AotV, A survivalist's tale

Shall we continue our discussion on Aspect of the Viper today? Yes, lets.

Today we shall look at how the new AoTV works in practice for survival hunters, I think its fair to say the days of chain-chugging fel-mana potions is long gone. As a survival hunter there are a few things you will want to get yourself the maximum amount of mana, for the minimum amount of time in AotV.

1) TnT, survival instincts, lethal shots, killer instincts and possibly master tactician: max these all out, these talents all increase your crit chance, which combines with:
2)Thrill of the hunt (3/3): gives 40% of mana back after a special shot crits (note, explosive shot hits 3 times and can crit 3 times, each crit gives 40% mana back, so that's 120% if you get a triple-crit)
3) Lock and load (3/3): 100% on traps, small chance on serpent sting damage to give you 2 free explosive shots (or arcane shots should you desire)
4)Hunting party (3/5): I say 3/5 after some ptr testing this has proven to be enough to keep it up all the time, varies with your crit rate so feel free to put more or less points in at your discretion
5) Explosive shot: Explosive shot hits 3 times, this is vital!

So what we have is a situation, where your special crits restore 40% of their mana cost, give you 3.75% of your total mana back over 15 seconds, crit often thanks to your talents, and every now and then you get a couple of free shots which are likely to crit a lot (explosive shot should be around 40% crit minimum). All of this combines for some respectable mana efficiency, but not enough. You will run out of mana eventually, but for a survival hunter a full mana bar is just 6 second away!

What you do is wait for serpent sting (or use a trap) to proc Lock and Load, then switch to aspect of the viper, immediately follow with an explosive shot, wait 2 seconds (else you will override damage ticks form the previous explosive shot) then fire a second explosive shot, wait another 2 seconds and fire a third explosive shot. This last one will cost you mana, but such is life.

Lets do the quick theorycrafting on this, lets assume a 3.0 speed weapon, so 2.55 second attack speed with a 15% quiver and no other haste buffs. Now assuming serpent sting procced lock and load that will give you 2 ticks of serpent sting in your 6 second AotV time, your 2.55 attack speed will also give you 2 auto-shots, and your explosive shots will give you 9 hits in total.

That's 13 ticks of mana regen in 6 seconds, each giving you 6% of your mana, that's 78% of your mana, but wait there's more! You are a survival hunter, so if any of your explosive shots crit you get 40% of the mana back, your only paying the mana cost for 1 of the 3 explosive shot thanks to lock and load, assuming a 40% crit rate with explosive shot (probably a little on the low side actually) that's 3.6, lets round up to 4, giving you 160% of the mana of explosive shot back, but you payed for one, so only 60% of explosive shots mana back in total, explosive shot at 70 costs 264 mana, so another 158 mana gained (okay so its not much, but its another steady shot, almost). Oh, and your also going to trigger hunting party's mana regeneration, so that's another 3.75%.

So we are getting over 78% of our mana regenerated in 6 seconds in a build that doesn't lose mana very fast, and you want proof? of course you want proof, well here you go, a quick video of me going from low mana to full mana in a matter of seconds, now I laid a tray, and I wasn't fully oom, but from the point where I fired my first explosive shot I am back up to full mana in roughly 6 seconds.


Go onto the PTR, test it yourself, remember I have a 3.1 attack speed weapon, this gives me great mana regen from specials, if you had a slightly faster weapon (e.g the badge crossbow) you will get less regen, if you have a huge amount of +haste you might get an extra auto-shot in, these things will depend on your gear, and its up to you to find out how!

Oh, and incase anyones interested I now have started uploading my videos to youtube, its a little higher quality there than the ones on the blog, so if your having trouble seeing the videos see if the youtube ones are any better for you.

Aspect of the viper the (new) basics

Just on the off chance anyone is worrying about hunters mana, or more specifically survival hunters mana in the expansion, and are too lazy to go onto the ptr yourself to try, let me shed some light.

