Post by taallonn on Feb 12, 2008 12:34:30 GMT -5
Shot Rotation Illustrated by Lythrdskynrd of Anachronos (EU)
What is Shot Rotation?
In its simplest terms, Shot Rotation is the order in which you choose to fire your special shots. Many hunters in WOW start off as 'mad button mashers' hitting whatever button doesn't have a 'little spinney clock thing' on top of it.
What that "young hunter" doesn't understand is the damage they do can be greatly increased by just hitting the buttons in a different order.
Scope
This guide is not here to tell you what the best shot rotation is. There are too many factors that influence that (Weapon Speed, Talents, Haste Effects). Better to understand the factors, understand the goals of a good shot rotation and then decide which one is best for your current set-up.
The Concepts
There are some building blocks that you need to understand before you can really get into thinking about shot rotation.
Cooldown: This is one you should be used to already. This is the time between casting any individual ability and casting that same ability again.
Global Cooldown: Also known as GCD. This is the minimum time between casting one spell and any other spell.
DPS: Damage Per Second. Hopefully this is self explanatory, your DPS is the amount of damage you do to an enemy in 1 second of time.
DPM: Damage Per Mana. This one is a more advanced concept, not because it is difficult to understand but because you've got to crack out a calculator to figure it out. DPM can also be thought of as efficiency.
DPM is important when dealing with any fight that has the potential to use all of your mana. Once you run out of mana, your DPS drops significantly.
Visually, the shots look like this:
We're going to skip the DPM of Aimed shot for now (you'll see why later on). For now, let us look at a few calculations. These calculations assume the hunter has 2000 Ranged Attack Power.
First, looking at the Serpent Sting, at maximum rank it does 660 Damage over 15 seconds, for 275 mana. The effective DPS of your Serpent Sting is 44. The DPM: 2.4.
Second, we have Arcane Shot, (15% of Attack Power + 273) for 230 Mana. More difficult to calculate the DPS of the shot as it is instant � in this case I will calculate it based on the GCD it triggers (1.5s). The effective DPS of your arcane shot (with 2000 AP) is 382 the DPM: 2.49.
Thirdly, we'll look at Steady Shot, (20% of Attack Power + 150 + Normalized Weapon Damage) for 110 Mana with a 1.5 second cast time and no ability cool down time. On a reasonably obtainable weapon like Valanos' Longbow you have a an effective DPS of 411 with a DPM score of 5.60.
Serpent Sting: 44 DPS 2.4 DPM
Arcane Shot: 382 DPS 2.49 DPM
Steady Shot: 411 DPS 5.60 DPM
Finally, looking at Auto Shot, we know that it does weapon damage plus attack power plus ammunition power (referred to as Normalized Weapon DPS) but since it costs NOTHING, it is your most efficient attack. The DPM is INFINITE.
Auto Shot: Normalized Weapon DPS *INFINITE* DPM
There are, of course, all the other ones to worry about but it's more effort than we need. Three things to take away from this:
#1 � For doing damage, your Auto Shot is the most efficient
#2 � For doing damage, Serpent Sting is your least valuable shot
#3 � For doing damage, Steady Shot is your most valuable special shot
So what are we "Shooting For"?
The ideal shot rotation would probably look something like the above picture. Over time, you would shoot things in the following order:
Steady / Arcane / Auto / Steady / Kill Command (if available) / Auto Steady / Multi (if no Crowd Control) [repeat]
There are a number of things that can go wrong with 'the perfect shot rotation'. Some of the biggest variables can't really be controlled. Human Reaction Time & Lag can prevent you from getting it exactly right. As long as you know what you're trying for you're going to be miles ahead of the competition.
And what about the other guys?
The above might seem obvious when you look at it, but compare to what happens if you pick the same set of shots in a different order.
One hunter told me he always liked to fire his instant shots first � they just feel faster so they've got to be better - but, look at the space between Auto Shots. Any time the Auto Shot is not counting up is a waste of time on your most efficient shot.
The (sort of) Myth of a Fast Weapon
If you have a bad rotation, you're going to be doing less than your optimal damage. A slower weapon is more forgiving of bad rotation, as slower weapon is more forgiving of LAG and Human Reaction Time but isn't necessarily better.
Recall that the most efficient shot you have is Auto Shot. The second most efficient shot is Steady.
Imagine if your weapon & talents allowed you to ONLY use the two best shots that exist for a hunter. You'd be working with the best possible damage per mana, which means you'll still be shooting when others are out of mana. The reality of a fast bow speed (or so it would seem) is that if you adjust the shot rotation you can do the same or even more damage over the longer term.
