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Comment by 436638

You will receive this passive buff from being a Survival Spec'ed Hunter in Cataclysm. (The damage will be further increased by mastery rating.)

Comment by 434474

any confirmation on being lvl 85 to how much % dmg increase to all elements does this give PER 1 Mastery Rating?

Comment by mak484

I have broken down all of the current masteries into two categories: unique, interesting masteries and flat bonus masteries.

Unique, interesting masteries:

Flat bonus masteries:

Why this mastery needs to be more interesting (tldr: it's boring and should be made fun, like Blizzard promised)
Blizzard’s main reasoning behind the recent talent changes was to eliminate the ‘boring’ talents that, for example, only increased damage by x%. The mastery system was supposed to provide each spec with a fun, unique mechanic that would replace some of the boring talents while still providing a damage increase. I feel that Blizzard dropped the ball on this entire system. As you can see, only half of the existing specs got ‘interesting’ mastery mechanisms; the rest still only increase the effectiveness of certain abilities by x%. In the end, all of the masteries provide the exact same amount of increase (in theory), but I think for the amount of money we are all paying them, Blizzard should give all specs interesting mechanisms.

Comment by 476166

I feel that Blizzard dropped the ball on this entire system. As you can see, only half of the existing specs got ‘interesting’ mastery mechanisms; the rest still only increase the effectiveness of certain abilities by x%. In the end, all of the masteries provide the exact same amount of increase (in theory), but I think for the amount of money we are all paying them, Blizzard should give all specs interesting mechanisms.

They're attempting to remove boring TALENTS, yes. For the most part, they're doing that. But Mastery isn't supposed to replace that; it isn't a talent, it's an ability that's not available until 80. Mastery is a stat; it can provide a scaling bonus or an increased chance for a proc. You say Shield Discipline is a flat bonus, but that's a highly consistent bonus; you aren't jogging between whether the target has low health or not like the Resto Shaman, nor does it depend on your mana like the Arcane Mage. And it's not flat because it scales with your mastery -- the higher the mastery, the larger the benefit.

I won't even get started on the "amount of money" argument. You aren't paying for interesting masteries, you're paying so you can play a fun game, and each of the specs have an interesting/fun ability or play style.

Comment by elitearthas

Wow this nerf (20% to 8%) more or less killed SV @_@

Comment by 464789

Might seem weak at a first glance. But after a second glance, THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING.

Serpent Sting
Explosive Shot
Black Arrow
Wyvern Sting
Arcane Shot

And your bread and butter Cobra Shot

And of course

Immolation Trap
Explosive Trap

So basically, this thing increases ALL your damage. Since all of these spells (except maybe Arcane Shot) are used as Survival, and they all completely ignore armor.

This Mastery might be one of the most powerful things for Survival PvP

Comment by 119130

"Elemental damage" as I have understood usually only means Fire, Frost and Nature damage. The problem is that this is survival hunter's mastery and the 31 point talent in survival is Black Arrow which does shadow damage? Arcane shot is clearly not elemental damage. If they wanted it to boost all magic damage why would they specifically put "elemental" instead of "magic" or "magical"? I really hope this has simply been overlooked and it will increase all magical damage done and not just elemental.

Comment by prfella

Taken from the wow wiki page on mastery:

Survival

Ranged Damage
Ranged Critical Damage
Elemental Damage: Hunter abilities such as traps, Black Arrow, and Explosive Shot will do elemental damage of the following types: Improves the Arcane, Fire, Frost, Nature or Shadow damage of abilities like traps, Black Arrow and Explosive Shot.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Mastery

Comment by 304857

Just to prove Blizz has some love for Survial Hunters the Wind Serpent buffs magic damage too.
Lighning Breath

Comment by 177952

It doesn't affect Auto-Shot, though, which is still a large chunk of your damage.

You must not actually look at the breakdown of your damage if you truly believe auto shot is a "large chunk" of your damage... pre cobra sting physical damage comes to about 35% of your damage as surv where 27% is steady shot and 8% is auto shot. and post cobra shot about 6% of your damage is physical where there is no more steady shot and its just auto shot.

