BM Spec Help?

[Synthetic Frost]

Armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/k ... h/advanced

Okay, so my hunter is now a few weeks old and coming up on 80. While I am a long-time WoW player, this is my first hunter. I've tried every spec and while yes, I deal a bit more dps as MM and Survival, I just REALLY enjoy beast mastery.

I've read the end game guides on The Hunter's Union, but I have to say the glyph choices and a couple of the pet talent choices just seem wrong from what I've experienced so far. If I take Wild Hunt, my pet becomes focus starved to the point of crippling his DPS. Will this get better as I get more haste to feed him focus?

Also, I'd like you guys to look at my stable. Throughout playing WoW, there have been certain beasts out there that I've been aware of for a long time prior to rolling Booth here. So when I rolled a hunter I saw it as the perfect opportunity you go and connect with them. I always went out and caught the various beasts at the earliest possible level so It wasn't just another cheap tame, and I feel my stable reflects my personality pretty well. But I still have to ask and make sure I'm not leaving any gaping holes in pet utility.

Keep in mind I'm new to hunters, and not at 85 yet, so any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I HAVE done the homework as best as I can, but it's hard to say exactly how I'm doing.

Thanks.

[Kurenio]

End game guides are just for that end game. They may not be optimal for your level, but at 85 they are optimal. Normally optimizing for your currently level is not to often needed.

I see no holes in your stable for leveling, but if you really want to make sure your not missing anything here

[wickedhunter]

well im not sure on bm even tho its my off spec i mainly just have it their so i can tame cool pets lol but my main spec is mm and i do a shit ton of dps in firelands lol but from my exp with bm tho haste and crit r the best stats for damage out put but as for mm crit and mastery is best for damage out put and this is all my test of reforging and regeming for damage out put on the raiding dummies cause me i like seeing my name on top of the dps/ damage done meter lol

[Kurenio]

well im not sure on bm even tho its my off spec i mainly just have it their so i can tame cool pets lol but my main spec is mm and i do a shit ton of dps in firelands lol but from my exp with bm tho haste and crit r the best stats for damage out put but as for mm crit and mastery is best for damage out put and this is all my test of reforging and regeming for damage out put on the raiding dummies cause me i like seeing my name on top of the dps/ damage done meter lol

You would be wrong here. Haste is actually a dps loss. Its Crit > Mastery > Haste for BM hunters. This is due to all that haste gives to bm hunters is another cobra shot unless you have extreme amounts of haste then it only gives a cobra shot and arcane shot. This is at the cost of lowering the damage out put of your main attack Kill Command as well as any other damage abilities your pet has.

[Synthetic Frost]

Wow, thanks so much Kurenio. That chart helps a lot. I think I'll be saving that.

[Miyon]

Now I wonder why I have been tricked into believing that mastery for hunters is a no-no. >.<
I have always reforged out of mastery.. What now? And I thought we were supposed to have haste down to the point of casting Cobra Shot at 1.6 seconds. Am I wrong?

[Kurenio]

Haste isn't a bad thing it just not worth effecting 50% of your damage and nerfing your primary ability's damage. As kill command is damage dealt from your pet, and your pet is about 50% of your overall damage as bm. So in the big scale of things Mastery effects 50% of your damage and Haste gives you an extra cobra shot and arcane shot at higher levels of haste. Currently with me going with the stat prio Agi > Hit to 8% > Crit > Mastery > haste my cobra shot is at a 1.63s cast unbuffed(thats including focus fire which is nearly up 100% of the time). I avoid haste as much as I can to get crit+mastery items and I'm still near that 1.6s cast time. If I could get my 4 piece tier that would bring it down under 1.5s cast.

This is why I imagine most people do not pull as much dps in BM as MM like I do; because they go Agi > Hit to 8% > Crit > Haste > Mastery.

[Miyon]

I will start thinking of that when I reforge my gear.. I have always put mastery last. And I suck at reforging anyway, casting cobra shot at 1.76 or something. x) I have however managed to outdps marksman hunters easily, but after the last patch my dps went from 15-17k dps to about 11-13k dps (speaking trash, btw) And that is even after I got better gear.

[Kurenio]

Overall BM got completely nerfed in the patch while MM and Surv got a slight buff. Well they might have broken even, but BM got a mastery nerf plus one of the talent we normally get from the MM try got nerfed as well.

[Foru21dr]

Haste isn't a bad thing it just not worth effecting 50% of your damage and nerfing your primary ability's damage. As kill command is damage dealt from your pet, and your pet is about 50% of your overall damage as bm. So in the big scale of things Mastery effects 50% of your damage and Haste gives you an extra cobra shot and arcane shot at higher levels of haste. Currently with me going with the stat prio Agi > Hit to 8% > Crit > Mastery > haste my cobra shot is at a 1.63s cast unbuffed(thats including focus fire which is nearly up 100% of the time). I avoid haste as much as I can to get crit+mastery items and I'm still near that 1.6s cast time. If I could get my 4 piece tier that would bring it down under 1.5s cast.

This is why I imagine most people do not pull as much dps in BM as MM like I do; because they go Agi > Hit to 8% > Crit > Haste > Mastery.

