I've been trying to hit various aspects of the Linux learning curve fairly hard over the last couple of days, and have realised that I need to stop and do something else for a bit.
I recognise the signs, which for me are mainly a chronic inability to stay on task. If I'm mentally fresh, I can work away at something exclusively for a couple of days at a time with tunnel vision, but after the third or fourth day like that, I tend to need a change.
So I'm going to be going into WoW after this, maybe doing some dailies, and some other stuff. I've got 3k gold now in the attempt to save for mount money, but I'm still debating whether to cough up for dual speccing. The reason why is because truthfully I want to go back to my TBC-like Survival build for farming, but on the other hand, it'd be good to be able to respec for Heroics at a moment's notice as well.
Then again, I've still never tried 51 point Marksmanship yet, either; I keep meaning to get around to trying out Chimaera Shot, but it just hasn't happened yet. I also want to get my Devilsaur out again at some point, as well. Lots to do, lots to do. :)
Showing posts with label spec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spec. Show all posts
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Escaping L&L/ES/BA boredom
Gundersson,
I was obviously wrong about Immolation Trap, and I acknowledge that.
When I'm on my own at least, however, damage isn't actually my main priority.
It might be in an instance, yes; but as I wrote a few posts ago, for a bit before the release of 3.1, for farming I actually specced *out* of ES/L&L because I got bored with running around one shotting everything that moves.
If I'm still trapping, I can farm for hours and not get bored. With ES, though, I find my eyes starting to glaze over after only the first few mobs; as you say, it sucks.
Seriously; use dual speccing and, as a farming spec, give yourself this.
Then you can switch between that and the ES/L&L/BA whack-a-mole spec to use in Heroics or raids.
It's essentially what we had during TBC, but with the Glyph of Immolation Trap, CA, and Hunting Party as well. I'd never use this in a Heroic or raid of course; but when I'm alone, I can choose what's actually fun to play, not what's purely high DPS.
If I could spec for ES without Black Arrow I would, but unfortunately we're not given that choice.
I was obviously wrong about Immolation Trap, and I acknowledge that.
When I'm on my own at least, however, damage isn't actually my main priority.
It might be in an instance, yes; but as I wrote a few posts ago, for a bit before the release of 3.1, for farming I actually specced *out* of ES/L&L because I got bored with running around one shotting everything that moves.
If I'm still trapping, I can farm for hours and not get bored. With ES, though, I find my eyes starting to glaze over after only the first few mobs; as you say, it sucks.
Seriously; use dual speccing and, as a farming spec, give yourself this.
Then you can switch between that and the ES/L&L/BA whack-a-mole spec to use in Heroics or raids.
It's essentially what we had during TBC, but with the Glyph of Immolation Trap, CA, and Hunting Party as well. I'd never use this in a Heroic or raid of course; but when I'm alone, I can choose what's actually fun to play, not what's purely high DPS.
If I could spec for ES without Black Arrow I would, but unfortunately we're not given that choice.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Being true to yourself isn't always simple
There's been some debate in the comments in an earlier post of mine, about BRK migrating to Survival.
Some say they think he is being true to himself; others say he isn't. While I will say that the decision, ultimately, is nobody's but his own to make, I will offer some observations.
For as long as I have read his writing, BRK has emphasised a consistent belief that the Hunter, first, last, and everything in between, is a DPS class. BRK has stated that he feels that our class's only real role in a group is to provide as much raw damage as possible, and up until the last patch, for several years, Beast Mastery as a tree was certainly the most effective means for him to practically implement this belief.
So on the surface, it could appear as though, now that Survival generates more raw damage, in switching to it, BRK is following his convictions about providing his groups or raids with as much damage as he can.
However, in a recent post of his, "Locked and Loaded," where he relates a conversation with himself, he offers a very important clue about his current, true internal state.
"Are you going to keep using 'we' even though your pet is a sad, pathetic thing compared to Beastmastery-spec?"
"We are. For in our heart, we remain BM." (Emphasis mine)
As I said at the top of this post, BRK, like all of us, has to do what he has to do. Ultimately the only person any of us must satisfy is the one we see when we look into a mirror.
However, I will say this.
In the near three years that I've been Survival, I haven't raided all that much. I have some, and yeah, occasionally it's even been fun, in a superficial, transitory kind of way.
I don't have a readership the size of BRK's, either. I'm not diplomatic enough, for that. I've said a lot of things which have offended a lot of people, and BRK himself is one of them. I know he won't read this post.
I have my 100. I know many of you by name, or at least the character names which you are willing to share with me on here. You're good people; many of you restore my faith in my species on a daily basis. If I go into the forums, or the game itself, or even into the offline world, there are times when I really need that.
The point is, that being true to myself hasn't got me accolades. It sure as hell doesn't get me raid slots, a lot of the time. It doesn't get my name in lights, or me in the global top 5/10/whatever guilds.
Pike, you've gone back to being BM. That is the choice you've made, and for you, it's been the right one.
However, because of that, you're about to enter my world in another way as well. You won't get into a lot of Heroics. You probably won't get into a lot of raids, either.
There will probably be days when a lot of the other people you used to know, who used to be BM, have jumped on the "new Survival" bandwagon, and looking in the Guild window, you'll see that they're all in Naxx, while you're maybe in the Borean Tundra, Zul'Drak, or somewhere else, farming.
Alone.
Here's another quote for you.
"I didn't know that freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with Champagne. Nor yet a gift, a box of dainties designed to make you lick your chops.
Oh, no! It's a choice, on the contrary and a long-distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting.
No Champagne. No friends raising their glasses as they look at you affectionately. Alone in a forbidding room, alone in the prisoner's box before the judges, and alone to decide in face of oneself or in the face of others' judgment.
At the end of all, freedom is a court sentence; that's why freedom is too heavy to bear, especially when you're down with a fever, or are distressed, or love nobody."
-- Albert Camus
If being true to yourself, then, is so terrible, why would anyone do it? If seemingly all of the possible rewards are for compromising, for selling out, for going with the crowd, for being transitory...what is the point?
The point is simply this. If your outer surroundings are a barren desert, and you are true to yourself, you will know greater joy than if your external surroundings were the most opulent palace you could imagine, while you were not.
You could be in the top rated guild on the planet. You could play WoW for a living. You could be a billionaire. You could lead the most charmed life, in corporeal terms, that you can think of. Yet lie to yourself, and it will all be worth nothing. Surround yourself with money, and in total silence, you will hear yourself weep.
BRK, I know you won't read this post, so it almost certainly doesn't really matter. If you were going to read it hypothetically, however, I'd invite you to listen to a particular song by Michael Jackson; "Man in the Mirror."
Then go and find a mirror. Stand in front of it, and without thinking about what will get you into raids or satisfy anyone else, ask the guy looking back at you...really ask him...what spec he wants to be.
You might still make the same decision.
You might not.
Some say they think he is being true to himself; others say he isn't. While I will say that the decision, ultimately, is nobody's but his own to make, I will offer some observations.
For as long as I have read his writing, BRK has emphasised a consistent belief that the Hunter, first, last, and everything in between, is a DPS class. BRK has stated that he feels that our class's only real role in a group is to provide as much raw damage as possible, and up until the last patch, for several years, Beast Mastery as a tree was certainly the most effective means for him to practically implement this belief.
So on the surface, it could appear as though, now that Survival generates more raw damage, in switching to it, BRK is following his convictions about providing his groups or raids with as much damage as he can.
However, in a recent post of his, "Locked and Loaded," where he relates a conversation with himself, he offers a very important clue about his current, true internal state.
"Are you going to keep using 'we' even though your pet is a sad, pathetic thing compared to Beastmastery-spec?"
