Beastly-Ass Beast Mastery Hunter Ass-Kicking Build of Death: Patch 4.3 Edition
Been awhile since I posted an overview of my BM PvP build, so I figured it was about time to provide a glimpse at what I’m using currently.
My previous build I posted way back in July of last year, and while it served me well at the time…I’ve made a few beneficial adjustments since then. My interview with Garxz was mainly what prompted me to reevaluate my build. Given that the guy is a pretty godly PvP Hunter, I was eager to follow some of his build advice.
Let me begin this guide by saying…unlike PvE builds, PvP builds are not an exact science. There is no “best way” to do it. There are definitely wrong ways of doing things as well as more ideal types of builds, but there is usually never one build that is going to work as well for everyone. Having said that, most “good” PvP builds will share around 90% of the same talents – give or take. Apart from those “core talent points”, there are typically about 4-5 points that you can spend as you see fit.
My build is mainly geared for BGs. I very seldom compete in arena these days, although that may likely change. 🙂 I mostly just log on and do some randoms – never playing with a set group of teammates.
Anyway, here’s how I roll…
32/0/9 Beast Mastery PvP Build
…and my BM PvP Glyphs
BM PvP Build Breakdown
There are a few subtle differences when compared to the BM PvP build I posted in July of last year, with the most notable being the addition of Focus Fire and Killing Streak, as well as the re-introduction of Survival Tactics.
To grab those talents I really didn’t have to sacrifice much.
Talents I gave up…
Kindred Spirits – I ended up deciding to dump this talent after reading Garxz’s reason for not taking it…
“I find Killing Streak a lot more useful than having 10 more focus — it doesn’t give me anything to have 10 more focus if I’m always below 100 anyway.”
Made perfect sense to me when I stopped to think about it. The benefit from Kindred Spirits is really only realized when you’re opening on a target. In PvP, we rarely have the opportunity to regen back to full during a fight. Killing Streak is definitely a better option than Kindred Spirits, which I’ll elaborate on further when I discuss that talent.
Go for the Throat – This talent seems like a good idea, but it’s effect is pretty negligible in PvP — especially when Focus Fire is talented. My pet just doesn’t get focus-starved enough to where I feel GftT is needed.
Pathing – I dumped points in Pathing so that I could pick up Survival Tactics again. This is mainly for the reduced cooldown on Disengage, but it also makes it so that my traps are almost never resisted. Even with Spell Penetration capped, your enemies still have a 4% chance to resist traps, but not when this is talented.
Talents gained…
Focus Fire – I’d previously avoided this for PvP, but it’s actually a really solid talent for BM PvP. I used to think that maintaining Frenzy uptime on my pet was more important than the haste I’d get from the effect, but not so. Focus Fire can provide a huge boost to focus regen and DPS if used properly. Another reason I hadn’t grabbed it was due to lack of me wanting another spell to manage, as I have enough keybinds as it is. However, Garxz had mentioned using it mainly with his Cobra Shot macro, and that it usually would proc at 4-5 stacks. I tried it out and he was right. By the time I settle in for a few Cobra Shots to get my focus back up, Frenzy is almost always stacked – meaning I nearly always get the full benefit from the effect. With the longer uptime on the effect since Patch 4.3, BM Hunters now have an easier time of maintaining this effect while PvPing.
Here’s the macro I’m using, by the way…
/cast Cobra Shot /petassist /cast Focus Fire /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Just as in BM PvE, you want to avoid using Bestial Wrath when focus starved, if possible. It’s especially important if you’re using this spell with a macro, as you want to try and maintain your pet’s Frenzy stacks while it’s enraged.
Killing Streak – This talent procs a lot and is very beneficial for PvP. I was really surprised when I first started using it as I felt the proc rate might not be that great, plus the 6 second use window seemed like it might be a problem if you didn’t have a live target nearby. It’s hot stuff, actually. The burst that you get from its effect is awesome, plus it helps a bit with focus economy. Because the Killing Streak effect reduces the focus cost on Kill Command by 10, it helps to counter the loss of the 10 added overall focus you gain by way of Kindred Spirits. What’s even better is that the reduced focus cost can keep proccing all fight long. In short, this talent reduces the focus cost and improves the damage on one of our key abilities. Total win here.
