Primal Instincts

[Koochulu]

BM hunters have seen the Azerite trait Primal Instincts. It sims as one of our(if not the) top trait. And multiple pieces with it go even higher. What I'm wondering is why? Is it all because of the mastery? I get the added bonus of a barbed shot helping to keep frenzy active. That's not what I'm talking about. However, one barbed shot added is nice. Two traits giving two? That's going from zero to max(if it works that way). But three? Can't go past two, so that part would be moot. So it has to be the mastery added in, right?

Someone help explain why this is best for BM. Because I don't see anything special other than the extra barbed shot, which only happens once you press AotW.

[Bepples]

BM hunters have seen the Azerite trait Primal Instincts. It sims as one of our(if not the) top trait. And multiple pieces with it go even higher. What I'm wondering is why? Is it all because of the mastery? I get the added bonus of a barbed shot helping to keep frenzy active. That's not what I'm talking about. However, one barbed shot added is nice. Two traits giving two? That's going from zero to max(if it works that way). But three? Can't go past two, so that part would be moot. So it has to be the mastery added in, right?

Someone help explain why this is best for BM. Because I don't see anything special other than the extra barbed shot, which only happens once you press AotW.

The BS charge part does not stack.

What does stack is the mastery. I have about 700 mastery. The trait literally gives me more mastery than I have baseline while its active. That's pretty huge; it's like a second BW for your pet.

[Turtel]

Yeah the Primal Instincts traits after the first only increase the amount of Mastery that you gain. If you look at the stacked chart on Azortharion's Icy Vein BM Hunter guide, you'll notice that the first trait gives a slightly larger DPS increase (~23% larger) than the second and third trait. Although the fact that the extra Mastery from the second and third traits still causes such a big DPS jump (relative to the first trait) implies that the Mastery is the largest contribution to the trait's strength in the first place.

It's not just about the large chunk of Mastery though, the timing of when the Mastery occurs matters a lot.

If you look at the Incite the Pack trait, it gives a similar amount of Mastery and has a 60% higher uptime compared to Primal Instincts (in my sims I get a 30% uptime for Incite the Pack, as opposed to a 19% uptime for Primal Instincts). However Incite the Pack happens randomly throughout the fight, whereas Primal Instincts kicks in right on pull, where the sims have you using Bloodlust, Prepot, Aspect of the Wild *and* Bestial Wrath; you'll also be using Murder of Crows, have full focus and 2 charges of Barbed Shot hence your pet is going to have 3 Frenzy stacks for the entirely of the initial Primal Instincts buff. Each subsequent time you gain Primal Instcincts is guaranteed to be aligned with Aspect of the Wild and the extra Barbed Shot charge means your pet is likely to reach 2-3 Frenzy stacks for most of the duration, which is the perfect time to gain a large chunk of Mastery (which increases pet damage). Compare that to Incite the Pack, which you have no control over when it procs, meaning there is no guarantee that it will align with any of your cooldowns or when you have high Frenzy stacks.

EDIT: I should note that Incite the Pack also gives an additional 32% of the Mastery spread across 2 other party members, so while the trait may sim low for an individual BM hunter, in terms of increasing the overall DPS of the raid/party, it actually ranks quite highly (still not as good as Primal Instincts though).

[rustyboy]

It's all about timing

Aspect of the Wild 20 secs
Primal Instincts 20 secs
Lustrous Golden Plumage 20 sec
Bestial Wrath 15 sec
Blood Fury 15 sec
A Murder of Crows 15 sec
Fast Frenzy stacks
Potion 25 secs
Lust 40 secs

Mastery increases your pet damage and the majority of our damage comes from the pet
You can pick when your going to use it to maximise the damage

Laser Matrix: Random
Archive of the Titans: Ramp up time
Engy Helm: Random
Haze of Rage: Buff too short

In Uldir your probably going to want at least 1 x Archive of the Titans for Re-origination and either 1 x Primal Instincts + 1 x Archive of the Titans or 2 x Primal Instincts. That's if you can get another high ilvl Primal Instincts piece from cache as there is only a helm in Uldir