Post by Shane Small on Jul 22, 2009 23:21:14 GMT -5
BM hunters were the top DPS spec for TBC using the "cookie cutter" build 41/20/0. With WotLK some new mechanics have been introduced that have altered the old school BM approach to raiding, i.e. unlinked Auto Shots, new pet talent trees, increased pet dps and our 51 point talent giving access to exotic pets.
Even more changes came with 3.0.8 (the "nerf" patch) and 3.0.9 (where part of the nerf to pets was reversed). These changes brought a welcome complexity to the shot rotation, as well as reducing the damage done by the cat and scorpid specials, which were seen as overpowered. This, in concert with improvements to talents in the Survival tree, led to Survival becoming the spec favored by the masses -- and to a virtual halt in the discussion around how to optimize Beast Mastery in a raid setting.
3.1 is introducing new pet talents which can only be fully accessed by taking Beast Mastery, the 51 point talent in the BM tree. Depending on in what form the new pet talents -- Wild Hunt and Shark Attack -- emerge from the PTR, BM hunters should see a nice increase in their dps. I know there are still hunters out there who prefer to raid as BM or who may want to use BM as a secondary spec in 3.1, and it is my hope that we can pool our collective knowledge and experience to make the most of this spec.
Raiding Specs
53/11/7
Some version of this build will likely be the choice of most BM hunters.
Hunter self-preservation floater -- 1 point
One point in the lower part of the BM tree can be devoted to slightly improving your chance of surviving if things go wrong:
1/2 Endurance Training -- increase your and your pet's health
1/3 Imp Aspect of the Monkey -- increase your dodge; useful for kiting or when a mob comes for you
Pet health floaters -- 4 points
There are 4 points in the lower part of the BM tree to devote to your choice of pet health-related talents that can be used in the following ways:
2/2 Imp Revive Pet -- highly recommended
2/2 Spirit Bond -- recommended
2/2 Imp Mend Pet -- use if your pet is not being cleansed or healed by the raid healers and is dying frequently
1/2 Spirit Bond + 1/2 Imp Mend Pet -- if you just can't decide
2/5 Endurance Training -- useful for solo; not recommended for raiding
2/5 Thick Hide -- useful for solo; not recommended for raiding
Hunter DPS floaters -- 2 points
There are 2 "extra" points in the MM or SV trees to use in damage talents. Use the spreadsheet to determine where these points will work best for your current gear set-up; results can vary as your attack power and crit increase:
2/2 Survival Instincts -- reduces damage taken in addition to increasing crit for Arcane and Steady Shot
4/5 Mortal Shots (2/5 MS is required to take Go for the Throat) -- further increase crit bonus on all shots
2/3 Imp Arcane Shot -- increase damage done by Arcane Shot
2/2 Go for the Throat + 1 point in any of the above (1/2 GftT is a "must have") -- take the second point in GftT if your unbuffed crit is below 25% or if you find your pet is focus-starved at lower gear levels; with changes in pet focus regen in 3.1, testing is needed to establish a minimum crit level for taking 1/2 GftT
2/2 Invigoration or 1/2 Invigoration + 1 point in any of the above -- if you find yourself spending a lot of time in Viper
Focused Aim
Formerly a huge damage loss for BM hunters as the hit gained was not transmitted to the pet, in 3.1 FA will affect the pet, making this a viable source of hit for new raiders lacking hit on their gear; try to get the needed hit (263 hit rating; 8% hit) from your gear as soon as possible and move these points into other talents.
[Other raid damage-focused builds with rationale are welcome and will be added if they emerge!]
Glyphs
The following glyphs are not reserved for the BM spec, but tend to provide excellent synergy for the spec. The first two are highly recommended by many hunters in 3.0; the jury is still out on which of the others to choose for the third glyph in 3.1 -- try them in the spreadsheet to see what works for you.
Major:
[Glyph of Bestial Wrath] -- highly recommended
[Glyph of Steady Shot] -- highly recommended
[Glyph of the Hawk] -- recommended; analysis shows this should scale better with gear upgrades than Glyph of Serpent Sting
[Glyph of Serpent Sting] -- recommended
[Glyph of Kill Shot] -- new in 3.1; will be expensive until a number of Scribes on your server discover it; needs testing
[Glyph of the Beast] -- situational; not recommended for raiding
Minor
[Glyph of Mend Pet] --allows the pet to gain happiness in combat -- recommended (NOTE: This glyph is bugged in 3.0 and does not work if you have taken Imp Mend Pet. It remains to be seen if this will be fixed in 3.1)
[Glyph of Feign Death] -- allows more frequent aggro dumps -- aggro is usually not a huge issue for BM hunters, but it's better than nothing
[Glyph of Revive Pet] -- allows a faster pet rez during pushback spells -- not extremely useful but better than nothing
[Glyph of Possessed Strength] -- recent testing shows that this glyph would not perform well in a raid setting; not recommended.
