Marksman PvE guide

[Mithrandir]

Howdy, folks!

Since I saw no guide for this matter, I assumed I could make on for this incredibly difficult spec. Not there is some sarcasm in that sentence.

Contents Table
Note that you can use the #-codes behind the chapter in the search function to quickly go to the right chapter, using CTRL+F.
1. Talents --- #tal
2.1 Stats --- #sta
2.2 Gems --- #gem
3. Glyphs --- #gly
4. Items/BiS list --- #ite
5. Enchants --- #enc
6. Pets --- #pet
7. Rotation --- #rot


Marksman is a spec that deals high burst damage, next to a DoT that you will be using continuously. Yay.
Hunters in general are very good at a couple of things:
- Being AFK half the raid. I too, practice that. Consider myself a pro for this matter, actually.
- Ninja pulling. Your pet on aggressive does wonders for doing so! Accidentally rightclicking bosses works well too. Especially appreciated when the raid is not fully buffed and when not everyone is there yet. Paying for repairs is a possible result, so make sure to have a lot of cash on you all the time.
- Aspect of the Pack. Everyone loves a slightly more difficult fight by being dazed all the time. Truly recommended to use as a starter for a nice reputation boost.

Those two things are what we're good at, not what we're intended to do. Actually, it's what makes hunters a notorious class. Thankfully, even the biggest noobs, can turn out to be quite decent, to even epic DPS. Until I was level 70, I stacked mainly stamina. Along with spirit, strength or whatever was on the item that had more stamina. Let's not do that.

This is a story all about how, your life as a hunter in a game called WoW.

1. Talents #Tal

I'll hereby note down the most common spec, note that some personal preference can be added, but this is generally the spec with the best DPS. You'll want to be using a 7/57/7 spec. Why? Because fuck you, that's why. Just do as I say and stop asking difficult questions!!!1!

Beast Mastery
5/5 Improved Aspect of the Hawk
This will give you 15% more haste for about 100% uptime throughout the fight. That's ofcourse always welcome!
2/2 Focused Fire
2% extra damage, not bad. Especially when you can manage to keep your pet living. It's not a great boost, but it's something.

Survival
5/5 Improved Tracking
Not a lot of explanation needed, 5% more damage, especially useful in ICC. Just track undead, and yay.
2/2 Survival Instincts
4% Increased crit chance on Steady Shot. The spell you'll be using most. Sweet lovely goodness.

Now for the real deal:
Marksman
5/5 Lethal Shots
Self explanatory.
3/3 Focused Aim
Could also be replaced with Improved Hunter's Mark, if you're hitcapped, which is easily achieved. However, Focused Aim allows you to take less hit rating, enabling you to stack other stats instead.
3/3 Careful Aim
Intellect is on basically all of your armour pieces. More AP=More damage. DUUUUHHH.
3/3 Mortal Shots
MOAR CRIT DAMAGE. 'nuff said.
1/2 Go for the Throat
A little more focus for your pet, since the pet'll be having a crit chance based upon your own, this gives him nearly infinite focus. Allows auto-casting bite/claw/bitchslap or w/e.
1/1 Aimed Shot
Spell used in basic rotation, pretty much required.
0/3 Improved Arcane shot
You will not be using this spell when you're ready to raid. Do not waste points here.
3/3 Improved Stings
30% more damage for a spell with 100% uptime, take it.
1/1 Readiness
A nice spell, not only a useful CD, but also allowing you to take Trueshot Aura.
3/3 Barrage
12% increased damage for Aimed Shot, Multi Shot and Volley. Nice for boss fights with Aimed Shot, nice for trash with Volley.
2/2 Combat Experience
Pretty obvious, I think.
3/3 Ranged Weapon Specialization
Also pretty obvious.
3/3 Piercing Shots
Another additional bleed effect, for some extra DPS, always nice.
1/1 Trueshot Aura
10% Attack Power for the entire raid, take it. Take it now!
3/3 Improved Barrage
12% increased crit chance on Aimed, no pushback for volley. Perfect for both bosses and trash.
5/5 Master Marksman
Extra crit chance. Yaaay. Some mana reduces as well, also useful, as you may find yourself OOMing, from time to time.
3/3 Wild Quiver
Extra DPS at the cost of no CDs, no arrows, no mana. Just go ahead and take it.
1/1 Silencing Shot
Why? How often will you actually silence in PvE? It's not the silence, it's the damage. "But it's hardly any damage!!" Yeah, but the spell triggers no global cooldown, so it's extra damage that can be used at the same time as another spell.
3/3 Improved Steady Shot
15% extra damage on Aimed/Chimera Shot. Welcome to the party!
5/5 Marked for Death
More damage, more crit, more nuking. YEAH BUDDY!
1/1 Chimera Shot
Bugged, does even more damage. HAHA! Take it. Refreshes Serpent Sting, removing the need to cast it. Does great damage. Yes. Just yes.

