After returning from my unexpected break from WoW, I felt something was missing. I needed to shake things up. A few days later, I was having a discussion with a fellow guild-hunter about Survival Raiding. I plunged head-long into research and posted several times on my guild forums asking people what they thought.
The key insights that I will share with you here are as follows.
Survival raiding is all about support. If you have a regular raid group filled with warriors, rogues, feral druids & other hunters (but not other survival hunters,) then your Expose Weakness can be a major boost to the raid. If you are willing and able to take yet another dip in personal dps, you may have 3-4 spare points to add to Improved Hunter's Mark.
Before even considering Survival, you must be willing to sacrifice. Your personal dps will go down. You will spend a ton of gold & mats to maximize your agility. If you were a beastmaster, you will feel slow. If you were a marksman, prepare to learn "new" slick tricks. Scatter Shot & Silencing Shot are replaced by better trapping & Wyvern Sting.
The most painful thing for me was the math. To consider Survival, you've got to be able to boost your agility over 700 & your crit to 33% (before buffs.) Lightning Reflexes will only go so far, so do your math. Even then, SSC & TK gear may not be enough. Re-gem'ing to all +agility gems may not be enough. You may find yourself, like I did, scouring the server for enchanters who could do expensive +agility enchants.
There aren't a lot of great discussions or guides to Survival Raiding and there isn't a "cookie cutter" way to build one for Raiding. Some of it depends on what you are raiding. Do you need improved traps? Some of it depends if you plan to do other stuff and want Wyvern Sting. Still, if you look at the specs of enough survival hunters and talk to enough people, certain obvious trends come out. You must take Lightning Reflexes & Expose Weakness. You should try and get Mortal Shots from the Marksmanship tree. Much of the rest appears to be personal preference. You can boost your own DPS by taking 7 points in Beastmaster for Focused Fire. You can take the aforementioned Improved Hunter's Mark. OR, you can round out more points in Survival to improve your general PvE & PvP potential.
Last week, I went ahead and bought about 400 gold in new gems, raided my stash of crafting mats, paid for the re-spec and got myself into places like Kara & Heroics for practice. As I played with it, my base agility & crit hovered right around the minimum, which was fine for practice.
My Issues:
My first real issue was my Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle. At a base speed of 2.7 seconds, it's ideal for Beastmaster. (I run at a base 1.9 sec.) However, with my gear, I found myself at 2.3 seconds. You wouldn't think that being 0.4 seconds slower would be a problem, but it was. At 2.3 seconds, my shot macro timing was off. It was too slow to get into a rhythm. It was also too fast to weave other shots. I was still forced to stop casting Steady Shot in order to cast Arcane Shot or apply Scorpid Sting. This lowered my dps further and kept me from doing my most important job, keeping Expose Weakness up as much as possible.
My second problem was the amount of sacrifices I made (based on my gear) in the way of gems and other bonuses to get a barely good enough agility bonus. How could I justify swapping to Survival at just over 700 agility when other hunters in my guild could swap and be closer to 900?
But hey, there will be gear coming right? Yeah, I considered that. As I looked at the best upcoming hunter gear, I saw that most has haste boosts. How can I even consider Survival when I'm salivating over a potential base attack speed of 1.5 sec?
My final issue was and is personality. Even if I got a new, slower weapon & continued to get Agility gear, I have a rapid fire personality. I like the speed. I love BIG RED pet. I knew this going in. And, I probably would have learned to like survival if not for the gear obstacles.
It's not surprising that so few hunters like survival. I'm glad I tried it. I don't mind having wasted nearly 1,000 gold (not including enchanting mats) swapping to and then back again. The push was rewarding. I picked up some new gear. I learned some new tactics. I got a ton of badges. While my gem swaps had to be replaced, my attack power to agility enchantment conversions can stay right were they are.
