Hunter AEP, version 2

[Arcazua]

In January, I worked through an equivalency system for helping to decide which gear is best for a hunter. It was crude, but it was fairly decent for one particular gear point and without talents considered, and many people have used it as a starting point for how to evaluate gear until they came up with their own preferences and/or weights.

The idea is simple: For any given hunter, 100 points of attack power is worth so many points of agility. Perhaps 50. And it's worth so many points of crit rating. Perhaps 65. And it will be worth so much of any other stat we can possibly dream up. At some point, you're going to say "I'd rather have that much of X over this much of Y." And we're just trying to figure out how much X and how little Y you need to make the switch.

The original HAEP (hunter agility equivalence points) used the following basic conversions:
Agi = 10 points
AP = 6 points
Crit rating = 8 points
Int = 5 points
MP5 = 10 points
Hit rating = 13.5 points

Add up the total points on an item, and use the one that's higher.

However, it ignored too many things, made certain assumptions I can see now are not reasonable, and based itself exclusively around a gearset that does not in the least resemble what most Karazhan+ geared hunters have now.

As a result, many hunters (on this board and elsewhere) have used these ideas as a starting point, and then made adjustments. For example, a survival hunter might increase the value of agility and crit, and lower the value of int, MP5, and hit rating. Some people gave stamina a weight, which I simply wrote off as subjective. And as gear improved, people *had* to make it their own. Many people were able to point out other flaws in the system, as a huge now-18 page thread raged.

So this is my attempt to try again and get it right. I was trying to be too general, and without enough knowledge of post-BC WoW at the time.

Enough foreplay...



In this thread, my initial posts will include:
-This post
-What you need to do to create your weights
-Some sample weights for common builds
-Finally the math behind where I got all of this. (quite a few posts)

It is not simple, and a spreadsheet is probably in order, but my hope is maybe it can be the basis of something more. I'm also writing this part before doing the math, so hopefully a lot of things will simplify. I know how many variables are involved, and I may cut a corner here and there when I consider it justified.

I also want to note that I have used the word "I" to refer to the work done here and elsewhere in the thread, as well as taking entire credit for the original HAEP system. While I suppose if anyone can lay claim to the system, it would be me, it would not be where it is without the TKA community and the people who both support it and try to help adjust it as necessary. My thanks go out to the theorycrafters who look over my work, to folks like Arcuss who make mods based on this information, and simply for anyone who finds AEP useful and reliable.

[Arcazua]

HOW TO FIND YOUR OWN AEP WEIGHTS (feel free to skip to next post)


I may write out the actual equations, but in the meanwhile, feel free to use this spreadsheet instead.




Items not explicitly considered in AEP 2 (as of yet):

Feign-drinking
Improved Aspect of the Hawk
Using another rotation (which I disapprove of for PvE)
Barrage talents
Pet attacks that scale with AP
Value of stamina

and probably others that I'll add to the list eventually.

[Arcazua]

So in essence, there are three builds, Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival. Of course, we know that there are multiple ways to do up any one of these archetypes, and there are a few hybrids out there like the 0/31/30, but that's a quick-and-dirty explanation.


I'm going to go in reverse order for a change cause Survival is always put last. And because the spreadsheet I rigged up to do my taxes for me already has my own talents present.


SURVIVAL:

I use a 0/21/40 spec. Using a moderately standard set of numbers, 1800 RAP and 30% crit, for a 6 minute battle with 7k mana, would yield the following:

AP = 0.241
CR = 0.299
Agi = 0.527
HR = 0.447*
MP5 = 2.067*
Int = 0.431*

If I normalize this to an agi value of 10, I get weights of roughly AP - 4.5, Crit - 5.7, Agi - 10, HR - 8.5, MP5 - 39, Int - 8

* denotes that the value should probably actually be zero.



MARKSMANSHIP:

There are different styles of marks builds. But the numbers I'm giving assume you don't go deep enough to get Unleashed Fury or Survival Instincts. In other words, a 41+ marks build that isn't 20/41/0. Changing AP value to 2000 and crit to 20%, I get:

AP - 0.233
CR - 0.326
Agi - 0.421
HR - 0.433
MP5 - 1.762
Int - 0.500

This includes Combat Experience, to fully reflect the change in int values. Normalizing to agi=10, the weights become: AP - 5.5, CR - 7.7, Agi - 10, HR - 10.3, MP5 - 42, Int - 11.9

Yes, that's right. Assuming you will indeed run out of mana, int is actually doing more for a marks build than agi. (0.133 is the value for int if we are unconcerned with mana, btw, which is about a third of agi.)



