Any beast-specced hunters?

S

Smaqaho

Veteran XV
I've been marksmanship specced since level 40-42ish and alot of the talent trees really don't cater well to it. The improved aspect of hawk and hunters mark add a whopping 2dps at level 60 if you go 5/5 on both so they're wasted points. Beast spec I keep thinking would be beneficial to me since at nearly level 54 I primarily solo and grind my way through levels since I'm too high for the lower instances and not quite high enough for BRD and then BRS/Scholo/etc.

My marksmanship spec is something like 14/37/0 once I hit 60 with all of my marks tree talents filled up to spec and I've been adding to beast at each level for awhile now. Here's what I currently run with:

Marksmanship Mastery
Improved Concussive Shot Rank 5
Efficiency Rank 5
Improved Hunter's Mark Rank 5
Lethal Shots Rank 5
Aimed Shot Rank 1
Barrage Rank 2
Improved Serpent Sting Rank 5
Mortal Shots Rank 5
Hawk Eye Rank 3
Trueshot Aura Rank 1
Marksmanship Total: 37

Beast Mastery
Improved Aspect of the Hawk Rank 5
Endurance Training Rank 5
Improved Aspect of the Monkey Rank 3
Bestial Swiftness Rank 1
Beast Mastery Total: 14

Total Points Spent: 51
Level Required: 60
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I'm wanting to respec but would like some feedback from anyone who has tried top-end beast spec builds before I drop the cash for it. Main reason is that I know I've already wasted 10 points between improved AoH and HM, and I'm not sure where else to drop them. I'd also like things such as improved wingclip from survival tree, but in a few levels I'd rarely ever get use out of that tree except in PVP when stuck in melee.

Marksmanship Mastery
Improved Concussive Shot Rank 5 (20% chance to stun enemy for 3 secs on hit)
Efficiency Rank 5 (10% reduction in mana for shots/stings)
Lethal Shots Rank 5 (+5% chance to crit w/ ranged weapons)
Aimed Shot Rank 1 (vge, atm crits for well over 1000 alot of the time)
Barrage Rank 2 (+10% dmg to volley and multi-shot)
Marksmanship Total: 18

Beast Mastery Mastery
Endurance Training Rank 5 (+10% pet hp)
Improved Aspect of the Monkey Rank 3 (+3% to aspect of monkey)
Bestial Discipline Rank 2 (simply to get 10pts and jump into next tier)
Bestial Swiftness Rank 1 (30% faster outdoor pet speed, PvP++)
Unleashed Fury Rank 5 (+10% pet damage output)
Thick Hide Rank 4 (+8% AC pet)
Improved Mend Pet Rank 2 (10% increase to mend pet spell)
Ferocity Rank 5 (+15% to pet crit chance)
Frenzy Rank 5 (pet gets 100% chance to gain 30% attack speed increase for 8 seconds after getting a crit)
Spirit Bond Rank 1 (everytime pet strikes an enemy I get 40 health - at lvl 60)
Beast Mastery Total: 33

Total Points Spent: 51
Level Required: 60
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Reason I think this will be nice is because my pet can take down mobs faster, live longer, chase down players in PVP faster, and crit more often while the big downside for me is weaker ranged crits, slightly weaker serpent sting and no trueshot aura which only adds about 2-3dps - but that's for all party members and not just myself.

Anyone with experience have any thoughts? I don't want to waste the gold in trying if someone else has done so and found it to be worthless, but at the same time I feel as if I've wasted alot of points for little reward and will be respeccing anyways to redistribute those 10 pts regardless.
 
er you completely disregarded the survival tree?

counterstrike is just about the most useful move hunters can take, I am totally disregarding trueshot aura for this amazing ability
 
Quoop said:
er you completely disregarded the survival tree?

counterstrike is just about the most useful move hunters can take, I am totally disregarding trueshot aura for this amazing ability
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I like some of survival tree, don't get me wrong. Increased chance to hit (especially if it applies to dual-wielding) by 5% is huge - since I seem to miss every other swing on my offhand axe. Increased wingclip is big as well because it's my most-used melee move in PVP to try getting distance between an opponent. Counterstrike looks nice, but to use survival tree I'd have to get rid of beast swiftness and other beast talents (marks build) or trim off most of beast tree selections and use a balanced build in order to use it with a respec.
 
