The Darrwyn Reviews: Changing Spec - Builds, Talents and Class Mechanics - Hunter Forums

Hey all.

Since rolling a hunter, I've just about always been a Beast Master. It was easy to learn, easy to level, I won't say easy to master, but always fun. I dabbled a little with Marksman, thinking I'd like some increase in burst damage for battlegrounds, but gave up after just the second bg. The difference in dps just wasn't worth the learnng curve, in my humble opinion.

I recently thought about Survival. Early on, I thought SV would be all about laying traps, and I just don't think they hit hard enough to be a large part of any playstyle. So I continued on with BM. Until the other day…

An unscheduled trip to Orgrimmar gave me an opportunity to visit the trainer and change my off spec from MM to SV to see what all the fuss is about. I looked at various recommended build and glyph combinations and visited the auction house to check out the glyphs. A couple were cheap enough to buy for a testdrive, a couple were not. I bought the cheaper ones, learned and applied them. I set up a Power Aura signal to alert me when Black Arrow was available and put it where my Kill Command used to live on my UI. (I got the impression KC was not as high a priority as it is in BM. I still have it on my bars, just not in a priority location.)

i joined a Guild run of the Deepholm instance. I thought my DPS was fair, but no great improvement on BM. I was, disappointed.

Later I did more reading. I learned about explosive shot. I learned about Lock and Load. I suddenly realised the benefit of Scatter Shot, and I learned I no longer had Bestial Wrath. I slid Scatter Shot into my Bestial Wrath action bar spot and revisited the auction house. I wasn't going to get out of this cheaply. I bought another glyph (and more disappearing sand) and moved some of my shots around on my action bar.

The biggest change for me, is that I am no longer just mashing keys. I mashed Arcane Shot and Cobra Shot. Now my main shots are on much longer cooldowns. I don't use Arcane at all any more. It felt strange not mashing keys. I just had to! I read up on Serpent Sting and Cobra Shot. it seemed pointless to mash Serpent Sting, so I mash Cobra Shot while waiting for Explosive Shot cooldown, or the Black Arrow proc. If there's a bunch of targets I sling a few multi-shots but get straight back into the Cobra to build the focus up again. With no Bestial Wrath, my focus drains faster than I was accustomed to.

I joined a Heroic pug doing the Deephom instance again. They wiped twice and gave up, of course blaming the huntard. I get so fed up with these 15 yo asswipes who spend more time whinging than fighting. Despite the whinging, i was second on the recount meter, first for the early fights, and lost a bit of dps due to being to forced to move a lot fighting the big worm. I was last to die the first time, only when the pet went down did I succumb. Was first the second time, clobbered by a crit from the worm's savagery. Still, it wws the Huntard that meant the heler couldn't keep the tank alive, who couldn't hold agro because a wolf with cower on active was producing more threat than he was… yeah, it's always the huntard. Asswipes!

Anyway, I am finding that while questing, the pet (bear) has a harder time holding threat. I'll have a look at how I've set him up. Perhaps a little less armor and a bit more threat production is in order? As soon as I hurl a Black Arrow, the mobs pound on me, instead of the grizzly. That and the slow, deliberate taking of shots rather than the frantic mashing of keys are the early impressions of Survival Hunting.