Letters
“Dear BRK, I looked up your profile on the World of Warcraft armory and noticed you changed your build around a little bit from what you have posted to follow on your blog. Like some of the BM talents on your blog that you added points into, no longer have any points into them and other talents that weren’t mentioned in the blog have points. Is there any variation between the two builds? TsuyoiSyao”
We fiddle with our talents all the time for PvP. We like trying little variations and nuances and seeing the results. For Alterac Valley, we’ve become a believer in Spirit Bond. For arenas, we still have a little faith in Improved Concussive Shot.
But for PvE, we don’t mess with the BRK Uber DPS Build:
“Dear BRK, I recently looked onto your blog and noticed that on the screenshot of Fathom-Lord being downed, you had a wind serpent pet. I currently have a wind serpent pet myself, because of personal taste (and the fact that cats are almost everywhere on my server).
“Now, I’ve heard from a few friends that have gotten as far as The Eye and SSC that, after a certain point has been reached, the wind serpent will out-DPS the rest of the DPS pets out there. I don’t know if there’s any proof to that, as I still see BT and Hyjal-geared hunters with cats still, but I would at least like to hear your thoughts on it. Erelid”
We like to take our wind serpent, DrMooPhD, to Serpentshrine Cavern for Leo the Blind because the Inner Demons are super-supseptible to nature damage. Lightning Breath is nature damage and we feel like we kill our Inner Demons faster with a wind serpent than a cat.
But Hydross is immune to Nature damage 50% of the time and our wind serpent is hampered against him. So when our guild was running Hydross and Lurker only, we’d take Hobbes. The next raid, we’d bring DrMooPhD for Leo. But now that our guild takes out all three bosses in the same night, we’re bringing Hobbes for the entire run.
Can a wind serpent out-DPS a cat? Depending on the fight, the hunter’s talent spec, and the number of crits the hunter can produce per minute, yes it can. But this is not a mathematical formula like cats have a higher base-DPS than bears. In order for a wind serpent to do more damage than a cat or ravager, the hunter has to perform.
“Forgive me BRK, for I have sinned. Last week my arena team - two BM hunters and a holy pally - were getting our ten games in for the week and came across a BM hunter, lock, priest combo. While we were waiting for the match to start we were discussing strategies on who to focus fire first. As soon as the gates opened and I saw the hunter, I felt an overwhelming urge to kill the hunter’s pet, then kill him.
“The dark side got the best of me and I commenced to unload a massive quantity of sustained ranged DPS on the poor unsuspecting kitty. Driven by a blood craze, I immediately turned to the hunter with an evil grin and took him out of the picture. As soon as it and my adrenaline rush was over, the other hunter asked me over vent what the hell got into me. Then I told him about you (BRK) noting that the most demoralizing thing anyone can do to a hunter in a PvP setting was to kill their pet. I knew as soon as the match was over I would be writing this email. Please forgive me, BRK.”
We believe that a holy pally will be immune to the push-back effects a hunter’s pet can have on him, if the pally is properly spec’d. Your pally probably could’ve sustained healing through the pet’s attack. But if that warlock was spec’d for soul-link, you made a wise tactical decision. And nothing pisses a BM hunter off more than killing his pet. Good work; you’re forgiven.
“Dear BRK, I’m would assume that a cat pet was chosen for at least one reason because of the damage they can do. I have noticed in a few of your videos that Hobbes has what looks like dash, I would guess rank 3, Growl, and what might be claw. My question, since cats can learn both bite and claw, are you not using both, and if not why if you are beast spec and would have access to extra focus regeneration? Todd”
We dislike Bite and Claw together because of the WoWWebStats reports we’ve seen running with them. After a 25-man instance with both Bite and Claw, we’ll see the WWS report look like this:
Bite and Claw
Claw 20,000 damage
Bite 4000 damage
But with just Claw, we’ll see:
Claw Only
Claw 27,000 damage
(These numbers are not based upon any specific instance, but an amalgam of our analysis.)
What our testing has shown is that Bite interrupts the Focus-dumping of Claw. We we are raid-buffed, we’re usually over 30% crit. We have both Bestial Discipline and Go For The Throat. We generate a ton of Focus, but Bite always seems to lower our pet’s DPS. And Bite costs an extra 29 pet talent points that we can use for resistances.
