Survival Hunters and Raid Make-Up - Page 2

Kretschmer · 08/28/07, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by Jarlsberg

Being loathe to start a new thread, I'm hoping that this is the right place to ask my question.

Our guild has just started on Karazhan, and we're running into trouble with Moroes. Our make-up last night was 2 warriors, paladin, 2 feral druids, priest, 2 hunters, 1 rogue. Usually we have a fire mage as well, but, well, things happen.

On to my point, as BM spec I've been consistently #1 (nearly a tie with the Fire Mage when he's in) by a wide margin, but haven't been able to completely lock down a Moroes add by myself due to traps breaking, timers running out, etc even with the 2-piece Beast Lord bonus.

I'd like to move to Survival, but the GM is worried that the cut to my DPS would be too much for us to take. My question is, would the increase in RDPS from EW make up for or even exceed the hit? My feeling is that it would, but I'm now looking for experience / evidence one way or the other to either fuel my argument, or set me down.

We've had a hunter successfully trap one add for the entire fight when BM spec; could he just be quite lucky?

If trap isn't working out you could burn 2, keep shackle up (your priest IS using a focus macro that allows him to shackle without targeting, right?), and use fear undead and trap to really lock down a third. We've also had decent success with a hunter kiting one of the adds (just make sure it's not one of the dispelling ones, or your shackles will be a thing of the past).

constantius · 08/28/07, 11:13 AM

As far as group placement goes ... my argument is : if your hunters earn it, give it to them.

We have 4 raiding hunters: 2 BM, 1 Marks, and 1 Survival. They get their own group. We typically take 3 of the 4 on any boss fight (they do their own swaps, usually leaving the Survival in for all fights, and the other 3 rotate). They get a group:

Hunter
Hunter
Hunter
Feral Druid
Shadow Priest *OR* resto shaman

... depending on the day.

They earn this by putting out top-10 dps, every time. Most of the time they compete for top dps for the fight. We regularly have them competing with rogues for top spot, putting out 1300+ dps on certain fights.

If they can put out that level of dps, then they deserve their own group, tailored to their needs.

If they are crap dps, and typically put out less than 800 (compared to 1100+ for your rogues), then cram them in wherever. Just make sure they're doing crap dps because of lack of gear/skill, and not because you already give them no buffs whatsoever.

Most of the time, a feral druid tank doesn't *need* Blood Pact or Commanding shout. When we were learning fights in SSC/TK, sure ... but now, our feral druid tanks Morogrim without any group buffs whatsoever. Just regular gear, full raid buffs, and go.

If you run with *2* feral druids, then by all means stack one as a tank in the tank group, and one as a kitty in the hunter group.

We can't justify giving a feral druid to the rogues, since they already get Battle Shout, SoE, WF, +2% dmg aura (ret paladin), and Unleashed Rage. We also tend to take 3 rogues, so there's no way I'm bumping a rogue from a WF group to give the other 4 members +5.5% crit.

Pamper your hunters, but make it clear to them that the pampering comes with a price: high dps, every time. There's no reason they shouldn't be pushing 1000+ dps on every single fight in SSC/TK.