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  1. #1
    Warchief Serj Tankian's Avatar
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    Beast Mastery Hunter Guide (5.0.4)

    Not currently updated for MoP.


    Contents:
    1.0 Introduction
    1.1 A few words
    1.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms
    2.0 Your Hunter
    2.1 Race
    2.2 Professions
    2.3 Talents
    2.4 Glyphs
    3.0 Gear
    3.1 Stats
    3.2 Enchants
    3.3 Gems
    4.0 Tips / Shot Priority
    4.1 Tips
    4.2 Single Target Priority
    -4.2.1 Priorities for AoE
    4.3 Cooldowns
    5.0 Your Pets
    5.1 What pet to bring?
    5.2 Pet Talents
    6.0 Macros
    7.0 AddOns and Useful Sites
    8.1 AddOns
    8.2 Useful Sites
    8.0 Change log




    1.0 Introduction

    1.1 A few words

    This guide is meant for PvE purposes only.



    1.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms

    TBD



    2.0 Your Hunter

    2.1 Race

    These are the only races that offer any bonus to DPS.

    Alliance:
    Pandaren - Epicurean which doubles the bonus you get from food buffs.
    Worgen - Viciousness gives 1% Crit rating, and even more they have Darkflight which is quite useful.
    Dwarf - Crack Shot gives 1% Expertise Rating, and Stoneform which can be useful in raids.
    Draenei - Heroic Presence gives 1% Hit Rating, and Gift of the Naaru which can be useful in raids.
    Human - Every Man for Himself which could be situationally useful.
    Night Elf - Wisp Spirit proving to be most useful when dead.

    Horde:
    Orc - Blood Fury gives a nice burst AP cooldown, and Command which gives 2% Pet Damage.
    Troll - Berserking gives a nice burst Haste cooldown, and Dead Eye which gives 1% Expertise Rating
    Pandaren - Epicurean which doubles the bonus you get from food buffs.
    Goblin - Time is Money which gives 1% Haste Rating, and Rocket Jump which can be situationally useful.
    Undead - Touch of the Grave which deals direct damage and heals you back for that amount.
    Blood Elf - Nothing useful.
    Tauren - Nothing useful.


    2.2 Professions

    TBD


    2.3 Talents

    The tiers 15, 30 and 45 are freely selectable and boss dependent. This is only a general suggestion from me, but the talent level is 60 to 75 skills are the DPS output here.




    2.4 Glyphs

    There are only a handful of glyphs that offer any kind of advantage.















    3.0 Gear

    3.1 Stats

    Hit 7.5% = 769 Rating 666 if Draenei
    Expertise 7.5% = 769 Rating 666 if Dwarf or Troll
    Crit
    Mastery
    Haste

    [3.2 Enchants

    Shoulders - Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal or Swiftsteel Inscription if you're a Scribe.
    Back - Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike or Enchant Cloak - Major Agility or Swordguard Embroidery if you're a Tailor.
    Chest - Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats
    Wrist - Enchant Bracer - Agility
    Hands - Enchant Gloves - Greater Mastery or Enchant Gloves - Major Agility or Enchant Gloves - Greater Expertise
    Belt - Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
    Legs - Dragonscale Leg Armor
    Feet - Enchant Boots - Assassin\'s Step
    Weapon - Flintlocke\'s Woodchucker

    3.3 Gems

    Meta - Agile Shadowspirit Diamond
    Red - Delicate Queen\'s Garnet
    Orange - Deadly Lava Coral
    Purple - Glinting Shadow Spinel


    4.0 Tips & Shot Priority

    4.1 Tips

    TBD

    4.2 Single Target Priority:
    Is Hunter's Mark up? If not reapply.
    Is Serpent Sting up? If not reapply.
    Kill Command on cooldown.
    Kill Shot if target is below 20% health.
    Focus Fire at 5 stacks of Frenzy or if it's less than 5 seconds left on the buff. Do not use Focus Fire if you're going to use Bestial Wrath soon.
    Arcane Shot to bleed off excess focus.
    Cobra Shot to increase Serpent Sting and retain focus.


    4.2.1 Priorities for AoE

    If there are only two or three mobs continue doing your Single Target Priority. If there are 4+ mobs do this...
    Bestial Wrath and Lynx Rush can also be used for AoE situations for burst there.

    Multi-Shot at least every 4 seconds to maintain Beast Cleave.
    Explosive Trap under them (No more melee range).
    Kill Shot on targets below 20% health.
    Cobra Shot to retain focus.

    4.3 Cooldowns

    I do Rapid Fire before Bestial Wrath to allow stacks of Focus Fire to get more out of Bestial Wrath.

    Rapid Fire (Do not stack with Bestial Wrath)
    Bestial Wrath.
    Lynx Rush.
    Dire Beast.
    Readiness and repeat again.


