. However, because of a global cooldown you end up clipping your auto shot. Because of this cast sequence macro, clipping your autoshot (or pushing the button before the cooldown is ready) causes the macro to stop.
This is very bad for steady dps.
If you are looking for the basic shot rotation, use this.
However if you are looking to maximise your DPS and get the most DPS possible (mana usage aside) look at this next one....
the 3:2 shot rotation.
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast !Auto shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Kill Command
/cast Steady shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
The 3:2 means that for every 3 steady shots there are two auto shots fired. Why is this good you ask? Because on average steady shot does more DPS than autoshot because of the fast cast time. Unless your Ranged attack speed is less than 1.6 steadyshot will always do more dps. The only thing with the 3:2 is that you have to be able to time it your self, otherwise it will stop the macro. It also tends to use alot more mana, because instead of the steady --> auto (mana regen) -->steady it becomes -->steady -->steady -->auto (mana regen) --> steady --> steady.
3:2 works by casting steady shot, and then another steady shot before the autoshot cast allows autoshot to cast. This means after your second steady shot there is no dely for the autoshot qued up resulting in steady+auto almost at the same time.
The 3:2 raises DPS between 50-100.
The optimal dps is a true 1:1 steady:auto rotation. To achieve a true 1:1 rotation your ranged attack speed must be as close to 1.5 as possible. The great thing about the 3:2 is that it scales with your changes in attackspeed.
The other main part about these macros is that they activate Kill Command whenever it is avalible. Kill Command is a spell which is activated after a hunter crits and allows his/her pet to instantly attack. The great thing about this is that with a default BM spec, everytime your pet crits you gain additional damage that applies to the group. The more your pet attacks, the more the chance to crit is.
Let's recap
- There are two shot rotations, the 1:1 and the 3:2
- The best one for the most dps output is the 3:2
- 3:2 uses more mana than 1:1
- faster attack speed is always better
- Kill Command is awesome
- NEVER USE AIMED SHOT MID ROTATION!
Also, coming in WotLK they are making it so that steady shot will not clip auto shot, chaning the way shot rotations work, I'm not sure how yet. But we'll just have to wait.
Sorry if this post was confusing, but it's a very confusing matter to sort through.
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