Why low threat matters.

I mentioned in my last post, how, despite being a lovely weapon, my shiny new S2 crossbow was generating too much threat for me to be able to solo Gargolmar and his adds in Ramparts successfully. I've also actually started to have more threat problems while farming in Quel'Danas since trading in Valanos' Longbow, as well.

However, last night while trying to come up with a solution, I'm pretty sure I came up with an answer. I haven't been able to test this too extensively yet this morning, but my initial results are encouraging; and I'm going to play with some numbers in a moment to try and bear it out.

It may initially seem like a bit of a crazy thing to do, but this morning, since I had the honour and marks spare, I went and picked up the High Warlord's Recurve in Orgrimmar. Why would I do this, I hear you ask? I'll explain.

For this example, I'm going to use a mob we're no doubt all intimately familiar with, the Wretched Fiend of Quel'Danas.

Premise 1:- This adorable creature has 5,400 hit points.
Premise 2:- Each Immolation Trap I cast, lasts 15 seconds, which is the same duration as Serpent Sting.

Premise 3:- Dividing 5,400 by 15, to give us the total amount of DPS needed to kill this mob within 15 seconds, gives us 360. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here, and assume that this fact is the specific reason why Blizzard chose to give this mob precisely this amount of health.

Premise 4:- Serpent Sting rank 10 does 660 + 1714 (my RAP) * 0.1 = 831. Immolation Trap Rank 6 does 1156 damage without Clever Traps, or 1329 damage with. Adding these two together, we get 2160. 2160 / 14 gives us 154, which is the effective DPS of these two spells combined. Without Clever Traps, (for anyone non-Survival) that's 1987 / 14 = 141 DPS.

Premise 5:- My Wind Serpent's base DPS is 116. This isn't going to include numbers for Lightning Breath, since I'd need to go back into the game to get my pet's AP, and for the sake of what I'm trying to show here, it doesn't really matter too much anywayz. 360 (our base DPS needed to kill this mob in 15 seconds) - 141 (our non-Clever Traps dot number) = 219. 219 - 116 (my pet's base non-cit DPS) = 103. For Clever Traps, 360 - 154 = 206. 206 - 116 = 90.

These two numbers, 103 without Clever Traps, or 90 with, represent the total personal DPS that as a Hunter, we need to do to kill a Wretched Fiend in 15 seconds, (our dot duration) when taking the above two damage sources into account. To really put that into perspective, 90 personal DPS should be well within a Hunter's grasp at level 40-45!

Here's why this matters. A Wind Serpent at 70 with Rank 8 Growl, can generate 250 TPS. (Source here) If after trapping and pet damage, the most personal DPS we need to kill non-elite mobs in 15 seconds is on the order of 90-100, that effectively means that our pets can hold aggro equivalent to more than twice the total DPS needed to kill the mob. Yet raiders still cry that pets don't generate enough threat.

My paperdoll DPS with the High Warlord's Recurve, while using my usual Warden's Arrows, is 247.6. As you can see, my base, non-crit DPS, even with a weapon with a pre-requisite of level 60, is nearly three times that needed, barring armor, to kill a Wretched Fiend in 15 seconds. Hence, I could use a level 45 weapon and still do enough damage with the other two sources to kill these mobs within the alloted time.

"But Mirsh," I can hear you saying. "I can just blast these with my (random purple raiding bazooka of doom) and they die in two seconds flat. Who cares?"

Here's why I care. Ever had 4-5 of these things on you at once? I have, and I'm telling you, even at near 10k health, it ain't a picnic. I've died because of it on occasion. However, with Readiness and a Carrion Bird, (if you're good, you'll still be able to do it with a Wind Serpent) if I'm not doing more than 250 personal DPS, here's what I can do if I get 4-5 of these things on me at once.

1) Drop a Frost Trap under the crowd.
2) Put Mend Pet up. (keep it up at all times)
3) Hit the dirt with Feign Death.
4) Hit Readiness.
5) Drop an Immolation Trap at the feet of one mob.
6) Jump back once, and apply Serpent Sting.
7) Use Auto Shot to quickly but calmly kill the first mob.
8) Drink a health pot if need be, rinse, and repeat.

Given how long the trap cooldown is, I might not be able to drop a trap for each mob. If I can't, I'll keep Serpent up anyway, and do a slow, measured 1:1 rotation, while keeping an eye firmly on my damage meter, and applying Disengage if needed, or Feign again when it's back up.