You think Crit though is better than Mastery? I'v seen some articles where mastery was before crit. Should it be split fairly evenly. Currently I had gone with AGI>Hit>Mastery>Crit. Wondering if I should lower mastery and raise crit.

[Kurenio]

You think Crit though is better than Mastery? I'v seen some articles where mastery was before crit. Should it be split fairly evenly. Currently I had gone with AGI>Hit>Mastery>Crit. Wondering if I should lower mastery and raise crit.

Well I've tested this in-game at the cost of my gold. In most cases unless your extremely unlucky crit will out way mastery. If you don't have enough crit haste becomes more important; as KC would no longer be criting as much arcane shot would pull near the same amount of DPS as KC unless you just have insane levels of mastery.

For example say your arcane shots are hitting for 12k and your KC is hitting for 14k. Not to much of a difference there, but when they crit arcane shot would only go up to 18-19k while KC seems to crit upwards to 24-30k at least for me that is.

EDIT: Like I said before I go for crit+mastery gear. So normally they are pretty balanced as I don't have to reforge either, and if I do reforge it's throwing away haste or getting back to hit cap.

[Foru21dr]

You think Crit though is better than Mastery? I'v seen some articles where mastery was before crit. Should it be split fairly evenly. Currently I had gone with AGI>Hit>Mastery>Crit. Wondering if I should lower mastery and raise crit.

Well I've tested this in-game at the cost of my gold. In most cases unless your extremely unlucky crit will out way mastery. If you don't have enough crit haste becomes more important; as KC would no longer be criting as much arcane shot would pull near the same amount of DPS as KC unless you just have insane levels of mastery.

For example say your arcane shots are hitting for 12k and your KC is hitting for 14k. Not to much of a difference there, but when they crit arcane shot would only go up to 18-19k while KC seems to crit upwards to 24-30k at least for me that is.

EDIT: Like I said before I go for crit+mastery gear. So normally they are pretty balanced as I don't have to reforge either, and if I do reforge it's throwing away haste or getting back to hit cap.

Thanks for the info. I will try swapping my mastery an crit around some.

[Synthetic Frost]

All wonderful info. Thanks a lot. I will be keeping it in mind when I get my hunter to 85.

[Worba]

well im not sure on bm even tho its my off spec i mainly just have it their so i can tame cool pets lol but my main spec is mm and i do a shit ton of dps in firelands lol but from my exp with bm tho haste and crit r the best stats for damage out put but as for mm crit and mastery is best for damage out put and this is all my test of reforging and regeming for damage out put on the raiding dummies cause me i like seeing my name on top of the dps/ damage done meter lol

You would be wrong here. Haste is actually a dps loss. Its Crit > Mastery > Haste for BM hunters. This is due to all that haste gives to bm hunters is another cobra shot unless you have extreme amounts of haste then it only gives a cobra shot and arcane shot. This is at the cost of lowering the damage out put of your main attack Kill Command as well as any other damage abilities your pet has.

Good to know. Think I'll try this out on my BM hunters.

[Royi]

Shouldn't Sporebat be first in the flow chart??? Just my 2 cents.

[CrystalKitten]

Well I've tested this in-game at the cost of my gold. In most cases unless your extremely unlucky crit will out way mastery. If you don't have enough crit haste becomes more important; as KC would no longer be criting as much arcane shot would pull near the same amount of DPS as KC unless you just have insane levels of mastery.

I'm curious about this. I tried searching the forums, and internet before, but I don't know if I could find any CONFIRMED info anywhere about what does determine our pet's crit chance. Since kill command counts as comming off our pet as far as damage modifiers (mastery) and aggro goes, does it also use our pet's crit chance, or our own? I've seen comments suggesting it uses our pets... and out right stating that our pet's crit chance isn't affected at ALL by our own any more. Anyone have any data to show the truth? (for both questions I suppose. Where does KC crit chance come from? And where does our pet's crit chance come from?)

[Kurenio]

Shouldn't Sporebat be first in the flow chart??? Just my 2 cents.

I did not make the flow chart.

I'm curious about this. I tried searching the forums, and internet before, but I don't know if I could find any CONFIRMED info anywhere about what does determine our pet's crit chance. Since kill command counts as comming off our pet as far as damage modifiers (mastery) and aggro goes, does it also use our pet's crit chance, or our own? I've seen comments suggesting it uses our pets... and out right stating that our pet's crit chance isn't affected at ALL by our own any more. Anyone have any data to show the truth? (for both questions I suppose. Where does KC crit chance come from? And where does our pet's crit chance come from?)

I can't confirm where KC crit chance comes from or where are pets crit chance comes from. I could speculate that KC crit chance comes from us since it isn't the pets ability (even though its the pet using it). I'll look into it and If I can find out I'll report back here.

[Royi]

Shouldn't Sporebat be first in the flow chart??? Just my 2 cents.

I did not make the flow chart.

But its the best pet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhvvNGeHHME

[Kurenio]

I knew it I KNEW SPORE BATS WERE THE BEST!

[Chimera]

http://hunterbuilds.com/

i used that to learn how to MM dps better and i improved by about 3-4k dps (sometimes even 6k, i was at a 11.5k minimum and im pulling at least 15k now), theres BM speccing and Survival speccing as well and if you dont like the setup you can tweak it a bit to fit your playstyle like how i did for my MM specc ^-^