Calling all BRK readers, your time is neigh! Saddle up, folks, we’re on a mission.

We have a new hunter blogger, she has no comments on her blog, and she needs some visitors. Yes, this means you.

We need the one and only BRK Olympic Gate-Crashing Party-Patrol to go visit, eat, drink, be merry, and without razing the place to the frickin’ ground, go say Hello to GamerMommy. Slap on your “BRK Rox My Sox” tabbard and get movin’.

But we mustn’t go empty handed. Somebody get some Funyuns or something.

Hey! And be polite, you animals. Wipe your feet and leave a comment - would it hurt ya to say “Hello” on her latest post?

I had a quick question about talent points. I think I’m gonna go beast master as i mostly pve solo\small group. I have 3 points in in the “Hawk eye” talent and 5 in “Endurance training”. I having a difficult time mapping out where to put the next few points (have a few ready to be assigned). Can you give any advice on a build that includes the “Hawk Eye” talent?

BRK has previously delivered unto his faithful readers a post on how to spend your first 40 talent points. Read and enjoy.

As for the other part of Glitterbug’s question, the low-down on Beastmaster is that the key to its build is the 20 points BRK recommends you put in Marksman. Yes, that’s right, Marksman.
This is the build on the Marksman side that BRK recommends for both Beastmasters and Survivalists. Yes, you can go Efficiency instead of Improved Hunter’s Mark if you like, and for PvP players, Improved Concussive Shot is much more useful than IHM. But we love Rapid Fire, Go For the Throat, and Mortal Shots… especially Mortal Shots. We haven’t found a good reason not to get 5/5 points here; it’s just too tasty.

What does this mean for Hawk Eye? It means we must forgo it. Yes, Glitterbug, to answer your question, BRK does not recommend any Beastmaster talent build that includes Hawk Eye.

“OMG BRK! I can’t live without Hawk Eye!”

Folks, BRK has been there. When we were 0/21/30 Survivalist spec’d, we could not believe in an existence without Scattershot and Hawk Eye. But it does exist, my brethren; life from 40 yards in is fine. The sadness one receives for the loss in range is easily surpassed by the joy one receives from the extra damage Mortal Shots delivers.

Damage = Joy. So sayeth BRK, so let it be done.

BRK left his guild last night. As one of the founding members of the guild, and responsible for recruiting a great deal of people - including some of my readers - this was not a decision made lightly.

But when the guild drama invades our home life, when we receive guild-related calls at 10pm, when we feel guilty for missing an instance because we were spending quality time with our family… we’re obviously too deeply involved.

When Mrs BRK is made aware of our decision to leave our guild, and she says, “Thank goodness,” we know we’re making the right move.

We are very fond of saying the WoW is a game, but the people who play it are not. If we hurt anybody or made anybody angry, we are very very sorry.

“Can you explain what “hit rating” is and how it factors into a player’s stats? …If I have the choice between an item that is +agility or +hit rating, which should I choose? … If my hit rating is zero does it mean I’m just a waste of good ammo?

“P.S. I took your advice and respec’d from MM to BM even though I was very skeptical. Boy what a pleasant surprise, you were “bang” on. Thanks.”

Beastmaster Converts! BRK giggles like a little girl with each email we receive announcing a new arrival to the club. WooT! But to answer our friend Kellibug’s question, let’s start by reviewing a little WoW history.

With the deployment of WoW 2.0, Blizz introduced the Combat Rating System. Previously percentage-based ratings were converted to a sliding-scale that is based upon your character’s level. Hit Rating is one of these items in the CRS.

Your Hit Rating is just an additional percentage chance to hit a target; please notice the word “additional”. At level 70, in order to increase your change to hit by 1%, you need your +Hit to be 15.77. Here’s a quick chart, courtesy the nice folks at Thottbot:
Looking at this chart, if you are a level 35 hunter, you need 5.19 to your hit rating to increase your chance to hit by 1%. What this also means that as you advance in level, if you don’t improve your gear, your Hit Rating effectiveness will go down, even as the actual number stays the same.

BRK does not advocate sacrificing agility for hit rating. When you start adding gems and enchants, consider anything with +hit as a bonus. Remember that you need almost +16 to your Hit Rating at level 70 to increase your change to hit by 1%.

If your Hit Rating is zero, you just don’t have any additional percentage to hit; your other stats are not affected, and you are not a waste of good ammo.

We do leave that category available to melee hunters, however.

We just had the carpets cleaned, when the first visitors from WoW Insider smashed down the door with what we think was a replica of Gron from The Lord of the Rings. BRK has never seen a Party arrive en masse like that before, nor does he ever want to again.