Shot priority
[credit to Nooska]
Kill Shot
Arcane Shot
Multi-shot/Aimed Shot (optional)
Serpent Sting
Steady Shot
This priority is suggested by the true damage values of each shot; since we as Beastmasters are only limited by the GCD, always use the highest damage shot available.
Refresh SrS before its final tick if it will drop off before your steady lands, but not if Kill Shot or Arcane Shot are available.
Do not refresh SrS if the boss's Time To Live is very low -- you will lose more damage by using the GCD on SrS than you would by losing the bonus on Steady Shots from [Glyph of Steady Shot].
Leave Multi-Shot out of the rotation if mana is becoming an issue.
Cooldowns
Bestial Wrath should be used as often as it's ready, in conjunction with Kill Command and pet specials with a long cooldown (eg Savage Rend or Serenity Dust). Save Call of the Wild and your "on use" trinkets for the next BW whenever they are ready. Bestial Wrath should also be used with Heroism/Bloodlust whenever possible; usually this will be near the beginning of the fight if your shamans are on the ball. Some bosses will call for burst damage later in the fight and Heroism may well be saved until then; if you know Heroism is coming when the boss is at 35% or whatever, try to save that third BW for it.
If you get Heroism/Bloodlust during your first BW, you can use Rapid Fire during the second one. [Potion of Speed] is nice for the third one if you didn't need a health or mana potion.
Raiding Pets
It is assumed that a raiding hunter will use a Ferocity pet for maximum raid damage, although there has been some experimentation with Cunning pets for specific circumstances. With the equalization of pets in 3.1 (Cunning, Ferocity and Tenacity pets now all have +5% damage, +5% armor and +5% health bonuses), other types of pets may become viable although spreadsheet modeling to date (v.86c) shows Cunning and Tenacity pets well below Ferocity in damage output.
Non-exotics: [updated 4.9.2009]
Wolves --PTR testing and modeling are showing wolves to be an excellent choice for raiding in 3.1 due to the changes in Furious Howl (now affects only hunter and pet, and therefore will stack for you with other AP-enhancing raid buffs); very close to devilsaur in combined hunter/pet damage
Raptors -- look good in the spread sheet due to assumption that Savage Rend damage will occur under ideal circumstances (ie after a crit) and the damage being averaged out over the fight; streaky damage that may or may not come through when you need it
Moths -- intriguing percent-based special that may scale well at very high gear levels; disappointingly, modeling with v.86d shows the moth will not out-scale the wolf until the hunter has in excess of 20K AP
Cats -- always a solid choice in 3.0 when there is a Feral Druid in the raid keeping up Mangle; not likely to be competitive in 3.1
Scorpids (Tenacity) -- the darling of 3.0 raiding prior to 3.0.8, scorpids' poison debuff no longer stacks; like any Tenacity pet, scorpids have sub-par damage for raiding; not recommended
Exotics
Devilsaurs -- highest damage but many issues related to its large size and hit-box; workable if you can manage the hit-box and your raid will tolerate the stamping and having their view blocked
Spirit beasts -- reported to do better damage than in 3.0 in the PTR with changes in the way spell hit is calculated, though not as much as a wolf or a devilsaur; only one spirit beast currently exists in the game and a second one (Gondria) has been found on the PTR, so it will require great patience to tame
Core hounds -- similar damage to spirit beasts in the spreadsheet
Pet talents
To raid as BM in 3.1 it is imperative to take the 51 point talent, Beast Mastery. Whether to use an exotic pet is the individual hunter's choice, but the additional 4 pet talent points will be essential to get all the damage-enhancing pet talents, including the new Wild Hunt and Shark Attack. You will want a Ferocity pet.
DPS pet spec 1
My personal choice of talents includes Dash for movement speed and 2/2 Bloodthirsty for survivability/happiness.
DPS pet spec 2
Alternative spec favored by Har takes Charge for movement speed, 1/3 Great Stamina for survivability, and has one extra point that should be spent in Bloodthirsty.
Pet stats
Hunter pets "inherit" the following stats from their owners:
Hit (100%) -- note that hit from Focused Aim will transfer to pets in 3.1
Ranged Attack Power (22%) -- the new 3.1 pet talent Wild Hunt will increase this by 20%
Stamina (30%)
Armor (35%)
Magic resistances (40%) -- race-based magic school resistances are percent based and do not appear on the character sheet and thus presumably do not transfer to the pet
Pets inherit Agility (and Intellect if you have 3/3 Careful Aim) only indirectly, as it raises the hunter's Attack Power.
Pets do not inherit Strength, Spirit, Crit, Haste, Resilience, or Armor Pen.
Pets do not inherit the XP bonus found on heirloom shoulders.
