Beast Mastery

blackwind_sabercat.gifI don’t understand why there are so many BM hunters now.  I was thinking about that last night while doing Magtheridon: silencing shots would have been very helpful, as well as traps that couldn’t be broken immediately.

Until recently, BM has always been a kind of pvp/noob build (not helped by the likes of BigRedKitty – man, can that guy take some abuse!). It wasn’t a viable raid spec.  I understand that they can do a lot more damage now, which sort of justifies a spot in raids (if not smaller instances), but at what cost?  Part of what a hunter has to offer, to my mind, is crowd control – high DPS being the rest of it.  Some points in survival ensure that what you trap usually stays trapped, and you have Trueshot Aura and Silencing Shot on top of that.  Another huge drawback to BM hunters is that your dps is tied to your pet being alive…if the pet goes down, you stop doing damage.

Kit is extremely effective in instances as a MM/Surv hunter.  I can chain-trap with ease, as mobs usually stay trapped until the cooldown is up.  The boar makes a superb tanking pet, so I can cc two mobs while I dps the main target…and usually the only player who can top me on damage meters is a fire mage.   I have a cat that can be used for higher DPS in larger instances, where offtanking won’t be required (although Ennui, a black armoured boar from Razorfen Kraul, will always be my bestest friend).

I could, of course, respec and try it out…but I would feel dirty.  lol…such an oldskool hunter.

One of the quickest and smoothest Botanica runs I ever experienced was back on Aggramar, with Kit, Miz and another hunter from our guild, along with a tank and healer.  All MM healers, used to raiding together, and we cleared the place with ease.  Here on Moonglade?  There a ton of people who won’t group with hunters.  At all.  Part of it, obviously, is that hunter is an easy class to solo with – you don’t need to pick up many skills.  That all changes in raids and instances, and so a lot of bad hunters  give the good ones a bad name.  And, I feel, some of that has to do with BM hunters.  They’re a bit like warriors that respec to fury, and then bitch about not getting runs…no matter how much dps you can do now, you don’t justify the same status as someone who can tank.  And hunters that can only dps are lacking so much that they could be contributing to a raid.

Well, just my two cents.

7 thoughts on “Beast Mastery”

  1. Hehe.

    Someone in my guild asked my warrior what spec she was. I said, “Protection.”

    He said, “Ugh! Why?”

    I said, “So that I matter.”

  2. well I recently went BM after being MM for around a year and a half. I have really grown to love BM, if you love your pet now you will love him more when he can do soo much more for you. I have never seen much use for many of the talents in surv, and I loved MM. but as BM I have lead the dmg meters or atleast top 5 on about every kill we have had. I am in the top guild of my really far behind server, almost to Vashj. but played right a bm hunter can be godly in pve, have to spec right and know when to mend pet hehe.

  3. My feeling is that BM might be a viable option for raiding, where you generally never need to offtank or trap, and DPS is the key. I still think that for 5-mans and heroics, where a hunter is quite often required to chain-trap and offtank as well as DPS, then I think a MM/Suvival build would be more effective – I know that it’s been a lot easier for me after putting a few extra points in survival, just because when the trap breaks, the new one is ready to go, and fewer mobs resist them.

    If I joined a raid guild with Kit, I might try speccing beastmastery, to see the effect it has on my damage output. It’s funny, though…after being MM for so long, during a time when BM wasn’t a valid build, it would be hard to hang my head and do it. :D Plus, I would really miss partnering with my boar Ennui, who has been with me since RFK days. He’s the perfect offtank for 5-mans, but wouldn’t have enough DPS for a raid. *sniff*

  4. well obviously u dont have much experience end-game raiding with a hunter.The channelers is mag’s lair cannot be affected by silencing shot. The reason so many hunters are goin BM and survival now are because of the improved DPS and buffs.MM is the spec of the past. A geared BM hunter can beat a MM hunter in DPS any day, and i would only recommend survival if u have a ridiculous amount of agility. BM hunters do not use multishot or arcane shot as well, u can throw them in there for flavor if u want, BM hunters should primarily be threading ur Steady shot in your auto shots. this is gonna put out ur highest DPS. MM just isnt really a good raiding spec anymore, it does have its place sometimes, for example the void reaver fight where his arcane AoE will just destroy ur pet. But i would recommend Survival spec for this fight over MM, for the simple fact that your crit is soooo high and every time you crit it Buffs the whole raid for 25% of your agility rather than just 125 for your group. which in this fight your group is not going to be together during the fight anyway because you are busy doging orbs. BM puts out the most Damage bottom line, ask any experienced raiding hunter post patch…..

  5. Jynxaster of Runetotem

    I am trying to find a build for raiding as a BM hunter. I leveled up as BM and switched to Hybrid MM/Survival for the hell of it but am looking to raise my damage output and heard BM could do it. Just one prob…how? lol

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