[Hunter Spec] Raiding Beast Mastery

[Alexial]

Firstly, a little background. I have played WoW for about 5 years now (since patch 1.7) and have played a hunter for the majority of the time, when not leveling alts. I have two 70 hunters and my current main 80. All of these hunters have been various incarnations of the following BM specs, so this has been tested and reworked over the years- much like a good baking recipe.

Now, the following guide I present is what works for me; It may not work for you. If you have objections, I will happily listen to them, provided they are presented in a respectful, and thoughtful manner. Flames, 'zomg ur a noob', or replies written in mostly chat speak will be completely ignored.

That being said, let the guide begin!

Brief overview of objectives for these specs:

-Boost your personal DPS while not gimping your pet; This can be a delicate balance. Considering the following methods, I can get to 5.2k in 10 mans easily with proper group composition (and about 5.7-6k in 25 mans):

-Stack Agi-- I know stacking AP is the new fad. Agi is still best in my opionion due to the fact that it gives both AP AND Crit. Like I said, it seems to work perfect for me.

-Stack Crit-- We all love to see 42% crit unbufffed! There is no such thing as too much crit! That's why FD was invented! This helps to boost your personal DPS.

-Stack Haste-- For low level hunters or hunters geared in blues and early purples, I would not be concerned with this stat. However, after a certain point in gear progression, this stat will be your best friend.

Your short term goal with this should be to find a slow weapon (2.80 or 2.90 is perfect- they have higher top end damage typically) and then stack haste until you have around 1.88 attack speed unbuffed. This way, you will attain your long term goal- when you pop Rapid fire, and/or when Imp Aspect of the hawk procs, you have a good chance to be around what I call the 'sweet spot' of 1.23 attack speed. Anymore then that, and you are wasting haste because your shots will become to fast to humanly weave.

Overview of specs:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ctbMz...est0eVf:Vbi0zM - This is my current BM spec that I love dearly. This spec is built around boosting my personal attack speed, and my pets ability to keep rolling out special attacks as I crit pretty much almost every other shot in a raid.

Keypoints in this spec:

Imp. Aspect of the Hawk- Speed Boost
Focused Fire- Extra DPS when pet is alive and kicking
Imp. Revive Pet- Essential for basically a pet battle rez
Aspect Mastery- Self explanatory. Essential BM talent
Bestial Discipline- Keeps my pets focus up
Longevity- Reduces your Bestial Wrath cooldown to just over 1 minute when combined with the glyph. Essential BM talent
Cobra Strikes- Helps with pet DPS. Some attacks crit for 1.3-2k
Go For the Throat- Keeps my pets focus up. Since I crit usually every 2-3 seconds, that's a ton of focus my pet regains, allowing him to use more specials.
Imp. Arcane Shot- Extra personal DPS boost (This can also be traded out for Imp. Serpent sting for seriously disgusting amounts of DPS when combined with the Tier 9 bonus.)

Spec Rotation/Priority: Arcane Shot> Serpent Sting> Steady Shot x3-4
Use Kill Shot then Arcane when it is up when you can use it, and weave in Arcane afterward once you fired off Kill Shot. Keep Serpent Sting up! This goes for all specs.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ctbMz...st0eVbR:Vbi0zM - This is a variation of the above spec I used for a while. It trades out Imp. Arcane shot for Aimed shot, and 2 points in Rapid Killing. This is good if you are the hunter that normally misdirects the main tank, as this will give you a big damage boost upon misdirection and gives the tank a good headstart, allowing DPS to start early, and start hard.

Spec Rotation/Priority: Rapid Fire>Arcane Shot> Serpent Sting> Steady Shot x3-4

Use Kill Shot then Arcane when it is up, and weave in Arcane afterward once you fired off Kill Shot. Also, use Rapid Fire whenever it is off CD.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#ctbMz...0eV0MZh:Vbi0zM - This is an interesting variation I tested for a little while. This gives steady DPS, but a little lower. (Around 5k even most of the time) This takes Rapid Killing, skipping Go For the Throat, Imp. Arcane shot AND Aimed shot to take 3 points in Improved Tracking. Try it at your own risk, I didn't use it very long. (I prefer burst DPS)

Spec Rotation/Priority: Same as above spec.



Overview of Glyphs:

There are a few glyphs you can choose from depending on what version of the above specs you use.

Major Glyphs:
[ITEM]Glyph of Bestial Wrath[/ITEM]
[ITEM]Glyph of the Hawk[/ITEM]
[ITEM]Glyph of Steady Shot[/ITEM]
[ITEM]Glyph of Serpent Sting[/ITEM] - This is fantatic with Imp. Serpent Sting and the T9 2-piece bonus if you don't have the full set yet.

Minor Glyphs:
[ITEM]Glyph of Revive Pet[/ITEM]
[ITEM]Glyph of Mend Pet[/ITEM]
[ITEM]Glyph of Feign Death[/ITEM]

Overview of pets:

There are a couple of pets I've tested over the years, however it's only really made a large difference in the past two with the addition of pet talent trees.

My preferred pets for BM in order:

Wolf- With this spec (4 points added for the Beast Mastery Talent) http://www.wowhead.com/?petcalc#0czM0fc00hoRb a wolf can easily pull 1.2k by himself. The combination of Furious Howl (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=64495) and Call of the Wild (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53434) provides both steady DPS and amazing buffs for the hunter. ((For the record, I've had wolves way before they were the cool pet to have *wink*))

Devilsaur- Same spec as the wolf with 4 points added for the BM Talent, and Monsterous Bite (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55499) is fantastic.

Spirit Beasts- Same spec, very cool looking. They still do more DPS then 'normal' pets, but supposedly there is a bug where their main ability Spirit Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=61198) and it still does not function properly, causing DPS loss. This skill operates on the same principles of a Boomkin's Moonfire.

That's pretty much it! If you need an example of a hunter with this spec and what type of gear/gems you should be going for, you can take a look at my hunter:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Moon+Guard&cn=Kamale (FYI armory is not working correctly showing specs on Firefox right now, so I would use IE.)

Don't forget! Use Kill Command, and Bestial Wrath when they are available!

Good hunting!

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[Noblebeastx]

well good job but one thing the spirit beast is not up to Par as far as i have heard and from my test in last patch 3.2 due to spirit strike being scaled to the pets arcane resitance now i dont know havnt checked since 3.2.....ill check now about it im thinking if they do scale spirit strike up it should be to attack power of the pet or its master

[Alexial]

well good job but one thing the spirit beast is not up to Par as far as i have heard and from my test in last patch 3.2 due to spirit strike being scaled to the pets arcane resitance now i dont know havnt checked since 3.2.....ill check now about it im thinking if they do scale spirit strike up it should be to attack power of the pet or its master

Thank you! I had heard something about that too from other hunter friends, but as far as I could find, I couldn't locate any information supporting it (And sadly, I don't own one anymore, so I can't check) I think you're right though, and they are still bugged. I'll edit the post until I can find something that confirms/denies if they are no longer bugged.

Thanks for the info! Always appreciate input