"We are. For in our heart, we remain BM." (Emphasis mine)
As I said at the top of this post, BRK, like all of us, has to do what he has to do. Ultimately the only person any of us must satisfy is the one we see when we look into a mirror.
However, I will say this.
In the near three years that I've been Survival, I haven't raided all that much. I have some, and yeah, occasionally it's even been fun, in a superficial, transitory kind of way.
I don't have a readership the size of BRK's, either. I'm not diplomatic enough, for that. I've said a lot of things which have offended a lot of people, and BRK himself is one of them. I know he won't read this post.
I have my 100. I know many of you by name, or at least the character names which you are willing to share with me on here. You're good people; many of you restore my faith in my species on a daily basis. If I go into the forums, or the game itself, or even into the offline world, there are times when I really need that.
The point is, that being true to myself hasn't got me accolades. It sure as hell doesn't get me raid slots, a lot of the time. It doesn't get my name in lights, or me in the global top 5/10/whatever guilds.
Pike, you've gone back to being BM. That is the choice you've made, and for you, it's been the right one.
However, because of that, you're about to enter my world in another way as well. You won't get into a lot of Heroics. You probably won't get into a lot of raids, either.
There will probably be days when a lot of the other people you used to know, who used to be BM, have jumped on the "new Survival" bandwagon, and looking in the Guild window, you'll see that they're all in Naxx, while you're maybe in the Borean Tundra, Zul'Drak, or somewhere else, farming.
Alone.
Here's another quote for you.
"I didn't know that freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with Champagne. Nor yet a gift, a box of dainties designed to make you lick your chops.
Oh, no! It's a choice, on the contrary and a long-distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting.
No Champagne. No friends raising their glasses as they look at you affectionately. Alone in a forbidding room, alone in the prisoner's box before the judges, and alone to decide in face of oneself or in the face of others' judgment.
At the end of all, freedom is a court sentence; that's why freedom is too heavy to bear, especially when you're down with a fever, or are distressed, or love nobody."
-- Albert Camus
If being true to yourself, then, is so terrible, why would anyone do it? If seemingly all of the possible rewards are for compromising, for selling out, for going with the crowd, for being transitory...what is the point?
The point is simply this. If your outer surroundings are a barren desert, and you are true to yourself, you will know greater joy than if your external surroundings were the most opulent palace you could imagine, while you were not.
You could be in the top rated guild on the planet. You could play WoW for a living. You could be a billionaire. You could lead the most charmed life, in corporeal terms, that you can think of. Yet lie to yourself, and it will all be worth nothing. Surround yourself with money, and in total silence, you will hear yourself weep.
BRK, I know you won't read this post, so it almost certainly doesn't really matter. If you were going to read it hypothetically, however, I'd invite you to listen to a particular song by Michael Jackson; "Man in the Mirror."
Then go and find a mirror. Stand in front of it, and without thinking about what will get you into raids or satisfy anyone else, ask the guy looking back at you...really ask him...what spec he wants to be.
You might still make the same decision.
You might not.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Thoughts on 3.0.8.
Haven't played too much since the patch hit yet, so can't comment too much, though did do a CoS pug earlier.
So far, ES feels about the same for me, though early WWS logs suggest a rise of close to 2k DPS since pre-patch, among Naxx Hunters.
If the 30 second Lock and Load CD is there, it's silent. I also didn't notice it on single targets, since I generally take around 30 seconds per kill on single mobs anyway. There is no visible icon when it goes off, if it does, either.
I'm still here, and will be going back into the game after writing this to do some Heroics. There is hysteria among BM Hunters on the forum at the moment, although that is predictable.
I can't give Santyn those ArkInv rules I owe him yet, either; because AI has apparently been messed up by the patch. It's maintenance was shaky before 3.0.8 as it was, so I hope someone will come forward to pick it up.
I am staying.
So far, ES feels about the same for me, though early WWS logs suggest a rise of close to 2k DPS since pre-patch, among Naxx Hunters.
If the 30 second Lock and Load CD is there, it's silent. I also didn't notice it on single targets, since I generally take around 30 seconds per kill on single mobs anyway. There is no visible icon when it goes off, if it does, either.
I'm still here, and will be going back into the game after writing this to do some Heroics. There is hysteria among BM Hunters on the forum at the moment, although that is predictable.
I can't give Santyn those ArkInv rules I owe him yet, either; because AI has apparently been messed up by the patch. It's maintenance was shaky before 3.0.8 as it was, so I hope someone will come forward to pick it up.
I am staying.
Monday, December 22, 2008
A couple of good Heroics
Went to both H: The Culling of Stratholme, and H: The Nexus last night. Got what I felt were some very good results, as well.
Just a hair over 2k DPS. Given that I'm still in a mix of blues and quest greens, I don't feel that that is too bad.
By the end of the Nexus run, I'd dropped down to 1.3-1.4k, but earlier peaked at around 1.7k, and per-fight damage was recorded by someone else as being just under 1k while kiting Keristrasza.
I got some nice drops, as well. The Dragon Slayer's Sabatons from Keri, and the Spaulders of the Careless Thief from Grand Magus Telestra, which was a tough fight.
My next goal is the Drake-Mounted Crossbow from Heroic Utgarde Keep, and I'm also currently wearing the Argent Crusade tabard in order to get a Polished Regimental Hauberk.
I do not recommend my current talent spec to other people, however. As well as being extremely dependent on buffs and consumables, its' mana efficiency is absolutely terrible; I chug pots like a madman. I am using it because a dual EW/TSA spec is something I've been wanting to try for a very long time; since pre-3.0, in fact.
Although the total amount of RAP I get from it is genuinely wonderful, the Steady Shot nerf post-patch will also sadly mean that it will be truly non-viable then as well, at which point I will be going back to 51 point Surv.
Just a hair over 2k DPS. Given that I'm still in a mix of blues and quest greens, I don't feel that that is too bad.
By the end of the Nexus run, I'd dropped down to 1.3-1.4k, but earlier peaked at around 1.7k, and per-fight damage was recorded by someone else as being just under 1k while kiting Keristrasza.
I got some nice drops, as well. The Dragon Slayer's Sabatons from Keri, and the Spaulders of the Careless Thief from Grand Magus Telestra, which was a tough fight.
My next goal is the Drake-Mounted Crossbow from Heroic Utgarde Keep, and I'm also currently wearing the Argent Crusade tabard in order to get a Polished Regimental Hauberk.
I do not recommend my current talent spec to other people, however. As well as being extremely dependent on buffs and consumables, its' mana efficiency is absolutely terrible; I chug pots like a madman. I am using it because a dual EW/TSA spec is something I've been wanting to try for a very long time; since pre-3.0, in fact.
Although the total amount of RAP I get from it is genuinely wonderful, the Steady Shot nerf post-patch will also sadly mean that it will be truly non-viable then as well, at which point I will be going back to 51 point Surv.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Spec confirmation
Just in case there was any lingering doubt, I can confirm that 0/10/51 is not a good DPS spec. I had read some praise of it on Brig's forums, and so decided, in a disastrous move, to test it for levelling around halfway to 71.
The real problem with it is simply the setup, and in that respect, trapping has of course always been slow. If I'm farming in a scenario where I don't care how much time I spend, that's fine; and especially considering that in Outland after I got to 70, pulling threat was also a real issue. Although it's true that once the trap goes off, mobs will die with that spec faster than they do with 0/31/30, as mentioned, it's the setup that's the killer.
I recommended trapping (and I still do) against heavy armor, when you don't have a lot of armor pen. However at the moment, a) I'm sitting on around 3% armor pen, b) the early mobs in Northrend don't have much armor, and c) because armor isn't an issue, I can kill mobs before they cross the 40 yards to reach me even if I pull threat, and so being able to start shooting as soon as I send my pet is more important to me.
