Dear Survival Tree,

I’m sorry I ever doubted you. Take me back, please? I never bad-mouthed you, I swear! You’ve always been my one true love, but it just didn’t work between us for a while there and I had to try something else. You know me, every now and then I have to try something else for a while, but I always come back to you. I should have been more loyal, I see that now, but the Marksmanship tree called to me with its Chimera Shot siren song of glories untold. That didn’t pan out. Can we be friends again?

Love, Lassirra.

Since 3.0.8 was announced and subsequently released, we’ve been made aware that Survival would, for once, be the “top dog” raid DPS spec. That’s not news to me, or you. But why didn’t I make the switch with everyone else? Because I wanted to see first-hand what affect 3.0.8 would have on Marksmanship DPS. I wanted to see the changes in a raid environment, rather than just on paper. I’ve done that now, and have confirmed that it’s time for a switch. Again.

Back to Basics

I’ve never been one for copying and pasting specs. I’ve always designed my own specs simply because, more often than not, the spec I choose myself is better for my play style and the gear I have. So with that in mind, I spent most of this morning on WoWHead working on a build and then tinkering with that in Shandara’s spreadsheet to see what I could come up with.

My new build went through a couple iterations in the spreadsheet to determine where my points might be better spent, and what I inevitably came up with was this:

This 0/20/51 build isn’t so far removed from ones I’d toyed with before Wrath ever came out. When Wrath was released, I ended up going with a 0/37/34 hybrid build after Explosive Shot was nerfed at the end of the Beta, hoping for a nice synergy between MM and SV. While my numbers at the end of the Beta with that build weren’t awful, they ended up not quite panning out in a raid environment, and so I made the switch to a 51-deep Marksmanship build to get some mileage out of Chimera Shot.

My MM build has treated me fairly well, I must admit. It was a nice alternative to the decidedly disappointing numbers Survival was putting out at the time, and it wasn’t Beast Mastery (bonus!), so I can’t complain too much. However, the time has come to go back to the drawing board and start eking out a successful SV build again.

Gear Adjustments

One of the biggest drawbacks to specing back into Survival is the expense of having to retune my gear. For someone who’s notoriously short on funds, this is especially challenging. Its also been long enough since I last played a Survival build that I’m not sure if the same general tenets hold true, and so I’m mostly guessing and checking at the moment. Spreadsheets help, certainly, but I’ll have to put this new build to the test in a raid environment to see if it’s truly viable for me.

Where to start?

Well, I’ve got my new build sorted out (as shown above), but I’ve got a lot of ground to cover before I’m ready to rock out. First: gems. For my MM build, Attack Power gems were the order of the day. All of those will need to be replaced to get the most mileage out of my Expose Weakness buff. Let’s take a peek at what we’re working with. (And yes, I’m well aware things aren’t fully optimized at the moment. I’m poor, and lazy. Sue me.)

Head: Helm of the Grave

• Swift Skyflare Diamond
• Balanced Twilight Opal

Both gems will need to be swapped out for Relentless Earthsiege Diamond and Shifting Twilight Opal.

Shoulders: Valorous Cryptstalker Spaulders

• Bright Scarlet Ruby

Needs to be swapped out for Delicate Dragon’s Eye.

Chest: Valorous Cryptstalker Tunic

• Bright Scarlet Ruby
• Balanced Twilight Opal

Needs to be swapped out for Delicate Dragon’s Eye and Shifting Twilight Opal.

Waist: Torn Web Wrapping

• Bright Bloodstone

Needs to be swapped out for Delicate Scarlet Ruby.

Legs: Valorous Cryptstalker Legguards

• Bright Scarlet Ruby
• Balanced Twilight Opal

Needs to be swapped out for Delicate Dragon’s Eye and Shifting Twilight Opal.

Wrist: Slime Stream Bands

• Perfect Vivid Dark Jade

Needs to be swapped out for Shifting Twilight Opal.

Hands: Grotesque Handgrips

• Bright Bloodstone

Needs to be swapped out for Glinting Monarch Topaz.

Ring: Titanium Impact Band

• Rigid Sun Crystal

Needs to be swapped out for Glinting Monarch Topaz.

Now, these are all the gems I’ll need to swap out to prepare my gear for Survival. I haven’t even started looking at whether or not these items are even “best in slot” for the spec yet. Why? Because it’s easier to regem what I’ve already got than to go looking for other pieces. Well, it’s quicker, anyway. So, I spent some time in CharDev afterward, tweaking gems, and here’s what I ended up with:

You’ll notice in the buffs window, I’ve got Aspect of the Dragonhawk, Flask of Endless Rage and a Well Fed buff up. That’s mostly because those are typically the numbers I’m used to looking at in-game, so it gave me a personal point of reference. For those that are curious, without any of those three buffs active, my RAP drops to 4250 and my Agi drops to 1207. Now, let’s compare that to my bare armory ratings at the moment (because, huzzah, the armory doesn’t include buffs in stats anymore):

3719 to 4250? 934 to 1207? Those are pretty significant jumps, just from swapping some gems (and talents–the armory is still going by my MM build, since I haven’t actually respecced yet).

That’s as far as I’ve gotten in my considerations thus far, so for actual gear evaluations, you’ll have to wait, heh. I spent most of this morning, as I said, tinkering in Excel with gems and talents. Later on this afternoon, I’m going to be taking a serious look at gear choices and I’ll likely post those findings tomorrow.