The Leveling Beast Master

I've noticed that I've had a lot of Google hits from search terms such as "What should a BM talent spec look like at [insert level here]". So I figured I'd toss out my idea of a leveling spec. Before I begin, note that I don't really believe there is "One True Leveling Spec" (although there are some that are better ideas than others) and also that you will respec at 70. The following spec is not one that I'd go waltzing into heroics and raids with.

A Pike-approved Leveling Beast Master spec is going to look roughly like this:



This build is going to give you plenty of pet uptime without gimping you should you choose to do some lowbie instances.

Now let's discuss why I did/didn't take some of the talents.

Bestial Swiftness: To be honest I don't see this as being a particularly useful talent once you get Dash/Dive, but it's a decent enough "filler talent" while leveling and certainly better than Pathfinding. (Do not let me catch you with Pathfinding.)

The Lack of Spirit Bond: While I can sorta almost see the case for Spirit Bond as a leveling talent, there are three big problems with it in my eyes: 1.) The amount of health it restores is miniscule, 2.) There are better places to put two talent points, and 3.) In the vast majority of cases, if something is killing you or your pet, it's going to kill you anyway and Spirit Bond isn't going to stop it. I have never found a need to spec into this talent. That said, it does have its devoted fans, so you decide.

Five Points in Frenzy: Many of you who have level 70 BM hunters, myself included, only have 4 points in Frenzy. The reason is because 4 points in Frenzy is something like 99% as good as 5 points in Frenzy (I can't remember the exact theorycrafting but it was something like that) and there are better places to put that last talent point. However, for a leveling/grinding spec, there's really not much of a better place to put that point so into Frenzy it goes. That said, I would also certainly approve of dumping that one point into Catlike Reflexes or maybe Animal Handler. I myself just have a thing for specs looking "clean".

The Lack of Animal Handler: Animal Handler gets a bad rap for being a noob talent like Pathfinding. "Increased mount speed? Noob!" What people forget to see is the increased chance to hit for your pet which is going to be an amazing DPS booster once you get into raids. At lower levels though, it's not needed.

Ferocious Inspiration vs. Catlike Reflexes: If you are going to be an exclusively solo hunter and are not planning on doing any instances anytime soon and are looking for maximum pet uptime then I can see taking Catlike Reflexes instead. Otherwise, Ferocious Inspiration is the better choice because it's going to increase the DPS of you, your pet, and everyone in your party. If you do opt for the Catlike Reflexes route, though, keep in mind that you're not going to be keeping that talent at 70 if you plan on doing typical end-game stuff. Because once you get Go for the Throat and a fairly high crit rating, Ferocious Inspiration is going to be up almost 100% of the time and it becomes the vastly superior talent choice.

Improved Hunter's Mark vs. Efficiency: This is sort of a debate for the ages among hunters of all levels. The general consensus is that one hunter in your raid should have IHM so the rest can take Efficiency. If you are leveling then you don't really have to worry about that and it's more of a personal choice. IHM is going to provide a sizable boost to your pet's attack power which will help him keep aggro; Efficiency is going to decrease your downtime especially with the recent mana-regen nerfs and the fact that you won't have Aspect of the Viper for a while. Neither is a bad choice and go with what you prefer. I myself have always chosen IHM, though, because I like the better pet DPS.

Your First Five Points:

A lot of people I know will make a hunter, level it to ten, and then ask me where they should put their first talent point if they're going into Beast Mastery. The way I see it, there are two right answers to this question:

Endurance Training and Lethal Shots.

Endurance Training is going to start you into the BM tree right off the bat whereas Lethal Shots is going to take a brief foray into Marksmanship to pick up an amazing 5% crit before you head into Beast Mastery. What it really comes down to is if you'd rather get the Big Red Pet as soon as you can, or if you're willing to delay it for five levels to give yourself a big crit boost. Both are acceptable goals in my eyes and as such I see either one as being the right answer. I myself have hunters that have gone both routes-- though to be completely honest, I think I lean more towards the Lethal Shots route myself.

I should mention that if you are brand new to huntering and have something like a cat or other low-armored pet, it might be more logical to head into giving him more hit points right away. But don't let that deter you from 5% crit if ya want it.

The Respec to 70:

So you've made it to level 70. Hooray! You want to stay a 41/20/0 Beast Master but you know that you've got a leveling spec right now and you want one that will get you into instances and then eventually heroics and raids. Well, as I said, I'm somewhat of the school of thought that there is no one true spec... but here's what a typical level 70 raiding BM hunter spec should look like:



Important things to note about the change in specs:

Endurance Training is swapped out for Improved Aspect of the Hawk because it's a big DPS booster and because in a raid your pet should not be getting hit; the tank will be. This is the same reason why you drop Thick Hide.

