Monday, March 9, 2009

Hunter gear best-in-slot list

I've been wanting to do this post for a while. Here's a list of the best hunter gear in the game. I base the gear off three things - their stats, their sockets, and their green stats (crit, hit, etc.) The best gear on the list will usually have the highest stats, sockets (where applicable) and hit, crit and attack power as their green stats. I'll also list where the item is dropped, and the best enchant for that appropriate item slot.

While I understand Haste is important - especially for Surv and MM - I value hit and crit above haste. So, without further ado...

Head
Unfortunately, there is no helm with my three valued stats, so we'll have to look at a few.
Hyaline Helm of the Sniper - The only ilevel213 helm with hit on it, you'll want to get this if you're still working toward the hit cap. Drops from Sartharion-25.
Valorous Cryptstalker Helm - Tier 7.5... really goes without saying. Drops from Kel'thuzad-25.
Blue Aspect Helm - Highest itemlevel mail physical dps helm, disappointing that it has less agi than the previous two mentioned. It instead spends the points in lots of attack power. Would be great for BM hunters, if only the haste was hit. Drops from Malygos-25.

Enchant: Arcanum of Torment from Knights of the Ebon Blade

Neck
Favor of the Dragon Queen - Gemmed with a 16agi, it is undoubtedly the best physical dps neck for any class. Quest item from Sapphiron/Malygos-25.

Shoulder
Valorous Cryptstalker Spaulders - Tier 7.5, again goes without saying. Drops from Loatheb-25 or bought with 60 Emblems of Valor. Upstanding Spaulders comes very close though.

Enchant: Greater Inscription of the Axe from Sons of Hodir.

Back
Drape of the Deadly Foe - As with the neck mentioned above, the best in slot for physical dps. Drops from Kel'thuzad-25.
However, if you're looking for alternatives... Hammerhead Sharkskin Cloak is pretty good and bought with 25 Emblems of Valor.

Enchant: 22 Agi. Contact your friendly neighbourhood enchanter!

Chest
Tunic of Masked Suffering - The boatload of Agi on this one makes it the clear winner, even over Tier 7.5. The tiered chest does have hit though, so if you still need that, the tiered chest is a close second. Drops from Noth-25.

Enchant: +10 stats.

Bracers
Slime Stream Bands - All of my favourite stats, a socket, and it's BoE to boot! A real no brainer for this one. Drops from Grobbulus-25.

Enchant: 50 attack power.

Hands
A bit of a toss up on this one...
Gloves of Calculated Risk - All my favourite stats, but no socket compared to Grotesque Handgrips and tier 7.5. Drops from Patchwerk-25.

Enchant: 20 Agi.

Belt
Torn Web Wrapping - Another no-brainer, despite the lack of socket. Also BoE! Drops from Maexxna-25.

Enchant: Not an enchant, per se. Get the belt buckle and slap in a 16agi gem in there.

Legs
Leggings of Failed Escape - All the good stuff, even compared to the tier 7.5 legs. Gothik has been giving me grief over these for the past few months...

Enchant: 75 ap, 22 crit.

Boots
Boots of the Renewed Flight - Unfortunately, it wastes some points on the armor penetration, but otherwise, because of the amount of agi and ap on it, it's the best. Crippled Treads from Noth-25 is a good substitute though. (and they look better!) Drops from Malygos-25.

Enchant: 16 Agi.

Rings
Strong Handed Ring - Awesome stats on these, even with the haste. Drops from shared loot table from first bosses in all four wings in Naxx.
Surge Needle Ring - All my favourite stats, and again, another BoE! Great for if you hate doing Malygos.

Enchant: (assuming you're an enchanter) 32 attack power.

Trinkets
Darkmoon Card: Greatness - 90 agility flat out from this trinket... what's not to like? Be prepared to spend a lot of gold on this one though... even I don't have it. Created by Scribes.
Fury of the Five Flights - Once you get the stack up to 20, it will keep refreshing itself throughout the fight. It's practically a free 320 attack power! Again, not just the best for hunters, but all physical dps classes as well. Drops from Sartharion-25.
Mirror of Truth - One of the first epic trinkets you will probably get. No brainer, really. Bought with 40 Emblems of Heroism.

Melee weapon (otherwise affectionately labelled stat stick)
Black Ice - I like this one for its hit, mostly. Drops from Malygos-10.
The Undeath Carrier - Since patch 3.0.8 opened up druid staves as viable hunter stat sticks, we've had more options to choose from just the usual two handed swords and polearms. This is probably the best for Surv hunters, who can take advantage of the Stam to AP conversion. Very nice amount of crit on it too, compared to Black Ice. Drops from Heigan-25.

Enchant: 110 ap.

Ranged weapon
Envoy of Mortality - You probably knew this one already! It has the appropriate stats for its itemlevel, and has the highest tooltip dps. My only complaint is that it doesn't have any hit. Drops from Kel'thuzad-25.

Enchant: 40 ranged crit.

Hope this helped, feel free to email with any questions. ^^

12 comments:

  1. http://www.maxdps.com shows quite well what gear to aim for. It's not perfect, but you'll notice that most of it is the same as the stuff you've posted. It's got an easy to overlook list of items, with (sic!) autogenerated dps that estimates the item values.

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  2. Most of the gear is right, Frost Androited Gloves is much better then the two listen. From H Maly.

    There is a Flagrant Dragon Chest or some thing like that from 2Drake Sarth 10 man or 1Drake Sarth 25 man that has better stats then both the chests. Also, if you stack agi in the t7.5 chest it comes out on top.

    Journey's End is also a much better stat stick. Yurs has more agi but lets face it, its overall stats are far better for any hunter.

    Generally the right gear though. GJ

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  3. http://www.hunterloot.com

    Tell it how much you value 1 point of each stat and voila, it lists the best items for each slot.

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  4. The journey's end (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40388) is the best stat stick we can get now.

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  5. Black Ice tops Journey's End because of the hit rating. If you can avoid putting points in out +hit talent they can go places that do damage. We also have no use for the dps on it, so let the thing go to a druid/ret pally.

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  6. With my spec and a 32 AP Gem, the Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets give me another 68 AP. How does one take that into account when trying to figure out which gear is best when working with these stock calculators.

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  7. I think that the Icewalker enchant is better than the +16agi enchant to boots. That 12 hit and 12 crit is better than 16agi.

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  8. Good list all around however I find it hard to choose between which valarious peice to equip. To be hit capped with this gear you would have to be wearing T7.5 chest for the 44 hit or you'll be 45 under cap, and this should give you the 5% more pet damage set bonus still would need to figure out if the loss of one chest over another would outwiegh the benefits of stats over another.

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  9. Guess this needs updated now.

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  10. It's Fascinating, I have most of the gear listed, i just need to run Maly more often:) For the Bracers, Add the LW ability to add a shit ton of ATP using the fur lining patterns

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  11. Assuming Of course that your toon is a LW:) Happy Hunting

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  12. With recent(ish) changes to armor penetration, it seems to be the stat with the best dps increase per point, and MaxDPS backs this up, though I can't imagine the limitless testing they must do... Gotta respect the people that maintain that site.

    That is, as long as you're hit capped and aren't sacrificing other stats for it. Maintaining the perfect balance is vital (don't let your crit/ap go down the tubes), and I suppose for the survival sheep agiagiagi is still the way to go, but as marks I'm very much enjoying my armor pen, and competing with our surv hunter. ^^

    To each his own!

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