Time to face facts....

[Araniis]

My favorite hunter spec, the one I always play when I can, Beast Mastery.... just can't cut it...

Worst average DPS overall... and with MM right along side it... And while I'll always love it and keep my Exotic pets in my stables, until it's buffed up again.... BM, I've gotta go with what's best for my guild.

Hope to see you next patch :<

[Comett]

Ikr.

I finally switched from MM to Surv as my main DPS spec for that reason. I thought I'd hate it, and I wish Surv has an interrupt usable on bosses, but could be worse. The pretty OP numbers make me happy.

I've always kept my BM spec, though, for soloing, questing, and if I really just don't care and want to enjoy myself thoughtlessly in a heroic or something I'll go BM. Thank goodness for dual spec.

[Phyra]

Ehh. We do weak DPS, BUT in some situations, BM is helpful for the fact we can bring buffs that may be missing.

Was nothing like doing a 10OS zerg and saving the day by busting out a Corehound for Heroism. (many folks do not know the extra buff abilities pets have. )

[Tilo]

GC mentioned increasing some shots of mm & bm to make them a little better... I don't raid with any of my hunters so I'll always be BM

[Lisaara]

Facts? More like opinion, I think.

As BM, I usually surpass MM by a longshot and people love the exotics i bring to the group.

The only spec that beats BM currently is SV. But again, we make up for it with our exotics such as corehounds.

[Sarayana]

I just saw this on mmo-champ:

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Beast Mastery

* Kill Command now scales from 51.6% of Ranged Attack Power, up from 43%.

(source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/213 ... ed-on-PTRs)

It's quite a sizeable buff, and hopefully it'll adjust things enough that there's no ideal spec for min/maxing. I am a strong believer in playing what you like, with all else being the same, you'll perform better when you know, understand, and enjoy your spec and rotation than when you play something you "should".

Aside from that, I find I do absolutely excellent dps as BM. In reg dungeons I'm doing 7-9k on bosses depending on the fight, and that's in just-below-heroic-eligibility gear. I dunno, there's definitely something to be said about getting comfy with the spec/priority, I know some friends that can't wrap their heads around the new system while personally I find it makes much more sense than what we had before 4.0.1...

[Ryai]

Recount also seems buggy too, so probably not helping. IDK why but it does; someone linked Recount for DPS for one of the Tol'vir dungeons, the wind boss one, in the clouds. Was norm but eh anyways, Rosalyn was evidently last place in DPS, but she was first for OVERALL damage done. So while I wasn't doing the FASTEST dps, I was doing the MOST.

Which is .. confusing.

I know some friends that can't wrap their heads around the new system while personally I find it makes much more sense than what we had before 4.0.1...

I know right? I was one of those afraid of switching to focus cause I wasn't sure if it'd be good- but I found AFTER the change I was actually doing more DPS than I had while still using mana.

I'm finally learning to also not cobra shot spam/steady spam after hitting TBW too

[Golden]

I'm a big believer of "play whatever you enjoy the most". As BM I'm pretty much always at the top in DPS, doing a sustained 8-10k while still keeping out of bad stuff and freezing the occasional mob that's pewpewing without anyone paying attention.

[Lisaara]

I'm a big believer of "play whatever you enjoy the most". As BM I'm pretty much always at the top in DPS, doing a sustained 8-10k while still keeping out of bad stuff and freezing the occasional mob that's pewpewing without anyone paying attention.

^ This, pretty much.

Also KK and KS are getting buffed AGAIN in patch 4.0.6 coming up soon.

[Cozzene]

I just find BM kind of sloppy and boring. It is definitely me and not the spec, and I'll readily admit that. I play Surv, so I have a lot of buttons to push and things to watch. Prior I was MM, and may be going back after this patch. Again, more buttons and things to do.

BM has an odd priority system (something I've NEVER been good at) and doesn't have enough buttons for me. I deeply respect a good BM hunter since it isn't something I excel at =(

[Ryai]

I just find BM kind of sloppy and boring.

Sloppy?

BM has an odd priority system (something I've NEVER been good at)

The priority system isn't that odd- Kill Command is to BM what Explosive Shot is to SV. While SV always tries to fire off Explosive shots as much as possible whenever possible, Kill Command is the same. Outside of that the basic rotation is the same and honestly if BM had any more buttons we would be to overburdened by uneeded faff. We have our basic Dot, Serpent Sting. We have the basic dot extender, Cobra Shot. We have our meat and potato shots; Kill Command, Arcane Shot, Kill Shot, and we have our damage boosters, Rapid Fire, Focus Fire, TBW and we have an energy reserve pop for those times when you just can't waste spamming Cobra for focus, Fervor.

SV is all about rotation and proccs, and MM is all about well I don't know, shot weaving more than anything else I guess. BM is all about rotation with nothing else to worry about.

[Novikova]

I also pay less attention to my focus bar than an MM or SV hunter. I've noticed that BM is definitely king for focus gen/regen. I think BM needs a signature move stronger than TBW personally, to keep up. MM is mostly about knowing when to set up a proc, which is horrendously boring and stressful to me (I went MM to finish the final boss of Stonecore on heroic. UGH. hate it when she goes all Darth Vader on someone).

[Cozzene]

I just find BM kind of sloppy and boring.

