Following my last post, I thought I'd put up a couple of different builds, for use when doing different things.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cEchZZcMGMtrMuAzio
16/0/45. - The "phone booth" spec, dedicated purely to CC and wipe prevention. This is hard core Survival, it's unashamedly non-standard, and most people will think that it's utterly crazy, as it breaks a number of cardinal rules. It also doesn't work anywhere near as well these days as it actually did before 2.0, and prior to 2.0, this was my own full time spec.
The advantages though are rock solid trapping and CC, truly insane health, and a potential dodge rate of close to 40% with 700 agility. It also saved my life numerous times when I got jumped melee in either Desolace or Felwood; the Alliance trying that usually got a very nasty surprise.
The downside is utterly negligible ranged damage. You ideally only want to use this these days in a group support role, where you already have someone else designated as primary DPS, and you're focused on CC, safe pulling via the Perfect Zone of Ultimate Safety, and Deterrence offtanking. For that however, it can work very well.
It however should not be used for soloing, particularly in Outland. I speak from experience there. Just don't; you will die, and it will be messy and horrible.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZVVbRVzZ0GhrtfMhVuh
0/21/40 - Cookie cutter. From what I've seen, this (at least at one point) was probably the forum-approved MM/Surv spec. You get most of Survival's goodness, including the stuff needed for trapping. However, this build also doesn't come with Readiness, and without more points in Marks, before you get to 600 ag, your comparitive raw ranged damage is still going to suck.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZVybRVz0xoZcGbMxcMhV
0/31/30 - "Waiting for Agility." I was using this for a while (or something close to it) until I got my 600 ag, at which point I switched back to something closer to the 0/21/40 build. This is a hybrid, for use when you still want to do decent ranged damage, (which it actually does) but don't want to give up Survival entirely. Personally though, if damage is your focus, I'd probably go with BM in preference to this; simply because BM will still do more damage than it, and you're also not really getting enough of Survival in this build for it to be really useful in terms of utility.
6 comments:
I don't know where else to put this, so here'll do. Since the 2.3 patch fixed the dead zone, I've been playing with what I call, for lack of a better term, "darting". I do it in two ways. With my pet Growling, I stay just outside of melee range and pump Arcane, Auto, Multi - then -Dart in- in for a fast Raptor Strike whenever it pops. When I've got the aggro or my pet is dead, I'll Raptor, Wing Clip, -Dart out- Arcane, Autoshoot, (mob gets in melee range) Autostrike and Mongoose, Raptor, Wingclip, -Dart Back- Multi/Arcane.,
The way the cooldowns seem to be timed, I can alternate between my three highest rated strikes. Really it's just adding Raptor Strike to fill the time after an Arcane/Multi rotation waiting for Arcane to cool down.
See, I don't have kiting down. I'm on a macbook with a slippery trackpad and one mouse button and it's been a challenge putting together a consistent jumpshot. OK more than a challenge, I just plain suck (now).
Anyway, this is what I've been doing in PVE in situations where I need to up my DPS. From what I can see on damage meters I'll go from averaging (with pet) around 180 dps during standard ranged/pet/hunter combat to over 230 dps. Yes I take more damage but sometimes you gotta boost fast.
Or am I just kiting a whole bunch in short spurts? HAH. Whatever, all I know is that pre-patch this never would have worked, taking too long to get in and out of melee/ranged.
I'll keep you posted on how this works in Warsong. I can taste the Warlock now.
Hey Ardent,
Possibly what I'd look at trying to do is getting a seperate mouse and a rollup keyboard if you can afford it...mice can be fairly cheap as well I think. You'll find playing with that setup a lot easier, I think.
I'll keep you posted on how this works in Warsong. I can taste the Warlock now.
*grin* I'm sure it will work well. If you can, open with a long distance Wyvern Sting against Warlocks; it will prevent him from opening with Fear, which can cause you to lose control and not get it back, depending on whether or not your trinket is up. Something I've tended to do with their pets as well is, wait for it to come to you, then drop a freeze trap, then feign, and jump sideways. The pet will lose you as a target, and he won't be able to retarget it immediately because it will be frozen. You can then use your own pet to keep it busy while you take care of the lock himself.
Also, if you manage to get the initial Wyvern off and can freeze his pet, close on the lock himself melee, use Readiness to get your traps back perhaps, drop an Immolation trap on him, and cut him up fast with some daggers if you have them. Although it's true that you will want to kite most targets, casters you actually want to kill melee because range helps them, and they have no melee themselves. Daggers with a sufficiently fast attack speed can sometimes break channel casting as well.
Question for you. I've been doing MM/Surv for PvP and why Hawk Eye over Humanoid (and the everything-else) Slaying? I'm going with something like http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZVVbRVzZ0GhrtfMhVuh (not exactly actually, going to respec again soon). Any comments? Thanks.
Hawk Eye for me is primarily a PvE talent...although there's some utility in PvP as well.
But for PvE soloing...if you take Hawk Eye and get to max range, it won't matter as much if you crit enough for your pet to lose aggro...because with the extra range from the target, it will generally be dead before it gets to you.
In PvP it can also be useful for the extra reach...if I can sneak up on a Warlock, I can get Wyvern off before he opens with Fear...makes it more likely that I will keep control of the fight, rather than him. Also, in terms of the Slaying...take Humanoid if you want, but I really feel that 3% on Monsters doesn't mean much...if it was 5%, maybe...but I can put those extra points into trap talents and have them do more for me than that 3% will.
Don't forget those slaying talents double dip-- if you shoot somebody for 100 say, it counts as 103-- and if that crits, that's 103 * 2.3 (assuming crit damage talents) * 1.03 *again*. As long as you're shooting whatever your slaying talent affects, it's point for point more powerful than Marksman's much vaunted ranged weapon specialization.
I always take both slaying talents. No reason to refuse 3% damage while dumping points towards Lighting Reflexes. Not to mention the extra crit bonus. Not saying it's great (6 points for 3% is really very little), but there's just nothing better for my purpose.
It's probably just me, the only melee moves I really do is Wingclip. PvE.
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