WoW Classic TBC Phase 2 Hunter BiS Guide | Survival Hunter DPS T5 Best in Slot Gear

WoW Classic TBC Phase 2 Hunter BiS Guide | Survival Hunter DPS T5 Best in Slot Gear

8/27/2021 5:06:21 PM

Phase 2 is nearly upon us with two new raids in World of Warcraft Classic TBC and you know what that means more Best in Slot gears and weapons for hunters to get. In this guide, we are going to break down all the Hunter DPS BiS options for WoW Classic TBC Phase 2 by covering almost everything: 6% hits, 9% headset, energy considerations, survival considerations, maybe even racial considerations for those hunters that like to keep their feet on the ground.

WoW TBC Classic Phase 2 Best in Slot Gear (Tier 5 Set) For Hunters

We are going to break it down piece by piece but first we're going to look at our Tier set in WoW Classic TBC Phase 2:

Phase 2 Hunter T5 Set - Rift Stalker Set

Without a doubt, Rift Stalker Set is dope with these set bonuses: the four piece gives 5% Crit to Steady Shot, and damage numbers wise is quite good. The two-piece is actually incredibly interesting causes your pet to be healed for 15% of the damage you deal. It is pretty hard to quantify how much of a DPS gain, if your raid healers are healing your pets, it's probably zero, if it saves you from having to use mend pet that's usually one extra steady shot for each one of those men pets. So if it saves your pet from dying it's huge benefit. If you're creative, you might be able to keep your pet uptime noticeably higher with the bonus. With it and avoidance, you might not have to move it out of nearly as many AOEs, there's definitely some potential here.

WoW TBC Classic Phase 2 Hunter BiS - T5 Set

An in a rare case, all Tier 5 pieces of the set are pretty good. As you know, a lot of the T4 pieces are sucked and wasn't the set bonus alone that kept us on beastlord.

Best WoW Classic TBC Phase 2 Hunter DPS BiS

Since all T5 pieces are good, the question inevitably becomes which piece do we drop? Follow us to check out the Best in Slot for Hunter in Phase piece by piece:

BiS Chest

Ranger-General's Chestguard (Dropped by Hydross the Unstable)

One common way will be to use Ranger-General's Chestguard, this is not the most DPS but it's only very slightly behind, and there's a good reason for this being an option to consider: the T5 chest drops off Keothos probably will be the last boss you kill in T5, Ranger-General's Chestguard drops from Hydros probably will be the first boss you kill in Tier 5, if you know it's going to take a while for your raid to kill Keothos and then you to get the T5 chest, this is a somewhat pragmatic option.

BiS Pants

Leggings of Murderous Intent
Ranger-General's Chestguard (Dropped by Kael'thas Sunstrider)
Reaver Greaves (Dropped by Kael'thas Sunstrider)

Probably a bit more common option is to drop the pants, Leggings of Murderous Intent is really good even with no sockets, they've got some huge ass stats. These do also drop from Kael'thas, but we don't think the competition will be that high, DPS warriors might want them and a lot of other specs want their Tier legs, you may be thinking Void Reaver Greaves are really nice that actually puts you in about the same place as using Ranger-General's Chestguard. But the tier 5 pants are still easier to get than the tier 5 chest. So it could work but that's a pretty uncommon place to be four-piece Rift Stalker with Leggings of Murderous Intent is probably going to be the way to go for most people.

An interesting question is how many pieces do we want before we swap or before we throw Beast Lord in the trash? A lot of people say four pieces but the difference between P1 BIS and P2 BIS is not insignificant, so maybe two pieces? Probably not, the only way swapping at two pieces would be worth it as if that two-piece set bonus is noticeably increasing your pet uptime keeping it from dying. So for most people, four piece will be in the swap point.

BiS Bracers

Vambraces of Ending (Dropped by High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep)
Bands of the Celestial Archer (Dropped by Bloodwarder Legionnaire)
True-Aim Stalker Bands (Dropped by Leotheras in SSC)

As you know, P1 bracers is sucked, thankfully P2 does a lot better on bracers, in fact it might be our easiest slot to gear, there are three options for Bracers: As far as DPS goes, Vambraces of Ending are the highest but the other two are quite close. They're close enough that we would go for whichever makes the most sense in your situation: for those thier raid has a lot of farewells and free rogues but barely any hunters, in the fact that they're also a trash drop, you should go for Bands of the Celestial Archer; another consideration is obviously survival, the only thing you might want to watch out for is Bands of the Celestial Archer has no stam on it.

