Recently, I experienced something of a problem in-game.
I am aware that, as only my second post on here, I stood at my newly acquired virtual pulpit and proclaimed what others have said, that Hunter melee was a Bad Thing.(tm) No less a personage than BRK himself expressed his approval of this, and others joined his cry of Amen with one of their own. (*grin*)
However, just a few nights ago, I was assisting a former guildmember on a passage through Zul'Farrak. We attempted the pyramid sequence, the one in which the pyramid is overrun by a large number of trolls, and the fight is aided by a number of both Alliance and Horde NPCs. At first, I attempted to keep range and shoot down the trolls in the supposedly appropriate manner.
I died. Repeatedly. My former guildy and I retreated, deciding to come back once we had figured out how to solve the problem.
Flash forward to the next night, where the friend in question lent me the money needed to purchase one of these daggers, which I equipped as a main hand, while using a slightly more mundane dagger that I had at the time as my offhand.
After obtaining this weapon, our progress through the pyramid battle was successful, and fairly straightforward.
The moral of the story is that although it is exceptionally rare, as a Hunter, you will still very occasionally encounter situations such as the above, where melee is the only option that will allow you to get out alive. So that you may be prepared for such situations when they arise, I offer the following advice, based on what in the past (and what again now in the future) has been my own customary practice. This may at first seem to be in contradiction of what I have already written. It isn't however, as I will outline below.
In addition to a gun or bow, I carry two types of melee weapons. The first is a spear with +Agility, which is the default choice, and which is in the melee weapon slot to provide me with an agility bonus during normal ranged combat. If you can afford it, and if the spear in question is one which you plan to keep for a while, the +35 agility enchant can be a good addition to it. This is also what should be used to apply Wing Clip while kiting, as Wing Clip now allows the weapon's base damage to be applied to the target as well. In situations where you cannot get range, the spear also can be used against single targets with very high armor.
The second type of melee weapon I carry is a pair of daggers. These should ideally be of 1.3 second attack speed as is the dagger linked above, and no slower than 1.7, and should also have +Agility or attack power, both to augment your damage and %dodge, and to enhance your ranged if you need to alternate between dagger fighting and shooting, as can happen. The Blade of Unquenched Thirst, which I linked above and again link here, has +22 attack power, and when I am able to buy a partner for it, I am also going to get the +15 agility enchants on both, which will give me a total of 74 attack power, and probably around 0.66%-0.75% dodge chance.
The daggers are a niche use weapon for us, and are only to be used very sparingly. Either in situations like the pyramid sequence in ZF, where you are overrun with multiple targets and cannot get to range, or in pvp against low armor targets such as priests, mages, or warlocks, where going to range can actually help them more than you, and where their armor is sufficiently low that you can still use the daggers to cut through it quickly.
The next thing I recommend doing is downloading the Outfitter addon, which allows you to associate different equipment sets to either stance changes or keybindings. You can then associate changing to the daggers with Aspect of the Monkey, and back to the polearm with Aspect of the Hawk, as well as setting the polearm as the default weapon for all other aspects. When you need to enter melee, you can thus hit whichever key you have bound to Aspect of the Monkey, and it will change to the daggers automatically.
As a final point, I again want to emphasise that I feel that a Hunter's overall time in melee should still be well below 10%. Use of the above melee weapons is very situational, and is not really something that you can be told about...rather I feel that it is important to develop your own sense of when using them is appropriate, and when it is not.
Another addon you can download is Recount, which as well as giving you a damage meter, will give you a pie chart which you can use to analyse percentages for the different types of damage you are doing. Melee is to the Survival Hunter as magic is to the Blood Elves. We can allow ourselves a certain, extremely small amount in order to curb the addiction and for use in certain scenarios, but too much is deadly to us in itself. ;-)
Thursday, August 30, 2007
What is the Hunter the master of?
Someone in the forums just listed the areas in which they felt other classes had "mastery," while at the same time expressing that he didn't feel that Hunters had any specific proficiency of our own. Here's my response to that.
