Need Help, Please

[Itchiyaya]

Let me start out by saying I'm a disabled, 66-yr old grandmother who is also visually impaired. I have been play WOW for about 3 years now and it's my one big extravagance and I mostly enjoy it. That said, I am still a noob. I do not understand many game mechanics, gear stuff, etc. and I probably never will. LOL

I was doing ok until this last patch. My BM hunter was my best toon at lvl 80. But since the patch, I can't get DPS over about 1400 at best where I was at least 3 times that before.

What I am hoping for here is to get somebody to look at my armory toon, gear and talents and tell me what I need to do to get better again. If you do that, please talk like I'm a total dummy and don't understand all the abbreviations and such, cuz I really am and can't remember everything. I hope I'm not asking too much! I loved playing my hunter and want to get back at doing that.

Name: Itchiyaya
Realm: Stormrage

If you have any questions, please ask me. If this favor is too much of me to ask, then tell me so. But please don't flame me.

[Sarayana]

Hey there! First of all, I want to commend you on playing while visually impaired. I have a friend who's dying to play but just can't - her condition makes it impossible for her to perceive any depth in the game, so interacting with items, npcs and players is impossible for her... and she can't make out the details. Anyway! I'm glad to hear you can make it work!!

I had a look at your armory, and a few minor things jumped out at me. First of all, you've gemmed for the socket bonuses - but while gemming for critical strike rating only gives you critical strike rating, gemming for agility fives you both attack power and critical strike rating. However, I wouldn't bother regemming now. All the hardcore raiders are regemming after the patch, so gems are pricey, and in a little over a month it won't matter anyway.

Your Beast Mastery spec (I can't speak to the Marksman spec since I really haven't looked at it since the patch) looks alright, though I'd tweak it a bit to be more like this: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cfhfckGzRRobZzb:smocRzMz0

I'm not sure which pet you use for heroics, since they're all differently specced, but if you want to maximize your Beast Mastery dps you have to spec your pet for dps. I personally spec my pets like this: http://www.wowhead.com/petcalc#0Vd00scz0hoRb

I know some folks love having Heart of the Phoenix, in which case I'd change the spec to this: http://www.wowhead.com/petcalc#mdd00fczzhoR

Taking into account my own experiences since the patch, I'd wager that the majority of your issues have to do with getting used to focus and your new shot priority.

For Beast Mastery, your priority is as follows: Kill Shot > Kill Command > Arcane Shot > Serpent Sting > Steady Shot (someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but this is my impression so far).
What this means for your "rotation" and focus management is this:

Open with Hunter's Mark, send the pet.
Shoot off a shot - I like to take the chance to get Serpent Sting on the target while my pet runs up
Kill Command
At this point, you're getting low on focus. Shoot off two Steady Shots to regen enough to be able to hit Kill Command when it comes off cooldown
Arcane Shot
Steady for more focus
The whole time, you have to keep an eye on the Focus Fire button. When it lights up, hit it.
Rinse and repeat, adjusting for your own timing, haste (which affects your focus regen), and lag... Once I got the main ideas down (using Arcane as a filler shot when I have too much focus, keeping track of the Focus Fire proc, and so on) it was just a matter of running heroics until I got used to it. Well, I'm not entirely there yet, but I'm getting there.

Good luck!

[Itchiyaya]

Thank you very much for your tips. I'll look into doing what you say and I can re-gem since I have a grandmaster JCer and I also have a grandmaster Chanter. So I should change gems to agility instead of worrying about crit?

I'm blind in the right eye and losing sight in the left. Macular degeneration... It's hell getting old. LOL

[Lisaara]

Thank you very much for your tips. I'll look into doing what you say and I can re-gem since I have a grandmaster JCer and I also have a grandmaster Chanter. So I should change gems to agility instead of worrying about crit?

I'm blind in the right eye and losing sight in the left. Macular degeneration... It's hell getting old. LOL

I commend you for playing WoW still and defying the odds. :3 I agree with the above post. Another good place to look is warcrafthuntersunion.com. They already have an awesome BM spec for the new patch. They also tell you about the new rotation and also the glyphs to look at.

http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/201 ... nd-glyphs/

[Kalliope]

I'd suggest working the steady shot glyph in someplace, probably in favor of the mending glyph if you're doing less soloing.

[Ryai]

I'd suggest working the steady shot glyph in someplace, probably in favor of the mending glyph if you're doing less soloing.

Actually Mending is a Major glyph- glyphs that increase damage directly, IE SS/SS/AS/ES/etc, are prime glyphs. Meaning you can have like say Serpent Sting/Arcane Shot/Steady Shot prime glyphs, and for major- if BM; Misdirect, Beastial Wrath and Mending as Major glyphs.

[Kalliope]

Durp durp, grats me on misreading the armory (expected prime glyphs to be first and am a little out of it). Swap out rapid fire instead.

[Azunara]

Yup. WoW folder. Then click cache. Then click WDB folder. There, you should see a creaturescache. That's what you delete. If you delete anything else, it'll make your game load slower as it tries to re-recognize those things you deleted.

[Sarayana]

Yup. WoW folder. Then click cache. Then click WDB folder. There, you should see a creaturescache. That's what you delete. If you delete anything else, it'll make your game load slower as it tries to re-recognize those things you deleted.

Uhm. ... Wrong thread, Azu?

[Antares]

My Nana can barely use a mouse and you play WoW?!?! And Type?!?!

Wow. You rock.

[Itchiyaya]

Thank you all for your input! Ummm...Anzunara had me scratching my head though. LOL

I've done some glyph changing/adding, as well. I tested my new build doing Headless Horseman early this morning and my dps doubled!! HH is very hard for me to keep up with (the head) and so it is not a good test but it was encouraging.

I've been typing since age 12 and have had PCs for 20 years. I taught my kids the computer.

[Kalliope]

The head can be VERY hard to keep up with, especially if it spawns on top of you or out of range. Glad you already saw an improvement, though!

[Sarayana]

Oooh I'm very glad to hear you saw an improvement. It's really hard to gauge on some fights - particularly those that require target switching (like Anub in Azjol-Nerub) or interrupts (like Mirrored Soul on Devourer of Souls in Forge of Souls. I hate that b@stard!) but if you see an improvement already, that's a good sign!

Oh, and Azunara always has me scratching my head. I think she has fleas.