So I’ve managed to go my entire WoW career and never dual spec. Yea that’s right. I never saw any benefit in it really. I’ve been a BM (Bad Mofo) ever since I’ve started playing, and I have loved every minute of it. I truly never thought there was any reason for me to choose another spec.
And then Cata happens…
I’d managed to keep up my damage really well all throughout the dungeons I would run. It was not a big deal – I never really valued being the “top of the charts” DPS guy anyway. I love my pets, and am a BM at heart and always will be.
So some of you are asking, Drach, why are you going on about all this… we know you’re a Bad Mofo, what are you trying to tell us..?”
Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ve finally dual specced… /shame! I noticed my DPS dropping more and more, especially in heroics. I was nowhere near keeping up, so much so that it was a hindrance to my groups because I was not contributing enough to take bosses down quick enough before everyone died.
So, I manned up and decided to roll Survival. I hate to admit it, but I am really having fun with it! I will always be a BM at heart, and as soon as they apply these new patches to balance the classes, I’ll probably go back to BM, but Survival is a lot of fun!
Plus it has provided a dramatic increase to the amount of damage I am putting out. My DPS has almost doubled for some fights. It’s ridiculous. Again, I don’t care about being the top DPS, but it is nice to make such a large contribution in heroics finally. Not to mention the fact that we Hunters are more and more sought after in parties because of our valued crowd control.
I’ll have to admit, I had to learn how to even begin to do CC. I began my huntering career during the Lich King, so never really had to learn how to do it. It has been so much fun, although many have died at a poorly placed frost trap at the beginning of my journey, but I digress. I had to dust off Distracting Shot and learn how and when to use that. When we first got that ability, I truly never even understood what it could be used for. I thought it was a retarded ability, but now I use it so much it’s made my top action bar, lol.
I know that Cata has changed things for everyone quite a bit, and some don’t like it, and others do. I was one of the grumpy old farts sitting on the porch whittling and talking about the good ole days, and griping that they were changing things at all, but now I ‘m really enjoying the changes. I think it is so much fun to be challenged for once. Heroics are hard!! And they should be, they are called Heroics for a reason.
Although I am tired of the excruciatingly long queue timers, and I had a streak of at least five in a row in which the group disbanded after the first couple of fights because someone got mad and pissy because things were too hard…*cough* wussy tanks*cough*, I still am loving the challenge.
So, after apologizing profusely to my Spirit Beasts, I am now a SV hunter… At least on the outside.
Here has been my shot priority and build for any of you that are interested. I may post bit more in depth guide to SV if any of you are interested as well.
Shot Priority:
- Explosive Shot
- Kill Shot (if available)
- Black Arrow
- Arcane Shot
- Cobra Shot
As always, Hunter’s Mark is a must at the beginning of fights, not putting it up will be a huge drop in damage, but you guys know this! Also, you want to follow that Hunter’s Mark with Serpent Sting. Once applied, you shouldn’t have to cast it again unless you’re target switching, as Cobra Shot should keep it refreshed.
Here is the build I have been using too, and am having good success with:
You better believe we do! You also get procs from traps too, so tossing those out too is good.
You don’t have to be BM to tame the rare pets, like Sambas or something like that, but to tame the “exotic” pets like Spirit Beasts, Devilsaurs, Rhino’s, etc you do. Exotic pets include Shale Spiders, Core Hounds, Devilsaurs, Spirit Beasts, Worms, Rhinos, Silithids and Chimeras. Those are the ones that you have to be BM spec to tame, all the other “rare’s” can be tamed by any Hunter. Hope that helps!!
Even though it looks like Survival is the spec of cataclysm, am I correct in stating that I have to roll as a Beastmaster at least past level up to level 70 or even up to 85 in order to be able to tame the rare and exotic pets? So would it be correct that only after I have those pets in the stable would I then be able to “respec” over to Survival from BM?
I’d like to be able to do some instances and battle grounds on the way up to 85.
Just trying to understand.
Thanks
Grimreaver
You’re my hero, Gar! I adore being BM and having my pets…but I like to raid. With that said, my guildies all laugh at me for thinking I can come to raid with them (especially in Cata) as a BM. Woe is me. All I hear when I go camping is, “LOLBM, you’re going after another useless pet, eh?” ?
So, to be more DPS-friendly for raids, I gave in and dropped my BM PVE spec for Surv…only to get wind of the Surv nerf…*SIGH*
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Even though it looks like Survival is the spec of cataclysm, am I correct in stating that I have to roll as a Beastmaster at least past level up to level 70 or even up to 85 in order to be able to tame the rare and exotic pets? So would it be correct that only after I have those pets in the stable would I then be able to “respec” over to Survival from BM?
I’d like to be able to do some instances and battle grounds on the way up to 85.