Aspect of the viper, you remember him? You abused him didn't you? He was just a little child you know! Oh sure, when 30 clefthoofs needed killing you used him, but then when you stepped into an instance you chased him away with your vials of blue poison! Well Now its time for the school reunion, and that little kid you used to abuse? He's now 7'2" and 18 stone of pure muscle, you might have seen him on the late night wrestling shows, you know the ones which aren't scripted, but just in case you didn't he's come wearing only his champions belt and a pair of questionable underwear to really drive the point home!

I think that pretty much sums up the difference from the current aspect of the viper and the new one coming our way, at least it feels like it, lets read the tooltip shall we?

"The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, each ranged attack regenerates a percentage of maximum mana equal to twice your base ranged weapon speed, but reduces your total damage done by 50%. Only one Aspect can be active at a time."

Some people have called this confusing, but its actually quite simple, "each ranged attack" equates to every time you deal damage with a non melee ability, so steady shot, arcane shot, every tick of serpent sting and even any ticks from explosive/immolation trap will all activate the mana regeneration (a quick tip, for dot abilities, the damage done is decided by your aspect when you use the ability, the mana gain happens on any tick even if you change after applying the dot, I'll go more into how to abuse AotV in another post).

"Regenerates a percentage of maximum mana equal to twice your base ranged weapon speed" Okay, so this is long-winded, but what it means is if you have a weapon that (before quiver or any other sources of haste) has a 2 second weapon speed, then every time you trigger the mana regen you will get 4% of your mana back, if you have a slower weapon, lets say 3 second, then you would gain more mana, a 3 second weapon would give you 6% mana back. Still with me?

Okay so they obviously thought, slow weapon, hits less, give them more mana per shot, but what this doesn't count on is special shots, a hunter with a 2.0 second ranged weapon will get off 10 shots in 20 seconds, and another 10 steady shots too assuming they just spammed that. This means they will get 20 hits in 20 seconds, each giving 4% of their mana, thats 80% of thier mana back, minus the cost of their steady shots. To put this on Lienna, she has 6343 mana so she would regain 5074 mana, minus the cost of steady shots (169 mana each, 10 shots, so 1690 mana) to make 3384.4 mana, or 53%.

Now to do the same for a 3.0 speed weapon, as it hits slower it regenerates more mana per hit, in the same 20 second time period the 3.0 weapon would only get 6 shots in (I could be generous and round up to 7, but that wouldn't be very fair) however it would still get 10 steady shots off, this means your getting 16 hits in 20 seconds each giving you 6% of your mana back, for a total of 96% of your mana. Again selfishly applying this to me Lienna would get 6129 mana back, minus the steady shots making it 4439 mana or 72%

So for aspect of the viper you are going to want a slow weapon. However you may have noticed it takes 20 seconds to get that mana back, that's a long time at 50% damage, well fear not I shall tell you how to abuse the aspect even in its 7'2" pro-wrestler form...

Tomorrow...
Maybe...
Just keep him company until then will you?

Lienna's Log comeback special movie!

Now it seems to me that everyone on the PTR is running around with either a devilsaur or a corehound, this is the side effect of a 41 point talent that gives you a large earth-shaking pet I suppose,I worry that the sheer coolness factor of having an exotic pet is going to stop people looking at the other two trees.

But fear not loyal survivalists, for I will not be drawn to the temptation of an under evolved lizard, tempt me not with a craniumly gifted puppy, do not try and coerce me with your spitting worm (ewww!) for I am a survival hunter from now till, well, till they completely ruin the tree beyond all repair I suppose.

So, to show my dedication to the survival cause I present you with a movie straight from the public test realm (well... okay, not straight form the ptr, straight from being saved for the second time after about an hour in the movie editor). Enjoy!


I hate microphones *sigh* according to my friends when I talk to them over the net I sound like I'm on my dying breath, I don't know what it is about them but when I go to talk on a microphone its like half my throat closes up in preparation.

A picture says a thousand words

In this case a picture needs only say one word;


Wahooooooo!!!


Shes competent shes finally competent! You don't need to hide any more my pretty baby, you can be free of the cruel cruel stable master and come with me, to bask in the beauty of a world that pales only in comparison to you.

Sporebats: Hell yes!

You didn't see nothing!

*wanders through*
/gasp
/Prowl
/Feign death










Shhh, I don't think they saw me