IMO leveling as BM is more ideal spec for not only having a more effective approach to solo content, but a good spec to combat gankers. BM has some of the best burst damage out of the 3 specs, especially once you get BTW. Using a bear or gorilla is still going to be your best option for leveling. The concept for Tenacity pets is survivability, not aggro. All the pets can gain and hold aggro, but Ferocity pets (i.e. cats) cannot take as much damage as a bear or a gorilla. Cobra Reflexes is a good talent for both DPS and aggro, but imo I would move my points into Great Stam and Charge, then work down to Blood of the Rhino. You want your pet to do a majority of the work for you and talents like BotR greatly increase pet survivability.

Side note: You can make a macro to manually trigger Thunderstomp for your Gorilla. Thunderstomp increase aggro slightly above all other pet specials, which makes the gorilla an ideal tanking pet. The TStomp does not have a limit on the number of targets it hits, so it makes for an awesome pet to clean up bad pulls or accidental aggro issues.

[Glyph of Mend Pet]


Thanks for the info Mattaos. I'm having a lot of fun right now with my gorilla AE grinding. With the changes to Volley I send him after 4-7 melee humanoids and lead it all into an explosive trap, start with Volley, then MS and FD to clear aggro, stand volley and finish any left over mobs with MS again. Thunderstomp is doing great for holding aggro.

Rabid won't need to be included in a macro come next week, assuming 3.0.3 is patched then which it should since that bug got fixed.

i have a question...if you spec into longetivity, wont that mess up the macro you created? they be a CD of 80 seconds and a 2 min CD

I am not quite sure I understand what you are trying to ask, but I think you referring to the varying CD times of each line item? 3/3 Longevity reduces BW to 84 sec. and Kill Command is a 60 sec CD and most trinkets have a 120 sec CD. None of the items are in sync as far as timing is concerned, but all 3 items are a direct damage increase for your pet and yourself. The macro is meant to be a suggestion, since many hunter's are currently using this to max their damage for each BW proc. The trinket technically could be pulled out and manually activated each time, but this macro also helps with keybind bloating.

I don't believe he was implying the glyph was reserved for BM hunters, but more or less a very good minor glyph worth mentioning for hunters. It is in fact extremely useful for any spec. I believe the premise behind glyph suggestions/mentions for this BM thread is to discuss/mention those glyphs that have the best synergy potential for the BM spec.

Since you did bring up the Glyph of Bestial Wrath it might as well be said that this glyph is obviously geared solely for BM hunters. The 20 sec reduction in CD is taken off before any other talents (Longevity) bringing BW down to 100 sec. Going with either 1/3 (90 sec) Long or 3/3 (70 sec) Long, this glyph is a pure enhancement.

Would it also be safe to say that the bold comment you made is basically admitting to trolling this thread?

I will adjust/change information as soon as patches hit the live servers. This way anyone currently reading or looking for answers post-patch 3.x has the most current information. Thank you mentioning this upcoming change.

EDIT: fixed link

I do know that not having GftT is gimping my pet and me but for now it does not matter at all, all old world and bc content that can be cleared will be there at 80 and will give exactly the same credit for completing achievement (like if you are not Hand of Adal now, even if you kill Vash and Kael you'll not get this title).

Now my point about Longevity was that with 7 sec cooldowns and focus starved pet it doesn't give that much, but like I said I'm testing rather than going for uberhigh numbers just now.

And IMO there's no such thing as lvl 70 raiding now, with nerfs to raid bosses it's just achievement and gold grinding, so we should rather think about lvl 80 dungeons -> raids than about lvl 70

And of course keep up good work since it's BM Bibile are you going to include explained list of pets and skills for different purposes?

btw
who is going to cast that Serpeng Sting in solo/party environment?

First time Poster but i have read this pages over and over and got alot of helpful advice.
English isnt my native languiage so try to be patient and correct me if im to much hassle to read

You said that /cast !Autoshot isnt needed anymore. But i done some extensive testing on Dr Doom and it seems Autoshot get clipped rather often. Im at 85 Haste and with the /cast !Autoshot in my macro i gained an average of 60 DPS

I havent figured out why it gets clipped and maybe it has something todo with my macro buyt what i noticed is that when Autoshot and SS is finished at same time sometimes Autoshot wont start.

My Macro (For thrash when i dont need to think about CD and such)

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast Rapid Fire
/use 13
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Bestial Wrath
/cast Kill Command
/cast !Auto Shot
/cast !Steady Shot
/cast [target=pettarget,exists] Rabid



Haste: I know that people say haste isnt that good for BM hunters but i fail to se that point. The difference with a WF totem in raid/group and not is huge according my experience. So im vondering why that is. So i read about haste on this forums and got the advice to use Quartz. And i did and noticed my SS was down to 1.4 and sometimes as low as 0.9. But that must surely be a error on Quartz behalf ? Secondly im wondering if Haste transfers over to pets stats ? ie if i have 85 haste rating does my pet also get the same rating ? Is that why Haste is still making BM highest DPS specc ?


To conclude:

/cast !Autoshot Still needed in macros

Does Haste transfer to pets ?

Quartz Addon dont show real numbers ?


P.s Is it ok to use BOLD letters ? Cause when im reading all this massive text walls its good to see the important "words" the author want to talk about so we dont have to read trough walls of texts to find what he/she is after

There is currently an issue with unchecking the "Auto Attack/Auto Shot" option. Unchecking it makes Auto Shot clip for some reason. This might be the answer to the situation you are describing.

When Steady Shot hits 1.5 seconds (the Global Cooldown) any more haste won't enable you to fire off more Steady Shots, since the Global Cooldown prevents you from using anymore abilities for the duration of 1.5 seconds.

More haste is an increase in dps, as your Auto Shot fires more quickly, but the increase is minor compared to the item stats invested. Exchanging the Haste for an equivalent amount of Agility would yield a higher increase in dps.

Also, currently, your haste is to no benefit for your pet. The only stats that are transfered to your pet is your Attack Power, Stamina, Armor and, since 3.0, Hit.

Is aspect of the beast something that we should be doing when we pop beast within on a fight?? I Haven't seen anything about that so I thought I would ask.

I've just been of wondering whether moving a point out of GFFT into kindred spirits would be a dps increase or not, anyone have any experience messing with this? I'm at 4/5 kindred spirits and 2/2 GFFT currently.

I still put /cast !Auto Shot at the top (after #showtooltip) of my macro cos it makes Auto fire before Steady, giving you a free shot every time you stop your rotation. Little difference, but I guess it will add up =)



Pets attacking from the back of the boss are still subject to dodges from the boss, that's why Animal Handler is getting changed to give your pet Expertise instead of Hit. No number of hit will reduce the mobs chance to dodge an attack from behind, only Expertise does that for you =)

This is how I explain Hit and Expertise:

Hit - Increases your chance to Hit the target, meaning you can shoot in it's direction and not somewhere else.

Expertise - The mob went for some kung-fu training and now dodges your shots just as they are about to hit them, Expertise increases your chance of knowing where he will dodge to and aim there instead.