Improved Serpent Sting – This is one of those talents that some like and some do not. What it boils down to is that you need either Pathing or Improved Serpent Sting in order to reach the 2nd tier of the SV tree. Pathing is definitely not bad, but I’ve been using ISS and am seeing it as beneficial. I like that the initial portion of this talent’s effect hits immediately when cast – giving a tiny bit of added burst, plus the increased crit chance on the periodic damage is nice as well. It’s helped me more than a few times when a sprinting Rogue has tried to flee and LoS me, only to have my Serpent Sting ticks mop up his last few hit points.
Survival Tactics – I love this talent mainly for the 4 second reduced cooldown on Disengage. When combined with: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera + the Glyph of Disengage, you can get your Disengage cooldown reduced to an amazing 12 seconds. On top of that, it also serves to eliminate enemy trap resists, provided you have enough Spell Penetration.
Now let’s have a look at my BM PvP Glyphs…
These are pretty much the same as before. Here’s a rundown on my glyphs — the underlined ones I feel every BM PvP hunter should be using.
BM PvP Prime Glyphs
- Arcane Shot – Makes our go-to shot hit even harder.
- Kill Command – Reduces the focus cost of Kill Command.
- Kill Shot – Provides added finishing power by allowing double Kill Shots.
BM PvP Major Glyphs
- Bestial Wrath – Reduces the cooldown on our best ability. Gotta have it.
- Deterrence –Â It may not seem like a lot, but shaving another 10 seconds off of the cooldown is pretty useful, especially when stacked with the 8 sec. reduction from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera.
- Disengage – A five second reduction of its cooldown is a lifesaver. Disengage will help keep you away from the Spirit Healer.
BM PvP Minor Glyphs
- Feign Death – Feign Death is an important PvP ability, making this glyph a must-have. Feign Death is very useful for interrupting spell casts, plus it can jam up melee by causing them to lose you as a target. This glyph whacks 5 seconds off of its cooldown.
- Lesser Proportion – I like this glyph because it causes my pet to be extremely low-profile. I use Ghostcrawler, who is already fairly small and hard to see, but with this glyph he’s like a small and deadly blue mist that moves from target to target. I like to think it makes my pet less of a target, but maybe that’s just me. 😉 Glyph of Scare Beast is a really useful glyph which could be used in this slot instead. You be the judge.
- Revive Pet –Â This glyph is handy to have for those times when you need to revive your pet in combat. It prevents casting pushback during Revive Pet. Not an amazing glyph, but a better option than Aspect of the Pack.
Alrighty folks… so there’s a look at the BM PvP build I’ve been using for the past several months. It works quite well for me, so if you’re looking to give BM PvP a try, please give it a shot.
If you have any questions or comments, please post them below.
So I’m a new player, a little over 3 weeks old, and I really wish I had come across this site when I first started! Granted, I will still use what is here and it’s a HUGE help, but it could’ve saved me a lot of frustration lol! I’m a lvl 69 BM who mostly focuses on PVE, but I like to dabble in PVP every now and then. I almost gave up BG’s completely because of how badly I was getting pwned, but I stuck with it and watched how some of the other players were utilizing movement and traps. Just that in itself paid off for me when I hit 3rd place in an AB game! Since then I hit up RBG 4 to 5 times a day when I first log in before I go to my questing.
Something that still bugs the crap out of me though, and I’m hoping someone can give me an explanation for it….stealthed rogues not showing on my mini or being exposed by my flares. I keep Track Hidden on, constantly watch my mini map for that dot, and keep a flare up constantly when I’m guarding a flag, yet I always have rogues just pop out right next to me and kill me…all without showing on the map or becoming visible in the flare. Why is that and is there a way to counter that?
Throw down a couple traps as well. A rogue can see your flare, so he can easily avoid it if he’s paying attention. A rogue can notice traps as well, but the more things he has to worry about, the more likely he is to fuck up. I like standing on a freezing trap, and if he accidentally gets too close…
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think track hidden only increases stealth detection. Basically, giving you a better chance of seeing them, but it’s not guaranteed. I’m pretty sure that just boils down to luck.
Just a quick thanks for all this. I had given up PvP a few weeks ago after getting full s11 gear and just continuing to be frustrated in BG’s, not feeling like I knew what I was doing.
Studied your stuff, made a lot of macros and actually tested them all. Also brushed up on Syncaine’s BG strats.
Last night I locked down a lone feral flag carrier for almost 60 seconds all by myself. Best time ever!! I used to hate flag BGs, now I’m chain running Twin Peaks and loving it.
Woot!
Right on! 😀
Kazador-appreciate the input. Couple of questions and thoughts.