Taurens hefting gnomes upside-down so they could leave tiny footprints on the ceilings, Blood Elves and Night Elves playing Truth or Dare in the BRK jazuzzi, and who knew The Forsaken knew so many drinking songs; the dwarves, while definitely succeeding on the volume-scale, simply watched in amazement as some undead priest belted out 103 verses of “My Stomach May Have Holes, But I Can Still Outdrink You”.

Was she cute? Well, I guess that’s really a matter of opinion, neither here nor there. But yes we got her number.

Anyway.

So how big was the Party that slammed into the BRK Primary Residence for Tax Purposes? Take a look:To say we’re out of beer is an understatement concerning the philosophy of the abstract nature of Zero. You guys are total animals.

“BRK!!!”

AAH! What? what! Hello? Who’s screaming at us?

“Have a 24 level hunter “Bazooka” with ravager pet “Joe” and my question is, where in the h3ll does one train rank 5 and 6 gore at? … That aside, in your opinion, is gore an equal skill to claw? … Great site! I it were not for you I would still be running around with a spider thinking I was doing well for myself.

Bazooka on Korialstraz
US Navy

Alright, just a sec, the ole ear drums need some time to recover.

…

Thank you. So the Lieutenant has a good question about Gore, unfortunately he’s not gonna like the answer: there are no known sources to train Gore ranks 5 and 6. None, nada, nope. Sorry, thank you for playing.

As for Gore vs. Claw, let’s take a quick look at em.

Gore Rank 9 - Gores the enemy, causing 37 to 61 damage. This attack has a 50% change to inflict double damage, costs 25 Focus, instant cast.

Claw Rank 9 - Claw the enemy, causing 54-76 damage, costs 25 Focus, instant cast.

Since they use the same Focus mechanics, we can easily exclude that aspect of our calculations. /crinkle /crumple /toss

Now we just want to see what the Gore-double-damage looks like over time.

A Claw attack will inflict, on average, 65 damage. A Gore attack will inflict, on average, either 49 damage or 98 damage. Since the proc rate for Gore is 50%, we’ll just average those two numbers and say that a Gore attack will inflict, on average, 73.5 damage.

Gore = 73.5 damage
Claw = 65 damage

Over time, Gore will do more damage than Claw, won’t it, Sir. Heck, the entire purpose of getting a Ravager is to get Gore. But, as we previously covered, a Ravager comes with the cost of extremely low health. Boars can also use Gore, but their white damage DPS is extremely low; a Boar with Gore will not out-dps a Cat with Claw.

Is Gore equal to Claw? BRK says it certainly is the bomb-diggety dps-wise. Would we turn in Hobbes for a Ravager? Never; we detest the super-low health they bring to the party.

OK Lt? Can we go ashore now?

The BRK Fortress of Solitude and Pakistani Curry has been delivered a missive of great mystical importance. A lost hunter has come in from the wild, confused and on the wrong Path.

“Just got my pet - Rip-Blade Ravager, named DeathRoach - to level 70. I was a little disappointed when I went to retrain him. In order to get the 185 cost Greater Stamina (the level escapes me) and 125 Natural Armor, I had to take cuts and get lower ranks of Gore and Dash (20 points each). I’ve not had a chance to really test this build out and I was wondering if you thought it would be smarter to drop the Greater Stamina and/or Natural Armor just a tad to get the higher Gore and Dash. FYI, my build is 46/12/3.”

A truly needy soul hath bequeathed us this question, but to answer simply it is not appropriate. We must first delve into the ether of the hunter Chi and determine… what are we?

We are a Beastmaster, are we not. 46/12/3 means we love our Ravager, don’t we. We have a dps pet and one of the best PvP pets in the game. Gore and Dash are tremendous; BRK drools over this combination, and must remember to control his lust; uncontrolled emotion is the downfall of many a hunter.

We know what we are: a killing machine, designed to eliminate our enemy before they dismiss us. Our Ravager should therefore be built for the rapid destruction of our target. So sayeth BRK, so let it be done.

So as we channel the spirit of Furious Destruction, we shalt sacrifice neither Gore nor Dash. They shalt be trained forthwith, to the maximum of their capacity. Verily, it shall be done.

Since we desire our Ravager to kill, not to tank, BRK prays you will not invest a single point to increases his armor. Our Ravager has been gifted by Elune with a bonus to armor already, and armor does not kill.

The novice would then say that Greater Stamina is the Path to enlightenment. You would be correct, you would indeed be walking the Path, but there is an implement, a tool, another pet talent that would aid us on our Path. This skill, very rarely trained, is one of the favorites of BRK for our low-health Ravager. Well, if not Greater Stamina, then what shall we train?