One trap you can fall into with all that time before the Auto Shot goes off is starting a new Steady Shot too early - this is bad.
Although Aimed Shot does a good amount of damage, it resets the Auto Shot timer. In the time you are casting ONE Aimed Shot you could have cast:
1. Auto Shot
2. Steady Shot
3. Arcane Shot
And you'd be most of the way through casting another Steady and Auto Shot. Essentially, shooting *ONE* Aimed Shot costs about the same as shooting almost *FIVE* other shots, though it only does the damage of about two. It does however retain its value for when you are initiating combat with a misdirect or in PVP.
Summary
At the end of it all, Shot Rotation comes down to two things:
#1 - Choosing the Most valuable shot you currently have available
#2 - Minimizing time spent not 'casting'
If you've got a slow attack speed - you will have enough time to safely fit a Second Special into every second or third set of shots - that is less efficient in terms of mana consumption but does a lot of damage sooner.
If you've got a fast attack speed you're going to leave out, well, basically everything but Steady Shot.
If you count the number of "Damage Pointers" you'll see that the same number of attacks happens in each so both wind up being perfectly valid choices for shot rotation - but it does depend greatly on the gear that you actually have.
Back to Damage Per Mana (Rotation Cost)
If we look at the two "good" rotations we've got one final concern which is the final cost.
Rotation 1 (Slow) =
Steady / Arcane / Steady / Steady / Multi (or Arcane with Improved Arcane Shot)
Which in Mana Cost is =
110 + 230 + 110 + 110 + 275 = 835
Rotation 2 (Fast) =
Steady / Auto / Steady / Auto / Steady / Auto / Steady / Auto
110 + 110 + 110 + 110 = 440
In the end, we have the Marksman's (Slow) Shot Rotation hitting 9 times in about 10 seconds for the cost of 835 mana. In that same amount of time, the BM (fast rotation) hunter is hitting 9 times for the cost of 440 Mana. There are a number of talent choices that alter this - Efficiency for example would reduce the cost of the slow rotation to about 750. Many Survival Talents reduce the cost of this by some factor that I�ve not actually worked out (If I were to estimate it would reduce the cost by about 40% of your crit rating = 10% with 40% crit).
What is Shot Rotation?
In its simplest terms, Shot Rotation is the order in which you choose to fire your special shots. Many hunters in WOW start off as 'mad button mashers' hitting whatever button doesn't have a 'little spinney clock thing' on top of it.
What that "young hunter" doesn't understand is the damage they do can be greatly increased by just hitting the buttons in a different order.
Scope
This guide is not here to tell you what the best shot rotation is. There are too many factors that influence that (Weapon Speed, Talents, Haste Effects). Better to understand the factors, understand the goals of a good shot rotation and then decide which one is best for your current set-up.
The Concepts
There are some building blocks that you need to understand before you can really get into thinking about shot rotation.
Cooldown: This is one you should be used to already. This is the time between casting any individual ability and casting that same ability again.
Global Cooldown: Also known as GCD. This is the minimum time between casting one spell and any other spell.
DPS: Damage Per Second. Hopefully this is self explanatory, your DPS is the amount of damage you do to an enemy in 1 second of time.
DPM: Damage Per Mana. This one is a more advanced concept, not because it is difficult to understand but because you've got to crack out a calculator to figure it out. DPM can also be thought of as efficiency.
DPM is important when dealing with any fight that has the potential to use all of your mana. Once you run out of mana, your DPS drops significantly.
Visually, the shots look like this:
We're going to skip the DPM of Aimed shot for now (you'll see why later on). For now, let us look at a few calculations. These calculations assume the hunter has 2000 Ranged Attack Power.
First, looking at the Serpent Sting, at maximum rank it does 660 Damage over 15 seconds, for 275 mana. The effective DPS of your Serpent Sting is 44. The DPM: 2.4.
Second, we have Arcane Shot, (15% of Attack Power + 273) for 230 Mana. More difficult to calculate the DPS of the shot as it is instant � in this case I will calculate it based on the GCD it triggers (1.5s). The effective DPS of your arcane shot (with 2000 AP) is 382 the DPM: 2.49.
Thirdly, we'll look at Steady Shot, (20% of Attack Power + 150 + Normalized Weapon Damage) for 110 Mana with a 1.5 second cast time and no ability cool down time. On a reasonably obtainable weapon like Valanos' Longbow you have a an effective DPS of 411 with a DPM score of 5.60.
