Lightning Breath (Wind Serpent) and the Hunter

[Anansi]

Question.

Does the Wind Serpent's Lightning Breath ability increase the damage of any of the Hunter's shots? I've never been terribly good with the categorizations of the different schools of damage and what exactly falls under the "magic" umbrella.

According to WoWHead, Explosive Shot is physical damage though I've seen people attest that it's Fire damage, Arcane Shot is arcane damage, Serpent Sting is nature damage and Black Arrow is shadow damage. Yet seeing as that we are now firmly classed as a physical DPS class, I'm confused as to where this all stands with regards to the type(s) of damage we do and whether the Wind Serpent's Lightning Breath interacts and boosts any of our special shots.

Any ideas?

[Sarayana]

I got the impression that wind serpents' skill is only really useful when you're around casters. I could very well be mistaken though, like you I don't know what the different shots are classified as.

[Anansi]

That's what I thought as well, but one person in my guild is convinced the pet ability also increases the damage of his shots (he is Survival), and I'm not sure nor do I know how to actually check if it's correct or not.

[Undra]

Well, it's an 8% magic damage increased. As a survival hunter myself I kind of want it to be true. Though whether it's better for me than say, a wolf's 5% crit or a cat's buff in the end is something else. I'm not getting too attached to my windserpent jsut yet, since I don't have Cobra shot to really seal the magical deal. Afterwards though I'll see what's what.

[Necrie]

From a hunter perspective, it'll give a bonus to:
Cobra Shot (Nature Damage)
Serpent Sting (Nature Damage)
Arcane Shot (Arcane Damage)
Chimera Shot (Nature Damage)
Explosive Shot (Fire Damage)
Black Arrow (Shadow Damage)
The DoT portion of Wyvern Sting (Nature Damage)
Explosive Trap (Fire Damage)
Immolation Trap (Fire Damage)
Snake Trap DoT (Nature Damage)

It works just like Boomkin's Earth and Moon talent. Basically, *any* non-physical magical damage (read here as Arcane, Nature, Fire, Cold, Holy, Shadow, etc.) is boosted. Even the new engineering taser glove enchant (mentioned on MMO Champ's Engineering profession preview) should likely get a boost from this
On the other hand, (again, from a hunter perspective) Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Scatter Shot, Aimed Shot, etc. won't see any benefit from this pet ability as they deal physical damage.

I may have missed some abilities, but this should be enough to give you a general idea. In short, if one of our shots deals magical damage, it'll say so in the tooltip damage description, by specifying what school of magic damage is being dealt. That's when you know it'll be affected by this ability

That makes this ability most useful for Survival, and least useful for Marksman. How useful it is compared to other types of buffs and debufs, such as the Roar of Courage, Embrace of the Shale Spider, Qiraji Fortitude, Furious Howl, etc. depends on your group or raid makeup.

As a general guideline, I'd say that if you're in a raid that doesn't have the ability to bring this style of debuff, you'll see some benefit. How much depends on your raid comp.
On the other hand, due to the 30 second cooldown, I'd avoid using this in dungeons. Things die too fast for it to be useful. You'll probably be better off bringing a pet that will buff the party instead.

[Sarayana]

Thanks for the break-down Necrie!