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[top]Damage Abilities
Explosive Shot
Our primary nuke ability. You want to use this as often as possible and it costs a fair amount of focus
Black Arrow
With the latest change, this ability now does a fair amount of damage. It has low DPS but a very high DPCT (damage per casting time), so you will want to use it on targets that will be alive long enough to get the full effect. This also procs Lock and Load on ticks.
Serpent Sting
Since Cobra Shot refreshes this, you will only have to apply it once per target in most cases. Noxious Stings also allows you to do 10% more damage to mobs afflicted with this sting. Like Black Arrow, it also has low DPS but a very high DPCT (theoretically infinite, with cobra shot refreshing it).
Arcane Shot
This is focus dump ability. No cooldown, 25 focus (22 with 3/3 Efficiency). Survival uses a bit more focus for primary shots than other specs so arcane shot usage is normally relatively low compared to others.
Cobra Shot
Always use this in place of Steady Shot. Generates 9 focus and refreshes Serpent Sting.
Hunter's Mark
AP bonus, always put this up before combat if possible.
Multi Shot
A very strong AoE ability for Survival. See the AoE section for more detail.
Explosive Trap
Shares a cooldown with Black Arrow, but does more damage on multi mob situations in which they stay in the affected area for the duration (20 seconds). It also ticks every 2 seconds, 10 times, which gives it a slightly higher chance to proc Lock and Load, even on single targets.
Immolation Trap
Right now it looks like this cannot crit and flat out does less damage on single target than explosive trap
Kill Shot
Not quite as strong as it used to be (150% weapon damage, down from 200%) but still quite powerful. One of its main benefits is that it costs no focus.
[top]Aspects
In Cataclysm we have two important aspects during fights: Hawk and Fox. For PVE, the primary benefit of each is that Hawk provides additional AP and Fox allows you to cast Cobra Shot while moving. Ideally, you will not have to use Fox and can do all of your movement while casting instant shot casts (everything but Cobra Shot) and in between auto shot casts. In practice, there will probably be times when you want to move while not having the focus for instant cast shots. Aspects are on a separate global cooldown (GCD) from other abilities, so you can swap between Hawk and Fox without losing a GCD for damage abilities. Keep in mind that Aspect of the Fox does NOT allow you to cast auto shots while moving, so you will still want to find places to pause for auto shot's hidden 0.5 second cast time when it comes up. Addons such as Quartz can help you track your "swing timer" (period of auto shot casts).
[top]Rotation
The most basic priority for single targets will be something like this:
1. Apply Serpent Sting, especially for the Noxious Stings effect.
2. Explosive Shot
3. If mob is below 20% health, Kill Shot
4. If mob will be alive long enough, Black Arrow
5. If you will have enough focus to use Explosive Shot and Black Arrow
6. Cobra Shot
This becomes much more complicated to execute in practice for a few reasons. One, Thrill of the Hunt procs lead to a somewhat unpredictable focus regeneration rate. Two, number 5 can be difficult to compute since you would also want to take into account how much focus you will regenerate in the time before those abilities come off of cooldown. Generally, it is fine to pool focus so long as you are not capping (reaching 100 focus) or delaying abilities that use a cooldown. Pooling too much focus is probably not ideal because it can quickly lead to capping focus with a string of Thrill of the Hunt procs or a Lock and Load proc. Which leads to point three, Lock and Load complications.
[top]Lock and Load
Lock and Load is much more complicated than it was in Wrath of the Lich King because of the change to our resource system. In WotLK, mana was theoretically infinite like it was for most casters so our resource system was effectively time. Focus is certainly not infinite. Since cobra shot has a cast time, our resource system now is a mix of focus and time. This means that DPS (damage per second), DPCT (damage per cast time), and DPF (damage per focus) are all potentially relevant. The issue of explosive shot overwriting if cast back to back still exists.
Using a model and a sample gearset, I have the following theoretical damage for these abilities. Insert your own for more personalized results.