Just trying to understand.
Thanks
Grimreaver
You don’t have to be BM to tame the rare pets, like Sambas or something like that, but to tame the “exotic” pets like Spirit Beasts, Devilsaurs, Rhino’s, etc you do. Exotic pets include Shale Spiders, Core Hounds, Devilsaurs, Spirit Beasts, Worms, Rhinos, Silithids and Chimeras. Those are the ones that you have to be BM spec to tame, all the other “rare’s” can be tamed by any Hunter. Hope that helps!!
They must have changed things as of a recent update. Hunters do not obtain freezing trap now until level 28. Any suggestions on proper rotations for us Hunters still down in the Minor leagues?
I’m at level 24 and I’ve been going with:
Hunter’s mark
Concussive shot
Scatter shot
then reel off Aimed shot/Arcane shots as fast as possible
Thanks
Grimreaver
Wow, I cannot read. SORRY, DRACH! You’re my hero!
Loverlie..?! What about me..? 🙁
I can be your hero baby…
What can you do? The guy has taste :P!
BM since vanilla but I raided in Wrath as MM. I have tried SV a couple of times and never liked it much. our guild has not started raiding yet. I still have MM as offspec and do pretty well , but SV is dps king right now. I do LOVE the return to needing CC in instances.
Hey Drach
Your Priority should go something like this:
-Kill Shot (when available)
-Kill Command (when available)
-Serpent Sting
-Black Arrow
-Explosive Shot
-Cobra Shot.
Atleast, that’s my priority, and I’ve had no issues, yet.. 😉
Arcane shares the CD with Explosive, so no need to use it, plus Explosive makes SO much more damage compared. 😀
Tais you nailed it! That’s exactly what I had intended, I just mistakenly put Arcane instead of Serpent Sting. I rarely if ever use Arcane anymore either, I only use it if I have spare focus, which is rare!
Thanks for catching that 🙂
You’re very welcome 😉
I even believe that it was Gar who told it, on one of his SV-spec-updates 😉
I see a lot of mis-information in these comments, so I’d like to take a second to clear some things up.
Arcane no longer shares a CD with Explosive, and Kill Command should be reserved for BM only. It’s focus cost per damage gained is just too much. Arcane Shot is used as a Focus dump, or for burst damage. Don’t forget about Wyvern Sting, although be careful as it places a dot on the target when it expires, so if you try to sting a mob, then set a freezing trap for them to run into, the dot will break the freezing trap almost immediately. Trap, then sting if you want to lock down one target, or trap one target and sting another for two. Don’t forget about Scatter Shot for cc, and don’t forget you can distracting shot a target to a new location with an freezing trap waiting.
The proper rotations are as follows:
For Single Target Bosses:
Hunters Mark
Kill Shot
Black Arrow
Serpent Sting
Explosive Shot
Arcane Shot
Cobra Shot
For Trash that dies decently quickly:
Hunters Mark
Kill Shot
Explosive Shot
Serpent Sting
Black Arrow
Arcane Shot
Cobra Shot
For Aoe trash:
Multishot
Explosive Trap
Explosive Shot
Multishot
Arcane Shot
Cobra Shot
You also have to be careful not to override your Explosive Shot ticks. The ticks are also something important to remember for Misdirect and Agro. The ticks can and will pull adds if you do not give the tank proper time to get agro. Once the shot hits, you will have a 2 second dot that will tick every second. A lot of hunters will fill this with Cobra Shot if you are low on focus, Serpent Sting or Black Arrow if they are available, or a single Arcane Shot if you are high on Focus and want to add some burst damage. Arcane isn’t used very often, but you will use it once every two explosive shots or so when you are high on Focus.
As for Glyphs, make sure you are using Explosive Shot, Kill Shot, and Serpent Sting. Arcane shot is ok, but it’s not used as much in your rotation, and Kill Shot will be more effective for heroics. Although for raiding, you could certainly switch to Arcane. Make sure you never drop any fire traps, unless you are aoeing down a large pack of trash, as the fire traps share a cd with Black Arrow.
Nice info, the priority list I suggested is just that, a priority, not a shot rotation by any means. It’s simply the priority you should give for each shot. Each situation is going to have different needs, but the priority list is good to know what shot has priority over the others when they are all available. Each situation is different and so no cut and dry “this is how you do it” is going to be right all the time, but the priority makes it simpler to understand which shots have priority for most situations, but anyways that is nice advice and some pretty good tips too.
Yes, you are correct, I misspoke and should have called it a priority list and not a rotation. I’m so used to calling everything a rotation from BC and early LK days where most classes had rotations. The info I posted was ment to be taken as a priority list.
