I had an interesting idea the other day, and it may fix your problem. Have you tried glyphing [Glyph of Possessed Strength] on the yogg fight? I'm thinking direct control of the pet may counteract whatever changes blizzard has put in for the brain phase. You get +50% damage, but won't be able to dps the tentacles up top anymore.

Being a diehard BM raid spec I endeavored to make dual purpose off-spec for the General and to PvP. So basically I wanted 3 distinct applications represented in dual spec. I'd of rather started a thread but I gots not the juice, and seeing as how everyone on this thread is talking about their SV off-spec and it's natural application for a BM raider here it is:

After much research and the invaluable help from DeathByArrow I've developed the working model of the SV PvP/Raid spec. The best SV build conducive to modification for PvP was Xumio's 0/14/57. The 2/18/51 from Middi, though a very nice DPS build, goes to deeply into BM & MM trees to be reworked for PvP.

The impetus for the build was that I am a BM raider who wanted a PVP spec that I could also use as a raid off-spec to do high damage without a pet (Yogg). There are several scenarios which may find this useful, mainly BM raiders tho

The final results are a potent PvP build with plenty of utility and very nice DPS from it's Raid spec origins. The spec retains ~94% of the original DPS potency making it not only a powerful PvP Utility/Damage force but also a very viable raid spec.

Talent Spec: 0/15/56

Shot Priority:
Rapid Fire
Kill Shot
Explosive Shot
Black Arrow
Serpent Sting
Aimed Shot
Steady Shot

PvP Pet: Crab

Raid Pet: Wolf

General Stats (typical)
Hit Rating: 0.943 (until 263)
Agility: 0.751
Crit Rating: 0.511
Attack Power: 0.302
ArP: 0.308
Haste: 0.287

Max Hit to 263, Gem and Enc for Max AGI.

I'm not sure if this is the place for this question or not, so apologies in advance. Has anyone ran any kind of numbers on the T9 set yet to see whether or not BM will be the optimal spec once you can get your hands on that 4 piece set bonus? I can't seem to find much information on this. My apologies if it has been covered already.

Yes, for my talent spec and equipment set, the T9 4 piece set piece (with either the 232 or the 245 set) is finally enough to be worth dropping the T7 2 piece bonus.

What I have NOT run numbers on (since my guild is currently only running 10 man content) is whether some of the 25 man heroic gear (including the 258 T9 set pieces) are good enough to be worth dropping T7 2 piece for, but given the big gains that the 245 stuff gives me, I would expect that to be the case.

I found the best combo to use with 2*7.5 and my 55/11/5 was the 8.5 helm and chest with the 7.5 shoulders and gloves. I didn't check your armory, but with such easy access to conquest badges, if you don't already have them, step up to the 8.5 helm and chest, even if the 2-piece bonus is not idea for BM.

Next, I saw a significant dps jump swapping the 7.5 shoulders and gloves to even the conquest T9 pieces for those slots - and that's just 60 emblems of triumph. In the meantime, you might get a trophy and grab a 9.25 piece to fill one of those slots for 45 badges. Even better: push Koralon down weekly and take the T9.25 gloves/pants from him. The pants are big upgrade if you can shuffle your hit cap around their stats.

My suggestion is to abandon 2 pc 7.5 as soon as you can get 2 of the T9; the stats are just that much better along with the 2 pc T9 bonus. As I mentioned, even using the most direct route to the lowest level T9+T8.5, I think you are bound to see better results than T7.5. For a benchmark, check my armory: in current gear on Shandara's sheet version 91d, totally unbuffed I see 3706dps. Our guild seems to be on average pace, so I am confident you can at least hit that mark, if not surpass it.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

From latest PTR build

I went and tested it myself - it gives you a permanent 10% bonus *and* you get an additional 10% while Bestial Wrath is active.

Exact text reads:

Increases all damage you do by 10% and while your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing the mana costs of all spells by 20% for 10 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.

Also, your pet does not need to be out and active for you to get the 10% permanent bonus.

Ironically, these are the types of buffs that they've stated they want to get rid of for the big C, so clearly it's a stop-gap to tide us over.

But if they can give our pets some of our other stats, or do some of the other pet-damage reduction changes they've hinted at, then BM might just be viable again, even if not tops.

Well, Bestial Wrath is one of the 'fun' talents. It does stuff and you use it. I doubt that will change in Cataclysm, but that it is just way way out there still, so let's not go deeper for now.

Harking in the same direction though. BW is a big part of the fun about the spec. The lack of a signature shot (and harder shotprio) is sort of offset by the big red button... ehh pet. This only serves to reduce that ever so slightly. Good or bad overall I think it will detract slightly from the fun of the spec. So I'm putting a little faith in Blizzard that whatever it is I'm expecting, it is something a little more fun.

I was actually referring to just adding a 10% damage bonus on top of what was there already. :-)

Arkad, while I can't provide exact numbers/formulae for you on why these talents are huge, I can say without a doubt that they are vital to a great BM raiding build: Longevity and Go for the Throat. Reducing the cooldowns of Beastial Wrath and pet specials is a very big deal, not to mention having enough focus with which to perform those attacks. Also, your suggested build adds more to Frenzy than is currently recommended.

While some BM hunters may disagree with me here, I have not been able to successfully substitute other dps talents for Invigoration. In my experience, the 53/11/7 build offered 15 more dps but only over short boss fights. When a fight lasts longer than a couple minutes, invigoration comes in handy unless you are guaranteed stellar mana regen. I have yet to find a 54/12/5 build that calculates to better damage over boss fight time than the 55/11/5 I currently use. That goes for the recent found gushing over arcane shot builds. It's a great shot for BM since it's mobile and does good damage per mana, but not at the expense of other talents.

I strongly suggest you either download Shandara's worksheet or log your gear into Rivkah's Zeherah's Hunter DPS Analyzer so that you can try different specs out. Those are indispensible tools that can really help you maximize your role. I plugged your suggested build into my current setup in version 92PTR of the worksheet and saw a 415 dps loss. That's unbuffed, so imagine the effect in a raid situation. Please check those out.

I hope that helps.

Regards,