Need help with BM hunter macro

I'm adapting the click macro setup to my BM hunter, and I'm not getting the performance I think it should. I don't know enough about the new macro rules to see what the problem is.

What it's doing right now on the dummys...

~2600dps self-buffed (HM, AotH, and AP food) with a gearscore of 4454 and a spirit beast

Serpent sting appears to be timed properly (appears to be refreshing right as it expires)

Arcane Shot appears to be timed reasonably close (being cast soon after cooldown is up)

I can't tell if Steady Shot is going off as frequently as it should. The timers aren't showing it, and the cast bar is being overridden by other not-ready errors (might need to turn of xperl to test this)

The macro:

#showtooltip
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Bestial Wrath
/click BT4Button91
/click BT4Button92
/click BT4Button93
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

#showtooltip Serpent Sting
/castsequence [target=target,harm,nodead][target=raid1target,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead] reset=combat Serpent Sting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

#showtooltip Arcane Shot
/castsequence [target=target,harm,nodead][target=raid1target,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead] reset=combat Arcane Shot,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence [target=target,harm,nodead][target=raid1target,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead] reset=combat Steady Shot,,,,,,


Auto is 56% of damage, Steady is 19%, Arcane is 15% and Serp Sting is 9% (of hunter's damage), pet is 32% of overall damage

It seems that I should be getting better damage from Steady Shot, but I can't tell where I am missing.

I added in a /cast Kill Command to the main macro, but it didn't seem to do much.

any ideas? help!!!!

Can turn the normal cast bar back on under player options in Xperl to see if your steadies are actually happening.

The number of shots fired should be fairly close to 1 auto to 1 of everything else be it steady/arcane/sting. Check the count of shot and if your arcane/steady/stings totalled is lower than your auto then you missing some shots.

Make sure to use Aspect of the dragonhawk not AoH also.

Will go attack a dummy later on my hunter and test the macro and see what impact it has on my dps.

Ok

Manual Weave

3200 dps 41% auto 39% steady 11% arcane 8% viper 35% pet

Your click macro.

2700 dps 50% auto 22% steady 17% arcane 11% SS 41%pet

Your macro without the commas after steady shot.

3000 dps 38 auto 34 Steady 18 Arcane 9 SS 9 pet 38 pet.

Suggest you take out the comma's after the steady shot as its delaying the firing of steady shot or change it to simply /cast Steady Shot.

Anyways hope it helps.

kinda a long shot try adding in

/stopmacro [channeling:steady shot]

at the beginning of yer macro not 100% certain if the syntax is correct.

Generally with the click castsequences, the very last option is your fall through, something that casts when everything else is on cooldown.

Ideally you would not want auto shot or auto melee swing to be the fall through. An attack which you can do quite often would be better.

My hunter is marksman and had a macro sort of like this (working off of memory)...

Button 1 - Hunter's Mark, Null
Button 2 - Serpent Sting, Null
Button 3 - Arcane Shot, Comma's
Button 4 - Multishot, Comma's
Button 5 - Chimaera Shot, Comma's
Button 6 - Steady Shot (From the Spell Book)

Basically it casts Hunter's Mark once, Serpent Sting once, then Arcane Shot if its ready, Multishot if Arcane shot is not casting, Chimaera Shot if Arcane and Multi are not casting, and Steady Shot if everything else is on cooldown.

been looking at different sequences, and the spells on the default bar.

Always petattack then hunter mark

#1 arcane, serpent, multi by then serpent is up so serpent,arcane, multi,,,repeat. uses alot of mana so I macro'ed DH and Viper toggle.

# steady as fast as I could spam less mana and more procs (snake thing?)

On long fights, I hit rapid fire. Also watch Kill shot.

How do you measure DPS and which shots give most DPS?

As a BM or Survival spec, you probably wouldn't want a Null.
As a Marksman with Chimera shot (which refreshes your Sting each time Chimera shot hits), you do want the Null.

I tried to switch between between Aspects automatically as part of my castsequences.
Basically one of the click macro's started off in Hawk, halfway through the maximum characters moved to Viper and then had comma's to the 255 character limit.
It's easier to just have a toggle macro separate from the dps macro.
True, it's one more thing to watch, but the control is good too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by halabar

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/castsequence [target=target,harm,nodead][target=raid1target,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead] reset=combat Steady Shot,,,,,,

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Not really part of your question but if this is the last spell in your click macro, do you really need to make it a castsequence with comma's. You always want this to fire so why not just make it

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast [target=target,harm,nodead][target=raid1target,harm,nodead][target=party1target,harm,nodead] Steady Shot

So I usually add Aimed Shot and Arcane Shot into my rotation, though I'll admit I haven't done any dummy testing to compare mine v. Serpent + Steady.

Assuming mana isn't a problem, would DPS improve dropping Aimed and Arcane from my rotation? I'll do more exhaustive testing tonight, but I'm lazy and impatient, so feel free to answer now =)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fursphere

You could do two DPS clickers too. One that puts you in AoH, and one that puts you in Viper.

Get low on mana? Switch to DPS button 2. Good on mana? Go to button 1.

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I like that idea.

The hunters will eventually level again.
Just have a few in front of them...
1. Mixed team from 73 (x2), 75, and 77 (x2) to 80th.
2. Boomkins from 60th to 80th.
3. Warlocks from 1st to 80th.
4. Hunters from 60th to 80th.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zamok

Suggest you take out the comma's after the steady shot as its delaying the firing of steady shot or change it to simply /cast Steady Shot.

Anyways hope it helps.

---

Thanks all for the suggestions. I got rid of the commas after the steady shot as a few had suggested, and it appears the dps went up a bit, (I also had a minor gear upgrade, but not enough to make the whole difference.

With the change, the dps was around 2800.

Interesting though.. I did some more testing with my old MM macro, which is castsequence, but appears to still be working.

#showtooltip Chimera Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/castsequence reset=10/combat Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1

It appears that everything is firing, and dps with this and the same gear setup is ~3600. Some lucky procs and RF/Readiness push it towards 3800 or more.

I'm not testing with kill shot in either, and both were with a wolf.

Guess the last thing I can do with the BM spec is figure out how to work in kill command, and see how much of a boost that is, but it certainly isn't going to make up the ~800 dps difference I am seeing.

Any other ideas on boosting BM through the macro?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fursphere

You could do two DPS clickers too. One that puts you in AoH, and one that puts you in Viper.

Get low on mana? Switch to DPS button 2. Good on mana? Go to button 1.

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I do this with my pally tank, depending on what I want them judging. But for the hunter the aspect is easy enough to click on. Ya just gotta remember to switch back... :-)

Did a couple of very quick test runs tonight with the Serpent + Steady vs. Serpent + Arcane + Aimed + Steady. I basically emptied my mana bar each time. Here are my results:

Serpent + Arcane + Aimed + Steady #1
Overall Damage - 222518
DPS - 2994.9

#2
Overall Damage - 226534
DPS - 3152.5

Serpent + Steady #1
Overall Damage - 264156
DPS - 2997.7

#2
Overall Damage - 254345
DPS - 3161.5

Conclusion
In short, the Serpent + Steady rotation was on par with the more elaborate sequence. This quick test essentially supports Fur's suggestion, unless you're worried about self-healing mobs (Arcane Shot helps that). The first sequence did seem to have better burst dps for the first 15-20 seconds (peaked at ~3800 dps each time before leveling off, versus ~3400), so I'm still inclined to use it for heroics. However, for long boss fights or raids, Serpent + Steady seems the better option, mainly because it preserves more mana. Better testing is likely needed, but this is enough to persuade me for now =)