Hunter spec

[Chimpy]

All cats are the same speed..hell all PETS are the same speed now, and have been since 1.8 or 1.10-ish.

Attack speed wasn't normalized, just run speed and overall DPS.

[Merusk]

All cats are the same speed..hell all PETS are the same speed now, and have been since 1.8 or 1.10-ish.

Attack speed wasn't normalized, just run speed and overall DPS.

No, all pets are 2.0 speed, and can be faster through talents and training cobra reflexes.  I had the wrong patch number, however.  1.9 was the run speed normalization.  2.0.1 was the attack speed normalization, at least according to WoWwiki, petopia and wow insider.

[Merusk]

For those with arena points, the new Hunter weapon is nifty.  Only costs 1k points, and has no rating requirement.

Here's a link: Vengeful Gladiator War Axe

I previously was dual-wielding Amani Venom Axe and Emerald Ripper with +20 agi on both, giving me a pve-wunnerful 27.4% crit.  Without the +35 agi enchant, the axe puts me right about there (27.33%) and only 29 RAP off from where I was.  The enchant will fix the RAP and toss-on another % of crit, as well as the armor-ignore effect  Niiice.

[Morat20]

I should get on an Arena Team.

[Threash]

Thats extremely good for 2 weeks of playing 10 games in a horrible team.

[Merusk]

3 weeks.  You only get 300 points if you fall down to the 1300 level.. which a horrible team  is likely to do that first week.   

Still, your point stands. Fuck, just get 4 other hunters and form a 5-man that way.  There's plenty of us about.

[Xanthippe]

3 weeks.  You only get 300 points if you fall down to the 1300 level.. which a horrible team  is likely to do that first week.   

Still, your point stands. Fuck, just get 4 other hunters and form a 5-man that way.  There's plenty of us about.

Outfit with Barov Peasant Caller.  Insta 5x25.

[Threash]

3 weeks.  You only get 300 points if you fall down to the 1300 level.. which a horrible team  is likely to do that first week.   

Still, your point stands. Fuck, just get 4 other hunters and form a 5-man that way.  There's plenty of us about.

Outfit with Barov Peasant Caller.  Insta 5x25.

Haha i loved that damn trinket pre bc.  Theres actually a new version coming out from ZA that summons 3 "voodoo gnomes" to fight for you.

[Chimpy]

Here is what I just respec'd to

I will probably miss spirit bond and the full imp-mend, but FI and the focus regen are just too good to pass up if you use a focus-dumping instant like claw.


Oooo that axe is pretty nifty. Did not realize there was a hunter only one that did not have the 1850 personal rating requirement.

[Fordel]

Do you need that point in imp pet rez for any particular reason? Seems like it could be moved to Imp Mend pet.

[Ironwood]

Here is what I just respec'd to

I will probably miss spirit bond and the full imp-mend, but FI and the focus regen are just too good to pass up if you use a focus-dumping instant like claw.


Oooo that axe is pretty nifty. Did not realize there was a hunter only one that did not have the 1850 personal rating requirement.

I hope the link has just screwed the spec, because there are some odd choices in there...

[Chimpy]

Here is what I just respec'd to

I will probably miss spirit bond and the full imp-mend, but FI and the focus regen are just too good to pass up if you use a focus-dumping instant like claw.

I hope the link has just screwed the spec, because there are some odd choices in there...

Which choices do you call odd?  Just wondering.

That is what I have found to be the highest DPS spec for my gear/type of play.

[Merusk]

The only oddity I see is splitting points between rez and imp. mend.  Both are useful, though, so I don't see it as a huge 'omgwtfruthinking.'

[Chimpy]

The only oddity I see is splitting points between rez and imp. mend.  Both are useful, though, so I don't see it as a huge 'omgwtfruthinking.'

I needed the point low to move up the tree, so I used it on rez.

Imp mend I just like the cleanse for soloing, which is 80% of what I do right now.

[Threash]

Here is what I just respec'd to

I will probably miss spirit bond and the full imp-mend, but FI and the focus regen are just too good to pass up if you use a focus-dumping instant like claw.

I hope the link has just screwed the spec, because there are some odd choices in there...

Which choices do you call odd?  Just wondering.

That is what I have found to be the highest DPS spec for my gear/type of play.

Improved aspect of the hawk would obviously be higher dps than endurance training, but i assume you expect your pet to tank stuff? the extra hit points and armor are really not necesary, your pet can tank regular mobs just fine with the defaults and thats all it should ever be tanking anyways.  Max imp rez for a raid setting, ignore it otherwise, same with mend pet.  Spirit bond is useless unless you have nothing else to spend the points on (i took it after getting the 2 piece tier 5 set bonus).