Here's the single main point of this post; if you don't get anything else from it, get this. It isn't that pets don't build enough threat, when soloing. It's that Hunters are generating too much.

Raiders are used to the idea of their encounters being a DPS race. In such an encounter, you want every last bit of DPS that you can get, right? Sure. However, in such a scenario, you've not only got a human tank in front of you with a potentially much higher max TPS, but you've also hopefully MDed onto him in order to give yourself a higher ceiling. You can still MD onto a pet, sure; but if you get a group of mobs on you, you're not going to be able to MD for every one.

In other words, when you're soloing and you get hit by a group, you actually want the opposite to the raid scenario. You want to dot, and hug the 15 second personal DPS requirement after your pet and trapping, as closely as possible. I guarantee you that, if you study this for non-elite mobs, you will always calculate it at below 255, which means you will still have a threshold between the amount of damage you need, and your pet's max TPS, so it will be able to keep up.

TL;DR version:- For farming or dailies, if you want to be able to fend off packs, and also avoid needing to kite, (which boosts your overall speed) get an old weapon, (between level 45-60) and use it. DoT mobs, lean on your pet's damage as well, (which you already likely do as BM anywayz) and stay below 250 personal DPS. You will never need more than 400 overall to kill a non-elite mob.

This is vitally important, because against groups while soloing, it is the secret of how we are able to survive. By staying below 250 personal DPS, we can keep mobs on the pet even when we're standing just outside melee range. Thus, they don't swamp us, and we survive.

The other fun part of this is that doing the above, even without Resourcefulness, you generally won't use more than 10-12% mana per mob, either. I normally use around 8%.

Training

I did another solo Ramps trash farming run last night.

I've also been watching some of Pike's videos, specifically the ones on jumpshot kiting and chain trapping, since I still badly need practice in both of these areas. I had thought it was just me where kiting was concerned, but apparently the amount of lag suffered by Oceanic players is a genuine factor.

My grasp of multi-mob pulling is getting a lot more solid; I can now manage four mob pulls at the HFP level at least, or five with Readiness. I only died once in my second attempt at reaching Gargolmar, and that was on the Beastmaster where I consider it more or less inevitable. The initial pull there is three mob, and then the Beastmaster summons another four hounds. Thus, I do that in two parts; I will die on the Beastmaster's adds, but as long as the Beastmaster himself is dead before I am, I still consider that progress, as the other two mobs can then be very easily dealt with when I run back.

I'm still not able to successfully down Gargolmar himself yet, either; my pet just doesn't generate enough threat to hold one of the healers, even when MDing. I'm going to go back there this morning and apply a new approach which I think might work, but up until now, I've simply ended up pulling the healer to me. Killing it melee is then too slow, and the trap the other one is in breaks before the first one is dead.

Aside from simple enjoyment, my other reason for wanting to practice more is to get better for hopefully more raids; I've become aware that in SSC at least, a very solid grasp of such skills as kiting is extremely important for a Hunter.

I've been called a scrub a lot on the forum, as I've written here, and I think the real reason why I'm not more able to ignore it is because deep down, I fundamentally believe that the people who call me that are largely right. I was a mess on Zul'jin, and when we went to SSC, the raid wiped probably three times each on both Leo and Tidewalker; they didn't get past either of them, and even though I know those are 25 man groups, part of me wondered how much (if anything) that had to do with me. I'm sure some of my resident haters in the forum would probably take great delight in telling me that if I hadn't been in the raid, at least a couple of said wipes may not have occurred.

People have wondered why my progress in this game has been so slow; truthfully I've wondered myself, but I think it's primarily because it's only been relatively recently that my offline life has become sufficiently peaceful that I've been able to truly start to focus on this game. I've missed raiding in two of WoW's iterations now, for the most part; first the initial game, and now TBC. I can only hope I will be able to progress quickly enough in WoTLK to have a shot at the new Naxx, since I always wanted to go to the old version.

I've realised something else as well, and that is that, as do a lot of people, I also consider Alumatine to be the grand master of Survival, and possibly even of this class in general. I've read some material recently on the definition of the term alpha male, and realise that Alu is also a good example of what that term refers to. Although I don't know for sure, I tend to suspect that, as he has at times implied, for him that carries over into offline life as well.