NOTE: Hit is transferred to pets as an integer, not including any fractions (for example, 7.99% transfers as 7%, while 8.03% transfers as 8%), therefore it is important to be fully hit-capped.
Even more changes came with 3.0.8 (the "nerf" patch) and 3.0.9 (where part of the nerf to pets was reversed). These changes brought a welcome complexity to the shot rotation, as well as reducing the damage done by the cat and scorpid specials, which were seen as overpowered. This, in concert with improvements to talents in the Survival tree, led to Survival becoming the spec favored by the masses -- and to a virtual halt in the discussion around how to optimize Beast Mastery in a raid setting.
3.1 is introducing new pet talents which can only be fully accessed by taking Beast Mastery, the 51 point talent in the BM tree. Depending on in what form the new pet talents -- Wild Hunt and Shark Attack -- emerge from the PTR, BM hunters should see a nice increase in their dps. I know there are still hunters out there who prefer to raid as BM or who may want to use BM as a secondary spec in 3.1, and it is my hope that we can pool our collective knowledge and experience to make the most of this spec.
Raiding Specs
53/11/7
Some version of this build will likely be the choice of most BM hunters.
Hunter self-preservation floater -- 1 point
One point in the lower part of the BM tree can be devoted to slightly improving your chance of surviving if things go wrong:
1/2 Endurance Training -- increase your and your pet's health
1/3 Imp Aspect of the Monkey -- increase your dodge; useful for kiting or when a mob comes for you
Pet health floaters -- 4 points
There are 4 points in the lower part of the BM tree to devote to your choice of pet health-related talents that can be used in the following ways:
2/2 Imp Revive Pet -- highly recommended
2/2 Spirit Bond -- recommended
2/2 Imp Mend Pet -- use if your pet is not being cleansed or healed by the raid healers and is dying frequently
1/2 Spirit Bond + 1/2 Imp Mend Pet -- if you just can't decide
2/5 Endurance Training -- useful for solo; not recommended for raiding
2/5 Thick Hide -- useful for solo; not recommended for raiding
Hunter DPS floaters -- 2 points
There are 2 "extra" points in the MM or SV trees to use in damage talents. Use the spreadsheet to determine where these points will work best for your current gear set-up; results can vary as your attack power and crit increase:
2/2 Survival Instincts -- reduces damage taken in addition to increasing crit for Arcane and Steady Shot
4/5 Mortal Shots (2/5 MS is required to take Go for the Throat) -- further increase crit bonus on all shots
2/3 Imp Arcane Shot -- increase damage done by Arcane Shot
2/2 Go for the Throat + 1 point in any of the above (1/2 GftT is a "must have") -- take the second point in GftT if your unbuffed crit is below 25% or if you find your pet is focus-starved at lower gear levels; with changes in pet focus regen in 3.1, testing is needed to establish a minimum crit level for taking 1/2 GftT
2/2 Invigoration or 1/2 Invigoration + 1 point in any of the above -- if you find yourself spending a lot of time in Viper
Focused Aim
Formerly a huge damage loss for BM hunters as the hit gained was not transmitted to the pet, in 3.1 FA will affect the pet, making this a viable source of hit for new raiders lacking hit on their gear; try to get the needed hit (263 hit rating; 8% hit) from your gear as soon as possible and move these points into other talents.
[Other raid damage-focused builds with rationale are welcome and will be added if they emerge!]
Glyphs
The following glyphs are not reserved for the BM spec, but tend to provide excellent synergy for the spec. The first two are highly recommended by many hunters in 3.0; the jury is still out on which of the others to choose for the third glyph in 3.1 -- try them in the spreadsheet to see what works for you.
Major:
[Glyph of Bestial Wrath] -- highly recommended
[Glyph of Steady Shot] -- highly recommended
[Glyph of the Hawk] -- recommended; analysis shows this should scale better with gear upgrades than Glyph of Serpent Sting
[Glyph of Serpent Sting] -- recommended
[Glyph of Kill Shot] -- new in 3.1; will be expensive until a number of Scribes on your server discover it; needs testing
[Glyph of the Beast] -- situational; not recommended for raiding
Minor
[Glyph of Mend Pet] --allows the pet to gain happiness in combat -- recommended (NOTE: This glyph is bugged in 3.0 and does not work if you have taken Imp Mend Pet. It remains to be seen if this will be fixed in 3.1)
[Glyph of Feign Death] -- allows more frequent aggro dumps -- aggro is usually not a huge issue for BM hunters, but it's better than nothing
[Glyph of Revive Pet] -- allows a faster pet rez during pushback spells -- not extremely useful but better than nothing
[Glyph of Possessed Strength] -- recent testing shows that this glyph would not perform well in a raid setting; not recommended.
