I was inclined to do a different guide for the next entry but someone asked me to write one for MM so here it is. If someone still hasn't gotten right to it I'll just say it: MM hunter is the highest dps spec a hunter can have. It's not particularly hard to learn either and just as fun as any of the others. So let's get down to business, talents first as usual:
This is the talent spec that offers the highest damage.You can make a few changes depending on your stats and mana issues such as:
Rapid Recuperation X/2: If there is no Judgement of Wisdom effect on the boss you can move points from Improved Barrage to this one; hunter can oom quite fast and having a haste stat over 200 won't help on your mana reserve; switching to Viper Aspect will lower your damage badly. Despite the chances are high you won't oom due to the many buffs in a 25 raid, this option is perfectly viable.
Improved Hunter's Mark X/3: If you are hit capped from gear and you don't need Focused Aim, you can move points from there to Improved Hunter's Mark. It's even better if there are other hunters in the raid as the benefit will multiply.
Trueshot Aura 0/1: If you know there will be a Blood Death Knight or an Enhancement Shaman in your raid, you can remove this and put it elsewhere.
Your Survival and Beast Mastery talents will seldom be different.
Stat priorities:
Below 400 armor penetration aka low gear your focus should be attack power. Once you get past this number it is better to go full armor penetration through gems. Eventually, whether by farming emblems or joining raids, your ArmorPen will scale much better than Attack Power or Agility could ever do. So the stat priorities look like this:
Hit Rating>Armor penetration until hard capped (1399)>Agility>Crit>Attack Power>Haste
Know that a hunter gets hit capped at 8%. With Focused Aim you just have to get 5% from your items, or 4% if you get a Draenei often in your group. Hunter attacks cannot be dodged or parried. Agility is a better option over everything else once you reach the hard ArmorPen cap. Your pet gets your hit rating from gear only and rounds down everytime, just for you to know.
Haste is not a very good stat for a hunter, while most casters and several dual wielders love it, for a hunter is a hassle and not worth gemming/enchanting for it. You should also try to avoid gear with haste unless the upgrade over your former item is very worth it.
Gems and enchants:
Gems are pretty straightforward: Red ArmorPen gems everywhere if your ArmorPen from items is above 400, use Nightmare Tear in a blue socket to get your Relentless Earthsiege Diamond meta gem active. If you need to decide where to put your Prismatic gem try to pick the best socket bonus, usually an item with red+blue sockets so the bonus is higher. Enchants should focus on attack power. If you manage to get ArmorPen hard capped you should gem Agility/Critical Orange gems in yellow sockets.
Professions:
Blacksmith and Jewelcrafting are the best by far, but if you are feeling adventurous you can replace either with a profession that gives attack power as bonus.
Glyphs
Some Glyphs are a must to have while others are a matter of preference or situational:
Glyph of Serpent Sting: Although your Chimera shot resets the sting, the added time on it also increases the shot damage, since it deals a % of the total damage the sting does regardless of the timer left on it, so this glyph directly increases Chimera Shot damage.
Glyph of Steady Shot: You use Steady Shot 4 or 5 times for every Chimera and Aimed Shot you use, it's wise to buff its damage.
Situational/Optional:
Glyph of the Hawk: Not a bad glyph by any means, at high gear your white damage is your highest total; it also helps proc your 2 set bonus from T10. Helpful too if you have some latency issues. I use this one as third option.
Glyph of Kill Shot: Best when the boss has more health pool, or bosses that get more dangerous as they are low health. I personally don't favor this one but hey, up to you.
Glyph of Chimera Shot: By definition, reducing the cooldown from 10 to 9 seconds will increase your Chimera Shot by 10% assuming you use the shot as soon as it is up. This is usually not the case due to latency. If your latency is low you can go with this one.
Glyph of Aimed Shot: This is good if you move a lot as 2 sec less will mean you replace 1 steady shot for an earlier Aimed Shot.
Glyph of Trueshot Aura: If you picked Trueshot Aura you can use this one to further buff your Aimed Shot, needless to say Glyph of Aimed Shot and this one get along. The crit multiplier for a Hunter is very high.
Glyph of Hunter's Mark: If you went with 3/3 Improved Hunter's Mark this one is good too. Much better if your raid setup has usually 2 or more hunters.
Minor glyphs: Up to you.
Shot Priorities:
Your shots have different damage and you should know which ones have higher priority to use if two or more are available at the time. At the start of the fight or before it you will always put Hunter's Mark. In order of importance:
- Serpent Sting (once per fight)
- Kill Shot
- Chimera Shot
- Aimed Shot
- Arcane Shot (Low gear)
- Steady Shot until any other shot is available.
Best pets
Wolf is the best pet due to Furious Howl. If you get tired of seeing the same wolf like I do you can tame one that changes color every time you call it, these can be found west of Icecrown where Ymirjar keep their wolves. Another option is a raptor, but the dps is slightly lower.
A couple of tips:
- Improved Steady Shot proc: Use with Chimera Shot. At high armor pen (+1300) use it with Aimed Shot.
- Rapid Fire: Use at the start and as soon as it is off use Readiness and Rapid Fire again. Make sure your Chimera and Aimed shots are in cooldown so you can use them immediatly again.
- Use Call of the Wild when an Heroism/Bloodlust effect is in effect, if not then just use it in conjunction with Rapid Fire.
- Reapply your Serpent Sting when you trigger your T10 2 set bonus only once to keep the bonus damage on it.
- Use Hearty Rhino food if you can afford it.
- Use Silencing shot as often as you can, it triggers no global cooldown!
- Have your pet's Rabid and Furious Howl skills on auto cast.
Macros
I use simple macros on all my characters, these ones are just basic ones for any new hunter:
#showtooltip XXXX
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Silencing Shot
/cast Kill Command
/cast XXXX
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
This macro will cast Silencing Shot and Kill command if they are available while also using the XXXX skill. If they aren't available you won't hear or see any error message from the game. I have this macro tied to my Serpent Sting, Steady and Chimera Shots.
#showtooltip Call of the Wild
/cast Call of the Wild
This one is self explanatory, Call of the Wild.
#showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [@name] Misdirection
Every hunter regardless of spec should have a Misdirection macro. Replace 'name' with the tank you wish to target or if you want to get someone killed just put a dps' name there.
Last Thoughts
Every full dps class has a spec superior in terms of damage to the others, whether is fun or not for you. Despite all dps thrive to be at the top you can always play Beast Mastery or Survival specs, they are perfectly viable and fun. Just remember as long as you know your class you will do better than those playing the best specs if they don't fully know what they are doing.
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