Cataclysm 4.0.6 hunter stats guide

[lilatha]

Hello, I noticed over the past few months alot of questions appear to be repeating themselves over Hunter's stats, Gems, Enchants and Reforging. So to save time for alot of people I thought, why not make a topic about it?
I will do my best to keep up to date with all information when it becomes live I won't cover PTR information since it could change.
So to start off with I'll go over Spec's, Rotations and Glyphs. Then go into Reforging, Gemming and Enchanting.

Beast Master
PvE Talent Points 31/9/1
I have been using this spec for awhile as you should of noticed Spirit Bond was only taken as there was no other useful talent and we needed to go down the tree. Also having the healing bonus takes some strain off the healers.

BM Rotation;
You will start any fight with Hunter's Mark, and then applying Serpent Sting
Focus Fire
Kill Shot
Kill Command
Arcane Shot
Cobra Shot

Cooldowns
Now you will want to use Kill Command when it’s available, meaning you always need to be sure you have enough focus when it comes off cooldown.
Focus Fire is easy enough to use since your UI will give a nice big warning when it's ready. And only use it when your Pet has 5 stacks of Frenzy.
Now when dealing with Bestial Wrath you will only want to use this when you have enough Focus as you should only use Arcane Shot and Kill Command (you can get 7 shots and 2 commands in.)
Fervor, now I personally use this spell as soon as I need it. Say at the start of combat I wait till I get to about 40 focus then I use Fervor. Apart from this you should save it on certain boss fights when your required extra focus at a specific time. Either for burning, to boost focus for a Bestial Wrath, consider your boss strat and how this cooldown fits with it.

BM Glyphs;
Now before I list any Glyphs, please keep in mind that your choice in Glyphs will be effected by your gear and playstyle. What works for someone might not work for you.
Also the top two Major and Minor Glyphs are needed the last ones are the ones I found to work best but feel free to comment on which you find to work best

Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Kill Command
Glyph of Arcane Shot
Glyph of Serpent Sting
Glyph of Kill Shot
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Disengage
Glyph of Bestial Wrath
Glyph of Trap Launcher
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Mend Pet
Glyph of Feign Death
Glyph of Revive Pet

Reforging
Now this is where some people have issues, I myself am not a master of Reforging but any help is good help.
So when it comes to Reforging you want to make sure you are Hit capped (which is currently 961), try and do this fully though Reforging so you won't need to Gem Hit later. To do this you will want to switch your worse stat for your best stat, in a Beast Master's case you will switch Mastery for Hit. Once Hit capped you will then have some Mastery left over (if not don't worry to much) you will switch this left over Mastery for Critical Strike, as Critical Strike is a important stat for Beast Master hunter's. Plus the Critical Strike cap is 104% we may never be able to reach this but keeping out Critical Strike high is very important to do more DPS. I won't go to far into why we need Critical Strike.
Now another stat you may consider switching is Haste, not I personally won't touch this as Haste is important to Hunter's. For two reasons! 1. Haste is a Hunter's Focus Regen! 2. You want to have your Cobra Shots cooldown to be as short as possible! But don't go below 1 second as the Gobal Cooldown is 1 second.
So I guess if you had your Haste so high your Cobra Shot time was -1 you could swap some Haste for some Critical Strike.

Gemming
When it comes to Gemming most people think you need to match the Gem to the socket, when in fact you don't. Agility is the best stat for Hunter's when Gemming simple as.
Meta Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
Red Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby / Delicate Chimera's Eye
Yellow Socket Deadly Ember Topaz
Blue Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby
If you have Engineering and you create gear via Engineering you'll come across Cogwheel gems you have a choice of three though again due to Reforging you hopefully won't need the third choice.
Smooth Cogwheel
Quick Cogwheel
And the one you hopefully won't need Rigid Cogwheel

Enchanting
Enchanting is simple enough I will try and inculde all good Hunter enchants and if they come with a certain Profession!
Head
Arcanum of the Ramkahen

Shoulder
Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
Swiftsteel Inscription

Cloak
Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Flexweave Underlay
Swordguard Embroidery

Chest
Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats

Bracer
Enchant Bracer - Agility
Draconic Embossment - Agility
Socket Bracer

Glove
Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
Socket Gloves
Synapse Springs

Belt
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Nitro Boosts

Leg
Dragonscale Leg Armor
Dragonbone Leg Reinforcements

Boots
Enchant Boots - Major Agility

Weapon
Enchant 2H Weapon - Mighty Agility

Ranged Weapn
Gnomish X-Ray Scope

Rings
Enchant Ring - Agility

[lilatha]

Marksmanship
PvE Talent Points 8/31/2
I'm sure someone will ask why waste points in Frenzy? It doesn't matter which spec you are your pet is still a important part of your DPS having this can boost your DPS thousands.
Resistance is Futile was taken just to go down the tree nothing more nothing less.

