Tonight is my first main raid on my hunter, and I’m super excited! I’m also kind of nervous though. I’ve been playing my hunter in my guild’s alt raid for a bit and I’ve been doing pretty well there, but it’s a bit different than joining our main raiders who outgear me by 25 ilvls. I just don’t want to be bad!
I know my Druid like the back of my hand and I’m very confident (maybe even arrogant) about my abilities. Don’t get too many gear upgrades? Wearing the ‘wrong’ non-tier piece? Forget to switch to the optimal talent before a fight? Whatevs, my healing still be awesome.
DPS doesn’t work like that though, it’s a whole different mindset. Gear can most definitely hold me back as a hunter. Even if I play perfectly, I’m still not going to be able to touch the other dps until my gear catches up a bit more. I’m going to need to worry about optimal talents and the best spec for each fight. Also, the fact that it looks like BM is parsing above the other specs is upsetting. I haven’t liked that spec since… well, ever. Anything but Beast Master! Currently I personally do better as Survival, so I guess that means I need to practice as BM some more. I also have almost 100k less health than everyone else right now, meaning I’ll have to be extra proactive about damage mitigation. That’s something I’m pretty good at, but the more I use Deterrence, the worse my damage, so that’s something to think about too.
Anyway, I’m excited for tonight! Let’s hope I don’t carry my weapon (or should I say no weapon) curse into raid with me. I’m also open to any hunter tips for Siege. Wish me luck.
I just posted a long thing on guild forums discussing what specs to use on every fight that I can cross post here if you’re interested. Basically, I’m of the opinion (and our other hunters seem to agree) that hunters are going to want to be capable of both BM and SV right now.
BM isn’t as bad as it used to be fyi. Pets just do not take damage anymore, and while pet movement is still not very good, the range on KC, removal of focus cost for dash, and things like Blink Strikes remove most of the headaches. KC range was the worst – if the boss moved, the pet would be 1yd out of range for a second and mess up your rotation. So glad those days are gone.
Sure, I’d be interested in reading that.
The problem with BM is that I find it’s front-loaded with all those cooldowns but once those are used, it feels very slow and like there’s not a whole lot to do. I also hope there are no fights like Ji-Kun this tier that like to despawn pets. SVs a bit more reactionary because of L&L and I feel the rotation is more dynamic and interesting.
I’ve mostly run as Survival. BM is definitely worlds better than it used to be, but I don’t like the playstyle as much. So I’ve pretty much stuck as Survival. If there are any fights that are significantly better, I’ll switch, but I’m not hardcore enough to not have fun for minor DPS gains.
I’m curious to see Esoth’s post though!
Good luck tonight! Hunter is a lot of fun!
I’ll try to sum up, so I don’t take up the whole comment log :p The short of it is for final numbers BM is almost always *slightly* better, but might not be as conducive to success – your raid needs you on the right targets at the right times, not the ones that maximize meters. I think BM is a bit weaker on target switching and not-tightly-packed aoe.
Dissenting opinions more than welcome!
Thanks, Esoth! Very interesting. As a general rule, any fight that doesn’t allow for good Black Arrow uptime is likely bad for Survival. (And Crows, for that matter.)
Immerseus could go either way. The later half of the fight doesn’t have much boss up time and is mostly adds, but depending on placement of the adds, Survival could be better. I’d lean BM in theory.
Protectors: Agreed, SV.
Norushen: Yeah, essentially single target. You’ll always have a BA target except during the Trial. Probably BM for the theoretical gain, but whichever you are better at, for sure.
Pride: I’m also not sure about Gift of the Titans spreading. BM might be better if your pet keeps attacking while you are in a Prison, but that should be short anyway. BM does have better burst for the sub-30%. SV is fully capable though, no handicap.
Galakras: Yes, definitely SV.
Past that I’m unfamiliar with, but if add switching is constant on Spoils and thus doesn’t allow good BA uptime, then BM sounds better. For Paragons, rolling Serpent Sting on two targets MIGHT be beneficial, but again I’m not familiar enough with the fight to know for sure. I wonder if any of the Paragon buffs interact better with one spec or the other. Or negatively with pets? (Hopefully we’d avoid those anyway.)
I may do some experimenting…or I might not. 🙂
Just wanted to say good luck and I’m sure you’ll do fine 🙂
Thanks!
Good luck Jasyla. Hope you have fun but more importantly, I hope you get lots of loots =D