Skip to appendix C if you just want to copy a macro and not understand why you're using it. Seriously, don't read any more, just scroll down.

Introduction to shot rotations:

Hunters are one of the most theoretically complex classes in WoW, and it's almost entirely due to Auto Shot. Unlike other physical classes, our source of "white" damage can be interrupted, delayed, and effectively neutered by our other abilities. Unlike other mana using classes, we are completely reliant on this white damage to provide meaningful dps. This means that Hunters need to be able to sequence their shots to maximize the use of their special and white damage, while balancing concerns about pet effectiveness, utility abilities, and mana use. Macros to help achieve certain shot sequences or rotations are discussed below, as well as choosing the rotation that is best for you.

I will not be going into Mana usage, but formulae for the expected damage of given shots are provided, as well as the shots per seconds of each rotation, so calculating your damage per mana and effective mana use per time is easy enough.

Ignore the math if it scares you, I have "recommend use" sections for each rotation and macro below. Appendix A details the abbreviations.

A brief exploration of Shot mechanics

Auto Shot

Auto shot is peculiar. Like the white damage for other classes, it is modified by our ranged attack power and critical strike, and mitigated by armor. However, it has a hidden cast time of .5 seconds. You will never see an auto shot hit less than .5 seconds after your most recent other shot (data exists that indicates this cast time might be reduced by haste, but not at the standard multiplier). Unlike the cast time for other abilities, you can actually channel another spell DURING this cast time. You cannot move, jump, or cast any of your non-channeled spells, so unless you're planning on using Volley or Aimed Shot, it's is *always* Steady Shot that is used after an Auto Shot. More on this later. Auto Shot is the only shot that deals "regular" ranged damage as some procs require, but it can still benefit from Judgement of Wisdom like our Special damaging shots. Delaying your Auto Shot to fire other shots is known as "clipping", and can increase your DPS in certain rotations. Excessive clipping, however, will cripple your DPS.

Damage per shot for auto shot:
Formula: RWS(WD+WS*[RAP+ADPS]/14)
Expected: RWS(WD+WS*[RAP+ADPS]/14)(C%[1+x]+1)
*x~this term changes based on points in Mortal Shots, active Slaying talents, and an active Relentless Earthstorm Diamond. Possible values with 5/5 Mortal Shots assumed are 1.3, 1.33,1.39, and 1.42.

Steady Shot

If Auto Shot is the bread of hunter DPS, Steady is the butter. It's ridiculously mana efficient, benefits from the interaction with Auto Shot described above, and scales better with gear than any other hunter shot. It also benefits from haste effects, getting the full benefit of the cast time reduction (it will not reduce the global cooldown, however).

Damage per shot for Steady Shot:
Formula: RWS(RAP*.2+150+AWD)
Expected: RWS(RAP*.2+150+AWD)(C%[1+x]+1)
*x~Same as with Auto Shot. Add .05 to C% for 4 pc tier 5.

Arcane Shot

Arcane Shot has a few main advantages. Among them are: 1)it's instant 2)it scales with ranged attack power 3)it ignored armor 4)it's less mana than Multi Shot. The primary advantage of using instant shots is that they allow an auto shot to fire .5 sec after them when you are still in the 1.5 second global cooldown, allowing them to be used after another shot without clipping auto shots.

Damage per shot for Arcane Shot:
Formula: RWS(RAP*.15+273)
Expected: RWS(RAP*.15+273)(C%[1+x]+1)
*x~Same as with Auto Shot

Multi Shot

The other (near-)instant shot used heavily for DPS, Multi Shot's advantages relative to Arcane Shot are twofold. First, it scales incredibly well with gear, scaling with weapon damage plus the bevy of talents for it in the Marksman talent tree. Second, as the name implies, it can hit multiple targets, which may be a disadvantage near crowd-controlled or neutral targets, but can be incredibly powerful for DPS. Multi Shot has a short cast time (.5 seconds like Auto Shot), so it can not be cast while moving. Rank 1 is incredibly mana efficient.

