Hello all! I have been leveling my hunter recently and looking at end game single target builds. Now I know the optimal builds go for the Trueshot Aura capstones, and I will most likely wind up running the very same, but I do enjoy experimenting with builds first, and I have a question in regards to Wind Arrows:
First off; Legacy of the Windrunners states that the 6 arrows that fire 25% of the time off an Aimed Shot are affected by the damage modifiers that are applied to Aimed Shot, and I am wondering if these same modifiers apply to the 5(or 15 including additional targets) Wind Arrows fired by Windrunner’s Barrage (which procs when firing Wailing Arrow)??
Second, Windrunner’s Guidance states each Wind Arrow has a 3% chance (oh how I wish this was higher) to proc Trueshot Arrow for 10seconds. One; does this include the 5(or 15) Wind Arrows fired by Wailing Arrow as well, or only the one’s from Aimed Shot? Also, can you proc the 10seconds of Trueshot Aura without taking the Trueshot Aura talent? Currently the only way to get both capstones for Wailing Arrow and Windrunner’s is to skip either Trueshot Aura or Lock and Load. Trueshot Aura all buffed is 18 seconds every 2mins. With 6 arrows every 1/4 Aimed shot and 5 (im only looking at single target numbers) from Wailing Arrows, thats roughly a 14% chance per aimed shot and a 15% chance every 1min from Wailing to get 10seconds, so skipping the aura itself for Lock and Load increasing the likelihood of Wind Arrow procs from Aimed Shot seems better than having the aura available every 2mins.
Wind Arrows makes Wailing hit harder than Aimed Shot baseline while also making Aimed Shot hit harder overall. If the proc applies to ALL Wind Arrows fired, the percentage of uptime on Trueshot Aura versus just having the talent may end up being pretty even. Add in Wailing Shot giving you more AoE in an otherwise completely single target rotation (with razor fragments being the single other ability that can spread) and I am prettt intrigued as to whether or not the Wind Arrow build could perform near the same as going strictly through to Unnering Vision…
My thought is that the procs, the damage, all percentages needs to be higher and I have tried for multiple hours to see how many procs and damage I get, totally not worth it. Specially for PvP.
Really too bad. I love the idea of launching a ton of arrows with each aimed shot and wailing shot activation and the aesthetic is awesome. Hopefully they do a pass akin to fury warriors (where before the right hand nodes were ignored and now onslaught/tenderize is the go to build). The wind arrow build just seems much more interactive and fun compared to popping an aura every 2mins and using a capstone that is literally just a passive buff to that aura, which just feels boring)
At 10 stacks (after casting 10 aimed shots) you get Wind Arrows.
Wind arrows also gives a proc at 3 stacks giving you 10 secs of true shot which would happen once a minute or something like that and after 30 aimed shots. Seems reasonable
I like it in pvp when combined with full speced wailing arrow as you can get some big burst out. The problem is that its not consistant enough to be worth taking over salvo instead which can be macroed so that its just a point cast instant ability with good aoe burst.
Mu thoughts on wind arrow is that they should be attatched to steady shot instead but otherwise function exactly the same. Then if the proc still seems low, start increasing it by small ammounts till it “feels” good. I immagine it should be around a 33% proc rate on stead shot to be considered good and will also make steady shot feel better to press as 1 out of every 3 will fire off extra mini shots, that dont consume aimed shot buffs, causes stead shot to hit for more than a limp noodle and not be aomething to hit because you have no focus and nothing else to do.
Honestly, nothing really matters until you get the Neltharax. Your single target will suffer until you obtain it.
It sucks that hunters are almost completely reliant on a rare drop from a final raid boss, but it’s the way it is. Even the 395 variant outpaces the 418 LW bow (2nd BiS) by roughly 3k dps. It’s insane. The 418 Neltharax just completely blows it out of the water… No other class relies on a weapon to this extent. Honestly, it’s making me drop hunter until I get lucky one week.
No need. The bow wont be a factor come .07. In fact for post nerf the LW bow will be better in certain circumstances (bm aoe, lock and load mm) because of the higher attack speed. Luckily i should hit 70 about the time the patch hits so ill just focus on the lw bow anyway. Ive also never really concerned myself with min maxing anyway.
With the way its worded, that the wind arrows get all the modifiers of aimed shot, does that mean they get the increased damage from the class ability that ups aimed shot damage based on sting ticks too? If they would up the proc chance enough and the total amount of buffs that could apply to wind arrows did, and maybe the proc chance to pop trueshot was higher as well, they really could be an interesting choice.
So with the changes coming to wind arrows, any thoughts?
Bumping this because as of all the changes to Wind Arrows and the change of Bullseye from 2 points to 1 point for the same bonus a Windrunner build is now completely viable and using the PTR raidbots sim actually outsims the standard M+ build.
This is what I came up with after an hour of messing around with different talent combinations whilst getting both Windrunner’s Barrage and Windrunner’s Guidance.
I even tried without Windrunner’s Barrage to put those points into more traditional build talents but this was the build that consistently came out on top by 750DPS to 1000DPS over any other combination.
Testing on the dummies it came out slightly ahead but I know it could be improved with a WeakAura to keep track of the Wind Arrow count as I kept accidentally capping Aimed Shot charges.
The numbers are different but this is basically the design they went with and more less the fundamental idea of how it works. Really good change.
If Im right on the math, 3% chance per wind arrow to proc 6 seconds of true means the 4 wind arrows that fire per aimed and 15 wind arrows that fire per wailing comes out to 11.5% and 36.6% proc chance per cast respectively.
Based on a random log I pulled I cast 90 Aimed Shots and 16 Wailing Arrows over the dungeon which would mean 210 seconds of extra Trueshot which is equivalent to 14 more casts or an addition 23 seconds of Trueshot per cast.
Would taking Tactical Reload over Deadeye be a better choice since none of the other Kill Shot modifiers are taken? The reduction in Aimed Shot cooldown (as little as it is) with the occasional Focus gain from Wind Arrows may offset the potential Focus loss over time.
On the other hand, Tactical Reload may only be a benefit on boss fights of over 4 - 5 minutes. It may be a decent test over a 3 minute fight and see how many Aimed Shots are gained.
Ooh good catch - I was so focused on the other side of the tree freeing up points to get all the wind arrow talents I didnt try that - and you’re right, it sims 500DPS higher on Dungeon Slice, 2000DPS higher on 4 boss AoE (So Council fight size).
All the Wind Arrows show in my log as the one spell and same spellID so Id assume they all get the same modifiers.
OK I found a Weak Aura someone made and I modified it to add some extra functionality for if you also have Wailing Arrow/Windrunner’s Barrage so it should track your Wind Arrow count and change to indicate the various stages as it goes:
0 - 8 Wind Arrows - Icon is grey as the next cast cannot trigger the bonus Aimed Shot charge/Focus
9 - 18 Wind Arrows - The icon changes to colour to indicate a Wailing Arrow against multiple targets will trigger the bonus Aimed Shot charge/focus
19 Wind Arrows - the icon gets a light glow around the border to indicate a Wailing Arrow even against a single target will trigger the bonus Aimed Shot charge/focus
20 - 23 Wind Arrows - the icon will get a giant glow around the edge to indicate that casting either Wailing Arrow or Aimed Shot will trigger the bonus Aimed Shot charge/focus
Yeah the build on Icy Veins is currently the superior build, the Weak Aura I modified and link above works to track Wind Arrows, just remove the Conditions for Wailing Arrow if you dont spec it (or just ignore those alerts I guess).