Explosive Shot: 32700
Arcane Shot: 17500
Cobra Shot: 14750, ~1.65 second cast[
Some potential methods for LNL using these values:
1. Explosive Shot, with 1s wait intervals
Not recommended - you are missing out on a lot of potential focus regeneration via Cobra Shot.
DPS: 32700*3/5 = 19620.00
2. Explosive Shot, weaving Cobra Shot
Cobra Shots are weaved in to prevent Explosive Shot clipping
DPS: (32700*3+14750*2)/(1.65*2+3) = 20253.97
3. Explosive Shot, Cobra Shot, Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot
Arcane Shot after both charges on used on Explosive Shots to deal with a predicted high amount of pooled focus, and prevent clipping.
DPS: (32700*3+14750+17500)/(4+1.65) = 23070.80
4. Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot
Arcane Shot actually uses the second charge, but blows through the LNL proc quickly.
DPS: (32700*2+17500)/3 = 27633.33
5. Explosive Shot spam, no wait
This gets you 7 ticks of explosive shot instead of a potential 9, but gets the Explosive Shot cooldown going more quickly than any other method.
DPS: (32700/3*7)/3 = 25433.33
Some more testing and actual data may need to be done, but #3 is probably the preferred method at low focus and #4 at high focus. It may change if you are capping on focus during LNL. Weaving in Kill Shots and/or Black Arrows will always be best, but those cases are relatively rare.
[top]Talents
[top]Survival Talents
Hunter vs. Wild - Optional. To some extent you have about 2 free points to spend in the first two trees.
Pathing - Required. The talents at this level are not incredibly strong, but this should be a clear win.
Improved Serpent Sting - Required. On single target, the periodic critical strike chance is good and on AoE the interaction with Serpent Spread is very powerful.
Survival Tactics - Optional.
Trap Mastery - Required. At the very least, the boost to Black Arrow is worth it.
Entrapment - Optional. Probably encounter specific for PVE.
Point of No Escape - Optional. Bosses will not trigger Frost Trap and the crit bonus now only affects you, so this talent is fairly weak.
Thrill of the Hunt - Required. This is a substantial amount of focus.
Counterattack - Not Recommended. You will not be doing much parrying in raids.
Lock and Load - Required. For its interaction with T.N.T.
Resourcefulness - Recommended. Black Arrow is strong now, but the internal cooldown on LNL procs may diminish the efficacy of this talent.
Mirrored Blades - Optional. This has the potential to be useful on some encounters.
T.N.T. - Required. More Explosive Shots is a good thing.
Toxicology - Required. This is a very powerful talent, even with entry level crit chance.
Wyvern Sting - Required. Required for Noxious Stings and Black Arrow.
Noxious Stings - Required. Incredibly powerful talent. 10% damage is a lot.
Hunting Party - Required. Even with this buff already covered in your raid, it is probably worth it for the 2% agility alone.
Sniper Training - Required. The Kill Shot crit chance remains unchanged from WotLK, but the 6% buff now only applies to Cobra Shot. Still worthwhile but less important to maintain on movement intensive phases.
Serpent Spread - Recommended. This talent has no effect on single targets but is incredibly powerful in multi target situations. See the AoE section. You may only want to include 1 point since the only difference is a 6 vs. 9 second duration, and in a heavy AoE situation you will be using another Multi Shot before it wears off.
Black Arrow - Required. High DPCT ability.
[top]Marksmanship Talents
Go for the Throat - Required. See the pet section for more details, but obtaining more focus for pets is now a worthwhile pursuit.
Efficiency - Required. 6 focus reduction for Explosive Shot and 3 focus reduction for Arcane Shot
Rapid Killing - Not Recommended.
Sic 'Em! - Recommended. For the same reason as Go for the Throat.
Improved Steady Shot - Not Recommended. Not worth using over Cobra Shot.
Careful Aim - Recommended - Not very strong, but potentially better than some pet focus talents depending on pet focus regeneration.
[top]Beast Mastery Talents
Improved Kill Command - Not Recommended. Kill Command is not worth the high focus cost for Survival.
