talents

Beast Mastery PvP Spec Redux

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Visit this post for an updated look at my current Cataclysm BM PvP Build.

So last you heard from me, I was getting ready to try out a Core Hound for use in arena. To bring some of you up to speed, my only arena team this past season has been a 2v2 with a Ret Paladin. I like 2v2 because it only requires one other person, and in my case, I don’t need to rely upon a healer. I’ve never had very good luck with 3v3 either due to schedule conflicts or just not being able to find the right people.

I also like double DPS 2v2 because the matches are over quickly. Either we get our asses handed to us or we do the ass-handing, but either way they’re quick. 😉 That is unless my partner gets stuck 1v1 vs a Resto Druid. In that case, I may as well go make a sammich, then possibly take a nap or learn a foreign language. 😆 It’s nearly impossible for a Ret to kill a Resto druid and even more impossible for a resto drood to kill a Ret. 🙄

At any rate, my partner and I are what most would consider casual, as we “mainly” PvP for fun and typically only queue one night a week, for maybe an hour or less. Anyway, after several weeks of a slow ascent, we hit our proverbial wall at about 1800. Now granted we’ve only made it as high as 1849, I feel like we’ve gotten better over the past two weeks. We’d just made some careless mistakes that otherwise would have resulted in wins for us, and would probably have us on our way to 1950 by now. ‘Course that’s what they all say… 😉

Oh yea, so what’s changed over the past two weeks to give us a slight edge? Well, for one, I’m using a Core Hound instead of a Chimaera. Second, I changed my spec up a bit. I didn’t change my build too much, in fact I only moved two points around. However, I feel it’s made a noticeable impact on my DPS without sacrificing much of anything really.

Here’s a looky at my new build.

Gar’s New and Improved Beast Mastery PvP Spec

Beast Mastery PvP Spec - BM PvP Build

This is the build you need to be using if you want to PvP as a BM Hunter. It’s not vastly different from the one I posted just a few weeks back, yet the subtle differences make it much improved.

As I’d said before, if you find that your pet is being focus fired down a lot, or if you’re lacking resilience, then 1/3 Thick Hide and 2/2 Improved Revive Pet is probably the way to go. I don’t lose my pet(s) too often, so I prefer the increased physical damage mitigation. However, results may vary.

The primary difference… 3/3 Cobra Strikes.

I had dismissed this talent before as being too much of a gamble for PvP, as it only gives you a 60% chance to proc even when maxed. However, after thinking about it I realized I was pretty wrong in my assumption. This talent needs to be maxed for an effective BM PvP build. Here’s why…

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BM PvP Guide – Part Two: Pets

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Chimaera for Beast Mastery PvP

In part two of my Beast Mastery PvP guide, I’m going to discuss BM PvP pets and ways to spec them. Here we go…

Beast Mastery PvP Pets

Part of the benefit to investing 51 points into the Beast Mastery tree is the ability to tame exotic pets. Although currently they’re so-so for PvE, the PvP benefits of an exotic pet are fantastic in my opinion.

First off, Beast Mastery grants us access to arguably the most overpowered pet of them all, the Chimaera.

Chimaera

Chimaeras are great for a variety of reasons. First off, they have what I consider to be the best all-around special of any pet. This is of course, Froststorm Breath.

Froststorm Breath

  • 30 yard range.
  • applies a 50% movement speed decrease for 5 seconds.
  • is on a 7 second cooldown (with 3/3 Longevity), which can conceivably allow for over 70% uptime on the movement speed debuff.
  • cannot be dispelled.
  • does non-armor mitigated nature damage.

Froststorm Breath owns. Period. It is a great spell for both offensive and defensive purposes. It not only makes kiting melee easier, but it’s also a great tool to slow down casters, making it harder for them to LoS you.

Next, Chimaeras are part of the Cunning family of pets. Cunning pets have a variety of tools available to them that are very useful for PvP.

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BM PvP Guide – Part One: Talents and Glyphs

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Beast Mastery PvP with a Chimaera

Welcome to part one of my Beast Mastery Hunter PvP guide! My goal with this series of posts is to help you better understand the spec, and to provide you with the necessary tools and information to enable you to have success as a Beast Mastery PvPer.

