World of Warcraft™

Hey all,

This is an alt I have and it seems as though I am hitting a ceiling of 22k dps with a spike of 23k with cd's. I am looking for ideas, constructive comments etc to help me improve my pve dps with this toon.
My rotation is super simple and is as follows...
Mark...Serpent Sting...Chimera...Steady steady steady..Chimera... Steady...Aim Shot Proc and repeat.
I had tried mixing in arcane after every steady shot but I found it gimped me by about 1k.

Is it gear, rotation or other?

Thanks for your help!

Whats this on? if its on a test dummy, sounds about right, i pull about 25k on test dummies but upwards of 27k on raid mobs

Sorry, this is all in action with Dragon Soul and Heroics.

I don't play MM but never base your "dps" from target dummys.

The target dummy is always at 100% health making it over 90%. If you have that talent that makes Aimed hit for 60% more damage on targets over 90% your dps will be really high on the target dummy.

Thank you for your reply but as I mentioned above this is all in heroics and raid settings....no dummy.

From what I can see on your gear;

Shoulders: Because the socket bonus is only 10 mastery, you wouldn't go for that bonus. You'd be better off putting a 40 agi gem in there (though I'm sure those shoulders will be replaced soon enough, but just using them as an example).

Chest: Replace the 40 crit gem with 20 agi/20crit.

Belt: Replace the 40 hit with 40 agi. You're well over the hit cap. (8%)

Boots: Replace the 40 crit with 20 agi/20 crit.

Your shoulders and gloves lack enchants, I'm not sure how you are for gold though.

With your talents, I would suggest dropping Imp Serpent Sting and placing those 2 points into Pathing.

Those a just a few things I picked up on. I think someone who actually raids as Marksman will be able to help you a lot more than I can on reforges and enchants.
I'm open to criticism if I'm wrong about something. I'd hate to give someone misinformation.

Thanks a lot! I am short on the 2 enchants due to lazyness. I have no problem getting them though. I am just concerned about my dps and whether it is a rotation thing or a gear issue. Thanks again for the help!

Mark...Serpent Sting...Chimera...Steady steady steady..Chimera... Steady...Aim Shot Proc and repeat.
I had tried mixing in arcane after every steady shot but I found it gimped me by about 1k.

Re-read your talents. I refuse to bother to help anyone who fails this crucial step. Also, stickies.

you should get arcane shot glyph instead of aimed and start adding in some arcanes to your rotation. The MM rotation is a very fluid and complicated rotation constantly changing with your haste. If you want to understand it you will need to sit down and read a guide on EJ for a while and you still might not understand it. You might want to try survival for higher dps and a simpler rotation. of all the problems I see with your gear the simplest to fix is your lack of crit rating. Try wowreforge.com to get your reforges fixed.

02/20/2012 07:35 AMPosted by Dagala

I am hitting a ceiling of 22k dps with a spike of 23k with cd's

Then you don't know the priority obviously. Burst as MM now, you should easily hit I believe 40-45k, maybe more - I haven't done MM since early DS, nor do I use Recount.



And this:

02/20/2012 09:25 AMPosted by Stalkings

Re-read your talents. I refuse to bother to help anyone who fails this crucial step. Also, stickies.

I also haven't played MM in a good bit, but I highly recommend reforging your gear with the appropriate stat weights. Like above stated, check out stickies here and even the ones on Elitist Jerks and you'll find what you're looking for.

The ones saying read your talents are right. you should NEVER fire one steady shot broken up by ANYTHING, improved steady shot needs 2 to proc and you will likely be using the two shots to refresh the proc as soon as it ends. Also, if you are relying on aimed shot procs to happen as a part of your rotation you are going to lose a lot of dps waiting for a rng shot to proc.

look at your rotation as well... use Arcane as a focus dump... I can usually spam it and get up into the 30's in dps... for certain fights, usually when time warp/hero is popped I spam Aimed shot, keeping 2 steady shots in the rotation for Improved Steady Shot bump. I usually time Chimera shot with my serpent sting dot... a couple of seconds before the dot falls off I hit chimera, again it's dependent on the fights and how well the healers are keeping up.

