WotLK Is BM hunter viable in pvp?

[Multisnipe]

I thought the go-to spec to roll for pvp was survival, how mistaken am i and why?, i'm curious since i haven't read anything about that spec and i used to love it.

Survival is a mediocre spec at best; the reason why MM is superior is because of readiness and silencing shot, as well as having the option to have improved revive pet (if you spec it right). Survival has nothing (other than pet stun/bash) to deal with casters and can only deterrence and disengage once. Once you realise how much you can abuse readiness you're really going to miss it. Also explosive shot's damage ticks over time and the damage is really quite mediocre. Also, explosive shot shares a cooldown with arcane shot meaning the only damage you can really do is with aimed shot, explosive shot, serpent sting, and maybe explosive trap, and if you get a lock and load proc, you actually have to wait a couple seconds for your explosive shots to tick so that you don't clip your tick timers. Chimera shot hits harder than explosive shot and offers a bleed if it crits, and on top of that applies a 4 second daze which is an undispellable slow (unless free. Wyvern sting sleeps the target for 5 seconds however you it has a pretty long cooldown and you can never open with it if you want to cc chain because it dots the target after the sleep is over. Once again, explosive shot damage is really quite mediocre and the lack of silence, improved revive pet, readiness, and overall damage output.

[Laethea]

That is true, however you lack any cc to keep a rogue pinned down. As stated above evasion is a full counter to your pet and a rogue can just cloak your traps.

You can use bestial wrath and intimidation in the same gcd at the start- I have a macro for killing rogues that uses both:

/cast Bestial Wrath
/petattack
/cast Intimidation

You use that macro when they cheap shot you, drop a flare, and a rogue starts the fight in a very bad spot. I killed hundreds of rogues with that macro in Cata, so, while I normally dislike the "one shot" macros, that is one which works very well. Now, intimidation is pretty buggy and there can be a delay between your pressing the macro and the rogue actually getting stunned. But usually the rogue will get stunned almost immediately, before he has time to even think of using evasion. Usually a rogue is thinking offensively at his opener, not defensively.

I can't recall a single time in Cata when a rogue used evasion to dodge my intimidation before he got stunned. Honestly, I didn't even think it COULD be dodged by evasion since evasion doesn't dodge attacks from behind. At 1:14 of this video from late Cata on retail I use intimidation to stun a rogue with evasion up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du-FI5gH--E

That's retail, so maybe Warmane is bugged. Even if it is, all the more reason to use intimidation on your first gcd before he can pop evasion.

Some of those strats from Cata don't apply to WOTLK, since we don't have scatter or camo. So that leaves BW + intimidation as the clear strat for rogue openers. That strat repeatedly worked in Cata when a rogue opened on me unexpectedly so I couldn't camo or spam my scatter shot macro on a flare.

I can't think of any better time to use intimidation against a rogue than at the start when you have used your big offensive cooldown and you want the rogue to stay where he is, with a flare down. Turning the tables on the rogue opener is one of the most fun things about playing BM, since rogues have such a big advantage in the opener against mm and sv, as you mention in your guide.

One thing that is harder about rogues in WOTLK is that they have access to improved gouge, so, if they take it, they can gouge your pet after blinding you and keep the pet cced long enough to drop combat and restealth. You tell me that bullheaded is bugged here, and if so, that's a strat that shouldn't work but can on Warmane. Hopefully bullheaded will get fixed though. It's not SUPPOSED to work against a chimaera with bullheaded, that's for sure.

[zbahan070704]

I'm a year late about this thread but right now I'm playing BM, all because I want the 10 seconds immune to CC effects except for repentance(?). it's a fun spec to play and I always use chimera in BG because it is useful but one problem is that when your pet dies, you need to go at the back of a crowd for safe revival unless you're using a ferocity pet which the heart of the phoenix is an instant revival.