I have really been trying to get in a lot of “DPS testing” so I can get a feel for how Beast Mastery is doing these days. The training dummies and I have become good friends, and I’ve even sometimes just sic’d Wash on the training dummies and sat there for minutes at a time watching him go (this is actually what inspired me to take a point out of Improved Mend Pet and stick it in Frenzy, pushing me back up to 4/5. It just wasn’t proc’ing enough to satisfy me as 3/5. Granted, that doesn’t take raid buffs and Cobra Strikes and the like into account, but it was bothering me.)
PuG’d a 10man VoA; the other hunter was a Marksman hunter who seemed to know what he was doing, and had a wolf (the hot new pet in town!) I am pleased to report that we were one-two on the meters, neck-and-neck, both of us doing somewhere in the ballpark of 3800 DPS on the new boss. On the trash pulls Wash and I were consistently well over 4000. In mostly Naxx10/heroics/rep gear. This rather satisfied my own curiosity regarding the viability of 3.1 Beast Master in your average raid situation.
Then something interesting happened. I was invited to a late night Naxx10 which I chose to attend (yes I know, this was my “break week”… yeeeah). There was another hunter there who was better geared than I and clearly knew what he was doing, and ya know what?
He was spec’d 53/11/7.
That’s right. I was in raid with another Beast Master. An Elitist Jerks approved spec, too, and one that I’d tried before but didn’t really like.
I might have to try it again, however, since he and his wolf roflstomped me on the meters… okay, mostly only on Loatheb. Oh my goodness did he roflstomp me on Loatheb. I blame his 3/3 Cobra Strikes when he had the spore buff, while I’m currently sitting at 1/3. We were pretty close on the other bosses though, and I was ahead a time or two. We didn’t hit Patchwerk, unfortunately (too many people decided to mysteriously disconnect about halfway through the raid)… I would have been curious to see those numbers.
Oh, another interesting thing about that hunter, he didn’t use Multishot. At all. Whereas I weave it into my rotation whenever it’s up. It might be a mana conservation thing because I’ve always had good luck with using Multishot, and I like using it because it gives us more to do. Still, I may have to look into that.
It’s still “Wash and me” by the way, although I’ve tamed a wolf to try it out, but since the wolf lacks a focus dump move I wonder if the new Furious Howl would be worth it for us Beast Masters. Reports in the aforementioned Elitist Jerks thread (which is a very good thread by the way) are putting wolves second to Devilsaurs, with raptors in third. So, we’ll have to see. I still maintain that you should strike a balance between finding a pet that is good to use in your situation, and finding a pet that you like and are attached to. In my humble opinion, that is just a part of reaching the Grand Pinnacle of Hunteriness.
Okay! I apologize for potentially boring my lovely non-raiding readers with babbles about numbers. However, there is a lot of curiosity for this type of thing right now if my site’s Google hits are to be believed, so I figured I’d share my musings with the hungry masses. You will be redirected shortly to typical Pike stories and guides. For now, for lack of anything else to say, have a picture I made for my guild a year or so back:
If you guess what it is without looking at the alt text, you get a cookie =P
(Thank you, Historic Tale Construction Kit!)
I was in a vault group the other night and was within 100 DPS of the SV hunter in the raid. (I still am with 53/18/0 atm) THIS news made me amazingly happy! BM is back, huzzah! I want to try out something similar to your spec to see how it works out for me, but currently I just bought my Dual-Spec and…am broke. 😛
Bahahahahaha. Oh man, we spent long enough in Kara that I totally get it.
Once we all hit 80 and were in Naxx gear, we rolled into Kara just for gits and shiggles. On Curator, we absolutely did not touch the guy, just let the tank autoattack him, only took out the sparks… then as soon as he hit evocate, blew everything and unloaded on him. It was glorious. XD
As was pointed out to me, Wolves Bite has no CD so they do indeed have a focus dump. My Spirit Wolf is hanging out with me now. 🙂
On and that historic construction kit site is friggin’ fantastic.
Hastily do away with yon spark!
I cracked up.
@ Drotara – Woot, thanks for the heads’ up!
you know, I’ve been reading and reading that raptors are supposed to be better then cats, but maybe I’m doing something wrong (or its just computer censing that I like my kitten best), but I always do better with a cat. I’ve even tamed one of the deviate stalkers and trained him up to 80 (I always adored the way they looked, so that was a good excuse to get one 😛 ) but he consistently does less damage then my kitten on a training dummy :/ which is kinda sad as i’ve gotten attached to him..
