*Updated for 4.3: Nothing really changes except we have 5% MORE Attack Power now!
Beast Masters have been through a lot over the course of WoW history. For one shining moment in time we sat at the top of the charts until Arthas showed up and ruined everything. Since then BM had been sub-par to the two other hunter specs in each and every way. Despite being able to tame the rare and unique beasts of Azeroth, many hunters found that it was not worth the ridicule to show their Beasty sides in groups.
This is no more. Beast Master is now a very viable, fun, and dare I say it a simple spec to play. Back when Cataclysm was first released, we were STILL not very viable. Kill Command (KC) did not hit hard enough and everything just felt very insubstantial. Changes were made and KC got a 20% boost and all of a sudden ...we were strong and useable again!
This is a change only hunters or anyone who has played a BM hunter in detail would know. There are some people out there who still think of BM as the sub-par spec. I don't blame them, but PROVE THEM WRONG. I'm not saying BM is the BEST spec, nor do I have the calculations to backup the theoretical maximium damage each of the specs, which Marksman seems to hold the title, which makes sense if you look at how that spec is setup, the better your gear is the higher potential damage you can do. HOWEVER, the reason I choose to play as BM is because I can fight with a GIANT Devilsaur at my side.
Turby would love to help with his free and easy BM hunter guide! I will try to explain the basics and also the logic behind why we use what we use!
Shot Priorities
You will hear this a lot when looking up "rotations" as we should all know by now due to certain mechanics and environmental factors of gameplay we can not stick to just one "rotation" of shots but use our abilities in a manner of highest to lowest priority. Incidentally this leads to a pattern in which we use our abilities which could be considered mini-rotations.
Why do we follow this priority set then? Well if you think of it, strip everything down and look at what we have to work with: Focus. We are essentially constrained to our 100/110 focus for dishing out damage. Ideally we would want to maximize every single point of focus at every single moment in every single situation which will hopefully maximize our damage.
For example, say you had full focus. How would you maximize these points? Well what are your hardest hitting abilities and how much focus do they cost? Kill Command (37), Arcane Shot (22) x 3, this burns up 103 focus giving you 7 focus remaining not including passive regeneration. Now you have to regain focus by using Steady Shot (+9, or +18 with T13 2 piece), you have to add this to your total before you actually get down to 7 focus, so you'll have roughly enough for another AS. However, remember your Kill Command is your big hitter with a six second cooldown so you must gauge whether or not you are able to use up that AS and gain enough focus for KC, or if you want to just continue to steady shot and wait for KC.
tl;dr: Try to maximize your focus usage by using the following priority list of spells.
(My intent is to make this a really pretty guide with pictures and colors. Soon....)
1.
Kill Shot. If
glyphed you can fire off 2 Kill Shots, which cost no focus and hits like a big red truck! Essentially if you see Kill Shot light up when an enemy is low on health, use it!
2.
Kill Command. This isn't even a shot, but this is your next most important ability. Kill Command is able to crit for 70K in high-end encounters, 30-40k if you are getting close to being fully ilvl 359. This is on a 6-second cooldown and you should always make sure you have at LEAST enough focus to use Kill Command. Despite Intimidation being the "Signature" skill of the BM tree, KC is actually the signature skill. We can use it while moving, and even with our backs turned since this is our pet's attack!
3. Arcane Shot. Good old Arcane Shot, since there are 6 seconds between KC usages, you will want to "burn" off any excess focus you have by using Arcane Shots.
4. Cobra Shot. Cobra Shot refreshes our Serpent Sting and regenerates focus for us, you will mainly be using this along with Arcane Shots to manage the amount of focus you have between KC usages. You will most likely never use more than 3 or 4 in a row unless you are building up focus for Bestial Wrath (explained in detail later).
5. Serpent Sting. This is lowest in priority as once you apply it to a mob, it should always be ticking due to the fact Cobra Shot refreshes it.
Summary Pt.1: Assuming a static boss fight, you will want to open up with a Serpent Sting and possibly an Arcane Shot (while your pet is strolling up to the boss), then hit Kill Command right away to deplete your focus. You will then Cobra Shot and balance with Arcane Shots until your next Kill Command is ready, by that time you should have enough focus for KC. This is not the whole thing, it gets a BIT more complicated.
Important/Key Abilities
Now that you have the general idea of your button presses, there are two important abilities to pay attention to if you are attempting to BM it out.
1.
Focus Fire: Focus Fire is a BM only ability which is a "consumed" buff given from our pet. I put my Focus Fire ability in a handy spot, my "1" key. When it lights up, I hit it UNLESS I am going to use Bestial Wrath. Essentially Focus Fire eats our pet's frenzy buff and increases our own ranged haste by 3% per stack up to 5 stacks, or 15% ranged haste. Since it takes our pets ABOUT 15 seconds to build up 5 stacks anyways, we will amost always have a permanent 15% ranged haste give or take a few seconds of slowness.
Now why do we not use Focus Fire during Bestial Wrath? Well....let's explain.
2.