BEAST MASTERY:

Going to assume a 41/20 type build here.

AP - 0.266
CR - 0.398
Agi - 0.485
HR - 0.539
MP5 - 1.745
Int - 0.364

Normalized, this becomes AP - 5.5, Crit - 8.2, Agi - 10, HR - 11, MP5 - 36, Int - 7.5


THE 31/30:

I know someone will complain if I don't at least glance at the most popular hybrid out there, so here's your beloved 31/30 with 2000 RAP and 25% crit.

AP - 0.235
CR - 0.326
Agi - 0.476
HR - 0.456
MP5 - 1.855
Int - 0.396

Normalized: AP - 5, CR - 6.8, agi - 10, HR - 9.5, MP5 - 39, Int - 8.1



It should also be noted that Beast Mastery was the most likely to run out of mana, lasting about 240 seconds into the fight by my standards. Marksmanship (and 31/30) ran for around 360 seconds, and surv was good for about another minute beyond that.

Because players not using BM often try to use other shot patterns, this *might* not be considered accurate, however I will maintain that I still think a steady-only rotation is what players ought to be doing.


I do find a few of these figures alarming, however. I would have felt much better if int had been closer to 2/3 or less of agility's value. It's uncomfortable how high it is, and this might require looking into feign-drinking.

[Arcazua]

DERIVING THE VALUES...


Let's start off with our hunter and what (s)he does. We will ignore pet DPS at first...yes, it's important, but understanding the hunter first is essential.

For your hunter to do decent DPS in a sustained environment, which ultimately is what we care about, your hunter will be using a TON of steady shots. It very well might be your only special you use unless you're trying to get "OMG right now" damage or you have Barrage talents.

ASSUMPTION #1: The best damage for any character, until Blizzard makes much slower weapons that our current at-most-3.1, is to stick one special between each autoshot. For mana's sake, let us further assume that the only shot that is ever worth replacing Steady Shot is rank 1 Multi, and that we use this when it becomes available.

I could hash out my reasoning behind this, but you're getting enough BS from me. Suffice it to say, I have my reasons for this, and I don't feel this is an unreasonable statement. I just don't feel like justifying it here.

So multi-steady-steady-steady-steady-multi, with autoshots between each, will be the rotation we will work from. (And maybe one less steady shot.) It is important we consider this now, because it not only affects some minutiae about the basic damage stats, it has a dramatic effect on mana regeneration and the need for it.


So let's understand what our damage will be doing:

Every ~10 seconds, we will fire however many autoshots we can contain in that period, which will hopefully be 4 or 5. We will fire one multi during that, and 3 or 4 steady shots.

Autoshot's DPS, in short form = (Weapon/ammo DPS + AP/14) * critmod * other bonuses. And by "other bonuses", I mean talents like Focused Fire and Ranged Weapon Spec. So we'll deal with those later. The important thing is that the damage increases with AP by a factor of 1/14, plus crit.

Multi Shot is similar. It adds 1/5 damage per AP per multishot. Steady Shot, contrary to what the tooltip will tell you, also scales at 1/5 the damage. So if we are firing one of these two shots after every autoshot, 1 AP is effectively adding 0.2 damage every X seconds from your specials. Plus crit effects.

ASSUMPTION 2: If you're a beast master, your shot speed is around 2.0 seconds. If you spec marks or surv, it's probably closer to 2.5. As a result, in 10 seconds, a Beast Master can get 1 additional steady shot.

So 1 point of AP adds...1/14 autoshot DPS + 5*0.2/10 specials DPS for BM, or 1/14 + 4*0.2/10 if not. So your AP, based on build, is either adding 0.171 DPS or 0.151 DPS.

Unfortunately, we're not done there, since we have to consider crit. So let's introduce what I call the "crit factor", or CF. All your damage that can crit will be multiplied by the crit factor to find the AVERAGE amount of damage you do. If you fire 5 shots, this could be way off, but if you fire 500, it should be almost exact.

Crit Factor = (1 + CritRate * CritModifiers)

Crit Rate is your actual crit rate, as a decimal. Crit Modifiers is 1.3 if you have Mortal Shots, or 1 if you do not. (There are other things that can add in here, like Slaying and meta gems, but I won't specifically get into that.)