    5.0 Your Pets

    5.1 What pet to bring?

    Bring the pet that will most benefit your group. Look at the buffs here.

    5.2 Pet Talents

    Ferocity. That's all.





    6.0 Macros

    This will use trinkets CD or Glove CD if you have them, cast Rabid, Lynx Rush and Bestial Wrath.
    #showtooltip Bestial Wrath
    /use 13
    /use 14
    /use 10
    /cast Rabid
    /cast Lynx Rush
    /cast Bestial Wrath

    This will stop your current cast and Silence/Interrupt the enemy and then start attacking again.
    #showtooltip Silencing Shot
    /stopcasting
    /stopcasting
    /cast Silencing Shot
    /startattack

    This will cancel Deterrence or Blessing of Protection so you can continue to attack.
    /cancelaura Deterrence
    /cancelaura Blessing of Protection

    This will stop your current cast and Feign Death.
    #showtooltip Feign Death
    /stopcasting
    /stopcasting
    /cast Feign Death

    This will stop your current cast and Disengage.
    #showtooltip Disengage
    /stopcasting
    /stopcasting
    /cast Disengage

    This will stop your current cast and Deterrence.
    #showtooltip Deterrence
    /stopcasting
    /stopcasting
    /cast Deterrence



    7.0 AddOns and Useful Sites

    7.1 AddOns

    Qulight UI: This is a complete UI replacement addon built off Tukui by Tukz.
    Serenity: Serenity is the replacement for JS' Hunter Bar.
    xCT: xCT is a very lightweight combat text addon (20- 30kb mem usage)
    BigWigs: Boss-mod.
    Skada: Skada is a modular damage meter with various viewing modes. It is inspired mainly by Assessment, but also by Recount.

    7.2 Useful Sites

    Zeherah's Hunter DPS Analyzer: tool to load a character's gear from the armory and simulate its damage output with various skill rotations, talents, glyphs, races, and professions to calculate DPS.
    Reforge-Calc: With this 1 click script you can now optimal reforge your hunters equipment out of billions of options.
    Warcraft Hunters Union: The WoW hunter class source for guides, advice, and entertainment. Everything you need to top the charts.
    WoWInterface: World of Warcraft Addons, Interfaces, Skins, Mods & Community.
    WoW-Heroes: A database covering PvE character and guild information and ratings.
    Petopia: A visual guide to hunter pets and information.
    Elitist Jerks: Elitist Jerks is a site dedicated to intelligent discussion of the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.
    World Of Logs: World of Logs combat log analyzer which allows gamers to save, share and analyze their raiding experiences conveniently and thoroughly.
    Joystiq: Game news, strategy articles, game tips, humor, and player opinions.
    WoWHead: A database website with talent, glyph and hunter pet planer, forums, blog, and patch guides.



    8.0 Change log
    6/1/2013 I've recently quit WoW so I'll no longer be updating this. If you'd like to take over this thread, feel free. Have fun guys!
    7/10/2012 I'll be updating soon™. Been very busy lately with the start of expansion and all.
    5/9/2012 Added macros.
    5/9/2012 Trying to get title updated.
    30/8/2012 Fixed the broken links on Glyphs.
    29/8/2012 Updated the whole guide... If there's something I left out or you think is better, just drop a comment.
    Last edited by Serj Tankian; 2013-01-07 at 01:55 AM.

  2. #2
    Brewmaster Bassch's Avatar
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    As a BM Hunter myself, I must say this is a really nice guide . Hopefully it gets stickied. You might want to add in the race preferrences for people that are unsure, and mabye add in when to use their own racials again, in case people are unsure .

  3. #3
    Warchief Serj Tankian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bassch View Post
    As a BM Hunter myself, I must say this is a really nice guide . Hopefully it gets stickied. You might want to add in the race preferrences for people that are unsure, and mabye add in when to use their own racials again, in case people are unsure .
    Thank you. Sure, I'll add the race preference and Racial usage.

    Just doing parses now with BiS gear..

  4. #4
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    Why play BM when the best to specs for PvE is Surv and Marksman.

  5. #5
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    Awesome - just dual specced to BM and couldn't find a guide on here.

    Nice job

  6. #6
    Warchief Serj Tankian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sonaxiano View Post
    Why play BM when the best to specs for PvE is Surv and Marksman.
    This is not true at all, a good BM Hunter can out DPS and keep up with MM and SV with ease.

  7. #7
    Brewmaster Bassch's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sonaxiano View Post
    Why play BM when the best to specs for PvE is Surv and Marksman.
    A lot of people like myself enjoy playing Bm. If people play it well, they can be on par with MM and Survival.

    In my first raid with my new guild, I was capable of being on par on DPS with a MM Hunter. He's really good, and his gear is a lot better than mine. (Not trying to show off). I also noticed a lot of BM Hunters doing really well in comparison with other Hunters.

