Specs in Brief: Beast Master

After about thirty odd levels of Marksman, I became highly touchy about it's lack of staying power and the dread "achilles heel" of things being too close. At this point I had started going into some battlegrounds and accepted a duel or two. I decided it was time to find a work around. Lo and behold, I discovered the Beast Mastery spec. I spent so much time on it that I actually persuaded the guy who made me go Marksman to try it- and he hasn't looked back since. I think my most memorable moment as a BM was taming King Banglash and ripping through the battlegrounds with a Hurricane bow.

The Benefits

Quite simply put, Beast Mastery allows for the essence of a hunter to come out and shine- by divying up power between the hunter and his companion. One of the first things I fell in love with about the spec is that it allowed for increased attack speed (IAS). Essentially, you deal more damage by firing faster. Working in tandem with a pet made up for the lack of special shots needed- your pet becomes a viable source of damage! While this spec has the potential to pull aggro from the pet onto the hunter (albeit a little less frequently than MM), Intimidate (which taunts and stuns the enemy) makes a very good quick fix and allows the hunter to retreat out of melee range. Beast Within makes the hunter and pet both immune to all methods of crowd control.

The Drawbacks

Much like Marksman, Beast Mastery is still subject to that dead zone under 8 yards. They burn through arrows alot faster than other specs and don't have the mana pool or resources that a Marksman does for special shots, and wind up leaving Aspect of the Hawk for Viper as the situation requires. Beast Masters have a very hard time in heroics and raids because mobs can and will kill a pet with relative ease, leaving a good portion of their DPS out of the fight for losing both their partner and the associated bonuses for keeping it alive.

Overall

Beast Mastery is still very much a ranged reliant class. Bowspeed becomes important, as does the pet one choose to partner with, because that affects their total increased attack speed- and in turn affects damage output. It's allows for a constant stream of steady damage without relying entirely on mana driven shots. The big downside is needing a pet out on a constant basis.

Personal Thoughts

I loved Beast Mastery when I created my PVP build and up until my mid fifties. It allowed for decent farming, less downtime than my Marksman, and I enjoyed having a "pocket tank" as a pet. In PVP, the pet was invaluable as a second damage dealer, since only one of us could be polymorphed at a time, and with an attack speed of .99( hitting once a second essentially) it made a great caster killer. Beast Within for anti-crowd control made me a happy hunter.

Specs in Brief: Marksman

When I first started playing WoW, the guy who got me interested eventually told me about specs- essentially, how I would specialize my hunter. "Go marksman," he said, "it has the best damage." And so I began pouring all my talent points into the Marksman tree, not thinking even for a moment about synnergy. Hell, looking back I silently yell at myself for putting even one point into the improved Concussion shot. You may notice that the blog is named "Lethal Shots" for the first skill in this tree :)

The Benefits

The marksman spec is all about improving the damage from your bow. It focuses solely on the player, upping his ranged attack power as well as criticals. You wind up very reliant on raw attack power, intelligence, and some small amount of agility for a premium build. The pet acts as either a deterrent or in many cases isn't used at all, since the marksman's damage is usually so high that one shot will pull aggro directly to the hunter. Talents enhance damage remarkably without increasing the mana cost per shot.

The Drawbacks

A full Marksman build is heavily reliant on special shots, all of which cost mana to use. Your end pool is your limiting factor in battle; once it's gone, your damage output is severely reduced. In raids, mana potions and Aspect of the Viper are often used to negate mana loss but it can only go so far. Marksmen have a hard time dealing with anything in melee range since ranged weapons cannot be used on a target under 8 yards.

Overall

Marksmen focuses entirely on the hunter, neglecting its partner pet, and grants amazing damage output to the class. The problem is sustaining this DPS for long periods of time, trying not to spike damage above the tank, and having very little melee defense.

Personal Thoughts

I actually like alot of the talents very early in the tree and usually take them to round out any other spec I work with- free bonus damage is not to be ignored. It makes for a very good PVP spec if your focus is a good deal of upfront damage. In raids, most Marksmen are heavily dependant on potions to augument their mana crisis. I'm not sure a heavy amount of mp5 and Efficiency are enough to pull through big fights.

The Basics: Philosophy and Role?!

To Be or Not To Be...

That's the question. Very few people actually think about what a hunter is. They log onto World of Warcraft, roll a toon, and begin the mindless killing that will lead them to victory- or a big repair bill. Most people learn the ropes just by stumbling around; some are fortunate enough to have a friend guide them through the beginning. Still more are left to blindly feel out the class. It's not just about point and click- try to understand the class first!

The Hunter Philosophy

Hunters are the expression of humanoid dominance over nature, unlike their partners the druids. The hunter utilizes the forest and all its wealth for his benefit- from plant to beast and back. He tames a pet, takes on more of the wild aspects of life, but is never controlled by it. His mastery is over the physical domains of nature. The spiritual belongs to the druids. This is part of why demons and ghostly spirits aren't tameable as pets!

The Expected Role

Hunters are expected to perform two main roles while in a group: damage and control. While many players understand killing is important, they often neglect to understand that there is only so much damage they can do- and so much that their teammates can handle at once. A tank may ask the hunter to "trap the box", place a trap and lure the requested enemy to it. Be prepared to do as requested. It may not be doing damage, but chances are, that trap is keeping someone else from a swift death! At other times (such as High King) a hunter's Misdirect and pull timing is the difference between a good run and continual wipes. If you roll a hunter, you don't get to gripe about having to trap or misdirect- it actually is part of your job!

The Most Important Rule

The roles listed above are what any idiot is expected to be able to do. The more important part is staying alive! Too often, a hunter goes damage crazy and pulls an enemy off the tank. Thirty seconds later, the group wipes and it's the hunter's fault! Even if the group doesn't wipe, avoid giving the healer a heartattack- use Feign Death and get a threat meter like Omen to get the timing just right. When you hit about 90% of the tank's threat, feign. You may lose out on the dps meters, but you do more damage alive than dead.

Are You a Hunter or a Huntard?

The Story

It was almost six months ago when I heard this term come out of nowhere: "huntard". I stop and chuckle at the word even to this day. "Hunter" mixed with "retard." So simple to piece together and yet I didn't think it could match up to anyone. Boy was I wrong.

I had been recruited while looking for group to do some heroics. Upon arrival in Hellfire Peninsula, I was told our mission was Shattered Halls. If there were some way to sigh and vomit at the same time, I likely would have done it. Mobs in Shattered Halls resist being trapped moreso than anything else I've seen in this game; even worse, I'd just spec'd out of my "oh my god" button that would let me have all my cooldowns back instantly. On a positive note, I still had a reduced timer on my traps due to my gear. [Click here to see]

Before I even accept the invite, the first question I'm asked is "Do you know how to trap?" The only response I can come up with is "Of course." What kind of question is that? Yes, I'm a hunter. Of course I know how to trap! Regardless, I jump through the instance portal and we burn through it with the usual results- traps break early or are fully resisted, succubus has the same problem. We survived, the bosses died, and we looted their corpses. The tank tells me at the end: "That last huntard we had couldn't trap worth a $%^@!"