One with Nature - Optional. In PVE the primary benefit is the Aspect of the Hawk increase, but it is quite small.
Bestial Discipline - Optional. Recommended if your pet is not getting the full benefit of Wild Hunt every time.
Sample build:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
[top]Glyphs
Recommended Prime Glyphs:
Arcane Shot - 12% Arcane Shot damage
Explosive Shot
Kill Shot - effectively lets you do back to back Kill Shot
Suboptimal Glyphs
Serpent Sting - 6% crit
Rapid Fire - +10% haste
The recommended prime glyphs were computed with Rivkah's DPS Analyzer, with all other glyphs falling significantly behind on multiple gear sets.
From a damage perspective, there are no required major glyphs for every scenario, although Trap Launcher is recommended for any AoE situations (with Explosive Trap). The others are great options for PVP but in PVE their viability would depend on the encounter. Another potential glyph is the Glyph of Misdirection, which would let you chain MDs on your pet if you get into a threat limited situation.
[top]Pets
Pets now do a decent amount of damage for Survival hunters. They inherit 100% of the hunter's hit, haste, and crit, and scale considerably from AP.
Right now, Ferocity and Cunning pets are both close in theoretical damage and require more numbers before one becomes more preferable than the other. Ferocity has the advantage of Rabid and Call of the Wild, although the long cooldown and short duration of Call of the Wild lessen its value. Cunning has decent talents in Feeding Frenzy, Roar of Recovery, and Owl's Focus, but Wolverine Bite is currently poor.
Ferocity: Hunter Pet Calculator - Wowhead (looks like Wowhead doesn't have the links working quite right here. This is 3100,0031,300,030,101,02 - also note, dogs apparently do not have Charge available)
There are a couple debatable points. First, the point in Boar's Speed can go into either Blood Thirsty or Charge if needed. More importantly, the value between Wild Hunt and Shark Attack is likely to depend on pet focus regeneration from your own talents. Keep in mind that Wild Hunt now does more damage the more focus your pet has, making it much more powerful than it was in WotLK.
Cunning: Hunter Pet Calculator - Wowhead (again, Wowhead not linking properly. 2100,0023,300,002,1100,20)
The main debatable point here is the lack of Boar's Speed. Roar of Recovery may be the weakest talent to take points from here, unless your pet is generating enough focus to devalue Owl's Focus.
[top]AoE
Survival is currently the highest hunter AoE spec by quite a bit.
[top]Multi Shot/Serpent Spread
Multi Shot takes advantage of several talents:
Serpent Spread - Applies 6/9 second duration Serpent Sting. For situations in which you are casting Multi Shot every 6 seconds only one talent point is needed.
Improved Serpent Sting - A large portion of your Multi Shot damage will actually come from this.
Toxicology - Serpent Sting crits for 200%, unlike 150% for other hunter specializations.
Noxious Stings - Subsequent Multi Shots will do 10% more damage.
[top]Explosive Trap
Explosive Trap is your other AoE ability which again does more damage than other hunter specializations because of Trap Mastery and Resourcefulness. It has a small base damage (29 per tick) but with a 54.5% RAP coefficient it does a substantial amount of damage. It is also our most efficient ability by far, costing 0 focus if dropped in place or 20 focus with Trap Launcher (10 focus glyphed). Lastly, with 10 ticks, it has a higher chance of proccing Lock and Load than Black Arrow, even on a single target. A full duration explosive trap will surpass Black Arrow in DPS on just two targets. Explosive Trap's major caveat is obviously that it requires the target(s) to stay in the targeted area for 20 seconds for full effect, making it impractical on some fights.
[top]Stats
I've used a roughly BIS list to get these numbers, with the theory that we can derive some broader understanding of stats. For less generalized stat weights, it is recommended that you use your gear in Rivkah's DPS Analyzer or similar tool.
Agility
Your best stat, by far, with the possible exception of hit. One agility provides two AP and 1/324.85 critical strike percent, before scaling. Into the Wilderness (Survival specialization) boosts this by 15%, you get 5% from wearing mail, 5% from raid buffs, and 2% from Hunting Party. These stack multiplicatively for a 29.32% increase.