Hunter?
Master of tactics, in all areas of physical combat, both ranged and melee. In addition to the ability to deal devastating damage at range, a skilled Hunter is in control of the flow of battle at all times, utilising traps, Misdirection, and Wyvern Sting to ensure that neither he or his party are ever faced with more opponents than they can handle.
Beast Mastery - The Beast Master is, as the name implies, a master of communing with animals. Able to learn and adopt a wide range of skills from the various beasts he encounters in the wild, the Beast Master is able to pass many of these on to animal companions which they can tame, or use as Aspects to enhance their own abilities. The Beast Master's trademark talent is his ability to harness the inherent ferocity of his pets, and use it to rapidly annihilate his foes, as well as sharing it with the rest of his party.
Marksmanship - The Marksman Hunter is the master of ranged combat, able to hold foes at a distance with an initial stunning shot, and then rapidly pummel them to death with a high powered, magically enhanced barrage. Although he is at a disadvantage in close quarters, a slowing melee ability means that he can regain range quickly enough, giving him back the advantage over his prey. The Marksman Hunter is also able to mystically share his innate dexterity with others in his party, enhancing their own combat ability as well.
Survival - The Survivalist Hunter is a problem solving chameleon, able to leap between ranged and trap-augmented melee combat at will. Tracking allows him to be aware of threats before others in his party, and his enhanced traps, tranquilising shots, and misdirecting ability can be used to control the progress of any fight, and ensure that he and his party members are able to deal with opponents in a rapid and orderly manner, without being overwhelmed. In addition, the Survival Hunter's advanced knowledge of the anatomy of a large number of foes encountered in the wild can be imparted to other members of his party, allowing them to detect vulnerabilities in their foes, and destroy them more efficiently.
Hunter?
Master of tactics, in all areas of physical combat, both ranged and melee. In addition to the ability to deal devastating damage at range, a skilled Hunter is in control of the flow of battle at all times, utilising traps, Misdirection, and Wyvern Sting to ensure that neither he or his party are ever faced with more opponents than they can handle.
Beast Mastery - The Beast Master is, as the name implies, a master of communing with animals. Able to learn and adopt a wide range of skills from the various beasts he encounters in the wild, the Beast Master is able to pass many of these on to animal companions which they can tame, or use as Aspects to enhance their own abilities. The Beast Master's trademark talent is his ability to harness the inherent ferocity of his pets, and use it to rapidly annihilate his foes, as well as sharing it with the rest of his party.
Marksmanship - The Marksman Hunter is the master of ranged combat, able to hold foes at a distance with an initial stunning shot, and then rapidly pummel them to death with a high powered, magically enhanced barrage. Although he is at a disadvantage in close quarters, a slowing melee ability means that he can regain range quickly enough, giving him back the advantage over his prey. The Marksman Hunter is also able to mystically share his innate dexterity with others in his party, enhancing their own combat ability as well.
Survival - The Survivalist Hunter is a problem solving chameleon, able to leap between ranged and trap-augmented melee combat at will. Tracking allows him to be aware of threats before others in his party, and his enhanced traps, tranquilising shots, and misdirecting ability can be used to control the progress of any fight, and ensure that he and his party members are able to deal with opponents in a rapid and orderly manner, without being overwhelmed. In addition, the Survival Hunter's advanced knowledge of the anatomy of a large number of foes encountered in the wild can be imparted to other members of his party, allowing them to detect vulnerabilities in their foes, and destroy them more efficiently.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Survival Shot Rotation
Survival's traditional shot rotation, pre-3.0, was the same as Marksmanship's; the 1:1.5.
Post-3.0, this sequence would be Autoshot, Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, (Aimed now replaces Multi, due to it doing the same damage and being subject to the same improvements from Marks talents, but using marginally less mana) Auto, Steady, Arcane, Auto, Steady, Auto, Steady. If you're using a Noxious/Imp Stings build, you will want to fire Serpent at the start of this rotation as well.