Would I be willing to do it again? If my guild asked and if I could meet a number of basic criteria, yes. I would want to have a base (unbuffed) 800+ agility & 35% crit to consider it. I would want to have a slow-fire weapon like the Serpent Spine Longbow.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
A Return to WoW
Real life has a way of screwing over my virtual life. Thankfully, after weeks of being sick and weeks of recovering, I'm actively playing again.
Like Riding A Bike, Only Not
Right before getting sick, I had dramatically altered my UI and promised to post about it (Ooops!) Well, the promised post isn't showing up anytime soon. Lord, it's hard enough to remember how to play. My first night back to playing Beroth, I went on a raid. The joke of the night was about me finding appropriate buttons. Thankfully, I remembered the basics like send pet, my shot macro & feign death. The rest, however, was not like riding a bike. Even though my basic structure was similar to my old UI, I didn't know it...and I hadn't looked at it for almost a month. Still, DPS was fine. I didn't drag the raid down. I didn't wipe us. We did farm content, so I generally remembered the pulls. It's all good. Tonight could be harder since we'll probably be doing stuff I haven't seen before.
Affliction: Better than Chicken Soup!
While I was sick, I would log on from time to time and try Alt'ing. I needed something mindless (no thinking and easy to do) to play. Since I already have a hunter a friend recommended Warlock. My friend even went out of his way to write me instructions (that's how sick I was) on casting rotation and talents to pick by level. If you've never played a Warlock, I suggest trying it. I thought Hunter was easy for farming. Dot, dot, drain...Oh is it dead? Well, that was easy! Rule #1: If you can fear it, you can kill it. Now that I'm feeling better, I hope I can work this toon into my play-rotation.
25 or 6 to 4!
Until yesterday, I had only been to Sunwell once. I know people who are walking around in exalted Sunwell gear and I wasn't even Friendly until yesterday. So, feeling better and having a quiet day to myself, I decided to make up for lost time. I think I went a little over-board. Instead of just doing the Sunwell dailies, I did the maximum. If you've never done 25 dailies, try it once. You can stack most, but not all of them. I made well over 300 gold before selling greens or the leather I skinned.
The key to doing 25 dailies is time-management. You can do about 15-16 dailies in under 2 hours, if you're smart. The bulk of the Netherwing & Sunwell dailies are stackable. The trick is that you'll also need to do some others. I filled up the remaining slots with the Skyguard bombing runs, the cooking daily, and the Outland-related Sunwell quests. Quests that I did but would recommend avoiding (because they are complete time-sinks) are Disrupting the Twilight Portal & A Slow Death.
Operation Alt-Squad Update
Rhus & Co are all level 58 now. We stalled when I got sick. I'm not sure if it's because I'm the tank or they are just such good friends, but they all waited for me to get better. Over the weekend, we did the tribute run in Dire Maul North. I did the run a few times back in the day. At the time, we had level 60 toons (and most had Pre-BC raid gear.) That said, it was still the smoothest tribute I've ever seen. Some of that is the 2.3 nerf. A lot is our no longer being complete n00bs. Still, I like to think some of it was my tanking skills. I really like Druid Tanking. How much do I like it? I've even wondered if I might want to swap mains in the expansion. *gasp*
Your Own Private DE'er
My other project of late is making my own disenchanter. When I farm leather or run instances, I often come out with a bunch of green-quality gear. Most is not worth the price of an auction, but the mats are valuable. Being able to DE it without mailing it to a friend would be great. Here's what you need: A level 35+ toon w/ 275+ enchanting. This will allow you to DE level 65-70 items. This can be done fairly quickly with a mage or warlock (pick tailoring and enchanting.)
How's my project going? Well, I dusted off gnome mage and finally got him to level 35. Admittedly he's stalled at 225 enchanting. I need to farm or buy silk/mage-weave to keep going. This has to take a back-burner to getting Beroth back into form. I'll keep you posted if I come up with any tricks to get from 225-275 without actually questing in the appropriate zones for the mats.
