Beast Mastery’s Raid DPS needs some help, now before it’s too late, while the PTR is still up.
I recently changed servers and guilds to one of the end-game raid guilds. Suddenly, I found myself competing against competent players with best in-slot gear, players who like me, have worked extensively on their class’ rotation, theorycraft, and abilities.
The problem is I think, that Beast Mastery does not scale well with gear. In lower gear levels, when everyone has blues and some epic crafted gear, T7 (Heroes’) or mostly T7, BM can still hold its own. As BM, I can still top DPS meters in PUG raids, and VOA raids, where people raid with their alts or raid just for fun, not quite bothering to maximize their DPS. Still though, in T7 gear raids, I might still lose 1 or 2 DPS spots to a competent Warlock, Mage, DK., or Survival Hunter.
Now, when in a raid where almost everyone has got T7.5 (Valorous) and best-in-slot gear or even full T7 and fully epic gear, things change dramatically. In short terms, BM gets blown out of the water. BM simply does not have a chance to compete in current end-game, no matter a player’s skill.
The problem is that Beast Mastery loses the DPS race to:
a. Most Hybrids with comparable gear.
b. All pures with comparable gear.
c. Survival and Marksmen with comparable gear.
-I am basically using the highest-yield DPS BM spec, suggested by the EJ poster Mattaos in his Beast Mastery Bible Thread at the Elitist Jerks forums.
Here’s my gear:
1. Heroes’ Cryptstalker’s Headpiece
2. Pendant of the outcast hero
3. Heroes’ Cryptstalker Shoulders
4. Ice Striker’s Cloak
5. Heroes’ Cryptstalker Tunic
6. Giantmaim bracers
7. Rusted-Link Spiked Gauntlets
8. Sovereign’s belt
9. Heroes’ Cryptstalker Leggings
10. Boots of the Neverending Path
11. Titanium Impact Band
12. Stained-Glass Shard Ring
13. Mirror of Truth
14. Incisor’s Fragment
15. Staff of Trickery
16. Accursed Bow of the Elite
All i-level 200 epic items, except the ring and the trinket. Hit capped through the Draenei buff. I never ever miss. I had got 5,454 Attack Power Raid Buffed , and 4,254 Attack Power self-buffed.
Here’s how my raid’s Damage Meters looked like in our March 4th Naxx 25 raid:
OVERALL DAMAGE DONE (AKA TRASH METERS). Naxx 25
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1. Death Knight
2. Frostfire Mage
3. Mutilate Rogue
4. Survival Hunter
5. TG Warrior
6. Destro Warlock
7. Balance Druid
8. TG Warrior
9. **Beast Mastery Hunter
10. Shadow Priest
11. Frostfire Mage
12. Frostfire Mage
13. Balance Druid
14. Ret Paladin
15. Death Knight (woefully undergeared)
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7606/trashmeters.jpg
Now, trash meters are not AT ALL important, because on the one hand nobody really looks at them, and on the other hand some people tend to go afk or partially afk during trash, or simply not quite bother too much. It’s the boss encounters that ppl upload at WWS (WoW Web Stats) and ponder over.
Let’s have a look at Boss Meters:
1. Thaddius 25
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1. Destro Warlock 7,200.5
2. Frostfire Mage 6,959.7
3. TG Warr 6,387.8
4. TG Warr 6,311.2
5. Death Knight 6,097
6. Frostfire Mage 6,274.5
7. Surv Hunter 6,097
8. Mut Rogue 5,645
9. Frostfire Mage 5,726
10. Enh Shaman 5,515
11. Balance Druid 5,832
12. Ret Paladin 4,923
13. Destro Warlock 4,557
14. **Beast Mastery Hunter 4,362
15. Death Knight 3,144 (woefully undergeared)
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5678/thaddius25.jpg
Now, I am aware that Thaddius is a gimmick fight, and generally DPS isn’t so high in other encounters, but this gives you a good idea of how a BM performs regardless of DPS fluctuations. I have put Thaddius in, to show that NOT even all the very powerful +damage stack buffs that you get during the fight, are in fact able to raise your DPS by any substantial amount. The difference between Patch and Thaddius, is a mere 350 DPS. This shows exactly how poorly a Beast master's DPS scales with buffs.
2. Patchwerk 25
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1. Destro Warlock 5, 997
2. Frostfire Mage 5,758
3. TG Warr 5,642
4. Surv Hunter 5,557
5. Death Knight 5,499
6. Frostfire Mage 4,899
7. Balance Druid 4,704
8. TG Warr 4,466
9. Enh Shaman 4,342
10. Mut Rogue 4,142
11. Frostfire Mage 4,099
12. Ret Paladin 3,936
13. **Beast Mastery Hunter 3,977
14. Death Knight 3,973
15. Enh Shaman 3,930
16. Death Knight 2,342 (woefully undergeared)
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5781/patch25.jpg
The Rogue was semi-afk on this encounter, watching Arsenal on TV. Just saying.
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Now, the highest Beast Mastery DPS ever observed post patch 3.0.8, was that of Tobin on US Dalvengyr at a Patchwerk Naxx 25 fight.
Tobin (Night Elf), US Dalvengyr (20-1-2009): 5,407
http://wowwebstats.com/i6jvufjitzndg...=140115-170250
Tobin is a fellow Elitist Jerks poster with best in-slot gear who had some friends in her raid giving her hysteria, her raid's shamans timing their Heroism with her Beastial Wrath and in general had them trying to maximize her DPS as much as possible. Her raid also did far too good DPS, thus making her DPS to appear greater than what it should have been, due to higher Heroism uptime and short encounter duration.
As you will see her saying here (at Elitist Jerks)…
http://elitistjerks.com/1066477-post1004.html
…the only fight she succeeded in remaining competitive as a Beast Master was Patchwerk. She was practically destroyed dps-wise in all other fights.
To make you understand the magnitude of the problem, the next highest Beast Master’s DPS recorded after patch 3.0.8, is that of an Orc Hunter who did 4,700ish DPS at Naxx 25 Patchwerk, while in an average raid where people did not bother to give him hysteria etc. Orcs have got an extra +5% Pet Damage through Command, Bloodfury, etc. which help them be potentially the game’s best Beast Masters.
Conclusion:
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----------------->What we have here, is a pure DPS class spec, Beast Mastery, that has been reduced to the status of a Hybrid DPS spec. Not only it lags substantially behind Survival Hunter Builds, but it cannot even compete with Hybrid DPS specs in end game raids, much less with top pure DPS’ers such as Warlocks and Mages.
What we ALSO have here is a failure to communicate, Blizzard. We have told you that Beast Mastery needed fixing, and yet you took the spec and nerfed it so hard that you put it in the league of Hybrid DPS’ers.
Now, the Wild Hunt and Shark Attack changes on the PTR, while nice, will not solve the problem. You see, giving my pet 200 Attack Power and +1% pet damage, is not magically going to close the 2k DPS gap between Beast Masters and Warlocks, Mages, and Survival Hunters.
Suggestion:
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You need to come up with a way to buff up our Raid DPS without buffing up the DPS of other trees or that of the pet too much. A nice way would be to add + Steady Shot damage to the Ferocious Inspiration talent, which is in any case way down the Beast Mastery tree, and won’t affect PvP at all, due to the Steady Shot long cast time. Also, the pet certainly needs more than +200 AP and +1% pet damage if we are to see Beast Mastery ever be even REMOTELY competitive in end game raids.
EDITED TO REFLECT THE PTR 3.1.0 Build 9658 NERF TO WILD HUNT
Thank God we have the modify option, I can hardly keep up with Blizzard's nerfs to Beast Mastery