Bouk’s Phase 6 Hunter BiS Guide

The base of this document is ripped directly from Skinnay’s Classic Gear List, modified slightly, and updated to fit our current understanding of hunters in classic. Please see his list for pre-phase 6 gear lists.

Phase 6 BiS is much simpler than previous phases as T3 is far and away better than most other gear in the game. Stat weights and dps values are based on Sixx’s DPS sheet and assume full buffs, consumables, and uptime on boss debuffs with 20/31/0 spec. Weapon calculations assume absolute BiS armor and likewise, armor calculations assume absolutely BiS weapons. DPS numbers are from stable rotations without use of haste effects or active trinkets.

As these sets are being simmed under pretty contrived settings (100% debuff, pet uptime, etc) the absolute DPS values of each set is fairly meaningless. Gear upgrades should be compared relative to the pieces and sets they are replacing. Likewise, Blessing of Kings (and Windfury when weaving) raises the top end DPS of all sets but do not meaningfully change how the sets compare to eachother. As such, all sets are simmed with Blessing of Kings. We’ve put the simmed DPS of top end weave sets with Windfury (WF) in the notes column because melee hits go brrrrt.

Phase 6 introduces Consecrated Sharpening Stones. Our current best knowledge indicates these work for ranged AP as well as melee. As such, we’ve simmed all sets with them applied (except WF sims).

Armor

Gear set Weave DPS Ranged DPS Notes
P6 R12 MW 1407.4 1211.0 1528.1 with WF and WCB
P6 MW 1398.3 1204.4 1457.7 with WF
P6 R12, True   1242.4  
P6, Realistic   1223.5 Harbinger on Ally, Iblis on Horde
P6, More Realistic   1182.2 Less weapon contention with melee
P6, T2   1174.4 +9 dps / hunter / T2 set
P5 BiS R12 1280.4 1089.4 Weave simmed with Barb

Upgrading to T3

T3 armor has a DPS boost at 2 and 4 piece set bonus. Some of y’all may be coming into phase 6 wearing 8/8 T2. Breaking T2 for any 2 pieces of T3 is a personal DPS boost. If you have 3-5 hunters in the raid, switching to 2/8 T3 will boost your personal DPS at the sacrifice of ~10-20 raid DPS from not giving T2 to your other hunters; breaking T2 for any 4 pieces of T3 is both a personal and raid DPS increase.

Less Succinctly

Current Set T3 Piece Gearing Order Set Breakpoints to Equip
R12, Hit Scope Chest, Belt, Bracers, Boots, Legs, rest 1,2,4,5,7
R10, Hit Scope Chest, Belt, Gloves, Bracers, Boots, Legs, rest 1,2,3,5,6,8
T2/2.5 mix, Hit Scope Head, Shoulders, Chest, Belt, Gloves, Bracers, Boots, Legs 1,2,3,4,5,7,8
5/8 T2, Hit Scope Head, Shoulders, Chest, Belt, Gloves, Bracers, Boots, Legs 1,2,3,4,5,7,8
T2, Hit Scope Head, Shoulders, Chest, Belt, Gloves, Bracers, Boots, Legs 2 or 4,5,6,7,8

Ranged Weapons

Weapon DPS MW DPS1
Nerubian Slavemaker +94 +88
Ashjre’thul +57 +52
Larvae of the Great Worm +34 +33
Soulstring +21 +20
Crossbow of Imminent Doom +19 +21
Polished Ironwood Crossbow +17 +15
Huhuran’s Stinger +11 -26
Dragonbreath Hand Cannon +6 -20
R14 Xbow/Gun +3  
Rhok’delar Baseline Baseline

Attempting to itemize BiS sets around using the dwarf or troll weapon skill racials with P6 armor is always a DPS loss due to the abundant hit on T3, ZG enchants, and ranged stat stick weapons. Non-BiS sets may be able to make use of these passives.

1: Melee weaving numbers are relative to weaving with Rhok’delar; although the relative DPS increases appear smaller, the absolute DPS of normal melee weaving with any of these weapons is higher than not weaving at all. Additionally, these numbers are for normal weaving, not max weaving. Max weaving numbers vary dramatically depending on the speed of the melee weapon used (see the next table). If you happen to have a plethora of weaving weapons and need to know which will pair best with a given ranged weapon for max weaving, consult the sim.

Melee Weapons

Some hunters floated the idea of weaving with dual-wielded weapons in phase 6 due to the introduction of Consecrated Sharpening Stones. We were unable to build a set for which this beat 2 handers at melee weaving with many different combinations of slow mainhands, Windfury on MH, Orc racial, etc. Slow 2 handers are far and away better for weaving.

Melee Weaving Weapon DPS

Weapon Normal Weave Max Weave Max with WCB
Eye of Nerub +57 +47 +85
Severence (Orc) 1 +40 +60 +54
Barb of the Sand Reaver +40 +27 +63
Corrupted Ashbringer +40 +42 +61
Gri’leks Carver (Dragonkin) +33 -5 +43
Claymore of Unholy Might +30 +28 +57
Severence +26 +26 +54
Ashkandi +23 +19 +48
Zin’rokh +20 -2  
Huntsman’s Harpoon +17 +2  
Lok’delar / Peacemaker +4 +11  
Barbarous Blade Baseline Baseline  

This table changes very little from phase 5 to phase 6 for normal weavers. For max weaving hunters, the faster attack speed on KT xbow actually shifts the relative strength of a couple weapons, favoring weapons which delay your max weave rotation less. This is most apparent in that Gril’leks actually loses out to Ashkandi–with and without Warchief’s Blessing, even against Dragonkin–due to its insanely slow speed delaying your ranged shots.