Missed this Blog
Admittedly, I missed writing in this blog and I hope I didn't lose too many readers for being gone so long. Blogging can be a tough thing. There's little to no tangible reward to doing it. You put yourself and your thoughts out there for anyone to bash. Unless you're a professional, your blog(s) aren't exactly a top life-priority. It's easy to be forced to deprioritize a beloved blog. Hopefully, we can dust this one off together.
Like Riding A Bike, Only Not
Right before getting sick, I had dramatically altered my UI and promised to post about it (Ooops!) Well, the promised post isn't showing up anytime soon. Lord, it's hard enough to remember how to play. My first night back to playing Beroth, I went on a raid. The joke of the night was about me finding appropriate buttons. Thankfully, I remembered the basics like send pet, my shot macro & feign death. The rest, however, was not like riding a bike. Even though my basic structure was similar to my old UI, I didn't know it...and I hadn't looked at it for almost a month. Still, DPS was fine. I didn't drag the raid down. I didn't wipe us. We did farm content, so I generally remembered the pulls. It's all good. Tonight could be harder since we'll probably be doing stuff I haven't seen before.
Affliction: Better than Chicken Soup!
While I was sick, I would log on from time to time and try Alt'ing. I needed something mindless (no thinking and easy to do) to play. Since I already have a hunter a friend recommended Warlock. My friend even went out of his way to write me instructions (that's how sick I was) on casting rotation and talents to pick by level. If you've never played a Warlock, I suggest trying it. I thought Hunter was easy for farming. Dot, dot, drain...Oh is it dead? Well, that was easy! Rule #1: If you can fear it, you can kill it. Now that I'm feeling better, I hope I can work this toon into my play-rotation.
25 or 6 to 4!
Until yesterday, I had only been to Sunwell once. I know people who are walking around in exalted Sunwell gear and I wasn't even Friendly until yesterday. So, feeling better and having a quiet day to myself, I decided to make up for lost time. I think I went a little over-board. Instead of just doing the Sunwell dailies, I did the maximum. If you've never done 25 dailies, try it once. You can stack most, but not all of them. I made well over 300 gold before selling greens or the leather I skinned.
The key to doing 25 dailies is time-management. You can do about 15-16 dailies in under 2 hours, if you're smart. The bulk of the Netherwing & Sunwell dailies are stackable. The trick is that you'll also need to do some others. I filled up the remaining slots with the Skyguard bombing runs, the cooking daily, and the Outland-related Sunwell quests. Quests that I did but would recommend avoiding (because they are complete time-sinks) are Disrupting the Twilight Portal & A Slow Death.
Operation Alt-Squad Update
Rhus & Co are all level 58 now. We stalled when I got sick. I'm not sure if it's because I'm the tank or they are just such good friends, but they all waited for me to get better. Over the weekend, we did the tribute run in Dire Maul North. I did the run a few times back in the day. At the time, we had level 60 toons (and most had Pre-BC raid gear.) That said, it was still the smoothest tribute I've ever seen. Some of that is the 2.3 nerf. A lot is our no longer being complete n00bs. Still, I like to think some of it was my tanking skills. I really like Druid Tanking. How much do I like it? I've even wondered if I might want to swap mains in the expansion. *gasp*
Your Own Private DE'er
My other project of late is making my own disenchanter. When I farm leather or run instances, I often come out with a bunch of green-quality gear. Most is not worth the price of an auction, but the mats are valuable. Being able to DE it without mailing it to a friend would be great. Here's what you need: A level 35+ toon w/ 275+ enchanting. This will allow you to DE level 65-70 items. This can be done fairly quickly with a mage or warlock (pick tailoring and enchanting.)
How's my project going? Well, I dusted off gnome mage and finally got him to level 35. Admittedly he's stalled at 225 enchanting. I need to farm or buy silk/mage-weave to keep going. This has to take a back-burner to getting Beroth back into form. I'll keep you posted if I come up with any tricks to get from 225-275 without actually questing in the appropriate zones for the mats.