Damage per shot for Multi Shot:
Formula: MS*RWS*(205+WD+2.7*[RAP+ADPS]/14)
Expected: MS*RWS*(205+WD+2.7*[RAP+ADPS]/14)(C%[1+x]+1)
R1 Expected: MS*RWS*(WD+2.7*[RAP+ADPS]/14)(C%[1+x]+1)
*x~Same as with Auto Shot. Add up to .12 to C% for improved Barrage.

Multiply by the expected number of targets. Note that this makes multi Shot far and away your most efficient shot for any spec if you are hitting 2 or more targets. Phenomenal for un-cced trash. Great for cc-ed trash if you like killing your mages too. Make sure you FD so the mob kills your mage and not you though!

Scorpid Sting

Scorpid Sting adds 5% miss to the target. It sucks for your mana, it sucks for your DPS, but dead tanks mean wiped raids, and 5% is a load of avoidance for a tank that already has 50% avoidance or more. Usually a must for any tank to achieve passive 100% avoidance or a paladin to achieve passive uncrushability. As such, if it's a hard hitting boss, suck it up and use it.

Scatter Shot, Silencing Shot, Serpent Sting

Short answer: don't use them in a DPS rotation
Long answer: if you're forced to move continuously, use them during spare GCDs if the following conditions are met: Arcane Shot is on cooldown, Hunter's Mark has at least 30 seconds left on it, and you will not have mana problems with your regular rotation. If these are true, use your instant shots with the following priority: Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, Silencing Shot, Scatter Shot. Silencing Shot and Scatter Shot are identical in DPS terms, and they can mathematically pass Serpent Sting in damage once your base weapon damage exceeds .2*RAP+1320. This won't happen for you any time soon.

I find I use these most on fights with knock-into-the-air effects like Archimonde, Akil'Zon, and Mother Shahraz.

Aimed Shot

Short answer: don't use it
Long answer: if you need the mortal strike effect, use it immediately after an auto shot, an follow it as if it *were* an auto shot (follow with a steady), as it resets your auto shot timer. It's quite mana inefficient, so bear in mind that rank 1 still applies the healing debuff.

Shot rotation 1, or the "1:1" rotation:

The simplest of rotations, in 1:1 you shoot one special shot between each Auto Shot. Arcane Shot and Multi Shot will often replace Steady Shot for maximum damage. Multi Shot will nearly always outdamage Steady Shot (4 pc tier 6 with astronomical AP is the exception), Arcane Shot may be more easily passed on low-armor targets with raid buffs and 4 pieces of tier 5 or tier 6. A straight 1:1 rotation uses one Steady Shot for each Auto Shot, interjecting Arcane or Multi Shot are known as "1:1 priority" rotations.

This rotation tends to have quite low mana use.

Shots/Second
1 Auto per Bow Speed
1 Steady per Bow Speed

Recommend times to use this rotation:
Open your character sheet. Is your ranged attack speed 1.75 or less (after all relevant procs and talents)? If yes, use this rotation.

How to macro this rotation:
If your auto shot timer is greater than 1.5 second, the only way to reliably force this is the following:

/castsequence reset=3 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot

DO NOT use this macro. Patch 2.3.2 changed the way the server handles /castsequence requests, so you will often experience delays with even fairly low latencies (can even be an issue below 100 ms). The following will work better, but will only ensure a 1:1 rotation if your auto shot speed is 1.5 or less. For the expected rotation from this macro, see Appendix B:

/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot

Shot rotation 2, or the "3:2" rotation:

This most popular and most misunderstood thing in WoW. The goal here is to improve upon the lost bits of time from a 1:1 rotation without the mana use of Multi Shot and Arcane Shot. The solution is more steady shots. This rotation is not possible without haste effects (quiver and serpent's swiftness at the least), because it requires a hasted steady shot more than a hasted auto shot. Here is a general timeline to understand the cycle, with a 1.0 speed Steady Shot and a 1.8 Speed Auto Shot (these are the exact numbers for a 2.7 speed weapon and a total of 50% haste from other sources)