The above, of course, depends on whether or not you've specced for Aimed Shot. At the moment I haven't, but I'm not missing it; I use Multi, especially considering that the groups I'm in generally don't like CC any more anywayz. Also, substitute Explosive Shot for Arcane above, if you've specced for it and don't have points in Imp Arcane.
The above rotation is also a rough guide; depending on how high your mana is, squeeze as many Steadies into the other shot cooldowns as you feel like. Sometimes I'll only use two, and autos, as it says up there, if my mana is low or I need to watch threat a little. Other times I'll just spam Steady and get 4 in during the time it takes for Multi to come back up.
Some people will tell you, that with the changes to autoshot mechanics in WoTLK, that the old shot rotations should not be used.
However, I still use the 1:1.5 rotation myself, and recommend it for other people as well. The single reason why is mana efficiency.
Given that the critical strike damage of autoshot has apparently been nerfed according to the forum, (although Mortal Shots' tooltip does not state this) as well as the above mentioned changes, many forum Hunters simply recommend spamming Steady Shot, with no use of autoshot between Steady.
While this may now be fine in a raid, given the new abilities of various classes to regenerate mana in raids, there will be many scenarios (soloing, primarily) where sufficiently rapid mana regeneration still will not be possible. Because of that, allowing autoshots between Steady Shots will cause your mana to go further than it would otherwise.
You also do not want to use the new Aspect of the Viper at all if you can possibly avoid it, since the 45% hit to your damage while it is up is terrible. I have lots of mana pots, and a few Dark Runes on me as well for guild 5 mans, although I admit that I probably wouldn't expend those resources for pugs. Use each one about halfway through the CD of the other, and you'll hopefully find that even if you're not at 100%, you still always have just enough mana to keep you going without Viper.
EDIT:- There's one other reason for this. I just read about people with Survival using Steady, Steady, (special), but I realised that with the long cast time of Steady, using Steady, (special; Arcane, Aimed, Multi, or ES) ala the 1:1.5, still means that you've got three shots in the air at once, which is still going to mean more damage.
Those of us who have specced for Lock and Load may well want to try and get a trap of some sort down on each pull, in order to get a proc for it. This is certainly worthwhile if you can, but I tend to find that I end up jumping in front of the tank if I try and do it, placing the trap, and then starting to shoot. That of course more or less entirely nullifies whatever extra damage you might have got from the three Explosives or Arcanes, because the amount of time you had to spend with it.
Definitely keep Serpent Sting up, however, as you have a 6% chance to proc Lock and Load from that. I don't put Serpent up at the start of a rotation, but wait until I've fired both Multi/Aimed and Arcane/ES. The reason why is because with them on CD, spending a cooldown on Serpent instead of a single Steady is going to cost me less damage than spending it instead of one of my other specials.
The other proc you want to watch out for very carefully is Kill Shot. It's the new Kill Command, and it's a ton better than the old one. You want every single proc ideally, since I anyway can get up to 5k with this; it'll give you a good spike on the meter. Hit it as soon as it comes up, and do not wait for the next GCD, as very often the mob in question will be dead by then.
Also watch your target's health, and when you're getting close to 20%, don't be afraid to fall back to straight auto for a couple of shots in order to give Kill Shot your undivided concentration; this way you won't be spending any GCDs while it comes up, and can make sure it will go off as soon as it is available.
Post-3.0, this sequence would be Autoshot, Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, (Aimed now replaces Multi, due to it doing the same damage and being subject to the same improvements from Marks talents, but using marginally less mana) Auto, Steady, Arcane, Auto, Steady, Auto, Steady. If you're using a Noxious/Imp Stings build, you will want to fire Serpent at the start of this rotation as well.
The above, of course, depends on whether or not you've specced for Aimed Shot. At the moment I haven't, but I'm not missing it; I use Multi, especially considering that the groups I'm in generally don't like CC any more anywayz. Also, substitute Explosive Shot for Arcane above, if you've specced for it and don't have points in Imp Arcane.