MM Rotation;
You will start any fight with Hunter's Mark, and then applying Serpent Sting
Chimera Shot
Kill Shot
Aimed Shot
Arcane Shot
Steady Shot
This Rotation is good for the first 20% of a boss fight! When you reach 80% you will switch and do;
Chimera Shot
Kill Shot
Aimed Shot
Steady Shot
Why? reading tooltips! That's why Careful Aim.

I didn't go to much into the MM Rotation since most of it is proc's and common sence.


MM Glyphs;
Now before I list any Glyphs, please keep in mind that your choice in Glyphs will be effected by your gear and playstyle. What works for someone might not work for you.
Also the top two Major and Minor Glyphs are needed the last ones are the ones I found to work best but feel free to comment on which you find to work best

Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Steady Shot
Glyph of Arcane Shot
Glyph of Chimera Shot
Glyph of Kill Shot
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Disengage
Glyph of Silencing Shot
Glyph of Trap Launcher
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Mend Pet
Glyph of Feign Death
Glyph of Revive Pet

Reforging
Now this is where some people have issues, I myself am not a master of Reforging but any help is good help.
So when it comes to Reforging you want to make sure you are Hit capped (which is currently 961), try and do this fully though Reforging so you won't need to Gem Hit later. To do this you will want to switch your worse stat for your best stat, in a Markmanship's case you will switch Haste for Hit.
Once Hit capped you'll have some Haste left over (don't worry if you don't), you can continue to switch Haste for Marksmanship's best stat which is Critical Strike, but if you do this keep in mind that Haste is a Hunter's regens and the point of Reforging is getting rid of your worse stat for your best to increase your DPS.
I havn't personally messed around to much with MM and reforging at this current moment in time, most I've seen just ensure their Hit cap and trade some mastery for some Critical Strike, since again Haste is your regen just keep it at a nice number 9-10% seems to be working fine for most.

Gemming
When it comes to Gemming most people think you need to match the Gem to the socket, when in fact you don't. Agility is the best stat for Hunter's when Gemming simple as.
Meta Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
Red Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby / Delicate Chimera's Eye
Yellow Socket Deadly Ember Topaz
Blue Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby
If you have Engineering and you create gear via Engineering you'll come across Cogwheel gems you have a choice of three though again due to Reforging you hopefully won't need the third choice.
Smooth Cogwheel
Quick Cogwheel
And the one you hopefully won't need Rigid Cogwheel

Enchanting
Enchanting is simple enough I will try and inculde all good Hunter enchants and if they come with a certain Profession!
Head
Arcanum of the Ramkahen

Shoulder
Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
Swiftsteel Inscription

Cloak
Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Flexweave Underlay
Swordguard Embroidery

Chest
Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats

Bracer
Enchant Bracer - Agility
Draconic Embossment - Agility
Socket Bracer

Glove
Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
Socket Gloves
Synapse Springs

Belt
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Nitro Boosts

Leg
Dragonscale Leg Armor
Dragonbone Leg Reinforcements

Boots
Enchant Boots - Major Agility

Weapon
Enchant 2H Weapon - Mighty Agility

Ranged Weapn
Gnomish X-Ray Scope

Rings
Enchant Ring - Agility

[lilatha]

Survival
PvE Talent Points 1/9/31
Again there are a few talents we take just to get down the tree, Hunter vs. Wild and Serpent Spread.