So with 20% crit rate, and Mortal Shots, your crit factor is 1.26. With 30% crit and no Mortal Shots, your crit factor is 1.30. Multiply this by your AP figure above, and congrats, you've got the official amount of DPS that 1 AP adds. Oh yeah, and then multiply this by 1.1 if you have Master Marksman or 1.04 for Survival Instincts. Let's call this number "A" for AP damage.

A = {.171 for BM or .151 if not} * CF * Talent Bonuses
CF = 1 + Crit Rate * {1.3 with Mortal Shots, 1.0 if not}

[Arcazua]

Whew, we got one stat down. Now let's talk about crit rating. Because we're speaking in general and not approximating for specific hunters (as best as we SOMEWHAT reasonably can,) let's look at the actual mechanics of each of these shots.

Autoshot damage = (Weapon DPS + Ammo DPS + AP/14) * Weapon delay * Crit Factor
Multishot damage = [(Weapon DPS * 2.8) + (Ammo DPS + AP/14) * Weapon Delay] * Crit Factor
Steadyshot damage = [(Weapon DPS + AP/14) * 2.8] * Crit Factor

A complicated mess, yes, but there's a few things in common. First of all, those are all multiplied by the crit factor. Second, everything is either multiplied by the weapon speed or by 2.8...which Blizzard has elected to be roughly the average weapon speed of epic weapons.

ASSUMPTION #3: For these calculations, we can use a weapon speed of 2.8. This is pretty well in line with assumption #2.

We do this, and the whole thing simplifies to:
Autoshot damage = (Weapon + Ammo + AP/14) * 2.8 CF
Multi damage = (Weapon + Ammo + AP/14) * 2.8 CF
Steady = (Weapon + AP/14) * 2.8 CF

So, essentially, we're getting 8 or 10 sets of (Weapon + Ammo + AP/14) * 2.8 CF, every 10 seconds. The ammo isn't present in steady shot, but otherwise it's accurate.

So "Basic DPS", or BDPS = (Weapon + Ammo + AP/14) * .28 * {10 for BM or 8 if not}

This is the effect of damage without crits. Let's say "Hunter DPS" or HDPS = BDPS * CF.

It normally takes 22 crit rating to add 1% crit. Without any crit modifiers (Mortal Shots), 1% crit will add .01 to your crit factor, and as a result add 1% of your Basic DPS to your Hunter DPS. With Mortal Shots, this number is reduced to 17.

So 1 Crit rating adds to your damage: BDPS/100 * (1/22) without Mortal Shots -OR- BDPS/100 * (1/17) with Mortal Shots. The result of this we'll call C for crit.

C = BPDS / (100 * {17 for Mortal Shots, 22 for not}
BDPS = {10 if BM, 8 if not} * (Wep DPS + Ammo DPS + AP/14) * 2.8


This has been a lot of work so far, and all we have to show for it is a DPS value of AP and crit rating. Fortunately, the next one is easy. Unfortunately, everything else is hopelessly complicated.

1 point of agility is the same as 1 point of attacking rating and 55% of a crit rating. So if A is your AP DPS and C is your CR DPS, then 1 point of agility will add DPS equal to:

1 agi = A + .55 C

And then survival makes a mess of it. Expose Weakness adds 25% of your AP for 8 seconds after a crit. The odds of having had a crit in the last 8 seconds is: 1 - (1-C)^ShotsTaken. By our reckoning, you'll have gotten 6 attacks in during the course of 8 seconds. So if you have expose weakness, add the following:

[1 - (1-C)^6] * .25 * A

After you have this result, multiply that by 1.15 if you have Lightning Reflexes. (If you have Expose Weakness, you'll have LR, but not necessarily the other way around.)

Since A is taken, let's call this B.

B = (A + .55 C + {.25 A * [1-(1-C)^6] if EW}) * {1.15 if LR, 1 if not}



The final physical stat to deal with, which isn't TOO bad either, is hit rating. You have a 5% chance to miss, which goes up to 8.6% against bosses. Hit rating reduces this. So long as you still have chance to miss, 1% additional hit will add effectively 1% to your overall damage. (In actuality, your hunter DPS should be 5% or 8.6% less than what it is unless you have enough hit rating to never miss, but since we only care how much hit rating adds, this is close enough.)

Hit rating adds 1% hit with every 15.75 points. So 1 hit rating adds HDPS/100 * 1/15.75, or more simply, HDPS / 1575.