The above rotation is also a rough guide; depending on how high your mana is, squeeze as many Steadies into the other shot cooldowns as you feel like. Sometimes I'll only use two, and autos, as it says up there, if my mana is low or I need to watch threat a little. Other times I'll just spam Steady and get 4 in during the time it takes for Multi to come back up.
Some people will tell you, that with the changes to autoshot mechanics in WoTLK, that the old shot rotations should not be used.
However, I still use the 1:1.5 rotation myself, and recommend it for other people as well. The single reason why is mana efficiency.
Given that the critical strike damage of autoshot has apparently been nerfed according to the forum, (although Mortal Shots' tooltip does not state this) as well as the above mentioned changes, many forum Hunters simply recommend spamming Steady Shot, with no use of autoshot between Steady.
While this may now be fine in a raid, given the new abilities of various classes to regenerate mana in raids, there will be many scenarios (soloing, primarily) where sufficiently rapid mana regeneration still will not be possible. Because of that, allowing autoshots between Steady Shots will cause your mana to go further than it would otherwise.
You also do not want to use the new Aspect of the Viper at all if you can possibly avoid it, since the 45% hit to your damage while it is up is terrible. I have lots of mana pots, and a few Dark Runes on me as well for guild 5 mans, although I admit that I probably wouldn't expend those resources for pugs. Use each one about halfway through the CD of the other, and you'll hopefully find that even if you're not at 100%, you still always have just enough mana to keep you going without Viper.
EDIT:- There's one other reason for this. I just read about people with Survival using Steady, Steady, (special), but I realised that with the long cast time of Steady, using Steady, (special; Arcane, Aimed, Multi, or ES) ala the 1:1.5, still means that you've got three shots in the air at once, which is still going to mean more damage.
Getting Lock and Load procs
Those of us who have specced for Lock and Load may well want to try and get a trap of some sort down on each pull, in order to get a proc for it. This is certainly worthwhile if you can, but I tend to find that I end up jumping in front of the tank if I try and do it, placing the trap, and then starting to shoot. That of course more or less entirely nullifies whatever extra damage you might have got from the three Explosives or Arcanes, because the amount of time you had to spend with it.
Definitely keep Serpent Sting up, however, as you have a 6% chance to proc Lock and Load from that. I don't put Serpent up at the start of a rotation, but wait until I've fired both Multi/Aimed and Arcane/ES. The reason why is because with them on CD, spending a cooldown on Serpent instead of a single Steady is going to cost me less damage than spending it instead of one of my other specials.
The other proc you want to watch out for very carefully is Kill Shot. It's the new Kill Command, and it's a ton better than the old one. You want every single proc ideally, since I anyway can get up to 5k with this; it'll give you a good spike on the meter. Hit it as soon as it comes up, and do not wait for the next GCD, as very often the mob in question will be dead by then.
Also watch your target's health, and when you're getting close to 20%, don't be afraid to fall back to straight auto for a couple of shots in order to give Kill Shot your undivided concentration; this way you won't be spending any GCDs while it comes up, and can make sure it will go off as soon as it is available.
In terms of Hunter pets, cat or boar?
Someone asked this question in the forums yesterday, in terms of the most overall DPS.
Cats outdps boars in the early game, and it scales. The survivability of a boar is radically greater, but if as BM you're also getting Endurance Training and Thick Hide, you will probably be able to get away with that for balancing the cat's survivability...even more so if you train Great Stamina and Natural Armor.
However, think twice. A cat will give you increased DPS, yes...but the survivability of a boosted cat still won't touch that of a boosted boar, and on top of that, a cat has no way of getting you the initial aggro that you'll get with a boar. As BM currently, with Charge my boar can get 3.5k aggro inside 5 seconds or so. Feigning for me is largely a thing of the past; I never need to do it, especially with Intimidation.
