The Stage: Vault of Archavon, 25-man. I’m one of three hunters in there, the others are Survival.
The Plan: As I’m sure many of you know, this is a fairly straightforward and simplistic fight; yeah you move around a little and you’ve gotta stay away from the big scary falling rocks but other than that it’s a tank’n’spank. Like Patchwerk but a little more mobile. And in a 25-man there’s gonna be a lot of mana regen. Perfect testing grounds for my new shot rotation.
The Spec: 53/17/0
The Rotation: Serpent Sting (kept up); then in order of decreasing priority: Arcane Shot, Multishot, and finally Steady Shot. Pop Rapid Fire, Kill Command, and The Beast Within when available. Keep an eye on Wash to make sure he doesn’t get unsuspectingly caught in something that hurts.
The Verdict:
Was barely edged out by one of the SV hunters. The other was no where to be seen in the top 12, as you can see, showing that spec alone doesn’t automatically make you good– it’s rotation and gear and that kind of thing too. Overall I was quite satisfied. Wash did a smashing job and contributed 48% of my total DPS and had Ferocious Inspiration ticking non-stop. Raptors are indeed lookin’ good, what with the fact that a BM raptor can keep their 10% damage boost up for a good portion of a fight.
Other Notes: Despite all the Replenishment going on, I did run out of mana faster with the usage of Multishot. I had to switch to Aspect of the Viper twice during the fight. However, thanks to all of that said Replenishment, I only had to stay in Viper for 10 seconds or so each time and it would give me enough to keep going for a while. If I’d wanted to I could’ve chugged a mana pot, seeing as I run with an Alchemist’s Stone and it would’ve given me quite a boost, but I opted not to because my mana issues were so close to the end of the fight.
I also think my rotations would have been a lot tighter and the results would have been better had I not been lagging so much. >.>
Lastly I think it is important to mention that I think the SV hunter who edged me out could have been rather higher on the chart. However, she was using a Tenacity pet (not exactly known for their DPS) and her spec was slightly more SV-heavy than the current cookie-cutter one. So I am not trying to suggest that running with this BM spec and rotation that I mentioned here, is necessarily going to have you neck-and-neck with really good SV hunters all the time. But I am trying to say that for most of us everyday WoW folks, if you are doing it right, it will keep you quite competitive. And remember, don’t just compare your performance to the other hunters, compare it to the DPS and group as a whole and see yourself as part of the big picture. (The More You Know! *flashy star*)
Conclusions: Use Multishot when possible and you don’t think you’ll have a big mana issue. It’s worth it for me and I think it might be worth it for you too, so give it a spin and see what you think! Next on the agenda: go all out and try Aimed Shot, perhaps? Or will it be too small of a damage boost for too much mana? Stay tuned!
cute blog 😀
hows the bm spec when it comes to pvp?
Hey hey, awesome to see you trying out new things. Just a quick point to note is that Aimed Shot has the exact same calculations as Multi-Shot. So other than taking out the .5 cast time, you will see the exact same damage. 🙂
I spent the morning testing out Aimed Shot with BM, Pike.
I wouldn’t recommend it. Since you have to take the point out of Beast Mastery, I sacrificed 1 point in Bloodthirsty, 1 from Heart of the Phoenix and 2 from Greater Stamina, so my pet DPS was not affected.
Aimed shot does the same damage as Multishot, and so there’s no real point to switching there. You loose your bonus 4 pet talents and the chance to hit multiple targets. The mana doesn’t make much of a difference there either. With Aimed I lasted 1:10 before OOM, with Multi it was 1:03.
There, saved you some gold 🙂
I’ve been using Multishot in my BM rotation since I switched back over after 3.0.9, and it’s been giving me nice results. I do occasionally run low on mana, but it’s usually near the end of the fight and I just have to switch once for a couple seconds.
I’ll still debating what to do with my BM hunter, pet-wise.
She’s always, always run with a cat, but…
…my devilsaur is kind of amusing…
…but there’s a couple of really NEAT raptor skins…
…ARGH.
@ Kine – Truthfully I haven’t done much serious PvP since hitting 80. I’ve done a little world PvP and some duels and I find BM to be pretty good in most situations, against most people. No idea how it would fare against dedicated-PvPers though. And thanks for the compliment! ^_^
@ Drotara and Brajana – hmm, well, thanks for the info. I may try it anyway just for personal reference but thanks for giving me an idea what to expect! As for the talent point I’m assuming I would take it out of Cobra Strikes since I have 53 points in Beast Mastery so I wouldn’t have to dump the Beast Master talent.
@ Ambrosyne – I’m rather a fan of the “use the pet you like” theory, actually, I’m rather a fan of having a bunch of pets you like and bringing a different one to “work” each time ^_^
Personally this is my spec http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbMztxRwuMest0eVbo and at least in the 10 man version I’ve yet to have to mana issues even without replenishment. Though I don’t use Aimed or Multi in my rotation often. Typically Aimed shot enters my rotation towards the end of the fight to get a bit more burst in there.
If you are going to add one then my recommendation is that if you are facing just a single target use Aimed Shot. It has a lower mana cost than multi shot. If you are fighting a pack then yes Multi is much better damage overall.
The only thing that might change about my spec is putting a point from Frenzy into Improved Mend Pet to fill that out
As sonvar has already mentioned – Aimed is less mana, for the same damage, on single targets. I actually use Aimed in my rotation in 25mans, with no mana-regen talents in my build, and rarely run out of mana (unless our ret pally can’t keep Replenishment up properly for some reason). It seems to work quite well 🙂
Nice damage. 🙂 I just came out of a VoA25 with my guild (we were 22), and I topped the meter, ahead of the SV hunter and MM hunter who always out-dps me in Naxx, and ahead of all our DKs. I run with the spirit beast, and don’t use multi in my rotation against only one mob. And I must admit, this is the first time I’ve topped the meter when running with my guild. I must say I loved that short moment of fame in the light. ^^ So I guess BM is still valid, which makes me very happy.
Souvraya & Ulm (one who never specced away from BM, even when it was at its ultimate low)