------------------------------------------------------------------------
e. Class Debates
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Players have continually had arguments and debates over the abilities
of many classes and the Hunter has had its fair share of forum debates.
Here are some of the issues that have been brought up again and again.
---------------------------
Agility Versus Attack Power
---------------------------
Oftentimes, you’ll hear players asking whether Agility or Attack Power
is better for a Hunter. First, we’ll start with the math for Ranged
Attack Power and Critical Strike chance.
56 Agility = 1% chance for Critical Strike
1 Agility = 2 Ranged Attack Power
The problem with bonuses to Attack Power is that it doesn’t raise your
Critical Strike chance. As you raise your Hunter to level 60, this won’t
be a major concern since you’ll do fine in most situations with either
of the two stats. If you’re building up for PvP, you should try to get
as much Critical Strike or Agility gear as possible since burst damage
plays a much greater role in PvP than in PvE.
Since Hunters rely on a steady stream of DPS, you can’t go wrong with
Attack Power bonuses but if try to focus on equipment that has Agility,
especially if you’re a Survival Hunter with the Lightning Reflexes
talent.
Oddly enough, any buffs that add to your Attack Power doesn’t add to
Ranged Attack Power. Battle Shout and Blessing of Might, for example,
does not make your ranged attacks any stronger.
--------------------------
Steady Damage Versus Crits
--------------------------
There are Hunters who prefer to build up their critical strike chance
but oftentimes, they do so at the cost of other important stats. For
example, I remember talking to a Hunter who would rather use two Dawn’s
Edges (+1% crit each) over two Bone Slicing Hatchets (+13 Agility each).
While critical strikes are very nice to have, I believe that you’ll do
best with steady Agility-fueled damage over a long duration of time.
While steady damage is best for PvE, critical strikes are a bit more
useful in PvP because of how valuable burst damage is in a fast-paced
fight against other players.
-----------------------------
Arcane Shot Versus Aimed Shot
-----------------------------
There has been an ongoing debate about whether Arcane Shot or Aimed
Shot is better in terms of damage output. Before the 1.10 Patch, since
slower, harder-hitting weapons with Aimed Shot yielded a higher damage
output than with Arcane Shot, most people opted for Aimed Shot. However,
after the last patch normalized Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot damage, the
difference between the two is lessened but it’s extremely hard to tell
which is superior.
Either way, you can’t go wrong but I believe most players like Aimed
Shot because of the massive damage that comes out of the three-second
charge, especially if it’s a critical strike. I personally am a fan of
Aimed Shot but will use Arcane Shot when a situation calls for fast
damage, or kiting, etc, but even if you’re not kiting, you won’t notice
a big difference in DPS between the two over time, if any at all.
-----------------
Spell Damage Gear
-----------------
Since various abilities such as Arcane Shot and Volley are magic-based,
some Hunters have expanded into gear and talents that adds to their
damage done by spells and effects. Various staves, daggers, and swords
add spell damage and since Hunters can equip such a wide variety of
melee weapons, there’s a lot of variety, especially in the endgame raid
instances.
The abilities that would be affected by spell effect bonuses would be:
- Arcane Shot
- Serpent Sting
- Volley
- Mend Pet (Healing Effect)
Traps are not affected by spell power.
The problem with spell damage is that most equipment that has bonuses
to spells and effects usually don’t come with Agility. This is mainly
because such armor and weapons were designed with casters in mind and
they get few benefits from that attribute. If you do plan on wearing
such gear, expect your overall physical DPS to be low.
Another problem is that casters need the kind of gear that a Hunter
would be looking for if he/she were to design a spell damage build. You
won’t make many friends rolling on valued items such as Witchblade and
Rod of the Ogre Magi. In endgame raiding, most guilds won’t let Hunters
get priority on such gear.
---------------
Hit Percentages
---------------
The great thing about ranged attacks is that they can’t be dodged,
blocked, or parried but they can still miss. This is where gear with hit
percentage bonuses come in, but how much is enough? The answer is 9%
Chance to Hit at level 60. Some players have reported that the miss rate
is always capped at 5% but at 9% Chance to Hit, I’ve never missed a
single shot. The same seems to apply for melee swings as well, though
those can still be dodged, parried, or blocked.
------------------------------------
Slower Weapons Versus Faster Weapons
------------------------------------
Even though the damages from Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot have been
normalized, many players continue to believe that slower weapons yield
higher overall DPS than faster ones and part of that is due in part to
Aimed Shot’s three-second charging time, which interrupts auto-firing.
Indeed, the charge time disrupts Auto-Shot for faster weapons more than
slower weapons but what many people forget is how the normalized Aimed
Shot and Multi-Shot damage is calculated.
The damage dealt by Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot is treated as though the
ranged weapon’s speed is at 2.80, which means that weapons faster than
2.80 will cause higher damage and weapons slower than 2.80 will cause
lower damage. For those two abilities, the base damage is recalculated
to match the indicated weapon DPS at that speed. Let’s take these fake
guns, for example:
Winchester Rifle A Winchester Rifle B
10-10 Damage, 2.00 Speed 20-20 Damage, 4.00 Speed
(5.0 DPS) (5.0 DPS)
Notice how both guns are at 5.0 DPS but one just simply happens to be
slower than the other. Before the 1.10 Patch, the slower weapon would’ve
meant that slower weapons would yield higher DPS using Aimed Shot and
Multi-Shot. Now let’s set both weapons to 2.80 attack speed and readjust
their base damages accordingly to retain a 5.0 DPS. This is our end result:
Winchester Rifle A Winchester Rifle B
14-14 Damage, 2.80 Speed 14-14 Damage, 2.80 Speed
(5.0 DPS) (5.0 DPS)
Voila! When using Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot, Rifle A works with a four-
point damage increase, whereas Rifle B works with a six-point damage
decrease. While Aimed Shot’s charge time halts more shots for a faster
weapon than a slower one within those three seconds, it makes up for it
through this math mumbo jumbo. Using this calculation, the indicated DPS
of the weapon becomes much more important than the speed and base damage.
So in conclusion, weapon speed no longer matters. Slower weapons don’t
make a difference in overall DPS. You can use a fast ranged weapon and
still achieve more or less the same damage output as with a slow weapon
with the same DPS.
|
|
|
