Post by Kroeber
Congrats on level 70! But please get rid of all the Strength gear ASAP. :( It's just wasted itemization for us. Hungryshadow's
guide is still the best guide for new level 70 Hunters.
Post by Zalambar
For a BM hunter the normal pattern is some combination of steady and auto shots with the exact ration being chosen to minimize delaying auto shots while still fitting as many steady shots as possible in between them( a "1:1" or "3:2" rotation ). For particularly slow weapons you can often fit both a steady and some instant shot in between auto shots( often called a "1:1.X" rotation, 1 steady shot between each auto shot and an additional instant attack after every other steady shot ). In general MM and SV hunters have slow enough attacks to fit in other special attacks (and their talents encourage them to do so) while BM hunters have enough haste that this is not a good option.
Let's look at your gear and get a little more specific:
You have a 3.00 speed weapon with 20% haste from Serpent's Swiftness and occasionally another 15% haste from Improved Aspect of the Hawk. Looking at your attack speed it looks like you are also using a 13% haste quiver.
First of all using that quiver is silly, you can go buy a
Clefthoof Hide Quiver right now which is both larger and faster than the
Quickdraw Quiver or whatever it is you are currently using. I'll assume you have a 15% quiver in the calculations below.
Your final attack speed is calculated by dividing your base attack speed by the product of your haste effects. These haste effects apply to both auto and steady shot but not to your other attacks or their cooldowns.
Your normal attack speed with therefore be: 3.00{weapon speed} / ( 1.2{serpent's swiftness} * 1.15{quiver} ) = 2.17s
Your steady shot cast time will be: 1.5 / ( 1.2 * 1.15 ) = 1.09s
When Improved Aspect of the Hawk activates you will have an attack speed of: 3 / ( 1.2 * 1.15 * 1.15 ) = 1.89s and a steady shot cast time of 0.95s.
You could repeat these calculations to get attack speeds with rapid fire added in as well.
To determine which shot rotation you should use we look at how many attacks fit between your auto shots but we have to include an additional delay to account for both your reaction speed and network latency so it may take several tenths of a second for you to actually start a steady shot or other special attack.
Normally you should be able to use a 1:1.X shot rotation with your current weapon speed; you'll first an auto shot, fire a steady shot, fire an instant attack, fire your second auto shot, start your next steady shot when the global cooldown from the instant attack ends, and finish your steady shot before your next auto shot at which point the pattern repeats. Since your instant attack all have long cooldowns you'll need to rotate between arcane, multi(if it is safe to use), and a sting.
Alternately you can use a 3:2 sequence and deliberately delay every other auto shot a little bit to fit in an extra steady shot. Since you'll only delay your auto attack by a little bit this will increase your overall damage and because your steady shot cast time is less than a global cooldown you can use this sequence with a faster attack speed than a 1:1.X rotation.
When Improved Aspect of the Hawk is active you will not be able to use both a steady shot and an instant attack during the same auto shot. While you could fire both attacks between auto shots the global cooldown from your instant attack will not leave you enough time to fire your next steady shot without delaying your next auto shot. You therefore might want to switch to a 1:1 rotation while the buff is active.
Overall your current attack speed is kind of inconvenient for a BM hunter. You'll always be stuck with the choice of either spending a fair amount of time waiting for your auto shot to finish before you can use another steady shot or starting that steady shot and delaying the next auto shot significantly.
As a new level 70 this shouldn't be a problem at first as you will probably need some time to get used to managing a shot rotation while doing everything else you need to in a group however as you get better at your role or more concerned with optimizing your damage you may wish you had a faster weapon.
As a final note there are a couple versions of a popular hunter shot macro based around using
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot to automatically balance your steady and auto shots. You should not use this macro with your current attack speed. With a fast attack speed such a macro will give you a 1:1 rotation, with a slightly slower attack speed it will automatically give you a 3:2 rotation on average. Unfortunately due to the way it relies on how WoW handles "/cast" commands once you hit around a 2.0 or slower attack speed it will produce a 2:1 or worse sequence which reduces your damage while increaseing your mana use.
Hmm I appear to have produce quite the rant here, hope it helps.
Post by Zalambar
Madrock, the /cast/cast macro you listed should give you a 3:2 or 1:1 rotation depending on which haste effects you have active. At your attack speed that should be a fine choice provided you do not have much lag. You should expect to see a ratio close to 3:2 at a 2.0s attack speed and close to 1:1 by the time you get your attack speed down to around 1.6s (latency and how many shots you are measuring will chance the exact ratio a little bit).
Your weapon choice confuses me, you are using
Legionkiller instead of
Crossbow of Relentless Strikes. Legionkiller has 1.3 less base dps, 11 less attack power, 0.3% less crit, and 14% less hit(enough to get you hit capped in your current gear and closer to replacing those +hit gems in favor of more damage). What is it that makes you want to use Legionkiller?