Let the constructive comments begin!After reading the other thread regarding BM DPS I gotta say I am pleased that GC more or less has said "We know, we're trying to fix it, it's just not as easy as most believe." Which is nice in the regard that they're still trying to help us compete better with MM and Surv specs but the fact that PvP is interfering with a PvE buff is what most hunters would just go on about.
When I say BM isn't that bad, I say that because I go to great lengths to get my DPS as high as possible in a raid as a BM spec hunter. I have tried MM recently (which did boost my DPS by about 700) and I found that while the grass may be greener there aren't as many interesting flowers to look at.
When it comes down to it, BM 'suffers' from two things that puts it behind MM and Surv.
1) BM is more dependent on the RNG (Random Number Generator) then MM or Surv, this can result in a BM hunter's DPS going up and down more on the same fight then the other hunter specs.
2) BM does not scale as well with gear then the other specs. Meaning that as you get higher ICC gear the gap between your DPS as a BM hunter and the DPS you'd do as MM or Surv gets wider.
The first issue isn't really that crippling, other classes have that mechanic and do fine. The second issue is what is holding BM back for the most part but would also be considerably more complex in fixing.
One talent BM lacks that the other trees have is a talent that increases our total Agility and/or total Intellect, this is kinda why BM doesn't scale as well, but putting such a talent in the BM tree would have to be extremely delicate because what might seem like the same modest "+4% total Agility" that a MM hunter has would be much more for BM because our pets scale a lot more then with the other specs.
The PvP issue is one thing most players who only do PvE don't want to hear about holding their spec back. I for one, don't PvP very much and kind of don't like to, but I'm not going to say "@%#^ PvP I only do PvE content!" because WoW isn't just a PvE game. Trying to balance around both aspects is hard and while some might say to make BM function differently in PvP and PvE I seriously can't think of how that can be done. The Bestial Wrath nerf wasn't so bad since we got a buff from The Beast Within, but to be honest BM doesn't have that many 'I win' buttons that could be divided into a PvE effect and PvP effect.
Further along in the previous topic GC talked about pet abilities always being on auto cast and hunters not having to hit them etc. I think that in order to get more like that we would need more abilities like Call of the Wild, which I never have on auto cast (I kinda wish it couldn't be on auto cast sometimes) and wait till I can chain it with other cooldowns for maximum DPS boost. One thing of note that can be implemented in Cat. is a new pet talent on the next tier that is like Call of the Wild, only a BM hunter would be able to get it (pets only get one additional talent point next expansion at 84). It opens up a lot of potential for BM, but that is way down the line.
As for a 'here and now' fix the options are limited, tacking something onto Cobra Strikes or Invigoration may be potential solutions, and as stated above something to increase our total Agility or Intellect would help cut down the scaling issue greatly, it's just not that easy due to pet damage scaling from the change as well.
What could be done is the addition of the stat increase for the hunter like I've said then a slight nerf to Kindred Spirits to reign the pet in a little. If the increase is par with other talents, like 5% total Agility, then BM hunters should see an increase in DPS with better scaling for their damage, while at the same time keeping pet damage from getting too high and hopefully shifting damage to the hunter more like the designers want to see.
BM Topic
BM Topic
Couldn't think of a clever name for this, but since GC recently commented about BM I thought I would share my topic about BM here with you all. So without further ado here is a link to my original post, as well as what it said here.