BASIC THEORY
Using Aimed + Multi-Shot cycle
Multi-Shot is instant (close enough to the truth, very rarely delays Auto Shot with practice)
Disregarding mana, consumables negate mana issues
Disregarding haste buffs (Rapid Fire, Berserking, etc)
With 5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk, I add 4-5% damage, depending on weapon speed - Note: Working on better formula for iAotH
Every cycle consists roughly of:
1 Aimed Shot
1 Multi-Shot
x Auto Shot, depending on weapon speed and cycle lenght.
With most weapons, you’ll find something like the following happening:
Aimed Shot finishes cooldown. Auto Shot fired ~1 sec ago.
Should you clip your cycle (ignore the next Auto Shot and fire Aimed Shot immediately)? Or should you use a full cycle (wait for the Auto Shot before using Aimed Shot?
What would give the highest damage potential?
To answer this, you needed to compare both options, and see which one would yield the most damage.
THE AIMED SHOT CYCLE
Multi-Shot has the longest cooldown (10 sec), but since we stated Multi-Shot is an instant, the damage can be converted into any cycle lenght. For this reason, I’ll be using a default (clipped) cycle length of 9 seconds. While not being optimal for mana purposes, it is the one with the highest damage potential.
This is roughly what you’ll have to take into account:
If Multi-Shot does 1000 damage every 10 seconds, and the cycle is 5 seconds, the cycle damage for Multi-Shot becomes 500.
Likewise, if the cycle lenght is 20 seconds, the cycle damage would be 2000.
However, there are some things to keep in mind as well:
If the cycle is between 9 (minimum cycle length) and 10 seconds long, you have to include damage lost by conflicting cooldowns. For example, in a perfect 9 second cycle, you get to fire 6 Multi-Shots every 7 cycles. So, instead of using 9/10 of the Multi-Shot, I use 6/7 for this. As cycle lenght reaches 10, more of the Multi-Shot damage is included. So, don’t be alarmed if you’re not able to fire a Multi-Shot between each Aimed Shot.
The cooldown of Aimed Shot is 6 seconds, casting time is 3 seconds. During casting, Auto Shot cools down. This means that basically every weapon will get a free Auto Shot after Aimed Shot. The free Auto Shot comes after a delay of about 0.5 seconds after Aimed Shot is fired, regardless of weapon speed.
During the casting of Aimed Shot, no Auto Shots are fired.
Stats on weapons that affect damage (Agility, (Ranged) Attack Power, +crit%, +hit%) are taken into consideration for the rankings.
For the timestamps, I won’t include Multi-Shot. Every cycle basically has a “+ Multi-Shot”, which can be placed wherever it fits before Aimed Shot.
MISCONCEPTIONS
Cycles don’t exist
Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot have a linked cooldown. For raiding purposes, Aimed Shot is better than Arcane Shot in virtually every aspect. Although there are some exceptions, Aimed Shot is the best option for dealing ranged damage. Every time you use Aimed Shot, you’ve started a cycle. After Aimed Shot is completed, you have 6 seconds before Aimed Shot is ready again. Go clipped or full?
Cycles are impossible to use
They’re not. Performing them perfectly is practically impossible, and it’s harder with some weapons. However, getting as close as possible will be the most damaging thing you can do. Thus, the calculations I give you show the weapon with highest damage potential, and also how to deal the most damage with it. It’s up to you to maximize the potential. Practice, focus, and knowing the rhythm of your weapon helps a lot; you’re always able to improve. Additionally, a timer for your Auto Shots might help you a lot. Personally, I use ZHunterMod (http://curse-gaming....zhuntermod.html).
Clipped cycles are the easiest to use, since you can basically spam Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot, and the cooldowns will take care of the rest. Remember that latency might affect this a bit, making Aimed Shot ready just before Auto Shot fires (making you do a sub-optimal cycle). Spamming is rarely a good idea; paying attention is ![:wink:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
Lag and human reaction invalidate cycle calculations
Often you’ll hear people claiming cycles are useless because of reasons like lag, human reaction, etc. These settings vary from person to person; hunter A might have perfect conditions, performing at almost 100% of what he’s capable of, while hunter B might be experiencing lag, talking on the phone and feeding his parrot - of course he’ll perform worse. However, comparing the different weapons, using optimal conditions for everything is the fairest comparison. Although this has no influence on a weapon’s damage potential, if you know you suffer from lag or slow reaction times, take it into consideration when looking at what I write.