Hunter PVE DPS Tricks, Tips, and everything else 3.08

by Agiri of Boulderfist (US)
significant portions of this guide originally by Reverance of Alleria (US) (at level 70)



Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Frequently Asked Questions
3. Talents **builds finished, specifics on talents under construction**
4. Itemization Basics
5 . Pet Basics
6. Rotations: Shots and Stings
7. User Interface/Addons/Macros **under construction**
8. Pre-Raid Gear List
9. Gems, Glyphs and Enchants
10. Known Hunter Bugs / Issues
11. Links **under construction**


News: Currently updating for 3.0.8 Next up is Talents, then Macros and Links.



1. Introduction

Hunters are the only ranged, physical damage dealing class in WoW. Hunters combine the best damage dealing in the game with above average Crowd Control and raid utility. A skilled hunter progresses his or her group quickly through trash and bosses alike with a minimum of fuss, depending on a mix of ranged shots, deadly personalized pets and occasional devastating melee swings. Hunters are a class which scales dramatically with player skill- the more you know and the better you get, the more you will get out of your hunter. The intent of this guide is to help you do exactly that.

If you find a mistake in the guide, politely point it out in the comments and I will be happy to fix the problem. If you disagree with my recommendations on talents, gear or pets, you are more than welcome to make your objections know. Keep it polite and have hard math to back it up, though, or I'll be happy to tear into you. This is a step above the rest of the hunter forums - not a place for you to say "Some lvl 70 on the EU forums thinks that so and so is such and such, so you're wrong". This guide is to teach, not to flame and argue. Keep it clean and keep it helpful.



2. Frequently Asked Questions

I need a Steady Shot macro!

In Wrath of the Lich King, a “shot macro” is no longer required in order to maximize hunter damage. That said, there is still benefit to using macros. See the UI/Addons/Macro section for more information.

I want to do a lot of damage. Is this a good class for me?

Hunters are one of the 4 “pure dps” classes, and so are designed by Blizzard to produce reliably high dps in the hands of a capable player. However, rogues, warlocks and mages are also designed for high damage, and a player who wishes to top damage charts but who finds pet management and shot rotations too difficult or not fun may enjoy another dps class more.

I want to be helpful to my group. Is this a good class for me?

Hunters bring a fair amount of utility to a group. Tenacity pets are quite capable offtanks, and can even main tank in some circumstances (all WotLK 5-mans have been tanked by hunter pets). A hunter of any spec can use Misdirection to pull monsters from range and send them directly to the tank, and depending on spec, hunters bring either a 3% damage buff, a 10% attack power buff, or a mana replenishment buff to the group.

Is it possible to play a melee-oriented Hunter?

It is possible, but not optimal. Again it is possible but neglecting ranged attacks and utility is even worse than neglecting your pet. Hunter melee is designed around delivering a heavy burst of damage while snaring or rooting your opponent with the goal of moving back to range. Hunters have no facility for sustained melee damage.

I’ve heard a lot about “trap dancing”. What is that? What's it for?

Trap Dancing is a style of Survival hunter play that depends on dropping Immolation traps at frequent intervals in order to increase the number of Lock ‘N Load procs and therefore Explosive Shots. It is a dps increase in theory, but more time and testing is required before I will pass judgment on whether or not it is viable on live server boss fights.

What's the best race for hunters?

Dwarves, Orcs, Draenai and Trolls have excellent PVE abilities, while Night Elves, Dwarves, Tauren and Orcs have good PVP abilities. Every race has interesting perks and can be effective in any environment.

What talent spec should I be?

Any of the three trees can be effective when played well, though their strengths differ. For more information, see the Talents section of this guide.

Beast Mastery - Generally best personal DPS against single targets. Ferocious Inspiration gives +3% damage to the entire raid, magic users included.

Marksmanship - High PvP control and burst damage. Solid sustained damage against multiple targets. True-Shot Aura is a raid-wide +10% Attack Power boost.

Survival - Good personal damage. Excellent crowd control. Replenishment regens mana for your raid every time you crit.

What's the spec for leveling?

Hunters level quickly no matter what spec you choose. Both Beast Mastery and Marksmanship are solid leveling specs, especially once you have either 31 point talent. Survival requires a lot of talent points and appropriate gear for the synergy to kick in.

What's the best pet?

Refer to the Pet section of this guide, or head on over to petopia.brashendeavors.net. The short answer is Cat or Raptor for PVE dps.