Serpent Sting: 44 DPS 2.4 DPM
Arcane Shot: 382 DPS 2.49 DPM
Steady Shot: 411 DPS 5.60 DPM
Finally, looking at Auto Shot, we know that it does weapon damage plus attack power plus ammunition power (referred to as Normalized Weapon DPS) but since it costs NOTHING, it is your most efficient attack. The DPM is INFINITE.
Auto Shot: Normalized Weapon DPS *INFINITE* DPM
There are, of course, all the other ones to worry about but it's more effort than we need. Three things to take away from this:
#1 � For doing damage, your Auto Shot is the most efficient
#2 � For doing damage, Serpent Sting is your least valuable shot
#3 � For doing damage, Steady Shot is your most valuable special shot
So what are we "Shooting For"?
The ideal shot rotation would probably look something like the above picture. Over time, you would shoot things in the following order:
Steady / Arcane / Auto / Steady / Kill Command (if available) / Auto Steady / Multi (if no Crowd Control) [repeat]
There are a number of things that can go wrong with 'the perfect shot rotation'. Some of the biggest variables can't really be controlled. Human Reaction Time & Lag can prevent you from getting it exactly right. As long as you know what you're trying for you're going to be miles ahead of the competition.
And what about the other guys?
The above might seem obvious when you look at it, but compare to what happens if you pick the same set of shots in a different order.
One hunter told me he always liked to fire his instant shots first � they just feel faster so they've got to be better - but, look at the space between Auto Shots. Any time the Auto Shot is not counting up is a waste of time on your most efficient shot.
The (sort of) Myth of a Fast Weapon
If you have a bad rotation, you're going to be doing less than your optimal damage. A slower weapon is more forgiving of bad rotation, as slower weapon is more forgiving of LAG and Human Reaction Time but isn't necessarily better.
Recall that the most efficient shot you have is Auto Shot. The second most efficient shot is Steady.
Imagine if your weapon & talents allowed you to ONLY use the two best shots that exist for a hunter. You'd be working with the best possible damage per mana, which means you'll still be shooting when others are out of mana. The reality of a fast bow speed (or so it would seem) is that if you adjust the shot rotation you can do the same or even more damage over the longer term.
One trap you can fall into with all that time before the Auto Shot goes off is starting a new Steady Shot too early - this is bad.
Although Aimed Shot does a good amount of damage, it resets the Auto Shot timer. In the time you are casting ONE Aimed Shot you could have cast:
1. Auto Shot
2. Steady Shot
3. Arcane Shot
And you'd be most of the way through casting another Steady and Auto Shot. Essentially, shooting *ONE* Aimed Shot costs about the same as shooting almost *FIVE* other shots, though it only does the damage of about two. It does however retain its value for when you are initiating combat with a misdirect or in PVP.
Summary
At the end of it all, Shot Rotation comes down to two things:
#1 - Choosing the Most valuable shot you currently have available
#2 - Minimizing time spent not 'casting'
If you've got a slow attack speed - you will have enough time to safely fit a Second Special into every second or third set of shots - that is less efficient in terms of mana consumption but does a lot of damage sooner.
If you've got a fast attack speed you're going to leave out, well, basically everything but Steady Shot.
If you count the number of "Damage Pointers" you'll see that the same number of attacks happens in each so both wind up being perfectly valid choices for shot rotation - but it does depend greatly on the gear that you actually have.
Back to Damage Per Mana (Rotation Cost)
If we look at the two "good" rotations we've got one final concern which is the final cost.
Rotation 1 (Slow) =
Steady / Arcane / Steady / Steady / Multi (or Arcane with Improved Arcane Shot)
Which in Mana Cost is =
110 + 230 + 110 + 110 + 275 = 835
Rotation 2 (Fast) =
Steady / Auto / Steady / Auto / Steady / Auto / Steady / Auto
110 + 110 + 110 + 110 = 440
In the end, we have the Marksman's (Slow) Shot Rotation hitting 9 times in about 10 seconds for the cost of 835 mana. In that same amount of time, the BM (fast rotation) hunter is hitting 9 times for the cost of 440 Mana. There are a number of talent choices that alter this - Efficiency for example would reduce the cost of the slow rotation to about 750. Many Survival Talents reduce the cost of this by some factor that I�ve not actually worked out (If I were to estimate it would reduce the cost by about 40% of your crit rating = 10% with 40% crit).
