Comments on: Hunter Kindergarten: Intro to Steady Shot

By: Badger

Badger — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:14:13 +0000

Ah, poor Steady Shot. Le sigh. We’ll always have Outland …

By: Ellifain @ Khaz'Goroth

Ellifain @ Khaz'Goroth — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:34:43 +0000

Yep. Cheaper mana cost while levelling is probably the only (minor) benefit.
My current hunter is Level 73.
Pretty much solved the mana issues though with my Intellect build.

By: Durkonkell

Durkonkell — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:03:57 +0000

Steady Shot confused the *hell* out of me when I first trained it! I never thought I’d be firing it 3 times for every Arcane Shot later on

As regards dropping Arcane shot while levelling, I think it’s worth remembering that Arcane disregards armor. If you kill your target three or four shots earlier than using exclusively steady shot, then that’s more mana-efficient in the long term!

As Pike’s fond of observing, though, your mileage may vary
If you find yourself going OOM more frequently with arcane in your rotation and this is unacceptable to you, I’d actively encourage you to disregard everything I’ve said!

By: Pike

Pike — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:19:43 +0000

@ Ellifain – As an addendum to my previous comment, I noticed today that while Arcane Shot and Steady Shot cost the exact same amount of mana at max level, Arcane Shot is in fact, curiously slightly more expensive than Steady at lower levels. I’m not sure why this is, and I still say it is a small enough difference that it wouldn’t warrant dropping Arcane Shot while leveling. However, that is just me!

By: neutrallo

neutrallo — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:49:29 +0000

@Rock

That “two-shot” problem is kind of built into the whole BM spec. It’s about impossible to remove from it too.

The reason being that, as a Beast Master, nearly 1/2 of our damage comes from our pet. The 2-shot damage is still there (in theory) but it would require more of a “four-shot” to achieve (2 from you and 2 from your pet).

I’ve done extensive Beast Mastery PvP in battlegrounds in the 50s and 60s brackets (about 43,000 kills worth) and where as I have been hit for as much as 5400 before in a battleground, I have never once hit for over 1650 on any attack. Yet I am still consistently in the 1, 2, or 3 spot in damage and kills and whatnot… so the damage potential is there.

That being said, “being surprised” is not our friend in PvP either… we have a ton of tricks (like Intimidation) at our disposal, but it means very little when an off-guard attack hits us for 1/2 our health.

By: Pike

Pike — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:44:19 +0000

@ Luthielle – Yes, yes it is. And I’m glad I could help!

By: Luthielle

Luthielle — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:42:47 +0000

Yay, thanks for the clarification! I have a lvl 71 hunter alt, and I feel like such a huntard at times because I don’t understand shot rotations… steady shot in particular was a mystery to me. This makes much more sense than whatever twisted logic I had come up with on my own xD;. Thank you!

(And I just have to ask… is “Sata Andagi” an Azumanga Daioh reference..?! Love that show xD)

By: Pike

Pike — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:17:29 +0000

@ Ellifain – Actually, Arcane and Steady cost the exact same amount of mana. So, you’ve no reason not to use Arcane when it’s up! *nodnod*

@ Kate – Isn’t he CUTE? /squee

By: Rock

Rock — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:04:01 +0000

Something needs to be done for the Hunter Class. When Wrath first went live I thought BM hunters were about where we needed to be with DPS etc., but Hunters and pets got nerfed badly after that. Example: While doing the fishing quest in wintergrasp the other day, a horde squishy slipped up behind me and ambushed me. I’m not sure what it was, could have been a lock or mage. He killed me with Two (2) shots of whatever he used. Looked like a fire bolt of some kind. I have 19.5K health unbuffed and didn’t have a chance to even turn around. Down I went. The trouble is … I’ve never been able to two-shot another level 80 anything … mob or player. I see Squishes killing same level mobs all the time with two shots and sometimes less. So it makes no difference what shots a hunter uses, Steady shot or whatever, until hunters can kill another player or mob with two shots things ain’t right. Something needs to be done.

By: Clra2

Clra2 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:23:43 +0000

I’ve got a love hate relationship with steady shot. When i’m raiding as a BM my steady shot hotkey is the button I’m mashing relentlessly (I’m sorry #5). It’s used when arcane/multi shot is on CD and when I don’t need to refresh serpent sting. Unfortunately it is still a pathetically weak shot; a lot of times doing less damage than auto shot. However, for BM steady shot does the 2nd most amount of damage, next to auto shot and its crits proc cobra strikes (I think that’s what it’s called). And since BM doesn’t have its own unique shot, steady shot is going to be the most used speical ability I use. Good thing conqueror and windrunner 4 piece set bonuses have a nice proc effect using steady shot.