SV Rotation;
You will start any fight with Hunter's Mark, and then applying Serpent Sting
Explosive Shot
Kill Shot
Black Arrow
Arcane Shot
Cobra Shot

SV Lock and Load Rotation


BM Glyphs;
Now before I list any Glyphs, please keep in mind that your choice in Glyphs will be effected by your gear and playstyle. What works for someone might not work for you.
Also the top two Major and Minor Glyphs are needed the last ones are the ones I found to work best but feel free to comment on which you find to work best

Prime Glyphs
Glyph of Explosive Shot
Glyph of Arcane Shot
Glyph of Serpent Sting
Glyph of Kill Shot
Major Glyphs
Glyph of Disengage
Glyph of Trap Launcher
Minor Glyphs
Glyph of Mend Pet
Glyph of Feign Death
Glyph of Revive Pet

Reforging


Gemming
When it comes to Gemming most people think you need to match the Gem to the socket, when in fact you don't. Agility is the best stat for Hunter's when Gemming simple as.
Meta Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
Red Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby / Delicate Chimera's Eye
Yellow Socket Deadly Ember Topaz
Blue Socket Delicate Inferno Ruby
If you have Engineering and you create gear via Engineering you'll come across Cogwheel gems you have a choice of three though again due to Reforging you hopefully won't need the third choice.
Smooth Cogwheel
Quick Cogwheel
And the one you hopefully won't need Rigid Cogwheel

Enchanting
Enchanting is simple enough I will try and inculde all good Hunter enchants and if they come with a certain Profession!
Head
Arcanum of the Ramkahen

Shoulder
Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal
Swiftsteel Inscription

Cloak
Enchant Cloak - Major Agility
Flexweave Underlay
Swordguard Embroidery

Chest
Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats

Bracer
Enchant Bracer - Agility
Draconic Embossment - Agility
Socket Bracer

Glove
Enchant Gloves - Major Agility
Socket Gloves
Synapse Springs

Belt
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
Nitro Boosts

Leg
Dragonscale Leg Armor
Dragonbone Leg Reinforcements

Boots
Enchant Boots - Major Agility

Weapon
Enchant 2H Weapon - Mighty Agility

Ranged Weapn
Gnomish X-Ray Scope

Rings
Enchant Ring - Agility

*edit cooking will finish when back*

[Saturo]

You might want to point out that this is for BM in the title.

[Adam-Savage]

Wow, Nice guide. That must of taken some time to put together.

[lilatha]

@sat ive kept two posts for MM and SV sadly I had to go for something to eat ^^ and they do take some time to write out
@adam you wouldnt believe me if i told you D:

[Saturo]

I figured, but I've seen worse. Some guy claiming that "THIS IS HOW U GEAR PRIESTS!" and then never clarifying that it was just shadow priests, and then him getting twenty responses with "my HPS sucks now, i think ur wrong".

[Dubhsidhe]

For two reasons! 1. Haste is a Hunter's Focus Regen! 2. You want to have your Cobra Shots cooldown to be as short as possible!

First - My talent tree: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#crhfskGzRRofMZc (I don't spend much time casting Cobra Shot, and I am willing to lose a touch of DPS to keep my pet cleansed in some fights)

I disagree with the part about haste, fairly strongly. Its not to say you are wrong (for your style), but I want to offer an alternative to Haste.

I prefer to stat Crit as my top. Crit will offer a higher Focus Per Minute (FPM) than Haste, simply through the Talent Invigoration (Return 6 Focus when your pet crits with a Basic Attack). I am sitting at (according to armory) 21% crit. This puts my pet at 30% crit (I use a ferocity pet). That means roughly 1 out of every three pet attacks are granting me 6 focus. I actually spend most of my time spamming Arcane shots because my focus regen from this talent is so insanely high. A typical rotation would look something like HM(BW) - SS - KC - ArS(spam) - KC - (BW End)Focus Fire - CSx2 - KC. So I actually spend very little time casting Cobra Shot as compared to Arcane Shot. On longer fights, I will Fervor right before my second BW to get max focus again. On even longer fights I will Rapid Fire and spam 3-4 Cobra Shots at a 1.1 sec cast to fill up my Focus bar, and BW again.

When I separate out myself and my pet to look at DPS numbers, I actually see this order:
Arcane Shot
Auto Shot
Cobra Shot
Serpent Sting

And my pet:
Kill Command
Claw/Bite
Auto Attack

So I think we both agree with Crit being our top stat

However, my second stat is Mastery. Mastery affects BMs hardest hitting skill, and that would be Kill Command. It is not uncommon for me to see a 27K-32K kill command crit, and I've seen a 40K while under the effects of BW. Kill Command is our truck. If I were to lose all my mastery, my DPS would drop from 12K to around the 9K mark, just based on the loss of pet damage and the loss of KC damage. While mastery is not our top stat, it is a lot better than people give it credit for.