Hit
Gearing for the hit cap is generally a good idea. Ranged attacks have a 8% chance to miss against mobs 3 levels higher than us and each point of hit rating gives us 1/120.109%, so we need 961 hit to reach this, or 841 for draenei.
Crit
Almost all abilities crit for 200% damage, or 203% damage with a [Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond]. Some exceptions include Explosive Trap which uses spell crit damage (and crit chance) - 150%, or immolation trap which cannot crit. Thanks to Toxicology, Serpent Sting and Black Arrow crit at 200% like your shots.
Haste
Haste affects both the speed of your shots (cobra and auto) and your rate of focus regeneration. You need 179.28 haste rating to get 1% haste. Haste effects generally scale multiplicatively. If you have 32% haste from gear, 3% from Pathing, and Rapid Fire, a base casting time of X would now be X/1.32/1.03/1.4. Procs that increase haste rating will stack additively with your total haste rating value (32% in this example). Focus regeneration appears to be a base of 4 focus per second scaling multiplicatively with haste; i.e. 30% haste would be 4*1.3=5.2 fps. You will likely not see a huge increase in focus regen from upgrading gear.
Mastery
All of our "spell" (non-physical) damage is affected by this stat. This is almost all of our abilities except for auto shot and multi shot. By specializing in Survival you get 8% elemental damage plus 1% per percent of mastery. At level 85, 179.28 mastery (same as crit) gives 1% damage.
Stats will change in relative value depending on your gear. It is however common to see agility and hit significantly ahead of haste, crit, and mastery. This means that you may want to consider achieving the hit cap through reforging where you are generally trading hit/crit/mastery instead of through gemming wear the primary tradeoff will be agility. Some hit enchants are also viable.
A final reminder: due to the complete overhaul of hunter mechanics, a lot of theory and modeling is still being worked out. This page will update as more consensus is built so please contribute if you have constructive criticism to offer
Explosive Shot
Our primary nuke ability. You want to use this as often as possible and it costs a fair amount of focus
Black Arrow
With the latest change, this ability now does a fair amount of damage. It has low DPS but a very high DPCT (damage per casting time), so you will want to use it on targets that will be alive long enough to get the full effect. This also procs Lock and Load on ticks.
Serpent Sting
Since Cobra Shot refreshes this, you will only have to apply it once per target in most cases. Noxious Stings also allows you to do 10% more damage to mobs afflicted with this sting. Like Black Arrow, it also has low DPS but a very high DPCT (theoretically infinite, with cobra shot refreshing it).
Arcane Shot
This is focus dump ability. No cooldown, 25 focus (22 with 3/3 Efficiency). Survival uses a bit more focus for primary shots than other specs so arcane shot usage is normally relatively low compared to others.
Cobra Shot
Always use this in place of Steady Shot. Generates 9 focus and refreshes Serpent Sting.
Hunter's Mark
AP bonus, always put this up before combat if possible.
Multi Shot
A very strong AoE ability for Survival. See the AoE section for more detail.
Explosive Trap
Shares a cooldown with Black Arrow, but does more damage on multi mob situations in which they stay in the affected area for the duration (20 seconds). It also ticks every 2 seconds, 10 times, which gives it a slightly higher chance to proc Lock and Load, even on single targets.
Immolation Trap
Right now it looks like this cannot crit and flat out does less damage on single target than explosive trap
Kill Shot
Not quite as strong as it used to be (150% weapon damage, down from 200%) but still quite powerful. One of its main benefits is that it costs no focus.