If you’ve got Claw or Gore, don’t sweat Bite. So sayeth BRK, so let it be done.
“Dear BRK, I’ve just rolled my third hunter and this time around I thought I’d take your suggestion and pick up two gathering professions. I’ve got my eye on skinning and mining. Skinning seems easy enough, but I’m not sure how best to handle the fact that mining and tracking both compete for the mini map. Do you have any suggestions? Will.”
Castsequence macro time.
/castsequence Find Minerals, Track Beasts
Slap this on an easily accessible action bar spot. Slam it when you want to do a quick mineral-check, hit it again to return to tracking beasts.
“Dear BRK, I’ve read your posting on hit vs damage. Is there a similar article on range attack power vs dps? I’m terrible at theorycraft and what to learn more about how RAP and DPS are related. Linghu”
DPS is a abbreviation for Damage Per Second. This is a measurement of how much damage one inflicts in a given amount of time.
If one does 900 damage, then one does 900 damage. Yes, nothing tricky, just follow along.
If one does 900 damage in one minute, then one does 900 damage per minute, or 900 damage per 60 seconds. If we divide both numbers by 60, them we can say that one does 900/60 damage per 60/60 seconds, or 15 damage per 1 second. More simply written, that’s 15 DPS.
How does one do damage? By hitting a target. The harder one hits the target, the more damage one does. Ranged Attack Power is a measurement of how hard one will hit the target. The harder one hits the target, the higher one’s DPS will be.
And that is how RAP affects DPS. Are there other variables that affect how hard and how frequently one hits the target, and thus affects one’s DPS? You bet. But that wasn’t the question, we’re tired, and need to end this post.
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“”For Alterac Valley, we’ve become a believer in Spirit Bond.”"
Blasphemy
BRK, I must say that I do love it when you run “Letters” posts. They are a splendiferous blend of new schtuff and archived info goodness. They become littler reminders that the BRK method is tried and true and I’m too much of a knucklehead to start experimenting on my own!
I like them even more than the USAF anecdotes! (But just barely…)
One thing I’ve been trying to find and not seeing in your blog… what are Hobbes and DrMoo trained with, as far as the passive pet abilities go? I’m coming to realize that at 70 I won’t be able to train either of my current pets with full ranks of both natural armor and great stamina. Where do you stop? Which do you max and let the others take a back seat?
– Shirik of Thorium Brotherhood
Shirik..
Check out this post:
http://www.bigredkitty.net/2007/09/18/thats-no-lock-thats-an-outlet/
I’ll try not to be critical because you’ve earned my respect,
But you must explain Spirit Bond…
You’re “Uber DPS” built at the moment so I can’t see what you’re dropping to put 2pts there,
but you’ve found that 200HP/10 really makes that big of a difference?
I don’t know.. just seems that points would be better spent in Handler, Frenzy, Discipline, ImpMendPet, Swiftness etcetcetc
Wait… That guy said they were debating who to focus fire on before the arena match started… What addon tells you that. I have Proximo -at BRK’s suggestion- but it doesn’t tell you who they are until you mouse over them.
Boiled down: Is there an addon that tells you who your against and is it going to get me banned?
Banneker, Ulz, and Elsee
Thanks for the macro for switching between “find minerals” and “track beasts”. I’ve been running with it today and it works great.
For the Pie:
I’m looking, even at the comments section, but I’m not seeing an answer to my questions in your link. Could you clarify what I should be seeing there?
Regarding the Claw vs Claw+Bite:
BRK, did you match up the melee hits? I mean if the Claw+Bite report has Hobbes doing fewer melee hits, chances are he has been in combat less.
Besides Bite should never mess up Claw. Once every 10.5 seconds a Claw should be substituted with a Bite, and we all know Bite hits a lot harder. Further Bite is a measely 10 focus more expensive, which should have no impaact on the focus situtuation you are running with right now.
I can understand not taking Bite because of the 29 points though. That is my personal reason for not taking it.
mages of the world, hear me: if a hunter sends his pet at you in such a way that you can kill it without exposing yourself to him, DO IT.
sorry brk.
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