The notion that every item is suitable for Hunters has persisted as a joke throughout World of Warcraft's history. While often exaggerated, you may have experienced losing valuable items like Ashkandi to a Hunter in the past.

However, in the Season of Discovery, this joke holds more truth than ever before. The emergence of Melee Hunters has shifted the perception, as nearly every weapon and strength item is now coveted by Hunters. Additionally, a new build, currently demonstrating the highest simulated PPS among all ranged specializations, is the Spell Power Hunter.

In this guide, we'll delve into why this build is effective, which talents and gear to prioritize, how to optimize your spellcasting, and when it's appropriate to consider adopting this approach. To pursue this build, ensuring a substantial reserve of SoD Gold is essential for your investment.

Why It Works?

The concept of Spell Power Hunter is not a recent development and was not exclusive to the Season of Discovery. During the Classic era, it was a tactic employed by Hunters when they perceived their guild mates and Warlocks to be enjoying too much success.

In the toolkit of Hunters, there are 3 abilities that benefit from spell power scaling:

Firstly, Arcane Shot possesses a base spell power scaling of 43.5%, meaning each point of spell power contributes 0.435 damage. Moreover, Arcane Shot boasts a crit scaling of 200%, resulting in significantly amplified damage with a critical hit, especially when augmented by the Immortal Shots talent.

The second ability influenced by spell power is Serpent Sting. Its 1:1 spell power coefficient means that each increment of spell power contributes directly to the spell's damage output. It's essential to note that this scaling applies to the entire duration of the damage over time effect, rather than individual ticks. While Serpent Sting's damage can be enhanced beyond the standard spell power scaling, we'll delve into those strategies later.

Lastly, Volley, despite its limited utility, features a spell power scaling of 33%. Although considered suboptimal in most situations, in scenarios with a high volume of enemies, such as the packs before Crowd Pummeler, Volley may prove to be a viable option, particularly with significant spell power investment.

However, with the Season of Discovery, a fourth spell has emerged that benefits from spell power: Chimaera Shot. While the ability itself does not directly scale with spell power, its secondary effect, which adds damage based on Serpent Sting, does. Following recent buffs, Chimaera Shot now instantly deals 120% weapon damage and 48% of your Serpent Sting damage while also resetting the duration of Serpent Sting.

This particular detail holds more significance than one might realize. Not only does it spare you from using a global cooldown to reapply Serpent Sting constantly, but it also enables you to maintain the damage boost from your initial Serpent Sting throughout the entire encounter. This allows you to coordinate with your guild's Priest to receive Power Infusion for a 20% damage increase at the start of the fight, then equip Void-Touched Leather Gauntlets from Phase 1 for an additional 10% damage boost before applying Serpent Sting. Subsequently, you can preserve the augmented damage from this initial Serpent Sting for the duration of the battle.

In isolation, spell power still falls short of agility in terms of overall value. However, several factors contribute to its exceptional performance. With the majority of bosses in Gnomeregan possessing increased armor values, all the aforementioned abilities excel at piercing through armor.

Additionally, the accessibility of a 20% increase in nature damage through Balance Druids and Enhanced Shamans, along with the benefits derived from the Epic Fist Weapon, greatly enhance the effectiveness of Spell Power Hunters.

Build Guide

Regarding the build guide, we'll adopt a setup closely resembling the prevalent Marksmanship build with a few minor adjustments.

It's advisable to select Lone Wolf for the chest, Chimera Shot for gloves, Expose Weakness for the belt, Sniper Training for the legs, and Trap Launcher for the feet.

The efficacy of this build heavily relies on your ability to utilize Lone Wolf. While it remains feasible if you're the designated provider of Aspect of the Lion, you'll fare better with a full attack power build. Hence, ensure to arrange any necessary bribes to guarantee another party member brings that buff.

In terms of our talent selection, we opt for a specific setup. We prioritize five out of five Efficiency and five out of five Lethal Shots. Aimed Shot is also essential in our build, as even utilizing one pre-cast before the pull provides superior value compared to other options. Additionally, we allocate four out of five points to Improved Arcane Shot, five out of five to Mortal Shots, two out of five to Improved Serpent Sting, three out of three to Barrage, and five out of five to Ranged Weapon Specialization, along with Trueshot Aura.

You might question why we only invest two out of five points into Improved Serpent Sting, considering its significant role in our scaling. It's not due to the talent's inferiority, but rather because the remaining talents in the tree offer substantial benefits.

Gear Guide

In terms of gearing, here's a comprehensive overview of our recommended choices and enchantments worth considering.

Upon initial observation, you'll notice that we still incorporate several non-spell power items into our setup. For most items, the spell power alternatives offer comparable performance, with the exception of the helmet and shoulders. Therefore, if you're inclined to irk your guild's casters without compromising too much DPS, feel free to proceed.

We prioritize obtaining the 3 sets, consisting of the Irradiated Robe, Irradiated Boots, and Irradiated Trousers. Despite some pieces actively reducing our agility, this set proves superior to other options.

Our trinket selections include the Miniaturized Combustion Chamber and Invoker's Void Pearl. If you possess the attack power version, be prepared to invest in switching to the spell power version.

Additionally, we incorporate a few Phase 1 items such as the Dagger of Willing Sacrifice and the Void-Touched Leather Gauntlets obtained through leatherworking, leveraging their initial snapshot capability. Once these gloves are on cooldown, we transition to Machinist's Gloves for encounters involving mechanical bosses.

It's imperative to secure the Glimmering Gizmoblade, which remains best in slot regardless of the specialization you're playing.

As for our off-pieces, we prioritize options that enhance spell power (such as the Volatile Concoction Belt) and improve hit chance (like the Ornate Dark Iron Bangles).

Rotation

In terms of our rotation, we initiate by activating our leatherworking gloves followed by pre-casting Aimed Shot, while ensuring we receive Power Infusion from the Priest.

Subsequently, we activate Serpent Sting, Chimaera Shot, Multi-Shot, and Immolation Trap (if not deployed before the encounter), followed by Arcane Shot.

From this point forward, our focus lies in prioritizing Chimaera Shot over Multi-Shot and Arcane Shot, while maintaining Immolation Trap continuously. Emphasizing the importance of consistently utilizing Chimaera Shot cannot be overstated, and it should never be allowed to remain off cooldown.

Additionally, strategic positioning planning is essential to maximize our uptime on Sniper Training.

When To Use it?

When should you utilize this build?

Primarily, this build proves effective whenever another party member provides Aspect of the Lion. However, if you intend to acquire spell power gear, it's crucial to communicate this beforehand, as not all participants may possess the same level of game knowledge.

Currently, spell power significantly outperforms attack power for Hunters, making it the preferred choice whenever Lone Wolf is in play.

Consumables

As for consumables, we adhere to our standard selection, including Lesser Wizard Oil on both weapons, Lesser Arcane Elixir, Elixir of Agility, and Sagefish Delight for our food buff.

For those seeking additional optimization, consider abandoning any non-leatherworking professions in favor of enchanting to acquire the sigil buff. This enhancement greatly enhances Hunter performance, resulting in a notable 21 DPS increase.

In conclusion, Spell Power Hunter transcends mere meme status, and unless there are alterations to Chimaera Shot, its prominence in the game appears to be enduring.