One thing that I notice quite a bit these days is that many people don’t think of their spec’s particular itemization. Obviously, some pieces are better than others for a given spec if you’re a hybrid, but for us pure DPS classes, the distinctions can get a bit tricky.

One thing I try to do is have RatingBuster installed at all times. This gives me, at a glance, an idea of what the piece will do for my stats. However, as with anything, the most important tool for a hunter making a gear decision is the ability to pay attention to detail.

Take for example, this weapon:

[The Undeath Carrier]

Now, we can certainly find weapons with higher AP, and many hunters who raid may consider stamina a wasted stat, especially if they are BM or MM. But what if they are Survivalists, who are the current “top” DPS spec?

This Talent makes that stamina much more valuable.

Hunter vs. Wild

There’s 150 stamina on that weapon, and the talent gives us about a third of our stamina as bonus attack power. Thus, that weapon provides roughly 50AP from the stamina alone, bringing the weapon’s total AP to about 200.

Meaning it has is not as far off on Attack Power as we thought to weapons like [Cryptfiend's Bite]

Now granted, the above has the same stamina to AP bonus as [The Undeath Carrier] does, and, if you’re hit-capped, this weapon is better than [Black Ice]

Now, depending on your other stats, [The Undeath Carrier] might not be better than either of the other choices, so pay attention to your individual situation. What I’m going for here is to remind you to keep your talents in mind when picking gear. What may seem like a suboptimal piece may have enough benefit from your talents to be useful.