I know that when I’m in battlegrounds I always feel more vulnerable when I’m MM or SV specced. Sure the burst is nice, but as you said… as if there weren’t enough classes that can lock us down, Blizz has to go and introduce Death Knights.

The DG/CoI combo is just silly. Furthermore, there’s usually more than just simply a DK to contend with. I always find too that most melee classes love to pile on the Hunter. We’re notorious for standing back and doing insane damage, but get us close and we’re pretty vulnerable. Once I get DG’d I usually have a DK with his pet, a Rogue and maybe an Enhance Shaman with all of his ghost wolves pounding on me.

As a Beast Master I don’t worry so much about getting away. If TBW is not available, I can Frost Trap/ Disengage or Deterrence to buy some time til it is available. As MM though, it can be a real bitch.

The best way to avoid CoI is to Deterrence incoming DG. However, if you never saw the DG coming, then you have a couple of options. First off you need to get away… Captain Obvious strikes again!

Disengage is the best option here if you have it up and the terrain makes it permissible. If you do get CoI thrown on you first, then Master’s Call and Scatter Shot is one way to get away. Before you do any of this though, make sure you drop a Frost Trap to keep the DK slowed for a bit.

Deterrence is a good idea if you’re being pulled into a large group, plus it will prevent you from getting chain CoI’d. I’d use my trinket as a last resort, or if some of the other options were on CD.

For MM and SV it’s critical to maintain the 30+ yds on the DKs, but in BGs that’s not always easily done. The thing to keep in mind is that you want to use your escape abilities sparingly and not blow them foolishly. MM still has a lot of tools for this purpose (scatter shot, ice traps, disengage, master’s call, deterrence, trinket), but they aren’t always going to help when the DK has buddies with him.

That’s why I prefer BM over MM and SV for PvP. It suits my smash mouth playstyle more for one, plus I also prefer dying less and killing more. I am nearly always at or near the top for overall damage, while also defending, attacking, returning flags and doing other objectives.

As long as you manage your pet well and keep it alive, BM is arguably one of the best specs period for BGs Imo. Combine that with the Orc racials and it’s well, “beastly”.

That build focuses on all out DPS, but in PvP being able to survive longer is more important in my experience.

Also, I think that now BM is actually a prefered talent for battlegrounds because of the death knights chains of ice. I’ve been killed in seconds by dk using chains of ice before I respecced and had beast within. This is the reason that now I prefer BM orc hunter rhather than MM trol hunter (as many other say that troll is superior for damage). What can MM hunter do when being death gripped by a dk from some unexpected directio0n and then but into ice chains?

What do you think?

I’ve been kickin’ this notion around for awhile. The thread I saw in the forum just prompted me to write it down today.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

That is all.