Missed this Blog
Admittedly, I missed writing in this blog and I hope I didn't lose too many readers for being gone so long. Blogging can be a tough thing. There's little to no tangible reward to doing it. You put yourself and your thoughts out there for anyone to bash. Unless you're a professional, your blog(s) aren't exactly a top life-priority. It's easy to be forced to deprioritize a beloved blog. Hopefully, we can dust this one off together.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Coping with RL
In RL, I've been really sick...living on the couch and getting my WoW fix by reading the forums on my ancient laptop. I've not had the energy to work on writing up my UI updates or to even log on to do dailies. Then it hit me, there's something blog-worthy here and I don't have to strain my medication-hazed brain to write about it. What am I talking about? Coping with real life in a raiding guild.
In order to survive, serious raiding guilds have to create requirements. Our business is downing bosses and it requires a full complement of employees. Guilds tackle this problem differently. At one extreme we have ultra hard-core guilds who require players to devote all of their free-time to WoW. How extreme can these guilds be? I have a friend who was once kicked from a raid because his latency was too high. In these guilds, joy is derived only from conquest. Kang, that time-traveling warlord from Marvel Comics, would be proud. At the other extreme, we have the casual guild that raids. I was in one of those once, I'm not sure they've ever downed Gruul. That's not good business. Kang would recommend wiping them from the face of Outland!
My guild takes a different approach. Leadership stuffs the roster with WoW-addicts (like myself) who have RL issues that keep them from being able to play night after night. We are all, deep-down, hard-core players, but we have jobs, children, health issues, pending nuptials....You get the idea.
This enables members to go on week-long business conferences or take their S.O. out for dinner without jeopardizing their membership or the balance of the raid. As a guild, we still have requirements about raiding 2 nights a week. We still expect members to show up, but understands and accepts real-life. That's not to say that folks can make excuses night after night and expect to retain membership. And they certainly can't disappear for several weeks and expect to come back as if nothing has happened. Communication and dedication to the guild are still required.
This is the perfect kind of place for me and for many of our members. I couldn't stand the lackadaisical approach to raiding from my previous guild, but RL keeps me from being able to commit to the hard-core standards of a 4-5 night a week raiding guild. Simply-put, QSS represents a welcome and needed balance that keeps the game fresh and enjoyable for me.
On a personal note: I have a RL philosophy of "in all things balance" and I strive to obtain it throughout my life.
There are, of course, downsides to this approach. I have identified two connected issues as the biggest.
Progression & Gear: At our core, our most dedicated and regular members are geared higher than our actual progression. I've got my "all purple" set with 2-pieces of T5, crafted belt, and 70% of the best gear available before Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. From a gear standpoint, I should have been downing stuff in Mount Hyjal 2 months ago. The problem here is the ever-shifting make-up of the raid and the significant amount of drops needed to gear up and teach everybody the bosses. This was felt most on Vashj and is no doubt the #1 reason why we didn't down Kael before 2.4 hit. And when a regular, like myself, who has been involved in the first-time kills of 8/9 of our last bosses out of the mix for 3 weeks, it hurts the dynamics of the guild. (And makes Beroth a frustrated hunter!)
Organizing & Managing Raiders: Because of our structure, we are forever needing new recruits (who are not under-geared n00bs), we are forever planning raids based on the dynamic of the sign-ups and we are forever being nagged by our raid coordinator about light sign-ups for this night or that. It's painful on our leadership. It's painful on our members when we have to "indoctrinate" a new recruit or show a regular an old boss for the first time because she doesn't usually play on a Tuesday.
To manage these two issues, a really smart leadership structure was developed. We have what I like to call "the One" structure (this is a Babylon 5 reference.) We have the "one" who is the guild leader. She manages the day-to-day and keeps everyone in line. We have the "one" who is raid coordinator. He is in charge of personnel planning and deciding where we are going. We have the "one" who is raid leader. He's the field general. Each of them have very different personalities.
The other coping mechanism is our forums. We have regularly updated kill threads and strategy guides posted by our raid leader. These guides include links to videos and boss guides, but they also include details about how "we" do it. This helps our players a lot. No two guilds are alike and as a guild we learned we had to think outside the box to achieve.