Improved Revive Pet: You don't take this while leveling because... well, your pet shouldn't be dying all that much. But things happen mid-boss-fights in raids where Shade of Aran will randomly target your pet or whatever and it's good to have IRP so you can get him or her back into the action as quickly as possible.

The points in Bestial Discipline, I feel, can be somewhat flexible; I only have one point in it but with my cat and my current crit chance, I have learned that that's really all I need. If you aren't sure, though, or if you are using a Windserpent pet, then you should take both points.

Animal Handler is a must. Your pet is going to be missing a lot as is when he fights Level 73 elites, any possible boost to his hit rating (because he doesn't gain any from yours, unfortunately) is going to increase pet DPS which will in turn increase Ferocious Inspiration procs.

Four points in Frenzy, as mentioned before, are really all you need.

If another hunter in your raid has Improved Hunter's Mark, you can take Efficiency. If you are usually the only hunter than once again, the choice is up to you. And again, I like IHM because it will help out your pet, the tank, and all melee DPS involved.

Keep in mind that this is a pure raiding spec. If you have just hit 70 and still plan on doing a lot of grinding or questing for money, you may opt to keep your leveling spec, or perhaps a mix of the two ("The Raiding Spec" but with two points in Thick Hide instead of Improved Revive Pet, for example, is basically what I've been using since 70 for that very reason-- although to be honest it's high time for a respec for me.)

Well, that should do it for now. Remember, what I have said here is just supposed to be a guide, and if you have your own good reasons for your own spec, then go for it. If you have any questions or comments, lemme know!

Edit: Znodis has typed up an excellent counterpoint to this post over at The Mystic Hunter. It is well worth a read for people who want to achieve the optimum spec for fast leveling/pet-aggro/no-downtime goodness. I should have clarified that the spec I presented here is not designed to fill that role; rather it is designed to be a very good all-around spec that will introduce you to a lot of the things you'll be seeing as a level 70 hunter, and will still be a good grinding/leveling spec. But take a look at Znodis' guide if you want to get much more in-detail with pure grinding specs.

Tweaking my UI (and my spec, again)

So a couple of days ago, I got this random urge to mess with my UI again. So off I went in search of new addons...

My first stop was actually Bartender3. However, I didn't like it very much... it just seemed sort of confusing and counter-intuitive to use. (I do acknowledge the likely possibility that I just gave up without trying for very long!) Anyways, I dumped Bartender for now and began using StellarBars instead. Now, StellarBars doesn't offer a whole lot of customization... basically it's for people who like the general "look" of the default UI but want it to be a bit cleaner and maybe have a couple extra options. But it works for me I think.

Next I installed FuBar and a couple of plugins for it. I imagine most people know what FuBar is already, but if you don't, it basically adds a couple of thin "bars" to your UI which you can plug various "mini-addons" into. Also some stand-alone addons, such as Omen, plug into FuBar as well.

So now my UI looks like this:


I think I like it overall, but I would still like to do some further tweaking and maybe give Bartender another go sometime, if I ever feel like it. Oh, and I'll definitely also be keeping my eyes open for other FuBar plugins too.

Also, I respec'd again. Back to Beast Mastery. I'd been sort of planning to return to it at some point, but I originally didn't want to for another few levels, after I'd hit 60 and got an epic mount and all that. But the other day my brother dropped by for a bit... he's a 70 troll warrior on another realm, and he informed me firstly that "There is nothing scarier in battlegrounds than a beast mastery hunter and its Night Elf pet" (heehee), and secondly that "Outlands will be really fun for you, especially if you're beast mastery." I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion because as far as I know he hasn't leveled a hunter himself past 30 or so, but anyways, he managed to convince me and not long after that I was running to the Dwarven District of Stormwind, throwing down gold and respec'ing back to BM.

The Big Red Owl is back!

To be completely honest, like the recent comment I left over on BRK's blog, the different hunter specs are like my kids (well, I've yet to try Survival, but I love the sounds of it) and I can't just pick one. I think maybe I'm doomed to respec all the time for the rest of my hunter career. Ah well.

Spec'ing Back... for now.

After spending a good few levels and over a week as a Beast Mastery hunter, I've returned to Marks. What do I miss the most from the BM tree? Believe it or not, probably Improved Mend Pet. I hate it when poor Tux contracts a disease or something and I can't do anything to help him out. I also miss Intimidation, and of course, Serpents' Swiftness and "The Big Red Button". But I've found myself wishing for IMP back more than anything else.