You will find that hit rating is usually the fastest way to increase your DPS...until you have enough of it that you never miss. Once you reach 79 hit rating, normal creatures will not miss, and 135 is enough to ensure you will never miss against bosses either. Not only this, but the Surefooted talent reduces the amount you need by 15.75 per point in the talent.

Because it isn't terribly difficult to get hit rating capped, at least for normal targets, many hunters consider the value of hit rating to be 0, since once it is capped, that's how much DPS it adds...

H = {HDPS / 1575 if hit rating not capped, 0 if it is}
HDPS = BDPS * CF

[Arcazua]

And then the highly contraversial mana regeneration debate. The issue with mana regen is that some kind of steps need to be taken to not run out of it during most boss fights. There are a few ways to fix this:
A) Cut down on literal consumption, by downranking or changing shot selection
B) Cut down on effective consumption, by using talents and effects that reduce mana cost or return mana (Efficiency, Thrill of the Hunt)
C) Use actual genuine mana regeneration, possibly including Aspect of the Viper
D) Feign and drink
E) Chug mana potions

By virtue of assumptions used earlier, part A is already locked into place for us. We will spend 430 mana every 10 seconds, or 540 for a beast master. This is just on our basic damage shots, and obviously this is subject to other effects like Kill Command, applying Scorpid Sting, firing Arcane Shot on the run, Misdirection, Hunter's Mark, trapping, or any other number of ways we can spend mana. Of these, Kill Command is perhaps the most noteworthy. But if we ignore these factors, essentially our mana output with this cycle is 215 mana per 5 (MP5), or 270 for a Beast Master with the extra steady in each cycle.

You can chop 10% off this amount if you have Efficiency, which most hunters do, and an additional .4 * Crit Rate if you have Thrill of the Hunt.

So mana consumption (MC) = 243 for BM, 194 for Marks, and 215 * {.9 if Efficiency} * {1 - .4 * Crit Rate, if Thrill of the Hunt} for Survival. This is in mana spent per 5 seconds.

Yeesh, it's complicated already.

Mana regen (MR) = MP5 gear + 25% of int if Viper is active + other effects. It's been said, for example, that Mark of Conquest provides around 30-35 MP5. In-group shadow priests, Blessing of Wisdom, and Mana Spring Totems all add to this. I'm going to add one more level of mana regen to this mix -- mana potions. If you are going to use a mana potion every 2 minutes, divide the average mana it restores by 120 and add this in. Under the current cycle, hopefully you won't need those, but it does happen.

NOTE: It has been found that it is typically fairly ineffective to use Aspect of the Viper except in critical moments where you cannot pot or stop to drink. It would probably be best to exclude Viper unless you use it as your preferred Aspect.


So every 5 seconds, your mana loss will be MC - MR. I'm going to call this D for difference. We have a certain amount of mana, so the amount of time we can last is (5 * max mana) / D.

If this amount of time is sufficient for your needs, then adding mana regen has 0 effect. However, if it is not, and for most hunters it will not be at least for some lengthy fights, then you will be losing a portion of your damage. As we saw earlier, autoshot is basically half your damage. The other half costs mana.

Determine how long you expect to be able to last without running out of mana. I'm going to call this number TTL for TimeToLast.

When we are going full tilt, we will be losing MC-MR mana every 5 seconds and dealing HDPS damage. However, once we have surpassed our staying time, (5*Mana)/D, our damage drops to our autoshot damage plus the specials we can squeak out.

Autoshot makes up essentially half our damage. The other half is specials, which we are not getting in entirety while we are oom. If the percentage of the mana we are regenerating that we actually need is MR/MC, then it stands to reason this is the portion of damage from specials we are also getting. (Steady and Multi rank 1 have essentially the same mana cost.)

So during the time we are out of mana, we'll get HDPS * 1/2 + HDPS * 1/2 * MR/MC. Or to simplify a little, HDPS/2 (1 + MR/MC)

[Arcazua]

The way we're going to approach this is to total up the damage done while we have mana, and the damage done while we do not, put them together for overall damage, and then divide by the length of the whole battle to get overall DPS.