The final coping mechanism is class rotation. Leadership has a preferred mix of players. Ours likes to have 2-3 hunters in the raids. We have 4 active hunters. We've worked out a rotation of "preferred" nights. Each class does this and it helps immensely when the nightly draft happens. If I sign up for Wednesdays, I expect to be drafter because it's my preferred night. BUT, if I sign up for Tuesday, I expect to be wait-listed.
Well, there you have it. Not my best piece of writing and it took longer than usual to do. I hope it gives you some ideas about your guild dynamics. No, QSS is far from perfect. But for me it's home. I can't wait to get back!
In order to survive, serious raiding guilds have to create requirements. Our business is downing bosses and it requires a full complement of employees. Guilds tackle this problem differently. At one extreme we have ultra hard-core guilds who require players to devote all of their free-time to WoW. How extreme can these guilds be? I have a friend who was once kicked from a raid because his latency was too high. In these guilds, joy is derived only from conquest. Kang, that time-traveling warlord from Marvel Comics, would be proud. At the other extreme, we have the casual guild that raids. I was in one of those once, I'm not sure they've ever downed Gruul. That's not good business. Kang would recommend wiping them from the face of Outland!
My guild takes a different approach. Leadership stuffs the roster with WoW-addicts (like myself) who have RL issues that keep them from being able to play night after night. We are all, deep-down, hard-core players, but we have jobs, children, health issues, pending nuptials....You get the idea.
This enables members to go on week-long business conferences or take their S.O. out for dinner without jeopardizing their membership or the balance of the raid. As a guild, we still have requirements about raiding 2 nights a week. We still expect members to show up, but understands and accepts real-life. That's not to say that folks can make excuses night after night and expect to retain membership. And they certainly can't disappear for several weeks and expect to come back as if nothing has happened. Communication and dedication to the guild are still required.
This is the perfect kind of place for me and for many of our members. I couldn't stand the lackadaisical approach to raiding from my previous guild, but RL keeps me from being able to commit to the hard-core standards of a 4-5 night a week raiding guild. Simply-put, QSS represents a welcome and needed balance that keeps the game fresh and enjoyable for me.
On a personal note: I have a RL philosophy of "in all things balance" and I strive to obtain it throughout my life.
There are, of course, downsides to this approach. I have identified two connected issues as the biggest.
Progression & Gear: At our core, our most dedicated and regular members are geared higher than our actual progression. I've got my "all purple" set with 2-pieces of T5, crafted belt, and 70% of the best gear available before Black Temple and Mount Hyjal. From a gear standpoint, I should have been downing stuff in Mount Hyjal 2 months ago. The problem here is the ever-shifting make-up of the raid and the significant amount of drops needed to gear up and teach everybody the bosses. This was felt most on Vashj and is no doubt the #1 reason why we didn't down Kael before 2.4 hit. And when a regular, like myself, who has been involved in the first-time kills of 8/9 of our last bosses out of the mix for 3 weeks, it hurts the dynamics of the guild. (And makes Beroth a frustrated hunter!)
Organizing & Managing Raiders: Because of our structure, we are forever needing new recruits (who are not under-geared n00bs), we are forever planning raids based on the dynamic of the sign-ups and we are forever being nagged by our raid coordinator about light sign-ups for this night or that. It's painful on our leadership. It's painful on our members when we have to "indoctrinate" a new recruit or show a regular an old boss for the first time because she doesn't usually play on a Tuesday.
To manage these two issues, a really smart leadership structure was developed. We have what I like to call "the One" structure (this is a Babylon 5 reference.) We have the "one" who is the guild leader. She manages the day-to-day and keeps everyone in line. We have the "one" who is raid coordinator. He is in charge of personnel planning and deciding where we are going. We have the "one" who is raid leader. He's the field general. Each of them have very different personalities.
