Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #3: Don't Cheap Out

Tip 3: Don't Cheap Out
Use the best ammo you can. Never shoot cheap arrows. I shoot vendor lvl 70s for most occasions. These are usually more expensive than the better ones. But they are in infinite supply. Always try to shoot razorheads/mammoth-cutters for every raid. Don't be that hunter.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #2: Use That In-Combat Pot

Tip 2: Use That In-Combat Pot
Use a potion after the boss is down below 50%. Unless you've got some dead healers and/or no health stone, make sure that a dps potion gets used. I use a speed potion. I find that mana potions rarely give me enough to skip a viper if viper is needed. I have heard that a wild magic potion is good too. These potions are not very expensive so it isn't a big deal to use them on each boss you think you'll down. Think of them as your own mini-heroism/bloodlust button.

Kheldul's Hunter DPS Tip #1: Maximize Yer Powerhouse Cooldowns

Tip 1: Maximize Yer Powerhouse Cooldowns
You need to know when you can go nuts on DPS and how to be able to go nuts more than just once or twice in a raid. If you've got on use trinkets, know when you'll get full use of them. Understand if you use them now how many times you'll be able to use them in the fight. Balance it with knowing that delaying for the best opportunity may mean you may only use them twice instead of three times in a fight. I don't currently use on use trinkets in PvE. But if I did, I'd know that a 2min cooldown with a 30sec active time means you can use it three times in a five minute fight for a total of 1.5 minutes uptime. Your first use can be at time increment zero, not two minutes. The same thing applies to things like Rapid Fire. If you are untalented in it and your kill time for a boss is in the six minute range, then using it early can leave it available again when you often need to pour on the damage. If you upload your combat logs to a place like worldoflogs.com then you'll be able to see your dps over time. You want to see more than one or two spikes! If you have trouble watching for these cooldowns, get a cooldown timer addon like AzCastBar (with the cooldown plugin).

Kheldul's Unspoken Hunter DPS Tips Spoken

Everyone knows you need gear, proper enchants, proper gems, glyphs, flasks, food buffs, and a good understanding of shot selection. I've seen positive changes in that area double and even triple hunter's damage dealing. I've spoken about them before, and so have at least 30% of the hunter blogs out there.

All of that is important, but there's a lot more to maximizing the DPS you bring. Some of it is behavior. Some of it is prep. Good play, ability use, and tricks can squeak out a bunch more dps. And sadly, some of it is hardware. Has this all been said before? I imagine so.

Over the next few days I'll be releasing DPS tips. For many of you, these are just good reminders. They are mostly off the cuff and not intended to cover everything. In fact, I'm leaving out all the niche areas of different talented spells, gear min-maxing, and shot prioritization. I'm taking that you already know what you're doing or at least know what you're not doing in those areas. These tips are the extras.

The first will appear this evening. Then I'll let one fly each morning and evening.

Random Thought of the Day

I wonder how beneficial the Oracles trinket will be when we're using energy focus.