Yesterday, for the first time with Survival, according to my meter, I broke 400 overall dps (me 320, my boar around 110) farming ogres in the Southwind Cleft. Granted, this was with a full 1:1.5 rotation, (I still can't do it without using Multishot) but especially considering that I'm actually pure trap spec at the moment, (no Barrage, no TotH) I don't think it's too bad.
My individual crits are lower than they were with Marks, (Multi was critting for around 1.7k at the high end with Master Marks, RWS, and the Barrage talents) but my crit rate is up 4% to 22% now, so it happens more often. Individual crits are back down to about 1.1k for multi/arcane, and prolly 1k white.
In a Mana Tombs run yesterday, with Leader of the Pack I hit 29% crit as well, and considering that I've also got Master Tac atm because I wanted Readiness for trapping, that means I was getting a temporary max of 39%. With a Shaman providing Wrath of Air and a Paladin with Blessing of Kings in a group, I'm reasonably confident that I could probably clear 35% before Master Tac as well, which would mean 45% while it's up.
These numbers are already telling me though that going forward, there is potential for absolutely Godlike ranged damage with Surv. Right now I'm feeling somewhat like how I'm guessing the Wright Brothers did during the initial test flights of their prototype plane; I'm on the runway, and just starting to temporarily leave the ground every so often. I can see myself eventually hitting 50% crit fairly easily if I can keep progressing with gear, and at that point I'll really be going into orbit.
For anyone non-Survival who is reading this and considering conversion, (*grin*) if ranged DPS is what you're doing it for, the true break even point seems to be around 600 agility, in terms of it becoming competitive with the other two specs; that isn't even so much for EW, as it is to bump your crit up enough. My current base before Lightning Reflexes is in the neighbourhood of 540 or so; and LR has bumped that up to around 620, especially considering that I just finished socketing my helm as well. You don't need 600 base before LR, but you will want around 530-550 base before switching if you haven't used Survival before.
You will also likely struggle to clear 300 dps with Survival with less than 20% crit, as its' ranged damage is almost entirely crit based. My paperdoll DPS is still only around 227; my crit is the only thing that bumps it up. Contrary to what other people say, I actually don't recommend crit rating in favour of agility, either. Although it's true that you'll get your crit up more easily with rating than Ag, (and I am going to have to get more rating myself probably after around 27%) you only have room for so many stats. Gear space that is devoted to crit rating possibly isn't gear space devoted to Ag, which actually drives your ap down twice; first in terms of base, and second in terms of EW. Attack power is already at a premium for me as it is, so I'm finding I need to go Ag, Ag, Ag. ;-)
For the people who still want to do Surv between 10-60, at that point in the game it's primarily about the DoTs. (Serpent Sting and Immolation Trap) The trap and sting scaling in 2.3 is going to be a dream come true for us at the low end; I still use Serpent/Immolation trap when I need to solo mobs with massive health, (such as Tusker in Nagrand) but can't afford to risk pulling them off my pet.
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