I levelled to 60 as MM then grinded 60-70 as BM. Great for grinding! I did enjoy the BM spec but two things made me return to good old MM.

I’m 0/41/20. Those points in Surefooted and Trap Mastery were what did it.

I don’t raid much - just about to start 25 man content. In those solo, 5 man and 10 man situations, I find my traps being used loads. I HATE it when they get resisted - just distracts me and my party from the job in hand. My guild and I like the reliability my traps bring.

Also, the surefooted talent allows me to stack AP and other gear rather than havign to stack +Hit to get to the 142 (or whatever it is) cap. Instead - I only have to stack 96 (and less with non-bosses).

Actually, there are more reasons… When the trap does get resisted, Scatter Shot is invaluable for extra seconds to get rid of that trap CD. Silence shot is great for helping to trap casters if Line of Sight is not available.

So, I may not bring the best raid buff but I do bring lots of utility to our raids, whilst still bringing a good portion of DPS.

Ok, “those points are SV” I hear you cry! Yes, they are - but make a good DPS spec if combined with MM. I haven’t in my mind found a BM spec yet that combines well with 20 points in SV without gimping my own DPS too much. It’s just my style but I prefer to be doing a good amount of DPS without wholly relying on my pet. The MM points in 41/20/0 give you that but if they are transferred to SV then… I dunno. Haven’t tried it (perhaps I should). Has anyone else got a good BM build which combines BM and SV?

Just my two cents.

Mervetw, Snuffles (Plagued Swine) & Saberclaw (Winterspring Frostsaber)

I truly think that each hunter talent tree benefits a raid. Great info here. Lot of good information. Just wanted to put my Two cents in. Love BRK!

Nana, Huntress of Whisperwind.

What I meant was that the +125AP isn’t gonna give an attack any bonus damage if the attack is assisted by some proc or something that gives it a damage boost. A scalable buff is one that gives bonus damage for whatever qualifying damage comes in. Example some weapon proc that gives +dam of some amount will only give that plus amount of damage, not an additional scalable percent on the proc. (ex: 100 damage proc +25% = 125 proc damage on a scalable +25% damage buff) TSA does not affect the amount of the proc’s damage at all, and is thereby not considered to be a scaled buff. It only provides bonus damage on the attacks based on whatever 125AP adds.

So I guess in a way, TSA is dependent on people having haste gear on to get in more attacks. But the statement of TSA not being gear dependent comes more from the fact that a hunter running with TSA could show up naked and have the bonus to the party from TSA be the exact same as it would be if he were geared out the yang.

I need to find these reports, but you get a SV hunter high enough on agi, put them in with a feral… DAMN! They can put out some numbers BM only dream of.

Again, totally a gear dependent spec and really only used in the far reaches of endgame. Up until that point, BM really is the way to go if you want to pewpewpew.

I’m actually thinking of making the shift to SV for our guild. I figure I can get myself around 1050-1100 agi fully raid buffed and around 40% crit so our melee would be getting a ~250-275 buffed ap as well as my imp hunters mark for another 110 ap.

If I do see a drop in personal dps, it will be more than made up for by all those rogues, warriors, druids and shammies smacking the boss a whole lot harder.

Probably the only place you will need hunters is SWP (Brutallus) where you need maximum raid synergy to beat enrage timer.

But if you want to boost your overall performance you will get that SV hunter.

Let’s give it a try, shall we?

Take your average 4×1500 DPS raiders and put them with a BM … for the sake of BM goddess I will assume he’s doing 1900 DPS.
3% party buff is 4×1500x0.03=180 DPS, which is his party buff contribution.
In total you have 1900 + 180 = 2080 DPS raid wide contribution.

Now let’s try with SV numbers. A fully buffed SV hunter goes pass 1000 agi … myself I don’t have full T6 gear and I get to 1070 agi raid buffed (without agi totem). Also, the SV hunter, assuming equivalent gear level with the BM, shouldn’t be more than 300 DPS behind, so he will do 1600 DPS.

1000 agi = 250 AP from Expose Weakness. According to EJ forums it’s a safe assumption to give 0.3 DPS per 1 AP for each melee attacker (this includes white& special attacks and it’s averaged, since some classes benefits more than other).
Now let’s look at raid composition for physical attackers: 2 hunters, 2 pets, 2 rogues, 1 retri pala, 1 fury warrior, 1 enhance shaman … I will round it to 8 physical damage dealers.

8×250x0.3 = 600 DPS raid wide buff
1600+600= 2200 DPS raid wide

Please note I’ve been conservative in the calculations for SV, since SV hunters easily surpass 1100 agi raid buffed and I haven’t calculated the bonus damage coming from tanks, not to mention the extra threat tanks can generate.

The only true thing is that, sadly, only 1 SV hunter is really needed in raid … bottom line is, if you don’t have an SV hunter in your guild, ask someone to respec and help him to gear out.