I still find his level of arrogance difficult, as I always have; but I can not deny that it is more or less entirely justified. I realise now that that was actually the cause of the conflict I had with him; I have a tendency to put people on pedestals, and can react very badly when it turns out that they're human.

When Brandon Sato wrote to me and asked me to write a Hunter class guide, I truthfully felt in no way qualified for the task, and although I initially consented, did not ultimately end up writing it. I wish now that when I had replied to Mr. Sato, I had told him to get in touch with Alumatine instead. Pike ended up writing the guide that Sato now has on his site. I consider Pike exceptionally competent; moreso than myself, truth be told; but she still isn't tier 6, and neither, so far as I know, is Big Red Kitty, who is AFAIK more or less considered the o sensei of Beast Mastery.

One of the reasons why I resisted raiding for so long is because, although it's obviously more relaxed, (the game not being real, and guilds, for the most part, being entities comprised of civilians) it genuinely is about a chain of command. In attempting to learn the lessons about human social interaction that I feel that raiding can give me, I'm trying to reconcile myself with this psychologically, and also learn, while continuing to seek to improve myself, to give my superiors their due.

Growing concerns about the Rogue.

This was originally a much more emotive, and somewhat negative post. I've since edited it fairly heavily. I want to refrain from foaming at the mouth like I have in the past, now that I've thought about it; but in all seriousness, I am genuinely concerned with what I'm seeing starting to develop with the Rogue class in this game. It's getting worse than it has ever been.

Just on Saturday morning, I was ganked again on the island, close to a dozen times by an Alliance Rogue who had literally spent the entire night there, purely for the purpose of inflicting misery on others. This particular Rogue spent almost all her time in stealth; she only decloaked to kill someone, and would very rapidly re-stealth again.

In every class forum I visit, and General as well, the picture is the same. Every other class, melee or range, hybrid or no, shares a common enemy; a common source of anguish and misery for them in the game.

The Rogue.

Were it not for this class, other classes would be a great deal more competitive with each other in the Arena, and would be able to persue quests and other PvE activities in the game, far less frequently molested than they are now.

Another example. I wonder; do many of you know of a particular new talent Blizzard are giving the Rogue in the expansion? The tooltip will be linked from WoWHead; read it carefully, and ponder the implications.

Dismantle.

Swords and shields, gone. Daggers, staves, gone. Bows and guns, gone. If the reference to "equipment," above means what I think it does, even offhands, ammunition, and thrown weapons would be included.

Even more than the real implications within the game itself, the above is an example of the true source of the misery that the Rogue causes me; Blizzard's consistent, continual, unrelenting favouritism of it, at the expense of every other class in this game.

Vanish. Cloak of Shadows. Shadowstep. Dismantle. Fan of Knives. Four consecutive slows or stuns, more than can be used by any other class in this game that I know of. The list of largely uncounterable exploits just keeps getting longer and longer, and each new patch, there are often subtle and barely documented nerfs to the ability to counter them. Snake Trap no longer breaks stealth. Flare has already been historically nerfed, and yet a Rogue had the gall to call for more in the Hunter forum not too days ago. Trap radius has been diminished, with arming time added and then increased.

The icing on the cake, however, was when I recently found a link in the Hunter forum to this particular Armory profile. Look at the ranged weapon this Rogue has equipped. Now be aware that apparently, this Rogue was given this ranged weapon in preference to two other Hunters in the same raid. If this is not the very definition of injustice as it applies to the context of this game, then I have no idea what is.

Note also the Warglaives of Azzinoth. The Hunter was originally one of the classes that was able to equip these weapons, and in terms of stats, they are extremely well suited to us, while arguably not really being suited to a Warrior in particular at all. I would have had no objection to the Rogue being kept as one of the classes able to equip them, but I do not understand why the Hunter was removed as one of the classes that were originally able to do so.

It is true that in Bartle's treatise on the social ecosystem of MMORPGs, he mentions one specific demographic that could be described as unsparingly malefic. Bartle calls them Killers; others have called them griefers. These are individuals whose existence in a virtual environment is for no purpose other than to inflict the maximum possible amount of misery upon others, for their own enjoyment. The offline term for such behaviour is sadism.