Look at reforging, to break it down to it's simplest form - As MM... reforge to crit for the time being... crit is always the safest bet. If the gear cannot be reforged into crit, then go haste. MM Mastery isn't the greatest, and reforge as much as you can out of it. So its hit (to 8%)>crit>haste>mastery...or so the research I have found tells me. at least until you can get to the second haste plateau from gear (which is dependent on how you have spec'ed your talents and gear)

I built a macro that pops my rapid fire, call of the wild and any thing else that can boost DPS/damage (i.e. trinks) and I use it as soon as the boss is pulled. I pre-pot on certain fights with a Tol'vir (agility) pot, usually popping it 1/2 sec before the boss pull, pop the macro and open up (MD to the tank of course). By pre-potting... I get to use another potion later in the fight... usually when hero/time warp is popped

with a mix of rapid fire, readiness, and/or time warp/hero the burst damage can be insane, upwards of 40-60K. Especially when you toss in a Tol'vir pot and hit them all at once. I have seen my Aimed Shot get down to GCD and my Steady Shot down to 0.7 sec cast with Improved Steady Shot active, time warp, rapid fire, trinks proc'ing, call of the wild, ect... yes the stars were aligned that night...

save readiness for a time warp/heroism... pop it and then rapid fire again... most fights you can get 2-3 rapid fires off if you save readiness for your final burn down.

Hope this helps... If I put anything in this post that misleads you I'll apologize now for it... these are just my thoughts and strategies for playing my main... until the next patch... then I'll rethink them...

Going to spell it out for you, so you know what you're doing wrong.

First, there is an MM guide stickied at the top: It's made for 4.1, but not much has changed. Read it.

You need a point in Rapid Killing: refer to Rapid Recuperation to see why. You need 3/3 Pathing: haste is that important. You want two points in Marked for Death: it helps for trash and encounters that require single-target switching.

You do not need 2/2 in Termination: you have the T13 2pc and should be drowning in focus just keeping up Improved Steady Shot. You do not need points in Improved Serpent Sting: you have no other talents that make it a meaningful portion of your DPS.

You have too much hit, too much mastery, not enough crit or haste. Go to wowreforge.com

Your 'rotation' is awful. There is a MM thread stickied at the top. Read that, and you will know why. (Hint: Careful Aim phase is important.)

You need to work on your Therazane reputation for shoulder enchants. (What is it with everyone skipping out on Deepholme?)

Your active stable has three freaking spirit beasts. At the very least, you want a wolf and cat.

Agility is the most important stat for hunters. I noticed you have two trinkets which give some agility, but they have haste as a proc. I would recommend using
Wrath of Unchaining
in place of the lower level trinket. Then, synchronize your CDs when the trinket procs and it will give you more DPS. Too much of one stat is never good, regardless of you spec. I'm sure 2400 haste is enough of a proc already.

I would also highly recommend completing your 4 piece set as the proc for that would most likely replace your old trinket.

Agility is the most important stat for hunters. I noticed you have two trinkets which give some agility, but they have haste as a proc. I would recommend using
Wrath of Unchaining
... .

...I stopped reading right there.

OK, so let me get this straight. OP is kitted out mostly in LFR gear, has gone up to Hagara on Normal exactly once, has failed a basic character audit, and you're suggesting a trinket that drops off the second-to-last boss that is highly desired by rogues, shaman, druids, and other hunters as though it were just as simple as picking it up off the ground?

Look, I'm pretty sure OP knows that the trinket is good, but let's just work with what we have on hand right now.

I'm not bashing the OP. I'm saying "let's work with what we have." Being kitted out in LFR gear isn't a bad thing; simply by posting on the forums and asking for advice, he's shown that he's interested in improving his game.

The first thing he asked for was help. I and others have pointed out that he's failed the character audit (as shown on the advanced option of the armory). He can do something about that now: it's as simple as going to the AH and buying stuff.

What he can't do is just go and pick up a BIS trinket, especially in LFR. That's just dumb luck, and completely out of his control.

02/22/2012 12:54 PMPosted by Drivebye

post on your main or stop bashing the OP you're in the same boat as him on the alt you're posting on..

I don't think his intention was to bash the OP. He's just saying lets give advice based around what the OP has access to now, not what gear he could get if the stars align for him.

I know some people despise it, and it may not be as optimal as you can get manually tweaking your gear, but askmrrobot.com will get you in the ballpark at least. It would certainly be better than where you are now having a couple unenchanted items and zero reforging.