BM / Mastery vs Crit vs agi

[Snowwalker]

I'm no high end raider, and don't intend to be.. But I'm curious from some of the bm raiders here where yer stats sit. Do you look at Mastery more to amp yer pet, or still turn to crit? Are there any kind of caps one should aim for? I've been over to Hunters union and such readin up on all the theorycraft and such, but just curious what folks have to offer here from their own experiance.

[Nili]

In my experience, Crit didn't work for me. I focus mainly on Mastery, and managed to have some pretty decent dps in our raid team.
We wiped on Ultraxion 7 times (we had a few new people with us) the other night, but I managed about an even 30k the entire time, peaked at 38k with my burst dps. When we kill him tonight (provided our healers show up x.x), I'll let you know what my end fight dps is. I've been playing BM since WoTLK and I just find mastery is the best stat for me.
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/fbrhiqwvivnwrgj9/

I think with BM, you have a bit more choice of how you want to play, crit works for some, mastery for others.

[Miyon]

In my experience, Crit didn't work for me. I focus mainly on Mastery, and managed to have some pretty decent dps in our raid team.
We wiped on Ultraxion 7 times (we had a few new people with us) the other night, but I managed about an even 30k the entire time, peaked at 38k with my burst dps. When we kill him tonight (provided our healers show up x.x), I'll let you know what my end fight dps is. I've been playing BM since WoTLK and I just find mastery is the best stat for me.
http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/fbrhiqwvivnwrgj9/

I think with BM, you have a bit more choice of how you want to play, crit works for some, mastery for others.

I knew I would see you here shortly ^^
I still mean to respec from crit to mastery, but I just haven't gotten my ass around to do it.. All the sites I have read have imprinted in me that mastery is bad for bm, but I really don't think so. You pwn after all.

[CrystalKitten]

Thy (main spec BM) has every piece of gear reforged to mastery if possible, and it works for me. I definitely notice a slight difference (I don't have meters though, this is just the "feeling" I get when playing) when I play my offspeced BM Kyxii. That difference being that Kyx feels slightly less powerful than Thy (Kyx's gear is reforged crit/haste for her MM main spec).

[Lisaara]

I use WoWReforge.com and thus far it hasn't lead me wrong. Allows me exactly 8% hit but it has me going Crit more than Mastery so I'm still Crit > Haste > Mastery. I pull decent numbers all the same. Mastery seemed to do less DPS for me as BM.

[SpiritBinder]

I use WoWReforge.com and thus far it hasn't lead me wrong. Allows me exactly 8% hit but it has me going Crit more than Mastery so I'm still Crit > Haste > Mastery. I pull decent numbers all the same. Mastery seemed to do less DPS for me as BM.

From my understanding I'm inclined to agree with Jess too.

Coming from a PVE/5 man/Raiding perspective

I know that if you spec mastery, it certainly makes you pet feel more "beast", but as BM your mastery only effects your pet. So your only increasing the 40ish% of you dps.

Crit on the other hand will increase both your pets crit, and your own. More crits also increases more procs from the plethora of talents that are crit linked, Killing streak, Invigoration, Go for the Throat, Sic'em, etc.

Lastly, from what I've heard is that Haste wins out over Mastery as again if effects both you and your pet. That and when/if you end up getting some DS gear, that benefit starts to ramp up even more so for you pet. There are more procs and more trinkets that effect haste and your pets turns into a flurry of fur, feather and fangs. The more you stack, the better it works. The beauty of haste as well is that BM's rotation is mainly an arcane dump and KC (which is not on the global). Which means that you can spam that many more arcane shots, increasing more Cobra Strikes and Sic'em Procs and the 4P t13 if you get there also.

All this without having to clip Chimera Shots, delaying Black Arrows, running out/capping focus or dropping Steady Shot buffs, etc. I'm not saying that the other specs are overly hard, but they just cap out rather quickly with the new 2PT13 and require a much tighter balancing act regarding rotations and room for error.

Anyways, that just the direction I would most likely go after my research.

Now if your doing PVP as BM, well that's a different story, that one you stack mastery, cause even if your running away like a headless chicken from the nasty rogue, your pet will still be Nomomnom on its butt and the more damage there, the better!

For Solo, mastery is always nice as your pet is doing more damage, therefore will have more threat, but MD+Glyph+FD, you should never really have to much threat issues.

