What Spec will you play in BfA

[Kaver]

BM hunter is great, and its not at all easier to play.

3 new buttons, and new barriers to master rotation.

New buttons: Chimera Shot, Murder of Crows (Global CD), Wild (Global CD)

Rotation: You need to max out Kill Comand dmg, you cant spam anymore. Doing 0,5 more Cobra Shot is dmg loss, so is better to wait 0,5 sec.

The Rotation is not what makes BM really easy. It's the freedom you have. Because it is ranged with no "cast time abilities" it feels like you have unlimited mobility. Plus the short CD's make you able to use them on demand with no real worry of having them ready later. The spec just allows you to play with no real need to think of your placement or plan ahead. You can just take the fights as they come along. It's a carefree playstyle which is really nice for mythic raiding progression.

[Firebyrd]

No, you didn't state that up front actually, you asked others if THEY had. And again, your characterization of how it plays in regards to "dead time" and focus restraints is so laughably inaccurate I can't help but assume you haven't actually played it much, if at all, in it's current beta state. It's literally the polar opposite in term's of gcd's from early legion.

Currently most people are running Dire Beast, Chimaera Shot and Crows in dungeons (Dire Beast because although Animal Companion technically outperforms there's still some bugs with AC like no incoming aoe damage reduction for extra pet that make it less feasible) on top of Cobra Shot, Kill Command, Barbed Shot. Excluding Crows, the longest cd there is 15 seconds. That's alot of abilities to juggle and you absolutely do not run into "focus problems" as with the GCD changes it's actually a struggle at times to not focus cap, although that probably gets easier over time with more play.

Fair enough, I thought I had stated that I'd played it at 120, but it looks like I didn't make that clear. I should have gone back to verify what I said. That being said, it's clear that what you find fun and what I find fun are very different. BM at 110 in high end gear is too slow and boring for me. I loved the pre-Legion BM that was GCD capped and BfA still has long gaps of nothing to do, which I find unacceptable (and yes, just so I'm absolutely clear, I have played the current state of it at 120). Since Blizzard seems more interested in numbers than feedback given (I'm hardly the only one who finds the state of BM unacceptable, most of the feedback throughout the alpha/beta has been negative just as it was during Legion's), I'm going to give them the information that they actually look at and stop playing it.

[Ryzek]

Gonna be Surv/MM. I've never been able to get into BM for some reason.

[Usagi Senshi]

Gonna be Surv/MM. I've never been able to get into BM for some reason.

Same, switching from monk to hunter for a mix up this time, and will be survival with MM on the side.

[Diggsworth]

Gonna be Surv/MM. I've never been able to get into BM for some reason.

If you couldn't get into BM before, no idea how you'll get into Survival in BFA, it's basically the same thing at this stage.

[Deleted]

Only got to play the prepatch spec changes, but regardless I'd overall most likely stick to mm with bm and survival here and there because I also like their flair and the skills.

Personally it's mostly about class fantasy which makes me experience the gameplay probably as better than it is purely gameplay wise.

Used to play healers/feral before but fell for the hunter especially with the changes, what can I say, I love to shoot arrows at ridiculous range and lots of them, and mm delivers from what I see

[Schizoide]

BM, I like how they added some gameplay to what was a very simple spec in Legion, and 100% mobility at ranged is just incredibly fun and useful.

[Sunfire]

Marksman. I play this spec since classic and I will continue to play it until the very end.

[Ladyoftheforest]

Marksmanship. It hits the mark for me.

[Sett]

MM. Nothing against SV, I just enjoy the ranged aspect of MM more.

[Deleted]

If you couldn't get into BM before, no idea how you'll get into Survival in BFA, it's basically the same thing at this stage.

...Because you press buttons?

I don't see as how BM is for example the same as SV in multi-target situations.

Butchery, Wildfire + Serpent spread is a "little" different from maintaining beastcleave.

[ozusteapot]

After some testing on the ptr, until they fix/tweak MM’s talents/rotation, I’ll be sticking to BM.
The Db/chimaera/amoc build is an actually good spec.

[Tinytalon]

Survival looks pretty fun. I tried them all in Beta and MM is the only one I feel like isn't worth it in terms of what's fun for me to play. It was ok'ish in Legion, but it just felt very.. bland in beta.

[Dch48]

BM just like the last 13 years. Animal Companion is a cool talent.

- - - Updated - - -

Fair enough, I thought I had stated that I'd played it at 120, but it looks like I didn't make that clear. I should have gone back to verify what I said. That being said, it's clear that what you find fun and what I find fun are very different. BM at 110 in high end gear is too slow and boring for me. I loved the pre-Legion BM that was GCD capped and BfA still has long gaps of nothing to do, which I find unacceptable (and yes, just so I'm absolutely clear, I have played the current state of it at 120). Since Blizzard seems more interested in numbers than feedback given (I'm hardly the only one who finds the state of BM unacceptable, most of the feedback throughout the alpha/beta has been negative just as it was during Legion's), I'm going to give them the information that they actually look at and stop playing it.

