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Still loving Beast Master after all this time...Follow

#1 Apr 18 2007 at 5:59 PM Rating: Default
So, I finally stopped playing around with my numerous alts, and got back to the business of seriously levelling my hunter. I just dinged 66 the other night and got Kill Command...

I'm playing around with this ability in the outlands, getting a few nice crits for around 500+, and regular hits from KC for around 350. Pretty decent for a measly 75 mana! Still I'm thinking I'd like to see this ability crit for more...

Along comes an ally warrior, same level as me who tries to gank! I run away screaming in fear! Not really, but I send in the pet, pop beast wrath, hit him with serpent sting, Arcane shot, concussive shot. I use steady shot which crits him for around 1100, then I pop Kill Command which crits him for close to 1k damage. Dead warrior, in under 10s flat. I'm laughing my *** off, very satisfying to kill an ally with Kill command soon after I just got the spell.

Anyway, BM still pwns face, how are people liking it at 70? I've heard it is somewhat lacking, but I still plan to stick with it for levelling purposes. I'll probably end up going back to marks at some point to try silencing shot, but for now I'm still very much in love with BM.
#2 Apr 19 2007 at 6:51 AM Rating: Decent
I've been BM specced for almost my entire career as a hunter. Wouldn't change it. I've done all the level 70 instances, most of the heroics, and just started Karazhan last week (finally!!!). Beast is still a great spec to have. You're pet should be able to off tank any mob you can find, except a few of the really hard hitting ones in Heroic difficulty.

Kill command is definately a great skill. If you develop a macro to weave it into a good shot cycle, you'll reap the benefits. The damage on it will only improve as you and your pet level. With a full compliment of raid buffs and bestial wrath, you should expect crits over 1000. During normal soloing and instances, you'll see 600 to 800 crits depending on which pet you have out.

Stick with the spec you like until you come up against a reason to change it. If you're liking kill command, keep it. I've managed to be useful in cc situations without silencing shot because my pet can hold mobs so well. I'd hate to see another hunter that likes Beast spec change out of it.

*edit: spelling*

Edited, Apr 19th 2007 10:53am by Smoothrustic

Edited, Apr 19th 2007 10:53am by Smoothrustic
#3 Apr 20 2007 at 7:22 PM Rating: Decent
I too have been BM all my levels and i really like it.. i guess its a personal preference, but after reading a few forums and being owned by a few horde mark specs i swiched to marks and really didnt like it as much.. i mean the dps its ok but i can still do about the same damage with BM spec and have my pet hitting twice as hard maxing all damage on the target. I guess for some players Marks is great but with my and my playing style BM just fits me.. and i like to see my pet get biggerthat the target thats always funn.. humm so after all the respecing the next one will cost 35g.. EWW


Whootwhoot 66 hunter- bloodscalf pvp
#4 Apr 21 2007 at 3:18 PM Rating: Default
Whootwhoot wrote:
I too have been BM all my levels and i really like it.. i guess its a personal preference, but after reading a few forums and being owned by a few horde mark specs i swiched to marks and really didnt like it as much.. i mean the dps its ok but i can still do about the same damage with BM spec and have my pet hitting twice as hard maxing all damage on the target.


Whootwhoot 66 hunter- bloodscalf pvp


I think a Marks hunter DPS is probably higher overall, but a BM hunter definately has more sustained DPS. Marks generally pwns more PvP because it is more burst damage, whereas with BM i get a lot of smaller crits more often. You won't see a BM hunter getting gigantic 2k aimed shot crits and whatnot, but my pet will often crit several times on the same mob for upwards of 350. My style used to be all marks, but I've adapted to a BM style of play. I just love sending in the pet and watching it tear ***!
#5 Apr 21 2007 at 5:31 PM Rating: Decent
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1,292 posts
I've been BM/mm spec since about 40th. And I love it. I do more DPS than similarly geared guildmates with a MM build (as measured by our synched DM), and I pull aggro less often since I have less bursty damage.
But I had been considering a re-spec to MM/sv, since at 70 in the harder instances (say, anything Shattered Halls and up) the Pet can't tank without constant attention from the healers.
Smoothrustic, you've got to tell me how you manage to do it... My Pet tanks for about 20 seconds before death. If I can afford to heal it it might last 30 seconds, and if the healer gives it some attention it can last longer, but soaking off the healers mana is not a viable win strategy.

I'm holding off on the re-spec until I see the 2.1 patch though, as the Pet should have much more survivability in raids if all the proposed changes make it to Live.