What happens to my tamed exotic pet when I change specs?
Your pet will sit in your stable and wait for you to love him enough to take him out again.

Common talent builds:

(All assume you can reach the hitcap through gear alone - see Itemization section for more details on the hitcap). In each of these builds I take 1/3 Imp. Monkey to reach the 3rd tier of the BM tree- that is purely personal preference. Many hunters prefer 1/5 Endurance Training.

BM 50/21: This spec is no longer recommended for serious PVE, due to the "nerf" which prevents Readiness from resetting the cooldown of Bestial Wrath.



BM 50/14/7 : http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxdMzxtRwu0ekx0eVoZx00b
This is the top BM spec currently, but MM and SV both do better dps.

Pure raid 15/51/5 MM: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbMzLZ0eAfMhzMxoxhiox
This is the current top MM spec.

PVE 11/53/7 MM with PVP abilities: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxdMzZ0eAbRhzGxoguVox00b
This build picks up Aimed and Silencing shot for more PVP capability.

Mana-efficient 15/51/5 MM: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbMzLZ0eAbMIzMxoghVox
Only use this MM spec if you have severe mana issues in PVE. Both MM specs above this will do more damage.

iAotH SV 2/18/51 Trapdancing/Sniper Training hybrid: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cbZ0eVozhZe00i0cIhxdAhsz
This build allows the use of the imp Aspect of the Hawk glyph. It is the current *theorycrafted* maxdps build, and allows both trap dancing and sniper training as the situation warrants. It does not take hunting party- if your raid depends on you for replenishment, you will have to choose between ST and traps.

iAotH SV 6/14/51 w/ Sniper Training: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cxoZ0eVoZe00i0cIhxdAhsz
This build is better dps than the one above if you are far from the hastecap (<160 haste).

Itemization: Understanding Stats

Quick Reference

1 Stamina = 10 Health
1 Intellect = 15 Mana

1 Attack Power = 1 Ranged Attack Power & 1 Melee Attack Power
1 Strength = 1 Melee Attack Power

1 Agility = 1 Ranged Attack Power
1 Agility = 2 Armor
30 Agility = 1% Dodge
88 Agility = 1% Crit


Rating System

Hit, Haste, Critical Strike, Armor Penetration and Resilience are represented in both rating and percentage form. The conversion formula from rating -> percent changes based on your level and the stat involved. The higher your level, the more rating you need to achieve the same percent. Ratings Buster is a good addon that breaks down the ratings into %’s so you don’t have to. For convenience, there is also a table here:

32.79 Hit Rating = 1% Hit
32.79 Haste Rating = 1% Haste
45.91 Critical Strike Rating = 1% Crit
15.40 Armor Penetration = 1% armor ignored
82.00 Resilience Rating = -1% chance to be Crit, -1% damage taken from DoTs, -2% damage taken from Crits


Critting, Hitting, and Missing

Ranged attacks can either crit, hit, or miss. (They can be blocked too, but you can ignore that). They cannot be dodged or parried, so Expertise -- the stat which lowers dodges and parries -- is useless to us. (Incidentally, Expertise does not transfer to pets either).

Hunter theorycrafters believe that a "two roll" attack system is used for ranged shots. That is, for each shot you make, the server “rolls” two numbers. The first roll decides whether your shot missed entirely. If it didn't miss, the server rolls again to determine whether the shot hits or crits. This implies that having hit rating that is below the cap will actually decrease your crit chance as well (i.e. if your chance to miss is 5% and your chance to crit is 30%, your actual chance to crit is 28.5%)


Eliminating Misses

As you can see, hit rating is very important for a hunter. Fortunately, gear with hit rating on it is fairly easy to obtain, and there are talents to help out as well. So how much do you need?

Base chance to miss depends on your target's level compared to your own:

+0 level - 5% miss
+1 level - 5.5% miss
+2 level - 6% miss
+3 level - 8% miss

Yes, that IS suddenly an extra 2% going from two to three levels higher. Raid bosses -- with the skull for a level -- are treated as +3 targets.

The talent Focused Aim adds 1% Hit per point (for a maximum +3%) which is not reflected on paper doll stats. FA is a good talent with which to maximize your hit if necessary, but it is not advised to use FA if you can cap hit through gear. Unlike hit from gear, hit from FA does not transfer to your pet, and there is some evidence that using FA results in a lower chance to crit (remember that 2-roll system?).