I’ve already dropped Kindred and picked up Killing Streak. Gar’s explanation made perfect sense.
Now given I am extremly new and will always strive for mediocrity, couple things. Pertaining to Arena; The AW on the team put it together and I like him. He’s a young kid but he worries too much. Given I’m old enough to be his dad that’s why the name:) Hell we went 1-5 last night and he was so depressed as my rating took a pounding and I want the noob 1550 achieve. Like I care when I get it. Now the ret pallly and I have a lot of fun but at this point I’ve no clue as to who is actually going to be my regular partner. Time constraints and such. Gonna be harder with a 3 but I’m patient.
It may sound kinda snarky comin from a ‘new’ PvPer but I have what I call the ‘dick factor’ If you’re a dick, no matter how good you are or in many cases think you are, I won’t play with you. Already booted a lock n a pally who were actually decent:)
Anyhow, I have found in Arena that on occasion ice trap comes in handy so if it’s needed I’ll use it. That being said, you are suggesting that I spec in the MM tree for Arena and for BG’s, go in the SV tree right? That makes sense and I’ll give it a try to see the results in Arena. I’ve no problem by the way doing a respec for either scenario and will probably do that.
Now the FF macro was when I was soloing everything in PvE. You’re saying only in Cobra for PvP? If you have the time, please explain why. Keep it simple, I am a simple lad
A
Yes, use the SV talents for BGs or 5v5 Arena, where Entrapment really shines.
In 2v2 and most 3v3, you’ll be using Freezing Trap, in which case you can’t use Ice Trap and you shouldn’t use Snake Trap because their poison will break your Freeze Trap. So instead focus on the best DPS talents, which are in the MM tree.
As for Focus Fire: It gives you haste. The only time haste really makes a big difference is when casting Cobra Shot, when haste speeds it up a lot. Plus, you really DON’T want to use Focus Fire during Bestial Wrath, when it’s better to keep the haste on your big red pet. Macroing Focus Fire to Cobra Shot solves both problems: gives you haste when you need it most, and will leave haste on your pet during Bestial Wrath, since you shouldn’t be using Cobra Shot during Bestial Wrath.
Make sense?
No Kaz it didn’t make sense at all. Do you have any type of software that you could do like a pie chart or graphs-in color, that you could put up to better illustrate the point please? Lol, okay I kid.
Yes it makes sense and me being me it never occurred to me that having FF macroed into all the shots would probably be having it go off while in BW which even I know is bad. I have never used Cobra in BW. It’s okay to use multi-shot in Aspect of the Cheetah though right?
Multi-shotting while is Aspect of Cheetah is awesome… as long as none of the things you’re shooting retaliate.
Scare Beast Training Seminar:
Scare Beast Focus/Mouseover Macro:
#showtooltip Scare Beast
/cast [mod:shift][@focus] scare beast
/cast [@mouseover,harm][harm] scare beast
Translation:
If you hold shift, this will automatically cast Scare Beast on your focus target. This is what you’ll use most in Arena on some poor unsuspecting Feral Druid who won’t really get to play.
If not holding shift, this will target whoever your mouse is over (Feral, Hunter Pet, Shaman in Ghost Wolf). This is how you’ll use it in BGs.
If your mouse isn’t over any target, this will cast on your current target. You won’t do this often, because you’re probably shooting whatever you have targeted.
You will need to keybind this macro to something easy to reach, as you’ll need your mouse over the target you want in most cases.
Note on Scare Beast in Arena:
You pattern on a Feral in Arena should be:
Scare Beast: 8 Sec duration
Scare Beast again: 4 sec duration due to diminishing returns
Scatter Shot: 4 Seconds
Freezing Trap: 8 Seconds
Total of 24 seconds.
Important detail… Then WAIT a few seconds to enable diminishing returns to end on Scare Beast (need 18-20 seconds after your second cast of Scare Beast for Diminishing Returns to reset).
At roughly 30 seconds, start over. Scare Beastx2, then Scatter, then trap.
You’ll have them CCed constantly for 80% of the fight.
Note that a smart Feral can shift out of Beast Form if they see you casting this, but you can keep at it, and they can’t do any DPS while in human form.
If facing a really clever druid, drop snake traps, Feign Death, then cast Scare Beast. By the time they can target you to see what you’re casting, it’ll be too late for them to react. This works well in duels.
Enjoy!