This group, as with the other three, are actually necessary to some degree in maintaining a stable game population. I have written before about how I believe that the Rogue was specifically and consciously designed for the purpose of catering to this demographic of WoW's population. You can look at the image at the top of this post, yes; but also look at the image at the top of my blog. Contrary to how this post, and my rantings against Rogues have sounded in the past, I actually am aware that darkness, as long as it is in equal measure, is as critical to life as is light.

However, one of the things that Bartle also warns against is a state of imbalance or disequilibrium occurring, where the numbers of any one of the four demographics, Achievers, Explorers, Socialisers, or Killers, could end up exceeding the population of the other three. If this were to occur, the most likely result would eventually be the total loss of population, and the death of the game in question.

Any healthy, viable ecosystem has to be inclusive, and the social ecosystem of an online game is no exception. Spiders, snakes, scorpions, reptiles, and rats all provide vital ecological services, to the same degree as herbivores or more benevolent organisms do. However, as described above, in order for said ecosystem to survive, balance must be maintained.

Predators overcoming the other organisms eventually results in a scenario where they find themselves out of food, and faced with the prospect of starving to death, due to all of the available prey either having been eaten, or having retreated to a more distant, safe location. The way this translates in WoW terms is that if Rogues continue to be reinforced to a state of chronic imbalance, such that other classes are completely unable to defend themselves, one of two scenarios will develop. Either a) everyone will roll a Rogue, as it will be the only way in which they can defend themselves, and you will thus have a class monoculture developing within the game, or b) increasingly large numbers of players will begin to leave the game.

Neither of these scenarios are in the Rogue's long term best interests. The first scenario means that while the Rogue may still be able to grief new members of the class, it will be much more difficult to do, because they will be facing the same abilities that they themselves have. The second scenario is the worst case, because it means a gradual slide towards a total loss of potential prey; which will of course lead to the eventual demise of the Rogue itself.

Predator and prey actually exist in a symbiotic relationship. The predator needs the prey for nourishment. (In the case of predatory animals, said nourishment is physical; in the case of the Rogue, it's psychological)

The prey, on the other hand, needs the predator for several different reasons. One is population control; if the prey's numbers grow too large, that can in turn threaten the prey's own food supply. This translates in WoW terms to there being a need for different classes and roles, both for PvE and PvP. If too many members of any one class were to develop, an imbalance would then exist.

The second is genetic development. By learning to resist and survive the predator, the prey develops genetically and becomes more biologically fit. In WoW terms again, this translates to players who Rogues attempt to attack, being forced to learn and try to improve their own level of skill within the game, in order to successfully defend themselves.

Blizzard's developers would be very wise to take heed of the above, and realise that where the Rogue is concerned, the scales began tipping some time ago, and are only now truly beginning in earnest to manifest as serious social damage to the game.

Truthfully, when I really look at it, it really isn't the Rogue itself that upsets me. It's the manner in which Blizzard treats it; continually reinforcing its' dominance and near-invincibility, rather than improving the chances of other classes to survive against it, and thus maintaining a balance. I do not, contrary to how it may have sounded in the past, truly advocate the outright deletion of the Rogue class. I do, however, advocate that some of its' current abilities be toned down to an extent, and that proposed travesties like Dismantle be scrapped rather than being introduced in WoTLK.

Griefers exist; they're a fact of life, and I wouldn't actually want it any other way. Some of my most enjoyable experiences in this game involved fending off Rogues while I was levelling. However the point is that back then, while it was a legitimate challenge, I had a chance. To a large extent, that isn't really true any more.

If there's anything that really causes me pain, it is imbalance on either end of the spectrum; because I know what it has the potential to do.

Karazhan and Ice cream

I've not too long got back from the Friday night Karazhan raid. Although the loot I was after didn't drop, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I was in the end able to get the Ring of a Thousand Marks from Prince Malchezzar.

Although this ring is almost an identical sidegrade to my current PvP ring, the difference of course is that it has +hit, which means it is now possible for me to stay hit capped without needing to equip my old green trinket.

I was also able to reach 700 DPS in the Prince fight, for third place, and a total of 600 DPS and fifth place overall. The latter wasn't so good, but what it demonstrates is the truth of Survival's lack of mana efficiency causing problems on long fights. I'm also not too unhappy with myself on the grounds that we didn't have a Paladin present in the raid, and only a single Shaman, so I didn't have either Kings or GoA, and in fact, was only self-buffed.

As mentioned in a previous entry, my personal record is 851 DPS on Murmur, with a spec identical to my current, but for long periods, I struggle to stay over 600.

