Can We Get a Hallelujah!
“Dear BRK, I’m a pretty avid reader of your blog, and i have learned quite a lot from your posts. However, until just recently, I was a MM spec hunter with just enough SV to get improved traps. This worked out great for what my guild was running, the normal 5 man instances and the occasional Heroic mode.
“However, I was a hardcore MM enthusiast, and I thought I knew it all. I had over 2200 attack power and 21% crit chance, with a about a 5% chance to hit- I though of myself as one of the finest hunters around. Then I get an invite to pug prince in Kara. I never cared much for raids, but I wasn’t about to let this chance go by, so I went.
“I was one of three hunters, both of them BM spec. I was intrigued. I knew that BM was better top end sustained DPS for raids, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much more top end they were. I was bottom of the hunter dps, which really shocked me, being used to the top dps for my guild (non-raiding guild, good people).
“I switched to BM that night, and ran steam vaults with my guild. I was top dps, but that was normal, and I hadn’t figured out all of the BM play style yet.
“Headless Horseman comes up the next day, and I just go nuts with bestial wrath and rapid fire - my DPS was 834.9 for the headless horseman fight. My jaw hit the ground when I saw those numbers, i hit about 640 dps as MM, and I had no idea that the damage jump was that incredible.
“Anyway, thanks for showing me around the BM tree and how to use it right. Dancinglion.”
Hallelujah, brothuhs and sistahs! We’re talkin’ ’bout DPSSSSS-en and puttin’ the smackethththth down! Spec-thumpin’, voice-a-raaaaaasin’ and praaaaaaisen’ the almighty Powerrrrr that is Beastmassssstah!
Why oh why have you not convurted, yee Mawksmen and Suhvivulists?! Praise be to the Powah, come join us in our shangri la! For there is always room here for Hunters… who desire to fullfill their Destructive Potennnnntial.
Hallelujah!
Shifttusk on 24 Oct 2007 at 2:35 pm #
Dear Dancinglion,
BM can provide a dps jump over marksman however the difference should not be much more than 50-60 dps in epic gear (which is good amount dont get me wrong). To up your dps as marksman (and BM since cast sequence macros will not work in 2.3 they dont on the ptr) is to download quartz castbar with autoattack built in. It will really help with your shot timing. As marks to see good dps you need to rotate with multiple specials per autoshot:
Auto Steady Multi Auto Steady Arcane Auto Steady Sting Auto Steady Auto Steady Arcane
and so on.
You need to make up for the lack of haste by firing off more of your mana consuming specials that benefit from your increased RAP.
TJ on 24 Oct 2007 at 2:45 pm #
Oh well that just cracks it.
Dick on 24 Oct 2007 at 2:51 pm #
lol, BRK you’re a retard
James on 24 Oct 2007 at 2:54 pm #
Ha - I just watched Happy Feet last night!
Coincidence?
Rhust on 24 Oct 2007 at 3:13 pm #
21% crit could use a bump to start with… esp BM spec… crits = 230% damage + constant kill commands(which I’ve seen hit for 1300 points when wrath is on) yea, you have to be careful and not pull aggro, but jeebus…
I do understand why though… when I was MM spec if my crit% got too high I was pulling aggro in groups and forget soloing…
Fiordhraoi on 24 Oct 2007 at 3:15 pm #
@Shift
Castsequence macros will work in 2.3, there was just a part of the scripting/macro code that hadn’t been put in yet on the PTR.
Reference
Karl on 24 Oct 2007 at 3:15 pm #
Hallelujah! Preach it Brotah!!
Anonymous on 24 Oct 2007 at 4:00 pm #
I’m BM, totally, and have been since level 30, long before I stumbled upon the ray of light that is BRK. BUT, there is a place for both MM and SV hunters in our make believe world.