Wolves are coming up #2 now? Hrm… I may have to go and get Inuki back then.. I’m sure he’s been quite lonely chewing on rabbits.
and I’ve got a major overhaul to do… my DPS seems to have dropped some since 3.1, but I was speeding through the spec to get back to 53/18/0 as I was walking into a vault run and had issues holding 2700 DPS when I should have well more than that. 🙁 Spent too much time leveling the Warrior recently I think.
Hehe, that picture is awesome.
I’ve been tempted to switch back to BM, but I’m having so much fun with SV now that I’ve gotten used to it that I’m not sure I really want to. I might have to go pick up dual specs soz I can be both. The fun thing is that my wolf is good either way–as BM he does plenty of deeps, and as SV he still gives me a pretty sweet buff.
Which wolf did you tame to play around with, if I may ask?
I want to steal that image and use it on SES. That is abso-freaking-lutely hilarious.
@ Rilgon – Haha, you are free to do so =P
@ Kate – Different people have different results. If I recall correctly cats do better when there are other bleed effects on the target as well as their own. And even raptor devotees admit that raptor DPS is somewhat “streaky” since it is dependent on Savage Rend critting, which it doesn’t always do. Do what works for you! *nods*
As for the wolf, that will come soon in a story!
medieval tapestries are always amusing.
“SIR ELROYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY JENKS, THE THIRD!”
Oh that brings back memories of bad pugs trying to kill Curator.
Also I went out and tamed a little white wolf from Dun Morogh, named him Bigby (which is my favorite character from the comic series Fables) and leveled him to bring along to raids. I remember back on the PTR for 3.0 when the exotics were first introduced I so wanted to tame the Kurken and name it Bigby. But then they shrank corehounds and made them look weird and I didn’t end up taming him when 3.0 went live. This is a nice compromise, though, as I still get to name a pet Bigby and he reminds me of Dun Morogh which is possibly my most favorite starting area ever. (Second place would probably be Mulgore)
You owe me a cookie! =p
oh! And the post was good as well. ^^
I always loved the Curator fight. I went on my feral dr00d, so I was on spark duty, and DPS during evocates. Got some nasty shred crits then. ^_^
….and please don’t shoot me for bringing a non-hunter toon into this. <.<
I got my little wolf Séthi out of the stable this week. He was still 78 (hadn’t have the time to level him and the cat before beginning raiding with the cat…) but he was sooo happy to come in Naxx with me that he was just running mad and jumping at everyone during loot-time and asking for cookies and sneaking some fish from the dish etc… But he did behave very well in every fight, and didn’t die, not even on Heigan ! (we had a great tank !) \o/ Well done mon Titi ! Here’s your mamouth cutters !
And now, he’s 80, and I’m sooo happy to be BM again… Intimidation for the love of my healers !… And second spec is very handy to switch to survival went you just need better traps for kitting Gluth’s adds… Oh yes, I’m a Happy hunter !
And guess what ? Noé, my cat, is just as happy. He’s old… A little rest will do him some good…
I’m trying your 51/15/5 spec at the moment. I didn’t have many fights to test it though, tried it in wipes on Thaddius : no good examples… but on the longer fight, I got the cobra 9 times in a 6minute fight (1/3 point in the talent) and frenzy was up 88% of the time (with 3/5 points). If that helps you… I will finish the week with this spec, and maybe try another one next week. If you want feedback, just ask. 🙂
Byebye,
Nef
Damn, convinced myself the other day that I was going to remain faithful to my dear old kitty. Might have to bag myself a puppy as well now and test him out on some dummies or a quick Naxx run…
Random comment here and I’m a new BM hunter but my wolf was the first pet I tamed and immediately fell in love with it (one of the mangy scrubs outside Stormwind). Everyone was telling me I should get a cat and I kept trying but I just couldn’t get attached to it (didn’t even bother to name it sadly). So this makes me very happy knowing I won’t get laughed at showing up with my fuzzy puppy anywhere.
Testing with a wolf last night and so far, I’m not seeing the #2 type performance.
However, I am seeing a boost to My DPS that does compensate for the ‘lack’ of damage that the wolf puts out. The bonus AP for 20 of 28 seconds is quite nice… It just doesn’t feel the same.
But I have missed having my wolf. 🙂 I just need to level him out to 80 again.
I just wanted to let you know the demon dog (aka BlightHound) from ZulDrak is considered a wolf. And hes much more aesthetically pleasing…..and altho it wont matter to you and I, hes not exotic, so says the Class Leading Survival Hunter of my guild.
Thanks for the great hunter posts!! I love that Im not the only BM left.