BiS Belt

Belt of Deep Shadow (Dropped by mobs in The Eye and Serpentshrine Cavern)
Belt of One-Hundred Deaths (Dropped by Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Cavern)

Our best belt is going to be Belt of Deep Shadow, which is surprisingly crafted. There's also Belt of the Black Eagle which is so incredibly close to Belt of Deep Shadow, thing is we would steer you towards Belt of Deep Shadow as the mats are similar and if you ever want to play surf, Belt of Deep Shadow is much better. They both take two nether vortex early on these just aren't going to a hunter belt, but it shouldn't take too long before we're able to get them unless your guild is just having terrible luck with drops, so we do want to aim for getting Belt of Deep Shadow made until then you would just rock ground stitch girdle from P1.

There is also Belt of One-Hundred Deaths which is actually slightly more DPS than Belt of Deep Shadow, even though it has expertise. The reason for that is the hit on Belt of Deep Shadow is wasted in a 6% hit set. If for some reason Belt of One-Hundred Deaths drops and no one in the raid wants it, then take it, otherwise we're going to want Belt of Deep Shadow made.

BiS Boots

Star-Strider Boots (Dropped by High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep)
Cobra-Lash Boots (Dropped by Lady Vashj in Serpentshrine Cavern)

Thankfully like Bracers, Boots are an easy slot and we have the below tow options for you: You can use whichever one is easier for you to get, they have the same stats when it comes to DPS and both have two sockets. If you're really low on stamina you can try to prioritize Cobra-Lash because they do have more stamp, but otherwise pretty easy slot. These boots have the same graphic, they both match Tier 5.

BiS Cap

Thalassian Wildercloak (Dropped by Kael'thas Sunstrider in the Eye)

We do get this new cape and it is really a nice one: it's a direct upgrade over our badge cape, now compared to Vengeance Wcrap it it's still an upgrade.

BiS Necklace

Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem
Choker of Animalistic Fury (Dropped by The Lurker Below)

Necklace might be our worst slot in P2, there are basically two good new necklaces: Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem is a good p-tube bis, now if you want to animalize, it's not really worth it if you have Saberclaw Talisman or even Worgen Claw Necklace. The gain is really small but the jump to Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem is noticeable and worth it. The problem is it's from virgin spear which it's like Kel'Thuzad and that rewards Biznicks for a lot of specs. Telonicus's Pendant of Mayhem is the necklace we want but we might have to break out the chloroform rag to get it.

BiS Rings

Ring of the Recalcitrant (Dropped by The Fall of Magtheridon)
Band of the Ranger-General (Dropped by Kael'thas Sunstrider)
Ring of Lethality (Dropped by Hydross the Unstable)

The first one we should probably already have, it's was in our P1 best list, the second ring is a little more complicated because there's kind of two ways to go about it. If you have Ranger-General's Chestguard, Band of the Ranger-General is part of that same 2000 collection so it matches nicely, it's also just really good with a lot of crits. Ring of Lethality is from hydros so it's easier to get, but maybe more importantly if there's any chance you'll play survival , Band of the Ranger-General is balls for survival. And there is no DPS difference between the two for BM, they have the same DPS when you're buffed. So personally we would not bother with Band of the Ranger-General and just go for Ring of Lethality. If it ends up easier for you to get Band of the Ranger-General, it is fine to take that instead as long as you're not ever going to play survival. You may notice both of these rings have hit which usually sucks, that's part of why Ring of the Recalcitrant is so good (it has no hit), there just aren't any other hitless rings we can use.

BiS Trinkets

Tsunami Talisman (Dropped by Leotheras the Blind)
Dragonspine Trophy (Dropped by Gruul the Dragonkiller)
Bloodlust Brooch (Dropped by G'eras)
Abacus of Violent Odds (Dropped by Pathaleon the Calculator)

Actually Tsunami Talisman is not that good since it's just not up enough for it to be worth it over Dragonspine Trophy or Bloodlust Brooch. If for some reason you don't have Dragonspine Trophy yet and no one else wants in your team, you could use it until Dragonspine Trophy, Abacus of Violent Odds could be better but that's dependent on you. Dragonspine Trophy is still BIS you're going to be using for Donkey's Years. Bloodlust Brooch is going to remain our second trinket being able to pop that ap on demand and stack it when we need, it is still really powerful

BiS Quivers, Ammo Pouches Arrows & Ammo

Schematic: Adamantite Sheel Machine (Sold by Wind Trader Lathral in Shatt)
Schematic: Adamantitle Arrow Maker (Dropped by Sunfury Archers in Netherstorm)

No new quivers or pouches in phase 2 but ammo, Blizzard put the engineering ammo on PTR with like no kind of announcement and makes engineering ammo a lot more useful so our best ammo is now engineering ammo and not reputation ammo the mats aren't that bad either. Hunter takes the away engineering goggles until give the engineering ammo.