[top]Aspects
In Cataclysm we have two important aspects during fights: Hawk and Fox. For PVE, the primary benefit of each is that Hawk provides additional AP and Fox allows you to cast Cobra Shot while moving. Ideally, you will not have to use Fox and can do all of your movement while casting instant shot casts (everything but Cobra Shot) and in between auto shot casts. In practice, there will probably be times when you want to move while not having the focus for instant cast shots. Aspects are on a separate global cooldown (GCD) from other abilities, so you can swap between Hawk and Fox without losing a GCD for damage abilities. Keep in mind that Aspect of the Fox does NOT allow you to cast auto shots while moving, so you will still want to find places to pause for auto shot's hidden 0.5 second cast time when it comes up. Addons such as Quartz can help you track your "swing timer" (period of auto shot casts).
[top]Rotation
The most basic priority for single targets will be something like this:
1. Apply Serpent Sting, especially for the Noxious Stings effect.
2. Explosive Shot
3. If mob is below 20% health, Kill Shot
4. If mob will be alive long enough, Black Arrow
5. If you will have enough focus to use Explosive Shot and Black Arrow
6. Cobra Shot
This becomes much more complicated to execute in practice for a few reasons. One, Thrill of the Hunt procs lead to a somewhat unpredictable focus regeneration rate. Two, number 5 can be difficult to compute since you would also want to take into account how much focus you will regenerate in the time before those abilities come off of cooldown. Generally, it is fine to pool focus so long as you are not capping (reaching 100 focus) or delaying abilities that use a cooldown. Pooling too much focus is probably not ideal because it can quickly lead to capping focus with a string of Thrill of the Hunt procs or a Lock and Load proc. Which leads to point three, Lock and Load complications.
[top]Lock and Load
Lock and Load is much more complicated than it was in Wrath of the Lich King because of the change to our resource system. In WotLK, mana was theoretically infinite like it was for most casters so our resource system was effectively time. Focus is certainly not infinite. Since cobra shot has a cast time, our resource system now is a mix of focus and time. This means that DPS (damage per second), DPCT (damage per cast time), and DPF (damage per focus) are all potentially relevant. The issue of explosive shot overwriting if cast back to back still exists.
Using a model and a sample gearset, I have the following theoretical damage for these abilities. Insert your own for more personalized results.
Explosive Shot: 32700
Arcane Shot: 17500
Cobra Shot: 14750, ~1.65 second cast[
Some potential methods for LNL using these values:
1. Explosive Shot, with 1s wait intervals
Not recommended - you are missing out on a lot of potential focus regeneration via Cobra Shot.
DPS: 32700*3/5 = 19620.00
2. Explosive Shot, weaving Cobra Shot
Cobra Shots are weaved in to prevent Explosive Shot clipping
DPS: (32700*3+14750*2)/(1.65*2+3) = 20253.97
3. Explosive Shot, Cobra Shot, Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot
Arcane Shot after both charges on used on Explosive Shots to deal with a predicted high amount of pooled focus, and prevent clipping.
DPS: (32700*3+14750+17500)/(4+1.65) = 23070.80
4. Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot
Arcane Shot actually uses the second charge, but blows through the LNL proc quickly.
DPS: (32700*2+17500)/3 = 27633.33
5. Explosive Shot spam, no wait
This gets you 7 ticks of explosive shot instead of a potential 9, but gets the Explosive Shot cooldown going more quickly than any other method.
DPS: (32700/3*7)/3 = 25433.33
Some more testing and actual data may need to be done, but #3 is probably the preferred method at low focus and #4 at high focus. It may change if you are capping on focus during LNL. Weaving in Kill Shots and/or Black Arrows will always be best, but those cases are relatively rare.
[top]Talents
[top]Survival Talents
Hunter vs. Wild - Optional. To some extent you have about 2 free points to spend in the first two trees.
Pathing - Required. The talents at this level are not incredibly strong, but this should be a clear win.
Improved Serpent Sting - Required. On single target, the periodic critical strike chance is good and on AoE the interaction with Serpent Spread is very powerful.
Survival Tactics - Optional.
Trap Mastery - Required. At the very least, the boost to Black Arrow is worth it.
Entrapment - Optional. Probably encounter specific for PVE.
Point of No Escape - Optional. Bosses will not trigger Frost Trap and the crit bonus now only affects you, so this talent is fairly weak.
