This is a work in progress, so lacks A LOT of detail, so please forgive me!
I also make no bones about it, I'm not the greatest BM hunter around, I have in no way mastered it, but I do raid ICC weekly on my hunter, and usually top DPS as BM
I hope this guide helps, I have a feeling it will turn into one like my Holy Priest guide - http://knightsofhorde.guildlaunch.com/f ... &gid=31704 - which still isn't finished btw LOL!
Anyway here she blows:
Giggle's Guide to Beast Mastery:
BM is actually more about managing cooldowns, and its harder to get right than most people think. It is roughly 10% behind survival and marks, assuming correct gearing (for each spec) and skill. 99% of the time you can beat a marks/surv hunter if you know your rotation well and outplay them. I'm a firm believer in playing the spec that you love, and most people will outperform in their favorite specs, and under perform in a spec they hate, but have been told is fad of the month.
That said, Im not trying to bag on Surv/Marks hunters. I personally love BM, and always raid as it, and as such I hope I can share some experiences and advise.
The below is written in Specifics for BM.
Gear -
BM hunters should simply use regular hunter gear. RAW AP on gear is the best, as it goes to your pet (armor pen etc doesn't). That said its not worth overthinking, and regular hunter gear is fine .
For an awesome gear guide see Kalliope's Hunter gearing list - http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=755
Pets -
For the most DPS in PvE, you will want a ferocity pet. Any ferocity pet will do, the difference between them is minimal (talking like 100dps at level 80 difference between the worst Ferocity pets and the best).
Below are 4 common BM pets:
1) Wolf
Every man and his dog has a wolf (giggle get it?). In theory this is the most dps, as it buffs your AP with furious howl.
2) Devilsaur
The highest DPS pet (as in the Devilsaur does more dps than any other pet itself). It's not quite enough to topple the wolf in hunter+pet combined (due to the wolfs buffs on the hunters end), but this is the classic BM raiding pet. It is rather large though and can annoy people, so be wary
3) Cat
Everyone loves kitties! Kitties are great pets for DPS.
4) Spirit Beasts
My personal favorite I use spirit beats for raiding.
Note: I use a Spirit Beast for raiding, and love it. Yes I have tried a wolf, and I'm not kidding when the DPS is seriously like 100dps difference tops.
In summary - USE what pet you want to! (as long as its ferocity). We are hunters! Lets not all have wolves because we do 20 dps more on the spreadsheet by having one Mix it up a bit!
Stats -
- Attack Power is our number one stat. It transfers to our pet and gives us the biggest boost.
- Crit comes in second. We need enough crit to proc Cobra Strikes, but dont sacrifice raw AP for crit.
Haste is relatively useless as we already have a lot of haste, and can end up capped (with rapid fire up). Haste does speed up our auto shots however, increasing dps a little.
AGI vs AP?
I go with all AP gems. This is because I started doing this cause it was better. These days on female dwarf, in 10 man raid buffs I gain 8 dps going all Agi, but lost like 100 dps if I go all Agi in 25 man buffs. If your gear is already AGI stick with Agi, theres not much difference between the two. Having Agi gems also allows you to duelspec, unlike if your all AP gems, your pretty much BM4LYFEYO. Agi has less raw AP than AP gems, but also provides a tiny amount of crit.
My recommendation - If your only gonna ever be BM, go AP gems, if your gonna duelspec, go Agi. There is not a huge difference. 99% of the time Agi is the right way to go.
Glyphs -
Recommended:
Glyph of Steady Shot - One of our bread and butter spells. This makes it even better
Glyph of Serpent Sting - Means we don't have to put it up as much, AND we save on mana.
Glyph of Kill Shot - More Killshots when the boss is sub 20% = a lot of damage. Add adds into the fight and we're humming.
Not Recommended:
Glyph of the Hawk - A haste buff. As BM we get pretty close to the haste cap (especially with rapid fire up), however there is thoughts that this may benefit our t10 set bonus. It also increases our auto-shot DPS, and is a viable option - More testing to come.
Glyph of Bestial Wrath - Useless. If the fight is longer than 5:40 minutes, you win an extra BW. How many fights are longer than 5:40 mins? Is an extra Bestial Wrath worth it compared to our other glyphs? Female Dwarf's spreadsheet says no.
Heres an interesting quote from the wow forums on this -
"This glyph was nerfed when they nerfed the duration of BW. A glyphed BW will be off cd every 1:04 as opposed to 1:24. Fights shorter then 5:20 minutes will not see an additional BW in the fight. Now, if you can line up your cds with the shorter length you might be able to optimize it more. An example of unglyph being better is Greatness deck procs nearly ever 45 seconds. So, on average it will proc 2 times in 90 seconds. Bestial wrath is up in 84 seconds, so delaying bestial wrath by 6 seconds you can line it up with greatness. Putting a pot or a 2 min cd on top of that can give you good burst damage. In order to do this with a glyph, you'd need something that procs every 70 seconds". - Dreamsdrunk (Eldre'Thalas)
Shot Rotation -
BM has a basic shot rotation. With 2 piece t9, Serpent Sting is first, else without it, its a lower priority.
Basic Rotation/Boss Rotation:
Starting Macro > Serpent Sting > Arcane Shot > Multishot > Steady Shot
Whenever Serpent Sting is up on your target, other cooldowns and AS and MS are on cooldown, spam Steady Shot.
Why multi-shot not aimed shot? Multi does MORE single target DPS than aimed does, and we don't have to spec into it.
On Trash:
(Less than 4 targets) - Single target dps
Starting Macro (on one mob) > Serpent Sting > Arcane Shot > Multishot > Steady Shot > Kill Shot It should be dead by now
(4 targets + ) - Multi target dps:
Starting Macro (on one mob) > Multishot > Volley. Whenever your Volley has finished, if Multi is up use it
=> A lot of hunter DPS comes from managing cooldowns. More on this later.
Macros -
Heres where the fun begins:
As a BM hunter a lot of our dps comes from cooldowns. I have two main macros (amongst thousands that i use but anywho).
Note: The sound sfx parts in the macros are there to stop the annoying sound when a spell isnt ready and u press it
Macro 1: STARTING MACRO
Code: Select all
#showtooltip Hunter's Mark
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast [target=targettarget] Intervene
/cast Hunter's Mark
/cast Kill Command
/cast Bestial Wrath
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/petattack
=> The intervene part is there for when i use a tenacity pet with interve. I click on the mob and it makes my pet intervent to it (no need to select the person )
Macro 2: NUKE
Code: Select all
#showtooltip Rapid Fire
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Rapid Fire
/cast Bestial Wrath
/cast Berserking
/cast Kill Command
/use 14
/use 13
/cast Call of the Wild
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
Macro 3: Misdirect
Code: Select all
#showtooltip Misdirection
/cast [target=focus,exists,nodead] Misdirection; [target=pet,exists,nodead] Misdirection
Macro 4: Serpent Sting
Code: Select all
#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:alt] Tranquilizing Shot
/cast [modifier:shift] Viper Sting
/cast Serpent Sting
Macro 5: Aspect of the Viper
Code: Select all
#showtooltip
/castsequence Aspect of the Viper, Aspect of the Dragonhawk
Macro 6: Melee
Code: Select all
#showtooltip
/cast Raptor Strike
/cast Wing Clip
/cast Disengage
Macro 7: Masters Call
Code: Select all
/use [modifier:alt] Master's Call
/use [modifier:ctrl,target=focust] Master's Call
/use [target=player] Master's Call