So, if we have a staying time of 5*Mana/D, and we do HDPS during that time, our total damage in the first phase of the fight is:

HDPS*5*Mana/D

And if during the second phase where we are fighting our mana, we are doing HDPS(1 + MR/MC)/2, and the remaining time in the fight is TimeToLast - (5*mana)/D, then the damage we deal in the end of the fight is:

HDPS/2 (1+MR/MC)(TTL - 5Mana/D)

Put these together and you have for total damage:

HDPS/2 [10*Mana/D + TTL + TTL*MR/MC - 5*Mana/D - 5*Mana*MR/(D*MC)]
= HDPS/2 [5*Mana/D (1 - MR/MC) + TTL(1 + MR/MC)]

Averaged across a fight TTL seconds long...

=HDPS/2 [1 + MR/MC + 5*Mana/D*TTL (1 - MR/MC)]


What's this say? We're guaranteed HDPS (1 + MR/MC)/2 damage regardless of starting mana. Sounds right. Then 5*Mana/D*TTL is the portion of the fight we're -not- OOM. (1 - MR/MC) represents the portion of the damage we're only getting when we have mana.

So we always have the damage we always have from autoshot and basic mana regen, and the rest while mana lasts. Had to work this a bunch of times to get a form that makes sense, but this one does.



IF WE ADD 1 MP5...

This means we adds 1 to MR and subtract 1 from D (which is MC - MR.) Our formula changes a bit to:

=HDPS/2 [1 + (MR+1)/MC + 5*Mana/(D-1)*TTL (1 - (MR+1)/MC))]

If I subtract the original equation from that to find the difference in the two, some stuff cancels, and we're left with: (note that the bold part in line 1 does not change)

=H/2 [1/MC + 5*Mana/D*TTL * (1 - MR/MC) - 5*Mana/(D+1)*TTL * (1 - (MR+1)/MC)]
=H/2 {1/MC + 5*Mana/TTL * [1/D - 1/(D-1) + (MR+1)/MC*(D-1) - MR/MC*D]}
=H/2 {1/MC + 5*Mana/TTL * [-1/(D * D-1) + [D(MR+1) - MR(D-1)]/[MC*D*(D-1)]]}
=H/2 {1/MC + 5*Mana/TTL * [-1/(D * D-1) + (D+MR) / (MC*D*(D-1))]}
=H/2 {1/MC + 5*Mana/TTL * [(D + MR - MC) / stuff]

But D = MC-MR...so that back half of the equation becomes, wait for it, zero!

Sweet. Final result:

1 MP5 (M) = HDPS / (2*MC)

Bizarre result, to say the least. Think I need to call in the math brigade to see if I missed a negative sign somewhere.



IF WE ADD 1 INT...

This one's much easier. +1 int means we add 15 to mana.

So our equation becomes HDPS/2 [1 + MR/MC + (5*Mana + 5*15)/(D*TTL) * (1-MR/MC)]

Most of the stuff here cancels when we want the difference, and we're just left with:

1 int = 75/(D*TTL) * (1 - MR/MC) * HDPS/2

When you consider that D/5 is mana lost per second, and so [15/(D/5)]/TTL is the time that much extra mana lasts, out of the total length of fight, this actually makes a lot of sense. 1-MR/MC is specials damage lost to lack of mana, so we regain that portion for this tiny portion of fight time.

However, at this point, don't forget that int is also affected by a few other factors.

-If you have Careful Aim, add .45A.
-If you have Aspect of the Viper active, add .25M.
-If you have Combat Experience, multiply the end result by 1.06




So that's it, assuming we forget about Kill Command and other mana expenditures, and we don't drink during combat.

[Arcazua]

PET ANALYSIS


One of the hardest issues to tackle for hunters is how to approximate the damage of their pet. This becomes troublesome on a couple fronts:

1) Your pet's damage system consists of an auto-attack and specials that are on a rapidly-replenishing system that uses over 10% of their resources with each use, like a rogue. There are ways to regain spent focus, but it makes pet set-ups situational.

2) Pet stats scale with attack power. As far as damage goes, they only scale with attack power. Nothing makes your pet crit more often, for example, including your own crit.

3) However, your crit percentage helps your pet deal damage vicariously through Kill Command. KC is a mana-consuming topic we have ignored that can also throw off optimized damage cycles slightly, but at least for Beast Masters is well worth the additional damage.


So ascertaining just how much damage a pet does is irritating, to say the least. Because we're focusing on stat improvements, we're not *completely* concerned with how much damage your pet is actually doing now, just how much more it will do later.



With nothing special like Frenzy or Beast Within, your pet will have a tooltip rating on DPS. Call this P.