Instead of getting a cat for the DPS, my own advice would be to get a boar for the survivability, and for DPS, work on your own ranged weapon and shot rotation. My boar's DPS is still 117, and with only my second gear rotation, (Steady, Auto, Steady, Auto, Arcane, Auto) I can clear 300. Plus I can tank adds with a much greater degree of confidence than with a cat...Cats die a lot sooner. As it has been said, the DPS of a dead pet is 0.
Cats outdps boars in the early game, and it scales. The survivability of a boar is radically greater, but if as BM you're also getting Endurance Training and Thick Hide, you will probably be able to get away with that for balancing the cat's survivability...even more so if you train Great Stamina and Natural Armor.
However, think twice. A cat will give you increased DPS, yes...but the survivability of a boosted cat still won't touch that of a boosted boar, and on top of that, a cat has no way of getting you the initial aggro that you'll get with a boar. As BM currently, with Charge my boar can get 3.5k aggro inside 5 seconds or so. Feigning for me is largely a thing of the past; I never need to do it, especially with Intimidation.
Instead of getting a cat for the DPS, my own advice would be to get a boar for the survivability, and for DPS, work on your own ranged weapon and shot rotation. My boar's DPS is still 117, and with only my second gear rotation, (Steady, Auto, Steady, Auto, Arcane, Auto) I can clear 300. Plus I can tank adds with a much greater degree of confidence than with a cat...Cats die a lot sooner. As it has been said, the DPS of a dead pet is 0.
On going back to Survival - I'm actually wavering
I respecced BM a couple days ago to get to 70 faster. At the time, I was certain that I'd use it to race up to 70, then undoubtedly want to go back to Surv.
If there is one thing, however...and only one thing...that could conceivably convince me to stay with Beast Mastery, (it actually isn't Bestial Wrath, or Serpent Swiftness) it is Intimidation.
A real, controllable, truly viable Taunt is something I've wanted for my pet for pretty much the entire time I've been playing with a Hunter. It lets me keep FD as a backup...so I have a second option in emergencies.
It just might sway me.
If there is one thing, however...and only one thing...that could conceivably convince me to stay with Beast Mastery, (it actually isn't Bestial Wrath, or Serpent Swiftness) it is Intimidation.
A real, controllable, truly viable Taunt is something I've wanted for my pet for pretty much the entire time I've been playing with a Hunter. It lets me keep FD as a backup...so I have a second option in emergencies.
It just might sway me.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Spec homesickness
(Warning:- In hindsight, I realise I've been a tad confrontational in this post. If, after reading it, you discover that your own feathers are among those that have been ruffled, then please allow me to apologise in advance. My intent is not at all to deliberately or gratuitously offend people, but this is a can of worms which I've felt needed to be opened for a while)
The title probably sounds really lame, but it describes how I'm feeling.
I really miss Surv. My overall DPS (including the pet) has gone up by around 130 according to Recount. (In the Hellfire Ramparts this morning I maxed out at 440 DPS, including pet...My highest with Survival was 310, including pet)
I also had a surreal experience yesterday morning where I took the BKP "Sparrow" Smallbore with Ironbite Shells into the Scarlet Monastery Cathedral, and experienced the use of a ranged weapon with 172 base DPS at a 1.25 sec attack speed. (0.9 sec with Imp Hawk)
The Sparrow is a level 33 weapon, and 172 is 14 DPS more than what my base was at 60 with Survival. Presumably because of the mobs' lower armour, inside the Cathedral, according to Recount I was able to still clear an overall total of more than 400 DPS with the Sparrow, as well. I used a Rapid Fire/Bestial Wrath combo on Mograine, and he literally lasted less than 3 seconds.
However, here's the problem. I'm missing this game having any real challenge for me now, even at my own character level. I'm missing the problem solving aspects of Survival. I'm missing the sense of excitement during, and satisfaction after, a scenario in which my character genuinely could die, and where I have to work in order to ensure that that doesn't happen. That has never happened with me with BM so far. If things get bad, the most I have to do is maybe swallow a potion, and hit Bestial Wrath. It gets me out of pretty much any otherwise potentially challenging situation that I might be in.