#6 Apr 23 2007 at 12:06 AM Rating: Decent
Well I am a 70 BM with 70 Raptor - [the green Felraptor from Blade's E.M.] i got my talents set up so I just get the Kill but maintain all the high DPS marksman talents - i also use the Devilsaurus Tooth coupled with the Kill and have (so far) mostly blue items with a few epics. I get aimed shots of 3k + my average DPs is 600+ and the Pet can Crit's over 1200 with the right combination of things. I went Blacksmith (and mining for mats) to get the high level axesmith axes with lots of attack power and crits and added as much agility as i can afford. I can tell all you would be BMs its a highly effective way to fight and as a solo spec it cant be beat. Im not much into pvp - but have been told the marksman is the better way to go for that - I'm not sure, I just know marksmen are fine as long as the don't have to melee AT ALL. Personally I don't know how they can do that I tried the marksman spec recently and i will admit I got aimed of 5k and scatter is a great tool - but even with all the tricks i knew i couldn't always keep all the mobs at range all the time, so either had to fake and let the pet die or die with the pet fighting.
Another thing about Marksman - in a group u really have to turn off your pet's growl so warriors can build up rage then as marksman u loose another "keep them at bay" trick. So - also i think because I am used to it - I went back to BM and it's a very effective spec. as long as u use your talent points carefully going only for the top DPS talents from Beastmaster and Marksman and go heavy on agility.
#7 Apr 23 2007 at 6:56 AM Rating: Decent
well im a MM spec, and i love the spec, im only lvl 60 just dinged a few days ago, i dont really have much end game exp, my aimed shot crits for about 2.3k + not bad for okish gear, i dont have a problem grinding, the kills are normally quick and i destory the mobs pritty easy, in instances i normally leave my pet's growl on anyway so if the tank dies something has more hate than me, coz my pet wont take hate off a tank. anyways, i do enuf dmg to keep up and beat some rogues in dmg and i can beat similar geared BM spec hunters with a simple aimed to serpent to arcane shot, and scattering there pet, b/c relying on your pet to do dmg is very uneven dmg, from my point of view, b/c unless you use EoTB you cant manully controll your pet. anyways, i do however have of a BM twist to my char. going for imp AoTH for the speed increase and for focus fire for the 2% increased dmg, i also have 2/3 for hawk eye (i wont hit 61 till i have the black war raptor coz the epic hawkstriders are gay in my view) anyways, just thought id through a MM view into the forum
#8 Apr 23 2007 at 6:58 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
Smoothrustic, you've got to tell me how you manage to do it... My Pet tanks for about 20 seconds before death. If I can afford to heal it it might last 30 seconds, and if the healer gives it some attention it can last longer, but soaking off the healers mana is not a viable win strategy.


It takes a little practice, but easily doable for everyone. If you're beast specced, and you've got a pet you think can tank, let's say it has 12k armor. Hopefully you didn't nerf it too much and it has around 5600 life. Let me run through the steps I take if my pet has to tank:

Communicate to the party that the pet's target should be at least the 3rd target killed. Any more than that and it will need heals.

After the initial pull by whomever, send in your pet. Cast intimidation. Shoot your pet's target with scorpid sting. Forget about them and focus your dps, follow the kill order, or drop your freeze trap, etc. Hopefully you're killing the pet's target by the time scorpid sting wears off.

Scorpid sting is a useful tool, and I don't see many people talk about it in the forums. It's another way to reduce the damage taken by your pet or tank. Any time I'm in heroics/raids I use it on the hard hitting mobs. Even if it only makes the mob miss once every 20 seconds, that's 3-4k dmg your healer won't have to heal.

On a side note, I'm always doing this with a turtle that has 13% better armor. I personally don't think this would work with a pet that had any less than 5% improved armor.
#9 Apr 24 2007 at 7:00 AM Rating: Decent
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1,292 posts
Hmmmm.....

Thanks for the tips/info. I'm using a Wind Serpent at present, which has less "tanking" ability than my Bear. But the Bear is at level 60, and my last attempt to level him up grinding on level 65ish Beasts was a disaster. I'm waiting for the times I escort Guildies through Blood Furnace or something to level the Bear up...

Scorpid Sting is my Sting of choice, so anything the Pet is on is always stung, as well as the Tanks target and sometimes other mobs as well.

The Wind Serpent has:
10698 Armor
6083 Health
12.83% Dodge
5% Parry
50.33 Armor Reduction

These stats are drawn from CharacterProfiler, not the Pets interface in-game (I'm not online but have my profile handy), so I'm not sure if the Pet skills are accounted for, or the contribution from my stats. But they seem to be in the right area, less the buffs I can expect to have in an Instance.

The Pet still dies fast in any "difficult" Instance. Not Mana Tombs, for example, but as I said above, Shattered Halls and above.
#10 Apr 24 2007 at 7:20 AM Rating: Decent
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1,292 posts
Deleting duplicate post




Edited, Apr 24th 2007 11:21am by Kompera
#11 Apr 24 2007 at 7:51 AM Rating: Decent
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356 posts
When levelling up to 60, I went up to Intimidation in Beastmaster, but then I wanted to hit harder, so I ended up with a 21/30/0 build.

When the 2.0 patch came out, I respecced to Beastmaster and have been so ever since. Love it. Still using my white windserpent from Feralas...

I haven't really run Shattered Halls much at ALL (subbed in on a run for the 2nd half, that's it) but one thing I did do to improve my windserpent's survival was to respec to 43/13/5. With 43 points in Beastmaster, you can max out both Ferocious Inspiration and Catlike Reflexes. +9% dodge is not to be sneered at! Still, I don't like relying on my pet to offtank much. Maybe with the heal-over-time Mend Pet it will be more viable. It would be pretty cool to be able to reliably tie up one monster with ice trap, and another with my pet.
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