Specs - why BM?Follow

The only thing on that list I can answer is about the pet. The point of having a BM pet is that the pet should never be tanking, but always adding damage. It's like a fluffy dot that never stops. Assuming you can keep the pet alive the whole time, a BM pet adds a huge amount of dps.

My pet can do anywhere up to 25-30% of my damage. On top of that, Serpent's Swiftness is HELLA nice dps upgrade. I give 3% straight damage to everyone in the party, regardless if they're a class that uses AP (trueshot is useless if you're stuck in a group of mages, but I can be stuck in there and increase their damage). All this and we're completely ignoring the big red iwin button, which ROCKS if time it to be used during rapid fire, or during bloodlust.

There are many fights where you're not able to do straight dps on the boss, you're only allowed to do it in bursts (hydross for example). In those situations, BM burst damage easily exceeds the other two spec's damage.

Yes, keeping your pet alive can be a challenge sometimes (found out the other night that leo whirlwind = dead pet), you just have to play smart. First time I did leo, my pet died 4 times. My second attempt it died once. My third attempt I kept my pet alive the whole fight, he took barely a scratch. I also had a huge leg up on the next damage done, that fight with all its aggro drops is WONDERFUL for burst damage hunters, as was hydross.

Eventually there will get to be fights that BM will lose some of its edge, but for now, I'm king.

Higher dps, more mana effecient than MM, better group buff than MM.

Learn to control your pet, I might sound very cruel now but if you cant keep your pet alive on pretty much every encounter (some things like Illidari Council, Illidan and a few others with massive AoE excluded, but you (should) have 2pcT5 by then to swap in) you fail as a hunter.

Ofcourse your pet dies occasionally, it just happens.
But It's nearly always due to player error and it's fixed in 4 seconds by rezzing the pet.

Also, you should know how to spec your pet (dmg abilities > avoidance > dash/dive > resistances > stam > armor)
You can skip Dash/Dive for more resistances but i find that leaving it off autocast and using dash.dive to get your pet out of AoE fast keeps it alive more.

What's with all the MM hunters making excuses to not at least TRY it out? At the very MOST it costs 50g to try it out for a week, and another 50g to go back. At level 70, 100g practically FALLS into your backpack if you do a few dailies.

It's good that you're trying it out. I just wish more would. I have come across SOOOO many MM hunters that just REFUSE to try out BM

If you don't think that you'll be convinced right off the bat, go out to Blasted Lands, find one of the invincible mobs, start running a damage meter (prefferably Recount, because of the damage breakdown), and start attacking it with your normal raiding shot rotation. Do it until your mana is completely gone, record your results and do it a few more times to get a good average.

Then go back as BM and do the same things.

And if you want to see that it's NOT just your pet doing more damage, go out to Dr. Boom and keep your pet on passive. You'll very likely see higher DPS as BM- even without using the pet.

Or even just use Cheeky's spreadsheet to see the theoretical difference. You can find both q download and some instructions here.

Edited, May 10th 2008 4:22pm by ProjectMidnight

Fallacy #1 cited by a great many players: "I'm in the top 3, so why should I worry about changing spec/gear/augments/gems?"

You change because that change can make you better. If you're happy to be "within the top 3" as measured by the people you raid with, and that makes you unable to see why any change could be necessary, be prepared for be surprised when the rest of your raiding partners leave you behind. It won't happen in a week, or even in a month or two, but it will happen.

Excellent! Read the sticky. :)

Only. :) It's a 20% speed increase coupled with a synergistic assortment of ranged weapon speeds. It's huge. And better damage from the Pet, and Ferocious Inspiration.

BM isn't all that mana efficient. You fire faster, so you fire mana costing specials faster. SV is much more mana efficient.

Check out the sticky. I think there are some macros posted there.

You forget. MM. No Imp Mend, so his Pet eats DOTS in full. And no Imp Revive, so his Pet res is 10 seconds, not 4.


Yeah, break out two pieces of T5 for those fights where the Pet takes a lot of damage. Otherwise, there's a lot better gear in T5 content. That's another place a lot of Hunters seem to need assistance with: Being able to know what gear drops from what Bosses which is advantageous for Hunters. If you have any kind of DKP system figuring this out in advance will help you improve your gear fastest.