Top Tier Hunter Talents: Trueshot Aura
by Mark Asher 
Dec 13th 2005 at 11:30PM
Trueshot Aura is my current favorite 31 point talent available to Hunters. It's in the Markmanship tree. At level 60 this increases the attack power of the entire party the Hunter is grouped with by 100, as long as the party members stay within 45 yards of the Hunter. More attack power means more base damage on the Hunter's Aimed Shots, Multishots, and Autoshots. (Attack power doesn't modify Arcane Shot or Serpent Sting.) This feeds into larger critical strikes too.
Trueshot Aura has the benefit of being a passive ability. Once you flip it on, you don't have to worry about it. It's just there, doing its damage-enhancing goodness all the time.
Trueshot Aura also increases your pet damage. You get a better pet without having to spend a talent point in the Beast Mastery tree. Not bad, eh?
Trueshot Aura increases the damage of your melee-based party members, or even the ranged attack power of another Hunter who might be in your group.
Perhaps best of all, when you invest in a 31 point talent, you can only get one 21 point talent -- the one that's in the same tree. And the 21 point talent in the Marksmanship tree is Scattershot, the one talent I find it hard to live without in PvP settings.
Bestial Wrath you can use for 15 seconds once every two minutes, as long as your pet is alive. Wyvern Sting you can only use out of combat once every two minutes. With Trueshot Aura you get an ability that is always on and always modifies your damage, makes your pet more dangerous, and enhances your party. And you still get Scattershot to boot.
When it comes to top tier Hunter talents, I declare a winner...Trueshot Aura!
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brandon Dec 14th 2005 7:08PM
I'll second that one. Trueshot has the clear benefits over the other 2 31 point talents. My guildies always insist that I have it on.
Elgnairt Dec 15th 2005 10:43AM
I'm not sure if I agree that Trueshot is (a) the best 31-point talent, or (b) worth having. Personally, I don't have any of the 31-pt talents in my current build.
100 ATK is roughly 7dps (divide by 14).
Now, it may affect your entire group, but chances are your entire group isn't attacking, so this is -- effectively -- at best 21dps (say) in single group activities, and probably less in raids.
To get Trueshot Aura you have to get a bunch of lower tier skills, probably +5% to ranged damage and +15% to multishot.
If you put the same points into Survival you'd get +15% to agility and +3% to criticals. The +3% to crits combined with mortal shots is probably more than +5% damage (although it is in the form of crits rather than steady dps). +15% to survival is likely to be more than 40 agility for any hunter -- my hunter is getting about +60 agility from it. Let's call it +50 agility, which is 100 ranged attack which is always on, +1.5% to crits, and positive modifiers to parry and dodge.
Trueshot aura is probably marginally better (for damage) spread across a group, but in raids (where you may well be out of range of your group or using the Nature Resist aura) and soloing, Lightning Reflexes wins -- and you can either get Wyvern Sting or spend the extra point somewhere else.
John Naked Dec 15th 2005 8:03PM
It's amazing... As for ragging on 7dps... People pay ridiculous amounts of gold for a 7 dps increase.
Carter Dec 16th 2005 7:52AM
Any hunter concerned about his DPS might want to explore this comprehensive forum post. You might find that it is not always clear what is best. But there are certainly instances when there is a clear winner.
A general consensus is that TSA is best until you get a very high base agility, say around 450, then you reap a greater benefit from going Lightning reflexes.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-hunter&t=862216&p=1&tmp=1#post862216