The other coping mechanism is our forums. We have regularly updated kill threads and strategy guides posted by our raid leader. These guides include links to videos and boss guides, but they also include details about how "we" do it. This helps our players a lot. No two guilds are alike and as a guild we learned we had to think outside the box to achieve.
The final coping mechanism is class rotation. Leadership has a preferred mix of players. Ours likes to have 2-3 hunters in the raids. We have 4 active hunters. We've worked out a rotation of "preferred" nights. Each class does this and it helps immensely when the nightly draft happens. If I sign up for Wednesdays, I expect to be drafter because it's my preferred night. BUT, if I sign up for Tuesday, I expect to be wait-listed.
Well, there you have it. Not my best piece of writing and it took longer than usual to do. I hope it gives you some ideas about your guild dynamics. No, QSS is far from perfect. But for me it's home. I can't wait to get back!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Out Sick
Sorry for the lack of posts. I keep promising this detailed analysis of my gear and UI changes, but I've been under the weather. As soon as I'm 100% back and caught up on other stuff, I'll finish up.
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Guild-Breaker Dies
Another Dead Boss on the LandingI've been working on some theory-craft on the way I play Beroth. I need to organize my notes and write it up. Expect those posts soon.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Hold the Line
Beroth & Tribalrog on the South StairsVashj attempts continue and are getting better all the time. I've slowly migrated to working the South Stairs with help from Shallas (rogue who floats across the South & East zones) and a healer. Tonight, it was our Resto-Shaman's turn. He admitted to being nervous, but I only had to pop one health stone in phase 2 all night.
I'm proud to say that in two nights of working the zone, I don't think a single elemental has gotten past us. This isn't all about me. I'm "alone" for 60-70% of the time, but Shallas sweeps every now and then to take some pressure off me and people up top help out when the tainted spawns in my zone. Slowly the guild is learning the whole fight. We had several pulls into phase 3 over the last 2 nights.
Sure, I wish she was dead already. But man it'll feel like we accomplished something when she finally drops.
Weapon of Choice
The other week, the Boots of the Crimson Hawk pattern dropped. I int'ed for them and got them. The boots looked awesome and are ranked higher in the Armory. I wasted my last 2 Primal Nethers making them and Poortyr donated mats for me. When I did the final tally on my dps potential, I lost over 30 dps by swapping boots. It was a harsh lesson in trusting the Armory ranking system. My guild lost out on being able to sell the pattern & I wasted an int. Needless to say, I'm back to the Fiend Slayer Boots until I can int on the Cobra-Lash Boots from Vashj.
I don't like making the same mistake twice, but I hate doing theory-craft math on my own. I can't trust the Armory to know everything. (Remember, the Armory & similar databases look at gear as a whole for your class.) The trick is to find a good calculator to help and to invest the time to plug in gear and tweak numbers.
I've been using Cheeky's Spreadsheet on Elitist Jerks for a hunter calculator. To use the spreadsheet, you must enable macros. In other words, use at your own risk. The spreadsheet itself can take time to get used to. The good news is that you will learn about your gear no matter how much work you put into it. The big thing to understand is that the numbers are still theoretical. It's up to you to maximize your potential.
But Beroth, that sounds like a lot of work. Why can't I just trust the Armory and read the forums? If you aren't serious about endgame or don't mind the occasional downgrade, then by all means, do so. But let me show you what I'm talking about.
I plugged my gear into the spreadsheet and got approximately 900 dps unbuffed (including Pet.) That translates into roughly 1050 dps w/ raid buffs & food. (Again, these numbers only hold up in theoretical situations. My actual numbers will vary.)
Once you've gotten all your gear organized, you can play with gem options & pets to find your best combination. Simply changing a few gems can add 10-20 dps. Swapping pets can make a huge difference. Sometimes you may want one pet, but your gear/build dictates than another is better. The first time I used the spreadsheet, I swapped pets, changed my food & spent nearly 400 gold on gems to add over 50 dps. I have the raid stats to back it up!
