A few new hunter related models...

[Morven]

As a PVPer, I do use my melee weapon sometimes even if I would rather not have to, so I much prefer having a polearm that looks like I could actually hurt something with it. I killed a fury warrior with my polearm over the weekend

[Lisaara]

As a PVPer, I do use my melee weapon sometimes even if I would rather not have to, so I much prefer having a polearm that looks like I could actually hurt something with it. I killed a fury warrior with my polearm over the weekend

It's still funny when you do use it....beating things with a blunt object is just as deadly as any axe.

[Cerah]

I had a pair of beautiful one-handed axes from ICC I used at the end of WotLK -- they matched perfectly, and looked like a pair of icy wings while on my back.

I want to transmog them onto a pair of Cataclysm axes next patch, but we're not getting any decent one-handed weapons anymore. This sucks.

[Ickabob]

Screw staffs and polearms, I want agility 2 handed swords or even just plain old dual wield.

[Araela]

I too, hate the cloak shape. I show mine because I like showing a cloak but.. once transmog comes out I am DEFINITELY going back to big flowy cloak!

[SpiritBinder]

I'd like a viable one handed end game enchant that makes it so we can dual wield OR use a two hander. I like having options.

This ^

I know and hate the stigmata of, "They are all hunter weapons!" But the fact that we have the proficiency to duel wield and yet have had the ability essentially removed with any lvl cap gear, simply due to enchanting options is really such a shame. There are so many beautiful 1 handed weapons that I wish we could use, but alas. I'm not sure, but simply a hunch, that if they made a 1 handed enchant that was the equivalent of our highest 2 hander agi enchant avalible atm, eg.

Enchant 1H Weapon - Mighty Agility
Use: Permanently enchant a one-handed weapon to increase Agility by 70. Requires a level 300 or higher item.

It could throw out the balance with all other 1 handed enchants, possibly making other classes using them (Rogues/Enhance) to powerful or unbalanced. It's just a hunch however... I'm not sure. Maybe if they could come up with another enchant that would only trigger Ranged AP or something that would be less appealing to any but hunters. I know it may seem like a decent amount of work, but I really would <3 <3 <3 to have the ability to equip/transmogrify current gear that involves a little more than a staff or pole arm.

[Tsuki]

It'd have to be 65, not 70, since the two hand one is 130, right?
... right?

[SpiritBinder]

Yeah Tsuki, your absolutely right with 65 agility, if I were to split it right down the middle, 70 was just a ball park. But then I was kind of mentally taking into account of appropriate stat weights and item lvls without having to look to deep into it...

But to help explain.... eg.

2H

Fandral's Flamescythe
Binds when picked up
Two-Hand Staff
1428 - 2143 Damage Speed 2.40
(744.1 damage per second)
+408 Agility
+611 Stamina
Durability 120 / 120
Requires Level 85
Item Level 378

1H

Avool's Incendiary Shanker
Binds when picked up
One-Hand Dagger
695 - 1292 Damage Speed 1.80
(551.8 damage per second)
+175 Agility
+262 Stamina
Durability 75 / 75
Requires Level 85
Item Level 378

X the one-handers by 2 = 350 Agility

So yeah if they made a comparable 1H Agility enchant to be exactly the same as the current 2H with enchant, the amount of agility would have to be 94 Agility just to balance the raw agility between the items and their enchants, then alone all the other stats.

But then you would also have to take into consideration, would a 94 Agility enchant for a 1 hander be to powerful for a fresh 85 1 hander agility using class? Or no more so than the 130 agility for a 2 hander... I'm not sure, it all gets a tad messy

I really didn't want to get too picky, just wanted to express my preference for making 1 handers viable, tis all.

[Tsuki]

Ah.
I didn't notice the sharp incline between 1h and 2h stats. I always just presumed they were balanced.
Blizz rebalance weapons plz

[SpiritBinder]

Update on a few more Huntery related Items

New Raid Models Inc..

(I'm not sure which staff will have agility stats (I'm sure one will) so I listed them all)

[Lisaara]

I'm not sure if I should be looking at the weapons or the naked man holding them. XD

[Kayb]

at least he's got undies on

[TygerDarkstorm]

Ah.
I didn't notice the sharp incline between 1h and 2h stats. I always just presumed they were balanced.
Blizz rebalance weapons plz

Yeah, I forgot to mention that there's a pretty sharp incline between the stats of 1 handers and 2 handers, on top of there being no viable 1 handed enchant.

