So now all the BoP alchemy recipes start dropping for me. Now that I’m in Beta and can’t keep them. /sob
Anyways!
Today I spec’d 0/9/52 — Full Survival. Once again, I do not claim to be an expert on non-BM spec’ing, but it seemed like a decent set-up to me. Really the interesting thing that I noticed with Survival is that all the things I really liked about this spec also seemed to have an opposite and equal downside to them. So while the “wow” factor seemed to be there more than it was in Marksman, at the same time, the letdown factor was also here more than it was in Marksman.
Here, I’ll show you…
Things I Liked:
Expose Weakness
So many crits!! <3
Hunting Party
Explosive Shot, because it’s superfun
Knowing I have awesome traps
Things I Did Not Like:
Knowing Expose Weakness now only affects myself
So many crits… so much pulling aggro from my pet after a string of them.
Hunting Party is a nifty idea and not bad, but… really, it does so little, in the long run. I’m still a mana monster.
Explosive Shot is only superfun for so long, and when the novelty wears off it’s not a particularly exciting 51-pointer in my humble opinion.
Awesome traps either are not implemented currently, or I’m going crazy
Really, the hardest part of both this and the Marksman tree, was getting used to the idea that my pet is no longer important, other than as a meatshield to keep the enemy at range. I feel like I’m doing all the damage, which feels “off” to me. I even surprised myself when, more than once, I forgot to use Mend Pet and my Tenacity– tanking!— pet wound up dying. You’ve got to understand, I never forget Mend Pet. My pet rarely dies unless Shade of Aran has a vendetta against him or something. And yet once I get into a mindset of a non-BM hunter, I… forget to use it. Because I get focused entirely on myself. And I don’t like that. I miss being “us”.
I promise, this isn’t supposed to be some sort of “BM Power” rant or anything. Survival was a fun tree to explore, it had a lot of perks, and I wouldn’t mind exploring it further. I would also like to give the Marksman tree another (deeper) look, and also test all the specs on the training dummies. Because all my testing thus far has just been running around the world pewpew’ing mobs. I like to test in a sort of “open field” environment because that is where I will be spending a lot of my time when leveling.
But really, I can’t envision myself spec’ing away permanently. My tests have confirmed that, I think. Before, I was sort of wavering. Because some of the stuff in the other trees was finally starting to look really appealing to me. And they still do. But I can’t do it, I’ve gotta fight with my pet. It’s like, you know that Digimon Tamers episode where Takato was like “I really really want to fight together with Guilmon!” and then they bio-merged into that super awesome mecha thing?
…
…okay, never mind >.>
Spec wise, you didn’t go too bad, assuming you were soloing, maxing hunting party isn’t a great idea, nor is expose weakness (then I suppose you don’t have as much +crit as a normal SV hunter would have so maybe you needed that maxxed)noxious stings isn’t really much use for soloing either.
Trust me, none of us like expose weakness being a self buff now, hunting party is there mostly for the group effect. Awesome traps are on hold, at least freezing trap, pets weren’t stopping attacking them when they were breaking on a set amount of damage so now they are back to breaking on any damage so the pets treat them right.
Explosive shot however is the answer to being a mana monster, did you try using 3 explosive shots in a row after lock and load triggered while in aspect of the viper, that’s mana-ey goodness right there!
As for keeping mend pet up… well.. you should know better 😡
But I can’t do it
God damnit, these Sith mind-altering training courses were worthless.
I want my money back, Sidious!
@ Lienna – ah you're right, I think I read the Noxious Stings tooltip wrong. Hey, it was late last night, I was tired, right? >.>
As surv you CAN forget mend pet and he still be OK. When questing alone as surv, you should be tanking. With all that agility, +parry, talented aspect of the monkey (9/0/52 rather) you should have evoidance comparable with a good tank and around 10K armor, 13K HP unbuffed. And if the monster is really nasty, you still have deterrence. The pet is DPS-ing from behind. Of course this is very “un-hunter” way of playing, that’s why there are so few survhunters out there (most of the raiding survs retalent BM for questing)
As MM, you’re pet should be value to you! He gives you 2% more damage, which for a MM trying to squeeze out as much damage as possible, that makes them precious enough.
When I did my two week stint as BM *shudder*, I treated my pet no different than when I was MM, and he always lived 🙂
As SV, yeah, you’re pet has very little meaning to you – damage is poor, he doesn’t provide a buff if you’re not specced into it. But I think the great thing about the new pet talent trees and abilities is that they increase the value of the pet across all hunter specs.
As a hunter who is predominantly MM, but has levelled as BM and is now dabbling in Surv, I have to say that my pet is just as important to me in all of those specs. That’s both in terms of play style, as well as loving her to bits as my pixelated furry companion ^_^
I think it’s a sad mistake for non-BM hunters to think that pets aren’t important to them… and that it’s also a mistake for BM hunters to think that non-BM hunters don’t think their pets are important.
Hunters are a pet class through and through, regardless of their spec.
Mazil – I fear you maybe misunderstand me, but it’s okay, because I don’t think I am very clear most of the time.
I certainly do think that pets are important and loved by hunters of all specs. I have seen hunters of all specs who love their pets and hunters of all specs who couldn’t care less.
What I miss as a non-BM hunter, is having a pet that is doing a ton of damage along side me, as opposed to, you know… not. =P
Aw, thanks for explaining, Pike… you’re right, different hunters love or neglect their pets to different degrees, regardless of the tree.
It’s a bit off-topic, but I think the underlying reason for my comment is a bit of sensitivity about comparing the hunter trees. It feels like MM and Surv get a bit of bad press, but it’s maybe more the case that BM gets a lot of (well-deserved) good press 😉 🙂
Mazil – no worries, in fact I thank you very much for your comment because it inspired me to write a new blog post.
All hunter specs get the love at Aspect of the Hare, I may be a BM diehard myself, but I respect all the specs. =)
Pike – Yay! That sounds great, I was pondering writing something on the topic myself.
The hunter community is such a fun and friendly place on the whole, we’re all a bit crazy and obsessive (maybe speaking for myself :D)… but it would be great to see slightly more “other”-spec lovin.
It could be worse.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=10871018815&sid=1
To the Monkey Aspect, I will politely disagree with ssaying you should tank, but that’s jsut my opinion.
I’ve run survival, and have noticed the playstyle is quite different than you may be used to. If you let your pet get a growl or two off before attacking, you shouldn’t draw aggro, unless you crit 3-4 times in a row.
Survival is more about slow and steady DPS (even with crits) with the added utility to trap/deterrance, and otherwise survive better if things go south in a hurry.
In Wrath, the expose weakness will be missed as it only affects you, but otherwise, just remember that more crits=more Kill Commands. Your pet is still very very important. You just can’t send them in and go hog-wild on the shots immediately until you give them a few seconds to grab the attention of your enemy while solo.