Tuesday, March 1, 2011

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.
     

    7 comments:

    David said...

    This was outstanding and exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Shaedon!

    David said...

    Oh quick question. As BM, in what way do you use camo? Do you use to get an opening trap? Or maybe to position yourself for opening burst?

    David said...

    I always use Camo right at the beginning of each match.

    Ruins and Nagrand I usually stay stealth for the first 5-10 seconds and form a plan with my Rogue.

    Sewers, I try to get behind the boxes straight ahead.

    Blade's Edge I get to my side of the bridge.

    Dominium said...

    Hey Shaedon,
    Just found your blog, it's very interesting and has a lot of useful information! Will add to my favorites for sure :-)
    Also, very interesting thoughts on BM hunter's in Arena, and go go to 2k rating!
    Cheers!
    P.S. I am also a orc BM hunter :-)

    David said...

    Thanks, we will once again be pushing our 2's rating and probably trying out 3's more seriously come next week. Hope to post more then.

    David said...

    Looking forward to your next post.

    Anonymous said...

    I enjoy BM in arena over MM. As a BM, i tend to run with other high burst DPS classes, even in 3s, I prefer to go 3 DPS. For 2s, BM/Feral is the best by far. BM/Rogue and BM/Ret are about tied. One advantage of going with a ret is the off heal they can give you. With feral or good rogue, typically the kill target is dead within 10 seconds of opening on him due to the high burst and movement blocks.

    For 3s, i find the best comps for a BM hunter is Ret, Rogue, BM Hunter,,, the rogues smoke screen is invaluable when him and the ret sandwich the kill target and block the heals from coming in to him.

    I have all my shots macro'd, its worth the time to set them up. Arcane shot and kill command are linked and also force me into aspect of the hawk. Cobra shot is linked with aspect of the fox. No matter what aspect I am in, when I hit those shots I go into the right aspect and having kill command linked as well, avoids having to spam kill command separately. scatter and my pets intimidate are macros to my focus target which makes it easier to use our limited cc's well. using intimidate helps either peel another dos off my partner or acts as another cc for the healer, which sometimes they trinket out of not knowing its only a 4 second trap. I always start out with my cc's using intimidate, then scatter, then ice.. usually since we are doing so much damage to the kill target as double dps, their healer will trinket out of either the scatter or intimidate, which allows me to then ice trap him for the full duration. the first move the feral makes is to cyclone the cc target as well, with cyclone and my cc's this gives us a 10 to 20 second cc chain that usually is all we need to get the kill target dead. both feral and me blow all cd's right when we open up as well. I bind all my racial perks as Orc, along with beastial wrath and other poppable dos boosters, like the trinket into one macro, its my mouse side button, when i hit it a few times, i am in full burst mode.. doing huge damage along with the feral. its best to target the other dps unless you see that the other healer is weak, like a low priest or shammy,, we love killing their healer first if he looks weakly geared.

    my pet heal is also macros, i have a key and modifier to allow me to either have my pet heal me, or my partner.

    another tip is to have 2 spirit beasts, two cats or a wolf and cat for example.. these are the only pets i use, unless i need to call a monkey out during a match to use his blind as another cc if we didn't kill the kill target right away and we need to have a little more cc power when all our cd's reset. the tip for the pets is when there is about 13 seconds left before the match starts, have your pets roar of courage on his button bar, pop roar of courage, then dismiss the pet, and call the other spirit pet.. this gives you and your partner a 1 minute 500 agility buff that is killer when going double dos with a feral that can use the agility well. make sure to turn off the pets ability to cast roar of courage and pet heal on his own, and use them in your macros instead.

    i gem for agility and always get the socket bonuses, and reforge for crit after making sure my hit is at least 5%. my mastery is about 11% and i have tried to reforge everything for mastery and gem for it.. and got it up to 18% but didn't find that it worked any better for me.

    the best hunter is WOW is Garx or something like that, he's close to 3k in 2s and 3s, and is BM. google for tips from him, he has good advice on use of macros. People always ask me to go MM in arena, and i hate that, having more DPS as BM plus making sure to use your pets cc's when you want to not when your pet wants to, and having pet heals for you and your partner, i find is better than the extra cc and control MM would give.. if BM ever gets silence shot.. it would be perfect!!

    my name is Badges and play on skullcrusher US horde server. Im in full caty gear with the 2200 elite weapons.