I'm 33 and currently 90% Beast Mastery spec'ed. I'll pursue Aimed Shot from the Marksmanship line, but overall I'm pretty happy with my talent distribution.
 
counterattack isn't as good as you might think:

It's basically a raptor strike that imobalizes the enemy. The thing is, that's immobilize, not stun -- and it only works off of parry. You're probably going to have a 10-15% chance to parry every attack, and with those odds, especially on slow hitting enemies, you might as well just use an improved wingclip for the same imobilization.

Counter attack is good if you want to get away, but it'd be better to wingclip rather than sticking around waiting for a parry. If it were a stun it might be worth it, but it's a snare, and really not that great imo.



I've speced for max damage at range, so I've gone with AoTH and ranged weapon specialization. I've avoided hunters mark since you can't ALWAYS target, and instead of improving any of my stings I've just used some points in reduced mana. Here's my build:

Marksmanship Mastery
Improved Concussive Shot Rank 5
Efficiency Rank 3
Lethal Shots Rank 5
Aimed Shot Rank 1
Improved Arcane Shot Rank 1
Barrage Rank 2
Mortal Shots Rank 5
Scatter Shot Rank 1
Hawk Eye Rank 3
Ranged Weapon Specialization Rank 5
Trueshot Aura Rank 1
Marksmanship Total: 32

Survival Mastery
Precision Rank 5
Lightning Reflexes Rank 3
Improved Wing Clip Rank 5
Deterrence Rank 1
Survival Total: 14

Beast Mastery Mastery
Improved Aspect of the Hawk Rank 5
Beast Mastery Total: 5

Lightning reflexes and Improved Arcane Shot and the last I'm working on (only 58 right now). That improved arcane is just a freebie point. Since arcane is tied to aimed though, if you had a nice speed on your gun/bow you may want to invest 5 into that spec. I try to conserve mana and find too many high power attacks makes me pull aggro -- but it'd be pretty damn good for pvp.
 
are you forgetting deterrence? +25% to dodge AND parry for 10 seconds...that means I have at least 33% chance to parry, and I can attack at least 3 times in those 10 seconds...so counterstrike is basically guaranteed to work...and in the 5 seconds I can make enough room to get an aimed shot at my opponent, which more than makes up for anything my pet could ever do with those pts in the talent tree


edit: on another point, I cant believe you would go for barrage before scattershot at all...scattershot is also an essential part to pvp for me, its a guaranteed interrupt to any spell...
 
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marksmenship tree is the best of the 3 if youre playing on a pvp server. one of my friends who plays a 60 hunter used to be heavy specced in the pet tree but respecced in his 50s, his hunter does a lot more dmg now and he can pvps quite well now.

beast is great for solo / pve play, but lacks that luster for other parts of the game.
 
I play on a PVP and was BM specced all the way up to 60, 11 points in marks to get Aimed shot. At 60 I retunred to an all Marks, survival build. Why? I dont solo anymore and pets are pretty much useless in high end instances. Pets, even with max BM spec do not do enough damage to hurt high end bosses. If they take aggro they will die very quickly. My guild uses pets to suck up a few of the initial major attacks of the big bosses, like General Draks, Mortal shots attack (over 2000 damage easy).

Survival tree is a joke generally, as a hunter in melee cannot out DPS a rogue and the level 31 talent in survivial is the biggest joke in WOW. I use survival tree for increased dodge and everything else in marks. Now i have a 29% chance to dodge with improved aspect fo the monkey, so if i accidently take aggro, i can survive it in melee range a bit better.
 
Nehi_Peach said:
marksmenship tree is the best of the 3 if youre playing on a pvp server. one of my friends who plays a 60 hunter used to be heavy specced in the pet tree but respecced in his 50s, his hunter does a lot more dmg now and he can pvps quite well now.

beast is great for solo / pve play, but lacks that luster for other parts of the game.
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Yeah, I'm on your server horde side. I've been marksmanship specced thus far and have done great in PvP against players my level and up to a few levels higher. Only issue is the last few levels I've basically been grinding mobs for XP rather than wasting 30-45mins getting a group organized to run through an instance where I have about a 10% chance of getting any loot I might need.