Why PvP as a Beast Master?

That’s a good question and one I hope that I can adequately answer. 😉 Rather than try and sell you on Beast Mastery, I’ll explain why I choose to spec BM for PvP. That way you can better determine if it may be a good choice for you.

For one, I like having a powerful pet. The ability to have a pet is what attracted me to the hunter class in the first place. Early on I decided that I wanted a pet who was regarded as more than just a mild nuisance. I’ve actually watched as my pet’s soloed enemy players at the gold mine in Arathi Basin, while I’ve stood atop the cliff looking down with pride.

As a Beast Master I feel more invincible. What I lack in sustained damage capability, I more than make up for in survivability. In turn, less time spent in the graveyard equals more damage anyway. Not to mention, less dying equals more fun, right..?

I feel more capable of dealing with most any situation as a Beast Master. Although Beast Mastery possesses the lowest overall DPS of the three hunter specs, it’s arguably the strongest when it comes to 1v1 and 1v2 situations. Due to the specs inherent health regen, immunity to CC and increased run speed, I feel much less vulnerable and and far more slippery as a BM Hunter.

I don’t arena all that much, apart from double DPS 2v2, but BM fits the bill here quite well. I find BM to be a more effective build when running without a healer, simply due to the spec’s increased mobility. Because many of the successful arena classes possess loads of CC, I find BM to be a good answer for that. With good communication and coordination, a carefully popped Bestial Wrath is usually all the additional firepower needed to get an opponent down anyway.

So those are a few reasons why I look to the Beast Mastery tree for my PvP needs. I guess to truly see if it’s a spec you’ll enjoy, you’ll have to read my guide and try it for yourself.

Let’s start with the build. Here’s a look at mine…

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Assembling a raiding Beast Master

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Mousie, Tauren Beast Mastery HunterHello readers and happy holidays! I hope you are all having a relaxing break, and don’t have a multitude of ruffians that are in your charge for the next week or so until their mothers come back and claim them. Obnoxious, rowdy ruffians who continuously want to play Pokémon with you and will not leave you alone for even a moment’s reprieve… But anyway, on to Beast Mastery!

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be giving you some advice on how to assemble your very own raiding Beast Master. I’ll be going through pets, talents, gems, and even a few addons that will make raiding as a BM easy and fun.

This week I’ll be covering:

  • Talent Builds
  • Glyphs
  • Gems

But first, why even choose beast mastery? We don’t get any special shots, automatic raid buffs or even do close to the amount of damage that the other two hunter trees can put out. So what are a few of the perks of being a BM?

  • Powerful and unique pets. This tree, as you may well know, revolves around the pet. 20-50% of your total damage will come from your pet alone.
  • Simple and straightforward shot rotation. Weaving your shots is as easy as pie, and as smooth as butter.
  • The ability to have 20-50% of your DPS on your target at all times in high mobility fights.
  • Less threat problems. With your DPS and threat split almost equally between you and your pet, aggroing mobs off of tanks isn’t a problem anymore.
  • It’s a familiar spec that most hunters leveled with. If you’re more confident with Beast Mastery, you’ll do more damage.

Sound appealing? Let’s break it down and see how Beast Mastery functions:

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Marksman Hunter Basics

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Although I haven’t posted in a few days, I assure you I have been busy working on the blog behind the scenes.

Yesterday I stealthily published my 2nd installment of Hunter raiding guides – this one being for Marksmanship. I intended to post a mention of this, but I didn’t budget my time well yesterday. I ended up going on a marathon guild raid night that included 25 man TotC, VoA and Onyxia. It was nice to return for some raiding after having missed out the past few weeks.

After that, I decided to hop on my Horde Hunter so I could complete the quest for the OP (at level 46 anyway) Rune of the Guard Captain. Once that was done, I figured I’d do a BG or two, which ended up being four or five. Good times though.

Eventually, the night passed me by and so I decided I’d just make mention of my Marksman Hunter guide today.

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