0.0 Begin attacking; Auto Shot 1 begins; begin Steady Shot 1
0.5 Auto Shot 1 fires
1.0 Steady Shot 1 fires
1.5 Steady Shot 1 GCD completes; begin Steady Shot 2
2.3 Auto Shot 2 is available but can not begin casting
2.5 Steady Shot 2 fires; Auto Shot 2 begins
3.0 Steady Shot 2 GCD completes; begin Steady Shot 3
3.0 Auto Shot 2 fires
4.0 Steady Shot 3 fires
4.3 Auto Shot 3 begins
4.5 Steady Shot 3 GCD completes; Begin Steady Shot 4
4.8 Auto Shot 3 fires

You will note that you actually have a little "spillover", in that you have fired 3 steady shots and 2 auto shots, but are slightly ahead on your next Steady Shot already. This gain will often be lost to lag (user delay in spam speed more so than latency), but the full mathematical effect of this gain is discussed in Appendix B.

Shots/Second
2 Autos per Bow Speed+1.5+Steady Shot cast time
3 Steadies per Bow Speed+1.5+Steady Shot cast time

Recommend times to use this rotation:
Is your ranged attack speed after haste and talents less than 2.1? Do it!

How to macro this rotation:
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot

For the actual rotation given by this macro, consult Appendix B. As an aside, you will have to manually shoot and not macro spam if your ranged attack speed is greater than 2.0, or risk losing huge amounts of DPS to having an extra steady shot more frequently than every other auto shot.

Shot rotation 3, or the "1.5:1" rotation:
This refers to the typical rotation favored by marksman hunters to utilize their Multi Shot talents, or Survival hunters to prevent excessive auto shot clipping. Neither of these specs have heavily hasted steady shots to allow them to use Steady Shot as it is used in 3:2, so they tend to replace Steady Shot 2 above with Arcane or Multi Shot.

In reality, this rotation is not much different than 3:2 in terms of how it plays, only you can't macro it as well. It's worth noting that if you can manually weave it well enough, replacing the second steady shot in a 3:2 rotation with Arcane/Multi will indeed increase your DPS, but the mana use will be considerate.

The typical shot order is Auto, Steady, Multi, Auto, Steady, Auto, Steady, Arcane, Auto, Steady, where it loops. To increase mana efficiency many Survival Hunters will get points in Improved Arcane Shot and replace all Multi Shots with Arcane Shots.

This rotation uses more mana than the previous 2.

Shots/Second
1 Auto per bow Speed
1 Steady per bow speed
1 Arcane per 1/4 bow speed
1 Multi per 1/4 bow speed

Recommend times to use this rotation:
1)Weapon Speed after haste of 2.3 or more. This tends to mean you're Survival or Marks, or using a slow weapon with no Quick Shots up as BM.
2) Weapon speed greater than 1.8 with zero concern for mana (full burn at the end of fights, for specific phases/spawns, etc.)
3) Steady Shot cast times of 1.3 or greater

How to macro this rotation:
Short Answer: You don't
Long Answer:

/castsequence reset=3 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/castrandom Multi Shot, Arcane Shot

This macro will cast Steady Shot after each auto shot, and throw in Arcane Shot and Multishot when it feels like it. You will regularly get Auto-Multi-Steady sequences (needless clipping) as well as Auto-Steady-Steady sequences (needless clipping), plus it suffers from latency effects on the /castsequence (MORE needless clipping). You can also try

/castsequence reset=5 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, !Auto Shot, Steady Shot, !Auto Shot, Steady Shot, Multi Shot, !Auto Shot, Steady Shot

It will force your order, but latency will tend to clip it (shocking, I know), and it's also horrible if you have to move around or break macro often.

Thanks to Wowhead for spell parsing, and the contributors of the Elitist Jerks forums for numerous tests to discover detailed mechanics and providing a forum for intelligent discussion.

Also, I assume being hit-capped above. Since hunter attacks are two-roll, just multiply expected damage by your hit rate if you want to know the actual pre-armor expected damage.