[Wassa]

I believe once you get two piece t13 mastery is valued over haste. Since Cobra Shot is BMs only shot with a cast time, and since you get more focus with Cobra with 2t13 you will be casting Cobra a lot less, so mastery's value goes way up. Crit is still valued over mastery though.

If you aren't a "hardcore" raider and don't see yourself getting 2t13, then crit > haste > mastery for BM seems to be a good plan. Just always double check using Female Dwarf before you go reforging, regemming, etc to see what is really a dps increase.

[AdamSavage]

*removed*

[Lisaara]

I find agility is the best stat to have over the other to. Agility gives you attack power and crit which also benefit the pet. Where as mastery only effects the pets dmg.

I think they meant haste, not Agility. >> Cause Agility isnt reforgable.

[Gimlion]

I use WoWReforge.com and thus far it hasn't lead me wrong. Allows me exactly 8% hit but it has me going Crit more than Mastery so I'm still Crit > Haste > Mastery. I pull decent numbers all the same. Mastery seemed to do less DPS for me as BM.

I also use WoWReforge, and it has worked incredibly for me. I also use Noxxic, a site I generally consider to know their stuff. While there aren't conversation boards, it has a very easy to use layout, solid information on every spec for both PVE and PVP, and it isn't, IMO, quite as snooty as the "Elitists".

This is their section on BM stats:http://www.noxxic.com/pve/hunter/beast- ... ing-strats

[Seilahyn]

Most calc sites value Haste over Mastery, so just keep that in mind when using them. I loved FemaleDwarf.com until I figured out in game with my own tests that Mastery gave me more DPS than Haste. FemaleDwarf was telling me to reforge Mastery to Haste, undo all my Haste to Mastery, and I'd gain DPS. It was quite the opposite for me. Haste made my DPS go down.

Atleast Noxxic does acknowledge the fact that Mastery is slightly better than Haste. I'm using purely Noxxic now that I've found it as it is really straight forward in it's information.

BMs damage is from Kill Command, your pet, and Arcane spam. Haste only affects Cobra cast time and auto attack. Your Focus regen is so minimal that I don't even consider it a part of the gain from Haste because you'd need a lot to make it really useful. It only makes sense on pen and paper that Mastery would win over Haste.

At the moment I try and keep Crit around 30~33% and the rest into Mastery. Obviously keeping my Hit capped, but I am Draenei so I have a little extra to play with and reforge elsewhere. That way in a Raid setting I sit anywhere from 40-50% crit completely buffed and any trinkets proc'ed.

My suggestion is to play around with things and see what works best for you. See if Haste gives you better numbers than Mastery. I did my own testing to see what worked best, despite what sites/calcs told me. My damage isn't even the best out there but I get a lot of respect from my guild when I bust out my numbers. I've made a few people roll Hunters, lol. I'm always looking for ways to improve my damage. I'm never content with what I have, I must do better.

I am currently not raiding as my raid group fell apart back in November, so I can't offer any current stats in a raid setting. I am starting to regularly do LFR now, though.

[Felidire]

Agility beats everything, and I focus on Crit > Mastery >>> Haste

[Nightsights]

raided as BM for the first time in DS this week for Morchok-Ultraxion. i did get 3 pieces of loot upgraded from last week, so that would increase my overall dps, but was really surprised that i was 1st/2nd as BM. usually i'm 3rd/4th as SV behind our Dragonwrath mage, rogue and kitty.

i've maxed out crit, then have a balanced mastery/haste setup.

my best fight was Yor @ 31K (top dps), KC crit @ 80.5%, 6th on dmg done @ 3.8%

my worst fight was Morchok @ 25K (2nd), KC crit @ 60%, 13th on dmg done @ 2.9%

[AdamSavage]

raided as BM for the first time in DS this week for Morchok-Ultraxion. i did get 3 pieces of loot upgraded from last week, so that would increase my overall dps, but was really surprised that i was 1st/2nd as BM. usually i'm 3rd/4th as SV behind our Dragonwrath mage, rogue and kitty.

i've maxed out crit, then have a balanced mastery/haste setup.

my best fight was Yor @ 31K (top dps), KC crit @ 80.5%, 6th on dmg done @ 3.8%

my worst fight was Morchok @ 25K (2nd), KC crit @ 60%, 13th on dmg done @ 2.9%

392 Item lvl, you got some nice gear...

[Nightsights]

thnx

i was looking through my logs again, and decided to check the rankings, seems i'm ranked 63 atm as BM on 10m Warlord Zonozz, woot