  8. #8
    Pandaren Monk mööh's Avatar
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    I may be wrong but from what I know only marksman gain focus from Rapid fire.

  9. #9
    Warchief Serj Tankian's Avatar
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    What's wrong is that people are still in the WotLK mindset and refuse to acknowledge that BM is doing very well again.

    ---------- Post added 2011-08-21 at 12:12 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by mööh View Post
    I may be wrong but from what I know only marksman gain focus from Rapid fire.
    Still increases Haste greatly, thus increasing Focus regen as well as faster Cobra Shots which again increase Focus.

  10. #10
    The Patient Judai's Avatar
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    Seems so small compared to the other guides >.<

    Guess BM is that little less complicated =(

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Judai View Post
    Seems so small compared to the other guides >.<

    Guess BM is that little less complicated =(
    Lol. It's really not. BM's shot cycle is very fluid and dynamic and changes constantly. What this BHV has written really doesn't do it justice. Once you start getting a lot of haste, you will be constantly changing what shots you do in between KC. Sometimes it'll be Cobra x3 ASx1, sometimes it'll be Cobra x2 ASx2 and you have to really watch your focus because with Invigoration, your focus regen is hard to anticipate. Additionally, there's often a slight delay between when FF comes off cd and when you can hit it again, so you have to adjust for having a slower Cobra cast here and there. Then you have to pool focus for BW, which with a 70 second cd, changes up the play again quite frequently.

    Also, in my opinion, the glyph of Mending is absolutely essential. While if you're using a ferocity pet, as you should when you can (though it's not as huge of a dps different as BHV makes it out to be to use a cunning pet), you can spec into Heart of the Phoenix, it's better for the pet to just not die in the first place. My healers actually love my devilsaur and heal him when they can, but crap can happen at times, and with as slow a heal as Mend Pet is in an emergency, boosting it all you can when your pet is in danger is essential. This becomes even more important for the average group, since most healers aren't like mine and refuse to heal pets.

  12. #12
    Warchief Serj Tankian's Avatar
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    Very well said, Firebyrd.

    I used to actually use the Glyph of Mending, but then I just found that my pet really was not getting hit at all and since they take like 90% reduced damage from AoE the Bloodthirsty talent heals it quickly. I personally just find that Raptor Strike and Disengage come in handy a bit more, although Raptor Strike is situational it does help a great deal.

    As for Heart of the Phoenix, I used to carry around a spare pet for certain fights where my pet usually died. Fights that come to mind; Nefarian, Chimearon, and Magmaw. Would just get gibbed in those fights. There isn't any need for this pet so far in Firelands, but here's the spec I used. http://www.wowhead.com/petcalc#mdd00fc0zhoRb
    Last edited by Serj Tankian; 2011-08-21 at 05:26 PM.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by BleedingHollowVeteran View Post
    Haste 9% or 13% There really isn't any impact on your DPS between Haste or Mastery
    Are you saying that haste and mastery are of equal value for a BM Hunter?

  14. #14
    Old God Grizzly Willy's Avatar
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    As a proud Beast Master I approve of this guide. Well done!

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Helfarch View Post
    Are you saying that haste and mastery are of equal value for a BM Hunter?
    They are. After you hit your target Haste plateau, Crit overtakes them both and the values of Haste and Mastery become dead even until the next plateau is attainable. The math has shown neither to be better than the other. Certain fights will favor one slight more than the other but the severity is hardly worth making a broad reforging assessment.
    Last edited by Bullettime; 2011-08-21 at 06:29 PM.

  16. #16
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    Most interesting. Thanks.

  17. #17
    Stood in the Fire Daieon's Avatar
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    Wow, nice guide. This sort of made me want to play BM. Then I remembered I have a craving to get rare pets when I go BM. So that stomped that light out.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Amorise View Post
    They are. After you hit your target Haste plateau, Crit overtakes them both and the values of Haste and Mastery become dead even until the next plateau is attainable. The math has shown neither to be better than the other. Certain fights will favor one slight more than the other but the severity is hardly worth making a broad reforging assessment.
    From what I've read, Mastery isn't worth it. While it sounds good in practice, it only affects our pets DPS, where the other 2 affect both our pets and our dps. Ive also read that both haste and crit are also on par with each other. To be honest, I hear different stat priorities from so many different places. I dont know what to think now.

  19. #19
    This guide is spot on, wtb sticky

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by BleedingHollowVeteran View Post
    This is not true at all, a good BM Hunter can out DPS and keep up with MM and SV with ease.
    So whit all players at the top testing this and tell us they avrg dps over BM is like 2k i should belive a random hunter?

    And another thing tell me why none of the top rated guilds done go whit any BM hunters.

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