2.1. Stats #Sta

Olé! Let's discuss the stats you need as a Marksman hunter.
You'll want to focus on mail items. Items such as Leggings of Dubious Charm and the Belt of the Blood Nova are strongly disrecommended. You're a hunter, for the love of Elune. Don't use items with Spellpower. Another item you want to avoid is Rowan's Rifle of Silver Bullets. "But it has so high DPS!"
Shut up and listen, will ya?

Items with Agility. That's what you want. Found a nice item? Has no Agility? Don't take it.
So here I'll make a list of priorities for stats.

As for every DPS Spec, HIT RATING. Get 8% hit rating, or 5% if you have the talent mentioned before. If you do see attacks missing, don't worry, it's your pet. They're buggy and not taking your hit rating. Such a shame.
Agility. Lovely stat. More Attack Power, more crit rating. However, you won't need to gem that stuff.
Attack Power, comes with basically all items that give agility, some exceptions left aside.
Armour Penetration. "WTF is armour? It's armor, you dipshit." No I'm using the British-English spelling. This stat will make you ignore the enemy's armour, bit by bit, making you deal harder hits.
Next will be Crit Rating. There's several procs based on Crit Rating, and that's ofcourse a lovely thing. More crits also means more DPS. DUH. Pretty silly if you didn't realise that.
Intellect will be the next one. More mana, less OOMing. Also gives attack power, due to the talent. Don't stack it, all you'll need can be found on items.
Haste Rating. Not a very much preferred stat for a Marksman hunter. This is a more preferred stat for Survival hunters. A bit isn't bad, since it comes on some items you might want. However, stacking it will not cause any big advantage, since you will need a huge amount of Haste in order to get that extra Steady Shot in the rotation. Which will also be a loss to your DPS due to the loss in Armour Penetration and Critical Strike Rating.
Expertise You don't need that shit as a hunter. If I see you with the Seal of Many Mouths I will laugh at you and disappear towards the horizon. Even when I'm out of sight you'll still hear me laughing.

2.2. Shiny jewelry socketed into your gears. #Gem
Red socket:
Fractured Cardinal Ruby. Armour Penetration. Gem this when you have about 30% from just your gear. From then it's better than Agility gemming. Or just stack it right away, because why not?
Yellow socket:
Deadly Ametrine. 10 Agility, 10 Crit. That's preeeettty sweet.
You can choose to ignore that, and stack Fractured instead, but that's all up to you.
Blue socket:
If you're stuck with an obsessive compulsive disorder, use 10 agility/15 stamina. I just recommend that whenever you get an item with a blue socket, you just gem 20 Armour Penetration instead. In all those sockets. Or take the +10 to all stats gem for an item, such as the chest or the legs.
MEEEEEEEETA SOCKET: Relentless Earthsiege DIAMOND. FUCKING SHINY. 21 Agil, 3% increased Crit damage. Another option is Chaotic Skyflare. But Earthsiege would be a better choice, in my humble opinion.

3. Glyphs #Gly

Woop dee frikkin doo.
Some pieces of paper you carry around all the time and they even make you stronger. That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Thank god you're not a rock. Because rock>paper.
Major Glyphs:
- Glyph of Steady Shot
10% damage increase when the target has Serpent Sting on them. You'll try to have that for a 100% uptime, so that's 100% uptime for the spell you use 4 times/rotation.
-Glyph of Serpent Sting
Duration of Serpent Sting increases. Why would you want that if you refresh it with Chimera Shot anyways? Pretty simple. When your target has Serpent Sting on them, Chimera shot deals another second burst, which is based on the damage Serpent Sting deals. Contrary to popular believes, as told in various tales, the damage isn't based on the Serpent Sting has done since, it is based upon the total damage it deals. Three more ticks means more damage, which in its turn means a higher burst from Chimera Shot.
-Glyph of Kill Shot
Might not be so awesome for RHCs and other dungeons, but on boss fights it makes a major difference if the cooldown is 9 seconds, instead of 15. If the fight takes about 45 seconds after the boss gets below 20% health, that's 5x Killshot, instead of 3x. Pretty sweet.
Minor Glyphs:
Hunters have crappy Minor Glyphs. The most useful will be these.
Glyph of Feign Death
The only useful glyph, that could actually save your life, when everyone else is dieing.
Glyph of the Pack
Nothing better, really.
Open spot/Glyph of Mend pet
As I said, there's no cool minor glyphs for hunters. Extra Pet Happiness on a spell you'll hardly use isn't all that great. But hey, we gotta be grateful with what we get, right?