Your pet also has a damage modifier based on it's family. You can look these up at Petopia. Call this Q. (And write it as a percent of base DPS, so -7% = .93)

When you add 1 AP to your hunter, you add .22 AP to your pet. As we know by now, this means you add 1/14 of this amount to your pet's DPS value. So you add .0157 DPS from AP added to your pet...oh yeah, plus modifiers like crit and haste.

-Your pet has a crit factor of 1.05 normally, or 1.15 with Ferocity.
-Multiply by 1.3 if you have Cobra Reflexes.
-Multiply by 1.2 for Unleashed Fury.
-Multiply this again by 1.56 if you have Frenzy and Serpent's Swiftness. (This assumes Frenzy stays up.)

This means most non-BM hunters will multiply by 1.365 and most BM hunters will multiply by 2.799 -- that's over double!

So Pet_AP_DPS(BM) = .0439
Pet_AP_DPS(non-BM) = .0214


This is for auto-attack, and considers nothing about special attacks and Kill Command. Unless you have a pet that does non-physical damage with their specials like Lightning Breath or Scorpid Poison, fortunately the specials don't come into play. They don't scale at all. Claw, Bite and Gore do a fixed amount of damage.

If you ARE using a Wind Serpent, I'm not sure if the damage coefficient of LB is known, but I'm going to use Cheeky's assumption of 3/7 and say that an additional AP on LB will add .125 * .4286 = .053 damage per Lightning Breath.

The other special ability that is worth looking at is Scorpid Poison, and I'll be perfectly honest in saying I've never worked with it and don't feel like worrying about it right now. But if you're using a scorpid, your pet will scale a bit better as well.


One last factor to consider with AP though. Your Kill Command does scale with your AP a little as well. Sparing you some math for a change, I'm going to approximate the Kill Command benefits as being 15% of what AP is normally for a Beast Master, and 17% for a Marksman or Survivalist. (This assumes Focused Fire except for the Survivalist. The BM is lower because the pet's base damage is lower.) So let's just keep it simple and say multiply your Pet_AP_DPS by 7/6.


Specials are tricky because of focus expense. Once your pet has been fighting for ~30 seconds, one of two things is going to happen:
1) Your pet is going to tend to be full on focus
2) Your pet is going to tend to be empty on focus

However, the only stat that REALLY impacts this unless you are using a "spell" ability is crit rate if you have Go For the Throat, and the amount of difference from 1 crit rating is negligible. I worked through the math, got the answer, and said "why did I do all this?" 1 single crit rating does not produce enough of a difference to merit even trying to explain. <Flush 90 minutes of work.>



Ultimately, the only thing you need to take from this section is the AP contribution to your pet.

[Arcazua]

I think it's time to talk about haste rating, which I will call HaR.

It takes 10.5 Haste to gain 1% haste. Going from 0% haste (rating) to 1% haste is very nearly a 1% damage increase assuming that you aren't clipping autoshots on your steadies as a result.

Your damage per second is, well, your damage output divided by the time. Haste only affects the time. And the rate of 1 shot is

1 shot = RateOfFire * TimeDelay.

1% haste increases the rate of fire, so per shot, it decreases the time delay by a proportional amount. (i.e., 1/1.01) Because your DPS is being divided by this figure, you are actually multiplying your DPS by 1.01 -- 1%.

Now that's for 1% haste. What I don't know is how haste rating stacks from multiple sources, since the game takes all your OTHER haste sources one at a time. A 15% increase (quiver), a 15% increase (Quick Shots) and a 40% increase (Rapid Fire) is not a 60% increase. It's a 1.15*1.15*1.4 = 85% increase. Haste rating might just add it altogether and find the percent haste, or it might do them separately. I am going to assume, until told otherwise, that it simply adds all haste rating together.


OK, so how does 1 HaR affect things? Well, it's complicated.

The easy part is that it increases your max DPS output by 1/10.5 %. This means at 600 post-crit DPS (not counting armor,) 1 haste rating could have a value of about 0.57 DPS. That's for a single rating point, not a percentage point. The percentage point is 6 DPS.

However, the tricky part is that it also speeds up the rate at which you use mana, which throws off all the mana consumption stuff. Further, it will impact every single one of your direct DPS stats. So if you add haste rating, you will most likely need to rebalance your weights afterwards. However, for purposes of deciding the value of 1 haste rating, I am going to assume that the changes to mana consumption rate have a negligible effect on haste rating value. Yes, it does mean some of the other equations will have to take this into consideration, although that's a fairly easy fix.


