Understanding Shot Rotations

This is just a (hopefully) simple look at what the 2 BM specc shot rotations are, and will explain when each one is more preferred. I'll be using diagrams to explain visually what exactly I'm saying for each.


The 1:1 shot rotation (recomended for faster attack speeds, less than 2 secs)

Auto Shot []
Cooldown -------
Steady Shot ()()()()()()()()()()
Global Cooldown \oooooooooooo/

[]-------------------------[]-------------------------[]-------------------------[]-------------------------[]
---()()()()()()()()()()-------()()()()()()()()()()-------()()()()()()()()()()-------()()()()()()()()()()------
---\oooooooooooo/------\oooooooooooo/------\oooooooooooo/------\oooooooooooo/------

To understand what's happening here, the majority of your damage will come from your auto-shot. That's why it's important to not clip your auto-shots. As you can see above, you can fit in a steady shot between every auto attack you do. Having an addon to show you the cooldown for your auto-attacks benefits you greatly here so you can time your steady shots without clipping your autos. You can also use the following in a macro:

/castsequence reset=2, Steady Shot, !Auto Shot

If you put that in a macro and just spam the hell out of it, it will cast steady shot on first click, and then start auto shooting on second click. The "castsequence reset=2" means that no matter how fast you spam this button, it will always steady shot, auto shot, then wait to steady shot AFTER every auto shot you make, thus, no auto shot clipping.


The 3:2 shot rotation (recomended for slower attack speeds, 2 secs+)

Auto Shot []
Cooldown -------
Steady Shot ()()()()()()()()()()
Global Cooldown \oooooooooooo/

[]---------------------------------------------[]-----------------------------------[]---------------------------------------------[]
---()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()-------()()()()()()()()()()-----------------()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()---
---\oooooooooooo/\oooooooooooo/----\oooooooooooo/-----------------\oooooooooooo/\oooooooooooo/---

What's happening here, since you have a slow attack speed, you can afford to delay the auto attack (every second one) so you can squeeze in an extra steady shot in between the auto-attacks. Hence you get 3 steady shots per every 2 auto-shots. An attack speed faster than 2 secs will no longer gain any benefit from this rotation due to global cooldown restrictions. You'll be better off with the 1:1 shot rotation at that point. There is also a spammable macro for this rotation:

/cast !Auto Shot
/cast Steady Shot

Once again, as in the previous macro, just spam the hell out of this one to get your steady shots back to back, and your auto-shots will fit in between every second steady shot.