Bestial Wrath (BW). BW makes BM hunters a cooldown class, when talented, the cooldown on this ability is only roughly 70 seconds, a fairly short time compared to other classes. This cooldown increases our pet's damage by 20% and
our own by 10% for 10 seconds and all our abilities cost 50% focus. Now how do we optimize these 10 seconds? As I mentioned before, you won't be using many Cobra Shots in a row unless you were building up for BW which comes every 70 seconds. You will want close to a full bar of focus so that your "better" shots get the damage benefit. As you can see Cobra Shot is under Arcane Shot in terms of priority you do not want to *need* to use Cobra Shots during BW.
I tend to time my BW when:
A: My focus is 90+
B: Kill Command's CD is immediately ready.
C: My Focus Fire button is glowing. This means my pet has max Frenzy.
We do not use Focus Fire because this only increases our own haste, which benefits Cobra Shot the most. You will want your pet to keep it's Frenzy effect (which increases our pet's melee haste) to maximize the damage done under BW. In any case, under BW you will most likely be pressing your buttons like this (like a machine gun):
KC, AS, AS, AS, AS, AS, KC, AS AS*
On average you will get in 5-7 Arcane Shots and two Kill Commands on a full bar of focus. Usually after a BW you will want to hit CS immediately so your serpent sting doesn't fall off the enemy.
*From now on when I mention BW, I will assume you are going to use this direct damage assault unless otherwise stated.
3. Fervour. This ability instantly regenerates 50 focus to you and your pet. Though not a required ability it is very useful for that emergency moment you need focus to escape/kill/whatever.
Summary Pt.2: Assuming a static boss fight, and depending on the length of the fight, you will probably want to open up with a Serpent Sting, then immediately Bestial Wrath. After BW, you will have enough time to fire off a Cobra Shot to refresh your sting as if nothing happend. Then you will manage your focus to always have enough to use KC at cooldown, and also consume your pet's Focus Fire when you are not BW'ing. Depending on movement and other factors you might need to burn more Arcane Shots or use more Cobra Shots to anticipate the need to burn more Arcane Shots before your KC. This comes with experience.
(Slowly and surely I'll be adding pictures and links and all the pretty stuff but all the info you need can be read.....)
4.
Rapid Fire: Our own mini Blood Lust/Heroism cooldown. I like to use this in "safe" scenarios where I will be able to get off 3-4 KC's worth of rotations or at the beginning of a fight to increase damage, in hopes that it will come off cooldown near the end of the fight. Essentially we get hasted Cobra Shots which give us more focus to burn Arcane Shots. KC's still occur every 6 seconds regardless. I don't find this *too* useful but when there's nothing left to do and BW is not off cooldown yet this is something to keep me from falling asleep.
Extra Notes:
1. Steady Shot: Remove this from your bars!!!! Only Marksman use Steady Shot, as their Chimera shot refreshes serpent sting for them, and Steady Shot gets benefits from the MM tree. REMOVE IT AND NEVER USE IT! (Sad I know)
Advanced Shots:
1. Ninja Arcane Shot. I'm not sure if everyone does this or only some people do this, but you are able to fire off an Arcane Shot right after you fire off your Cobra Shot, rather than fire your Cobra Shot, wait for the global cooldown, then fire an Arcane Shot. Since sadly WoW is all twitch gaming and maximizing the limited time we have, this maximizes your GCD usage.
Versatility
As a BM hunter, not only are we required to grasp the finer things of Hunterism, such as basic kiting, jump shotting, proper use of interrupts/stuns or distracting shots, trap assists and so on, but we also have to be mindful of our pets and what abilities they have. What type of pet we bring out also matters. For the most part you will be running with a Ferocity pet for max Kill Command hits, but having a Tenacity pet for emergency tanking or a Worm for Max AOE potential is also something you should consider. Say for Nefarion, I tried to MD all of his bone adds onto my Crab as Marksman spec. Let's just say poor Mikrofonkat didn't make it through the fight alive even with judicious mend-pets. In BM mode, specced for max defense, he lived and managed to get the adds into a nice pile at the north end of the raid for Phase 3. (You could try speccing your tenacity pet for max tanking in MM, but I like to spec them for max damage output, and leave the tanking to the BM pets).
If you're super picky like me and want to maximize your damage for every single type of encounter, bring a Worm along for trash/aoe. Worms have an ability called
Burrow Attack,which can tick for upwards of 14k crits every 2 seconds, this is on top of your own Multi-shot spam. Combined with the BW cooldown, this is indeed beastly. This ability costs 30 of your pet's focus and since our pets are designed to maximize focus usage I found that the best time to use this was either at the beginning of a pull when all the adds are in place, and also after turning off some of my pet's abilities that use focus. Fervour could also be an option if you're not going to need it within the next couple minutes. If you don't want to manually control your worm's focus, you may also bring along a Chimera and spam their froststorm breath. Melee players will hate you but just tell them you're from pre-4.3 and you share the hate for melee.
Reforging
Ahhh stats, Crit/Haste/Mastery, which one??? Essentially the rule I follow when reforging is:
1. Am I hit capped at 8%? If not reforge things to Hit. But turn what into crit?
2. If the item is Crit + Haste/Mastery, I will leave it unless I need to reforge the haste/mastery into hit.
3. If the item is a Haste/Mastery item, I will reforge the higher one to Crit.
At the end of the day I have more crit than mastery or haste. If you feel otherwise, tweak your set accordingly. Remember the most important thing is hit your Kill Command!
Turby the Hunter