I went ahead and respecced to beast today to try it out and my DPS is almost exactly the same as before but mobs are going down much faster. I also have had less downtime, didn't think that was possible. Before every 5-6 mobs I'd have to lay low and either mana up or use a bandage on myself or my pet, now I can clear out an entire timbermaw camp before I'm below 30% and need heals. I'd guess that my pet's effectiveness has doubled at the least while I've only lost trueshot aura and 10% increased damage for serpent sting.

And once again adding points into improved aspect of the hawk and hunter's mark is a joke. Going 5/5 in both will only give you right about 2dps increase and you have many options of how to spend those 10 talent points where they will most likely benefit you quite a bit more. In my case, I was able to use more of the marksmanship tree while specced to beast so as to ensure I got mortal shots which is the biggest 'must-have' talent for a hunter who wants to do any damage.
 
I decided to go beast spec with my hunter (level 25 currently) since I'm on a pvp server. Pets are almost never targetted, and I want people to get a huge surprise when the annoying DOT becomes more than just annoying. I know I'll still be able to take down people in ranged, since that's what I do... just that I won't be as powerful.

I pvp in groups usually, hardly ever 1 on 1, so I'll almost always have someone up close while I run around and shoot. No, this doesn't mean that I zerg all pvp encounters... we usually end up attacking people with similar levels/numbers, though sometimes some idiot decides to take on all of us at once.

I have a feeling I'll be respeccing at 40 or 45 to marksmanship so I can do more ranged damage since I know the pet skills won't take me far in the higher level instances. But for now, the build is serving me really well.

I'll post my intended build when I get back home.
 
Sir Lucius said:
stuff
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mine looks like:

Beast Mastery Talents (5 points)

# Improved Aspect of the Hawk - 5/5 points
Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Aspect of the Hawk by 20%.



Marksmanship Talents (36 points)

# Improved Concussive Shot - 5/5 points
Gives your Concussive Shot a 20% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

# Efficiency - 3/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 6%.

# Improved Hunter's Mark - 5/5 points
Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Hunter's Mark spell by 15%.

# Lethal Shots - 5/5 points
Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 5%.

# Aimed Shot - 1/1 point
An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70.

# Barrage - 2/2 points
Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 10%.

# Mortal Shots - 5/5 points
Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 50%.

# Hawk Eye - 3/3 points
Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 6 yards.

# Scatter Shot - 1/1 point
A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and confuses the target for 4 seconds. Any damage caused will remove the effect.

# Ranged Weapon Specialization - 5/5 points
Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 5%.

# Trueshot Aura - 1/1 point
Increases the Ranged and Melee Attack Power of party members within 30 yards by 30.



Survival Talents (10 points)

# Precision - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 5%.

# Improved Wing Clip - 5/5 points
Gives your Wing Clip ability a 20% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds.
 
beast mastery is great for pve or duels outside of IF/Orgrimmar. going marksman is the way for pvp, especially group pvp. you should play your character how you want rather than trying to cater to the flavor of the month though, it'll be more fun that way. personally i'll stay with marksmanship now that i'm 60 because i love pvping and being able to drop helpless players at a distance.
 
If you're gonna go with any beast, stay under 11 or over 30. Survival isn't worth the points if you ask me. Sure it doesn't make a huge difference in your range damage, but honestly I've never met a survival hunter who could honestly go toe-to-toe with anything in melee. It's only about the stun potential, and you don't have to specialize heavily to get that. No little 100 point hit will make or break a fight.
 
Hmm after a week or so of beast spec I'm still very happy with it. I figured I'd be respeccing back to marks within a day or two but it's not bad. I don't notice any drop in DPS at all even though I no longer have trueshot aura - but I've also upgraded almost all of my gear to high agi and my autoshot has 18% chance to crit according to nurfed. Seems like most fights I crit much more often than that though. Frenzy or w/e for my pet is badass as well. 100% chance for a 30% melee speed increase after my pet crits. That shit is ownage since King B has a fast attack anyways.
 
