Maybe you're like me but I hope to hell you're not. I get a piece of gear and here's what I do:
1. Grab a pen.
2. Find a handy scrap of paper (usually the back of a receipt), and start writing down stats. Agility,
AP, the crit conversion, int, hit, mana, MP5, sockets, potential enchants.
3. Agonize over the .09 difference in crit betweeen versus 3 more AP versus 1MP5. And don't get me started on sockets! Do I choose the orange, yellow or green, with thoughts
on how this will effect my pet, too.
4. Go back to my bank and make sure I'm not storing anything there that I've forgotten to balance against,
that I might have been saving. Oops, I had this other item here that I'd banked in case I was going to
break a set bonus. Add in extra calculations for that.
5. Get tired of trying to mess with it, figure I'll come back to it fresh tomorrow.
6. Login the next day, realize I need to make a decision because I'm not wearing ANYTHING in that
slot now and I raid in thirty minutes.
7. Smack my forehead in both a loud and painful way when I realize that I threw said scrap of paper
away when cleaning up my desk before logging onto World of Warcraft.
8. Wonder why this isn't easier!
The sad part about the above scenario is that it's something hunters have to do (ok, minus the scribbling on receipts and forehead smacking) in order to maximize their DPS potential. Sometimes it comes down to doing a virtual pick between two dimes and a nickle as opposed to taking a quarter.
Thankfully, better minds than mine have come up with a variety of ways to combat this, in spreadsheet form. So, enjoy the work of hunter theorycrafters!
From Cheeky of Khadgar
Description: An over-blown, complicated spreadsheet that attempts to factor in every known bit of TheoryCrafting about gear, talent, pet, buffs and playstyle to determine the DPS of the Hunter and pet. Health, Mana, Armor, and other stats are also calculated.
From Elois of Uldum
Description: This spreadsheet is a statistical calculator for hunters. It is designed to be used with Wow Web Stats or Recap. For explanations of the variable used please refer to my post: http://forums.tkasomething.com/showthread.php?t=12851 on the TKA Something message boards. This spreadsheet is intended to be a tool that can look past the gear and look to the hunter to identify how to improve DPS.
From Khanate & Vaxum of Spirestone
Description: Spreadsheet with all the hunter-related items including good leather options, current per 2.1. Essentially the same dataset as in Cheeky's "Hunter DPS" spreadsheet (I've been syncing them). The gear is sorted based on Arcazua's AEP 1.0 calculations, defaulted to Marksmanship spec - download it to a local Excel spreadsheet to manipulate the spec & AEP values to suit your build and playstyle.
Download Khanate & Vaxum's Spreadsheet
From Shiorin of Thorium Brotherhood
Description: This spreadsheet assumes a shot rotation of steady constrained by auto, with Arcane being fired as often as it is
available (note that I use 6.75 seconds NOT 6, since you will commonly be in the middle of a steady-shot cast when its cooldown finishes,
change this depending on your build/curiosities as it does affect gear choice slightly). It will show the damage percentage difference
over a given time interval, all configurable (blue fields) default is 100 seconds, but you can change it to whatever you want, it doesn't
change the comparisons. Just fill in the numbers and it will tell you the percentage difference in damage output, with all the raw numbers there for you to see
and check. Most factors cancel out in gear comparison, haste, most talents, etc etc, which is why they are not necessarily included. I add
them to see the raw numbers, or to compare specs. For example you can change the crit bonus to see how much of a difference it makes
(I did this to decide on the +16agi/+3% crit or +24 AP gem).
Base rap and crit are of crucial importance, since adding a point of RAP, Crit or AGI changes how the next point you add will affect you.
The more RAP you have, the more CRIT becomes important (the commonly known but tragically misleading and oversimplified "300 paper doll dps").
Download Shiorin's Spreadsheet
From Kaelvanas of Hyjal
Description: An excel spreadsheet implementing Arcazua's hAEP 2.0 calculations. Sample weights are generated using my current stats (I'm a well-geared Survival hunter from a guild just downing Gruul and Mag).