4. Items/BiS list #Ite
BiS=Best in Slot. If several options are given, the BiS item is highlighted.
Gear, due to factors such as Gearscore, hardly anyone will look at your gear. Get all the shaman gear you want, gearscore>actual gear. I'll be noting down the more endgame (amazing mage, by the way) gear, too lazy for the lower ones!

Head slot: T10 head. Preferably heroic sanctified. 95 Frost Emblems.
Neck slot: Wodin's sucky necklace is okay. Rimetooth Pendant is better, Sindragosa's Cruel Claw is the shit. However, Rimetooth Pendant HC>Sindy's Cruel Claw Normal.
Shoulder slot: T10. Add some marks, if you can. 60 Frost Emblems.
Chest slot: Otherwise get T10. Protector's Mark of Sanctification goes rather well with this chest. 95 Frost Emblems. The BoE item Carapace of Forgotten things is decent to start off with.
Shirt slot: Red Lumberjack Shirt. Instant 7k gearscore boost.
Back slot: Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape. Retarded name, great cape. Can be bought from the Frost Emblem vendor for 60 Emblems of Heroism. Actually a better cape is available from the tribute chest in ToC25HC, but that's very hard to get.
Wrist slot: Since Gunship loot is not obtainable, aim for Toskk's Maximized Wristguards. Loot from Deathbringer Saurfang in ICC25. Better than these would actually be the wrists obtained from the Faction Champions in the Trial of the Grand Crusader, AKA TOC25HC: Bracers of the Untold Massacre (Alliance) or Bracers of the Silent Massacre (Horde). These would on their turn be surpassed by the wrists from ICC25HC from Saurfang, though.
Hand slot: MOAR T10! This will make you have 4x T10. Both set effects work, and both are rather awesome. 60 Frost Emblems. Tip: Upgrade this to the next version for extra epicness.
Belt slot: Forest Leather belt. FOUR STRENGTH FOUR STAM LEATHER BELT. AAAHH UUHH. LEVEL 18. AHHH UHH. A better solution would be Rotface 25's belt: Nerub'ar Stalker's Cord.
Legs slot: Leggings of Northern Lights. Checked, double checked, no lights. Good stats though. Kill Lady Deathwhisper in ICC25, cross your fingers, roll higher than the rest and win that stuff. Another option would be the legs made by Leatherworkers, Draconic Bonesplinter Legguards. Minor stat differences, still great. A bit more expensive though.
Feet slot: The Leatherworking boots work great here: Rock-Steady Treads. Lovely stats. If you're not willing to get these, try getting the boots from the Blood Prince Council. Treads of the Wasteland.
Ring slot 1: Ashen Band of Endless Vengeance. Requires Exalted with the Ashen Verdict. Can be obtained for free with the quest line inside Icecrown Citadel.
Ring slot 2: Frostbrood Sapphire Ring. Possible loot from the Dreamwalker Valithria encounter on 25 man mode.
Trinket 1: Deathbringer's Will. Bro, who cares about the stats? Becoming a Vrykul/Taunka is just freaking epic. Dwarves are a downside though.
Trinket 2: Whispering Fanged Skull Heroic or Death's Verdict/Choice would be nice. Until that, Herkuml War Token (bought for 60 Emblems of Frost from the Frost Emblem vendor) exceeds Whispering Fanged Skull normal. Needle-Encrusted Scorpion is a good solution until you obtain the others.
Melee weapon slot: Hersir's Greatspear(Blood Prince Council 10man) heroic is pretty nice. Downside is that it has a lot of hit rating, which may easily cause over-capping your hit rating. Otherwise Distant Land(Festergut 25 man) or Bloodfall(Blood Queen Lana'Thel 25 Man) could work out. What would also work, is the polearm obtained from the Battered Hilt Quest chain. Even better is the Polearm from ToC25HC, from Anub'arak: Archon Glaive The best ones would be those that drop from the Lich King, Tainted Twig of Nordrassil and Oathbinder, Charge of the Ranger-General, from 10 man and 25 man mode, respectively.
Ranged Weapon slot: To start, do Pit of Saron heroic mode. Get the crossbow from Ick: Felglacier Bolter. The next upgrade would be Njorndar Bone Bow, Lady Deathwhisper 10man. Then would be Stakethrower, Blood Queen Lana'thel, 10man mode. Following up would be Zod's Repeating Longbow, Lady Deathwhisper 25man, then Windrunner's Heartseeker from the Lich King 10 man would surpass that. Stakethrower Heroic would be even better than that. And last, but definitely not least, the crossbow from Lich King 25 man, Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas.

