BM Help Please

[Sindariian]

Ilvl: 433
Spec: BM

I would like to be able to sustain my dps in the high 30-35k range and but I am being flooded with different opinions on what to do and where I am messing up. So if you guys can help, Id appreciate it.

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/character/id/8690751

[Ishan]

Here is a good start to look what you can improve: https://wowanalyzer.com/report/AZKht...25)/Sindariian

[Damasscus]

Am I the only one who feels this way? I'm seeing a lot more of these posts lately....I've been maining a Hunter since I started in BC, and while I don't claim to be super elite, I AM comfortable with my class and know the ins and outs. Yet, something doesn't feel right. In previous tiers I had no trouble parsing decent numbers, you know when you had a great fight and your rotation was tight, cooldowns and procs came aplenty and you just know you had a great parse....well since EP dropped I'm struggling to break blue parses (50%) while I see other hunters with bad habits and poor Kill Command casts compared to mine beating me. I just cannot figure out why I'm in this rut. Alright I'll shut up now.

[Turtel]

Am I the only one who feels this way? I'm seeing a lot more of these posts lately....I've been maining a Hunter since I started in BC, and while I don't claim to be super elite, I AM comfortable with my class and know the ins and outs. Yet, something doesn't feel right. In previous tiers I had no trouble parsing decent numbers, you know when you had a great fight and your rotation was tight, cooldowns and procs came aplenty and you just know you had a great parse....well since EP dropped I'm struggling to break blue parses (50%) while I see other hunters with bad habits and poor Kill Command casts compared to mine beating me. I just cannot figure out why I'm in this rut. Alright I'll shut up now.

Are you talking about your parses within your ilvl bracket? I'd say that would be explained by the fact that since EP released there have been huge power upgrades that are not tied to your ilvl in the form of essences (getting to rank 3, particularly Condensed Life Force), new enchants, new gems, new flasks, new potions, new food and socketted benthic gear (if you can get a piece with the correct effect then they'll beat even ilvl 455 items). Additionally with the high amount of crit you can get now with all those new things, the new ideal set of Azerite traits has become triple Dance of Death with the One with the Pack talent, which probably wasn't the case prior to EP (unless you were a mythic raider who got lucky with a lot of sockets).

Unless you've been on the ball with all of those things, then you'd probably struggle to compete with people with a similar ilvl who have been.

[Ishan]

I think Turtel is probably right with this.

The Dance of death build is very good IF you invest everything into it. This means using lower Ilvl gear a lot of the time due to stats or effects. I myself am 426 equipped, but I easily beat most people that are 430-435. I have 3 pieces of socketed benthic gear, and around 55% crit on average with procs etc.
Heck I disenchanted a 445 helm the other day because it didn't have the dance of death trait on it. (it simmed 1% lower vs my 430 helmet which does but is otherwise lackluster).

So a highly optimized BM hunter is probably showing a lower Ilvl than you would expect looking at their numbers.

[Khallid]

The answer to doing more dps is benthic gear.

Wrists, Hands, Waist, Feet and Cloak. All of those pieces would net more dps than what you're wearing, with a lower ilvl, if they were the appropriate benthics at 425 with a socket. You don't need to raid this tier to get good gear, just farm Manapearls.

[RangerCroe]

After reviewing your logs the answer is very clear and very simple: Use more abilities
I compared your performance just to your other BM hunter in the raid and you are not spending your focus on Cobra Shots and Kill Commands nearly enough.

For example on your Ashvane kill you cast only 91 Cobra Shots and 55 Kill Commands vs the other BM hunters 115 Cobra Shots and 77 Kill Commands.
That is about 26% Cobra Shot and 40% Kill Commands difference during this fight alone. This is a lot of lost damage that adds up.

Despite everyone crying about it being gear related this is very much not the case here. While gear upgrades are something we are always constant striving to get, gear upgrades are worthless if you don't intend to use them to their fullest potential. With your current gear you should be consistently well above 35k dps and hitting something closer to 38-39k.

The BM rotation for focus spending is very simple: Kill Command, then weave in 2-3 abilities depending on your current haste which is usually 2 Cobra shots and 1 extra ability such as a necessary Barbed Shot/DPS cooldown/or 3rd Cobra Shot, Repeat. Remember that Cobra Shot reduces the cooldown on Kill Command by 1 second per cast. During bloodlust you will just need to weave in 2 abilities between Kill Commands.

BM hunter gameplay in general breaks down into:
- using your Bestial Wrath on cooldown
- trying to maintain the highest number of Frenzy stacks on your pet by using Barbed Shot just before the current Frenzy is about to run out to refresh it's duration
- performing the focus spending rotation
- weaving in important cooldowns such as Aspect of the Wild, A Murder of Crows and Essences.

With your dance of death build the spending of Barbed Shot charges is very important as you want to avoid ever sitting at 2 and will often find yourself beginning to fish for Dance of Death procs. If you aren't ever casting something as BM something is very wrong.