Ferocious Inspiration
3 Point Talent
When your pet scores a critical hit, all party and raid members have all damage increased by 3% for 10 sec. In addition, increases the damage dealt by Arcane Shot by 9%.
Overview
Ferocious Inspiration provides a raid-wide damage buff of up to 3% for 10 seconds when your pet gets a critical strike. It also adds up to a 9% passive damage bonus to the Hunter’s Arcane Shot.
Why take it?
Ferocious Inspiration provides a really nice damage buff for your entire raid. A properly talented Ferocity pet should be able to maintain 100% uptime of this spell, giving your entire raid a delicious 3% damage bonus as long as your pet’s alive. In addition to that, it makes your Arcane Shots hit 9% harder. Being that Arcane Shot is second only to Kill Shot for BM ranged damage abilities, this passive bonus makes the talent just that much better.
Since the bonus stacks with Improved Arcane Shot, FI coupled with IAS can provide for some hard hitting Arcanes. This is especially beneficial for Beast Mastery PvP, due to the fact that Arcane Shot is an instant cast spell which cannot be mitigated by armor.
Regardless of whether it’s paired with Improved Arcane Shot or not, I think Ferocious Inspiration is a solid talent to have for all Beast Mastery builds.
Why not take it?
I can really only think of possibly two examples where a Beast Mastery Hunter might want to pass on this talent. One would be for an extreme soloing build where tanking talents are chosen over DPS ones such as this. In that case, Catlike Reflexes would be a better selection at this tier.
Another case against taking it could be made if there is always going to be a Retribution Paladin in your group overwriting the FI buff. Sanctified Retribution cancels out Ferocious Inspiration, therefore rendering it as a talent that merely adds 9% added damage to Arcane Shot. If you plan on always receiving the Pally buff, then it may be worth looking into other talents such as Catlike Reflexes or possibly Improved Hunter’s Mark (from the MM tree).
I don’t like being dependent upon group composition, so I always go with FI when Beast Mastery specced. However, those are examples of when it may not be needed.
Or… if you’re Marksmanship or Survival of course.
Bestial Wrath
1 Point Talent
Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.
Overview
Bestial Wrath turns your pet into an unstoppable killing machine for 18 seconds. While under the effect of this spell, pet damage is increased by 50% and it becomes immune to all crowd control effects.
Why take it?
This is thee defining talent of the Beast Mastery tree. Under no circumstance should this talent ever be skipped. When combined with The Beast Within, this talent combo is arguably the most powerful spell in all of the Hunter trees.
For maximum effect, always combine this talent with the Glyph of Bestial Wrath, which is available at level 40. This glyph reduces the cooldown on this spell by 20 seconds. The cooldown can be further reduced by Longevity, which is a talent available at level 49. When properly talented and glyphed, a Hunter can have over a 28% uptime on Bestial Wrath. 😯
On a side note… this talent is the reason I play a Hunter. I just love it. 😛
Why not take it?
If you’re Marksmanship or Survival
Catlike Reflexes
3 Point Talent
Increases your chance to dodge by 3% and your pet’s chance to dodge by an additional 9%. In addition, reduces the cooldown of your Kill Command ability by 30 sec.
Overview
Catlike Reflexes increases survivability for both the Hunter and pet by increasing dodge, while also boosting pet DPS via a shortened Kill Command cooldown.
Why take it?
Kill Command is a great talent for extreme soloing. Hunters that plan to tackle lower level dungeons with nothing more than their trusty pet by their side will want this talent.
Why not take it?
Read this post, then decide.
Or… if you’re Marksmanship or Survival.
Woot! You’re now Gravatar enabled.
Hooray it works, thanks gar!
testing my gravatar
Gar,
This review is spot on.
For leveling, BM is really the way to go and you may as well put all your points into it while leveling. Three points into while soloing is not a waste either IMO.
There is no reason not to take Bestial Wrath unless you aren’t BM spec.
As far as catlike reflexes, someone would have to test the dps benefit of having 30 seconds off the cooldown of Kill Command. It seems like at that point, it would be better to throw three extra points in a dps talent which would probably increase your dps by the same if not more. It seems like more of a pvp oriented talent. Arena hunters were crying about their pets dying so quick, the extra 9% dodge was probably a step to help that.
BTW, I’m still waiting on that email from ya, just let me know 😉