Retro specs, expect the unexpected.

Remember back in the day, when running through your favorite zone with a big black worg was cool? Or how bout that transparent like cat that you ran your short little dwarf legs over to teldrasil to get was the shiz? Or trying to mimic your favorite dwarf hunter from the WoW intro cinimatic with a big white bear?

What happened to these pets that were just so damn cool? Normalization happened. Pet's stopped being specialized for leveling and dpsing (to some extent).

Here's what to expect in WotLK

• Gorriladins. BRK has done a fantastic job explaining the greatness of gorillas.
• Bears, the new personal tank (again?)
• Rhinos - I mean really, who wouldn't?
• Wolves - They actually do damage again.
• Turtles - For more than just novelty?

If you havn't already, go over to wowhead's LK site and check out all of the new pet family spells.

What's nice about pets for leveling in LK is that each pet does something unique, and is good situationally. Gorrials are going to be GREAT for AOE tanking, Bears for single target, Wolves for those melee heavy 5 mans, heck hyenas are even going to be good.

Start evauating how you like to play. Talent points are going to matter (for both player and pet) based on your pet choice and how you play.

Nerfs to survivial, buffs to BM

GOGO NERFBAT!

Explosive shot is nerfed into the ground. The damage modifer that was previsouly 20% of rap, is now 8%.

What's that mean? Explosive shot = arcane shot. They put out almost the same damage now, except one is a skill you get before level 20, the other is a wasted 51 point talent.

LnL did get some changes though, it now procs 15% off of serpent stings PERIODIC damage, instead of 15% off of original application. More up time for LnL.

As for us BM lovers who felt we got screwed, Seperation anxity was replaced with Kindred Spirts. With 5/5 in KS, your pet gets an additional 20% (ZOMG!) and yours and you pets speed is increased by 10%.

Wait, so pets do MOAR DEEPZ now? awesome.

There have been many QQs over the explosive shot nerf, but BM is getting rebuffed to compensate. I'll glady stay with my devilsaur (+9% dmg with his special up) and KS (overall a 29% pet damage boost).

Let's keep these good changes rolling Blizz.


Also, aimed shot is supposed to get buffed. In some future patch its going to be changed to be an insta cast with the same effects and cooldown, oh and damage modifiers stay the same as well. I'll take that with a side of win please.

pets, pets, pets

It seems like everyone is tripping all over themselves trying to get 50 non combat pets for that achievement.

Where's the love for hunter pets?

Here is a short list of pets that I will add to frequently as new beta builds, info, and testing is released.


Tenacity: Lets focus on the DPS pets.

1. Devilsaurs - This is going to be one of the best DPS pets for wrath and 3.0. Why? http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=55499 is why. This buff adds 3% bonus pet damage for each stack. Yes, stack. It stacks 3 times, meaning +9% pet damage every 30 seconds. Combined with Bestial Wrath and talents, (along with the new kill comand) this pet will be ROCKING the house known as recount.
2. Corehounds - Big, drooling, green, flaming, hounds from hell. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, Lava breath. Lava breath does 86 base damage, but heres the kicker, increases enemy cast time by 50%. Caster mobs? check. Casters in pvp? check. Flaming dog? check plus.

I'll add more later.

PTR frustration

I'm coming out and saying it. BM hunters got hit with the gimp bat pretty bad (in terms of PVP).

Ret pallys and feral/boomkins are pretty much 4 shotting everyone. Rogues actually put up a fight, and warriors just lolspam.

For right now I'll be retired from the PTR until a major update comes out.

What I want:

• Seperation Aneixty - Make this talent useful in pvp please. 20 yards isn't that much, except when you can't kite anything because they all have snare removales.
• Beast Mastery - Exotic pets are cool, but do NOTHING for dps in pvp.
• Give us steady shot as a trainable spell.
• Make Lock and Load proc more off of stings

I really, really, really, really want to continue raiding BM. Pet synergy is what makes this class fun for me. Currently, it's gimped up the butt. The 45-51 point BM talents are pretty crap.

I'm ranting of course, because I havn't actually tested any numbers raiding. But I don't want survival to be blowing the crap out of BM for raiding. If that was the case I'd reroll a mage, warlock, or even rogue.