Thrill of the Hunt - Required. This is a substantial amount of focus.
Counterattack - Not Recommended. You will not be doing much parrying in raids.
Lock and Load - Required. For its interaction with T.N.T.
Resourcefulness - Recommended. Black Arrow is strong now, but the internal cooldown on LNL procs may diminish the efficacy of this talent.
Mirrored Blades - Optional. This has the potential to be useful on some encounters.
T.N.T. - Required. More Explosive Shots is a good thing.
Toxicology - Required. This is a very powerful talent, even with entry level crit chance.
Wyvern Sting - Required. Required for Noxious Stings and Black Arrow.
Noxious Stings - Required. Incredibly powerful talent. 10% damage is a lot.
Hunting Party - Required. Even with this buff already covered in your raid, it is probably worth it for the 2% agility alone.
Sniper Training - Required. The Kill Shot crit chance remains unchanged from WotLK, but the 6% buff now only applies to Cobra Shot. Still worthwhile but less important to maintain on movement intensive phases.
Serpent Spread - Recommended. This talent has no effect on single targets but is incredibly powerful in multi target situations. See the AoE section. You may only want to include 1 point since the only difference is a 6 vs. 9 second duration, and in a heavy AoE situation you will be using another Multi Shot before it wears off.
Black Arrow - Required. High DPCT ability.
[top]Marksmanship Talents
Go for the Throat - Required. See the pet section for more details, but obtaining more focus for pets is now a worthwhile pursuit.
Efficiency - Required. 6 focus reduction for Explosive Shot and 3 focus reduction for Arcane Shot
Rapid Killing - Not Recommended.
Sic 'Em! - Recommended. For the same reason as Go for the Throat.
Improved Steady Shot - Not Recommended. Not worth using over Cobra Shot.
Careful Aim - Recommended - Not very strong, but potentially better than some pet focus talents depending on pet focus regeneration.
[top]Beast Mastery Talents
Improved Kill Command - Not Recommended. Kill Command is not worth the high focus cost for Survival.
One with Nature - Optional. In PVE the primary benefit is the Aspect of the Hawk increase, but it is quite small.
Bestial Discipline - Optional. Recommended if your pet is not getting the full benefit of Wild Hunt every time.
Sample build:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
[top]Glyphs
Recommended Prime Glyphs:
Arcane Shot - 12% Arcane Shot damage
Explosive Shot
Kill Shot - effectively lets you do back to back Kill Shot
Suboptimal Glyphs
Serpent Sting - 6% crit
Rapid Fire - +10% haste
The recommended prime glyphs were computed with Rivkah's DPS Analyzer, with all other glyphs falling significantly behind on multiple gear sets.
From a damage perspective, there are no required major glyphs for every scenario, although Trap Launcher is recommended for any AoE situations (with Explosive Trap). The others are great options for PVP but in PVE their viability would depend on the encounter. Another potential glyph is the Glyph of Misdirection, which would let you chain MDs on your pet if you get into a threat limited situation.
[top]Pets
Pets now do a decent amount of damage for Survival hunters. They inherit 100% of the hunter's hit, haste, and crit, and scale considerably from AP.
Right now, Ferocity and Cunning pets are both close in theoretical damage and require more numbers before one becomes more preferable than the other. Ferocity has the advantage of Rabid and Call of the Wild, although the long cooldown and short duration of Call of the Wild lessen its value. Cunning has decent talents in Feeding Frenzy, Roar of Recovery, and Owl's Focus, but Wolverine Bite is currently poor.
Ferocity: Hunter Pet Calculator - Wowhead (looks like Wowhead doesn't have the links working quite right here. This is 3100,0031,300,030,101,02 - also note, dogs apparently do not have Charge available)
There are a couple debatable points. First, the point in Boar's Speed can go into either Blood Thirsty or Charge if needed. More importantly, the value between Wild Hunt and Shark Attack is likely to depend on pet focus regeneration from your own talents. Keep in mind that Wild Hunt now does more damage the more focus your pet has, making it much more powerful than it was in WotLK.
