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The Verdict

October 20, 2009 By Garwulf 28 Comments

Special thanks to Kazador for helping me with a title for this post. Not only have I rewritten this post like 5 times, but I’d cycled through at least ten different titles in the meantime. Today’s just been one of those days where I can’t seem to focus. When I saw your comment, I thought oh… The Verdict… that’s perfect!

Last week I surprised some of you by announcing that I’d respecced to Beast Mastery for PvP. In fact, this move surprised even myself. After all, it had been just three short weeks earlier that I had completely discredited Beast Mastery as a PvP spec. I was so frustrated over what Patch 3.2.2 did to my beloved spec, that I abandoned both of my exotic PvP pets, went and tamed a crab, then immediately switched to Survival. [Read more…] about The Verdict

Filed Under: General, Hunter Pets, Hunter PvP, Talents Tagged With: arena, battlegrounds, beast mastery, bestial wrath, pvp, talonstrike, the beast within

Taking One for the Team

October 13, 2009 By Garwulf 14 Comments

Nuramoc

Ironic huh… Only a few short weeks have passed since I swore off Beast Mastery, yet here I am returning to my beloved PvP spec.

This time’s it’s business though. A few guildies and I started a 3s team mainly for fun, but after getting our asses handed to us the other night, it wasn’t so much “fun” for me anymore. My healer is new to arena, and is still working on his game and his gear. Meanwhile, he’s been having a terrible time trying to keep me up, as I’m the opposing team’s focus-fire target about 99.9% of the time.

I tried Marksmanship out for about a dozen matches and had similar results to that of Survival. My survivability was about the same, burst and Readiness were awesome, but it didn’t really seem to be the answer for us. If I were an elite Hunter I suppose I would be able to lead us to 2200 and beyond, but “elite” I am not. I’m pretty good, but unless I have fairly strong teammates, I’m not going to be able to do anything spectacular. [Read more…] about Taking One for the Team

Filed Under: General, Hunter Pets, Hunter PvP, Talents Tagged With: 3v3, arena, beast mastery, chimaera, marksmanship, nuramoc, patch 3.3, pvp, survival

Patch 3.3 aka the “Pet Buff Patch”

October 7, 2009 By Garwulf 15 Comments

Blizzard released some updated patch notes for Patch 3.3 today. Wow… there are some amazing changes in store for Hunters, both for PvE and PvP.

Let’s discuss these things shall we…

First off, pets will now be inheriting 100% of their master’s resilience. That is an absolute godsend for Hunter PvP. Along with a few of the other changes being introduced, which I’ll get to in a second, this is going to make Ferocity pets a viable option for BGs and arena. 100% of their master’s resilience! I love it! 😀

Avoidance is gone. Pets will now innately take 90% less damage from AoE effects, but only in PvE. Pets will still be subject to AoE damage done by other players. Blizzard has been talking about this change for the past several weeks, and it looks like it’s finally going to happen.

This avoidance change is huge. It’s going to increase pet survivability in raids, therefore increasing Hunter DPS across the board. But wait… there’s more…

Avoidance is being replaced with a new pet talent called, “Culling the Herd”. This new 3 point talent increases Hunter and pet damage by 1/2/3% respectively for 10 seconds after dealing a critical strike with claw, bite or smack. How awesome is that!? A Ferocity pet with enough focus (1 point in GftT) should provide close to, if not 100% uptime on this, therefore resulting in a 3% DPS increase for Hunters!

Cower has also been reworked and will now act as sort of a pet shield wall. Instead of affecting threat, it provides the pet with a 40% damage reduction for 6 seconds, on a 45 second cooldown. While cowering, the pet’s movement speed is reduced to 50%. Cower has a single rank and will be available at level 20.

Cower will obviously become a hotkeyed situational ability. I like this change a lot. Combined with the avoidance change, this is going to further ensure that our pets will have a much higher survival rate in boss encounters. Furthermore, it just became a tremendous ability for use in PvP. Not only will pets be inheriting full resilience from their master, but they’ll also have a mini shield wall every 45 seconds for when they do get focused. Good stuff indeed.

Along with the Cower change comes a reworking of Improved Cower. Improved Cower will reduce the movement speed penalty by 50%/100%. This looks to be primarily a PvP talent and is only available to Ferocity pets, furthering my belief that ferocity may be worth a look for Hunter PvP in 3.3. Hyena anyone?

This next change has me intrigued… Wolverine Bite has had its prerequisite removed and now becomes active after a pet crit, as opposed to a target’s dodge. This one has me thinking…

Pets now inheriting 100% of the Hunter’s resilience, Improved Cower reducing damage by 40% for 6 seconds, 3% damage buff, and frequent Wolverine Bite procs… I’m starting to miss my Chimaera. 😉 This patch is going to help Beast Mastery out a lot, let me tell ya… I may have to respec back and get revenge on the Locks and Rogues that are now my bane as a Survival Hunter.

Changes to Unique Pet Abilities

  • Demoralizing Screech – The attack power reduction debuff has been increased by 40%. At level 80, it looks to reduce melee attack power to all targets within 8 yards by 574. That’s pretty decent considering it lasts for 10 seconds, and has a 10 second cooldown.
  • Web – RANGE INCREASED TO 30 YARDS (up from 20)!!! How incredible is that?! Spiders are going to be the undisputed champs of arena pets come 3.3 – for non-BM Hunters anyway.
  • Venom Web Spray – Silithids have also had their similar effect increased to a 30 yard range. Expect to see a few more of these things skittering about BGs and arenas.