Shot priority
[credit to Nooska]
Kill Shot
Arcane Shot
Multi-shot/Aimed Shot (optional)
Serpent Sting
Steady Shot
This priority is suggested by the true damage values of each shot; since we as Beastmasters are only limited by the GCD, always use the highest damage shot available.
Refresh SrS before its final tick if it will drop off before your steady lands, but not if Kill Shot or Arcane Shot are available.
Do not refresh SrS if the boss's Time To Live is very low -- you will lose more damage by using the GCD on SrS than you would by losing the bonus on Steady Shots from [Glyph of Steady Shot].
Leave Multi-Shot out of the rotation if mana is becoming an issue.
Cooldowns
Bestial Wrath should be used as often as it's ready, in conjunction with Kill Command and pet specials with a long cooldown (eg Savage Rend or Serenity Dust). Save Call of the Wild and your "on use" trinkets for the next BW whenever they are ready. Bestial Wrath should also be used with Heroism/Bloodlust whenever possible; usually this will be near the beginning of the fight if your shamans are on the ball. Some bosses will call for burst damage later in the fight and Heroism may well be saved until then; if you know Heroism is coming when the boss is at 35% or whatever, try to save that third BW for it.
If you get Heroism/Bloodlust during your first BW, you can use Rapid Fire during the second one. [Potion of Speed] is nice for the third one if you didn't need a health or mana potion.
Raiding Pets
It is assumed that a raiding hunter will use a Ferocity pet for maximum raid damage, although there has been some experimentation with Cunning pets for specific circumstances. With the equalization of pets in 3.1 (Cunning, Ferocity and Tenacity pets now all have +5% damage, +5% armor and +5% health bonuses), other types of pets may become viable although spreadsheet modeling to date (v.86c) shows Cunning and Tenacity pets well below Ferocity in damage output.
Non-exotics: [updated 4.9.2009]
Wolves --PTR testing and modeling are showing wolves to be an excellent choice for raiding in 3.1 due to the changes in Furious Howl (now affects only hunter and pet, and therefore will stack for you with other AP-enhancing raid buffs); very close to devilsaur in combined hunter/pet damage
Raptors -- look good in the spread sheet due to assumption that Savage Rend damage will occur under ideal circumstances (ie after a crit) and the damage being averaged out over the fight; streaky damage that may or may not come through when you need it
Moths -- intriguing percent-based special that may scale well at very high gear levels; disappointingly, modeling with v.86d shows the moth will not out-scale the wolf until the hunter has in excess of 20K AP
Cats -- always a solid choice in 3.0 when there is a Feral Druid in the raid keeping up Mangle; not likely to be competitive in 3.1
Scorpids (Tenacity) -- the darling of 3.0 raiding prior to 3.0.8, scorpids' poison debuff no longer stacks; like any Tenacity pet, scorpids have sub-par damage for raiding; not recommended
Exotics
Devilsaurs -- highest damage but many issues related to its large size and hit-box; workable if you can manage the hit-box and your raid will tolerate the stamping and having their view blocked
Spirit beasts -- reported to do better damage than in 3.0 in the PTR with changes in the way spell hit is calculated, though not as much as a wolf or a devilsaur; only one spirit beast currently exists in the game and a second one (Gondria) has been found on the PTR, so it will require great patience to tame
Core hounds -- similar damage to spirit beasts in the spreadsheet
Pet talents
To raid as BM in 3.1 it is imperative to take the 51 point talent, Beast Mastery. Whether to use an exotic pet is the individual hunter's choice, but the additional 4 pet talent points will be essential to get all the damage-enhancing pet talents, including the new Wild Hunt and Shark Attack. You will want a Ferocity pet.
DPS pet spec 1
My personal choice of talents includes Dash for movement speed and 2/2 Bloodthirsty for survivability/happiness.
DPS pet spec 2
Alternative spec favored by Har takes Charge for movement speed, 1/3 Great Stamina for survivability, and has one extra point that should be spent in Bloodthirsty.
Pet stats
Hunter pets "inherit" the following stats from their owners:
Hit (100%) -- note that hit from Focused Aim will transfer to pets in 3.1
Ranged Attack Power (22%) -- the new 3.1 pet talent Wild Hunt will increase this by 20%
Stamina (30%)
Armor (35%)
Magic resistances (40%) -- race-based magic school resistances are percent based and do not appear on the character sheet and thus presumably do not transfer to the pet
Pets inherit Agility (and Intellect if you have 3/3 Careful Aim) only indirectly, as it raises the hunter's Attack Power.
Pets do not inherit Strength, Spirit, Crit, Haste, Resilience, or Armor Pen.
Pets do not inherit the XP bonus found on heirloom shoulders.
NOTE: Hit is transferred to pets as an integer, not including any fractions (for example, 7.99% transfers as 7%, while 8.03% transfers as 8%), therefore it is important to be fully hit-capped.