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Cheeky's Hunter spreadsheet revived
A while back, we noted the retirement of Cheeky from the world of Hunter theorycrafting, leaving her unparalleled Hunter Spreadsheet an orphan and Hunter min-maxers everywhere with the prospect of being deprived of an amazing tool going in to a new expansion. Luckily, it looks like the torch will be taken up as Wertez of the Hunting Lodge has decided to take over the project with Cheeky's blessing. You'll be able to find the Spreadsheet at the Hunting Lodge itself now, under the Hunter Research and Info category on the site's sidebar. With Hunter mechanics changing in some pretty basic ways going into Wrath of the Lich King, we'll need a strong and steady hand to guide the spreadsheet into the level 80 end game. Here's wishing good luck to Wertez!
Hunter legend Cheeky retires famous spreadsheet
If you're a serious Hunter, chances are you've heard of Cheeky's Spreadsheet, and probably used it. If you haven't heard of it, it's an amazing Hunter resource that allows you to plug your personal spec, gear, pet data, and shot rotation into a handy spreadsheet and figure out your DPS and other vital statistics. You can then swap in different gear, talents, and shot rotations to decide what upgrades to shoot for or just to see if you can squeeze out a bit more DPS from your Hunter. Unfortunately, Cheeky has just released her final version, and is retiring from the spreadsheet business (along with cohort and fellow spreadsheet maintainer Lactose), leaving a rather large hole in the raiding Hunter community for sure (You may also remember them as the authors of the rather insightful look at Hunter DPS from a while back). Cheeky has unlocked the spreadsheet, so we can that some other theorycrafting-minded Hunter will step up and maintain it going forward in WotLK, especially with all the new changes Hunters are seeing that may drastically change the way they play. However, whether that happens or not, Cheeky's retirement is sure to leave a hole in the Hunter Community, and she and Lactose will both be missed. Good luck and good hunting to both of them.
An "insightful and thoughtful" look at Hunter DPS from the forums
Despite the fact that my level 70 Hunter isn't technically my main, she's probably my favorite character. A lot of people will tell you that a Hunter is an overly easy class: sic your pet, turn on Auto Shot, and you're done. While having a built-in tank that you can even heal a bit gives you a pretty strong advantage when going it alone, I'd have to say they oversimplify things a bit. The largest area where the complexity of the Hunter class shows is in end-game DPS. If you want to be the most effective DPSer possible, it takes quite a bit of work. The way that you must weave shots in between your auto shots is a complicated dance that requires split second timing that can mean vast differences in DPS totals between Hunters. Cheeky of the Khadgar-US server (author of the famous Cheeky's Spreadsheet) posted a very concise and well-stated summary of some of the problems with Hunter DPS on the official US forums here a few months back. The post was originally written by Lactose of the Talnivarr-EU Server, who posted it on the EU forms here, where it got some blue love today a while back.
