Can you post your builds you're going to be using after the mega-patch? My hunter (Redfeather, Gorgonnash) is now 63, and I'm BM but I'm thinking a respec will be in order. She's not my main or anything, but I have a lot of fun with her.

Thanks in advance, etc.

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If you enjoy Beast Mastery, no reason to spec out of it. It is respectable damage to warrant using it while raiding as well as solo. Also, I'd wait till 70 before even considering anything other than beast.

The buff is also nice to DPS party members also, since it is all forms of damage increased and not just melee.

I only went marksman because I am doing more heroics now. With patch, i'll probably go back to beast since I don't PvP, and ass cleaves and chain sweeping strikes wont be an issue so much for my pet.

I've been strongly thinking of going back survival, or convincing the other major hunter to go surv.

With the changes to hunter's mark, and expose weakness, blessed is the MM hunter that travels with a survival hunter. Back when I was survival I could hit around 50% crit raid buffed when master tactician is up. With Expose Weakness procing every crit, it will make that sexy as hell for an MM hunter to be partnered with.

I can't give you my exact build, because I'm not sure what I'd play around with yet, but, I can try and mess around with the talent calc tomorrow to post some links.

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There is no such thing as right or wrong; only pleasure and pain.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#char ... on&n=Booji


That's my current build. I don't PvP so no point in going deep survival. Wish I could get someone in my guild to go deep survival for expose weakness.

I hardly ever have my pet out, except for situational boss fights or extra long pulls. This may change after the patch.


I love being important for 5 man runs, hence trap talents and gear. I can keep 2 mobs locked down in heroics if needed.



Hunters are so fun to play in WoW.


Edit: Don't make fun of my weapons, I am the most unlucky person in MMOs.

0_o

Why? You can 100% control your pet, keep it on passive. ALL additional pet dmg, is additional dmg done. Think of your pet as a nice DoT that costs absolutely no mana to cast, and is an insta-cast, AND you can cancel the DoT at any time.

It's foolish (IMO) not to use it except for key situationals (such as not having the pet standing in whirlwind damage without a really good reason).

Anyway looking forward to hearing why you don't use it, especially since one of my more scathing commentaries on pugging was about a petless hunter in one of the Netherstorm instances, heh. Even in Kara runs if we have a hunter along they bring and use their pet.

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Well on heroics and shitty bosses with huge ass cleaves they get 1 and 2 shot.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

This is the basic BM spec I will try first.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=mVbh0gxRiuVoVxbRm

Of that one, I have several variations where I remove points from Mortal Shots and put them over to Hawk Eye, as well as taking Efficiency over Improved Hunter's Mark. I'll see how it plays out but I'd say i'll switch it back into Efficiency, as running with Viper on is more a Marks thing.

The Hawk Eye thing i'll have to see about, as im not sure how that extra range is going to help on certain fights that I have to duck and move on.

That's pretty much the build I'm using. Though I'd suggest dumping one off imp. mend pet (you'll still have a decent % of cleansing crap off) to get bestial swiftness. The 30% outdoor rate IMO helps tremendously, even if your pet has a swiftness ability.

Or if you're not impressed with it, you can boost mortal shots to 5/5. Though at that point it sucks not having that ONE additional point to get scatter shot (can't be done without losing BM, which is pointless. :\)

I don't have any in hawk eye atm, and don't miss it...and I'm on a pvp server and I do bgs. It's nice to have, but not a 'need' and not something I miss that much.

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Oh one additional question: Aldor or Scryer?

Aldor has a nicer hunter quest reward, but the Scryer shoulder enchant has higher crit. rating. Most hunters I've talked to seem to go Aldor, but not sure if it matters that much or if there's a real clear benefit one way or the other. So would love to hear input.

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Improved Mend Pet is getting upgraded today in 2.1

Pretty major too for BM specs.

Hunter "Mend Pet"/"Improved Mend" Pet Changes:


* Replaced the current "Mend Pet" channel spell with an instant cast heal over time.
* No combat reset, resets global cooldown
* The mana cost has been reduced and the heal value increased.
* Duration on Heal Over Time increased to 15 seconds in 3 second increments.
* Changed the graphic to better represent the Heal Over Time effect on the pet.
* The "Mend Pet" heal over time buff is now able to be dispelled.
* Bonus healing gear will no longer effect "Mend Pet".
* Added a 10% and 20% reduction to the mana cost of "Mend Pet" in "Improved Mend Pet" talent (Beast Mastery).

Depending on the Before/After mana costs of Mend Pet untalented, I'll have to see if its worth it.

