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Steady Shot
Ability hunter steadyshot
  • Steady Shot
  • 5 - 35 yd  range
  • 5% of base mana
  • 2 sec cast
  • Ranged Weapon
  • A steady shot that causes unmodified weapon damage, plus ammo, plus [RAP * 0.1 + X]. Causes an additional 175 against Dazed targets.
Usable by
ClassHunter
Properties
TypeOffensive
SchoolPhysical
CooldownNone/Global Cooldown
Talents
Improvement
talents
Focused Aim, Improved Steady Shot, Piercing Shots, Master Marksman, Marked for Death, Survival Instincts, Sniper Training
Other information
Ranks1
RequirementsRanged Weapon

Steady Shot is a steady shot that causes unmodified weapon damage, plus ammo, plus X. Causes an additional Y damage against Dazed targets. Note that all shots have a .5 second hidden cast time, so the effective base casting time of this spell in-game is 2 seconds, as it appears in the in-game tooltip (but not necessarily retrieved from db sites).

Cataclysm table[]

Available for 57c.

Level +Damage
3 5
4 5
5 7
6 7
7 8
8 9
9 10
10 10

Notes[]

Steady Shot works like an inverted Arcane Shot:

  • Arcane Shot is an instant attack with a 6 sec global cooldown that prevents any other mana shots.
  • Steady Shot is a 2 sec cast without cooldown.
  • Both use a different timer than Auto Shot (like the former Aimed Shot did).

Arcane and Steady Shot both deal roughly the same damage (except that the magic damage from Arcane Shot is slightly more powerful against well-armored targets), so Steady Shot becomes the main damage generator in groups and raids (like the former Aimed Shot).

Also note that:

  • Unlike Arcane Shot, Steady Shot cannot be used while running.
  • It is a casting ability, suffering from delays by enemy attacks.
  • Steady Shot consumes a very small amount of mana (just 2/3 the mana cost of Arcane Shot).

Glyphs[]

Glyph of Steady Shot

Tips and tactics[]

To understand how steady shot is affected by haste ratings it's important to understand how haste is calculated. A haste bonus is multiplied by frequency to achieve post-haste speed. World of Warcraft expresses all speeds as period rather than frequency, so the period must be divided by 1+bonus.

As for example in the above case:

Steady Shot Cast Time = 2 / 1.15 (hunter base ranged haste) / 1.2 (Serpent's Swiftness) = 1.4493
1.4493 + 0.5 + 0.2 = 2.149
2.149 x 1.15 x 1.2 = 2.966

Steady Shot is affected by Haste bonuses including that granted by Auto Shot and Serpent's Swiftness. It is also affected by ranged attack speed bonuses including Rapid Fire and Bloodlust.

Hunters are the only class whose GCD is unaffected by haste. For this reason, hunters who are specializing in the Beast Mastery tree and who have Serpent's Swiftness will find additional haste from gear to be almost worthless. Even if Steady Shot completes in 1.4493 seconds, it still cannot be fired again until 1.5 seconds have passed.

Patch changes[]

  • Template:Patch 4.0.1
  • Template:Patch 3.0.8
  • Template:Patch 3.0.2
  • Template:Patch 2.3.0
  • Template:Patch 2.2.0
  • Template:Patch 2.0.6
  • Patch 1.5.0 (patch date:2005-06-07): Special ability shots no longer add the ranged weapon speed or take into account ranged weapon haste when determining the actual cooldown. The tooltip and cooldown timers should now properly reflect the actual cooldown. 

External links[]


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