It is also true that mana efficiency is much better with 0/10/51 than with my DPS spec as well. However, even though with my DPS spec I'm having to drink every four mobs, I find that trapping is that much slower that even with having to do that, I still save time. I will probably be going to bed in less than two hours from when I write this, but with a bit of luck I might get to 71 before I do.
The real problem with it is simply the setup, and in that respect, trapping has of course always been slow. If I'm farming in a scenario where I don't care how much time I spend, that's fine; and especially considering that in Outland after I got to 70, pulling threat was also a real issue. Although it's true that once the trap goes off, mobs will die with that spec faster than they do with 0/31/30, as mentioned, it's the setup that's the killer.
I recommended trapping (and I still do) against heavy armor, when you don't have a lot of armor pen. However at the moment, a) I'm sitting on around 3% armor pen, b) the early mobs in Northrend don't have much armor, and c) because armor isn't an issue, I can kill mobs before they cross the 40 yards to reach me even if I pull threat, and so being able to start shooting as soon as I send my pet is more important to me.
It is also true that mana efficiency is much better with 0/10/51 than with my DPS spec as well. However, even though with my DPS spec I'm having to drink every four mobs, I find that trapping is that much slower that even with having to do that, I still save time. I will probably be going to bed in less than two hours from when I write this, but with a bit of luck I might get to 71 before I do.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Survival specs for 3.0.
I'm going to list some specs which I'm either commonly using, or are in testing, for the three purposes of farming, five man instances, and battleground PvP, respectively. Although I do raid occasionally, it is infrequent, and I also do not generally play in the Arena at all. Hence, any advice on raiding specs will be tentative, and based on what I have found to generate the highest DPS in Heroics, primarily.
These specs are also subject to change as I do more testing of various things...so stay tuned. ;-)
The New TSA vs. EW
------------------
Assuming people want to put points in Survival at all, said people are possibly going to be wondering whether or not to get Expose Weakness, or to only go as far into Survival as 3/3 Killer Instinct, (or 3/5 Lightning Reflexes, rather than Imp. Barrage) and put the rest of their points in Marks, in order to get Trueshot Aura.
As far as a group damage buff is concerned, the answer is fairly clear; TSA, since EW no longer buffs group damage at all, and TSA is now potentially raid wide. However, for personal DPS, it gets a little more murky.
At 1500 base RAP, TSA generates the same amount of bonus RAP as EW at 600 Agility; 150. However, TSA also needs another 500 RAP, (2000) to generate a 200 RAP bonus, whereas Expose Weakness only needs another 200 Agility for the same bonus, which is a difference that is well within the reach of consumables and raid buffs. (800 Agility total) This gap will also, of course, continue to scale up with higher numbers.
Pets are also an issue. The pet of a Hunter with TSA up will receive the +10% AP bonus directly, whereas a pet whose owner has Expose Weakness, will only receive 15% (Hunter to pet AP scaling) of what the Hunter gets. So for a Hunter with 600 Agility, that means 15% of 150 = 22.5 AP, which is pretty dismal, at just over 1.5 DPS. (14 AP = 1 DPS)
My conclusion is, thus, that Expose Weakness is better used in a group scenario (rather than soloing) where it has been taken anyway, as a prerequisite for Hunting Party. The good news here is that as demonstrated above, EW scales more efficiently than TSA for personal damage output. For solo farming, however, Trueshot Aura would be better, since it can add to pet threat generation, however since I also tend to want Noxious Stings, Resourcefulness and Trap Mastery for farming, I would probably end up having Expose Weakness in that scenario as well.
For battleground PvP, I will want TSA, since testing suggests that TSA with 5/5 Ranged Weapon Specialization is a better way to go, unless your Agility is greater than 800-850.
Farming spec. Get a Tenacity pet for this as well ideally, if you don't already have one. The Gorilla is what all the cool kids are doing, but I still love my Boar. ;-)
As I've said before, my own farming specs are usually based around Trap Mastery, and Imp/Noxious Stings. Blizzard have forced us to choose between Trap Mastery and Readiness at the moment; a scenario which I consider highly unsatisfactory, especially for instance farming. However, as long as you chain trap, that probably won't be too much of a problem, depending of course on what you're doing.
Five man/Heroic utility spec. The point of this spec is both crowd control, (Scatter Shot, Wyvern Sting, Clever Traps, and Resourcefulness for chain trapping) and Hunting Party.
Although its' raw damage output is substantially lower than the hybrid spec below, its' personal and group mana efficiency is exceptional, and 5/5 Improved Tracking, 2/3 Noxious Stings, 3/3 Hunter Vs Wild, and 3/3 Expose Weakness all mean that, providing that the base levels of Agility and Stamina are reasonable, personal damage output won't be truly attrocious, either.
Five man DPS spec. This spec is based on Alumatine's hybrid raid spec from TBC, and includes talents from both Marksmanship and Survival that add to your AP and crit chance, for high per-hit burst damage.
Battleground spec. Very similar, but with some PvP-specific adjustments; primarily Surefooted and Scatter Shot.
These specs are also subject to change as I do more testing of various things...so stay tuned. ;-)
The New TSA vs. EW
------------------
Assuming people want to put points in Survival at all, said people are possibly going to be wondering whether or not to get Expose Weakness, or to only go as far into Survival as 3/3 Killer Instinct, (or 3/5 Lightning Reflexes, rather than Imp. Barrage) and put the rest of their points in Marks, in order to get Trueshot Aura.
As far as a group damage buff is concerned, the answer is fairly clear; TSA, since EW no longer buffs group damage at all, and TSA is now potentially raid wide. However, for personal DPS, it gets a little more murky.
At 1500 base RAP, TSA generates the same amount of bonus RAP as EW at 600 Agility; 150. However, TSA also needs another 500 RAP, (2000) to generate a 200 RAP bonus, whereas Expose Weakness only needs another 200 Agility for the same bonus, which is a difference that is well within the reach of consumables and raid buffs. (800 Agility total) This gap will also, of course, continue to scale up with higher numbers.
Pets are also an issue. The pet of a Hunter with TSA up will receive the +10% AP bonus directly, whereas a pet whose owner has Expose Weakness, will only receive 15% (Hunter to pet AP scaling) of what the Hunter gets. So for a Hunter with 600 Agility, that means 15% of 150 = 22.5 AP, which is pretty dismal, at just over 1.5 DPS. (14 AP = 1 DPS)
My conclusion is, thus, that Expose Weakness is better used in a group scenario (rather than soloing) where it has been taken anyway, as a prerequisite for Hunting Party. The good news here is that as demonstrated above, EW scales more efficiently than TSA for personal damage output. For solo farming, however, Trueshot Aura would be better, since it can add to pet threat generation, however since I also tend to want Noxious Stings, Resourcefulness and Trap Mastery for farming, I would probably end up having Expose Weakness in that scenario as well.
For battleground PvP, I will want TSA, since testing suggests that TSA with 5/5 Ranged Weapon Specialization is a better way to go, unless your Agility is greater than 800-850.
Farming spec. Get a Tenacity pet for this as well ideally, if you don't already have one. The Gorilla is what all the cool kids are doing, but I still love my Boar. ;-)
As I've said before, my own farming specs are usually based around Trap Mastery, and Imp/Noxious Stings. Blizzard have forced us to choose between Trap Mastery and Readiness at the moment; a scenario which I consider highly unsatisfactory, especially for instance farming. However, as long as you chain trap, that probably won't be too much of a problem, depending of course on what you're doing.
Five man/Heroic utility spec. The point of this spec is both crowd control, (Scatter Shot, Wyvern Sting, Clever Traps, and Resourcefulness for chain trapping) and Hunting Party.