Appendix A

Various abbreviations in formulae:
RWS=Coefficient from Ranged Weapon Specialization (usually 1 or 1.05). Add .02 for Focused Fire here if it applies.
MS= Bonus Coefficient to Multi Shot (1, 1.05, 1.12, or 1.17) based on pvp gloves/barrage
T6S= tier 6 bonus to Steady shot (1 if you don't have it, 1.1 if you do)
BS= Bow speed
RAP=Ranged Attack Power
C%=Critical Strike Percentage
ADPS=Arrow DPS
AWD=Average Weapon damage (as it appears on the weapon)
NWD=Normalized weapon damage, or 2.7*[ADPS+RAP/14]+AWD
ArP=Armor Penetration

Appendix B:

3:2 macro expected cycles

First note, these rotations are "optimal", assuming an infinite spam speed and no effect from lag. The 2.3.2 changes should ensure minimal loss of time to latency, but as we're all only human and manually pressing or mouse-spinning a bind (ToS *ahem*), you will always have at least a minimal delay on this, allowing many amounts of haste to observe different rotations. The prime examples of this are getting a 3:2 rotation out of an adjusted auto shot speed from 1.8-2.0 and getting a 1:1 rotation out of adjusted bow speeds from 1.5-1.7ish. Test for yourself, and ALWAYS know that manually weaving your shots will guarantee your desired cycle. I'll say that once more. The only way to guarantee a desired result is to do it yourself, macros are simply a tool to simplify and remove certain amounts of human error from the cycle.

Let BS= your bow speed (as it appears on the weapon)
Let AH=your aggregate haste modifier, or the result of the following:
AH= SS*QS*quiver*(1+haste%)
where SS= 1.2 if you have Serpent's Swiftness (else =1), QS= 1.15 if you have Quick Shots active (else=1), and quiver= 1.15, assuming you have a level 60-70 quiver. "haste%" here is the haste % listed on your character screen in decimal form, or your haste rating divided by 1570.

If you have no exterior haste rating, here are your common AH values (with DST up):
1.15 (1.388) Marksman/Survival Hunters without Quick Shots up
1.3225 (1.596) Marksman/Survival Hunters with Quick Shots up
1.38 (1.666) BM Hunter without Quick Shots up
1.587 (1.916) BM Hunter with Quick Shots up

Expected rotation from Haste and Bow Speed
BS~~~~~~~AH~~~~~~~~Rotation from spam
3.0~~~~~~0-1.5~~~~~~~~~2:1
3.0~~~~~~1.5-2 ~~~~~~~~~3:2*
3.0~~~~~~~~>2~~~~~~~~~1:1
2.9 ~~~~~~~0-1.467~~~~~~2:1
2.9~~~~1.467-1.933~~~~~~3:2*
2.9 ~~~~~~~>1.933~~~~~~~1:1
2.8~~~~~~~ 0-1.433~~~~~~2:1
2.8~~~~1.433-1.867~~~~~~3:2*
2.8~~~~~~~~>1.867~~~~~~1:1
2.7~~~~~~~0-1.4~~~~~~~~ 2:1
2.7~~~~~~1.4-1.8~~~~~~~~ 3:2*
2.7 ~~~~~~~~>1.8 ~~~~~~~1:1
2.6~~~~~~~~0-1.366~~~~~~2:1
2.6~~~~~1.366-1.733~~~~~3:2*
2.6~~~~~~~~~>1.733~~~~~1:1

Because Auto Shot and Steady Shot both use Weapon Damage and are generally inferior, faster weapons were not included. I may add those at a later date.

*To get the actual ratio of Auto Shots to Steady Shots, input your AH and BS into the following:

(3-3AH)/(3AH-2BS)

Round DOWN to the nearest integer, then add one. Call this number n. Your rotation is n+1 Steady Shots per n Auto Shots. Now get lost, I had to scribble all over this piece of paper before I solved that.

Note that as you approach the critical point to guarantee a 1:1 cycle you are naturally approaching that cycle anyways, to the point that interface lag makes it interchangeable.

