Hi there
I am just getting back into raiding - i used raid old school content (MC/BWL/AQ40) - but took a break during BC.
I am currently running BM 50/21 spec, I have 3300 attack power with Dragonhawk, and the obligatory Gorilla Pet. During a Vault Of Acheron raid today I was putting out 1400DPS, and the raid leader told me I should really look to be 1600DPS.
So, here is a link to my armory page, I am looking to upgrade gear with Badge turn ins, and some of the epic LW peices, I have not enchanted much of my gear yet as I was waiting to get better gear before spending the gold to do so, but I think I may just have to spend.
Any suggestions on gear, enchants, shot rotation, etc would be welcome as I want to get up to over 1600dps asap
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Gilneas&n=Psan
Thanks,
Psan
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Without looking at your armory, I can make one suggestion right off the bat:
Stable the gorilla for soloing and farming.
Get a cat.
Seriously.
Other than that, I'm not a BM expert, and the more knowledgeable here will help on gear and tweaks to spec if need be.
Edit to add:
Ok, glanced at your armory. You have nothing enchanted? That would be a healthy start. Obviously you need a new helm, and your trinkets can afford to be updated. There's a quest chain in Ice Crown with Argent Crusade that has a nice on use trinket. Go do it. Today. Get to revered with Ebon blade for the shoulders and helm enchant. Your leggings, while ok, could be upgraded. Heroic Halls of Stone has a nice pair. Argent Crusade also has a nice cloak at honored.
While I'm no expert on BM, I see something wrong, IMO. You have 3 points in improved arcane. Wasted points IMO. Why would a BM hunter even use arcane shot? Take those 3 points, go 2/2 GFTT (your crit isn't high enough for only 1 point yet), and finish off cobra strikes and longevity. Or you could go with animal handler (since the change to it, I don't know if it's a crucial talent for BM or not anymore, others can chime in on this).
But that's just my opinion, I could easily be wrong.
Edited, Dec 6th 2008 1:41pm by Steelray
Edited, Dec 6th 2008 1:45pm by Steelray
Stable the gorilla for soloing and farming.
Get a cat.
Seriously.
Other than that, I'm not a BM expert, and the more knowledgeable here will help on gear and tweaks to spec if need be.
Edit to add:
Ok, glanced at your armory. You have nothing enchanted? That would be a healthy start. Obviously you need a new helm, and your trinkets can afford to be updated. There's a quest chain in Ice Crown with Argent Crusade that has a nice on use trinket. Go do it. Today. Get to revered with Ebon blade for the shoulders and helm enchant. Your leggings, while ok, could be upgraded. Heroic Halls of Stone has a nice pair. Argent Crusade also has a nice cloak at honored.
While I'm no expert on BM, I see something wrong, IMO. You have 3 points in improved arcane. Wasted points IMO. Why would a BM hunter even use arcane shot? Take those 3 points, go 2/2 GFTT (your crit isn't high enough for only 1 point yet), and finish off cobra strikes and longevity. Or you could go with animal handler (since the change to it, I don't know if it's a crucial talent for BM or not anymore, others can chime in on this).
But that's just my opinion, I could easily be wrong.
Edited, Dec 6th 2008 1:41pm by Steelray
Edited, Dec 6th 2008 1:45pm by Steelray
5 posts
Thanks for the reply, I'll look into the Argent Crusade Quest for the Trinket. I have the Cloak from them and I'm grinding their rep for the Chest
I hear you about the cat, I'll head off and get one today!
Enchants I was hoping to put off getting expensive enchants till i got some better gear, but as i said in the OP I may have to just bite that bullet now.
As for talents, I needed 21 in MM to get readiness, which I find very useful. 1 point in GFTT seems to be enough to keep my pet in mana.
Thanks again,
Psan
I hear you about the cat, I'll head off and get one today!
Enchants I was hoping to put off getting expensive enchants till i got some better gear, but as i said in the OP I may have to just bite that bullet now.
As for talents, I needed 21 in MM to get readiness, which I find very useful. 1 point in GFTT seems to be enough to keep my pet in mana.
Thanks again,
Psan
1400 is too low, that's what I'd expect to pull out in 10 man at 70. My friend hunter puts out 2400avg in heroics at 80. 1400 in a raid is embarrassing, when your raid leader told you 1600, he probably meant something else. I am guessing your problem lies mostly in your rotation.
Are you volleying on 3+ mobs?
Are you volleying on 3+ mobs?
With your gear, you should easily be looking at 2300 DPS in heroics. With the right buffs, you should be looking at 2400 in 10-mans and anywhere from 2500-3000 in 25-mans.
First off, get your gear enchanted! There are so many enchanters around right now that are just giving away cheap/free enchants to skill up. Are there any enchanters in your guild that can do this? AP to Bracers, Hit to Gloves, Icewalker to boots, +8 stats to chest and 16 Agi to cloak are all fairly cheap and will improve your stats immensely.