Although its' raw damage output is substantially lower than the hybrid spec below, its' personal and group mana efficiency is exceptional, and 5/5 Improved Tracking, 2/3 Noxious Stings, 3/3 Hunter Vs Wild, and 3/3 Expose Weakness all mean that, providing that the base levels of Agility and Stamina are reasonable, personal damage output won't be truly attrocious, either.
Five man DPS spec. This spec is based on Alumatine's hybrid raid spec from TBC, and includes talents from both Marksmanship and Survival that add to your AP and crit chance, for high per-hit burst damage.
Battleground spec. Very similar, but with some PvP-specific adjustments; primarily Surefooted and Scatter Shot.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Another BM respec
So, on logging into WoW yesterday, I felt I wanted to do something a bit different. I not only wanted to set up my talent points on a couple of pets, but since I've already used Marks (to a degree anyway) and Survival since the patch, I thought I'd try out Beast Mastery.
I didn't actually go the 51/10/0 path, since the word on the forum was that having so few points to spend in Marks, (particularly in terms of missing Go for the Throat) caused a nasty lack of damage.
This was the spec I used, and I haven't changed back from it yet, either. You will notice that I've taken Hawk Eye as the only talent from Survival. The comparitive lack of range was one of the main things that I used to miss during temporary BM respecs in the past, and the fact that I can now get Hawk Eye without sacrificing (and indeed, marginally improving with 2/3 CA) damage, was a welcome change.
I also got a Ferocity pet for the occasion; a white Ghost Saber from the cat statues in the ruins of northern Darkshore. This pet is, as has been said elsewhere, beautiful and very unique, and I will be keeping it after respeccing back.
To really try this out, I tried two different activities with it; a solo Scholo run, up to and including Rattlegore, and around half a dozen matches in Arathi Basin.
In Scholo, although my damage output seemed decent, the single main thing that stood out was the comparitive lack of mana efficiency. Although despite the patch's changes, I was sticking to the 1:1 rotation to attempt to conserve mana, I have, through long practice, learned to instinctively lean very heavily on trapping. I did here as well, even with this spec, and I definitely noticed the lack of Resourcefulness. For three mob pulls, I was generally having to drink every other pull or so, especially if I was trapping.
Bestial Wrath, however, was also wasted in Scholo; I only used it once, on Rattlegore himself, and that when he was 75% dead anyway. My usual strategy with him has been chain Snake and Immolation trapping.
I am, I will confess, exceptionally slow and methodical when farming, and I think that more than anything else is what has discouraged me from putting up any video footage of me doing so. Aside from the filesize being prohibitively large, even with editing, it would, I fear, be in danger of putting you all to sleep. Even though Beast Mastery still caused me to move slightly more quickly than usual, I tend to think that if anyone native to the tree had been watching, they probably would have commented that they had never seen it being used so slowly.
My primary rationale for this, of course, is to minimise threat, but a secondary priority is mana efficiency. There are few things I dislike more than having to kite mobs if it is avoidable, and as such, I tend to study the threat meter very attentively, and follow the pet's lead with attacking. This isn't necessarily just hollow, obsessive perfectionism, either; there are certain situations (such as multi mob tanking) where keeping mobs focused on the pet is vitally important.
Keeping a careful eye on my per-mob mana consumption is also critical; as I've stated before, with Surv anyway, running out of mana will kill me more often than running out of health will. I almost feel like posting in the Suggestion forum and asking if Blizzard could give Survival an equivalent of Spiritual Attunement, but I suspect the thread would get swamped by people telling me that I'm playing the wrong class. ;-)
Speaking of which, Omen 3.0 was released not long ago. It seems that with the new patch, Blizzard have finally released a native API for threat meters, (a wet dream come true, as far as I'm concerned ;-)) which Omen now uses, so I encourage any of you who still don't have it, to go and get it. Truly reliable, up to the second threat monitoring is a real Godsend.
My early AB games went well, but as time went on I began to notice some serious problems. Although I was able to use Bestial Wrath for some much needed vengeance upon the Priest class, (a Shadow Priest is customarily one of my few truly feared enemies with Survival, believe it or not; primarily due to the dreaded Mana Burn and Silence) I had difficulty against other classes.
For one thing, with Survival, I'm used to being able to kite melee classes to death. I hadn't realised, however, just how much apparent tanking was actually involved in said kiting, because as Beast Mastery, Warriors were killing me in 2-3 shots, whereas with Survival it usually took at least a couple more, even when kiting with a trap and Serpent Sting. I did notice that my health was down by around 1.4k as Beast Mastery; this apparently made a real difference. The Warrior is generally my easiest class to kill with Survival.
Given that I had thought BM was our anti-caster tree, the other thing that surprised me was in one particular match, where I started to get almost constantly slaughtered by Warlocks. My theory on that was again the health issue, since draining health is primarily what Warlocks do.
I'm actually torn on whether to keep trying with BM, or simply to go back to Survival. Even though I'm not planning on using BM permanently, part of me feels that in order to be truly proficient as a Hunter, I ought to be at least passably decent with all three trees. I'm wondering if respeccing for Endurance Training and Thick Hide rather than Imp Hawk and Focused Fire would help much. Thoughts?
I didn't actually go the 51/10/0 path, since the word on the forum was that having so few points to spend in Marks, (particularly in terms of missing Go for the Throat) caused a nasty lack of damage.
This was the spec I used, and I haven't changed back from it yet, either. You will notice that I've taken Hawk Eye as the only talent from Survival. The comparitive lack of range was one of the main things that I used to miss during temporary BM respecs in the past, and the fact that I can now get Hawk Eye without sacrificing (and indeed, marginally improving with 2/3 CA) damage, was a welcome change.
I also got a Ferocity pet for the occasion; a white Ghost Saber from the cat statues in the ruins of northern Darkshore. This pet is, as has been said elsewhere, beautiful and very unique, and I will be keeping it after respeccing back.
To really try this out, I tried two different activities with it; a solo Scholo run, up to and including Rattlegore, and around half a dozen matches in Arathi Basin.
In Scholo, although my damage output seemed decent, the single main thing that stood out was the comparitive lack of mana efficiency. Although despite the patch's changes, I was sticking to the 1:1 rotation to attempt to conserve mana, I have, through long practice, learned to instinctively lean very heavily on trapping. I did here as well, even with this spec, and I definitely noticed the lack of Resourcefulness. For three mob pulls, I was generally having to drink every other pull or so, especially if I was trapping.
Bestial Wrath, however, was also wasted in Scholo; I only used it once, on Rattlegore himself, and that when he was 75% dead anyway. My usual strategy with him has been chain Snake and Immolation trapping.
I am, I will confess, exceptionally slow and methodical when farming, and I think that more than anything else is what has discouraged me from putting up any video footage of me doing so. Aside from the filesize being prohibitively large, even with editing, it would, I fear, be in danger of putting you all to sleep. Even though Beast Mastery still caused me to move slightly more quickly than usual, I tend to think that if anyone native to the tree had been watching, they probably would have commented that they had never seen it being used so slowly.
My primary rationale for this, of course, is to minimise threat, but a secondary priority is mana efficiency. There are few things I dislike more than having to kite mobs if it is avoidable, and as such, I tend to study the threat meter very attentively, and follow the pet's lead with attacking. This isn't necessarily just hollow, obsessive perfectionism, either; there are certain situations (such as multi mob tanking) where keeping mobs focused on the pet is vitally important.
