The "New" Marksmanship

(or, Why the Hell is Aimed Shot Hitting So Hard?!)

Preface: All statements in this topic utilize the two talent specs noted in the sidebar. The abbreviation CS is used to reflect Chimera Shot, AiS is used to reflect Aimed Shot, AS is used to reflect Auto-Shot, and ArS is used to reflect Arcane Shot. All formulae, calculations, and mechanics are what I have learned over my years playing - if there is a mistake, please feel free to comment and I will correct my errors and credit you for the correction.


This blog post was inspired by a few posters over on MMO-Champion who wanted some more insight into how old-school Marksmen are working the talent tree, and a bit of insight into how I, personally, work it, given that I tend to be a rather vocal and adamant supporter of the spec. I also have a tendancy to kick cookie cutter expectations to the curb and go with what I feel is right, which leads to a lot of questions.

And the first among them so far is this: Why am I using Aimed over just spamming Steady ad nauseum? Why, instead of the 10.5 Second Rotation (tm), don't I just spam 5 Steadies and a Chimera? Well, aside from the concept that I don't want to be bored out of my fucking mind, there's the fact that, until you reach a certain stat point, your Aimed is gonna hit harder than your Steady, in addition to sticking the healing debuff.

Take, for example, me. I'm sitting at 2483 RAP self-buffed, and I have ye olde chocobow. Now, looking at the wording of Steady, we see that it says:

"A steady shot that causes unmodified weapon damage, plus ammo, plus [RAP * 0.2 + 108]. Causes an additional 175 against Dazed targets."

Unmodified meaning no bonus from RAP, obviously. This means that, with my bow, the formula for me looks like:

[182 - 339] + (46.5 * 2.8) + ([2483 * .2] + 108)
[182 - 339] + 130.2 + 604.6
[182 - 339] + 734.8
916.8 - 1073.8 Damage per Steady

Not bad, huh? Well, it's nice, yes, but... Aimed Shot says:

"An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 205 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Lasts 10 sec."

Now, as everyone knows, back before 1.7, any special attack like this used your weapon's base speed. A 3.40 speed weapon, therefore, would hit harder on an Aimed than a 2.40 speed weapon - slow was good, fast was TERRIBLE. To make faster weapons more approachable, they normalized special attacks - all our instant attacks that do "ranged damage + $AMOUNT" are normalized against a 2.80 speed. However, our Chocobow IS 2.80 speed! Perfect!

Therefore, our Aimed formula looks like:

[182 - 339] + (46.5 * 2.8) + [(2483 / 14) * 2.8] + 205
[182 - 339] + 130.2 + 496.6 + 205
1013.8 - 1170.8 Damage per Aimed.

Now, obviously, all these numbers are before factors like armor, RWS, Marked for Death, Improved Steady Shot, and the like.

The major complaint I get is "but that's mana inefficient! Steady is a higher DPMana, which means less time in Viper!" I agree, to a point, and Improved Steady is a major decider in my disagreement (as is my temporary use of the Glyph of Aimed Shot).

Given the Base Mana of a 70 Hunter is 3383, we have costs of 257 for Aimed and 121 for Steady (after talents). Roughly, 8.25 DPM for Steady and 4.25 DPM for Aimed. Big difference, yeah, but if you're getting JoW and you use your one potion strategically, this won't matter on most fights.

Now yes, I'm not gonna fire it during Viper. Hell, with the changes in 3.0.3, I don't even fire Chimera in Viper - it's a net loss now. My stings are manually renewed during Viper (which still gives me a proc). That said, however, I DO use Rapid Fire during Viper both to dip into my Rapid Recuperation AND to hit more rapidly to get more mana.

Now, on that vein, I get questioned about Arcane Shot, too. "Why not use Arcane, Ril?"

"An instant shot that causes [RAP * 0.15 + 273] Arcane damage."

(2483 * .15) + 273
645.45 Damage per Arcane

Weaker than my weakest Steady Shot! Sure, I don't have armor computed into my Steady calculations, and Arcane penetrates armor, but between 5 sunders/acid spits, Faerie Fire/Sting, and Piercing Shots, there's not all that much armor to speak of. :P


The interesting thing that I noticed earlier, however, is that as I gain RAP, the gap between Steady and Aimed doesn't change at all! Check this out.

[182 - 339] + (46.5 * 2.8) + ([10000 * .2] + 108)
2420.2 - 2577.2 Damage per Steady @ 10,000 RAP

[182 - 339] + (46.5 * 2.8) + [(10000 / 14) * 2.8] + 205
2517.2 - 2674.2 Damage per Aimed @ 10,000 RAP

And it's a simple reason. Check this out:

Steady's RAP factor = X * .20
1 * .2 = .2

Aimed's RAP factor = (X / 14) * 2.80
1 / 14 * 2.8 = .2


Plus, people ask about my rotation all the time. It works as such:

0.00 seconds: Serpent
1.5 seconds: Steady
3.0 seconds: Steady
4.5 seconds: Aimed (cools down at 14.5 seconds)
6.0 seconds: Steady
7.5 seconds: Steady
9.0 seconds: Chimera (cools down at 19.0 seconds)
10.5 seconds: Steady
12.0 seconds: Steady
13.5-14.5 seconds: Downtime - human error and latency makes this almost non-issue
14.5 seconds: Aimed
16.0 seconds: Steady
17.5 seconds: Steady
19.0 seconds: Chimera

And repeat until your target's dead or you're OOM. Yes, there's roughly a second or so of dead time in the rotation, and some people will choose to tack a fifth steady in there somewhere - I don't feel it's necessary. Between latency and just plain missing your GCDs, you'll insert that second of dead time into the rotation naturally. And if you somehow don't, stick a fifth Steady (possibly before Chimera?) in the mix.


Anyways, I hope this helps anyone who's trying desperately to play a MM Hunter in a raiding environment, and helps anyone who's trying to understand how I do what I do. :P