And Humar is back!Follow

Not that he really went anywhere, but his power had definitely diminished. As many of you might remember, I went from Beastmastery to Survival a while back. Back then, I was the only Hunter willing to switch to that specc for Raid purposes. The switch was painful. Hundreds of gold thrown into regemming, and switching out gear. The Ebon Netherscale set I had looked forward to suddenly became a downgrade from Felstalker, and my future loot possibilities was grim indeed.

After persevering for so long, I finally reached my goal. A minimum of 550 agility unbuffed, and the critrating to follow up on it. I was Karazhan ready, and had even gotten myself the Scorpid for DPS purposes.

Now, after seeing everything in Karazhan, setting Gruul straight on the matter of who got to call themselves Dragonkiller, boiling Lurker in his own little pond and shooting Void Reaver in the face until it stopped being funny... Well... I was bored. My Humar was obviously displeased with how things were, and more often than not neglected to keep my enemies at bay. I myself found life as a Survival Hunter had its perks, but was definitely not the way I truly liked things.

Besides, most of the Hunters in the raidgroup felt Survival was awesome after all, and wanted to respecc.

So my Big Angry Humar is back!

That's right. 41/20/0 just replaced 5/20/36.

And I am bloody lovin' it! My DPS on Prince (first raid after respecc) was 787 according to SWStats, and the only buff I had was Mark of the Wild, Fort and some other inconsequential buffs. Downing Prince in four minutes is always fun, even more so when I go from the second/third spot on damage meters to first by a margin of eight percent.

Downing Maulgar afterwards just for shits and giggles, actually awarded me with my first headpiece upgrade since I made myself my stylin' leather hat. Of course, this means Prince will actually drop my last Tier 4 item before fourpiece bonus, but I am used to getting things after they don't really matter that much.

And it turns out, there's a world of loot out there that I can now actually use! Ring of a Thousand Marks was never a feasible upgrade for me, but now I could actually use it. Agility isn't really needed on an item anymore! I can loot stuff! When that realization hit me, I was through the roof.

Now that none of our Rogues actually need Malchazeen anymore, I can actually take it if I want to. Malchazeen on one hip, and Spiteblade on my back? Both with a 20 agility enchant on them? Can anyone say Pornographic looks?

And what could ever compare with that feeling you get when people who have never considered you a threat on the damage meters suddenly get those beads of sweat on their forehead when they realize that you are past them, and still accelerating?

All I need now is 50 gold to replace that +hit gem I have on my chest with +8 Agility, and another 90 gold to put the Ferocity glyph on my headpiece. Ah well... with my new specc, that money is farmed in less than half an hour. A stack of 20 Thick Clefthoof leather ought to sell for around that much, and the trash loot should tip the scales into profit even after that. With my previous specc, that would have taken an hour, minimum.

I don't get why anyone would choose Surv over Beastmastery in any environment outside of raiding.

Humar is back... and this time he's pissed!

I had a miserable time solo with SV spec until I got wise one day and started bringing my Boar out of the stables for solo stuff, swapping for my Ravager for group content. In solo content, the 3.2-3.8k threat my Boar generates from a Charge opener is typically more than enough to stay ahead of me for a reasonably paced fight. (If I go balls-to-the-wall full dps shot rotation, it's a bit different, but in solo play I'd rather go conservative on the mana for no downtime as opposed to faster kills and having to (*yawn*) stop and drink from time to time).

Now, in the case where you've got a specific pet that was an ordeal to tame and you've grown very fond of it, I can totally see why dropping it for a more threat-efficient pet like a Boar would seem like too much of a tradeoff. Just want to clarify that I'm not saying, "OMFG l2pickagoodpet"...I'd just hate to see aspiring SV Hunters come across this and think that respeccing SV would put a serious damper on their solo play :D

Well, in a matter of speaking, it will. No matter their pet. If I just send in my pet and autoshoot as Surv, it takes a while to kill a target. If I send in my pet as Beastmaster, and just autoshoot, the same target will go down alot faster. For soloing/grinding, a Beastmastery specc will never be outdone by any other specc or even class.

I will never say anything bad about Survival for raiding. It provides the single most powerful raidbuff a Hunter could ever bring to the table, and even gives the second highest DPS of the three main talent speccs.

But for sheer unadulterated dps, and unstoppable soloing/grinding? Beastmastery is the best specc of them all. And I am not regretting my return to the finest specc a Hunter could ever have.

Me and Sayis were the bulwark on these boards, that stood against the hordes of Marksmen when it came to Hunter discussions once. Now, I am back, and Beastmastery is my game once more. And to be honest, I don't think I am going to respecc for a very, very long time.

The highest DPS specc, coupled with the best soloing capabilities the class can provide makes too good an argument against visiting the Hunter trainer again. Well, not to mention the sheer awesomeness of having a Humar next to me, that can actually be just as tall as I am. I can literally see the players jump in their chairs when suddenly my Humar pops out of Prowl five inches from their face, growing larger than them and starting out with a Frenzy procc.

Heh....

Lol....

ROFL...

I never thought to turn off Auto Cast for Charge while in instances, it's not like my pet is a major boost to my damage after all....

I am going to go find a brick wall to bash my head into now....

I've done the exact opposite to this. I was 41/20/0, am now 0/20/41.

What you say is true, although I have found one way to farm as fast (if not faster) as SV as I was as BM. However it does involve doing something not a lot of hunters like to do, change pet.

Namely a Windserpent. With LB and without Bite. Take LB off autocast and macro it in to fire with your steady/arcane shots. With GftT and a high cit rating (which a SV Hunter shold have) this makes for a really nice synergy with your pet pumping in a little extra aggro right when it needs to.

Can it keep aggro off me long-term? Hell no, but as I can do an actual shot rotation while farming rather than sic and autoshoot, the chances of the mob being alive by the time it gets to me are pretty slim.

BM is absolutely the best levelling spec, and currently the best for personal DPS, but I'm having an absolute blast as SV.

Glad there's another talented BM back in the game. Too many tards running about for things to be healthy. Humar deserves to be an unstoppable killing machine!

Cool, cool! =) To be honest, I don't think I WANT to swithc from surivival now. Most of you know I was die-hard marks, but I am really enjoying SV. It's definitely more challenging to play, but it's taught me a lot... and while I may not TOP the damage-meters, I'm usually pretty darned close to the top, at least in my guild =)

The upgrade-finding is a bit of a PITA, though. =P

Congrats, North!

I too have switched from sv to bm, not for any reason, im just bored with the game. I actually dont really play much any more, but i can say that i too forgot how much fun bm is.

I have my Humar (under changed name - he's called Ogryzek now) at lvl 70, but I run with the ravager mostly ;]
Humar is there just for the looks - I like to be fashionable while in Shatt ;P

Go to lightning Hoof. Ill show you one at 70 =D