While the above definitely isn't stellar, perhaps, I also don't feel that it's excessively unsatisfactory, either. I will need probably another 150-200 AP if I can get it to be truly, comfortably Gruul capable, from what I have read; I would want to be able to reach at least 650 sustained.

The other part of the title of this post happened an hour or so before writing this blog entry. My diet, owing to both physiological and economic constraints, is customarily very conservative, but on this particular occasion I felt like doing something unusual, and after the raid, bought myself a half litre container of Homer Hudson's Cookies and Cream ice cream. For anyone who hasn't tried it, I recommend it; it is noticeably more affordable than the same flavour in other brands, and not discernibly different in taste, either.

Militia duty

I'd just finished my dailies last night, when a distress call went out on General. A group of four extremely well geared Alliance players were creating an unusually large and intense disturbance on the island, repeatedly ganking people who were simply trying to do the quests. I've said before here that if the Alliance themselves don't cause trouble, I will not bother them, and will even sometimes try and help them; but that if they start something, I'm going to make my best attempt at finishing it.

I will also admit that, as insanely stupid as this possibly sounds, I'd never had any truly experential, emotional understanding of the concept of patriotism before having a character in the Horde. It was my earliest exposure to the behaviour of the Alliance that actually created that in me. There's no stronger motivation for developing the strong perception of, "Us," than when there is also persecution being engaged in by a vindictive, arrogant, and cowardly, "Them." From the very first time I encountered them as a Horde player, the Alliance became the enemy.

At first, that was with fairly extreme reluctance. Then, as I grew to actively despise the behaviour of the Alliance players on my particular server, fighting them became easier.

So myself and a group of around three other people got together, and went hunting.

I admit; we never really had a chance. The Rogue was Sub spec with warglaives and apparently actually hacking; someone noted that Vanish and three chain Sprints were used in a manner that seemed faster than the cooldowns for those abilities would allow. The Moonkin Druid, in addition to being well geared, was also the first native of his spec that I have encountered in the game who was genuinely skilled.

I was able to kill both of them once, but only once. They both then ganked me at least four times, sometimes camping me.

I initially killed them with my usual combination of Wyvern Sting, and then Aimed, Multi, and Arcane Shot, and I believe provoked a significant amount of anger in them by doing so, judging by their subsequent response. Given that the above combination and Frost/Snake Trap kiting are my only real defense against Druids in particular, once the Moonkin started adapting, there wasn't really anything else I could do. He began making use of Abolish Poison to pre-emptively counter the sleep of Wyvern Sting, and Barkskin in addition to the already high base armour of the form, in order to mitigate my burst. He also created an enclosure around me with treants and then simply killed me with Moonfire.

I've been using Beast Mastery on the island before, and the 1:1 rotation is a lot easier to use in PvP than the 1:1.5 of Marks/Survival. I have a strong preference for Survival while questing or farming, however.

Still, it seems I might have to consider using BM while doing dailies, especially given that I'm considering guard duty after finishing them more often. I'm tired of being ganked, and of fellow Horde players being ganked as well, when if they left me alone, I'd be more than willing to simply quest and let others do the same.

I'd prefer that it didn't have to be this way, but it's becoming apparent that the Alliance on Thaurissan need to be sent a message.

Mentally preparing for WoTLK

Rakan messaged me on MSN earlier and made the statement that, "SV isn't really SV any more."

Although I'm still going to be here post-WoTLK, I agreed with that statement. It won't be the same, in terms of EW having been made self-only, and the duration talent to Freezing Trap having been removed. In addition, I've felt myself ever since first reading about them, that Explosive Shot, and particularly Lock and Load, are fundamentally contrary to what I anyway thought Survival was about. They're threat generators, and will change things; not in a good way.

It's funny, though. I've experienced something in the last few days, that a lot of people would tell me is impossible. Namely that after using both 41/20/0, and my current and favourite spec, 0/21/40, my measured DPS (I'm running a meter myself now) with the latter spec is greater; close to 100 greater in some cases. I can only assume that that is because my gear and experience are still far more heavily in the direction of Surv than Beast Mastery. I don't know any other explanation for it.