5. Enchants #Enc
Head: Arcanum of Torment. Requires Exalted with the Knight of the Ebon Blade.
Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe. Requires Exalted with the Sons of Hodir. Scribes have their own, better enchant.
Back: 22 Agility. - Enchanting. If you're a tailor, use Swordguard Embroidery. Gives you a chance to get 400 attack power. Pretty nice, eh?
Wrists: Greater Assault - 50 Attack Power. - Enchanting. If you're a Leatherworker, use the LW enchant Fur Lining - Attack Power, granting 130 Attack Power. Sexy as f*ck. Blacksmiths can put an extra socket here.
Hands: Either Crusher, or Agility. Both are nice, Agility gives some crit next to Attack Power, Crusher gives a bit more Attack Power. Engineers can enchant these with their own enchant, if they wish. Blacksmiths can put an extra socket here.
Chest: +10 to all stats.
Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle, bought from Blacksmiths, gives an extra socket.
Legs: Icescale Leg Armour. 75 Attack Power and 22 Crit Strike. Very nice. Leatherworkers, notice that you can do this to your own legs with a cheaper recipe, requiring just two Nerubian Chitin.
Ring: Enchanters only. Enchant both with +40 Attack Power.
Melee Weapon: Don't use Berserking. PLEASE don't. Get 110 Attack power for 2h weapons, or 65 if you happen to use two one-handeds.
Ranged Weapon: Scope, granting +40 crit rating. Made by Engineers.


6. Pets #Pet
This particular paragraph is dedicated to the pets you can use as a hunter. More specifically, those that are the best choices for PvE.
Pets are your companions. Your best friends. When everyone has started hating you for being a hunter and ninja pulling, AFKing etc. your pet will still be there for you. Cherish this creature, as in the end, he may be the only one left that likes you.

There's a few basic rules about pets.
1. There's the stance in which the pet fights. This can be passive, defensive or aggressive. Aggressive is very nice stance to raid with. Ninjapulls GUARANTEED! If you do not want that, Defensive is the way to go. This makes your pet attack creatures that attack you, or attack creatures that you decide to attack. Passive means that you have to manually make your pet attack.
2. Your pet gets decreased damage from most attacks, especially AoE attacks. Direct Physical attacks are still rather effective against them, and will easily nuke it down. Do not auto-cast Growl. Don't be one of those hunters, PLEASE.
3. Control your pet. Don't let it stand there and just DPS. Keep an eye out on him. Especially at fights such as Lord Marrowgar, it's pretty easy to get your pet killed if you just let it stand there. Keybind your pets actions: Attack, Follow and Stay. Use them to keep your pet alive.

The best option for a PvE pet is a pet that has the talent tree "Ferocity." Out of the available ones, the wolf is probably your best choice, due to its special spell. It's a spell called Furious Howl, and boosts your and your pet's Attack power by 320 for 20 seconds, with a cooldown of only 40 seconds. This means that you have 320 extra attack power for 50% of the fight, basically. Pretty nice, huh?
Like yourself, pets have talents too. I'll note down the talents chosen in my preferred spec.