(formulas used)
2:1-3:2 critical point: AH=(1.5+BS)/3
1:1 critical point: AH=BS/1.5
1.x:1 detail: Sn=1.5n-(1.5+[n-1]BS)/AH


Appendix C:

Popular macro incarnations

3:2
/console Sound_Enable SFX 0
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Lightning Breath
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_Enable SFX 1

1:1.5 as MM
/console Sound_Enable SFX 0
/castsequence reset=3 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/castrandom Multi Shot, Arcane Shot
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Lightning Breath
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_Enable SFX 1

1:1 forced
/console Sound_Enable SFX 0
/castsequence reset=2 !Auto Shot, Steady Shot
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Lightning Breath
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/console Sound_Enable SFX 1

Appendix D:

Macro addition details

/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Kill Command
-adds kill command, will automatically cast if KC is up and you are not in the middle of a channel. Can clip .1s or more from a shot, especially if it's an auto shot being cast "during" a Steady channel so if using 3:2 or 1.1:1, try to use it manually instead of in this macro after the isolated steady shot.

/cast [target=pettarget, exists] Lightning Breath
-include in macro if you use a Wind Serpent. Prevents strange pathing from taking your WS out of melee range.

/petattack
-Guess

/console Sound_Enable SFX 0
-Turns off sound effects. Put at start of macro to make the spamming make no noise for the triggers on "Not enough mana", "Ability not ready yet", "LOL OUT OF ARROWS", etc.

/console Sound_Enable SFX 1
-Reenables sound effects. Put at end of macro to resume normal gameplay.

/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
-Clears annoying screen spam for any of the same errors above

.

Great guide man. Loved the detail and explanations.

Keep it up.

Interesting read. I do think that haste effects can reduce the cast time of Auto Shot. I have no strong proof of this (the timing is a bit of a pain to catch in statistically satisfactory way) but I've seen enough evidence to convince me of it.

Keep up the good work.

beautiful post reported for a sticky!

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Q u o t e:
Interesting read. I do think that haste effects can reduce the cast time of Auto Shot. I have no strong proof of this (the timing is a bit of a pain to catch in statistically satisfactory way) but I've seen enough evidence to convince me of it.

Keep up the good work.

---

The good news is, this in *zero* ways affects any rotation that uses a steady shot after every auto shot (which is every single one). Only the time that the auto shot *begins* casting matters, since it will finish at some point in the middle of the Steady Shot anyways.

At least if I understand and am observing the mechanic correctly.

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Q u o t e:


The good news is, this in *zero* ways affects any rotation that uses a steady shot after every auto shot (which is every single one). Only the time that the auto shot *begins* casting matters, since it will finish at some point in the middle of the Steady Shot anyways.

At least if I understand and am observing the mechanic correctly.

---

I don't think I quite understand you there. You cannot be casting two spells at the same time. So if Auto Shot takes a shorter time to cast, you could potentially be starting your next Steady that much sooner (GCD permitting, of course.)

I'm not saying it's a huge difference, but it looked like you were trying to be as detailed as possible, and in a 3:2 macro it does come into play.

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Q u o t e:
reported for a sticky

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Yeah, good luck with that.

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Q u o t e:


Yeah, good luck with that.

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doesn't hurt to try though

also hi cheeky :D

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Q u o t e:


doesn't hurt to try though

also hi cheeky :D

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Hello. :)

bump

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Q u o t e:


I don't think I quite understand you there. You cannot be casting two spells at the same time. So if Auto Shot takes a shorter time to cast, you could potentially be starting your next Steady that much sooner (GCD permitting, of course.)

I'm not saying it's a huge difference, but it looked like you were trying to be as detailed as possible, and in a 3:2 macro it does come into play.

---

You're right, I think I was misunderstanding the nature of the channel. However, in the event that (1.5-Steady Shot cast time)< Auto shot cast time, the closed formula for 3:2 ignoring KC should hold. This is definately true for all haste>1.5, probably true around 1.45ish. I'll continue to browse around here and the EJ forums for more work on decreasing the auto shot cast time, but it's quite difficult to test well.

Bump
Wow, very well thought out guide. Very helpful. /clap

Will reccomend for sticky.

Keep up the great work.

Rofl @ Sticky.

/wave cheeky

Great post.

Blues, please, sticky it