I did 20 tests of 4 minutes each on my 85 hunter over the week and the average damage output was the following...
physical- 05.89%
Arcane - 08.92%
Fire - 46.55%
Nature - 38.64%

So to say that Auto-Shot is a "large chunk" of your damage would be inacurate, and Quit simply with those types of numbers Surv mastery actualy effects more of your total damage then most other class/spec's masteries. Which is why each point of mastery only increases damage by 1% rather then what some classes have of 2.5% since their masteries are very specific damage type and not a near total spread like Survival is.

And it has no effect on your pet's auto-attack

Again out of many tests pet damage for Survival is only about 20% of your total damage if your using the pet that buffs most of your damage such as a wind serpent or dragonhawk which both give 8% spell damage buff (well damage increase taken debuff on target) which is basicly a 8% buff on 94% of your personal damage.

Essence of the Viper is a nice boost, but don't reforge or re-gem away from agility and crit

Well you could not reforge away from agil even if you wanted to, but yes Agil is the best stat to have, as far as the difference between crit and mastery, well thats debatable depending on what % your crits already at, first tier of cata gear your probably right of crit>mastery, BUT as gear and stats inflate through the expansion its debatable as to which is better.

Comment by 818423

arcane shot should be commonly used in your rotation in survival... and in long durations should not be under estimated.... at lv83 my survival hunter would do 10k dps on any dungeon boss with the following rotation:

Serpent sting-blackarrow-explosive shot-rapid fire-(Cobra shot) until full focus, then focus dump with arcane shot, rinse and repeat.

On any lasting fight, your dots are always going to be key to topping the recount chart, they may be pointless on adds that go down quickly, but they make the difference on long fights.... which is why boys and girls... it is called damage over time.

Saying arcane shot, or any hunter dots are useless is a rather stupid thing to say, you just have to know when to apply said ability.

Comment by Bozanimal

*edit* Down-voted for truth? Review the logs for yourself, numbers don't lie: http://www.worldoflogs.com/rankings/players/Firelands/Beth%27tilac/25H/Survival_Hunter/

TL:DR: Essence of the Viper affects less than 70% of Survival damage, which is still a lot, but certainly not every shot.

Magical damage is most assuredly not 94% of Survival's personal damage. There is sufficient evidence from public logs to state with confidence that Auto Shot, Kill Shot, and pet damage account for a massive chunk of Survival's damage: about 30% - 40% in aggregate.

Auto Shot typically accounts for between 15% and 20% of overall raid damage over the course of a raid, whereas Explosive Shot is usually between 20% and 25% if you are taking advantage of Lock and Load properly and allowing the Explosive Shot DoT (Damage over Time) to tick. The latter will account for an increasing percentage of damage on stand-still fights and when the RNG allows for more Lock and Load procs. Your pet will account for about 15%, with a standard deviation of about 5%. Kill Shot also accounts for 8% to 10% of damage, and is purely physical damage.

This is all napkin-math based on public Firelands raid logs from guilds at various levels of progression (10- and 25-man). Actual damage percentages will vary by fight length and type, what buffs the guild has available, etc.

Essence of the Viper is not bad. It becomes more attractive as gear scales, and is especially attractive on AoE-heavy encounters where Serpent Spread has opportunity to shine, but a 1% increase in Mastery is not going to translate to a 1% increase in DPS output, which is consistent with design. Secondary stats are just that: they augment DPS in varying levels of efficiency by spec and gear level, rewarding players the more research and testing they are willing to conduct.

Links

Essence of the Viper

Essence of the Viper

Increases all magical damage you deal by 8%. Each point of Mastery increases magical damage by an additional 1.0%.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Physical

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

n/a

Cost

None

Range

0 yards (Self)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

0 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Mod Damage Done % (All)
Value: 1%
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Dummy
Value: 101
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Effect #3

Apply Aura: Modifies Damage/Healing Done
Value: 1%
PVP Multiplier: 1
Affected Spells:

	Explosive Trap

Flags

Passive spell
Aura is hidden
Cast time is hidden
Not In Spellbook Until Learned
Mastery spell

Essence of the Viper

Buff

Spell Details

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