Keeping a careful eye on my per-mob mana consumption is also critical; as I've stated before, with Surv anyway, running out of mana will kill me more often than running out of health will. I almost feel like posting in the Suggestion forum and asking if Blizzard could give Survival an equivalent of Spiritual Attunement, but I suspect the thread would get swamped by people telling me that I'm playing the wrong class. ;-)
Speaking of which, Omen 3.0 was released not long ago. It seems that with the new patch, Blizzard have finally released a native API for threat meters, (a wet dream come true, as far as I'm concerned ;-)) which Omen now uses, so I encourage any of you who still don't have it, to go and get it. Truly reliable, up to the second threat monitoring is a real Godsend.
My early AB games went well, but as time went on I began to notice some serious problems. Although I was able to use Bestial Wrath for some much needed vengeance upon the Priest class, (a Shadow Priest is customarily one of my few truly feared enemies with Survival, believe it or not; primarily due to the dreaded Mana Burn and Silence) I had difficulty against other classes.
For one thing, with Survival, I'm used to being able to kite melee classes to death. I hadn't realised, however, just how much apparent tanking was actually involved in said kiting, because as Beast Mastery, Warriors were killing me in 2-3 shots, whereas with Survival it usually took at least a couple more, even when kiting with a trap and Serpent Sting. I did notice that my health was down by around 1.4k as Beast Mastery; this apparently made a real difference. The Warrior is generally my easiest class to kill with Survival.
Given that I had thought BM was our anti-caster tree, the other thing that surprised me was in one particular match, where I started to get almost constantly slaughtered by Warlocks. My theory on that was again the health issue, since draining health is primarily what Warlocks do.
I'm actually torn on whether to keep trying with BM, or simply to go back to Survival. Even though I'm not planning on using BM permanently, part of me feels that in order to be truly proficient as a Hunter, I ought to be at least passably decent with all three trees. I'm wondering if respeccing for Endurance Training and Thick Hide rather than Imp Hawk and Focused Fire would help much. Thoughts?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Some new specs
So on logging in earlier, I spent my first respec in an admittedly silly manner.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZ0xVZcfoio0Ghtuhhst
The point of this was purely to try out Explosive Shot, with Lock and Load along with it.
After using this for probably half a dozen matches, (probably around four hours) I rapidly reached the conclusion that for Arathi Basin at least, comparitively speaking anyway, Explosive Shot is more or less entirely worthless, as is Lock and Load; especially given the way the latter procs. Given that, it's extremely unlikely that I will be putting points in either of those two talents for any purpose any time soon. ~300 damage + 8% RAP is frankly terrible for a burst shot.
I can't see ES replacing Arcane Shot for raiding either. The two main 10 man possibilities for Surv that come to mind, would either be a Serpent Sting build, (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZcxVbRhzhxRZjf0io0chxu0h Imp Stings + Noxious, for +33% total to Serpent) or ToTH/Hunting Party. (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZcgVbohZjf0io0cheuhhox)
Although my current live build is a little uneven, for AB I'm likely to stick with something like http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZceVbohzhxsZjf0io0ch
for the time being. Nothing flashy, but 3/3 Careful Aim, 4/5 Imp Tracking, 3/3 Hunter Vs. Wild, 3/3 Imp Stings, both Barrages, and 5/5 RWS for some solid DPS. For levelling to 80 and endgame farming once I get there, my own preference is likely to be something along the lines of the Serpent build linked above.
Apparently Kill Shot is the new Aimed, and considering that I can't get that until 71, I'm likely to struggle in AB until then, as well.
Staples for me now are likely to be:-
- Hunter Vs. Wild. As far as damage is concerned, IMHO this talent is the single major improvement Survival will see from the release of WoTLK. We badly needed more base RAP, and because it's a buff to RAP rather than %crit, it doesn't interfere as much when I'm trying to keep my threat low when soloing as well.
- Surefooted. Blizz might have moved the 3% hit to Marks, but 30% resist to movement impairing effects is nothing to sneeze at, and in PvP, without BW it's our only saving grace.
- Focused Aim. Blizz obviously moved the 3% hit here because they wanted BM people to be able to get it as well, and although not quite as good, the pushback reduction only sweetens the deal. There's no real reason not to get this.
- Go For The Throat. Given that Survival doesn't get any other buff to pet Focus regen, for us it's essential, but my temporary BM respecs will most likely include this as well.
- Imp Stings. +30% extra damage to Serpent Sting, which means more damage over time. This means more gradual, threat-managed damage for solo PvE, and more help/chance of overcoming Resilience while kiting in PvP. What's not to love? If you're going Surv, get it.
- Readiness. Considering how weird our shot cooldowns are now, Readiness is likely to see a lot more use by me than it used to, mainly so that I can use Aimed and Multi Shot in rapid succession. Of course, that was something I could do pre-WoTLK anywayz without needing Readiness, but come on now...have we ever expected rationality from Blizzard? ;-)
- Trueshot Aura. The age of EW is over, sadly.
Things I consider junk:-
- Lock and Load. The proc triggers are silly, I'd only use it for Arcane anyway, and then only in PvP.
- T.N.T. Another stun, with less duration and a lower proc rate than Entrapment, but more talent points required. +9% crit to ES might be good if you're getting it, but you're unlikely to crit with ES for more than 800 or so anywayz. The dev team can have a free tarring and feathering each from me for this one. ;-)
- Sniper Training. PvP only, since the only shot that would use it for me outside PvP would be Steady.
- Point of No Escape. The only place I can see this being used is the Arena. In battlegrounds I generally use Immolation Trap for kiting before Frost, and in solo PvE, more crit is not something I want, due to threat issues. This talent is also in a bad position on the tree, for what it does.
- Expose Weakness. TSA + both Barrages + 5/5 RWS is nearly always going to do more damage than the self-buffing EW, and that goes double for anyone below 600 base Agility. Rest in peace, EW. It was great fun while it lasted.
- Explosive Shot. As mentioned above, this shot's damage is simply terrible, and it being a 51 pointer just makes it worse. Buff this shot's damage, Blizz, and I might consider using it...but before then, no thanks. This was a real disappointment as well, since I was looking forward to destroying people in AB with ES.
EDIT:- I've been reading some numbers on the forum which are causing me to think that with better gear, ES is likely to be a lot better than it is now; especially at 80.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZ0xVZcfoio0Ghtuhhst
The point of this was purely to try out Explosive Shot, with Lock and Load along with it.
After using this for probably half a dozen matches, (probably around four hours) I rapidly reached the conclusion that for Arathi Basin at least, comparitively speaking anyway, Explosive Shot is more or less entirely worthless, as is Lock and Load; especially given the way the latter procs. Given that, it's extremely unlikely that I will be putting points in either of those two talents for any purpose any time soon. ~300 damage + 8% RAP is frankly terrible for a burst shot.
I can't see ES replacing Arcane Shot for raiding either. The two main 10 man possibilities for Surv that come to mind, would either be a Serpent Sting build, (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZcxVbRhzhxRZjf0io0chxu0h Imp Stings + Noxious, for +33% total to Serpent) or ToTH/Hunting Party. (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZcgVbohZjf0io0cheuhhox)
Although my current live build is a little uneven, for AB I'm likely to stick with something like http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cZceVbohzhxsZjf0io0ch
for the time being. Nothing flashy, but 3/3 Careful Aim, 4/5 Imp Tracking, 3/3 Hunter Vs. Wild, 3/3 Imp Stings, both Barrages, and 5/5 RWS for some solid DPS. For levelling to 80 and endgame farming once I get there, my own preference is likely to be something along the lines of the Serpent build linked above.
Apparently Kill Shot is the new Aimed, and considering that I can't get that until 71, I'm likely to struggle in AB until then, as well.
Staples for me now are likely to be:-
- Hunter Vs. Wild. As far as damage is concerned, IMHO this talent is the single major improvement Survival will see from the release of WoTLK. We badly needed more base RAP, and because it's a buff to RAP rather than %crit, it doesn't interfere as much when I'm trying to keep my threat low when soloing as well.
