Lately, I’ve noticed quite a few people asking all sorts of questions about Chimera Shot. In this post, I intend to answer all of those questions, as well as give the basic facts. Let’s take a closer look at Chimera Shot.

Chimera Shot is a shot only available through talents in the Marksmanship tree. It is available with 51 points at level 60. Here is the tooltip for Chimera Shot -

You deal 125% weapon damage, refreshing the current Sting on your target and triggering an effect:

Serpent Sting – Instantly deals 40% of the damage done by your Serpent Sting.

Viper Sting – Instantly restores mana to you equal to 60% of the total amount drained by your Viper Sting.

Scorpid Sting – Attempts to Disarm the target for 10 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once per 1 minute.

Reading the above tooltip, there are a few things we need to clarify.

1.)What is considered Weapon Damage in this equation?

This refers to your actual white damage plus 25%. For example, if your regular Auto Shot is hitting your target for 2000, your Chimera Shot will hit the target for 2,500.

2.)What is “refreshing your current Sting”?

If you have a stinging shot on your target (Serpent, Viper, or Scorpid are all considered Stings) and you fire Chimera Shot, that sting’s timer will reset back to zero as though you had shot your target with that same sting again. Therefore, you never need to hit Serpent Sting on your target again unless you allowed it to run out before firing Chimera.

3.)Do I have to wait for Serpent Sting to deal more damage, or tic, before I fire another Chimera in order to get the full effect?

No. Many people are mistaken in this thought. What the tooltip means by Damage Done is the full amount of damage your Serpent is capable of, I.E. – My Serpent Sting has a duration of 21 seconds and tics for 885 damage every 3 seconds. This is a total of 6,195 damage. Therefore, when you fire Chimera Shot as your Serpent Sting is active on the target, you will instantly do 40% of that total 6,195 damage, which is 2,478. This is close to or above the damage of a regular Auto Shot.

4.)Why is the wording for Viper Sting effect different from Serpent? Isn’t it the same thing?

Yes. It behaves the same way as Serpent Sting. The only difference is the verb which is used, i.e. Drained vs. Damaged. You will find that Viper/Chimera will return a full 60% of the mana able to be drained by a Viper Sting that tics for 8 seconds.

5.)When is a good time to use Scorpid Sting with Chimera?

I rarely use Scorpid Sting myself, but it could be effective during PvP matches in which you’re facing a non-mana-using Melee opponent such as Rogues or Warriors. Using Scorpid Sting in PvE is, in most instances, ineffective.

6.)If my Chimera is only supposed to do 125% weapon damage, why does it do so much more than that??

If you look through your other Marksmanship talents, you’ll see that there are 3 which affect the full damage of your Chimera Shot. Below is a list.

Rapid Killing

Improved Steady Shot

Marked For Death

7.)But the damage still doesn’t add up! I do much more with Chimera even factoring those things in.

This is probably because Chimera Shot is considered Nature damage, and as such, it is a school of Magic. Because of this, Chimera Shot will be affected by buffs which increase your Spell damage, such as Earth and Moon, Improved Shadow Bolt, and other such abilities or talents. However, due to this reason, Chimera Shot will not be enhanced by Armor Penetration, as it is not considered Physical damage.

8.)Shouldn’t I be doing more damage with Chimera if I have Serpent Sting active?

No. Technically, the bonus damage from Serpent/Chimera is factored seperately, as though it is its own shot. If you look in your WWS or Recount logs, you’ll see a part called “Chimera Shot – Serpent” which will show only the damage done by the Chimera Shot bonus. Therefore, when you fire Chimera while Serpent is active, you’ll see 2 seperate numbers pop up instead of one large number.

9.)Is it okay to use Viper Sting instead of Serpent Sting during my rotation in a raid?

Yes, but in most cases, it is entirely unnecessary, and in even more cases, not even possible given the type of mob you are fighting. You can only gain Mana from a mana-using target, while many of our targets do not have a mana pool at all. Use discretion when choosing Viper Sting in a raid or you could lose valuable damage.

10.)How much does my Chimera Shot contribute to my total raid damage?

Generally, Chimera Shot will account for 13-15% of your total raid damage, making it the next-highest percentage chunk below Auto Shot. However, focusing only on Chimera is unwise, since your Aimed and Arcane shots don’t come far behind that percentage.

11.)How can I make my Chimera Shot do even more damage?

There is a Glyph specifically for Chimera Shot called, appropriately, Glyph of Chimera Shot. This Glyph reduces the cooldown of Chimera Shot by one second, making the cooldown 9 seconds instead of 10. While this doesn’t seem like a huge change, in a longer fight it will make a big difference. Just make sure you’re firing Chimera Shot as soon as it becomes available, and you are prioritizing Chimera over your other instant shots (aside from Kill Shot).

On a related note, if you glyph into Glyph of Serpent Sting, increasing your Serpent Sting duration by 6 seconds (effectively two extra tics), it will factor those extra two tics into the total damage and give you more damage output per Serpent/Chimera.

12.)Should I EVER wait to use Chimera Shot?

There are only two times when you should wait before using Chimera Shot – if a Sting is not on your target, or if Kill Shot is available. Otherwise, make sure you fire your Chimera Shot as soon as it cools down.

I hope this helps to clarify the Marksmanship Hunter’s most important talent. Any questions, comments or concerns, you know where to leave them. =)