Math Geeks Rhok

Math is life for Marks Hunters and there is no getting away from that.  People ask me "what gem should I use in this new pair of pants" and I can't possibly answer that on the fly.  Its not as easy as it once was back in the days of SV.  Now you have to take the time to figure out what is best for you based on your current spec, gear and rotation.

The be all end all hunter analyzer has always been Shandara's Spreadsheet.  But what if you have a Mac or don’t have Excel 2007 or 2010.  However will you handle your hunter math?

Well you will use Zeherah’s Hunter Calculator at http://www.femaledwarf.com. What is the Calculator and why use it?  Because it is the Spreadsheet, in an online format.  Zeherah and Shandara work closely together and any updates from the Spreadsheet are almost always on the Calculator the same day.

When you first visit, you’ll see a button in the upper left that says Armory Import. This will let you upload all your information – talents, glyphs, gear, enchants, gems, pet talents – from the WoW Armory.

Once that happens, all your information is loaded into the Calculator for tweaking.  Your shot "rotation" is as important as your gear.  So next set up your shot priority. Here’s mine:

Basically works how it says on the box – higher priority abilities are fired first, lower priority abilities are fired later if they’re not ready. Serpent Sting is always first if you’re Marks!

The next step is raid buffs and debuffs – remember that these can swing the tide of a Hunter’s DPS more than anything else! Things like Judgment of Wisdom or Mangle can be worth several hundred DPS on their own. Go to the Buffs and Debuffs tab and carefully fill in only the buffs and debuffs that you know are present in your normal raid composition. 

I changed my latency to 90ms since that's in the ballpark of what I average in raids, use what works better for you. Make sure that Don’t Emulate Known Bugs is UNCHECKED so the the calculator will use things like +Crit or +Damage% buffs on Serpent Sting using Chimera. You can also turn on Display Debug Data , to get a more in-depth list of what happens in the simulated fight than normal. I like to use it, you don’t have to.

Now you're ready to hit Update DPS.  Oh the excitement!!

There are a lot of things to see here – your DPS, your DPS-Stat equivalencies, your overall stats calculated mid-combat...admit it you're geeked out too.

Now, let’s say that you want to change some gear and gem it.  Maybe you're like me and you're hoping to get the T10 chest if the stupid ever loving trophy would drop.

Make the change, scroll down and hit Update DPS.  Oh I can hardly stand the wait!

Lookie there a 150dps increase by upgrading to the T10 chest piece and swapping Agil for ArP.  I'm going to sit here in the corner and have an emo fest.

There you have it, the power of math through Zeherah’s Hunter Calculator. All the functionality of Shandara’s Spreadsheet, but in a usable form for Mac users, people without Excel, or people who can’t stand the spreadsheet’s layout.

Math is life for Marks Hunters.  Embrace your geek.