Nice macro, Kaz. I added it to the macros compendium. 🙂
Hey Sub-Those Orc senses are finely attuned. Right now I too have SB on a seperate bind with nothing macroed in it and with my just finished intensive scientific testing, okay I tried it on a target dummy a few times (Thank you anonymous Feral) I think I’ll leave it as is. I’ve no trouble hitting it and my SS macro. Besides if there is a resist which does happen occasionally I don’t blow one of my best CC’s. God I am so n00b.
One other thing Kazador mentioned that to me seems a highly beneficial macro-the scare, scatter trap one. That is of course assuming the fkn Feral isn’t in my face as they seem to love to be… How would you write the macro? Below is one of 2 I use, the other the same except it has Ice Trap as I’ve found that in many cases better against rogues n such-especially in BG. What would the macro be to incorporate Scare Beast?
#showtooltip Scatter Shot
/castsequence [@mouseover,harm][harm] reset=3 Scatter Shot, Trap Launcher, !Freezing Trap
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
I’d have to agree, I was a bit sceptical about focus fire and killing streak but having tested them they work out great. Be careful with improved mend pet, if a warlock dots up the pet (happens alot) and you dispell unstable afflicition then your silenced for 4 seconds and take some damage. Also there is a slight problem when facing shadow priests…
Sin and Punishment Rank 1
When your Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller and all nearby enemy targets within 6 yards have a 50% chance to be instantly feared in horror for 3 sec.
I can’t say i’d be that popular if this happened in a bg or arena match XD.
I don’t use it and rely on bloodthirsty and normal mend pet to keep them up, perhaps spirit mend if its available.
Aggie:
My Orcish Senses tingled when you posted, so I might as well throw this out there.
Basically, I keep Scare Beast on a different button than the rest, so I’m ready to pop it in case some blasted Feral shows his face. Here’s a sample.
On one button (ironically, 1) I have:
#showtooltip
/dismount (mounted)
/cast [nomod] Hunter’s Mark; [mod:shift] Camouflage; [mod:ctrl] Scare Beast
On another (E) I have:
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] Wing Clip
/cast [nomod] Disengage
/castsequence [mod:shift] reset=3/combat Trap Launcher, !Freezing Trap
/cast [mod:ctrl] Ice Trap
/cast [mod:alt] Freezing Trap
/use [mod:alt] 13 (Slot 13 is where I keep my PvP trinket)
And finally, on (F) I have:
#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] Concussive Shot; [mod:shift] Scatter Shot; [mod:ctrl] Tranquilizing Shot; [mod:alt] Widow Venom
Of course, this usually means my pinky needs to be able to bench press 100lbs. But my logic in this setup is to keep them on separate buttons so I can cast them when needed. So let’s say I want to Scatter Trap somebody; I do Shift+F, Shift E, Shift E. Or when some annoying feral is harassing our Priest, I can run up and hit ctrl+1.
The only problem is if I hit Alt+F4, but that’s never happened yet. 😉
So in the midst of a debate ‘tween two proficient BM PvP hunters Agio steps in with his usual confusion….. but this time even more so! I’ve now been playing the PvP for 3 whole months and I stepped into Arena 2’s 11 days ago. Would love to do 3’s but believe me, even getting a 2 is a bitch when you’re a new hunter. It’s like you have a highly contagious disease. Anyhow, after reading the back and forth and looking at the builds I’ve questions from the mediocre player-that’d be me. I’ll be doing others a service as well as I have no shame.
Here is my current build. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/grizzly-hills/Agio/advanced 99% of the time I run with a Spirit Beast. I find in 2’s the burst, if timed right is a kickass finisher. Even against the vaunted MM spec with the ever present spider or chimp. Feel free to advise on the build if y’all have the time. I’m debating dropping kindred and going with killing streak as per both of you.
For BG”s , which I’m doing less and less I’ve been using Glyph of Concussive Shot. To be honest I’m not sure the damn thing even works. For Arena I’m a tad perplexed, Masters Call or Deterrence? I swap between both of em but have yet to figure out which is best-I could see MC for 3’s, 2’s deterrence ‘seems’ better. In 2’s disengage glyph I think is marginal. Thoughts?
Now me being me, I have stopcasting, Focus Fire and AotH macroed into every shot with a 2nd keybind for Cobra with AotF. I find I rarely if ever use AotF in Arena -exception is to burn down a DK, especially the BM’s nightmare the BDK. In BG’s it’s almost a non-issue. Instead I’m relying on fervor.
So input would be appreciated on the build and all the other rambling I’ve done.
