What cool downs and procs are essential for BM hunters to track?

[Mashugana]

I am a UI junkie and a new BM hunter (level 53). On my raiding Tankadin I know what cool downs are critical to my rotation so I have them center screen (WeakAuras), which are important, and which I can just have hidden.

What are the key things you track in 5-mans and just soloing? I want to form muscle memory now if possible - so if there is some key spell that I get at level 80 I want to kind of plan for it now.

At 53 it seems like I just need:

Single Target:

• cooldown on Kill Command
• stacks of focus
• when Kill Shot is available

AoE:

• is multi-shot available
• cooldown on throwing fire trap

Any advice for what to track? Thanks - I hope this is marginally lucid - no coffee yet....

[Daetur]

CD on Bestial Wrath. CD on Rapid Fire. Maybe Stampede, but that's such a long CD that you'll typically save it for burn phases if there are any, and delaying it several seconds usually won't change how many times you can use it over the course of a fight.

I like to have easy access to my defensives, as well, so I have Deterrence and Master's Call very visible.

[Aldarana]

Having an aura for beast cleave is really helpful when you want cleave but not all out AoE. I also like one for serpent sting as it can sometimes fall off between all the CDs you get at higher levels. As far as soloing goes, I found that having something to track Mend Pet can be useful when leveling though Pandaria as my pet was getting hit really hard when I was going though there. Clampys created a whole weak aura group that tracks pretty much everything, focus bar, abilities, cool downs. I think it should work fine even if you're not max level yet and the new stuff will come up as you get it. JS Hunter Bar is another addon that dose the same thing pretty much as Clampys' the weak auras will give you move control if you want to change anything, so anything you don't like you can just turn off and you'll be able to move everything. Both Clampy's and JS Hunter Bar are setup to run with all 3 specs out of the box.

Clampys' Hunter Aura Group
JS Hunter Bar on Curse

[Mashugana]

Thank you! Very helpful. It seemed like the BM Hunter had a lot less to track than a tanking paladin - ty for confirming that. And Clampy's strings are great.

[HonneurVilified]

The sky is the limit for how much you want to track. For BM, I'm tracking:

CD/Availability: KC, T4 talent, T5 talent, T6 talent, Stampede, Kill Shot, Rapid Fire, BW
Duration: Bloodlust/Heroism, Focus Fire, Rapid Fire, Bestial Wrath, SrS, Deterrence, Beast Cleave

You could probably find more things to track, and some things that I track you might find unnecessary.
One nice thing about hunters it that they do not really need to worry about tracking trinket procs.

[Thursley]

You should also track Rabid for your pet, particularly if you have Assurance of Consequence and can line it up with bestial wrath often.