I started playing Hunters in BC not in Vanilla.
How do you gear for DPS as a Hunter in Classic?
Beaststalker Set is the basic set:
- 2 pieces: +200 Armor
- 4 pieces: +40 Attack Power
- 6 pieces: Your normal ranged attacks have a 4% chance of restoring 200 mana.
- 8 pieces: +8 All Resistances.
By just looking at the set bonuses, it’s the 4pc bonus that we need to get for high DPS. Is 6-pc bonus worth to have? 4% is like 1 proc per 25 auto-shots. Would that be good for 45-min UD run where drinking for mana is omitted? I know we dont have 45min UD run yet.
Now let’s look at the Black Dragonscale (Leatherworking) set.
- 2 pieces: Improves your chance to hit by 1%.
- 3 pieces: Improves your chance to get a critical strike by 2%.
- 4 pieces: +10 Fire Resistance.
The 2 pc and 3 pc bonus here is straightforward a very good DPS stats.
Then the Giantstalker set from Molten Core:
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3 pieces: Increases the range of your Mend Pet spell by 50% and the effect by 10%. Also reduces the cost by 30%.
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5 pieces: Increases your pet’s stamina by 30 and all spell resistances by 40.
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8 pieces: Increases the damage of Multi-shot and Volley by 15%.
The 3-pc and 5-pc bonus is just to make pet not to die. So it means, wearing 5-pc of Giantstalker on a regular 5-man is useless becoz the pet usually wont die on 5-man although the high Agi stats of Giantstalker is awesome… and it has +hit and crit stats on some of its pieces. Is the 3-pc/5-pc bonus a big benefit in Molten Core? It’s like the set pieces is requiring us to put points in Beast Mastery instead of the +3 Surefoot in Survival.
I need to hear some comments especially those who were in Vanilla topping the damage meters. Or topping in the meters non-existent in Vanilla? I understand, I was a DPS Warrior in Vanilla. We dominated in damage meters starting with Arcanite Reaper, then Zinrokh, Destroyer of Worlds and then Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood. I just want to see if my Classic Hunter can do something extra ordinary.
Oh btw, someone might recommend Devilsaur Legs and Gauntlets. Is this set very good for Hunters that Hunters should choose Tribal LW over Dragonscale LW? Becoz I am LW now… using 3 pc Black Dragonscale with 4 pc Beaststalker… I have all the bonuses: 2pc and 3pc bonus of Black Dragonscale and the 4pc Bonus of Beaststalker. I only have 2 pc of Giantstalker… cant wear it becoz I dont want to break the set bonuses of the other 2 sets I am wearing.
If you wanna dominate damage meters wait for wrath servers
I started with Hunters in BC and I have hunters on succeeding expansions… dominated the damage meters especially Wrath even against DKs, the flavor of the month in those days.
In Classic, i can feel Hunters are not dominant in damage against Mages. But i have some lucky crits that sometimes pull me to the top. Topping the meters is risky. It always involve very high threat that can pull aggro even against the best tanks. Good thing we are range and we have feign death. The tanks sometimes blame me that i use Distracting shot… LOL. Hope they see my screen when my Aimed shots crit.
I’m just level 39 in Classic and I didn’t pay attention so far to this issue. What I’m going to answer you is from memory from 15 years ago.
The GS set was the best DPS becasue of the stats, not for the set bonuses, and as a 8/8. It was important to have the best weapon too, until you get Rhok’dalar there was a blue xbow that was dominating because of the rotation with Aimed shot, but I forgot its name.
When BWL came in and AQ 40, the full DS set was not optimal for DPS, I remember I was mixing something like 2 pieces of AQ40 +the rest of DS to optimize set bonuses. Don’t ask me more, I don’t remember why but you can look up the set bonuses and see why.
But to be honest, all this was hair splitting to flex some epeen.
I just got my GS 3rd pc. But in conflicts with gear slot with my Black Dragonscale set. So I am using 3 pc of GS with 4 pc of Beaststalker. But I lose my +1 Hit stats from Black Dragonscale… leaving me Zero +hit. I am using this set on 5-man, early MC Bosses and trash.
I am now thinking of buying the Devilsaur leather set… it would get rid of my Beaststalker set. Devilsaur set would lose me some few AP but would gain +2 Crit and +2 Hit… and I would lose around +22 Spirit and +16 Intelligence. On long boss fights where I would lose mana, I wont gain mana back to get few aimed shots with Devilsaur set.
The Devilsaur set is around 150g. I am not that far behind in DPS so maybe I would just skip buying it. Maybe I would just wait for more GS pieces to come to me.
The Carapace Spine Crossbow is from the Spider Boss of Strat UD. It hits so hard but it’s super slow. When on 5-man fast pace killing of trash, sometimes I couldnt make 1 more Aimed Shot becoz the target is already killed before I cast Aimed Shot with such slow weapon. And when Aimed Shot miss becoz of lack of +hit stats, it really hurts the DPS a lot.
4 piece Beaststalker was all that was ever really used, but I made so many darned black dragonscale sets that I started seeing whelps in my sleep (I’m not even gonna mention Ony scale cloaks…). Short story is use 4 piece BS unless it interferes with your 3 piece black scale. The 4 piece for black DS is typically the boots and you can get boots of a similar quality in BRD if you’re after fire resist. Also, I seem to remember that the BDS booties were BOP for a while, but it’s 15 years ago, so I could be wrong.
As far as the raid sets go, with potentially 5 or six other hunters to contend with it takes a while to gather an entire set, and honestly having completed both the GS set bonuses are kind of trash, but the stats are very good. The Dragonstalker bonuses are better, and (imo) Ash’jre thul is better than Rhok. 4 - 6k aimed shot crits are too good to pass up. 
Mana in longer fights isn’t much of an issue when you can feign death/drink to replenish mana, and if you’re running out of mana during dungeon bosses you’re not doing it right.
Beaststalkers has INT/SPI… It helps your mana on long fights. I am thinkin of replacing the Beaststalkers with the Tribal Leather Armor Set: Devilsaur. The devilsaur has ZERO INT/SPI but it has +2 Crit and +2 Hit. Does having it over Beaststalkers a bad move?
I apologise for not being clearer. Taking 10-15 seconds out of a 5-7 minute boss fight isn’t ideal, but it’s better than standing there auto-shooting until you have enough mana to make a difference. Taking the same time out of a 3 minute dungeon boss fight impacts your overall output much more. If you’re using a Lightning Reflexes build that capitalises on stacking as much agility as possible then using leather that has better stat itemisation for the build may be beneficial, however you’re going to need a little intellect to boost your base mana pool.
Never consider spirit in your hunter itemisation. If set pieces have it all well and good, but if you’re looking at greens or crafted gear there are usually better options.
Sorry to bring up an older thread. My era Hunter has the entire BStalkers set now, should I go after the back, trinket, and melee weapons that are BiS now and then proceed to MC or should I change some BS items before MC? I know MC and even Ony can offer better items but I’m confused on if BStalkers set is best pre MC and Ony or not.
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