It’s a good post Gar and I’m glad to see you back writing.
I believe the Glyph of Disengage to be a “must have”, but for the 3rd slot I think Deterrence or Master’s Call are both good choices. Experiment with both then use what best fits. One thought that comes to mind is that you may not see the benefit on the Deterrence glyph as much in arena if you’re double DPS 2v2, as those matches can go pretty quick. Master’s Call has a short enough cooldown to where you’ll be able to use it more frequently – enjoying its longer duration more often.
Your armory is unavailable right now for some reason.
Agio,
Your build is decent for BGs. Glyph of Concussive Shot really shines on mounted players.
For BGs, I would recommend that you drop Trap Mastery and Kindred Spirits, and switch Pathing for Improved Serpent Sting. Pick up Killing Streak if possible.
For 2s, especially with a Ret Pally Partner, that’s not a good build. You want to maximize burst there, and the ONLY trap you should use in 2s is Freezing Trap, so Entrapment is useless. Instead, Take only Hunter vs. Wild in the SV tree, and in the MM tree take Go for the Throat, Efficiency, and Sic Em. I agree with Garwulf that you really want Glyph of Master’s Call, and you’ll probably use it frequently on your partner to enable him to stay in melee range of a target at all times.
So, you really need to decide if you want a build tailored for BGs (where Entrapment is awesome), or for 2s (where Entrapment is useless).
By the way, the next piece of PVP gear you should buy is the on use Agility Trinket. Upgrading that will make a HUGE difference in your burst DPS.
Also, macro focus fire ONLY to Cobra Shot. You don’t need to activate it if you’re using any other ability, and it’s better to leave the haste on your pet except when casting Cobra Shot.
I hope that helps!
Kaz
Garwulf, this is an important question. What pet are you using??
I would hope it depends on the situation. One thing I’ve come to learn in Cataclysm is that there simply is no go-to pet for PvP anymore. I don’t even have a pet out when Arenas start, preferring to call it after I find out what I’m facing.
If you’re facing double melee DPS in 2s, you’ll want a Bird of Prey. Double casters? a Monkey or Moth (though I prefer to have Roar of Sacrifice available). Strand of the Ancients? A Wyvern. Did BattlegroundTargets just show the opposing team has five Hunters? Bird of Prey. Capture the Flag map? Devilsaur. No healers on the opposing team? Wyvern/Silithid/Spider.
I know some folks have favorites, but they’re missing out on a serious differentiator in PvP by not swapping out pets as the situation changes, in my opinion.
As BM, I mostly use a Spirit Beast for heals + Agi.
However, depending on team composition and RBG map, I also use:
Devilsaur for Crit boost and Anti-healing debuff
Chimera for AOE of flag (especially in Battle for Gilneas)
Silithid for Flag running maps (Warsong Gulch and Twin Peaks) for constant health buff for team, frequent root of enemy flag carrier, and Roar of Sacrifice on my flag carrier for defense.
These days, I just run with 3 monkeys that I rotate out constantly for the RoS and monkey blind. They work well in nearly every situation and it cuts down on me needing to make many adjustments. To be honest I don’t think you need any pets for Strand of the Ancients. Just keep concussive shot up on the demolisher/player (which is great standard practice) and you won’t have to worry about it.
The monkey blind is pretty much a given to me considering how long of a cc chain you can string on a healer/caster with blind + scatter + trap + silence + readiness + 1/2 trap + 1/2 silence. That’s pretty much a guranteed LONG time to dps/peel. In 2s with double dps, they other side won’t have a dispel, so that long of a cc chain is pretty much a guaranteed win. The only time I ever bring out a dps pet is in rbgs when the enemy flag carrier has enough stacks to make cc’ing his healers less of a priority. The I’ll bring out a cat or wolf depending on our team comp and just use my pve rotation.
I always use Ghostcrawler (Spirit Beast).
But about taking Improved Mend Pet and skipping Glyph of Scare Beast… I don’t think you can sell me on those. Try, if you dare…
Oh, I won’t try.
IMP is something I’ve taken for quite some time. I guess I’m a little overprotective of my pets. 😉
If I start taking arena semi-seriously again I will definitely go for the Scare Beast glyph. The Lesser proportion glyph is more or less a novelty glyph for me atm, even though I like to think it makes a difference.
One other thing to play with: Put Scare Beast into a mouseover and Focus macro. In BGs, use the mouseover functionality on Ferals and BM hunter pets. It’s a blast. If in Arena, set the feral as focustarget, and use Scare Beast, Scatter, Trap to CC them for at least 24 out of every 30 seconds. They might as well not play.