Second, your build is just a little bit off. In the BM tree, Endurance Training is more beneficial than Thick Hide. Take 1 point from Improved Mend Pet and 1 point from Frenzy and put them into Animal Handler. Take a point out of Cobra Strikes and put it into Longevity. At level 80, your pet crits so much that Cobra Strikes doesn't really shine at all. In the MM tree, You should try 3/3 Focused Aim (but still work on getting to 8% hit from gear, since the hit from FA doesn't apply to your pet), 5/5 Lethal Shots, 3/3 Careful Aim, 4/5 Mortal Shots, 2/2 GftT, 3/3 Stings (Arcane shot is useless to a BM hunter), and of course the point into Readiness. This will get your hit rating up, your pet's focus up, and your Serpent sting up, which is actually some of the bread and butter to our DPS now (I'll explain in a moment)
Next, get a cat. Gorillas are AMAZING for solo grinding, but really don't do as well as a Ferocity pet in raids. This spec is full of win for cat DPS. Keep Rabid on Autocast, but pop Call of the Wild manually during BW/Trinkets/Rapid Fire.
Unfortunately, we can't (to my knowledge) look at Glyphs on the Armory yet, so I'll point these out just in case. Your first priority in Glyph should be Glyph of Steady Shot. That one increases your Steady Shot damage by 10% when you have Serpent Sting up (see why you should have the points into Imp.Stings?). Depending on your server's economy you may look at anywhere from 50-100g for it, since it's a randomly discovered Major Glyph (needs 385 inscriptions to even get a 1 in 70 chance to learn it), but if you're looking to increase your DPS, it's actually one of the cheapest ways to get a significant boost in DPS.
Second Glyph is Bestial Wrath. It decreases the cooldown of your BW by an additional 20 seconds, bringing your CD (with talents) to barely over 1 minute. More uptime = more DPS.
Third is debatable. Some people like Hunter's Mark, others prefer Serpent Sting. I've seen some people go with Aspect of the Viper, but I don't really care for that one much. Ask the other hunters you raid with if they have the HM glyph, if no one has it (or you're the only one), take HM, otherwise take Serpent Sting.
Now, here's where the skill really comes into playing a hunter:
1. Open with Serpent Sting
2. Spam Steady Shot
3. Refresh the sting every 15-18 seconds
4. ???
5. PROFIT!
(I left out the send in kitty part because it's more interesting to raid with the pet on Defensive. Just don't tell your raid leader about it ;D)
PS: If you're looking for a cheap alternative to getting Enchant Weapon: Accuracy (could cost 1000g per enchant with the way mats are right now!), get a pair of Titanium Weapon Chains off the AH. You'll lose about 1% crit, but save around 1800g. Just don't be stingy once you start getting epic weapons.
Edited, Dec 6th 2008 5:59pm by ProjectMidnight
First off, get your gear enchanted! There are so many enchanters around right now that are just giving away cheap/free enchants to skill up. Are there any enchanters in your guild that can do this? AP to Bracers, Hit to Gloves, Icewalker to boots, +8 stats to chest and 16 Agi to cloak are all fairly cheap and will improve your stats immensely.
Second, your build is just a little bit off. In the BM tree, Endurance Training is more beneficial than Thick Hide. Take 1 point from Improved Mend Pet and 1 point from Frenzy and put them into Animal Handler. Take a point out of Cobra Strikes and put it into Longevity. At level 80, your pet crits so much that Cobra Strikes doesn't really shine at all. In the MM tree, You should try 3/3 Focused Aim (but still work on getting to 8% hit from gear, since the hit from FA doesn't apply to your pet), 5/5 Lethal Shots, 3/3 Careful Aim, 4/5 Mortal Shots, 2/2 GftT, 3/3 Stings (Arcane shot is useless to a BM hunter), and of course the point into Readiness. This will get your hit rating up, your pet's focus up, and your Serpent sting up, which is actually some of the bread and butter to our DPS now (I'll explain in a moment)
Next, get a cat. Gorillas are AMAZING for solo grinding, but really don't do as well as a Ferocity pet in raids. This spec is full of win for cat DPS. Keep Rabid on Autocast, but pop Call of the Wild manually during BW/Trinkets/Rapid Fire.
Unfortunately, we can't (to my knowledge) look at Glyphs on the Armory yet, so I'll point these out just in case. Your first priority in Glyph should be Glyph of Steady Shot. That one increases your Steady Shot damage by 10% when you have Serpent Sting up (see why you should have the points into Imp.Stings?). Depending on your server's economy you may look at anywhere from 50-100g for it, since it's a randomly discovered Major Glyph (needs 385 inscriptions to even get a 1 in 70 chance to learn it), but if you're looking to increase your DPS, it's actually one of the cheapest ways to get a significant boost in DPS.
Second Glyph is Bestial Wrath. It decreases the cooldown of your BW by an additional 20 seconds, bringing your CD (with talents) to barely over 1 minute. More uptime = more DPS.
Third is debatable. Some people like Hunter's Mark, others prefer Serpent Sting. I've seen some people go with Aspect of the Viper, but I don't really care for that one much. Ask the other hunters you raid with if they have the HM glyph, if no one has it (or you're the only one), take HM, otherwise take Serpent Sting.