That, however, was one of the single main defining characteristics of Survival as a tree; that it was greater than the sum of its' parts. That somehow, contrary to the opinion of a great many people, it worked, and it did so in a manner that fell outside of anyone's ability to completely explain it in genuinely quantifiable, empirical, atheistic terms. Alumatine made a very valiant attempt to explain it, but I'm still not convinced that he entirely succeeded.

In the last couple of days, I also remembered something else Alumatine wrote to me once, and that is that it's possible for Survival to be a completely pet independent spec; that once your damage reaches a certain point, if you stay out at maximum range, you can literally put the pet away, and kill mobs before they reach you.

This morning, while farming earlier, I tried it out and experienced it for myself. It made me realise, that when you get to a certain point with Surv, you go back to where, as a Hunter, you began. It's like before level 10 again.

I'm becoming emotional now as I write, and am beginning to realise just how much this is affecting me. The emotion is an old, familiar one. I'm genuinely grieving.

The only consolation I have is what I've already been able to experience; the joy I've had using the tree. Additionally, while there are some truly great Hunters who've used the tree, I am in all honesty not among them, but one other thing this experience has given me is perhaps a greater sense of quiet competence and satisfaction than I've had from virtually anything else, whether online or off.

I still have Brad, my old boar, stabled; I nearly got rid of him just the other day, actually, because I needed an extra stable slot for a ravager, but couldn't bring myself to do it.

I think if I can find out the date when WoTLK will be released, the night before, I'm going to take him with me out to Desolace. We'll do some farming and centaur hunting, and then after that I'll go to the Charred Vale, my favourite place in this game, and that which most closely resembles Survival's background image as well, coincidentally enough. I'll light a fire, the boar at my side, and sit, and look up at the stars. I think I'd like that.

Mater genuit, Survival...
Mater reciept.

Zul Aman baptism by fire

So, earlier tonight, the offline friend I've been playing with comes over as usual. He says to me, "There won't be anything up for you tonight, because Zul Aman is being run by the core team of the guild," and so I'm thinking fine, and decide to go do some fire farming in SMV. I'm trying to amass 2-300 hundred gold if I can, simply in order to pay for various fairly basic things, in terms of consumables and my armor having to be repaired from zero.

Anywayz, I'm doing this, and suddenly get a whisper from one of the officers in the guild, telling me they're doing Zul'jin and would I like to go in? So I get a summon and go in.

Apparently they've downed Zul'jin before, but don't quite have it on what they consider farm status; they feel that way with SSC as well I think. I admit; we wiped twice, and my own damage output in this scenario was terrible, mainly because I was still the Marks spec I use for PvP, (AV weekend the night before) and had no mana pots, having spent close to 200g on various other kinds of consumables on the weekend. So I was oom the entire fight, and even when I wasn't oom, Feign Death got resisted almost every single time I cast it.

I apparently got around 550 overall, which was just above a DPS warrior in the group. I got almost exactly the same in a Black Morass run straight after that because I was on add duty, with 807 on the last boss there.

What I don't understand is that I respecced Beast Mastery between the ZA and BM runs, and in that Black Morass run actually apparently got *less* than I had previously with Survival. Although I'm not running a damage meter myself at the moment, (I am of course running a threat meter, however) I was told I got 650 in SSC on Sunday, and a little over 800 in a Heroic SP run earlier that day.

This goes against everything any of the forum trolls have ever said, that there is categorically NO way anyone could ever do more damage with Survival. I'm thinking though; Surv not only is what I'm more geared for, (I still have my Quill with close to 100 ag on it, and the crafted sockets) but it's what I have more experience with as well, and I'm wondering if that then explains the difference.

Either way, it's a mystery, and one I need to get figured out ASAP. There have been too many wipes in runs I've been in so far with this guild, and I need to figure out what I can do to reduce at least any contribution I might be making to causing them. One person quit the guild after the second Zul'jin wipe, and I know the forum trolls would probably gleefully try and tell me that it was almost certainly because of me being invited and then wiping the group.

I'm going to sign up for Kara on Friday, which is more my level, and try and get my new boots from EoTS sometime this week as well. I've also been looking into the best pet; a Raptor seems to be, because it has the same damage as a Ravager according to petopia, but slightly more health. I'm also planning on possibly doing some training sessions in Ramps after I've installed a DPS meter. SSC showed me I badly need more practice kiting, among other things.

I'm also open to whatever spec I need to use to improve my damage output now as well. Whether it be BM, Marks, or Surv. My motto at the moment is, whatever it takes.