Careful Aim
3 Point Talent
Description: Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 33/66/100% of your total Intellect.
Overview
Points in this talent increase RAP by a percentage of the Hunter’s intellect.
Why take it?
This talent is pretty mandatory for all Hunters. Intellect is incredibly important for Hunters since we use mana for all of our specials. A talent that adds up to 1 point of RAP per point of intellect is fantastic. Considering it’s in the second tier of the MM tree and only requires 3 points to max, makes it especially delectable. It scales with buffs too. 🙂 Definitely one of the best value talents in all 3 trees.
Why not take it?
Ummm… I cannot think of any reason why a Hunter should not go 3/3 deep in this talent.
Improved Hunter’s Mark
3 Point Talent
Description: Increases the bonus attack power granted by your Hunter’s Mark ability by 10/20/30%, and reduces the mana cost of your Hunter’s Mark ability by 33/66/100%.
Overview
At level 80, this talent will give you an additional 30 RAP on marked targets, per point invested. It also reduces the mana cost of Hunter’s Mark by one third for every point.
Why take it?
If you’re in a progressing guild doing 25 mans, and none of your other Hunters have this talent, then you may want to grab it.
Why not take it?
Unlike Careful Aim, this 3 point talent is just not that good of a value. At level 80, you’re only going to see 90 additional RAP on marked targets only. The additional AP doesn’t carry over to your pet and doesn’t scale with buffs.
As I said, unless you want to take it in order to buff all the Hunters in your raid group, this talent can easily be skipped.
Mortal Shots
5 Point Talent
Description: Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your ranged abilities by 30%.
Overview
Mortal Shots increases the critical strike bonus by your ranged special attacks by 6% per point, up to a maximum bonus of 30%.
Why take it?
This talent increases the damage of critical strikes from Hunters’ ranged specials. If you’re crit is pretty high, then this talent will really shine. It’s a staple talent for raiding MM and SV Hunters, as well as all PvP Hunter builds.
Raiding BM Hunters will benefit from it also, but not quite as much as the other two specs. Mortal Shots does not affect Auto Shots, which comprises a large percentage of the BM Hunter’s ranged damage. PvE BM Hunters may choose to only invest two points in here, so as to reach the third tier of MM for Go for the Throat.
Why not take it?
There’s really no reason to not invest in this talent, even if it’s only 2 points. However, I suppose there may be some BM soloing builds that go deeper into the SV tree for Survivalist, thus not having the available points for this talent.
Leveling Hunters should probably avoid this talent until at least around the level 35ish range. Increasing your burst damage is somewhat counter-productive when leveling, as it can cause you to pull aggro from your pet. Put a few points into the BM tree first before you grab this. Just my two cents anyway.
I need to edit this post to reflect the change.
It’s an interesting debate for sure. I have yet to see any high DPS Hunters spec and/or Glyph it though.
I think it’s the ultimate “selfless” talent/glyph choice, because ultimately you’d sacrifice some DPS for the good of the raid. I’d kicked around the idea of speccing and/or glyphing it, but ultimately I settled on just being happy with the extra 150AP we got. 😉
Gar since they changed Hunters Mark to add 500 rap now, does the talent seem more viable to you? It will add 150 RAP with three ranks. Combined with the glyph it adds a total of 250 RAP. Just curious as to your thoughts on this. I threw one point in there last time I respecced, not sure why I had one leftover but I put it there. I’m respeccing again this weekend since I don’t think I should really have 5 in efficiency anymore. I didn’t realize how much the 5 points could be used elsewhere. On he other hand, efficiency is really useful in 5/10 mans. 25 mans it is not necessary. I guess I can handle staying in viper for 5 mans except on bosses.:)
Thanks for the props Snakeys.
What spec(s) do you like? If you’re really into cats, then maybe Beast Mastery would be your bag. Personally, I got into the class because of the whole pet thing. Naturally I gravitated towards BM from the start because I wanted to have a pet that would rip faces off.
If you want to give Beast Mastery a shot, try this out:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ctbMzxgRfu0est0eVso
Spec your cat like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#0Vd00scz0hoRb
This post: https://huntsmanslodge.com/1830/full-circle.htm has an alternative BM build which I also approve.
I suggest maybe you sift through some of my older posts and check out some of my other specs as well.
I love this site it is so epic….I need help I am a soldier that started playing in iraq in 07-08. I started with a hunter and now have 1 of each class. I have 2 80s and my hunter is my favorite. I too have epic failed in trying to be a melee hunter, but now I am trying to play my class right. I love my pet and I need a good heoics and raiding build taht uses my pet and me to increase my dps. I only use cats. I just love them. Any advice would be awsome. I am on norgannon named snakeys in blooditde. HELP this poor soldier with everything macros and best spec for utilising my pet!! thank you all!! This site is epic!!