I'm aware that damage wise, Survival actually is a handicap. There; I've said it. It's something which BRK has shown in his own testing, and which I've long known to be true; Survival is the most difficult of the three specs to use effectively. Survival's inherent level of difficulty is the dinosaur in the Hunter's living room; that thing which we all know is there, but which it's not considered politically correct to talk about.
Let me say that again. If anyone who reads this blog, is, as a player of the Hunter class, looking for a free lunch, then you need to play one of the other two specs, because even more than the other two, you're not going to get it with Surv. The single main reason why no more than 7% or so of the playerbase choose it is because it genuinely is difficult to the point of being unpalatable for most. If, as BRK has said, BM Hunters can derive a sense of superiority from being the highest damage output spec, the Survival superiority complex is derived from the fact that Surv is a spec where virtually nothing is done for you by the tree itself. It therefore logically follows that a competent Survival Hunter is not merely good; they are by definition awesome at the game, because they have to be. In my experience anyway, Survival is the closest this game gets to being genuinely challenging to play.
That, however, is the one thing that I'm having a lot of trouble with. I feel that as a spec, BM does way too much of the work for me, to the point where I'm now having difficulty deriving a sense of challenge from the game. I will admit that I've worried about that possibility in the past, which is also actually the main reason why I've gone Survival. I like the comparitive degree of difficulty that is inherent in effectively playing Survival...psychologically, I need that. I need that far more than I need a spec which is going to give me an inherently larger degree of damage output than the others, purely on its' own.
That, then, is a question I would ask BRK and any other BM hunters who might read this. How could a player stay specced Beast Mastery and overcome the above problem? Given that a BM hunter is as powerful as they are, how do they still manage to find a sense of genuine challenge within the game?
The title probably sounds really lame, but it describes how I'm feeling.
I really miss Surv. My overall DPS (including the pet) has gone up by around 130 according to Recount. (In the Hellfire Ramparts this morning I maxed out at 440 DPS, including pet...My highest with Survival was 310, including pet)
I also had a surreal experience yesterday morning where I took the BKP "Sparrow" Smallbore with Ironbite Shells into the Scarlet Monastery Cathedral, and experienced the use of a ranged weapon with 172 base DPS at a 1.25 sec attack speed. (0.9 sec with Imp Hawk)
The Sparrow is a level 33 weapon, and 172 is 14 DPS more than what my base was at 60 with Survival. Presumably because of the mobs' lower armour, inside the Cathedral, according to Recount I was able to still clear an overall total of more than 400 DPS with the Sparrow, as well. I used a Rapid Fire/Bestial Wrath combo on Mograine, and he literally lasted less than 3 seconds.
However, here's the problem. I'm missing this game having any real challenge for me now, even at my own character level. I'm missing the problem solving aspects of Survival. I'm missing the sense of excitement during, and satisfaction after, a scenario in which my character genuinely could die, and where I have to work in order to ensure that that doesn't happen. That has never happened with me with BM so far. If things get bad, the most I have to do is maybe swallow a potion, and hit Bestial Wrath. It gets me out of pretty much any otherwise potentially challenging situation that I might be in.
I'm aware that damage wise, Survival actually is a handicap. There; I've said it. It's something which BRK has shown in his own testing, and which I've long known to be true; Survival is the most difficult of the three specs to use effectively. Survival's inherent level of difficulty is the dinosaur in the Hunter's living room; that thing which we all know is there, but which it's not considered politically correct to talk about.
