Am I taking this in the right direction?

[Nick]

That would be my talent tree at the current time, my other spec being BM.

My question is: Am I taking my survival skill in the right direction to roll out enough dps?
No, I don't pvp (regularly) so I'm using this in dungeons, not on the battlefield.

At the moment, I have a scorpid as a non-spirit beast pet that I use regularly, and I have my slime, who rarely sees the light of day anymore.

TL;DR:
I just need advice on my talent tree and maybe a good pet to go with it.

[Wassa]

Try this spec.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cZ0eVoZx0ci0cIhedAhsz:Nfi

I have three free points in that spec. You can put these in focused aimed (if you need the hit), hunting party (if you and your party/raid needs mana), aimed shot, or Imp AtoH.

I would recommend getting a ferocity non-exotic. Wolves are the best for your dps, but any ferocity pet works well for just 5 mans. Go with one you like the look of.

[Nick]

@Wassa

I'm liking your's better, but I never use my tracking for damage. I mine, for one, and I find it a rather big pain to keep switching what I'm tracking because rather or not, I'll forget about it later. x:

But I'll try it and see how it goes. And I was thinking of switching back to ferocity anyways. I like scorpids, but they're more for pvp now that I think it over.

[Gimlion]

Trust me, the Imp. Tracking is a great DPS increaser, if you don't like manually switching tracks, try an AddOn like ZugZug Huntar, or something like that.

[Karathyriel]

Try this macro:

Code: Select all

/stopmacro [noexists]
/run for i=1,GetNumTrackingTypes() do local n, t, a, c = GetTrackingInfo(i); if string.find(n, UnitCreatureType("target")) then if t~=GetTrackingTexture(i) then SetTracking(i); end end end
/cast hunters mark

Use it instead of your hunters mark.
It will automatically switch your tracking to the type of creature you have in your target and then cast hunters mark on it.

In a raid, I always have a wolf because of his howling boosting my damage.

[Nick]

Try this macro:

Code: Select all

/stopmacro [noexists]
/run for i=1,GetNumTrackingTypes() do local n, t, a, c = GetTrackingInfo(i); if string.find(n, UnitCreatureType("target")) then if t~=GetTrackingTexture(i) then SetTracking(i); end end end
/cast hunters mark

OH MY LORD, THANK YOU. -glomp-
This will help me out alot!

[Edit]

Does anyone else think that a wasp's sting with it's decrease armor would be good?
It's either that or a wolf for class-specific attack.

[Karathyriel]

I chose the wolf as I can keep him by my side and still benefit from his howling, even in fights were pets are burned in the AoE of bosses.

That was before some changes were made, so i don't know if this still is important.

[Saturo]

The wasp is about as good as the wolf, assuming you raid doesn't have any feral Druids in it. But if you'd rather have the wasp, go for it.

[Gimlion]

Wasps Poison is a Minor Armor Debuff, so while useful, only when there isn't a Lock or Feral Durid around. Granted, any Ferocity pet will work in Raids, there is at most a 50-100 dps loss from best to 'worst' within the tree, so use whichever you like. Also, I find myself really only putting Hunter's mark on bosses, so for trash that Macro wouldn't work for me. By far, my favorite for tracking is
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addo ... untar.aspx

[Nick]

Wasps Poison is a Minor Armor Debuff, so while useful, only when there isn't a Lock or Feral Durid around. Granted, any Ferocity pet will work in Raids, there is at most a 50-100 dps loss from best to 'worst' within the tree, so use whichever you like. Also, I find myself really only putting Hunter's mark on bosses, so for trash that Macro wouldn't work for me. By far, my favorite for tracking is
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addo ... untar.aspx

Addons are acting funny for me, so I can't use them but switching manually on non-boss mobs doesn't bother me much so it's no problem.

[Tahlian]

You don't have to switch tracking between types to get the benefit of Improved Tracking, if I recall correctly. So long as you're using one of the hunter Track abilities, you'll get the bonus, regardless of whether or not your current target is of that type.

I think they made that change because tracking swaps trigger the GCD and therefore what was supposed to be an advantage was becoming a bit of a disadvantage.

[Nimizar]

I think they made that change because tracking swaps trigger the GCD and therefore what was supposed to be an advantage was becoming a bit of a disadvantage.

No GCD involved - the devs just decided that hunters already had enough things to worry about without making sure they were tracking the "right kind" of thing for their current target.

I generally just leave tracking on something that gives me the damage boost (such as humanoids) and only switch to mining when I'm out farming.

[Nimizar]

Wassa's suggested spec looks pretty good. Putting one of those spare points in Aimed and one in Hunting Party is likely worthwhile. Bringing your own replenishment to 5-man dungeons is very nice (it's the thing I miss most now that my non-BM spec is MM instead of SV). The final point can either go into IAotH for a bit of extra DPS (especially if you get the glyph for another 6% haste on the proc), into Scatter for a bit of utility/PvP usage, or into Hunting Party to increase Replenishment's uptime (although with even half-decent gear your crit rate will get to the point where this isn't necessary).

[Anansi]

You don't have to switch tracking between types to get the benefit of Improved Tracking, if I recall correctly. So long as you're using one of the hunter Track abilities, you'll get the bonus, regardless of whether or not your current target is of that type.

This is correct. You do not need to be tracking Humanoids to get the damage vs Humanoids for example. As long as you are tracking *something* killable (giants, beasts, humanoids, demons, undead, dragonkin) you will get the 5% damage bonus against your current target provided it's something that aligns with the things you can track and that are killable. So if you're tracking the Repair guy or fish, no bonus, and there's no bonus vs mechanicals.

If you have Track Humanoids up and are shooting Dragons, you will get the bonus. If you have Find Fish up and are shooting Demons, you get no bonus. If you have Track Beasts up and are shooting Mechanicals, no bonus, but if you change targets to Humanoids, you will get the bonus even though you're tracking Beasts.