[Phred]

Here is a build the hunters in my last guild were using http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarius&n=Phayde
This is mainly a raiding build though it still leaves your pet pretty buff, just missing armor boost. Bst right at the moment is massively overpowered compared to other hunter builds because of the unbalanced way haste is dealt with by the game. Serpent swiftness is _huge_. 30% haste? When item haste is typically one or two percent? The same unbalanced effect makes 2 pt slice and dice the unbeatable finishing move for rogues as they can essentially keep it up 100% of the time.

Unfortunately for hunters, that 30% speed boost is really the only thing keeping us in the game from a raid dps point of view. You need a 2.7+ weapon to really take advantage of the haste though as anything faster will start to clip your autoshots with a steady shot cycle.

[Ironwood]

Good 'ole Gargresh and Hobbes.


However, I have a cat and maybe you have a different pet.  I found some of the choices and mix and match of your BM Tree to be a little odd.  Taking the improved hit rate over the improved dodge was a little odd to my mind.

Different Strokes I guess.

[Morat20]

Good 'ole Gargresh and Hobbes.


However, I have a cat and maybe you have a different pet.  I found some of the choices and mix and match of your BM Tree to be a little odd.  Taking the improved hit rate over the improved dodge was a little odd to my mind.

Different Strokes I guess.

I don't have either improved hit or improved dodge -- but I'm not raiding right now, and that two points goes into Improved Mend Pet (clearing effects is more than worth it!). Raiding I can definetely see both of them (more hit = Ferocious Inspiration up more, which makes everyone happy. More dodge = less damage, makes your pet alive longer) -- but that's five points and I don't know where you can cut that without ditching mortal shots.

Hawk's Eye just isn't worth it right now -- although I do miss the extra range.

Overall, I do like the beastmaster tree better than the other two trees -- but it's still not as mindblowingly awesome as the Mage Frost tree, wherein I could happily stick all my talent points as a mage.

[Ironwood]

I couldn't do without Improved Mend Pet.  Which is why, er, I have it.

I know two mages who have 62 points in Frost.  It's pretty fucking crazy.

[Morat20]

I couldn't do without Improved Mend Pet.  Which is why, er, I have it.

I noticed -- I was thinking of the two points the other linked spec had in the +hit talent. I don't see two points I could drop off the BM tree (although I could lose the point in that 30% outdoor run speed -- but I think I needed a point at that tier and that was it.

I know two mages who have 62 points in Frost.  It's pretty fucking crazy.

Giving up clearcasting is hard, but I can't find 10 points to give up in frost. Too freakin' awesome. The msot fun is when you get two or more frost mage's together, and Winter's chill maxes out in two hits and the crits start rolling.

[Merusk]

However, I have a cat and maybe you have a different pet.  I found some of the choices and mix and match of your BM Tree to be a little odd.  Taking the improved hit rate over the improved dodge was a little odd to my mind.

I dropped it recently and haven't noticed a difference in pet survivability.  Since they added-in avoidance and toned-down cleave as much as they did, my pet lives a lot longer.  The 3 pts in dodge seem kind of superfluous now.

Of course, I found I just don't want to give-up that point in spirit bond, as useless as it is.  Here's me.

I should probably also swap-out the T4 helm for Mulgar's War Helm to see if the extra crit is better than the 3% crit damage metagem I've got.  I suspect it's not by a long shot.

[Ironwood]

You know what it is ?  I can't take incomplete talents.  They look so fucking messy.

Your spec gives me hives before I've even read it.

:)

[Merusk]

Yeah it bugs me a little bit like that, too.  However, I just ignore my talents page 99% of the time, so it's not a HUGE deal.

Still, I really SHOULD put that SB point somewhere else.

[Phred]

Yeah it bugs me a little bit like that, too.  However, I just ignore my talents page 99% of the time, so it's not a HUGE deal.

Still, I really SHOULD put that SB point somewhere else.

I got used to part talent builds when I was marksman and had enough bst to get 1 pt in improved pet heal. Cures I got by spamming rank 1 pet heal which has the same abilitiy to cure poison/dis/curse and the low rank was so cheap to cast it was a way more efficient curing spell, especially with the 45%? chance rank 1 improved gives you.

[stu]

How long does a Hunter's Feign Death last? I ganked a Hunter just now, but he used it and I had no idea what was going on. In PvP, do I have to wait for him to get back up, wait for his ability timer to run out, or can I just hit him?

[Merusk]

How long does a Hunter's Feign Death last? I ganked a Hunter just now, but he used it and I had no idea what was going on. In PvP, do I have to wait for him to get back up, wait for his ability timer to run out, or can I just hit him?