As far as Aldor/Scryer, I dont think it matters for hunters. Nothing was clear cut above the other in terms of goodness, not even for Leatherworking. I went Aldor because I already started out high with them being Draenei.

Ah yeah completely forgot about the mend pet change. I have 2 points in it currently anyway. I'll be doing a respec. later on (probably at 70, maybe before then) and fiddling with stuff then. By then I'll have a better feel for this patch. I should go re-read the patch notes and pay attention to hunter changes this time.

I was paying more attention to the priest changes, since that's my main. No question shadow priests are seriously OP, but I dislike the AC buff change tremendously. The rest I'll have to see how it actually effects me. My hunter is also a Draenei (double heal, woot), so I may ultimately go Aldor because I'm lazy.

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Here is a link to my armory.

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/chara ... =Valaeclya

Here is the link to the survival build I am thinking of going with.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/cla ... 2303531351

And here is a link to a BM build I made before I checked out Givin's post. His build is quite similar to this one, with a minor change.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/cla ... 0000000000

Lastly, here is a direct link to my build in case you don't give a crap about my gear.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/cla ... 0000000000

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There is no such thing as right or wrong; only pleasure and pain.

I'm actually re-leveling a hunter (mainly for raid alt, but mostly because farming with a holy spec pally sucks). Leveling a hunter these days is worlds fucking different that it used to be. I haven't leveled a hunter since release, and BM spec used to suck back in those days. Back during TBC Beta, I leveled Beast Spec from 60-70 for the first time.

This is a Beast Spec build I plan on trying out for a raid or two once I get to 70.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=mVbh0gxRiuVoVVbRm

* I personally have no love for Bestial Swiftness. I rarely travel with my pet out unless I'm in an area where I need to go short distances (like from 1 camp of mobs to another). I normally dismiss the pet if I'm out solo and not using him (or I'll be mounted and he'll poof on me)
* Before the Mend Pet changes, the 2 points in Improved Mend Pet were in Spirit Bond. But since they were only filler points, and Improved Mend Pet is more useful then it was before (don't get me wrong, it was useful...but I never used it).
* Animal Handler is awesome because of the +Hit your pet gets. 4% is no joke.
* Efficiency has saved my ass quite a few times.

This was the Marks Spec build I was using during TBC Beta at level 70 for instances and the Kara pugs I went on. It also has a lot of soloing ability in it.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=VxbZVVbRquGestch

* Improved AOTH...I got in a debate with someone over the long term use of Hawk over Viper, and I came to this conclusion. I played a hunter for 2 years without Viper and had to learn how to conserve mana while still doing efficient DPS. While the mana regen from Viper is very very nice, the Quick Shots proc from Imp Hawk is still great to have.
* Focused Fire, 2% extra damage is great. And the 20% crit for Kill Command is nice as well.
* Concussive Barrage...with the way that Steady Shot works (gives an additional 175 damage if target is dazed) it is nice to have for soloing and for trash clears. Not a huge DPS, but meh.
* No Monster Slaying but Human Slaying. This was another thing that I got in a strange argument with someone over. Basically, look at the mob types in raid zones. There are more humanoid mobs vs Giants/Dragonkin/Beasts. TK and SCC are full of humanoids, as is BT.

And, a recommendation...Givin and I both took up Dragon Leatherworking, as the Ebon Netherscale armor is better then Tier 4 and on par with Tier 5 (even after the patch buffed all epics, because the Ebon got buffed too). If you're willing to get 250 Leatherworking we both highly recommend it.

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Just some quick thoughts on the patch.

Redid my cat pet, picked up the two new abilities. I haven't had a chance to test avoidance yet (I will in pvp bgs) but a good friend of mine who got it says he's disappointed with it. It's cheap, and doesn't take up the 4 skill slot, so I don't see how you can go wrong with it really.

Cobra reflexes: I have this on my cat. You pick up faster attacks for lesser damage. I didn't test it, but I suspect it's likely to have slightly lower overall dps. I still like it for a couple of reasons, the primary one being pvp oriented: caster interrupt. I want my pet to hit the shit out of them as fast as they can.

Not intending to put it on my 'tank' pet turtle, unless it also has the result of causing more agro faster (which I can test with KTM, if I stop being lazy). Otherwise I'd rather have the turtle doing heavier damage more slowly, since he's a tank.

At 70 I intend to have 3 pets: Tank pet, PvE dps pet, PvP pet.

As to the rest of the changes, I'm glad they hotfixed the bug that caused the pet window to open whenever I dismounted (annoying!), and haven't really noticed much else other than the graphical prettiness of many things. The game looks better, runs smoother, and I can't bitch about the patch at all.

Too busy running orphans around today to really get a 'feel' for the changes though.

