| Serpent Sting | |
|---|---|
| |
| Properties | |
| Class | Hunter |
| School | Nature |
| Cooldown | None/Global Cooldown |
| Other information | |
| Requirements | Ranged Weapon equipped |
| Improvements |
Efficiency,   [Hawk Eye],  [Improved Stings] |
| Related debuff | |
| |
- Hunters know that the target is much easier to fight when its suffering incredible physical pain from a poison-covered arrow in their back.
Serpent Sting stings the target, causing nature damage over 15 seconds. Only one Sting per hunter can be active on any one target.
Notes
Serpent Sting is a fairly weak damage over time spell, in comparison to those of other classes. To get the most of out it, it should be used in fights that will last longer than 15 seconds. On short fights and trash mobs, the hunter may find it is not an efficient use of his or her mana.
Serpent Sting can be cleansed by Druids, Paladins, and Shamans, as well as any mob that can cleanse poison. Rogues are also able to dispel it with 
[Cloak of Shadows]. Dwarves' racial 
[Stoneform] ability also dispels it.
As with most DoTs (and channelled spells) that don't have a direct initial-damage component, serpent sting cannot crit. So spell and ranged critical rating buffs do not affect this ability.
Rank table
| Rank | Damage per 15 seconds | Level | Mana | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | 4 | 13% base mana | 1
|
| 2 | 40 | 10 | 13% base mana | 4
|
| 3 | 80 | 18 | 13% base mana | 20
|
| 4 | 140 | 24 | 13% base mana | 63
|
| 5 | 210 | 34 | 13% base mana | 1 20
|
| 6 | 290 | 42 | 13% base mana | 2 40
|
| 7 | 385 | 50 | 13% base mana | 3 60
|
| 8 | 490 | 58 | 13% base mana | 4 32
|
| 9 | 555 | 60 | 13% base mana | 5 0
|
| 10 | 660 | 67 | 9% base mana | 14 0
|
| 11 | 990 | 73 | 9% base mana | |
| 12 | 1210 | 79 | 9% base mana |
Improvements
- Efficiency (Marksmanship Talent): Reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 2% per rank (5 ranks total).
- [Hawk Eye] (Survival Talent): Increases the range of your ranged weapon by 2 yards per rank (3 ranks total).
[Improved Stings] (Marksmanship Talent): Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 6% and the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 6%. In addition, reduces the chance your Stings will be dispelled by 30% (5 ranks total).- [Glyph of Serpent Sting] increases the duration by 6 sec, from 15 to 21 sec, adding 2 ticks of damage.
- The Tier 9 2 piece bonus allows the damage done by serpent sting to critically hit.
Tips and tactics
- Its greatest utility in PvP is against Rogues and Druids, to prevent them from entering stealth. (Druids can cleanse it, but will have to shift to caster form to do so.)
- Be careful using this spell in situations where your group may use crowd control, as damage over time will break it. If you have used Serpent Sting on the wrong target, you can overwrite it quickly by casting [Scorpid Sting] on the same target, which does not break CC.
Patch changes
As of Patch 2.3 it now scales with ranged attack power instead of spell damage. It was considered to be a nature-spell-damage based attack thus was buffed by all nature and general spell-damage buffs including and not limited to: Wizard oil, Improved divine spirit, Wrath of Air Totem. This is no longer the case.
As of patch 3.0.2 serpent sting gained bonus damage equal to 20% of the hunter's Attack Power, rather than 10%.
External links
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