/endrant

8926 changes

PTRs and Beta realms are both getting this patch, two things worth mentioning.

• Misdirect is now on a 3o sec cooldown (down from 2 mins)

What it means: Misdirect is a free three shot aggro misplacement tool. Currently it's used for opening up damage earlier than other classes, or pulling. It's nice if a healer pulls aggro or a tank goes down and needs to be re-established on the list. With the cooldown change, aggro shouldn't be a problem for hunters AT ALL. Especially survival hunters. If you FD, then 15 secs later MD, you should be 12 shots worth of damage behind the tank at MAX. More aggro dumps = happy hunter deepz.

• Freezing arrow (lvl 80)

What it does: fires a freezing arrow that places a freezing trap on the ground.
What it means: Places a normal freezing trap anywhere within 20 yards of the hunter. Awesome. No more set trap, pull mob, run away, turn, resume dps. Also very handy when chain trapping, or if a trap needs to be placed between another player and the mob.

Good things are a-commin for hunters.

More PTR

...and *gasp* survival.

My true hunter roots go back to Marks. When 1 agi = 2 rap, MM was king.

I fell in love with beast mastery however. My pet was more than just extra hit points, it actually contributed to DPS. The groups buffs were nice (what dps class turns down 3% more damage?).

Ignoring my Pet bias and my want for BM to top meters, survival is pretty damn sweet.

After I respeced (0/10/51) I had a base crit chance of 28% (up from 24 and some change as beast), and 2100 RAP with hawk up. Yummy.

When everything proced (besides my sso trinket for some reason) I had 38% crit chance and 2800 rap. Cherry on top please?

For rotations, I started out on the dummy with explosive. Then proceded to spam steady and rapid fire whenever it was up. Making sure to work in exlposive whenever the cooldown was ready (sadly, shares the cooldown with arcane, with talents however you could therotically hit with both at the same time). Serpent was also pretty easy to work in there, and hunters mark gave me extra rap (now up to 300 base). Overall I had ~ 1200 dps over a 3 min testing period.

Not too shabby for a post - craptastic spec (for the most part anyway).

I had to respec back to BM, 61/10/0, and had my corehound handy. My crit was back down to 24% (28ish with procs), but my sustained dps was up, and mana was also going down slower. I don't need to explain BM here I hope. Anyway, I had ~1200 dps.


Yes, I said it.
1200 as survival
1200 as beast mastery.

Lets look at some different things though
1) Survival has higher base stats, and REALLY nice procs
2) As Survival pet = ~8% of total damage (used a cat, ferocity specced)
3) As BM pet = ~ 24% total damage (corehound)
4) Survival has one more shot to work into rotations
5) BM procs are more controlled, once every 2 mins (less with talents) you get more deepz.
6) Explosive shot hits nearby enemys. Great for boss fights / AOE, not so good on trash pulls with CCed mobs.
7) Pets are basically useless as survival (curious as to how well a bear will work for leveling though)


Final conclusion: Both specs are great. They both do amazing DPS, and they both are insanely fun. BM focuses on the pet, like it should, but provides some nice group buffs and fun abilities. Survival is focused on Hunter buffs with a touch of group ups and is great burst damage.

As for release, I'll be sticking to BM for awhile. I'll switch to survival for some kara runs or heroics, and might level as a survial spec come LK.

So for now, blizzard has accomplished their goal with specs. You can spec how you want, and do equivilant damage. Meaning skill actually matters now. Major thumbs up.

For future hunters - Spec how you want, you're guild will appreciate the sustained DPS either way.

Enjoy.

P:S - My dps was generally low because I wasn't spamming the crap out of buttons, and the lag made CDs and GCDs interfere immensely with testing. Also, the test dummies do not have armor. Testing is skewed.

Wrath to do list

Here's a list of things I want to do before Wrath's release.

• Get my shammy to 70
• Get my shammy epic land, flyer, and epic flyer (lolgoldsink)
• Get my hunter as much badge gear as possible
• Get my rogue (currently 32) to at least 50
• Stockpile herbs for all the inscription band wagoners
• Park my hunter out side of ungoro with a hearth to SMV. Rhinoslolz
• Stock piled gold (my goal is 5-7k for entering northrend)

What's everyone else planning?