The good news is that there is lots of gear with hit rating on it. Every 32.79 hit rating grants another 1% hit at 80. To stop missing against raid bosses, you need:

263 hit rating - normal
230 hit rating – with Draenai aura
164 hit rating - with 3/3 FA
131 hit rating – with 3/3 FA and Draenai aura

(In PVP you need only 5% hit, or 164 without FA or aura)


Attack Power and Crit Synergy

Attack Power increases the damage of your hits and your crits. Crit chance increases frequency of crits. Both stats become more valuable as the other stat improves. 1% Crit means more at 2000 Attack Power than at 1500 Attack Power. 100 Attack Power means more at 30% Crit than 20% Crit. Many Hunters have trouble seeing both directions at first. This misunderstanding can make those with really high Attack Power continue to favor Attack Power, or those with really high Crit continue to favor Crit. Best results come from favoring the lacking stat.

It can be hard to tell which combination of Attack Power and Crit is best, given your current stats and talents. Use of a spreadsheet like the one linked at the end of this guide is essential for making the most of your gear and maximizing dps.


Attack Power

Attack Power is the stat that makes individual hits and crits show big numbers. The exact contribution of Attack Power for any particular attack varies by that attack's formula. See the 'Shots and Stings' section of this guide for details.

Critical Strike Chance

Crit stat increases frequency of crits, not damage done by individual crits. Untalented, crits deal double damage compared to normal hits. With 5/5 Mortal Shots, they deal 2.3 times normal damage. Improved Tracking, Noxious Stings and Focused Fire all add to normal damage, and therefore crit damage as well. The Relentless Earthsiege Diamond metagem adds 3% crit damage.

Agility

Agility is good for ranged damage because it adds to both Attack Power and Crit simultaneously, taking advantage of the synergy between those stats. Survival Hunters gain an extra 15% total Agility from Lightning Reflexes and 1/4 of total Agility becomes Attack Power for SV hunters and their pets when Expose Weakness is up.

In The Burning Crusade, hunters typically socketed agility gems over any other sort, figuring that raw agility was a dps increase over socket bonuses or the advantages of attack power. In Wrath of the Lich King, the situation has reversed. The addition of raidwide +10% AP buffs has made Attack Power gems the new standbys. Survival hunters will still find Agility gems to be better, though.

Haste

If reaching hitcap is a PVE hunter's first priority, then reaching the haste "softcap" should be their second!

The "haste softcap" is the amount of haste required to reduce the cast time of Steady Shot from the base 2.0 seconds to the Global Cool Down of 1.5 seconds.


Haste does not change damage done by individual Shots. When a Shot's formula calls for ranged weapon speed, it's asking for the unchanging speed listed on that weapon's tooltip. Haste reduces the time between Auto Shots and the cast time of Steady Shot. Divide current time by 1 + Haste to find the new time. For example, a 2.0 sec cast with 20% Haste increase:

2.0 / (1.20) = 1.67 sec

Multiple Haste effects are multiplied together. Haste Rating from gear is added together, converted to a percent, and used as a single Haste effect to be multiplied with the other Haste effects. Let's apply Serpent's Swiftness (+20%), Rapid Fire (+40%), and Improved Aspect of the Hawk (+15%) to that same 2.0 sec cast:

2.0 / ( 1.20 * 1.40 * 1.15 ) = 1.03 sec

Through some fairly simple math, we see that BM hunters are softcapped right out of the box with 5/5 Serpent's Swiftness and a +15% quiver. MM and SV hunters, however, have a 15% quiver and no talents, so they require 523 haste to soft-cap.

It's not as bad as it sounds, though- imp Aspect of the Hawk helps quite a bit, as does its glyph, and there is plenty of haste on entry level gear in WotLK. iAotH is worth 98.37 haste per point when it is active, and the glyph adds 196.74 to that. In other words, the beginning MM or SV hunter can take just 1 point in iAotH and be assured of 295 haste on a regular basis!

Intellect

Each point of Intellect adds 15 to mana capacity, and 1 AP with 3/3 Careful Aim.

Stamina

Stamina adds to health (1 stam = 10 hp, without modifiers) and is modified by the Tauren racial (+5% health) and the talent Endurance Training (+1% per rank). The talent Survivalist adds +2% stamina per rank, and is required for the talent Hunter Versus Wild, which turns stamina in attack power for the hunter and pet.