Let me say that again. If anyone who reads this blog, is, as a player of the Hunter class, looking for a free lunch, then you need to play one of the other two specs, because even more than the other two, you're not going to get it with Surv. The single main reason why no more than 7% or so of the playerbase choose it is because it genuinely is difficult to the point of being unpalatable for most. If, as BRK has said, BM Hunters can derive a sense of superiority from being the highest damage output spec, the Survival superiority complex is derived from the fact that Surv is a spec where virtually nothing is done for you by the tree itself. It therefore logically follows that a competent Survival Hunter is not merely good; they are by definition awesome at the game, because they have to be. In my experience anyway, Survival is the closest this game gets to being genuinely challenging to play.
That, however, is the one thing that I'm having a lot of trouble with. I feel that as a spec, BM does way too much of the work for me, to the point where I'm now having difficulty deriving a sense of challenge from the game. I will admit that I've worried about that possibility in the past, which is also actually the main reason why I've gone Survival. I like the comparitive degree of difficulty that is inherent in effectively playing Survival...psychologically, I need that. I need that far more than I need a spec which is going to give me an inherently larger degree of damage output than the others, purely on its' own.
That, then, is a question I would ask BRK and any other BM hunters who might read this. How could a player stay specced Beast Mastery and overcome the above problem? Given that a BM hunter is as powerful as they are, how do they still manage to find a sense of genuine challenge within the game?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A visit to Beast Mastery
I decided to try something a bit different this morning. I've changed temporarily to 41/17/0, not only to try it out but to also give me the necessary tailwind to get to 70 within a reasonable space of time. As much as I still love Survival, I think one of its' key mottos is, "Slow and steady wins the race." I'm entirely certain that I'm going to be respeccing back probably at 70; however for levelling, it's not entirely appropriate. I think the single main reason why I can't see myself staying BM permanently is because it's what everyone and his grandmother seems to be doing these days; if there's one thing I've discovered I need in life, it's a genuine sense of individuality. Tyler Durden might have said that we're not all beautiful and unique snowflakes; my own answer to that is that if I'm not, there genuinely isn't much point to my being alive.
I also joined a guild this morning which, from what they tell me, wishes to start raiding Karazhan in October. I'm a little worried that some people from the guild might read the above and reconsider the wisdom of having recruited me; however, they can rest assured that I have been in scenarios in game before where I have needed to follow orders, and can and will do so...the only thing which I will admit that I cannot have dictated to me is spec. That however doesn't mean that I'm going to be stupid, either. I'm well aware, for example, that Mortal Shots is entirely necessary in virtually any instance scenario; about the only time when I'd consider forsaking that now, (although I'd still get Lethal) would be for a temporary pvp scenario where I felt I needed the points for Deflection, Deterrence, and Counterattack instead. Once I start getting the daily quests, I'm going to be able to respec more or less daily as well, and I very much expect that I will be doing so. For raiding though once I start, I recognise the importance of uniform 41/20/0 or 0/21/40 builds entirely, and will not hesitate to commit to using such. 41 point Marksmanship has been largely discredited in the forums as a truly competitive raid spec these days, (at least without phenomenal gear, and a deep intimacy with the tree and what it provides) so I doubt that I would be subjected to pressure to respec in that direction anyway.
Probably the single most interesting aspect of the respec though were the entirely passive changes it made to my character sheet. Although my char sheet DPS went from 198 to 220, my Agility went from 488 to 425, my ap went down by about 100, and my crit dropped from 20% to 15%, which is purely the base 10% + Lethal Shots. I'm none too happy about this last point either, I'll admit...but I can live with it for the time being.
The message here seems to be that BM derives its' increased damage almost purely from increased attack speed, rather than from Agility or attack power as such.
This has some rather interesting implications, even for my usual Survival build. I'm thinking I might have to get into the Suggestions forum and ask if Blizzard would be willing to incorporate some 1.7-1.8 speed bows into the 65+ game as well, since I haven't seen any myself either in-game or thru Wowhead past the High Warlord's Recurve. As Survival I've had a lower level bow at that speed which I used for farming low instances, and I didn't have a problem timing shot rotations with it; so bows of that speed with scaled damage for level 65-70 would probably be really good.
