Recently boosted Hunter here, coming from maining a lock for most other xpacs.
I’ve been doing research tonight on stat priorities, and I just want to be sure about Versatility and Mastery.
It appears that Mastery is going to be mostly priority, but having a little Versatility along with it is a must. This is because your damage from trinks, azerite etc. is increased by Versatility. Since I am a fresh 120 without much gear to speak of, is it still viable to build this way?
It seems decent to me, to work on Mastery > Crit > Haste until I actually have things that Versatility will help, unless I am confused about how exactly Versatility works.
You want to prioritize getting In the Rythm and Unerring Vision azerite traits first, then you can figure out your stat priorities. Usually if you’re missing In the Rythm on all three pieces, haste will be your top stat. If you don’t have two Unerring Vision traits then crit will be good for you. No matter what, versatility is always nice to have.
Due to the nature of In the Rhythm, haste takes a backseat to Mastery and Versatility, both of which have a direct impact on your damage: ultimately, you’ll want three of these. The Haste buff lasts for 8 seconds while Rapid Fire has a CD of 20, so the haste upkeep will be quite nice, provided you do not stop Rapid Fire.
Unerring Vision gives you Crit when you need it most. You’d think you want three of these as well, but you also want Focused Fire and maybe Surging Shots as well.
Mastery will be king until you reach 430+ ilvl and essences, then it’ll switch to vers and all others will be pretty even.
This all makes a lot of sense. I appreciate the time you guys have taken to explain.
It appears I have jumped the gun and picked the wrong things on a few of my first gear pieces >.<
That’s alright, hopefully I will replace them soon.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it: right now, any ilvl improvement is a plus. You’'ll mostly be brute-forcing your way through stuff until you start raiding, doing M+, or PVP.
IMHO, you don’t really worry about optimization until you’re going up against targets that take at least 3-5 minutes to kill.
1 Like