Magical Resistances

Reduces damage from a school of magic by a certain percent. Your raid leaders should let you know about any resistance expectations.

MP5, Spell Power & Spirit
These stats are effectively useless for Hunters and are not worth stacking.

Pet Basics

Taming a Pet

At level 10, you will be directed to a particular class trainer depending on race. If you are above level 10 and do not yet have a pet, check www.wowhead.com for information on the quest "Taming the Beast" specific to your race and starting area.

At this point you can tame nearly anything with 'Beast' on its tooltip. There are some exceptions such as fish. You must also find a beast at your own level or below.

To tame a beast, simply select it and click 'Tame Beast.' Several things will happen. The beast will attack you, your armor will drop to zero, and you will start a 20 second spell channel. If any other player pulls aggro on the beast, taming will fail.

Taming tips

* Clear the area of any other mobs or hostile players.
* Start at max taming range: 30 yards. Farther if pulling with a Shot.
* Once you have Freezing Trap, lay one down before starting.
* Concussive Shot will slow the beast's approach.
* Scorpid Sting and Aspect of the Monkey reduce damage taken.
* Have some food ready to use right after taming. Otherwise it may run away.

Sometimes taming will still fail for unknown reasons. Run away or Feign Death to reset the mob and try again. Once taming succeeds, you can rename your pet once by right clicking its portrait and selecting 'Rename'.


Happiness

Pets have a special "status" known as Happiness. There are three levels of Happiness shown by the face icon next to the pet's health bar:

* Happy - green smiling face. Pet does 125% of normal damage
* Content - yellow neutral face. Pet does normal damage
* Unhappy - red frowning face. Pet does 75% of normal damage

Increase Happiness by feeding your pet. The Mend Pet minor glyph also grants your pet 20 Happiness each time you use it - not much, but it can be helpful. Happiness is lost when your pet dies (big amount), when you cast Dismiss Pet (small amount), or just by having it out at all (slow trickle). Tell your pet to stay then run away from it to cause a no-penalty dismissal.

Feeding

Depending on your pet's family (e.g. a Boar or Serpent), it will only eat particular types of food. Usually one to three from the following list: Fish, Meat, Fruit, Fungus, Cheese, Bread. At level 24, you'll learn a new spell 'Beast Lore' which lists the kind of foods the targeted Beast likes. Nearly every kind of pet will either eat Meat or Bread. Food that is within 10 levels of your pet will grant 35 Happiness/tick. After feeding, wait the 20 seconds out before feeding again, or the extra food just goes to waste.


Leveling

If you choose to tame a pet that is much lower level than you, the pet will automatically level up to 5 levels below you. When you kill a monster that would normally grant you experience, your pet gains experience. Just be sure to kill non-gray mobs.

Pets don't benefit from the rest bonus or quest experience. Nor can pets start working on a level you haven't finished gaining yourself. For these reasons, it isn't practical to level multiple pets simultaneously.


Focus

Instead of mana, pets use Focus which is very similar to a Rogue's Energy bar. Focus ticks up by 24 points every four seconds. Normal “white” attacks don't consume any Focus. When a pet uses more focus than it can regenerate, it is referred to as “focus-starved”. This condition is bad for dps, but fortunately there are ways to avoid it.

The hunter talent 'Bestial Discipline' increases pet focus regen by 12 focus / 4 sec per point, to a maximum of 48 focus / 4 seconds. The hunter talent 'Go for the Throat' grants your pet an extra 25 focus per point every time you get a ranged crit.

A common mistake made by MM and SV hunters is to neglect Go for the Throat in favor of other talents. Don’t do this. Even though MM and SV specs depend less on their pets than BM, that pet is still a significant portion of a hunter’s dps, and it is a mistake not to help it along.


Pet Talents

Pets have talent trees similar to the trees that players use. Unlike players, pets can only have points in one tree, and the tree they use is determined by their type. For instance, Cats are dps pets that use the Ferocity tree, while Wind Serpents are utility pets that use the Cunning tree. The pet tanking tree is Tenacity, and is used by pets such as gorillas and bears.

Sample Pet Talent Builds

Ferocity (non-exotic / 51 point BM): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc=chd00scz0hoo
Call of the Wild should be used during Bloodlust to provide a greater benefit to the raid.

