As someone who never played retail wotlk I have to ask this was Beast Mastery a viable spec in PvE raiding and with the new core just days away will it be reduced to nothing but a PvP like it was on retail, from what I've heard and read in old posts. My understanding in terms of damage output Marksmanship was king followed by Survival spec and Beast Mastery considered just a PvP spec anyone have any idea how things will turnout?
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Member
Just a question about the new core and hunter specs
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Member
I can't comment on the status of the specs in the Lord core, but on retail, Beast Mastery was a very good spec well into ToC for raiding. I believe it was even the best Hunter spec in Ulduar for some time. Marksmanship only reigns at the end of ToGC and ICC because of how well it scales with ARP (because by this point, you are approaching the cap, passively, before procs or gems). Survival should be making an appearance into ICC, regardless of its DPS, due to how the spec can interact with some encounters (Deathbringer Saurfang come to mind). Beast Mastery doesn't hold up in ICC because it just doesn't bring the DPS the other specs can, and it can't really bring any utility the other specs can't.
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Member
Dunno where u got this but on retail when u pass 3700 survival was the best till around ToC where MM was better. BM was top only at start when u lack of gear.
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Member
So maybe you guys haven't seen a geared Beast Mastery hunter in raids but I know from personal experience that as BM hunter I would be in the top 10 dps in ICC 25 guild runs I even did ICC 10 hc as BM now from what I understand this shouldn't happen if Warmane was like retail the hunter specs should go MM>Survival>BM but this not the case here it's MM>BM>Survival(being complete garbage and not worth the effort).
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Dargenslayer
It's impossible for anyone to tell how the core will interact with ICC level gear because nobody has truly been able to test it out properly with ICC gear.
What I can tell you is that depending on the fight either SV or MM will reign at the top on Lord at the moment, but that is only with T7 level gear.
Also, you should check that you're playing SV correctly. Many people miss out on a lot of things and as such falsely draws the conclusion that SV is garbage.
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Member
And why survival is garbage?
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Member
Survival requires waaaaay lots more attention to your cooldowns than the 3 button mash that MM is, it's more fun as well. I played the hunter from the end of vanilla all the way to cata release in a top tier progression guild. BM outputs the most leading into entry raiding (naxx level gear), after which SV definitely overtakes and is pretty much the go-to spec, drawing level with MM at ToC. The vast availability of ARP items from ICC let MM push ahead afterward, but if you're no slouch SV is definitely still viable in entry level icc10 normals. Once you get better and better gear MM just outperforms it due to having better scaling with stats. It's the path I took on warmane when I started playing after all, now with the new core just being implemented, it should be close to this.
You may ask how this answers your question, OP, but it does precisely because BM isn't even mentioned. To be fair it isn't as bad as it sounds, you can still run BM and get away doing decent work on the charts while farming for your entry gear in fospos hc, but in Ulduar level (this is same level as fospos gear, ilvl232 in fospos, ilvl226 in Ulduar) onward to entry ICC, SV is the way to go, I ran SV from naxx through to ToC back in the day. I also still run SV, albeit rarely, on certain fights which require replenishment on icc10HC, think non-dps races like sindy (guild hates rets for some reason), not going to be top dps for sure, but definitely still able to remain very much relevant on the charts while still doing your other responsibilities.
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Member
So recently I went on the Lordearon PTR to BiS test MM vs BM spec and here are my results MM on a heroic dummy pulled 85k DPS as BM I only managed 69k and this was as a Orc hunter using a lvl 78 wolf pet so therefore I conclude that MM is better for end-game raiding and does more DPS but I still consider BM a viable raiding spec I even at end-game. Also BM the rotation essential becomes three buttons Aimed Shot or Multi-Shot>Serpent Sting>Steady Shot spam until Amied or Multi comes off and just repeat. I'm too lazy to test how if Survival would do more damage then BM and I'm not too sure on the BiS gear stat pripority for Survival.
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Member
hit cap > crit > haste is good till u get 1.5steady shot > armor penetration > haste, max agility gems
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