I find no gaps at all in BM. With the new cooldown structure it's a little harder to play than in Legion.

[Deleted]

BM just like the last 13 years. Animal Companion is a cool talent.

- - - Updated - - -



I find no gaps at all in BM. With the new cooldown structure it's a little harder to play than in Legion.

I like what they did with BM, but there is a gap: They should finally scale our and our pets damage with our attack power and rework mastery to increase the chance of a wild call proc + another side effect. I'm pretty sure this would fix BM for good, as we would finally properly scale with gear and ease the need for huge amounts of 2nd stats. They promised to make 2nd stats less impactful in BfA but they didn't deliver that when it comes to BM. The need for high crit and high mastery to do good numbers is still unchanged.

[Diggsworth]

...Because you press buttons?

I don't see as how BM is for example the same as SV in multi-target situations.

Butchery, Wildfire + Serpent spread is a "little" different from maintaining beastcleave.

Spreading serpent sting outside of the multi-sting talent is about as good of an idea as spreading lacerates.
Butchery is press button for profit, as is wildfire. It functions the same way as it does on live, with the exception that the bomb is functionally a cone trap.

When I say that it's the same thing at this stage, I'm referring to the basic gameplay loop for live-BM of press kill command, press cobra shot (THIS DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M SAYING YOU SPAM COBRA SHOT, I'M SIMPLY SAYING THAT THE ROTATION IS A BASIC PRESS 2 BUTTONS ROTATION).
As it is, in BFA, survival is playing the same way as BM. Mash raptor/mongoose, press kill command. Yes you have to press serpent sting sometimes. But the core rotational loop is mash these 2 buttons.
If you don't like BM on live, then you probably won't like Survival in BFA. Conversely, if you do like live BM, then you'll probably enjoy Survival in BFA, unless you hate melee.

[Ammathor]

I'm probably going to maintain MM, Played it all throughout WoD and Legion.

[Deleted]

Spreading serpent sting outside of the multi-sting talent is about as good of an idea as spreading lacerates.
Butchery is press button for profit, as is wildfire. It functions the same way as it does on live, with the exception that the bomb is functionally a cone trap.

When I say that it's the same thing at this stage, I'm referring to the basic gameplay loop for live-BM of press kill command, press cobra shot (THIS DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M SAYING YOU SPAM COBRA SHOT, I'M SIMPLY SAYING THAT THE ROTATION IS A BASIC PRESS 2 BUTTONS ROTATION).
As it is, in BFA, survival is playing the same way as BM. Mash raptor/mongoose, press kill command. Yes you have to press serpent sting sometimes. But the core rotational loop is mash these 2 buttons.
If you don't like BM on live, then you probably won't like Survival in BFA. Conversely, if you do like live BM, then you'll probably enjoy Survival in BFA, unless you hate melee.

That's nonsense....

The core rotation is Ratpor, KC, Bomb and Serpent sting. You apply and play that differently than BM's high uptime/stack maintanence of barbed shot and Cobra shot and Killcommand.. which are both spenders.

Might as well compare it to any other spec that presses 2 buttons more often than the others.

Survival in BFA has, compared to other specs and classes, a pretty solid skillset that interacts properly with talents and rotational abilities.

Spreading serpent sting outside of the multi-sting talent is about as good of an idea as spreading lacerates.
Butchery is press button for profit, as is wildfire. It functions the same way as it does on live, with the exception that the bomb is functionally a cone trap.

Serpent sting deals more damage than Raptor Strike and is cheaper, so it's always a good idea to spread it if the target survives long enough butchery/carve resets the cooldown of wildfire bomb and even if wildfire bomb is a cone trap, what has that to do with anything?

What is BMs equivalent AoE to that exactly?
Stomp? - which is used on Barbed shot passivley?

(Not to mention all the rotational tweaks that come from talents such as Mongoose and Wildfire-infusion. Or Azerite traits such as Latent Posion and Wilderness Survival or the perks available to BM which change things too.)

[Deleted]

That's nonsense....

The core rotation is Ratpor, KC, Bomb and Serpent sting. You apply and play that differently than BM's high uptime/stack maintanence of barbed shot and Cobra shot and Killcommand.. which are both spenders.

Might as well compare it to any other spec that presses 2 buttons more often than the others.

Survival in BFA has, compared to other specs and classes, a pretty solid skillset that interacts properly with talents and rotational abilities.

agreed, its not harder to play than BM however, if the numbers are in the upper top for SV compared to other melee specs, i will play SV tho

[Deleted]

agreed, its not harder to play than BM however, if the numbers are in the upper top for SV compared to other melee specs, i will play SV tho

SV in BFA is indeed not a whole lot harder. At least in their default states, most spec are rather easy in BFA... which tbh, is pretty nice.

I still think that BMs skillset is a litte scarce though.
It could really use additional AoE abilities or something.

It's one of the specs with the fewest skills on the action bar. Wouldn't mind some interaction between a dot and KC or Barbed shot with KC or something. Some azerite traits are interesting though.