- Surefooted. Blizz might have moved the 3% hit to Marks, but 30% resist to movement impairing effects is nothing to sneeze at, and in PvP, without BW it's our only saving grace.
- Focused Aim. Blizz obviously moved the 3% hit here because they wanted BM people to be able to get it as well, and although not quite as good, the pushback reduction only sweetens the deal. There's no real reason not to get this.
- Go For The Throat. Given that Survival doesn't get any other buff to pet Focus regen, for us it's essential, but my temporary BM respecs will most likely include this as well.
- Imp Stings. +30% extra damage to Serpent Sting, which means more damage over time. This means more gradual, threat-managed damage for solo PvE, and more help/chance of overcoming Resilience while kiting in PvP. What's not to love? If you're going Surv, get it.
- Readiness. Considering how weird our shot cooldowns are now, Readiness is likely to see a lot more use by me than it used to, mainly so that I can use Aimed and Multi Shot in rapid succession. Of course, that was something I could do pre-WoTLK anywayz without needing Readiness, but come on now...have we ever expected rationality from Blizzard? ;-)
- Trueshot Aura. The age of EW is over, sadly.
Things I consider junk:-
- Lock and Load. The proc triggers are silly, I'd only use it for Arcane anyway, and then only in PvP.
- T.N.T. Another stun, with less duration and a lower proc rate than Entrapment, but more talent points required. +9% crit to ES might be good if you're getting it, but you're unlikely to crit with ES for more than 800 or so anywayz. The dev team can have a free tarring and feathering each from me for this one. ;-)
- Sniper Training. PvP only, since the only shot that would use it for me outside PvP would be Steady.
- Point of No Escape. The only place I can see this being used is the Arena. In battlegrounds I generally use Immolation Trap for kiting before Frost, and in solo PvE, more crit is not something I want, due to threat issues. This talent is also in a bad position on the tree, for what it does.
- Expose Weakness. TSA + both Barrages + 5/5 RWS is nearly always going to do more damage than the self-buffing EW, and that goes double for anyone below 600 base Agility. Rest in peace, EW. It was great fun while it lasted.
- Explosive Shot. As mentioned above, this shot's damage is simply terrible, and it being a 51 pointer just makes it worse. Buff this shot's damage, Blizz, and I might consider using it...but before then, no thanks. This was a real disappointment as well, since I was looking forward to destroying people in AB with ES.
EDIT:- I've been reading some numbers on the forum which are causing me to think that with better gear, ES is likely to be a lot better than it is now; especially at 80.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Added Rilgon's blog to my blogroll
Hey guys,
Just added Rilgon's blog, Stabilized Effort Scope, to my blogroll. He's apparently a dedicated Marks Hunter from what he's told me, which is interesting.
I haven't run pure Marks myself for a while now, but I was using 0/31/30 for a period of time before I broke 600 ag; TSA gives more AP up until that point, and truthfully with RWS I'd probably still be doing more damage with a heavier Marks build even now.
I did, however use a more or less straight Marks build for a while in HFP, at probably around level 62 or thereabouts. It doesn't have anywhere near the melee viability of Survival, of course, but at the time anyway my ranged damage was considerably higher with it, also...so it balanced out. It's a very solid farming tree, but I did find mana efficiency to be a minor issue, and given that that has also been reported by people in raid scenarios, I'd be interested to hear how Rilgon manages to cope with the mana problem.
Probably the single main thing I enjoyed about Marks was that, given that it is a lot more Hunter centric than BM, I could focus on personal damage output, and still have the pet primarily for defense.
Marks could do with some attention from Blizzard, IMHO. Efficiency could use bumping up to around 30%. TSA also needs to scale, a la EW; scaling with Int would make the most sense, since CA already does. I'd also tweak Barrage and friends so that they buff Arcane as well as Multi; since currently if CC is around, due to no Multi, a Marks Hunter has to go without a fair portion of their damage output.
CA, RWS, Master Marks, and TSA are all still as sexy as they've always been, though; if Blizz made the above changes and also put Resourcefulness higher up in the Surv tree than it is currently, I'd definitely consider going a bit deeper into Marks than I traditionally do currently.
Just added Rilgon's blog, Stabilized Effort Scope, to my blogroll. He's apparently a dedicated Marks Hunter from what he's told me, which is interesting.
I haven't run pure Marks myself for a while now, but I was using 0/31/30 for a period of time before I broke 600 ag; TSA gives more AP up until that point, and truthfully with RWS I'd probably still be doing more damage with a heavier Marks build even now.
I did, however use a more or less straight Marks build for a while in HFP, at probably around level 62 or thereabouts. It doesn't have anywhere near the melee viability of Survival, of course, but at the time anyway my ranged damage was considerably higher with it, also...so it balanced out. It's a very solid farming tree, but I did find mana efficiency to be a minor issue, and given that that has also been reported by people in raid scenarios, I'd be interested to hear how Rilgon manages to cope with the mana problem.
Probably the single main thing I enjoyed about Marks was that, given that it is a lot more Hunter centric than BM, I could focus on personal damage output, and still have the pet primarily for defense.
Marks could do with some attention from Blizzard, IMHO. Efficiency could use bumping up to around 30%. TSA also needs to scale, a la EW; scaling with Int would make the most sense, since CA already does. I'd also tweak Barrage and friends so that they buff Arcane as well as Multi; since currently if CC is around, due to no Multi, a Marks Hunter has to go without a fair portion of their damage output.
CA, RWS, Master Marks, and TSA are all still as sexy as they've always been, though; if Blizz made the above changes and also put Resourcefulness higher up in the Surv tree than it is currently, I'd definitely consider going a bit deeper into Marks than I traditionally do currently.
Monday, February 18, 2008
A respec to die for
So with my Agility at 722 now, I was burning up inside with curiousity to see how high my Expose Weakness would be, and also what the experience would actually be like in-game.
After respecialising, I had the most amazing Scholomance run I think I've ever experienced. Expose Weakness grants me and the pet 180 AP, which is 55 more than TSA, and I also put points in IHM rather than Efficiency. My boar was going crazy, and I was killing mobs faster than I ever have (in that instance anyway) before.
Paperdoll DPS is at 240, meter around 420; so it's still probably abysmal by a lot of people's standards, but for me the play experience has been unbelievable compared to what I'm used to. I don't tend to rely on paperdoll numbers for my actual damage; given the amount I rely on traps and Serpent Sting, my metered damage is always going to be different, especially considering that the meter averages what I get from crits.
My burst was a lot more unstable during the four day BM respec, with the result that my metered damage was a lot more spikey; I could go up to over 600 dps on Scholo's elites very temporarily, but would often go back down to 3-400. I like the fact that given that my crit rate is higher now, my damage is a lot smoother and more even.
Speaking of crit...I'm at 26.15% now. So I'm doing 1200 damage before EW once every four hits, and probably 1400-1600 after EW, depending on what shot I'm using.
Given that I'm using both ToTH and Resourcefulness, it would probably be considered an unusual build, but I trap so much when soloing that I need the mana boost for it. ToTH is awesome when shooting as well, even though after my DoTs I'm still only normally using Steady to keep my overall threat down.
I'll also probably end up making around 80-90g from that run as well...so I'm very happy. :)
After respecialising, I had the most amazing Scholomance run I think I've ever experienced. Expose Weakness grants me and the pet 180 AP, which is 55 more than TSA, and I also put points in IHM rather than Efficiency. My boar was going crazy, and I was killing mobs faster than I ever have (in that instance anyway) before.