Download Kaelvanas' 1st Spreadsheet
Description: An excel spreadsheet applying these weights (for my toon) to a large set of equipment. Sortable by AEP for Marks or Survival, whether hit-capped or not.
Download Kaelvanas' 2nd Spreadsheet
From Kaber of Stormreaver
Description: A companion to the AEP spreadsheets to aid in decisions concerning MP5 and Intelligence on gear, given the incredibly high values weighted to MP5 and Int. The intent is to show the "Zero Point" where MP5 and Int are effectively capped based on your desired fight duration, mana consumption, and mana regeneration. This will tell you how much more MP5/Int are needed to reach your goal, or by how much you may have already over-shot that goal and can reduce MP5 in order to focus on other stats.
From Rooke of Whisperwind
Description: Purpose of this spreadsheet is to simulate hunter stats and predict damage displayed on the character panel with different equipment sets and/or talents. This spreadsheet is only accurate for level 60 hunters because I do not know how the formulas scale. It will still allow you to predict what items would give you more dps but the dps numbers predicted along with all stats will be for a level 60 hunter. It does not have every item or every enchant possible listed. You can still add missing equipment, enchantments and buffs into the yellow rows on the Equipment, Enchants and Buffs tab.
The Damage tab tries to predict damage you would do, using the equipment, enchants, buffs and talents you entered for each profile. While great efforts have been made to ensure this spreadsheet is as accurate as possible, I -do not- work for Blizzard. Always remember that this spreadsheet was meant to be used as a guideline and not a 100% sure thing.
Everyone should first set up a profile to match there in-game character. I call this profile Current, but you can rename that on the Stats tab. Be aware, that renaming the columns will auto change all columns to that new name but -will not- affect the names listed on the tabs of the spreadsheet.
So to set up a Current profile;
First, on the Racial Stats tab, find you race and enter it's ID # into the yellow cell on the left.
Second, on the Skills and Talents tab, input you skills and talents. Remember to use the Global
column to greatly speed this process up.
Third, on the Equipment tab, find the equipment you want, enter it's ID # into the appropriate
yellow cell for each profile. Here you can use the Global cell to speed up this process.
Forth, on the Enchants tab, find the enchantments you want, enter it's ID # into the appropriate
yellow cell for each profile.
Fifth, on the Buffs tab, find the buffs you want, enter there ID numbers into the appropriate cell
for each profile.
With this information, the spreadsheet should display values that match your character's stats in
World of Warcraft.
You can repeat these steps for other profile; Current w/ Buffs, Dream Set, Arcane, etc. You can
also rename these profiles on the Stats tab. Simply type a new name into the yellow cells found
along the top and the columns will display your new name for the profiles found on Damage, Skills
and Talents, Equipment, Enchants and Buffs tabs. Remember that the names displayed on the tabs
along the bottom will not change.
IMPORTANT: If you use the Excel file and see letters/numbers in white cells, DO NOT delete them. Those values are used for calculations somewhere and changing them will damage the calculations. For reasons unknown to me, Excel is not consistently hiding calculations marked to be hidden. If you see tiny numbers in white cells, ignore them as best you can.
Description: A pet skills spreadsheet. Click on the pale violet cell beside "Pet Level:" along the top. A drop down list appears, scroll down to select your pet's level. Beneath that is a green cell that displays "Training Points Left:". Below this area, is a list of possible pet skills beginning with "Bite: (0 - 9)" and continuing until "Shadow Resistance: (0 - 5)". Beside each skill is another pale violet cell. Click on the pale violet cells, select the rank of each skill you want from the drop down list. The point value will be looked up and displayed beside the rank you selected as well as displaying a description of that skill. Repeat this process until you get the build you are looking for. Keep in mind that because this is a simple spreadsheet, it is possible to go negative. There isn't a reset button. Sorry, my skills with spreadsheets are not advanced enough to add reset buttons yet but maybe soon that will be possible. To help reset things, you can highlight the violet cells and press delete. This should delete the displayed values but not affect the drop down lists themselves.