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Cobra reflexes, if BM specced, will actually slightly increase your pet's dps.

It looks like it might for all pets with it, actually, though your major "dps" pets really shine with it. I too put it on my cat that I started using for raiding. I was using a worg pre BC when you didn't want to send your pet in on most fights. But, I gave that up in BC with kill command, etc.

The main fights I am looking forward to avoidance on is, mostly, shade of aran and curator.

The thing about cobra reflexes is, while it lowers your pet's damage, it doesn't lower it by so much that it counteracts the spedd buff entirely, which results in a net increase in overall dps, especially with frenzy. I'm a marksmanship hunter, and decided to stay that way since I had all of the materials to craft the engineering goggles. So, with go for the throat, my cat should do a crapload of dps with claw on boss fights as well as his hits going off faster. I noticed that he did a much better all around job on the last raid I took him on than my worg did, which was Karazhan just to test it.

All in all, the thing I am sad about is, that made my worg useless, so, I abandoned him today. I'd had him since level 60, and he was a Bloodaxe Worg from LBRS when they were the only mobs with Furious Howl 4. Unfortuneately, unless you're survival and want to further buff the melee dps, worgs are really a bad take on raiding pets now. You want your pet to be doing as much dps as possible since on most fights you can send it in. So, with the mend pet change, and avoidance, plus go for the throat, the cat was the best option to go with.

I might switch out though for a bat, owl,or vulture. Screech + claw would be a sick combo in PVE for a raiding pet.

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There is no such thing as right or wrong; only pleasure and pain.

How can you use your pet on Aran? Didn't he fuck up flame wreath pre-patch?

Aran is such a cocksucker of a fight, I'll be interested to see how much 'easier' it is tonight.

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Pre patch I used my worg, who stood by me with furious howl on auto cast.

Now I will use my cat on Aran for dps.

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There is no such thing as right or wrong; only pleasure and pain.

Nice, we didn't even have pets out for Aran (other than invul imps) because the fight could be so buggy. We even killed him last time mid-script...which completely fubars him. The door wouldn't open. We had the warlock and two paladins commit suicide to summon us beyond the door.

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My raiding BM spec.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=meb00gxRwuVoVVbRV

Ravager pet
--Cobra Reflexes
--Avoidance {Amazing addition, a must have. Watch your pet laugh at Maiden}
--Bite
--Gore
--Dash
--Max rank of Stamina you can afford.
--Leftovers wherever. I chose Arcane Resistance 60 for a little bit on Curator.

Kill Command and Mend Pet have their own hotbar. Tilde key is Kill Command, Mend pet is Alt Tilde.

I do not use a shot rotation macro. My rotation is Steady, Auto, Arcane, Auto, Steady, Auto, then repeat. Standard BM rotation, with maybe a multi-shot thrown in here or there on groups of mobs that are locked down. Mana hasn't been that big an issue for me. I also try to get with the shadow priest whenever possible.

EDIT--
I forgot to add that BM spec with Serpent Swiftness, 5/5 Hawk, and a 15% quiver/ammo bag is VERY HARD to maintain and keep a shot rotation going. Even with a 2.9 or slower weapon you will find more often than now you dip down to the 1.7 range which leaves you very little room to not have your shots clipped. Rapid Fire? Forget about it. Pop Beastial Wrath, trinket up and fire off a few rounds of arcane and sit back.

My gear is far from where I want it to be. A 4 piece Beast Lord bonus, to be replaced with Tier 5 later, combined with my Ebon Netherscale set is where i'm wanting to go. I also do not have the Black Moras trinket yet. When I finally get it all together, I will be a machine.

The spec i'm going with is the hot topic pretty much around the forums. General opinion is that with the addition of Cobra Reflexes, a raid pet can keep more than enough string of crits going to keep FI up almost constant, so that 1 point from Frenzy is better put over in Mortal Shots to finish it off.

Switch claw for gore and prowl for bite, and I have the same pet Givin has, only a cat instead.

This cat impresses me. I don't know if his stats are somehow better than other cats or what, but he does. With the max rank of stam, and no armor, he hit over 10K armor and 8K health on Morose the other night. Mind you, I'm marks and have no talents to buff him at all.

He then successfuly tanked the Holy Priest and Ret Paladin adds on Morose, and went on to off tank the Skeletal Ushers with only one death. The healers were spot on, but, they said on the adds from Morose he didn't take too much damage. So, it just impressed me that the cat can do this.

I use Hawkbane, the level 70 elite Bangalash look alike from the Blackwind Cat cave in Skettis. I don't even know if he still exists come the last patch as I have yet to go up there.

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There is no such thing as right or wrong; only pleasure and pain.