3/3 Great Stamina
More health makes your pet less likely to die in encounters. A very useful talent, for that matter. Cobra Strikes is sometimes chose too, but that's just a minor difference, and I prefer a living pet over a faster attacking pet that's dead.
2/2 Bloodthirsty
This talent nullifies the need of feeding your pet. You must keep your pet at max happiness, for it to deal more damage. Since this gives happiness, it gives more DPS without feeding your pet 5928 times after it died. Also will the healing this talent provides keep your pet alive longer.
3/3 Spiked Collar
More damage, pretty obvious.
3/3 Culling the Herd
This talent will be up nearly 100% of the time, when you autocast Bite, Claw or Smack. With the Go for the Throat talent, mentioned earlier, your pet will barely run out of focus, and can cast this all the time. 3% increased damage is always great fun.
1/1 Heart of the Phoenix
Free full revive with no casting time? Hell yeah! Use this wisely, the cooldown is rather long.
3/3 Spider's Bite
More crit chance for the pet works great with Culling the Herd. Obviously, you take it.
1/1 Call of the Wild
Another long cooldown, but truly worth it. 10% Attack Power for 20 seconds is very much welcome, isn't it?

7. Rooooootation #Rot
The Marksman's rotation is rather easy. You use a small number of spells actively throughout the fight.
Basically those will be:
Serpent Sting - You use this spell only once in the majority of fights. A DoT that will have a 100% uptime. Also needed the hunter T10 set bonus.
Chimera Shot - This is your main damage spell. With Serpent Sting on the target, it deals two hits and next to that, it also refreshes Serpent Sting. Which is why you only need to cast Serpent Sting once.
Aimed Shot - This spell is used mainly for its damage. Like Chimera Shot, it's an instant spell that deals less damage. Additionally, it makes the target heal an astonishing 50% less for 10 seconds. Which is near to useless in most fights.
Kill Shot - A spell that enables after the target gets down to at least 20% health left. Deals massive direct damage.
Steady Shot - Why the fuck would I use a spell with a cast time, Mr. Huntard? Because it's stopping you from doing nothing half the fight, it deals less damage and while casting this, your auto attack does actually NOT get interrupted.
Silencing Shot - Said before in the talent section, this attack does not trigger the Global Cooldown, so it can be used in combination with any other attack, dealing a slight bit of extra damage. And ofcourse silencing targets.
Arcane Shot - Last but not best. After you reach about 20-25% Armour Penetration, your Steady Shot will deal more damage than this spell. Meaning you can actually drop this spell. Meaning you SHOULD drop this spell, if you want to DPS to the fullest.

This list was pretty much based on priority. I'll now note down the full rotation.

1. Every fight, you start off with Serpent Sting. Applying the DoT that doesn't run out and improves several other things.
2. Chimera Shot, strongest instant spell. Use it as soon as it's off Cooldown.
3. Aimed Shot, deals neat instant damage. Try to keep this cooldowns together, for max DPS output.
4. *If target is below 20% health* Kill shot. Use this whenever off cooldown.
5. Spam Steady Shot, usually 4-5 times, until Chimera Shot is off Cooldown again. Also prioritize Kill Shot if target below 20%.
6. Silencing Shot. Has 20 seconds cooldown, just use it whenever it gets off, as it doesn't mess up the rotation anyways, unless you have to actually silence targets, then use it tactically.

Cooldowns. Pop these on the following moments for the best use.
Furious Howl/Call of the Wild - Use simultaneously, and make sure you use Chimera Shot twice in it. So can basically be used anytime.
Rapid Fire - Use just after using Aimed Shot, when you're about to start Steady Shot, since that spell benefits from the Rapid Fire buff.
Readiness - Use straight after the Aimed Shot when you just used Furious Howl/Call of the Wild for a huge burst. Late-fight, if you can, use Furious Howl, then pop Chimera Shot, Aimed Shot, Kill Shot, then Readiness, and pop that same line again. Huge burst, as we love it.


***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***

[Nyaneve]

Just to put this out here - Improved Tracking does not require you to track the type of mob you're going to be attacking. The bonus 'just happens' if you have a tracking active.
EDIT: Y U no Precious' Ribbon?

[Mithrandir]

It's supposed to require you to track that certain type, as far as I know, but thanks for the feedback

Precious Ribbon? Really? So mainstream. Ever seen a hipster? They wear Lumberjack Shirts.
Plus, I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay, I sleep all night and I work all day.

[Relina]

The 3% hit from talent Focused Aim (3/3) is not added to the pet's hit % so u will see misses if u are using the talent to get ur 8% of hit.

Afaik pets take all the Hit % u get from hit rating (Gear) but the % is rounded down so if u have 7.9% hit the pet only gets 7%.

[Mithrandir]

That is indeed true, but my pet also missed when I did have over 8% hit rating from just gear, so I concluded that the pet's hit rating would be bugged, and have heard several people confirm this
But yeah, the point you made is correct, both of them, actually

[Myaoming]

Yes, the pet's hit rating is bugged for both Hunters and Warlocks.