Now, here's where the skill really comes into playing a hunter:
1. Open with Serpent Sting
2. Spam Steady Shot
3. Refresh the sting every 15-18 seconds
4. ???
5. PROFIT!
(I left out the send in kitty part because it's more interesting to raid with the pet on Defensive. Just don't tell your raid leader about it ;D)
PS: If you're looking for a cheap alternative to getting Enchant Weapon: Accuracy (could cost 1000g per enchant with the way mats are right now!), get a pair of Titanium Weapon Chains off the AH. You'll lose about 1% crit, but save around 1800g. Just don't be stingy once you start getting epic weapons.
Edited, Dec 6th 2008 5:59pm by ProjectMidnight
This is toward Project Midnight:
Does Call of the Wild stack? I was under the impression it did not, so I'm not specced into it, since the BM hunter in my static heroic group has it. If it does, I have some retooling to do with my cat, maybe. Currently, I'm specced into heart of the phoenix for those oh crap moments.
And toward the OP about enchants:
Make friends with an enchanter ASAP. Save all your BoE greens for D/Eing and start stockpiling mats. Hope to get lucky on shards during instance runs, ??? profit.
I've enchanted every single piece of gear, regardless of how replaceable it is since 77 when I started replacing my old 70 epics by doing that. I have several friends who enchant. I helped them get skill points, they get me good enchants. Win/win. Now, on your realm, idk what Icescale leg armor goes for, so that may be a major bullet to bite. If it is, go ahead and get the standard blue leg armor, but once you get good leggings, only use icescale. Not only is it much better, but it makes a better impression on people that you're actually trying. (I got lucky and found a ton of them on the AH one day for bargain basement prices, and went and bought 10 of them. I have all I'll need, and maybe a little side profit down the road. It never hurts to look for steals).
Yeah 1400 seems VERY low. I was doing more than that as SV before 3.02 at 70. I think Midnight covered most of it. Let us know how it goes.
Does Call of the Wild stack? I was under the impression it did not, so I'm not specced into it, since the BM hunter in my static heroic group has it. If it does, I have some retooling to do with my cat, maybe. Currently, I'm specced into heart of the phoenix for those oh crap moments.
And toward the OP about enchants:
Make friends with an enchanter ASAP. Save all your BoE greens for D/Eing and start stockpiling mats. Hope to get lucky on shards during instance runs, ??? profit.
I've enchanted every single piece of gear, regardless of how replaceable it is since 77 when I started replacing my old 70 epics by doing that. I have several friends who enchant. I helped them get skill points, they get me good enchants. Win/win. Now, on your realm, idk what Icescale leg armor goes for, so that may be a major bullet to bite. If it is, go ahead and get the standard blue leg armor, but once you get good leggings, only use icescale. Not only is it much better, but it makes a better impression on people that you're actually trying. (I got lucky and found a ton of them on the AH one day for bargain basement prices, and went and bought 10 of them. I have all I'll need, and maybe a little side profit down the road. It never hurts to look for steals).
Yeah 1400 seems VERY low. I was doing more than that as SV before 3.02 at 70. I think Midnight covered most of it. Let us know how it goes.
Psan wrote:
As for talents, I needed 21 in MM to get readiness, which I find very useful. 1 point in GFTT seems to be enough to keep my pet in mana.
When you go into ferocity, especially with Call of the wild and rabid, you'll want more focus. Trust me, go 2/2.
Another thing while looking at your armory your hit seems very low, the new cap with FA is 198 but as a BM hunter you really need to focus on getting to the cap of 268 w/o FA since it doesnt transfer to your pet and as a BM hunter your pet is a good 40% of your DPS.
Steelray wrote:
Does Call of the Wild stack? I was under the impression it did not, so I'm not specced into it, since the BM hunter in my static heroic group has it. If it does, I have some retooling to do with my cat, maybe. Currently, I'm specced into heart of the phoenix for those oh crap moments.
Tested in-game on 12/7/08 (patch 3.0.3) and it does stack. Even if it does get nerfed in the future, I would still suggest that all hunters in the raid have it to chain it.
5 posts
Thanks so much for the replies.
1. I now have a cat!
2. I have changed my talent allocation as suggested.
and the big one
3. I am sticking religiously to my shot rotation serpent/steady/ steady/etc re-apply sting / steady, I really didnt notice how much the temptation to use arcane / multishot was gimping my DPS and draining my mana
4. I have new gear and am getting enchants / extra sockets (BS)
5. As of now I am 3623 AP with Dragonhawk, and expect to see really significant improvement in DPS. Thanks again.
Psan
1. I now have a cat!
2. I have changed my talent allocation as suggested.
and the big one
3. I am sticking religiously to my shot rotation serpent/steady/ steady/etc re-apply sting / steady, I really didnt notice how much the temptation to use arcane / multishot was gimping my DPS and draining my mana
4. I have new gear and am getting enchants / extra sockets (BS)
5. As of now I am 3623 AP with Dragonhawk, and expect to see really significant improvement in DPS. Thanks again.
Psan
Great! Keep us updated on how much your DPS soars! I really want to know! ^_^
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