Another BM help needed topic - Builds, Talents and Class Mechanics - Hunter Forums

Hello Chakori. I play MM so I may be slightly off on some of my info, if I am I'm sure some of our BM players on here will correct me.

First off, you look to have a pretty good grasp on playing a Hunter. You geared, gem'd,reforged and spec'd correctly. Only thing I see that you might do is take a couple of points from somewhere and put it in Improved Serpent Sting.

As for rotation I'm going to quote from Warcraft Hunter's Union.

Cataclysm Beast Mastery BM Hunter Shot Rotation at Level 85

You will want to be in Aspect of the Hawk and start the fight by putting up Hunter’s Mark and applying Serpent Sting. Your shot priority then becomes:

• Focus Fire when it’s ready
• Kill Shot (if available)
• Kill Command
• Arcane Shot
• Cobra Shot

Kill Command is the BM hunter signature shot and most damaging basic ability. Kill Command benefits from several BM talents, and since the attack comes from our pet it enjoys the higher crit chance that our pets have. This is the ability you always want to use when it’s available — meaning you always need to be sure you have enough focus when it comes off cooldown.

Focus Fire — which gives you a 15% haste boost — should be used whenever it’s available and your pet has 5 frenzy stacks. Your UI will give you a big warning when this happens. Because there is usually a small break between Focus Fire being available and your pet getting 5 stacks, you do not want to macro this ability — you’ll end up using it early almost every time. But since it triggers no global cooldown you can safely use it the instant it’s ready without delaying any other shots.

BM will also be using a lot of Arcane Shots to dump focus — any time your focus is in danger of capping you’ll want to fire an Arcane Shot or two. Then Cobra refills that focus and extends your Serpent Sting indefinitely.

The core of the BM playstyle isn’t their simple rotation, but instead managing their short-duration cooldowns.

Note that this is a priority rotation, and the actual number of shots that you can fit in between each Kill Command depends on your haste. For a full discussion, see BM Haste Plateaus.

BM Cooldowns in the Rotation

The big BM cooldown, Bestial Wrath with Beast Within, changed considerably with Cataclysm. It used to be that the damage increase while under big red pet was the big deal — now in Cataclysm that damage boost was radically reduced, but the real benefit is the massive 50% focus reduction of our shots (something that was a negligible detail when we had mana). This lets us spam shots without needing a single Cobra Shot for the duration of Bestial Wrath.

You want to make sure you have a good amount of focus before hitting Bestial Wrath, then use only Kill Command and Arcane Shot for the duration. You should get two Kill Commands and about 7 Arcane Shots in. You will then need to immediately Cobra Shot when you come out to prevent your Serpent Sting from falling off.

Fervor is our new BM cooldown for Cataclysm, and it restores 50 focus on a 2-minute cooldown. Basically what this cooldown is doing is buying us some extra Arcane Shot. The secret to Fervor is to use it early, and use it often. It’s far too easy to save it and end up not using it at all.

That said, Fervor is also a valuable tool for specific boss fights where you know you’re going to need the extra focus at a specific time — either for a burn, to boost focus for a Bestial Wrath, or to provide some extra dps time while on the move. So as always, consider your boss strat and how this cooldown fits with it.

I'm going to say keep up what your doing. You look to be making the right decisions/choices. Most of all though, make sure to enjoy yourself.

After researching into my spec I found that Ryu’s response to be true. I’ve dropped Improved Serpent Sting in favor of Pathing and my dps has improved. As Ryu stated though, it might be something to take when working with the T13 2pc bonus.