If we say Cower, you would be most likely be dumbstruck, yet Cower is thy answer. Cower… we must be unafraid to search within ourselves and see why this answer is truly the Path.

Our Ravager has very low health; he shalt not survive any prolonged confrontation with any overpowering enemy. Damage mitigation, he has. Health to survive anything other than the last strike from a dying foe, compared to almost all other pets, he severely lacks. BRK asks you to consider Cower to reduce his aggro so that he may pump out massive quantities of damage unfettered by the attacks of his prey.

“But I don’t want Cower when I’m soloing! That’s plain silly!”

Indeed it is, and if all your travels will keep you alone and soloing, then you can be forgiven for abstaining from Cower. But if you will spend any time with a Tank, then you will make a tremendous friend when he speaketh to you,

“HEY, Beastbuster Hunter! Did ya turn Growl off?”

“Verily, my Tank, Growl be inactive. And furthermore, Cower is auto-spamming to enable your Rage to flow unfettered and in abundance.”

“Well d@mn. Ok then.”

My dear Ravager owners, BRK begs you to consider the stats of your pet. Properly trained, your Ravager is the most potent DPS pet available. Gore, Dash, Greater Stamina, and Cower shall set you on the Path to enlightenment…

and death to your enemies. Verily.

Our new weekly column has been given a placeholder at WoW Insider:

Big Red Kitty on WoW Insider

Every Wednesday, upon pain of torture, we will be delivering a spiffy column on hunters. Can we get an Amen?!

The first column is undergoing final editing, being passed around the office, laughed at, mocked, ridiculed, and covered in Elmer’s Glue and red glitter forming the words, “Goober”.

But it should be published soon.

If you’ve played on the Test Realm lately, trying out the 2.1 juicy goodness, you may have seen the cute little bug where if you clicked on your pet’s character pane, WoW bombed. Every time.

The new patch will return some of the former glory to the Survival Tree, and BRK is planning on trying it out. Since we are focused on PvE Instances, the better traps, Wyvern Sting, and Expose Weakness look tasty. But what else is in that tree?

Lightning Reflexes. Oh, when BRK was a Molten Core and AQ-running hunter, he loved LR. He was a 0/21/30 Survivalist critting machine, and agility was king, and the trees were in bloom, and the girls smelled so yummy…

Sigh…

So what does agility do for us? It increased our Ranged Attack Power, of course, but it also increases our Crit, Armor, and Dodge. Agility is tremendously useful to us, especially if you are a Beastmaster; remember that when we raise our Armor, we increase our pet’s Armor as well.

It takes 2x more agility to make the RAP of a pre-BC hunter due to the reduction of the 1:2 ratio of agility to attack power to one-to-one, so RAP enchants and gear has been snapped up by hunters like crazy. There are some spiffy enchants that increase our RAP, and BRK has invested in them, natch. However, RAP isn’t the end-all-be-all. Damage comes in many forms, not just Auto Shot.

When the 2.1. patch is released, based upon the success we’ve had in the test forum, BRK is gonna try something new and go more toward agility for crit, with better traps, crowd control, and a different party buff… at the expense of… of Big Red Kitty.

“OMG! NO!”

We hear ya folks, loud and concerned.

“OMG! Does this mean that Survival is the new max-DPS build?”

Um, no it doesn’t. Frankly, due to the new pet spells, we believe Beastmaster will become even more dominate in the DPS war.

But we are going to trade a lot of pet DPS for instance utility and multiple-mob crowd control, and hope our DPS loss can be offset by crits. The more crits, the more DPS we retain, so agility and +crit gear is what we’re hoarding. As you can see from our signature, our agility has hit 555. With Lightning Reflexes, that’ll morph into an agility of 638. Is the 700 agility mark possible for someone not running Karazhan? It is our intention to find out.

The gear we’ve acquired to achieve this result? Well, we finally broke down and completed some 5-man group quests in Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm, and got some pants in a lower-level instance that we modifed to make them a little better than the blue Scales of the Beast that we had previously:

The specific talent spec we’re going to try first is not set in stone. Do we want frequent crits, or big and frequent crits? Of course, the ole BRK Ego would love big and frequent, but will our Feral Druid tank appreciate them? This, and more, still requires research and thought.

Are we going to stay survivalist? Probably not; we love Beastmaster and will return Big Red Kitty to his proper place of honor as soon as we find out just how much dps we lose. Our ego is much to big to fall down the DamageMeter too far.