Thoughts on returning to Marks: I thought for sure "Oh, my poor pet won't be able to hold aggro anymore", but actually he's still an aggro-holding machine, possibly even more than he was as BM. I believe that this is thanks to two things: Improved Hunter's Mark, which gives him a melee boost, and Go For the Throat, which gives him more focus and more chances to use Growl. These are two things that a normal 41/20/0 build would probably have, but mine didn't because of lack of talent points, and it made a big difference. I also think my Trueshot Aura helps out a little, but obviously it's not going to make up for the lack of a Beast Mastery build in the pet-power department.

Tux is back to doing about 35% of my total DPS instead of 45-50%. That's still a considerable amount of damage. I really feel that a marksman hunter cannot and should not underestimate the power of his or her pet.

Overall going back to Marks sort of feels like "going home" to me, but that's just because I was "raised Marks", so I'm comfortable with it. I really enjoyed the time I spent as BM and I definitely plan on returning to it and playing with it even more once I get some more talent points. Next up, though, is Survival! I've been wanting to try that one out for a long time.

Anyways, one last thing: thanks to one of my jobs, I am going to be WoW-less for the next eight days starting tomorrow. I will have my laptop with me, (because I'm a geek with three computers), but my poor laptop isn't capable of running WoW. Fortunately I will still have internet access, and thus I will still be able to read all my favorite blogs and also try and make a few posts for my two or three readers to enjoy. I have a couple ideas for things I would like to write about. =D

I Am Apparently Doing a Lot More DPS...

At least, I am according to my boyfriend, who posted the following in guild chat after him and I had quested together for about an hour:


(Apologizes on the small size, click on it to enlarge.)

Hmm... maybe I'll stick with this spec for a while.

Fun With Respec'ing and Initial Thoughts

So today I respec'd from my normal "utility/PvP/marksman-ish" build into classic 41/20 Beast Mastery. It was a very incomplete build, however, because I'm not even close to level 70 yet, but I will go more into that later in this post.

My reasons for respec'ing were three-fold; firstly I was sort of getting bored with my current spec (not that I don't like it, because I do, but I felt like spicing things up a little), secondly because I wanted to see Beastial Wrath/The Beast Within in action, and thirdly because I wanted to see if I can live without Hawk Eye, since it's odd having those three points randomly in Survival if I don't have anything else over there.

The initial verdict:

Stuff dies, and stuff dies fast. I seem to be critting a lot, which sort of amuses me because my crit chance % took a nosedive when I respec'd, thanks to not having enough points to put into the MM side of 41/20/0. But I seem to be critting left and right anyway. I think maybe because the Serpent's Swiftness gives me more shots, that adds up to more crits. But I'm not sure, that's just my initial thought. It could just be that I was getting lucky!

My trusty friend Tux has gone from doing about 30% of my total DPS to about 55%. Again, I'm sure I'd be doing more of the DPS if I had the points to put into MM but I don't, so it amuses me that my pet is now my better half, so to speak. And is he a machine! He has gone from being my mild-mannered little pocket tank into a big red deadly ball of feathers. It's an unusual thing which I'm not used to, but is it ever fun. Oh, and being a big red hunter is pretty fun too. ^^

Things that I am not too fond of: I miss a lot of my old marks talents. Granted I will get a lot of those back as I earn more talent points, but right now not having stuff like Mortal Shots, Lethal Shots, and Go For The Throat is a bit painful. I also sort of miss being able to put up those big crit numbers; even if BM does more overall DPS as I think it probably does, I'm a sucker for big crits. I'm an agility junkie so I'm still doing a lot of damage, but not as much as I enjoy doing.

I burn through mana even faster in BM than I did in Marks, and I'm not quite sure how or why.

Also the overall "feel" for BM is different than the overall "feel" for Marks in a way that I find hard to pin down and explain. It's more... fast-paced, almost? More frenzied as opposed to calm and calculating, red as opposed to blue. Both specs require quick thinking, but they require it in different ways. It's not bad, it's just different, and different people will like different things and if you've been one spec for a long time it takes a while to get used to another, I think.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I've decided to ditch Hawk Eye. If I ever start doing tons of PvP again or mess with a survival spec (which I know I will at some point), I'll definitely pick that talent up again, but for a BM/MM PvE spec it doesn't really seem needed to me. Better off putting those three points elsewhere!

Anyways, there you have it, my initial thoughts on my most recent respec. I think I'll stick with it and play with it for at least a few days before I respec again, probably to something close to my "utility spec". I'm definitely going to return to BM and try it out again later on down the road when I have more talent points, and I'm also going to give Survival a big test run at some point, but probably not right away.

I hope to be able to spend lots of time with and thoroughly learn each of the specs, because I feel that each spec has things to teach you and by spending time with each of the specs, you will become a better hunter.