See if you really use Deterrence on cooldown. I find I really like the double duration of Master’s Call to use on myself or teammates, but rarely feel the need for a shorter Deterrence CD.
We can debate the pros and cons of Efficiency vs. Survival Tactics, and Glyph of Deterrence vs. Master’s Call. But there are two selections you’ve made that I’d disagree with:
1. Improved Mend Pet: Simply not worth expending a global cooldown every 10 seconds for a small chance that your pet will escape CC faster. You really have to keep Mend Pet up, and be lucky, to get any use out of this. With only 1 in that talent, you’re even more dependent on luck. I really prefer to skip Mend Pet except for emergency healing. Instead, I get to use that global cooldown every 10 seconds for a shot. I think that more than makes up for my pet not being on target quite as much.
2. Glyph of Scare Beast is win. There are few things as fun as chain fearing feral druids, and sometimes shamans in ghostwolf form, and other hunter pets. I’d drop Glyph of Revive Pet (VERY rarely used), before losing Glyph of Scare Beast. I LOVE seeing a Feral in Arena. I can keep them CCed nearly 100% of the time with Scare Beast, Scatter, and traps. It makes me laugh, maniacally…
As for Survival Tactics, I have a question. I THOUGHT that as of patch 4.2 hunter traps were no longer resistible if you have enough Spell pen. Are you SURE there is still a base resist to traps? If so, I might be convinced to take that talent. Otherwise, I’d rather take Efficiency to save more than 10% of the Focus I would otherwise be spending on Arcane Shot (which adds up to a LOT of focus during a fight).
Even with capped Spell Pen, the max you can have is a 96% efficiency rate on traps. I looked into this and explained it in this post: https://huntsmanslodge.com/10702/survival-tactics-spell-penetration-trap-resists/.
Here’s an excerpt:
“…traps use their own type of Spell Hit rating, which is unaffected by our hit rating or spell hit. So, even if you’ve got Spell Pen stacked to the gills and are fully hit capped, enemy players will still have a 4% chance to resist your traps — or in other words, your trap will ‘miss’. The only way to make up for this additional 4% hit chance is by talenting 2/2 Survival Tactics.”
Ah yes, now I remember that whole debate.
Hmm… I’ll consider respeccing into that then…
But I would miss my Efficiency!
I really like having the super short Disengage CD, otherwise I’d probably go Efficiency if it were just the 4% trap hit I’d be giving up.
I think there are good arguments for either — just depends on what works for you, your arena combo, etc…
My Disengage CD is already SO short due to Crouching Tiger, I rarely feel the need to have it be on an even Shorter CD.
Efficiency gets your more DPS.
Survival Tactics gets you more reliable CC and even better Defense.
I can see the argument for either. Perhaps I’ll try Survival Tactics for a while and see how it goes.
I’m going to experiment with this build tonight and see if I notice an improvement: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#cfhfckGdoRocZhbM
If I don’t miss my shorter Disengage cooldown, and if my traps still seem reliable enough then I may go with it.
I’ll be curious to hear your verdict.
If you run recount in BGs, look at how many Arcane Shots you use in a BG, then multiply that by 3, and see how much focus Efficiency saved you over the course of one BG…
Any feedback from your experiment?
Kaz, I’ve found scare beast to be not very effective against any halfyway competent feral execpt in certain situations. What I do find effective is using it with scatter shot if none of my teammates have a fear. Then, it’s scatter + scare beast + trap + monkey stun = win. Otherwise, most competent druids will shift forms to avoid the scare or will simply interrupt your cast.
Way to reappear, with a post on my favorite subject!
I’ve continued to be very active in Hunter PVP, using both BM and MM specs now.
Here’s a link to my Armory, for your interest.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/farstriders/Kazador/advanced
I concur with most of your choices on your build, but having experimented a LOT with this, I have a few slight variations to offer. I don’t have time to explain right now, but look at my armory profile and I’ll explain my different choices soon.
Good to have you back.
Kaz
Kaz,
I’m surprised you and Garwulf aren’t running with the pve 2 set for the cobra/steady bonus to focus. I’ve been running with it since the first week of this patch and haven’t looked back. Sure you lose some resilience, but I think having the amazing focus regen is just too good to pass up. You actually feel like the hunter class should be played with less wet noodling (steady/cobra) and more pew pewing.
Peppr