[Darchrow]

note : at low gear ( before you get enough arpen ) Arcane shot even not talented deals more damage than Steady Shot. so it should be included in rotation when still weakly geared

[Mithrandir]

Latest update:
Rotation added, tweaked the Items section, added a contents table.

[Vyrath]

great guide except i believe treads of the wasteland are better then using frostbitten fur boots.
i've been looking at hunter guides and the majority of them state Returning Footfalls (RS Not available) Treads of the Wastlands > Rock Steady

Sucks that the BiS wrists for Hunters are only available in Gunship 25 mode which makes Toskk's more of an MS choice for endgame hunters which IMO should put them on the same rolling field as feral druids and
combat rogues. *INCOMING OUTRAGE* gunship is broke and hunters need good gear too. deal with it.

ARP vS Agility. until you have 800 or greater passive arp (arp rating gained strictly from gear not gems) it's been suggested on numerous other guides and spreadsheats that agility is better for gemming then arp. which at this time means i am going to be spending alot on agil gems >.<
once 800+ passive arp is there, it's worth gemming. if you cap and have gem slots available then gem agility.

[Nyaneve]

Don't forget Assassination rogue, since there aren't any other leather wrists in ICC except the 10 man Sindy ones. Frostbitten Fur Boots could be due to the fact that there is ArP on it, which is missing on Treads of the Wasteland, and the minority of the guides that do not list Returning Footfalls are simply not updated for 3.3.5a but are w.r.t. 3.3.

[Vyrath]

Don't forget Assassination rogue, since there aren't any other leather wrists in ICC except the 10 man Sindy ones. Frostbitten Fur Boots could be due to the fact that there is ArP on it, which is missing on Treads of the Wasteland, and the minority of the guides that do not list Returning Footfalls are simply not updated for 3.3.5a but are w.r.t. 3.3.

statwise you're better off with the 10 man for sindy with assassination rogue IMO. since the stats are more suitable for assassin rogue and bear feral ( NOT feral dps) as a MM hunter i wouldnt use too much leather otherwise you'll be screwed in pve without raid buffs. manawise. sure you can switch aspects and volley but that wastes time and lowers dps. and i have this suspicion that sometimes when you switch an aspect say from dragonhawk to viper that when you switch back it doesnt "register" your increased ap.
idk i will test more later as i said. all in all though i found this guide excellent and humorous.
+1 Mithnab now make a horde toon already.

[Mithrandir]

Thanks for the replies, guys
@Fugly, I never even mentioned the Frostbitten Fur Boots D:
You might've been confused by the "Leatherworking boots" part.

Feet slot: The Leatherworking boots work great here. Rock-Steady Treads. Lovely stats. If you're not willing to get these, try getting the boots from the Blood Prince Council. Treads of the Wasteland.

Rock-steady threads ARE the Leatherworking boots I was attempting to mention. I'll change the period to a colon there, so no more confusion would be there

Also, thanks for reminding me, with the talk about the wrists. @ Nyaneve, I'm using the Sindragosa 10man wrists on my shaman, and am in possession of the 25man ones, though the 10man ones are still better.
Now switching back to the topic of hunter, the wrists in ICC25 are actually surpassed by the wrists dropped in ToC25HC, from the Faction Champions, I think. However, those are again surpassed by the ICC25HC leather wrists. Updated this on the main post as well.

@Fugly again, yes it is indeed a major importance to use mail items, over leather items. When lacking some buffs in a raid set-up, for example Judgement of Wisdom on the boss, you are actually easily capable of running out of mana as a hunter. Stack all the agility you can get.
And for the other bug you mentioned about the Aspect of the Dragonhawk, the boost gained from talents and glyphs are not calculated when you relog. Simply de-activate and re-activate the spells, and you'll be fine Same thing occurs for example with Molten Armour on Mages.

[Vyrath]

i totally meant rock steady treads too!

Returning Footfalls > Treads of the Wasteland > Rock Steady Treads/shoes/boots whatever the hell they are called.

[Chillmaster]

Why survivel instincts? you have crit enough from gear alerady those are two not well spent talents in my opinion, if u test dps without those talents the steady shot will still crit most of the time, actually u wont note difrence.

[Mithrandir]

4% is still 4%, and even with my gear, at about 68% crit, 4% still does make a difference. But admitted, the talent is mainly useful on lower gear, yet not useless on higher gear.