Paperdoll DPS is at 240, meter around 420; so it's still probably abysmal by a lot of people's standards, but for me the play experience has been unbelievable compared to what I'm used to. I don't tend to rely on paperdoll numbers for my actual damage; given the amount I rely on traps and Serpent Sting, my metered damage is always going to be different, especially considering that the meter averages what I get from crits.
My burst was a lot more unstable during the four day BM respec, with the result that my metered damage was a lot more spikey; I could go up to over 600 dps on Scholo's elites very temporarily, but would often go back down to 3-400. I like the fact that given that my crit rate is higher now, my damage is a lot smoother and more even.
Speaking of crit...I'm at 26.15% now. So I'm doing 1200 damage before EW once every four hits, and probably 1400-1600 after EW, depending on what shot I'm using.
Given that I'm using both ToTH and Resourcefulness, it would probably be considered an unusual build, but I trap so much when soloing that I need the mana boost for it. ToTH is awesome when shooting as well, even though after my DoTs I'm still only normally using Steady to keep my overall threat down.
I'll also probably end up making around 80-90g from that run as well...so I'm very happy. :)
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
A few different Survival builds
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.
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.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Why for me at least, a Hunter ISN'T a DPS class
I find myself wondering...can there be such a thing as a spec identity crisis? I'm fairly sure that's what I'm experiencing right now.
I did my first Shadow Labyrinth run with my guild yesterday morning. We wiped three times on Murmur before killing him. Although my trapping was solid earlier, I was dead last on the sacred damage meter.
That made me think; obviously my dps sucks, because if it didn't, I wouldn't have been at the bottom of the list, and we would have been able to drop Murmur a lot faster than we did. I'm also remembering the smug pronouncements that I've read on the forum about two Survival Hunters in any group (or even an entire guild, apparently) being a waste, due to both EW clashing and Survival's customarily abysmal damage output. My class officer and I are both Survival, and he hasn't expressed a problem with me staying Surv, despite me having spoken to him about it. I also figure that because I don't want to be a liability to the guild, I should do whatever I can to try and improve, damage wise.
So I go and respec BM again; a crap BM build as well. Completely by accident, I ended up getting a couple other things and missing BW.
Flash forward to this morning. I'm feeling extremely tentative and uncertain. Farming water motes in Nagrand was going fine, but then an RL friend with a 63 shaman msges me and suggests attempting we try and two man Ramparts. I say ok fine, although I have grave misgivings about our ability to do it. Ramps is actually one of the hardest instances I've done in some ways.
So we go in. First few pulls are tricky, but we get through. Eventually we get to a point which, despite it being a three mob pull that ordinarily (as Survival, of course) I could handle, due to having Wyvern Sting and less chance of trap resistance. I drop trap, lure one of the three mobs over to the trap, and put the pet on another. The mob that was supposed to get trapped resists, all three mobs congregate on me, they kill me, and then the shaman. We try again, trap gets resisted, same result. We try again, and exactly the same result. My repair bill by this point is nearly 10g, so we agree to leave it. I logged out, and came to write this post.
My problem is that I really don't know what to do spec wise at this point. I've spent the last close to 18 months playing Survival; it's got to the point where I feel as though to a degree the tree is instinctive, at least as far as trapping is concerned...and it is also a mirror of my own playstyle/psychology. My DPS is terrible, yes...but usually, when I'm soloing at least my CC can chunk it down enough for me to be able to cope.
People are hence going to say fine, play the way you need to, be Surv, problem solved. That isn't the solution to the problem. The single main reason being, that although in BRK's case, a Hunter might be a pure DPS class, in my own case that isn't the case.
As Survival, my DPS sucks. It's beyond horrible; I'm struggling to clear 300 in 5 mans according to the meters I run, and although I've been top a couple of times, I've been at the bottom enough to know that the only times I'm at the top are when the rest of the group are people who don't know what they're doing.
However, what I have become moderately ok at I think tho, is CC. Again you might be saying, fine and dandy, if Surv works for you, be Surv. Where this argument again fails though is that I've been reading that CC virtually isn't used in raids. In raids apparently, there is nothing other than DPS.
I want to raid, but my dilemma is, if raiding is only about pure DPS, then by playing the way I know how, the only way that I really feel that I can, I'm apparently only going to be a liability to the group I'm in.
I actually don't think I'm the only person who's experiencing this problem. According to a recent forum post I read, on the EU servers at least, the number of people speccing 35+ point Survival has risen by around 3.6% in the last few months. That means that there's going to be a lot more people who, like me, are caught in the dilemma of playing a (comparitively, at least) non-DPS spec for what is supposedly a pure DPS class. The single main reason why this is a problem is because of how difficult it then becomes for us to convince guild and raid leaders, and other Hunters, that we're both credible and necessary. It's like what Shadow Priests have undoubtedly experienced, except in reverse. Priests are socially expected to be a healing class, and so because when as Shadow they want to DPS instead, it isn't accepted because it goes against the majority's expectations. By contrast, Hunters are meant to be a DPS class, whereas Survival is largely about doing other things besides pure damage.
Something else also happened this morning that really made me think. I found myself thinking that if I didn't know how to play BM as a spec, all I'd need to do is go to BRK, read what he'd already written, and I could learn. That then brought back to my mind the comments that people have already left on this blog, that before me, for Survival, a resource like that didn't exist. At the risk of sounding horribly arrogant, (especially considering that I don't feel as though, being honest, I really have anything like the level of ability needed for this) apparently I've ended up becoming the Louis Skolnick of Survival. As someone who'd read this blog said to me on the forum last time I experimented with BM; "Mirsh, you've gone BM. That just seems...wrong, somehow."
It's caused me to realise, thinking about it now; I can't turn tail and run on this, to a spec which I don't know how to use anywayz. For a long time among the Hunter community from what I saw, a scenario existed where Marks was the dominant spec, BM was the fringe or "different" (but still tolerated) spec, and Survival wasn't something mentioned at all in polite society; it was as though the tree literally didn't exist. It was considered the domain of nerds, freaks, and the mentally unhinged, and if mentioned was again forgotten about as quickly as possible. Among WoW's social mainstream, before patch 2.1, speccing Survival simply Was Not Done. It isn't coincidental that posts on the forum where people ask about Survival are reminiscent of what it sounds like when people start realising that they might possibly be homosexual; Survival among WoW players has literally had almost a similar level of stigma attached.
Now, that is ever so slowly beginning to change. The number of people willing to look at the tree and experiment with it is rising; there are forum topics being made about it every day. Survival is, at long last, coming out of the closet. For the sake of being true to myself, and the sake of said people who are potentially going to need advice, whether I end up raiding or not, I need to stick with the tree for that.
I did my first Shadow Labyrinth run with my guild yesterday morning. We wiped three times on Murmur before killing him. Although my trapping was solid earlier, I was dead last on the sacred damage meter.
That made me think; obviously my dps sucks, because if it didn't, I wouldn't have been at the bottom of the list, and we would have been able to drop Murmur a lot faster than we did. I'm also remembering the smug pronouncements that I've read on the forum about two Survival Hunters in any group (or even an entire guild, apparently) being a waste, due to both EW clashing and Survival's customarily abysmal damage output. My class officer and I are both Survival, and he hasn't expressed a problem with me staying Surv, despite me having spoken to him about it. I also figure that because I don't want to be a liability to the guild, I should do whatever I can to try and improve, damage wise.
So I go and respec BM again; a crap BM build as well. Completely by accident, I ended up getting a couple other things and missing BW.
Flash forward to this morning. I'm feeling extremely tentative and uncertain. Farming water motes in Nagrand was going fine, but then an RL friend with a 63 shaman msges me and suggests attempting we try and two man Ramparts. I say ok fine, although I have grave misgivings about our ability to do it. Ramps is actually one of the hardest instances I've done in some ways.