Ran HHM with an SV hunter and a dps warrior. I already know, going into the fight, I’m gonna top the charts. I let the warrior (for his ego) think I am worried about being able to dps the guy down. Actually, my only worry is keeping my pet alive because our healer was just “okay”.
We had to do it twice because the priest was ganked by the punkin adds. BOTH times, the hunters were ahead of the warrior. The pally doing the tanking knows me and knows I will be ahead of him. The warrior was irritated and accused me of somehow messing with the damage meter results. Trust me. I’m not that smart.
I think the other hunter would benefit greatly from BM, but it’s her char and I’m not going to tell her how to spec. If she wants information, I’ll answer her questions.
Actually, I’ll take an MM or SV hunter who knows how those specs work over any other class who plays just because they like to beat up on stuff. The best PuG I was ever in had me and an MM hunter. He was on one side. I was on the other and we dismantled the mobs.
And besides, I don’t want this blog to get like Yogi Beara said, “No one goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
Shifttusk on 24 Oct 2007 at 4:15 pm #
Fio,
Are you sure I’m aware they said it will still work for all casts. I may have misread the PTR forum post but it sounded like they did not intend /castsequence to work with autoshot/autoattacks.
Me for one I don’t mind much, I used /castsequence when I was nearning a fight but did my dps the old fashoned way when comfortable. I have a feeling alot of raiding guilds are going to see their less skilled hunters dropin dps alot.
I’ll double check the blue post when I get home today…. freaking websense.
Anonymous on 24 Oct 2007 at 4:19 pm #
i just rerolled shammy. healers and tanks ftw.
Thomas on 24 Oct 2007 at 4:53 pm #
As much as I agree that going BM is the best show and solo play around, you really should have an MM and SV hunter with any raid group for TrueShot Aura and Expose Weakness.
Good Yogi Beara quote. Besides, if everyone goes BM, it’ll be nerfed all that sooner.
Toolio on 24 Oct 2007 at 4:56 pm #
Now now now… If we all respecced to BM, which spec would your jokes lean on?
My Word Verification for this post was “utudqek” which as we all know stands for Uniformed Troll Ultimatum for Defias Quartermaster’s Ethereal Kek.
Fiordhraoi on 24 Oct 2007 at 5:15 pm #
@Shift
I’m pretty sure. And ignore that link I posted above, I grabbed the link out of the wrong window. I’ll have to go back on bluetracker when I get a chance and find the right one.
Freejack on 24 Oct 2007 at 6:39 pm #
Yogi Berra was a New York Yankee baseball player known for his Yogi-isms such as “I never said half the things I really said.”
Yogi Bear was a cartoon bear that like to steal picnic baskets.
Hawk on 24 Oct 2007 at 6:44 pm #
I was totally hearing BRK’s voice in his reply. You should record that and post it.
Pike on 24 Oct 2007 at 9:06 pm #
I have a secret… I love all the hunter specs like they were my kids or something… I could never choose just one…
(and I wonder why I’m always broke, hmm, maybe I should just be banned from the hunter trainers.)
Dancinglion on 24 Oct 2007 at 9:37 pm #
As much as I am impressed with the top end DPS that BM puts out there, the spec seems unwieldy and random, not a refined precision tool that the MM tree offered. Scattershot, Silencing Shot, and Trueshot Aura all stacked together with very nice results. In essence, I switched a scalpel for a club. I can’t pull casters into my extra long ice traps, or stop a priest from healing anymore. I give my props to BM hunters, you guys rule the dps. And now I can see it for my self. In a raid enviroment, it is king for doing top end, sustained dps. However, for doing 5 man and 5 man heroics, I’d rather my old MM/SV build for precision control.
MMHunter on 25 Oct 2007 at 12:26 pm #
I just don’t get it. I’ve played both BM & MM specs for about 6 months each at lv 70, doing 5 mans, heroics, Kara, etc…and I easily top the charts with both specs (against equally blue/epic’d out mages, locks, rogues, and yes, even BM hunters). I don’t feel like I have the perfect shot rotation either, so I’m not so sure it’s my skill that wins out.