Tenacity (non-exotic / 51 point BM): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc=M0bG0bu0b0o
Cunning (non-exotic / 51 point BM): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc=MRboz0ch0rzo

Tenacity dps (scorpid): http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc=M0d0u0uzboo

The 51 BM talent gives an additional 4 pet talent points. These points don't add anything for dps for a ferocity pet, but they are good for tanking pets or for adding survivability to any pet.


Pet Skills

Every pet has access to Growl, Cower, and a damage-dealing “focus dump”. Each pet also has a unique ability based on pet family, as well as other potential abilities gained from pet talents.

Growl costs 15 Focus on a 5 second cooldown. Growling generates extra threat but does not force mobs to attack your pet.

Cower costs no focus and is on a 20 second cooldown. It does the opposite of Growl: lowers your pet's threat against its target.

The focus dumps are Smack, Bite, and Claw (depending on pet). Each costs 25 Focus with no cooldown, and does a small amount of damage, modified by your pet’s attack power.


Pet Control

Any time your pet is out, a new action bar will appear: the Petbar. Keybinds are listed as 'Secondary Action Button' 1-10. Slash commands also work in macros: /petattack, /petfollow, /petstay, /petaggressive, /petdefensive, /petpassive.

Set easy keybinds for /petattack and /petfollow. An important part of keeping your pet alive is pulling it back out of dangerous AoE pulses.

Most of the time -- particularly in PvE -- your pet should be set to Follow and Passive. Take care when jumping down ledges, crossing bridges, or climbing stairs in PvE. Pets sometimes path oddly and can aggro a bunch of mobs.

The middle of the pet bar is reserved for pet skills. Drag skills from the Pet tab of your spellbook and rearrange to your convenience. Right-clicking a skill in either place will toggle automatic mode on and off.

Choosing a Pet

Beast Family

The key to pet performance is beast family. Beast family is now the only distinction between pets. "A Cat is a Cat," as some like to put it. Things which do not affect performance:

* Level at which it was tamed
* Stats revealed by Beast Lore before taming
* Whether it was an Elite, Rare, or named mob
* Model or color

Beast family matters and that's it.


Family Multipliers and Skills

Each pet has a positive modifier for 2 or 3 of the following: pet Damage, Health, and Armor. Which modifiers the pet gets depend on the role the pet fills. For instance, Tenacity pets such as Scorpids have a +5% armor modifier and a +10% health modifier. Ferocity pets like cats have a +10% damage modifier and a +5% health modifier. These multipliers affect everything, not just base stats.

As mentioned in 'Pet Basics', many skills are tied to a certain family or set of families. Skills available to a particular family have a profound impact on that family's total damage and utility, beyond what the multipliers alone might suggest.

Warning: a few specific beasts have so-called "caster stats." Their mana stats are high while physical stats are low. Avoid taming beasts with a mana bar. Happily, all pet families are available in non-caster versions.


Beast Family Reference

Popular Families

Cats, Devilsaurs (exotic) and Raptors are all excellent DPS families. They share a 10% Damage multiplier and have excellent damage-dealing special abilities. Cats currently dish out the most damage of any Ferocity pets in PVE, followed closely by Raptors.

Scorpids were a popular dps pet at the release of WotLK due to their stacking poison and scaling with raid buffs, but they were nerfed heavily in patch 3.0.8. Scorpids are not a recommended dps pet any longer.

Wasps were bugged at wotlk release, but have been fixed and are a viable option for 5-mans and possibly raids. Sting special prevents rogues from stealthing and can supply your party or raid with a minor armor debuff similar to the one that a warlock or druid can bring.

Wolves are another “utility” pet, even though they are considered “ferocity”, they do less damage than ferocity pets with damaging specials. However, Howl increases party damage, at least for those in range. Be aware that Howl does not stack with a warrior’s Battle Shout or a Pally’s Blessing of Might.

Gorillas are another popular pet. They are great for leveling and solo farming. The AoE threat of Thunderstomp allows you to pull large packs of mobs and defeat them singlehandedly.


Further Information

See petopia.brashendeavors.net for more information about specific pets, where to tame them, and what skills they can use.