Sloppy?

BM has an odd priority system (something I've NEVER been good at)

The priority system isn't that odd- Kill Command is to BM what Explosive Shot is to SV. While SV always tries to fire off Explosive shots as much as possible whenever possible, Kill Command is the same. Outside of that the basic rotation is the same and honestly if BM had any more buttons we would be to overburdened by uneeded faff. We have our basic Dot, Serpent Sting. We have the basic dot extender, Cobra Shot. We have our meat and potato shots; Kill Command, Arcane Shot, Kill Shot, and we have our damage boosters, Rapid Fire, Focus Fire, TBW and we have an energy reserve pop for those times when you just can't waste spamming Cobra for focus, Fervor.

SV is all about rotation and proccs, and MM is all about well I don't know, shot weaving more than anything else I guess. BM is all about rotation with nothing else to worry about.

I already admitted I am not very good with it. No need to rub it in.

[Kurasu]

I already admitted I'm a complete useless blubbering moron with BM, I'm a stupid retarded inbred PoS. No need to rub it in.

ToS disallows language like this in reference to people. Yes, that means yourself.

You're not any of those things. You're simply inexperienced with BM. And the individual in question wasn't 'rubbing it in'. They were simply offering information. Personally, I thought it was very beautifully put. No need to kick yourself about the whole thing.

[Tulune]

I am loving SV, personally. The synergy with focus is pretty good, it does not feel clunky. I really dislike the new Kill Command though, it feels clunky.

[Cozzene]

I am loving SV, personally. The synergy with focus is pretty good, it does not feel clunky. I really dislike the new Kill Command though, it feels clunky.

Maybe it's this. I have BM strictly for vanity; if it weren't for "BM onlly" pets, I'd be MM/Surv.

[Ryai]

I am loving SV, personally. The synergy with focus is pretty good, it does not feel clunky. I really dislike the new Kill Command though, it feels clunky.

If I remember right the new kill command is almost the exact same as the original spell- outside of one difference. It was only usuable when you crit- and it also had a cooldown. So if you crit and it was still on cooldown? To bad; pet couldn't use it to blow a killer blow into something. Meaning it was pretty much a wasteful attack because it was only good what was it, once every 6 seconds/7 seconds no matter how much you crit inbetween?

Then it was changed to something that had a Longer Cooldown;

Kill Command
3% of base mana 45 yd range
Instant cast 60 sec Cooldown
Use :Give the command to kill, increasing your pet's damage done from special attacks by 60% for 30seconds. Each special attack done by the pet reduces the damage bonus by 20%.

So once every minute your pet could do some damage for 3 attacks. Each being weaker than the last.

But now? Now it's perfect and I am going to have to say it isn't clunky. The only thing clunky is the 2-4 second procc time we get to use it, after it finishes cooling down. Seriously 10k crits in a row, then the chance for it to not only hit for what 20% more damage, cost 10% less focus, but also still have a chance to crit?

I'm sorry but I do have to argue it's not clunky. Clunky, is Trap Launcher.

[Sarayana]

I agree with Ryai, I don't find it clunky or awkward anymore. That being said, BM is the only spec I've played since 4.0.1. I'm slowly being won over by SV - I used to love it but got bored of it, but it sounds like it's fun again. Bottom line for me, though, is that you should play what you enjoy and don't feel ashamed about it (even if you have an off spec purely for vanity reasons! I may or may not have gotten my shadow spec initially because I love shadowform... >.> )

[Golden]

I have to say I personally find Kill Command rather.. odd at the moment. Basing a spec's most important dps skill on an npc's ability to reach its target? Not good. As it is now, we have no idea if our pet is in range or not, as the skill's icon only displays if the PLAYER is close enough to the PET. With Kill Command's huge range, I find that information completely unneeded - what I DO want however, is to the icon to reflect if my PET is close enough to its target to perform the attack.

What I would like to see, would be for Kill Command to be changed back into the charge it used to be: hit the skill (trigger GCD) and your pet will have a single charge of Kill Command it will use as soon as it's able to. This still doesn't take away the fact that the skill does nothing if the pet doesn't reach its target, but at least then we could just carry on with our rotation without having to spam KC in hopes of getting it through.

[Albain]

Personally ... I think the buffing of Kill Shot and Kill Command is a BAD IDEA, unless they make them painful for any other spec to use.

Because while these buff BM, they also buff every other spec too. (I may be annoyed that BM's 'signature shot' is available to Surv and MM, but theirs are exclusive to those specs and impossible for the others to get) And if kill command, for example, gets buffed enough - the other specs are going to put it into THEIR rotations, and result in another nerf to BM.

I'd like to see Kill Command become BM exclusive. Not just 'penalizing' other specs with a high focus cost, as they'll use it if it's worth it anyway, but pulling Kill Command out entirely from being useable by everyone and making it our final point talent instead of Tame Exotics. Make Tame Exotics our level 10 ability, move the 'four extra talent points' part to TBW or something similarly late to reach, and give us an exclusive signature shot.

This will make balancing BM versus the other two specs much easier, as now they don't need to balance THREE specs' usage of Kill Command. It can be freely tweaked with scaling without worrying about 'will surv or marks put it into THEIR rotations now? Is this unbalanced?'.