Bandaging the JSHB Addon

JSHB was not working at all for me following the launch of 6.0.2..  I use it on my hunter and rogue. It did not show up. I could not get /jshb to do anything. Others reported that they had it working but it killed their frame rate, or that it was only partially working.

JSHB is not maintained and hasn't been for a year.  The developer or series of previous developers are no longer playing.

Here's how to fix it.

1. Backup your Interface folder so you don't get crazed if this doesn't work. ;-)
2. Stop wow.
3. Download the latest Release edition of Ace3.
4. Unzip it.
5. Open up your Interface/JSHB/lib
6. Delete the libraries in there.
7. Copy the new Ace3 libraries into Interface/JSHB/lib
8. Edit the Interface/JSHB/JSHB.toc file and set "## Interface:" to 60200.
9. Start wow and make sure the addon is enabled.
10. Enjoy your borrowed time.

I'm looking to get a permanent replacement to JSHB.  NeedToKnow, which was updated for 6.0.2 has an experimental option to show focus. It's not where it needs to be for real use yet though.

Moar DoTs!

Serpent Sting should move up in your multi-mob priorities. Previously, it was a questionable exercise if you should slap a SrS on anything other than your main focus.  Generally it wasn't worth -- especially with the old awkward focus cost of 25.  But now that Serpent Sting does twice as much damage and costs only 15 focus it should be used.

My simple Serpent Sting macro:


#showtooltip Serpent Sting
/cast [target=mouseover,exists] Serpent Sting

I had admittedly have limited data.  I hopefully will have some more by next week.

We raided Will of the Emperor for the first time last week and then hit it again (and got him) on Monday.  Last week we only had two somewhat lame attempts as it was pretty late.   (And one of our tanks has three green pieces of gear!)  The differences and caveats between the two nights were:

• I used Serpent Sting a lot more.  I didn't DoT every single mob but close.
• Serpent Sting does more flat-out damage.
• I used my mouse-over macro and didn't have any good DoT tracking.
• I probably refreshed SrSs I shouldn't have.
• I was a bit more capable the second night.
• But I had the same gear.
• Normal v Crits, Tick count, and percentage of damage for crits and non were all about the same.

In the Pre-"Moar DoTs" world, Serpent Sting accounted for between 10% and 16% of my damage.  In the new "Moar DoTs" world, Serpent Sting accounted for between 23% and 24% of my damage.  The raw damage per tick doubled.  But because we're talking about percentages of 100% that wouldn't double the percentage of my damage.  (It would be less.)  But the number of applications of it was rather large.  I was really pushing that of course.

There were a fair number of times where I tried to SrS a few mobs and at some point in the DoT'm up process I was below 15 focus.   I don't have a good way to track DoTs and recover or reapply them. So while it's cheap, it's not free or particularly easy.

ROFLSTOMP DS and Shot Priority Complexity

Ten of us managed to update/change our addons, select and learn our talents and glyphs, reforge our gear and try to raid.  We started our raid a little late but in a little over two hours we learned that some people don't know how their character works now and some do.  We also learned that a 35% nerf to DS can overcome everything.  We cleared everything on heroic up to and including spine.  We took two people who weren't in our original heroic spine group before and got it on our third second attempt.  Not that the heroic spine fight is exactly the same anymore.  Because of the cleansing changes -- and despite the raid mechanic changes -- you have to cheese the cleansing a little with positioning, but it was probably easier that way originally too.

As a Survival hunter, I found that if I did my old rotation employing all the previously known spells (SrS, BA, ArS, ExS) I did significantly less damage.  When I added in Dire Beast and aMoCs I was coming close.  When I threw in Rapid Fire and Readiness I had the ability to burst.  I didn't realize how much I missed the ability to burst.  I didn't even need to use the valor trinket to feel like a king.  I like my wow 5.0 talents and glyphs.  I really like the defensive attributes around Deterrence (100%/50% resist and 1min CD).  Marked for Death isn't a bad thing either.

Now all of this is a much bigger job.  Much more complexity!  I look at that with approval.  If better hunters can do more in a better way and get more damage that's a good thing.

If you think of A Murder of Crows as a DoT, you can also think of Dire Beast and even your own pet as DoTs.  Add SrS, BA, and even ExS and you've got six DoTs.  Thankfully, you don't really need a bar to watch your pet (though honestly they're pretty complex).  Our biggest DoT (ExS) doesn't need to be watched anymore thanks to how they can all be dumped in as fast as is smart.  Still we have many more DoTs and cooldowns to watch.

I put together a pretty nice NeedToKnow configuration to watch all this stuff, which I'll share in another post soon.