Rotations: Shots and Stings

Quick Reference

Shot rotations for maximum dps by spec:

BM will always be a tight rotation: Serpent > Arcane > Steady x3 > Arcane > Steady x3 > Arcane > Steady x3 > Serpent

MM will depend on haste: Serpent > Chimera > Arcane > Steady x4 or 5 > Chimera (MM without Imp Steady should use Arcane on cooldown)

SV: Serpent > Explosive > Steady x4 > Explosive > Steady x4 > Explosive > Serpent

SV differs from BM and MM rotations in that it is a priority rotation. At any point that you get a Lock 'N Load proc, you immediately fire Explosive > Steady > Explosive >Steady > Explosive and then resume your normal rotation.

If you have mana to spare, you can spec Aimed Shot and replace a Steady Shot every 6 seconds in all rotations. Aimed does more damage than Steady, but costs double the mana. If you start needing to go into Viper, leave Aimed out of the rotation.


Shot Damage Formula

Auto Shot
BowMax + (AttackPower/14)*BowSpeed + Ammo + Scope

Steady Shot
(2.8 / BowSpeed) * BowMax + 0.1*Attack Power + 252 + Ammo

Steady Shot (Dazed)
(2.8 / BowSpeed) * BowMax + 0.1*Attack Power + 427 + Ammo

Chimera Shot (Nature Damage)
(1.25)(Bowmax + (AP /14)* Bowspeed + Ammo + Scope)

Explosive Shot (Fire Damage)
(AttackPower)*( 0.16) + 516 + Ammo (every second for 2 seconds - 3 ticks total)

Multi-Shot
BowMax + 2.8*(Attack Power/14) + Ammo + Scope + 408

Aimed Shot
BowMax + (Attack Power/14) + Ammo + Scope + 408

Arcane Shot
0.15*Attack Power + 492


Silencing Shot & Scatter Shot
AutoShotMax / 2

Volley Tick
505 + 0.1*Attackpower


Substitute 'BowMin' for 'BowMax' to find lower bounds. Steady, Multi, Aimed, Arcane, and Volley have a rank based bonus. Formulas given above reflect top rank bonuses.

Note: Above formulas are before general multipliers like Ranged Weapon Specialization, Focus Fire, and Armor mitigation. Multipliers can be applied in any order.


Weapon Tooltip Stats

The min damage, max damage, speed, and DPS listed on a ranged weapon's tooltip are all used in Shot formulas. BowDPS is really just the average of BowMin and BowMax divided by BowSpeed.


Scopes and Ammunition

Scope and Ammo represent how much each is raising damage per shot. Diamond-Cut Refractor Scopes, for example, have a modifier of 15. Crit, haste and Hit scopes have a modifier of 0.

Shells and Arrows also boost per-shot damage like scopes, but their modifier scales with BowSpeed. Terrorshaft Arrow, for example, adds 46.5 damage per second. This really means 46.5 weapon damage per second of BowSpeed. So for a 2.9 second bow: 46.5 * 2.9 = 134 Ammo modifier.

Steady Shot and Arcane Shot ignore bonus damage from scopes, which is the main reason that most hunters get crit or haste scopes instead of +damage scopes.


Stings

Hunters have 4 different "stings" in their arsenal. Each applies a Poison debuff to a target. Only one sting per hunter may be active on any one target at a time. One hunter can have multiple stings up simultaneously on different targets. Stings do not benefit from crit, Imp Tracking, or Ranged Weapon Specialization. They do benefit from Improved Stings, Noxious Stings, and Focused Fire.

Serpent Sting
Serpent Sting is the main damage dealing sting. It ticks 5 times over 15 seconds, doing a total amount equal to:
Attack Power * 0.2 + 1210
Improved Stings multiplies this total damage by another 30%, and Glyph of Serpent Sting adds another tick of damage that does equal damage to the first 5. The glyph does not reduce the damage of any tick.

Serpent Sting is a fundamental part of a PVE hunter’s rotation. Glyph of Steady Shot adds +10% damage to your Steady Shot if you have a sting on the target.

Scorpid Sting

A 20 second non-damaging debuff that turns 3% of the target's ranged and melee attacks into full out misses. This includes most special attacks. Look at it as buffing the tank (and everyone else) with an extra 3% Dodge.

Viper Sting

Viper Sting drains 16% of the target's mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 32% of the hunter''s maximum mana). Improved Stings increases it to 21% drained. Viper Sting will break crowd control such as Freezing Traps.

Wyvern Sting

Wyvern Sting puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds. When the sleep ends, for any reason, the sting does 2082 damage over 6 seconds. Improved Stings multiplies damage by another 30%. Though short, extra crowd control is always welcome.