Haste -

Haste is not a BAD stat. I did take Pathfinding, and I do keep Focus Fire on my bar The two reason I don't bother stacking haste are: The FPM regen off haste is terrible. 1% crit is worth so much more than 1% haste for BM for Focus regen its ridiculous. And 2: Focus Fire. Focus Fire is (generally) a 15% haste buff. I always use Focus Fire when it is off cool down. 9 times out of 10, I will gain the full 15% buff, and that brings my CS cast time down to 1.6s. Even if I don't get full stacks, I get a 1.7s cast time CS. For the purposes of my build/style, that's fast enough. With the new ability queuing system, I can actually have a CS and an ArS or a KC hit at the same time. Tap my two 2, then either my e or my 1 key and its gravy.

Basically, when I build my character out, I started by asking "how can I never have to cast a Cobra Shot, unless I need to refresh SS?" and that is what I went with. I organized my focus regen and damage around that concept.

Some people prefer a super quick cobra for their regen, and that's cool too.

But I wanted to throw out something different for you.

[lilatha]

Yeah glad i managed to save 2 spots D: doing the MM one right now though Im questioning myself why im explaining certain things XD

And yeah Crit is im not saying don't touch your haste cas if you get a cast of 1 sec for CB why keep stacking haste when the GCD is 1 sec atm my CB is a cast of 1.81 i would like to get it down to a 1.23 atleast but ofc i mean when i start raiding and getting gear since currently i have more important things to take care of D: (damn you real life!)
ive done some basic math on it and worked out when i should reach my ... or close enough to my perfered casting time and i will be replacing some haste for crit when you count in raid buffs and such. as for mastery ive never seen myself reforging into it ill ofc have gear and trinkets with loads of it on and keep in mind when you reforge you can only replace 40% of that stat so im not throwing all my mastery away I still have gear that favors mastery over haste and i havent converted anything into haste only crit and hit.
but ive seen some take their haste and change it into mastery.

id rather get my CB off when i need to i think right now i hit it about ... twice? once to keep SS up and another incase i need more focus
unless im afking or going on a mount run where i find it most useful to have my pet just kill the things so i can say ... have my breakfast? ive never currently found myself to have issues with my haste ... even at a mere 9-10% its at now

[Kalhoun]

Definitely bookmarking this. Thanks.

[lilatha]

Updated MM up. Feel free to add comments more help around the better and i love to know ways I can even improve!

[Nightsights]

this is for MM

i would suggest as a raider, that you place 2 points into Bombardment, for those aoe fights, which there are a few in T11, Conclave, Omnitron, Magmaw, Maloriak, and Cho'gall. unless your off spec is SV and you switch to SV on those add intensive fights.

points to take out from are resistance is futile as you said is only to fulfill the 20 pt requirement to move down the tree. termination is only useful between 25-20% hp, because at 20% kill shot comes into play and does not cost any focus, the little extra focus from termination actually makes little difference in focus regen. you'll still have to cast 2 steadys to keep ISS up, and that is plenty of focus to keep the rotation of ssx2, ais, ssx2, chs, etc.

with the buff to hawk, most MM hunters are going with 3/3 OwN. since a MM hunter's pet only does approx 15% dmg where as a BM hunter's pet does around 40-45% dmg.

major glyphs, a lot of raiders use raptor strike for the 20% dmg reduction in high aoe situations. such as feud on chimearon, and at every 10% hp on Nef. somewhat useful on Al'akir when you run in for wind bursts.

from what i've read on EJ, haste is good, there are certain amounts of haste that are more beneficial, kinda like plateaus. focus regen is not the main point of MM nor any of the three specs (since it takes a ton of haste rating to significantly affect regen), the main focus of having haste is to lower the cast time of our casted shots. cobra (1.66s for SV) for MM we have steady shot and aimed shot. for most hunters on normal mode T11, without 4 pc, you're mainly looking for around 7% haste, and i believe with 4pc you are aiming for around 10% haste.

[Raiyen]

Bookmarked!

Thank you greatly for this! :3