Cunning: Hunter Pet Calculator - Wowhead (again, Wowhead not linking properly. 2100,0023,300,002,1100,20)
The main debatable point here is the lack of Boar's Speed. Roar of Recovery may be the weakest talent to take points from here, unless your pet is generating enough focus to devalue Owl's Focus.
[top]AoE
Survival is currently the highest hunter AoE spec by quite a bit.
[top]Multi Shot/Serpent Spread
Multi Shot takes advantage of several talents:
Serpent Spread - Applies 6/9 second duration Serpent Sting. For situations in which you are casting Multi Shot every 6 seconds only one talent point is needed.
Improved Serpent Sting - A large portion of your Multi Shot damage will actually come from this.
Toxicology - Serpent Sting crits for 200%, unlike 150% for other hunter specializations.
Noxious Stings - Subsequent Multi Shots will do 10% more damage.
[top]Explosive Trap
Explosive Trap is your other AoE ability which again does more damage than other hunter specializations because of Trap Mastery and Resourcefulness. It has a small base damage (29 per tick) but with a 54.5% RAP coefficient it does a substantial amount of damage. It is also our most efficient ability by far, costing 0 focus if dropped in place or 20 focus with Trap Launcher (10 focus glyphed). Lastly, with 10 ticks, it has a higher chance of proccing Lock and Load than Black Arrow, even on a single target. A full duration explosive trap will surpass Black Arrow in DPS on just two targets. Explosive Trap's major caveat is obviously that it requires the target(s) to stay in the targeted area for 20 seconds for full effect, making it impractical on some fights.
[top]Stats
I've used a roughly BIS list to get these numbers, with the theory that we can derive some broader understanding of stats. For less generalized stat weights, it is recommended that you use your gear in Rivkah's DPS Analyzer or similar tool.
Agility
Your best stat, by far, with the possible exception of hit. One agility provides two AP and 1/324.85 critical strike percent, before scaling. Into the Wilderness (Survival specialization) boosts this by 15%, you get 5% from wearing mail, 5% from raid buffs, and 2% from Hunting Party. These stack multiplicatively for a 29.32% increase.
Hit
Gearing for the hit cap is generally a good idea. Ranged attacks have a 8% chance to miss against mobs 3 levels higher than us and each point of hit rating gives us 1/120.109%, so we need 961 hit to reach this, or 841 for draenei.
Crit
Almost all abilities crit for 200% damage, or 203% damage with a [Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond]. Some exceptions include Explosive Trap which uses spell crit damage (and crit chance) - 150%, or immolation trap which cannot crit. Thanks to Toxicology, Serpent Sting and Black Arrow crit at 200% like your shots.
Haste
Haste affects both the speed of your shots (cobra and auto) and your rate of focus regeneration. You need 179.28 haste rating to get 1% haste. Haste effects generally scale multiplicatively. If you have 32% haste from gear, 3% from Pathing, and Rapid Fire, a base casting time of X would now be X/1.32/1.03/1.4. Procs that increase haste rating will stack additively with your total haste rating value (32% in this example). Focus regeneration appears to be a base of 4 focus per second scaling multiplicatively with haste; i.e. 30% haste would be 4*1.3=5.2 fps. You will likely not see a huge increase in focus regen from upgrading gear.
Mastery
All of our "spell" (non-physical) damage is affected by this stat. This is almost all of our abilities except for auto shot and multi shot. By specializing in Survival you get 8% elemental damage plus 1% per percent of mastery. At level 85, 179.28 mastery (same as crit) gives 1% damage.
Stats will change in relative value depending on your gear. It is however common to see agility and hit significantly ahead of haste, crit, and mastery. This means that you may want to consider achieving the hit cap through reforging where you are generally trading hit/crit/mastery instead of through gemming wear the primary tradeoff will be agility. Some hit enchants are also viable.
A final reminder: due to the complete overhaul of hunter mechanics, a lot of theory and modeling is still being worked out. This page will update as more consensus is built so please contribute if you have constructive criticism to offer