I do *more* damage as MM not having to worry about my pet so much, as well as the easier and longer lasting traps from 20 SV points which let me kill more and worry less about kiting & trapping.
I know this is the home of the BM, and I have learned a lot from you…but any MM hunter worth his salt can out DPS a BM when the day is done. All you have to do is get that AP & crit up (especially with BRK telling all the BMs to stack agility *yuck* who needs armor and dodge?) and you will rock the house. If you were just looking at a melee friendly boss fight, a BM may out DPS you…but during an entire instance, with better SV traps and surefooted hit rating, you should do very well.
Ashlar on 25 Oct 2007 at 1:17 pm #
Well, I’m BM spec - and my fave group is to run with a tank, healer and 2 other hunters - one is MM and the other SV spec - we all get the beefit of each others buffs and tend to burn stuff to the ground at a ridiculous rate.
Upshot is that I’m not so bothered about whether or not I personally top the damage meters, as long as what ever we set our sites on dies, and dies quick…… and trust me - it does…
Tirth on 25 Oct 2007 at 3:06 pm #
I agree with what MMHunter said. A well gear’d MM hunter can easily out DPS a BM in the long run and with far less distractions. There are still to many healers that are not going to heal your pet and the fact that if the BM hunters pet goes down he looses every bit of 25% of his damage then he has to step back and wait a few seconds to pull him back, pop a snack in, hit mend, and wait to through it back out,you can fairly say that MM is still your best bet for long duration fights. BM may be good for short times or if they have done a lil dirty deed for a priest just to have the extra heal every now and then but all and all a well geared MM will out DPS a well geared BM if they BOTH know what they are doing. My advise is to learn your cool downs work the rotations and stop depending on your pet for everything, they dont always stick around.
mmhunter on 25 Oct 2007 at 3:34 pm #
I was thinking about why I top DPS, even against BMs…is it that maybe other hunters are stingy on drinks and only shoot with viper on?
I out DPS all BMs so far, but I also leave hawk on and drink between fights with the spellcasters. A BM hunter relying on steady-auto with viper should never out DPS an MM using arcane and multi.
Yes we blow through mana at an unbearable rate, but that is what drinks are for. During a boss fight, chug a fel mana pot and you will not go OOM.
I light it up will all my extra mana draining shots whenever I can. As long as you learn to turn and use multi without breaking CC (as BRK showed in a recent video) you will be fine.
tirth on 25 Oct 2007 at 3:54 pm #
LOL! I am with you there..Yes we do drink mana like an alcoholic in at an open bar. I demand both of our shadow priest to be in my group that vamp. thing they have keeps me all good most of the time through fights maybe a pot or two if the fight goes longer than usual but its thump thump thump watch threat thum thump thump FD the turn the it up all the way for a bit untill I am back at the top of the meters..lol I have learned how to manage my mana alot more and yes after every fight I am right between the healers and the casters sucking down that blue water. Its the price we pay for doing our job right. I run with TSA and Hawk on at all cost in the larger battles and I also keep about 40 waters and 10 mana pots for those extra fun moments….lol
LUCAS on 25 Oct 2007 at 10:36 pm #
I was MM forever, switched to BM a few months ago to see what the hype was, switched back to MM about a month and a half ago, and recently switched back to BM.
The dps increase/decrease is vague. I can do just about the same dps with either spec, and I am the top dps in my guild.
Right now (Gruul on farm, doing Mag and TK) I prefer BM because: mana efficiency is better, controlling aggro is much easier, and one macro mashing is cake.
But, I am a MM deep down. I love the increased range, the retarded ap, the extra buffs through Int, and the zomg big numbers.
I have a Dragonspine Trophy and once I stack enough haste gear (hopefully a bunch from Zul Aman) I will go back to MM and steamroll as if I had serpents swiftness.