FD lasts for 5 mins then at the end you stand up.  It was more fun when you died after the 5 min timer, but hey, people bitch and things change.

When they feign, just retarget ad keep hitting them.  It doesn't make a hunter immune to being retargeted or to damage done (aoe or direct).. if it did it'd be godly above and beyond the awesomeness it already is.

[stu]

Thanks. It really confused the hell out of me and his pet was just enough of a distraction to keep me from wondering whether or not I had missed the Honor Points scroll up my screen.

[Morat20]

Thanks. It really confused the hell out of me and his pet was just enough of a distraction to keep me from wondering whether or not I had missed the Honor Points scroll up my screen.

FD in PvP has one use: Doing it causes pets/NPCs to drop target, and force other players to click on you again.

Sometimes a hunter will do it just on the off chance the guy about to kill him will actually think he's dead and go elsewhere, but I've only had that work for me once -- I timed a FD perfectly with an incoming frostbolt -- since I was the last alliance standing (World PvP) the fact that the mage and his two buddies ignored me was pretty good proof they thought I was dead.

It wouldn't have worked if they hadn't ganked my pet first, since it's a big freakin' clue the hunter's just faking when his pet is still rampaging.

[stu]

I had a DOT effect on him while he was running away. His health was almost out and he spawned his pet and feigned death. I'm smacking myself in the head right now, because as soon as I left the area, I realized what had happened.

[Jayce]

a) I'm a total tard because the feign death trick gets me every time.  But then I also suck at all other aspects of PvP, so at least I'm consistent.

b) If feign death makes you lose your target, the least that they could have done for taunt in PvP is make your target switch to the warrior who just taunted you.  But everytime it comes up, people point out that Blizzard was worried that people wouldn't want to lose control of their character.  That's why they didn't implement fear, or (wtf?) mind control.

/soapbox off

[Fordel]

Taunt would be *WAY* more annoying then either of those two. Would boil down to you having to spam your FocusTarget macro's every 6-10 seconds.

The neat thing about FD breaking target, is it can stop a casted spell if you see it coming. Often that is the difference between a hunter dieing, and killing that mage winding up pyro or something.


There is also the hunter version of "vanish", where the hunter drops a snake trap then FD's when stuck in close quarters... like say a AV Tower. The individual snakes cock up most people's targeting so much the hunter gets time to slink away or reset himself.

[ClydeJr]

I always find it amusing when I dot up a hunter and they FD, but then they just lay there hoping I'll forget about them. I see the dot damage numbers float up from their corpse.

[Xanthippe]

Since the 2.3 patch, I'm back to playing my hunter a lot.  It's as powerful as my 'lock (or as some would say, as overpowered as).  Haven't changed my spec since going to BM, but did get the Khorium gun and elite engineer goggles, plus a couple of pieces of S1 gear off the bg vendor, so had some major gear upgrades as well.

I killed a MS warrior yesterday in AV (twice) at Snowfall gy.  I did have to pop a health potion and pull out all of my tricks (darn, forgot to use my peasant caller!) and barely survived, but killed him.

Also soloed a pally, which I don't think I've done since low levels.

I haven't gotten my pvp trinket yet - my gear is so lacking that I don't know when I'll get it.  I'll wait and get the 2 min cd one rather than go for the 5min cd one.

Now I need to find an arena team.

Reading my earlier posts on this thread with regard to TBW - what a terrific talent that is.  I love it.

[Merusk]

Reading my earlier posts on this thread with regard to TBW - what a terrific talent that is.  I love it.

Yes, yes it is.  It's superawesomefantastico!

I hit a ridiculous amount of crit on my gear this weekend, with the addition of the Black Belt of the Eagle (pattern dropped, woo!) and the boots off of our first Astromancer killin The Eye.  Combined with a 'whopping' 15g for my respec right now I decided to see what'd happen if I went and specced Survival.

Wow, what a waste that whole tree is.  I'm at 31.89% crit as a BM w/o my boots being enchanted.  As a Survival hunter it only pops up to 38% AND I lose that wonderful 20% haste.  Sure, I've got a lot more control of situations what with having wyvern shot, scatter shot and clever traps, but it's just not worth it.  Way too chance-based and far to little gain from all those points in talents.

[Fordel]

Survival has always been the "what the fuck is this supposed to do" tree. It's literally only specced by 2% of hunters. What you do is spec Entrapment and be a giant asshole in AV with Frost Traps.


Which is where I've seen the real difference with the hunter changes. In the small scale stuff, I haven't really felt a "wow hunters are harder to deal with now", but in AV, with a dozen per side being allowed to stand off at max range, it gets pretty stupid. Half the zerg on either side is MS'd now