Another exciting change planned for patch 3.3, is a much shorter cooldown of only five minutes for Call Stabled Pet. We’ll be able to swap out pets at will, plus the shorter cooldown may even make the skill available for arena. It’s probably a lot to ask, but you never know. Abilities with a CD of that length are available for arena use. Imagine how powerful it would be to have the ability to choose your pet at the start of the match depending upon the opposition’s team makeup. 😀

Deterrence is now going to block all ranged attacks as well. Finally! Deterrence will now be usable against other Hunters in PvP.

Concussive Barrage is no longer subject to spell reflects. Having not PvP’d extensively as a MM Hunter, I’ve never had this happen to me, but it’s a minor buff nonetheless.

Lastly, there’s one small nerf… Point of no Escape will no longer stack and will only apply to the Hunter’s damage. Your teammates won’t benefit from the crit buff anymore when your target is snared.

Like I said, lots of good stuff coming our way in 3.3. I can’t wait for these changes myself. I’ve got a lot of speculation to do now as far as PvP builds and pets are concerned.

I’m excited. 😀

Filed Under: General, Hunter Pets, Hunter PvP, Talents Tagged With: arena, avoidance, beast mastery, chimaera, cower, culling the herd, marksmanship, patch 3.3, pets, pvp, silithid, spider, survival, web, wolverine bite

My Survival Guide to Surviving in PvP as a Survival Hunter: Part One

October 5, 2009 By Garwulf 51 Comments

Say that five times fast…

I’ve specced Survival for PvP in the past, but never for very long. However, once BM was laid to rest last week, I decided to jump ship and become an explosives expert. Since there may be other displaced BM PvPers like myself, I figured I’d provide a glimpse at my spec, as well as share some of what little knowledge I possess concerning Survival Huntering in the realm of player versus player combat. 😉

Keep in mind that I’m not an elite PvPer. I’m decent and I’m competitive, but I am in no way an authority on hardcore Hunter PvP. I usually do pretty well in both BGs and arena, but I am always out looking for ways to step my game up. Although I’m feeling a lot smoother with it this go ’round, I’ve never remained Survival for more than a few weeks. If anyone has any advice or constructive criticism pertaining to this post, macro suggestions, tactics, and especially arena strategies, then please share.

Well let’s get started… [Read more…] about My Survival Guide to Surviving in PvP as a Survival Hunter: Part One

Filed Under: General, Hunter Guides, Hunter Pets, Hunter PvP, Talents Tagged With: agility, arena, battlegrounds, crab, explosive shot, pets, pvp, spider, stamina, survival, talents

Profiting From Survival

October 3, 2009 By Garwulf 16 Comments

As I’d mentioned earlier, I decided to go Survival once I ditched Beast Mastery as my PvP spec. Oddly enough, at this same time I also elected to go Survival for raiding as well. This may sound strange to those of you who follow the site, because I’d stated a few times in the past that Survival had been my least favorite spec.

I’ve had a change of heart… what can I say.

The reasons I went Survival for PvP should be pretty obvious to most. Survival is currently the most dominant spec for arena due to the combination of burst, survivability and crowd control. I had contemplated Marksmanship, but it’s a little too squishy for my tastes and I don’t like that the spec’s heavy burst is reliant upon a setup shot. Too many classes have the ability to dispel Serpent Sting, which in turn negates a lot of Marksman’s burst. For BGs, Marksman is a blast, but I’m not brave enough to venture into arena with it just yet.

Now, as far as Survival for a raiding spec… The reason I chose this route is because I found that my absence from raids hadn’t been helping my DPS any. I was falling behind gear-wise and still rocking a 141 DPS crossbow. With Marksmanship being more dependent upon weapon damage than Survival, I felt it may be time for a change.

For kicks, I decided to plug into Zehera’s Online DPS Analyzer and see if there was some room for improvement. Much to my delight, I managed to configure a Survival setup with my then current gear, which showed a 12% DPS increase. Needless to say, the next evening I respecced SV and profited.

Heroic VOA

Heroic ToC

The irony is, immediately after this change I obtained the high damage weapon my Marksmanship spec so sorely needed. 😉

The first screenshot is from a VOA clear, and the second was from Northrend Beasts just after we dropped Gormokk the Impaler. Both of these occurred before I obtained my new crossbow. So as you can see, Survival allows you to get away with a lot more damage in lieu of a good weapon because the bulk of the spec’s damage is based on attack power.

I may end up returning to Marksmanship at some point, but probably not until I upgrade from my *cough* Valorous 2pc bonus. I am really feeling comfortable with Survival now, plus I like the mana efficiency of the spec. Not only did I manage to avoid Viper during our 25 man ToC raid, I don’t think my mana pool ever went below 80%.

Now I’ve never been one to go with the cookie cutter spec of the day just because it was the best possible DPS. I typically spec what I enjoy playing and squeeze every ounce of DPS possible from it. Yet, last week I felt like my contribution to the raid was lessening, hence the change. In the end, I’m glad that I did because it forced me to revisit the spec and finally learn to play it effectively.

In my next post(s) I’ll offer up a few basic tips and fundamentals concerning Survival and how to get the most out of it for both PvE and PvP, so stay tuned…

Oh, and by the way, here is my spec: 0/15/56

Filed Under: General, Hunter PvP, Raiding, Talents Tagged With: dps, marksmanship, raid, survival, talonstrike, toc, vault of archavon

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