BM PvP Talents and Glyphs

You can look at my Armory page to see what exact talent spec and glyphs I am currently using.

Talent specs after Cataclysm have gotten much simpler since they are now 31 point talent trees.  The main two options for a BM Hunter is to go into Marksman or Survival with most of the extra points. 

Here are my two different builds for BM PvP:

BM PvP Spec A

 

BM PvP Spec B

 

My main spec (Spec A) has two important talents from the Survival Tree: Survival Tactics & Entrapment.

Hunter vs. Wild is pretty much a mandatory talent for every Hunter PvP spec.  15% more stamina for 3 talent points, yes please.

Improved Serpent Sting is just filler to get to the next tier.  Slight DPS gain.

Survival Tactics reduces my Disengage by 4 seconds which is always nice for survivability and can be used even offensively.

Survival Tactics also supposedly reduces the chance for your traps to resist, which should allow more consistent crowd control via Freezing Trap.

Entrapment snares targets when they break a Snake Trap or an Ice Trap (Frost Trap).  This ensnare lasts for four seconds with 2 talent points.  This is a decent control mechanism, especially against melee.

 

My secondary spec (Spec B) goes for more damage in the Marksmanship tree with my extra talent points.

Go for the Throat used to be mandatory for BM Hunters before Cataclysm.  Go for the Throat used to give your pet 25/50 focus on an auto-shot crit.  As of Cataclysm this talent now only gives your pet 5/10 focus on an auto-shot crit.  That's a huge nerf to the talent, but it gives BM Hunters a choice with their spec.

Go for the Throat still gives a decent increase in DPS per talent point (roughly the same as Bestial Discipline).

Efficiency is really just filler as BM to get down to Sic 'Em! as the 3 less focus cost on Arcane Shot is insignificant, and Efficiency is only 1 less focus during The Beast Within (12 focus cost BW without 3/3 Efficiency, 11 focus cost BW with 3/3 Efficiency).

Sic 'Em! is a much more interesting talent for Survival than for BM.  BM does use Arcane shot a decent amount, especially against high armored targets.  The DPS gain from this talent is still marginal and very random at best.  Of course, during Bestial Wrath it can contribute to a little more burst as the chances of an Arcane Shot crit are pretty high since you will be spamming it between Kill Commands.

Prime Glyphs

Kill Command - 3 focus reduction is not much but there is nothing else interesting for BM.

Kill Shot - Doesn't hit for near as much as it used to, two of them are usually required for a kill.

Arcane Shot - Used frequently and a decent increase in Arcane Shots damage.

Major Glyphs

Bestial Wrath - Lower cooldown = more frequent burst opportunities

Disengage - 5 seconds off a great defensive ability, self explanatory

Raptor Strike - 20% less damage is huge when versing any team that focuses the Hunter, and it's not that tough to land with it now being instant

Master's Call - 4 second increase in duration used to be great, but now that Master's Call can be dispelled, any decent team will usually dispel it after a few seconds (just like a freedom).  Also the 4 second base time of Master's Call is usually enough time to free yourself up and move away.

 

2v2 Update:

Siphter and I played a few games the other day but just couldn't get into a decent rhythm and my spec was a little bit off.  We will be playing more games in the near future.  We will break 2k.

3v3 Update:

I play with Siphter and Evanie as BM Hunter, Subtelty Rogue, Restoration Druid.  We have climbed above 1800 and are starting to get a good feel for the comp.  The comp itself is not a great comp, but it's not a terrible comp either.  I believe it is possible for our comp with our moderate skill level to get to 2k at some point.

   

Why BM Hunter for 2v2 Arena?

Beast Mastery in Cataclysm has been fairly bad from the start.  The main reason BM started out so bad was because Blizzard removed the immunity from cc during the Beast Within.  So even though the burst from BW was higher (shots cost 50% less focus), in PvP it was actually lower burst since decent opponents would cc the hunter during BW.  Also, BM in PvE couldn't even compete with any class due to it being simply very poor damage.

With the 4.0.6 patch and the Aspect of the Hawk hotfix BM is now viable in PvE and even in some PvP.

My experience with BM is in Rated BG's and 2v2 Arena (Double DPS with a Rogue).
Why do I play BM for 2v2 Arena?

• Spirit Beast Spirit Mend is the best self healing a Hunter can achieve, and healing is crucial as Double DPS
• While LoS'ing opponents and using this heal I can outlast a decent amount of 2's teams that focus me (Marks heal with Chimera Shot requires line of sight which opens the Hunter up to more damage)
• Kill Command can be cast through LoS
• While I am LoS to avoid damage or if their are LoS'ing me to avoid damage I can still do solid damage to low armor targets
• Bestial Wrath burst is very high
• Kill Command crits for 30k are possible against high resilience clothies
• Arcane Shot spam is decent against all classes
• The Beast Within can be used a 2nd trinket about every minute
• Improved Mend Pet does a decent job of removing cc from your pet if you keep Mend Pet always up on your pet
• Mages die very quickly
• The strategy vs Mages is to both open on Mage and get that Ice Block.  After Ice Block is when you blow Bestial Wrath and finish the Mage.  As a Hunter in 2's your job is to always be on the Mage until death occurs.  Mages left open are bad news and Hunters are very good vs Mages.
• Scatter Shot is baseline so BM can actually use Freezing Trap to cc the off target
• Arcane Shot damage is solid because of the high Attack Power that BM can attain
• Don't use Kill Command on high armor targets, just spam Arcane Shot
• Focus regen is very fluid as BM and the need to Cobra Shot (or Steady Shot) all the time is much lower than Marks or Survival

As a Hunter we still lack good defensive abilities.  Which is why a Rogue is really nice as a partner as he can keep classes that gun for me off of me.  So if the other team has a Rogue that is going for me, my Rogue's job is to keep him off me and I kite, doing damage to the other Rogue while healing myself.

I believe BM could still use a few tweaks to make it more viable in 3's and against high armor targets.  If I could change 2 things about BM this would be it:

Kill Command would ignore 50-75% armor and be castable when your pet is within 10-15 yards of target (instead of the current 5 yards) due to pet pathing issues.

Silencing Shot should be a baseline Hunter ability.  I think most classes that have a silence have it baseline.  This change would really allow all Hunter specs to perform close to par in PvP, or at least be close to Marks Hunters.

2v2 Rogue / Hunter Update
My Rogue partner broke his finger and now has a cast on his hand for 3 weeks.  We will probably not do any 2's until the cast is off.  So 2k will be delayed for a bit.

In other news:
The Hunter Getnerded with Kung Fu Cleave (Marks Hunter / Arms Warrior / Resto Shaman) is now the highest Arena Rated Hunter in the world at 2953 in 3's.  Arena Junkies post link.