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Out With the Old: Spirit Bond

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DrackmireMany players may not remember what some of the Hunter talents looked like at release date, as Blizzard has made numerous changes (too many to count) to try and keep us balanced, and in line with other DPS classes. One talent in particular that I would like to look at, is Spirit Bond. A talent which provides passive and continuous healing to you and your pet, while the pet is active.

Allow me to take you back to November 2004, when World of Warcraft was brand new, and Hunters were gods among men… also they were a dime a dozen (now it’s Death Knights).

Spirit Bond as it looked in the early days of WoW

Now come back to the present.

Spirit Bond as it is now

As you can see they made not only a huge change to the talent, but completely redesigned it. This change occurred in patch 1.7 (this was the huge Hunter overhaul patch), and used to be the final tier talent in the BM tree. While it wasn’t incredible, it was definitely worth that last talent point. It only required 1 talent point (instead of 2 now), and had three ranks. Ranks 2 and 3 were trainable at levels 50 and 60, respectively. It healed for 20/30/40. It took very little mana to cast (around 200), and did not have a cooldown. You could always keep this buff up, and never have to worry about your health. Combine this with a very fast attack speed pet, and you have a healing machine.

I was actually a little miffed at Blizzard for making such a huge change to the talent. This talent was fantastic for raiding since the healers wouldn’t have to focus on you as much. For leveling and grinding, it lessened down time (not that we ever had a problem with that). For pvp, I only really ventured in Alterac Valley in those days, but I hardly ever died because of this talent unless 2-3 enemy players were focusing on me. I could send my pet on someone to disrupt casting, and focus on another person, all the while getting healed.

There were numerous times while farming in Burning Steppes that I would aggro 2 mobs while farming Thorium. One would focus on my pet, and the other would come to me and start wailing on me. Spirit bond would keep me healed (often out-healing the mobs damage to me) until I was able to focus on the second mob. It was also incredibly helpful when I was trying to solo Volchan when he was around.

Spirit Bond was such a brilliant talent, and probably belonged in the survival tree (that got Lacerate instead, lol). Why they nerfed it as badly as they did, I’ll never really know, but damn I miss the old Spirit Bond.

– Drack

BM Talents Overview: Tier 5

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Spirit BondSpirit Bond

2 Point Talent

While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 1/2% of total health every 10 sec., and increases healing done to you and your pet by 5/10%.

Overview

Spirit Bond provides the Hunter and pet with a very small HoT that ticks every 10 seconds. It also increases healing effects on the Hunter and pet by 5% or 10% depending on the amount of points in it.

Why take it?

Spirit Bond is excellent to have while leveling as Beast Mastery, since it really helps to prevent downtime. It also increases the effect of Mend Pet by up to 10%, so it aids in keeping your pet up during solo questing, farming, etc.

I personally think Spirit Bond is awesome for BM PvP. The chances of it saving your ass in a close arena match are slim, but when it does happen it’s clutch. Mostly it helps in BGs where you’re not focus fired as often. It reduces downtime in BGs as well, by preventing you from having to stop and eat or bandage. However, when you do have to stop and eat, slap on a bandage or maybe slug down a health potion while in combat… Spirit Bond increases the effect of those things as well.

Unbuffed, my Spirit Bond ticks for about 540 every 10 seconds, which translates into over 3.2K health regenerated in a minute’s time while in combat. It can basically increase your HPs by over 3K while chasing down a flag carrier across the field in WSG for example. Couple that effect with its increased benefit to heals, and you have increased your BG survivability quite a bit should a healer toss a few heals your way.

Spirit Bond also provides a nice synergy with the Tenacity pet talent, Blood of the Rhino. Combine 2 Points in Spirit Bond with Blood of the Rhino along with the Glyph of Mending, and your pet is nearly indestructible.

Apart from Beast Mastery Hunters looking for a little more survivability, it’s also a decent place to stick a point for BM raiders. To get to the tier 6 talents you have to put a point either in here or in Improved Mend Pet. I like Spirit Bond myself since it helps both the pet and Hunter by increasing the benefit we receive from heals, plus you get the added small HoT.

Why not take it?

Some Hunters prefer the reduced mana cost and cleansing effect of Improved Mend Pet, so they go that route instead. Spirit Bond is basically a stepping stone to reach better talents further down the tree, so if you prefer a point in Improved Mend Pet or Endurance Training maybe, then by all means do whatever floats your boat.

For me though… Spirit Bond is where it’s at. I honestly hate being without it.

IntimidationIntimidation

1 Point Talent

Command your pet to intimidate the target on the next successful melee attack, causing a high amount of threat and stunning the target for 3 sec.

Overview

Intimidation causes your pet to stun its target for 3 seconds, while also increasing its aggro by a considerable amount.

Why take it?

It’s a truly defining talent of the BM tree and a prerequisite for Bestial Wrath. Only pass on it if you’re a Survival or Marksmanship Hunter. 😉

Why not take it?

If you’re Marksmanship or Survival.

Bestial DisciplineBestial Discipline

2 Point Talent

Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 50/100%.

Overview

Bestial Discipline increases the rate at which pets regenerate focus, thus causing them to be less focus starved. It enables them to do more damage in other words, along with being able to generate more threat and also use their special abilities more often.

Why take it?

This talent is pretty essential for all Beast Mastery builds. Since so much damage comes from the pet, more focus is always a good thing. More focus = more chomp, chomp. Put two points in here.

Why not take it?

If you’re Marksmanship or Survival.