However, there is eventually a point where haste no longer helps you. This is the other tricky part. Haste does affect steady shot, however it does not affect the global cooldown. Even so, there is a delay following a steady shot before the next auto. When you factor in lag and human delay, initially the time-dependent factor is the autoshot timer, but if you speed things up enough, you will eventually hit a hard cap where you literally cannot fire steady shots any faster. The auto shot delay following a steady is said to be about four-tenths of a second. This is based on empirical testing, so you're welcome to debate it, but it seems to be the accepted value in the hunter community. If you can hasten Steady Shot enough to be below a 1.1 second firing speed, and thus this 0.4 seconds is encapsulated entirely within the global cooldown, any further haste is inconsequential because the GCD is holding you back.

Of course, that's if you're a robot with a perfect connection. While getting the actual literal auto shot delay down to 1.5 seconds is essentially best case scenario, in reality, factoring in other issues, I am going to postulate that 1.7 seconds is about the lower limit for reasonably useful shot speed.

We assumed a Beast Master would fire roughly every 2.0 seconds, so another 17.6% haste would hit this limit. That's 185 haste rating. Not very feasible right now with permanent effect, however some day itemization may change, and that's not counting short-term buffs. We've never even talked about Quick Shots in the contexts of AEP, and there are a few trinkets (Hourglass, Dragonspine Trophy) that have haste procs on them. So it's fully possible that as a Beast Master, you are already clipping or nearly clipping your autoshots on a routine basis. Further haste for a beast master is quite possibly worthless unless they pick up a slower weapon than our baseline assumed value, which is around 2.8.

For a marks or surv hunter, this figure is considerably higher -- going from 2.5 to 1.7 is a haste percentage of 47%, which takes 494 haste rating to achieve. It is reasonably safe to say, with today's itemization, that a marks or surv hunter will not reach a point where haste rating is worthless.



OK, so how does this play into equations?

1 HaR = HDPS/1050
1 HaR will increase the value of AP, agi, hit, and crit by 1/1050 (1/10.5 %)
1 HaR will also increase your mana consumption by this same factor, which will have a vicarious effect on your MP5 and int weights.

None of this applies to someone firing too quickly already...for simplification purposes, I'm going to simply say it doesn't apply to anyone who has Serpent's Swiftness, but you're welcome to debate the point based on what I've said above.

[Arcazua]

For fun...

Form 104OMGZ


1. Write your Critical Strike rate as a decimal.       ________ / 100 = ________
2. Write 1.3 if you have Mortal Shots, 1.0 if not.                      ________
3. CRIT FACTOR. Multiply line 1 by line 2, and add 1.0                  ________
4. Check this box if you a Beast Master.                              ___
   A Beast Master is defined as a hunter with Serpent's Swiftness. yes| |
                                                                      ---
5a. Enter 1.0                                                             1,0
5b. If you have Master Marksman, enter 0.10. Otherwise write -0-.       ________
5c. If you have Survival Instincts, enter 0.04. Otherwise write -0-.    ________
6. Take the sum of lines 5a, 5b, and 5c.                                ________
7a. Enter .171 if you checked line 4, or .151 if not.                   ________
7b. Multiply lines 3, 6, and 7a. This is your SELF AP WEIGHT            ________

8. Copy the result of your Pet AP worksheet to line 8.                  ________
9. Add lines 7b and 8. This is your ATTACK POWER WEIGHT                 ________

10a. Enter your weapon DPS on line 10a.                                 ________
10b. Enter your ammunition DPS on line 10b.                             ________
10c. Enter your normal attack power divided by 14.     ________ / 14  = ________
11. Take the sum of lines 10a, 10b, and 10c and write it on line 11.    ________
12. Enter 2.24                                                            2.24
13. If you checked line 4, enter 1.25. Otherwise write 1.0.             ________
14. Multiply lines 11, 12, and 13. This is your BASIC NON-CRIT DPS      ________
15. Multiply lines 3 and 14. This is your HUNTER DPS WITH CRITS.        ________
16. Enter 1700 if you have Mortal Shots; 2200 if you do not.            ________
17. Divide line 14 by line 16. This is your CRIT RATING WEIGHT.         ________