So we go in. First few pulls are tricky, but we get through. Eventually we get to a point which, despite it being a three mob pull that ordinarily (as Survival, of course) I could handle, due to having Wyvern Sting and less chance of trap resistance. I drop trap, lure one of the three mobs over to the trap, and put the pet on another. The mob that was supposed to get trapped resists, all three mobs congregate on me, they kill me, and then the shaman. We try again, trap gets resisted, same result. We try again, and exactly the same result. My repair bill by this point is nearly 10g, so we agree to leave it. I logged out, and came to write this post.
My problem is that I really don't know what to do spec wise at this point. I've spent the last close to 18 months playing Survival; it's got to the point where I feel as though to a degree the tree is instinctive, at least as far as trapping is concerned...and it is also a mirror of my own playstyle/psychology. My DPS is terrible, yes...but usually, when I'm soloing at least my CC can chunk it down enough for me to be able to cope.
People are hence going to say fine, play the way you need to, be Surv, problem solved. That isn't the solution to the problem. The single main reason being, that although in BRK's case, a Hunter might be a pure DPS class, in my own case that isn't the case.
As Survival, my DPS sucks. It's beyond horrible; I'm struggling to clear 300 in 5 mans according to the meters I run, and although I've been top a couple of times, I've been at the bottom enough to know that the only times I'm at the top are when the rest of the group are people who don't know what they're doing.
However, what I have become moderately ok at I think tho, is CC. Again you might be saying, fine and dandy, if Surv works for you, be Surv. Where this argument again fails though is that I've been reading that CC virtually isn't used in raids. In raids apparently, there is nothing other than DPS.
I want to raid, but my dilemma is, if raiding is only about pure DPS, then by playing the way I know how, the only way that I really feel that I can, I'm apparently only going to be a liability to the group I'm in.
I actually don't think I'm the only person who's experiencing this problem. According to a recent forum post I read, on the EU servers at least, the number of people speccing 35+ point Survival has risen by around 3.6% in the last few months. That means that there's going to be a lot more people who, like me, are caught in the dilemma of playing a (comparitively, at least) non-DPS spec for what is supposedly a pure DPS class. The single main reason why this is a problem is because of how difficult it then becomes for us to convince guild and raid leaders, and other Hunters, that we're both credible and necessary. It's like what Shadow Priests have undoubtedly experienced, except in reverse. Priests are socially expected to be a healing class, and so because when as Shadow they want to DPS instead, it isn't accepted because it goes against the majority's expectations. By contrast, Hunters are meant to be a DPS class, whereas Survival is largely about doing other things besides pure damage.
Something else also happened this morning that really made me think. I found myself thinking that if I didn't know how to play BM as a spec, all I'd need to do is go to BRK, read what he'd already written, and I could learn. That then brought back to my mind the comments that people have already left on this blog, that before me, for Survival, a resource like that didn't exist. At the risk of sounding horribly arrogant, (especially considering that I don't feel as though, being honest, I really have anything like the level of ability needed for this) apparently I've ended up becoming the Louis Skolnick of Survival. As someone who'd read this blog said to me on the forum last time I experimented with BM; "Mirsh, you've gone BM. That just seems...wrong, somehow."
It's caused me to realise, thinking about it now; I can't turn tail and run on this, to a spec which I don't know how to use anywayz. For a long time among the Hunter community from what I saw, a scenario existed where Marks was the dominant spec, BM was the fringe or "different" (but still tolerated) spec, and Survival wasn't something mentioned at all in polite society; it was as though the tree literally didn't exist. It was considered the domain of nerds, freaks, and the mentally unhinged, and if mentioned was again forgotten about as quickly as possible. Among WoW's social mainstream, before patch 2.1, speccing Survival simply Was Not Done. It isn't coincidental that posts on the forum where people ask about Survival are reminiscent of what it sounds like when people start realising that they might possibly be homosexual; Survival among WoW players has literally had almost a similar level of stigma attached.
Now, that is ever so slowly beginning to change. The number of people willing to look at the tree and experiment with it is rising; there are forum topics being made about it every day. Survival is, at long last, coming out of the closet. For the sake of being true to myself, and the sake of said people who are potentially going to need advice, whether I end up raiding or not, I need to stick with the tree for that.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
On respecting convention
I just responded to someone in the forum who had put together an experimental Survival build with a talent calculator, without Mortal Shots, and was requesting opinions on it as well as wanting to know why MS was really necessary.
I feel that this is an important issue. Although I maintain that Survival is fundamentally about thinking outside the box, I've learned that there are certain situations where it's actually important to think very much inside the box, and that this is one of those scenarios. My forum response follows.
The only thing that is really going to teach you anything reliably is your own experience. I used to spec very melee heavy (in terms of Surv) without MS, and do a number of other crazy things. (I'd never do it for serious use, but EW, Imp Hawk, Master Tac, and Rapid Fire all proccing at once is something every Hunter needs to experience once, IMHO ;-))
People here in the forum called me a scrub, a newb, and a munter, but I didn't listen. Then however, I started dying. A LOT. I'd put 100g away towards an epic mount, and ended up having to spend probably 75 of it on repair bills during my first three days in Hellfire Peninsula. I got rolled that hard the first time I went to the Hellfire Ramparts that it almost hurt behind the keyboard. My results in battlegrounds were sometimes good, also, but if I was honest they weren't as consistent as I might have liked.
So I went back and thought about it. I respecced, first straight Marks, (which, with all love and respect to my Marks brethren, wasn't for me, personally) and then at the time to 0/20/35 or so. For admittedly a brief period, after doing this I topped the kill chart in AB once, which was something I'd never done before, and my ranged damage was up a heap in 5 man instances, as well.
In short, there are concrete reasons why a lot of the people in here advocate the things they do; however, sometimes we use the degree of vitriol that their advice is often served with as an excuse not to listen to it. I'd actually recommend that you don't listen initially...go and spend 200-250g or so on respecs, experience everything in the three trees that you can...you'll end up a far better Hunter for it.
However, you'll also learn why people say that you really should take Mortal Shots.
I feel that this is an important issue. Although I maintain that Survival is fundamentally about thinking outside the box, I've learned that there are certain situations where it's actually important to think very much inside the box, and that this is one of those scenarios. My forum response follows.
The only thing that is really going to teach you anything reliably is your own experience. I used to spec very melee heavy (in terms of Surv) without MS, and do a number of other crazy things. (I'd never do it for serious use, but EW, Imp Hawk, Master Tac, and Rapid Fire all proccing at once is something every Hunter needs to experience once, IMHO ;-))
People here in the forum called me a scrub, a newb, and a munter, but I didn't listen. Then however, I started dying. A LOT. I'd put 100g away towards an epic mount, and ended up having to spend probably 75 of it on repair bills during my first three days in Hellfire Peninsula. I got rolled that hard the first time I went to the Hellfire Ramparts that it almost hurt behind the keyboard. My results in battlegrounds were sometimes good, also, but if I was honest they weren't as consistent as I might have liked.
So I went back and thought about it. I respecced, first straight Marks, (which, with all love and respect to my Marks brethren, wasn't for me, personally) and then at the time to 0/20/35 or so. For admittedly a brief period, after doing this I topped the kill chart in AB once, which was something I'd never done before, and my ranged damage was up a heap in 5 man instances, as well.
In short, there are concrete reasons why a lot of the people in here advocate the things they do; however, sometimes we use the degree of vitriol that their advice is often served with as an excuse not to listen to it. I'd actually recommend that you don't listen initially...go and spend 200-250g or so on respecs, experience everything in the three trees that you can...you'll end up a far better Hunter for it.
However, you'll also learn why people say that you really should take Mortal Shots.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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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