You may have read that Beastmasters prefer the Wolfslayer or the Barrel-Blade guns over all other ranged weapons. But have you ever tested it? I have.
I currently use the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle. The armory ranks it as 9th with an item level of 115. Whole threads have been devoted to the Wolfslayer being the 2nd best Beast Master weapon in the game. Let's take a moment to compare it to the highest ranked weapon in the Armory and see what happens.
Weapon - Hunter DPS - Total DPS - Buff'ed DPS (Aspect of Viper)
Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle - 655.52 - 914.11 - 1084.06
Serpent Spine Longbow - 647.73 - 903.85 - 1068.91
Let's now add the 13th ranked weapon
Barrel-Blade Longrifle - 668.37 - 926.81 - 1098.72
What gives? The Beast Master talent, Serpent Swiftness makes the statistically worse gun becomes better because of it's faster base speed. This is the prime example of why you can't just trust the Armory. You've got to take time to understand your gear, your talents and how they all work together. A good spreadsheet will help.
PS. My theoretical DPS w/ Aspect of the Hawk is over 1200! If only I could sustain that w/out running out of mana! Imagine if I had my own dedicated Shadow Priest! My numbers also don't include short-term buffs such as rapid fire or effects like shaman heroism.
I don't like making the same mistake twice, but I hate doing theory-craft math on my own. I can't trust the Armory to know everything. (Remember, the Armory & similar databases look at gear as a whole for your class.) The trick is to find a good calculator to help and to invest the time to plug in gear and tweak numbers.
I've been using Cheeky's Spreadsheet on Elitist Jerks for a hunter calculator. To use the spreadsheet, you must enable macros. In other words, use at your own risk. The spreadsheet itself can take time to get used to. The good news is that you will learn about your gear no matter how much work you put into it. The big thing to understand is that the numbers are still theoretical. It's up to you to maximize your potential.
But Beroth, that sounds like a lot of work. Why can't I just trust the Armory and read the forums? If you aren't serious about endgame or don't mind the occasional downgrade, then by all means, do so. But let me show you what I'm talking about.
I plugged my gear into the spreadsheet and got approximately 900 dps unbuffed (including Pet.) That translates into roughly 1050 dps w/ raid buffs & food. (Again, these numbers only hold up in theoretical situations. My actual numbers will vary.)
Once you've gotten all your gear organized, you can play with gem options & pets to find your best combination. Simply changing a few gems can add 10-20 dps. Swapping pets can make a huge difference. Sometimes you may want one pet, but your gear/build dictates than another is better. The first time I used the spreadsheet, I swapped pets, changed my food & spent nearly 400 gold on gems to add over 50 dps. I have the raid stats to back it up!
Putting the Spreadsheet to the test
You may have read that Beastmasters prefer the Wolfslayer or the Barrel-Blade guns over all other ranged weapons. But have you ever tested it? I have.
I currently use the Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle. The armory ranks it as 9th with an item level of 115. Whole threads have been devoted to the Wolfslayer being the 2nd best Beast Master weapon in the game. Let's take a moment to compare it to the highest ranked weapon in the Armory and see what happens.
Weapon - Hunter DPS - Total DPS - Buff'ed DPS (Aspect of Viper)
Wolfslayer Sniper Rifle - 655.52 - 914.11 - 1084.06
Serpent Spine Longbow - 647.73 - 903.85 - 1068.91
Let's now add the 13th ranked weapon
Barrel-Blade Longrifle - 668.37 - 926.81 - 1098.72
What gives? The Beast Master talent, Serpent Swiftness makes the statistically worse gun becomes better because of it's faster base speed. This is the prime example of why you can't just trust the Armory. You've got to take time to understand your gear, your talents and how they all work together. A good spreadsheet will help.
PS. My theoretical DPS w/ Aspect of the Hawk is over 1200! If only I could sustain that w/out running out of mana! Imagine if I had my own dedicated Shadow Priest! My numbers also don't include short-term buffs such as rapid fire or effects like shaman heroism.
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