18. Multiply line 17 by 0.55, and add line 9.                           ________
  SKIP TO LINE 22 IF YOU DO NOT HAVE POINTS INTO EXPOSE WEAKNESS.
    19a. Write the number of points you have in Expose Weakness.   ______
    19b. Enter your critical strike rate on line 19b as a decimal. ______
    19c. Multiply lines 19a and 19b, and divide the result by 3.   ______
    20a. Subtract line 19c from 1.                                 ______
    20b. Raise line 20a to the 6th power. ( x^6 )                  ______
    20c. Subtract line 20b from 1, and divide the result by 4.     ______
21. Multiply lines 9 and 20c.                                           ________
22. Add lines 18 and 21. Recopy line 18 if line 21 is blank.            ________
23. Enter 1.15 if you have Lightning Reflexes, or 1.0 if you do not.    ________
24. Multiply lines 22 and 23. This is your AGILITY WEIGHT.              ________


25. Divide line 15 by 1575 and enter it on line 25.                     ________

26. If you are interested in shooting at bosses, enter 135 on line 26.  ________
    Otherwise, enter 79.
27. Enter your hit rating on line 27.                                   ________
28. If line 26 is noticeably greater than 25, you are HIT CAPPED.
    Enter 0 on line 28 if this is the case. Otherwise, recopy line 25.
    This is your HIT RATING WEIGHT.                                     ________


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

29. If you checked line 4, write 270 on line 29. Otherwise, use 215.    ________
30. If you have Efficiency, write .9 on line 30. Otherwise, write 1.0   ________
31. If you have Thrill of the Hunt, multiply line 1 by 0.4. If not, -0- ________
32. Subtract line 31 from 1.0                                           ________
33. Multiply lines 29, 30, and 32. This is your GROSS MANA CONSUMPTION  ________

34. Write your mana regen total on line 34. Be sure to include          ________
    MP5 gear, Blessing of Wisdom, Mana Spring Totems, and charitable
    contributions from Shadow Priests.
35. If you intend on using mana potions, enter the average amount of    ________
    mana restored by one, divided by 120. Otherwise use -0-.
36. Add lines 34 and 35. This is your GROSS MANA REGENERATION           ________

37. If you run out of mana during battles, divide line 15 by double
    the value of line 33. Otherwise, write -0-. This is your            ________
    MANA PER 5 SECONDS WEIGHT.

38. Enter 37.5                                                            37.5   
39. Divide line 36 by line 33, and subtract it from 1.                  ________
40. Multiply lines 15, 38 and 39.                                       ________
41. Subtract line 36 from line 33.                                      ________
42. Enter the expected length of battle on line 31.                     ________
43. Multiply lines 41 and 42.                                           ________
44. If you run out of mana during battles, divide line 40 by line 43.   ________
    Otherwise, write -0-.

45. If you have Careful Aim, multiply line 9 by 0.45; otherwise use 0.  ________
46. If you primarily use Aspect of the Viper, multiply line 37 by 0.25; ________
    otherwise use -0-.
47. Add lines 44, 45, and 46.                                           ________
48. Multiply line 47 by your int bonus. This is 1.06 if you have any    ________
    Combat Experience, or 1.00 if you do not.


Enter the value on line 9. This is your ATTACK POWER WEIGHT.            ________
Enter the value on line 17. This is your CRIT RATING WEIGHT.            ________
Enter the value on line 24. This is your AGILITY WEIGHT.                ________
Enter the value on line 28. This is your HIT RATING WEIGHT.             ________
Enter the value of line 37. This is your MP5 WEIGHT.                    ________
Enter the value of line 48. This is your INTELLECT WEIGHT.              ________


SIGNATURE: Sign here to acknowledge that this form was prepared to the best of my knowledge, adequately following all formulas and not underreporting any amounts due. Failure to comply can result in perjury.

                                           ____________________________________________

Pet AP Worksheet


1. Enter .0157                                                           0.0157
2. Enter 1.15 if you have Ferocity, 1.05 if you do not.                 ________
3. Enter 1.3 if your pet has Cobra Reflexes, 1.0 if it does not.        ________
4. Enter 1.2 if you have Unleashed Fury, 1.0 if you do not.             ________
5. Enter 1.3 if you have Frenzy, 1.0 if you do not.                     ________
6. Enter 1.2 if you have Serpent's Swiftness, 1.0 if you do not.        ________
7. Enter 1.17 if you consistently use Kill Command, 1.0 if you do not.  ________
8. Multiply lines 1 through 7. This is your PET AP WEIGHT               ________
   Copy this number into line 8 of Form 104OMGZ