Focus Regen in MoP

Next to nobody right now is testing hunters' focus regeneration in MoP.

This is because just about everyone and their mother has the tier-13 two piece bonus.  That bonus completely (completely!) changes focus regen.  I'd say a reasonably large number of hunters participating in MoP have the four piece bonus.  That 4pc bonus is like a little heroism/bloodlust.  Focus regen is through the roof during those periods.

When various class mechanics are polished and testers are in the home stretch in level 90, hunters will experience an "Oh! Wait a minute here now."  It will be an eye-opening event.  I fear that may be too late for Blizzard's taste to put another coat of polish on hunters.

Pre-tier-13 we would gather the extra focus by aspect-twisting to Aspect of the Fox for greater focus regen and twisting back for all true damaging shots.  This was from the One With Nature talent.  But I've never been a fan of aspect-twisting and that talent doesn't exist in MoP.

Next on my list... trying the new Pre-made Panda Hunter.  Hopefully I have enough copies left.

Radical Re-tuning of Rotations

My guild cleared Deathwing (normal 10) back before Christmas, but because of poor raid and LFR drop luck I only got my 4pc T13 last week.  I had previously been dancing T12x2 and T13x2.  T13x4 is a different world.  But T13x2 is a completely different world from T12.

I'm not sure it's something that can be easily modeled for calculating dps differences.  Sure, we can and should still use femaledwarf.com to work on "what's better", but we may need to put in some assumptions and take things with a bit more salt.

The crazy part of having T13x2 is that as a MM hunter doing hard-cast AiS, you sometimes do shot fragments like this:

CS -> AiS -> SS -> SS -> AiS -> AiS -> SS -> CS -> SS -> SS -> AiS -> AiS -> SS -> SS -> [repeat]

MM rarely if ever did anything like that because focus wasn't available to do much of any value except another SS.  And you really wanted to do that second SS to keep the improved steady shot up.

Well so in walks the 4pc T13 and the proc is very very good.  I find I am compelled to get the T13x4 to proc.  Again, I play MM and previous to 4pc would do a great deal of hard-cast AiS -- basically any time except when on the move or on trash that would die too soon.  But now I'm doing different even more weird shot fragments like:

CS -> AS -> AS -> SS -> SS -> AS -> AS -> AS -> AS -> SS -> SS -> [repeat]

until I get a proc and then I switch into hard-cast AiS.

While I list "rotations" or "priorities", the coming of T13 turns all of that on its head.  MM has many priorities.  Keep the sting up, use chimera, maintaining ISS, and getting that T13x4 proc.  When you add in movement and game mechanics, it really can't be called anything other than nuts.

One essential item for all hunters is having a very visible hunter focus bar front and center.  If you don't have one you need to get one.  Here are a few that do it for you (in my order of preference):

• Serenity
• Hunter Got Focus
• HuntBars
• HunterFocusBar
• EnergyWatch Reborn

Overflowing Focus, the Bad BA Bug, and Juggling

If you regularly hit and stay at 100 focus then you're rotation is wrong in some way, right?

My answer is: yes, but I end up doing it now as a marksman hunter.

And I do it much more often now thanks to having the Burning Adrenaline buff active (from 4pc T12).  This can have you completely swimming in focus.  And it has a bug that makes that swim in a lake instead of a pool.

Here's the issue.  Some shots only register when they land on the target.  The Burning Adrenaline buff is only removed when the shot lands.  If you are far away from the target there is a travel time to the target.  Say you're a MM hunter.  You have the buff and have 100 focus, fire a "hardcast" Aimed Shot and then immediately a Chimera Shot.  The buff will be consumed and both shots will be free.

This in theory is a boon, but really it just screws up all sense of rhythm for the MM hunter.  MM hunters always want to do two steady shots in a row to keep their +15% haste buff rolling.  Letting that drop is a bad thing.  They also have a fairly close call on their Chimera Shot.  Letting the sting fall off is a bad thing.  And they're good hunters who have trained themselves that capping focus is bad which is exactly what will happen after allowing Burning Adrenaline to consume an Aimed Shot.

So what is there to reach for for a MM hunter?  Firing two or three Arcane Shots takes a lot of time and will let something in your rotation fall.  Hitting Kill Command eats a big chunk in one shot for a little DPS ... and it might not actually work if your pet isn't meleeing.

I think the right approach is to try and lob in as many Arcane Shots as possible and try to at least start the first SS while your ISS buff is still active.  This may cap your focus a bit too long.  KC may be better.  But choosing Arcanes will set MM up nicely for the T13 bonus and it works for our BM and SV specs too.  Of course BM or SV should prefer to use KC and ES as always, but sprinkling in Arcanes is good for them too.