1: Severance is a 3.6 speed 2 handed axe with 43 strength and 2% crit. In the contrived setting we’re simming things in, using Severance and putting a hitscope onto your Nerubain Slavemaker is technically the best max weaving gear set for an Orc with Windfury. It beats Eye of Nerub by 2 DPS if you have Windfury but loses to Nerub when both sets have WCB by ~3 DPS. It drastically loses to Eye as soon as your max weave uptime dips from 100% (which will happen in any fight you proc Quick Shots or use Rapid Fire during).

Ranged Stat Stick Weapon eAP

The six best stat stick weapons this phase all have 1% hit on them. Hell, Kingsfall is so good that it still beats Hatchet of Sundered Bone’s eAP without factoring in hit. The hit gained on these is far more efficient than getting hit from rings. As such, ranged hunter BiS will transition into getting 2% hit from weapons this phase.

While the weapons below are our BiS this phase, the first 5 are all also empirically better upgrades for equally performing melee than hunters. Showing this list to your raid lead and demanding any of them is silly, but we’re also not your parents and different raids function differently. If you are able to secure prio and eventually get your hands on any of them, congrats! Do put yourself in other’s shoes though, and realize how frustrated you would be if Nerubian Slavemaker (warrior BiS btw) went to a melee over you. Work with your raid leaders, loot council, and melee to find compromises that suit all of you.

Weapon Base Kings ZG Kings + ZG
Kingsfall 132 138 142 149
Harbinger of Doom 109 114 117 120
Iblis, Blade of the Fallen Seraph 115      
Claw of the Frost Wyrm (OH) 107      
Blessed Qiraji Pugio 105      
Maexxna’s Fang 84      
Eye of Nerub1 124 137 144 159
Hatchet of Sundered Bone 77      
Barb of the Sand Reaver1 113 125 131 145
Silithid Claw (MH) 71      
Brutality Blade 65 68 70 74
Hakkari MH / Fang of the Faceless / R14 69      
Core Hound Tooth / Ancient Qiraji Ripper 61      
Tooth of Eranikus (MH) 48      
16 agi weapons2 44 49 51 56
Dal’Rend’s Set (each) 45      
1% crit weapons3 40      
Bone Slicing Hatchet 36 40 41 46

1: Two handed weapons should be compared at half their AP. They will perform even worse than this table shows due to getting 5 less agility from enchants and 100 less AP from a second Consecrated Sharpening Stone.

2: Dragonfang Blade / Doom’s Edge / Scythe of the Unseen Path

3: Assassination Blade / Dawn’s Edge / Heartseeker / Thekal’s Grasp (MH) / Dal’Rend’s Sacred Charge (MH)

Rings

Figuring out how to accurately convey the value of different rings was difficult. In the end, we’ve decided to include both a raw data table of ring eAP and a TLDR style ring pair eAP table by the amount of hit you need.

TLDR ring sets:

The more hit you get from rings, the generally worse the other stats on the rings are. Get your hit from gear, weapons, and hitscope sooner than rings.

Hit Rings   Ally eAP Horde eAP
0 BoR RotCS 224 204
  BoR BoUF 212 201
  BoR RotG 214 194
  RotCS BoUF 198 189
  RotCS RotG 200 182
  BoUF RotG 188 179
1 BoR BoUF 212 201
  BoR SRotBD 203 192
  RotCS BoUF 198 189
  RotCS SRotBD 189 180
  RotG BoUF 188 179
  RotG SRotBD 179 170
2 BoUF SRotBD 177 170
  BoA BoR 175 160

The above table was generated by pairing reasonably strong rings from the below table and then subtracting their eAP by required hit’s value in eAP. This normalizes eAP values bloated by hit which you ideally should be seeking from other places.

FAQ:

Big Ring Data

    Ally         Horde        
    R   MW     R   MW    
Ring Hit eAP eAPnH eAP eAPnH eAP.2H eAP eAPnH eAP eAPnH eAP.2H
Band of Reanimation   119 119 108 108 108 108 108 96 96 96
Ring of the Cryptstalker   105 105 95 95 95 96 96 85 85 85
Band of Unnatural Forces 1 142 93 138 91 107 142 93 137 91 108
Ring of the Godslayer   95 95 86 86 86 86 86 76 76 76
Signet Ring of the Bronze Dragonflight 1 133 84 123 76 92 126 77 114 68 85
Signet of the Unseen Path   67 67 60 60 60 61 61 54 54 54
Ring of the Unliving   74 74 67 67 67 67 67 59 59 59
Seal of Jin   61 61 59 59 59 61 61 59 59 59
Band of Jin 1 98 49 92 44 61 94 45 86 39 56
Master Dragonslayer’s Ring 1 97 48 95 48 64 97 48 94 48 65
Circle of Applied Force   77 77 73 73 73 70 70 66 66 66
Archimtiros’ Ring of Reckoning   49 49 44 44 44 45 45 39 39 39
Don Julio’s Band 1 106 57 102 55 71 106 57 101 55 72
Tarnished Elven Ring 1 102 53 95 48 64 97 48 89 42 59
Quick Strike Ring   71 71 69 69 69 71 71 69 69 69
    rha rna mha mna m2a rhh rnh mhh mnh m2h

R = ranged, MW = melee weaving, eAPnH is eAP without factoring in hit, eAP.2H is eAP factoring in .2% hit if the ring is used to hitcap with Eye of Nerub. This table probably isn’t very useful to most but its here.

Trinkets

Slayer’s Crest is pretty good. Leave Kiss to melee, we don’t scale well with haste (its probably worse than ES/Jom). Will fill this out with eAP in the coming days.

P6 eAP

Stat eAP Kings ZG Kings + ZG
1 Agi 2.76 3.05 3.19 3.53
1% Crit 40.23 40.83 41.12 41.79
1% Hit 47.18 48.38 48.97 50.35

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