To initially test BM out this morning, I decided to try soloing Zul'Farrak. I wasn't able to get through the entire instance before being disconnected, my server being what it is, but for what I was able to do it turned out that ZF was a good choice, since I was able to survive the pyramid battle, but had to use Bestial Wrath twice in order to do so. The Survival method of getting through that alive probably would have revolved around using Deterrence for the +25% dodge/parry for 10 seconds, but then using Readiness again to increase Deterrence for the full 20 sec. I also possibly would have come out of it with more health left via the Deterrence method as well, since with BW, even though I was doing more damage, I was still taking damage as well.
This however is possibly also a good comparitive illustration of the difference in approach with the two specs. Survival is, as the name implies, primarily defensively oriented, whereas Beast Mastery is apparently overwhelmingly offensive in nature. Even though I still plan to stay Survival on a more permanent basis, I suspect that a week or so with BM will still have much to teach me which, when I go back to Surv, can still be used to improve my performance with that spec.
I also joined a guild this morning which, from what they tell me, wishes to start raiding Karazhan in October. I'm a little worried that some people from the guild might read the above and reconsider the wisdom of having recruited me; however, they can rest assured that I have been in scenarios in game before where I have needed to follow orders, and can and will do so...the only thing which I will admit that I cannot have dictated to me is spec. That however doesn't mean that I'm going to be stupid, either. I'm well aware, for example, that Mortal Shots is entirely necessary in virtually any instance scenario; about the only time when I'd consider forsaking that now, (although I'd still get Lethal) would be for a temporary pvp scenario where I felt I needed the points for Deflection, Deterrence, and Counterattack instead. Once I start getting the daily quests, I'm going to be able to respec more or less daily as well, and I very much expect that I will be doing so. For raiding though once I start, I recognise the importance of uniform 41/20/0 or 0/21/40 builds entirely, and will not hesitate to commit to using such. 41 point Marksmanship has been largely discredited in the forums as a truly competitive raid spec these days, (at least without phenomenal gear, and a deep intimacy with the tree and what it provides) so I doubt that I would be subjected to pressure to respec in that direction anyway.
Probably the single most interesting aspect of the respec though were the entirely passive changes it made to my character sheet. Although my char sheet DPS went from 198 to 220, my Agility went from 488 to 425, my ap went down by about 100, and my crit dropped from 20% to 15%, which is purely the base 10% + Lethal Shots. I'm none too happy about this last point either, I'll admit...but I can live with it for the time being.
The message here seems to be that BM derives its' increased damage almost purely from increased attack speed, rather than from Agility or attack power as such.
This has some rather interesting implications, even for my usual Survival build. I'm thinking I might have to get into the Suggestions forum and ask if Blizzard would be willing to incorporate some 1.7-1.8 speed bows into the 65+ game as well, since I haven't seen any myself either in-game or thru Wowhead past the High Warlord's Recurve. As Survival I've had a lower level bow at that speed which I used for farming low instances, and I didn't have a problem timing shot rotations with it; so bows of that speed with scaled damage for level 65-70 would probably be really good.
To initially test BM out this morning, I decided to try soloing Zul'Farrak. I wasn't able to get through the entire instance before being disconnected, my server being what it is, but for what I was able to do it turned out that ZF was a good choice, since I was able to survive the pyramid battle, but had to use Bestial Wrath twice in order to do so. The Survival method of getting through that alive probably would have revolved around using Deterrence for the +25% dodge/parry for 10 seconds, but then using Readiness again to increase Deterrence for the full 20 sec. I also possibly would have come out of it with more health left via the Deterrence method as well, since with BW, even though I was doing more damage, I was still taking damage as well.
This however is possibly also a good comparitive illustration of the difference in approach with the two specs. Survival is, as the name implies, primarily defensively oriented, whereas Beast Mastery is apparently overwhelmingly offensive in nature. Even though I still plan to stay Survival on a more permanent basis, I suspect that a week or so with BM will still have much to teach me which, when I go back to Surv, can still be used to improve my performance with that spec.
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