BiS Two-Hand Weapons

Bloodmoon
Twinblade of the Phoenix (Dropped by Kael'thas Sunstrider)

Let's cover two handers first, because it's easy. If you're weaving two handers are obviously viable, there are two options: Twinblade of the Phoenix from Kael'thas and Bloodmoon (the fully upgraded bis), they're both really close, just go with whichever one you can get easier. Blacksmith and your guild can get you the nethers Bloodmoon, not a blacksmith take Twinblade of the Phoenix.

BiS One-Hand Weapon

Talon of the Phoenix (Dropped by Al'ar)
Claw of the Phoenix (Dropped by Al'ar)

These are the kind of fist weapons we are talking about Talon of the Phoenix in the main hand and Claw of the Phoenix in the offhand, these two fist weapons look great and we probably won't have a lot of competition, though there is one downside: Talon of the Phoenix is only very slightly better than Claw of the Watcher with two red gems. The difference between Claw of the Phoenix and Stormreaver Warblades is more noticeable.

BiS Ranged Weapon

Serpent Spine Longbow (Dropped by Lady Vashj)
Arcanite Steam-Pistol (Dropped by Al'ar)

The literal best of all slots reserved only or HMR and we've got a good one to slip in it this phase, Serpent Spine Longbow dropping a great bow with the 3.0 speed (better than 2.9 speed), it's going to be the ranged weapon we won until Black Temple but probably the most chloroform rag worthy item on the list probably tied with KT's head. But there is another potential option - Arcanite Steam-Pistol kind of looks like trash but is it as good as Serpent Spine Longbow? No, it's not, but there are a few things to keep in mind with this gun, if you're a dwarf and like the feel of the 2.9 speed or don't want to adjust to 3.0 speed, you can get the gun and the differences are not big. And Arcanite Steam-Pistol is better than Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix even for non-dwarfs.

6% and 9% Hit Sets

WoW TBC Classic Phase 2 Hunter BiS - 6% and 9% Hit Sets

We didn't cover gems and enchants because that doesn't really change and basically the same as phase one also 20 agility for one-handers. This 6% hit set is basically the best items as we went through them, similar to phase 1, we are not at 6% hit even though that's where we want to be, instead we've got 7.55% ranged hit. We use a glinting gem for one of our yellow slots and then we eat hit food this takes us to 9.07 hit. This is the best way to do it for most people, because otherwise you're going to have to shift around a lot of gear.

More Tips For Choosing Survival Hunter BiS Set

Thankfully, Survival doesn't actually change much in Phase 2 is very close to BM, there's easy stuff like we don't need any AP only pieces such as the Band of the Ranger-General, Choker of Animalistic Fury, True-Aim Stalker Bands and you will probably avoid all of those anyway as BM except for maybe the ring.

Weapons are a little different: Talon of the Phoenix as the main hand is a no agility item so we swap that for Netherbane with 25 agility. But the offhand now this kind of always brings up that personal DPS loss for raid gain topic, we can use two Netherbanes and that's more agility than the offhand claw but you're going to lose personal DPS. Weight stones are strong and the rate DPS gain should not make up because you lose crit with no weight stones, which could mean less uptime on expose, so we do think the best option is where you have the Netherbane in main hand and Claw of the Phoenix on off hand. When you put everything together that makes the most practical sense and also sims the best.

There's a similar situation with Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation which you should already have if you're survival, it has a ton of agility, two sockets and no hit.

Between the chest and legs, Rift Stalker Leggings with a gem is more agility than murderous intent, so we actually gain agility in both slots there but we also waste hit. The chest Rift Stalker Hauberk is already more agility than any other option. It would work out nicely to use helm, shoulders, chest, and pants, all Rift Stalker with Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation, that will be our recommendation best survival hunter BIS set inPhase 2 for most people.