Fool said:
If you're gonna go with any beast, stay under 11 or over 30. Survival isn't worth the points if you ask me. Sure it doesn't make a huge difference in your range damage, but honestly I've never met a survival hunter who could honestly go toe-to-toe with anything in melee. It's only about the stun potential, and you don't have to specialize heavily to get that. No little 100 point hit will make or break a fight.
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5 second stun that cant be blocked parried evaded
this alone owns trueshot aura in my opinion
 
Decepti|<on said:
mine looks like:

Beast Mastery Talents (5 points)

# Improved Aspect of the Hawk - 5/5 points
Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Aspect of the Hawk by 20%.
Click to expand...
I for some reason decided to type something up on this one after the Imp. Hunter's Mark one (no idea why). Thottbot's base data on the highest level of this skill is wrong (it's listed as 132). Sometimes Thottbot lists skills +bonuses from talents as the base which is what it's done in this situation. According to Allakhazam the base is 110 attack power added. This is essentially the same as Hunter's Mark but it adds a little more damage (22 instead of 16.5) which is still insignificant and a waste of 5 points. The only reason you should take this skill is if you want Improved Aspect of the Monkey which actually is quite good because it adds 3% chance to dodge to aspect of the monkey brining your dodge up to base+11%. Imp Aspect of the Monkey combined with Imp Parry would make you very hard to kill.



# Improved Hunter's Mark - 5/5 points
Increases the Ranged Attack Power bonus of your Hunter's Mark spell by 15%.
Click to expand...
This talent is horrible. An utter waste of points. Highest rank Hunter's Mark is +110 attack power. Rank 5 Imp Hunter's Mark adds 15% to that making it 126.5 attack power added. That adds 16.5 attack power for 5 talent points or 3.3 attack power per talent point. My level 16ish or so priest had 12 attack power. The UI said that the 12 attack power I had added 0.9 dps.

12/3=4 and 0.9/3=0.3 then 4*4=16 and 0.3*4=1.2

So you would be gaining a little more than a 1.2 dps gain from taking Imp Hunter's Mark ASSUMING you actually had the thing you were attacking marked.

The math I used is based on the assumption that the relationship between attack power and added DPS is a linear relationship rather than exponential of some kind (which wouldn't surprise me).
 
I am almost completely beast spec. I didnt get the useless skills but have everything maxed out other than that.

Suvival = 0
Marksman = 11
Beast = The rest.

I love it. I solo most of the time with my hunter and have found that the pet is viable in pvp because people generally ignore them. With the beast spec he crits about 30-35% of the time and always has a 30% attack speed increase. I play more defensivly in pvp (because I don't group too much) and my pet can mow people down who are not paying attention.

For pve it is just amazing. I NEVER pull agg off of my pet. I can open with a crit aimed shot and he can pull agg off of me before the mob gets to me. In the early 50's I could pull 3 same level mobs, hit them all once, get agg on my pet again, leave and go get a drink and he would be fine when I got back with 1 or 2 of them dead.

Beast spec is amazing for pve and solo play, I have also found it powerful for pvp. I have not done any high level dungeons yet so I have no idea how a beast spec pet would work in those.
 
Higher level the pet really doesn't matter as much as earlier. My pet gets feared by many classes and rooted by druids so it's really only effective when I'm facing off against a half-retarded player, another hunter, or someone who doesn't know how to take my pet out of the equation.

In group pvp though, the pet rocks. We had a 30v30ish battle outside Kargath a few nights ago and I just sent my pet after the frontline mages and priests as I hit them with aimed shot and dropped stings on warriors and pallies. If you can disable or slow a caster's time down alot by attacking then you're helping your faction/team. By adding a delay to casting time with each attack, my pet was helping everyone in the group. Then again, they could've focused 5 seconds of their attention on the pet to kill it but they went after our healers and tanks instead.

Marks is mainly good at high levels because from what I've heard and done myself alot of instances pets rarely, if ever, come out. Pets have poor pathing and tend to aggro shit a mile away. Pets also end up being a scapegoat whenever some idiot aggros mobs and doesn't want to admit it. My pet also needs to be dismissed everytime I take a 'shortcut' through a zone so it doesn't walk around the longway and pull a bunch of mobs to the gruop. Almost easier to just bring it out when absolutely needed, otherwise leave it out of the group.
 
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