Unfortunately I think it would take Blizzard too much effort (or I bet at least according to them) to make both dual wielding and 2H viable for hunters, especially if it might cause any potential problems with rogues and enhancement shamans.

[Lisaara]

at least he's got undies on

Urge...to make dirty comment...rising...must resist....*snrk* XD

and yeah Tyger is right. Thats why 2h Fury and 2h Frost does more dps than their 1h counterparts.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I don't want to take credit for that as it was something SB actually mathed out. However, while TG Fury is ahead of SMF Fury, DW frost is actually further ahead than 2H frost. 2H frost is just barely comparable to Unholy.

[Lisaara]

I don't want to take credit for that as it was something SB actually mathed out. However, while TG Fury is ahead of SMF Fury, DW frost is actually further ahead than 2H frost. 2H frost is just barely comparable to Unholy.

Thats not what I hear at all, on the frost it. I've seen several posts on this forum as well as my own experiences do better damage as 2h frost than dual wielding 1h. I lost 1 - 2k dps when I switched to 1h.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Slamming your enemies with waves of ice and brutal physical attacks while leaving opponents frozen solid, frost is a versatile and highly competitive DPS spec for those looking for a spec that will keep you on your toes. Frost has two main builds utilizing either two 1-handed weapons or a 2-handed weapon.

Current DPS rating by spec with ilvl 378 (normal tier) gear:
DW Frost > 2H Unholy >= 2H Frost


Current DPS rating by spec with ilvl 391 (heroic tier) gear:
DW Frost > 2H Unholy >= 2H Frost

Frost received some nerfs since 4.1 while Unholy has received a decent buff bringing it back into contention for 4.2. Frost still leads Unholy in damage however the more RNG proc based system of our runes and being more heavily affected by movement than Unholy will likely even out DPS in raid settings. DW Frost comes out ahead of 2H Frost at both 378 and 391 ilevels.

I imagine that if something had changed that drastically that 2H was consistently beating out DW at end game levels (which has been the discussion at hand), then EJ would have posted it since they're all about the math. My death knight was doing more damage as 2H over DW as well because she wasn't geared or glyphed for it so my DPS suffered some. Also if you're still DWing in frost presence, that's incorrect as all DPS DKs now use Unholy presence, so there would be some DPS loss there.

And for the record, I'm not saying that EJ is always totally on the money, I just feel that if numbers had changed drastically enough in end game content, it would have been reported. Usually I compare their information to MMO-Champion, but their DK section is drastically lacking. And pwnwear's information appears to be outdated.

SimulationCraft also supports DW being ahead of 2H: http://www.simulationcraft.org/422/Raid_T12H.html

Edit: I'll put it in hunter terms: It's like playing the difference between playing an Aimed Shot focused MM spec and an Arcane Shot focused MM spec. Say you've been playing ArcS your entire hunter career and you hear that AiS is higher DPS. You swap over to the AiS rotation and discover that you're not very good at it and your overall damage/DPS fall a bit. Eventually, with the more practice you got doing AiS, the more your DPS would increase until you reach the higher numbers.

Same concept between someone trying to DW frost and 2H frost. If you leveled your DK 2H frost (which is the recommended leveling spec), and you've been running dungeons with it, you're going to perform better than switching to DW for the first time. Also, DW and 2H vary a lot based on your gear and such as well; if you have a higher item level, harder hitting 2H, then you're probably going to see bigger numbers than with two lower item level/damage 1Hs. Also, frost is a HUGELY RNG based spec/rotation and its numbers can vary on a fight to fight basis depending on how many killing machine procs occur and whether you're properly trying to use them on on Obliterate and not Frost Strike. There's just a lot of variables going into the spec and its damage, but from what I've been looking up, DW is coming out on top in end game.

[Kalliope]

Others have already nailed this point, but I'd like to echo that as far as I know, DW is still king for DKs for PvE.

[TygerDarkstorm]

The only place I know of 2H frost beating out DW frost is in PvP. Otherwise all the information that I went and researched shows DW ahead by like a mile.

[Meggers]

While bows are my pref overall for weapons, those guns look like they could have been better if they weren't so uh...snubnosed. They just seem like they were compacted wayyyy tooooo much.