No prob dude! Thanks for all the info that you added man, it is great stuff 🙂
I also changed my BM to SV for raiding and I have to admit I’m liking it quite a lot. It’s nice not to have to worry about losing damage from target switching so much and I’m really enjoying the shot rotation! I’m a little scared of MM so hoping that sv isn’t over nerfed in the next patch when I’ve just managed to get my rotation sorted:S
It’s a shame that people so easily jump ship, to another build, rather than make their own build better. I took the dual spec ability, for the achievement, but that’s as far as it went.
Rather, I spent time researching spreadsheets and where each point went, as well as the gear I had and how what I had could influence fights. I looked into each fight as well, in ICC, and made sure I was capable. As a result, I was rarely out of the top 5 (overall) damage positions – in 25 man clearing runs.
I saw it as a badge of honour, that the Beast Master could be made competitive – when logic said it should not be.
Right now, I am still finding focus interesting – though efforts are starting to significantly pay off and I hope to eventually put myself back in a similarly good position.
It’s not that it can’t happen. It’s just that someone will either tell you it can’t or a person won’t make the effort.
As far as CC goes, you’d have loved The Burning Crusade and Vanilla WoW. Just remember to watch your trap timer and fire out another trap, when the timer runs out (the mob will still be trapped for a little while, but don’t take liberties with time).
To any / all hunters, remember that Scare Beast can also be useful CC. Some hunters will also have Wyvern Sting. As a Beastmaster, you can keep two of Beauty’s pups controlled – in Blackrock Caverns (a current heroic) – if you can manage both Scare Beast and to trap. Enjoy.
Keep the faith. Beast Masters forever!
Yea, crowd control is a lot of fun. Don’t ever think I’m jumping ship lol, I just don’t want to be the guy who is too stubborn to try a different approach and just stick to the same thing I’ve been doing either. As I said, I haven’t even received the achievement because I stuck with BM, but sometimes putting in effort means trying different approaches as well :).
Welcome to the wide world of the SV hunter. I’m knd of opposite to you. Have been SV for most of my WoW life and only recently picked up BM.
Don’t forget to add Serpent Sting into that shot priority. Only needed at the start (and in the event it should fall off) as Cobra Shot will refresh it for you.
Good Luck with it and I’ll be keeping an eye on you.
Regards
Furnurgler
Man! Thanks for catching that, I’ll try and update it, because I do use it at the start, I just left it off my priority list. Thanks for catching that!
Drach! We have so many things in common: BM-at-heart, only started raiding during LK, now SV. However, I haven’t finished any Heroics yet — the first and only one I did was Stonecore and we didn’t even down the 1st boss. lol. Tol Barad and Archaeology’s been taking my time (plus a few pet hunting on the side).
As for SV, I have a simple rotation:
– Serpent Sting then it’s just:
– Explosive Shot (10K average)
– Cobra Shot
plus
– Kill Shot when available (18K average)
I rarely use Black Arrow and Arcane shot. And I really don’t think it matters if I use them because of the damage from Explosive Shot and Kill Shot.
Having said that, I’m hoping to go BM again after the nerf, I mean patch. I hope you can write a comparative BM vs SV article once we’re back to BM 🙂
I’m with you on going back after the nerf Anj, but you’re missing out on crucial lock and load procs not using black arrow, soloing on your own not so much, but in a raid you should be firing it off whenever you can.
I was wondering about that Drach. Lock and Load wasn’t proc’ng. I’ll see what I can do and thanks, I’ll go back to the original rotation which was actually, the same as yours. We rock, right?
You better believe we do! You also get procs from traps too, so tossing those out too is good.
I don’t know, I was never that fond of BM as a spec. I felt it was kind of boring and simple. I raided as MM in Wrath and likely still will since so many of my guild hunters are SV and I like being able to bring a different utility to a raid. I do really like the SV rotation, it is a lot more flexible than MM because you don’t have to pair your focus generating shots. I moonlight as SV for the dps rush but run things as MM.
You’re my hero, Gar! I adore being BM and having my pets…but I like to raid. With that said, my guildies all laugh at me for thinking I can come to raid with them (especially in Cata) as a BM. Woe is me. All I hear when I go camping is, “LOLBM, you’re going after another useless pet, eh?” 🙁
So, to be more DPS-friendly for raids, I gave in and dropped my BM PVE spec for Surv…only to get wind of the Surv nerf…*SIGH*
Hi Loverlie,
I’m happy to be your hero, but know that Drach is responsible for this little gem.
I just started running dungeons last night. My production was pretty bleh, but I was in my PvP spec. Since I’m 10% of the way through 84 now, I’m thinking of ditching my leveling build and going with either a BM or SV PvE build. I’m tired of still running around in my WotLK gear. I want some Cataclysm dungeon goodies! 🙂
Gar, I only got rid of my WotLK purples when I reached 85. 🙂
Welcome to the Darkside!