WoW Reports goes Live

WoW Reports, my brand new blog, has posted the 2nd week of Arena class statitistics.

I'll give you a hint on which classes are dominating: both wear plate.


Not too much to report on the Hunter side of things.  I am specced into Survival, so I am currently trying to raise my skill level in PvP and PvE as a Survival Hunter. 

One thing I have been immensly enjoying is my 1 minute Wyvern Sting.  In BG's using Wyvern Sting reminds me of the past, pre BC, where I would Wyvern players on their mounts in World PvP...  great times.

Can't believe it is almost 2009.  Happy new years everyone.  Hope 3.0.8 comes with the new year, on the 6th.
 

3.0.8 Survival Hunter Specs

For updated Specs, Shot Rotation, etc., visit my Survival Page.

I have been a BM Hunter ever since WoW 2.0 (The Beast Within). I have occasionally tried out Survival or Marksmanship here or there, but have always come home to Beast Mastery. After 3.0.8 is released, I might not be a BM Hunter anymore.

Explosive Shot is back in power. Which means, my primary damage will no longer be physical. My primary damage will be mainly fire damage, especially in PvP where Auto Shots are limited and Steady Shots go unused.

I plan to respec to Survival this Tuesday, even if 3.0.8 is not released, just so I can start practicing as a Survival Hunter (the practice is mainly for PvP).

I have studied which talents are decent as a Survival Hunter and have come up with three different builds:

Survival PvE

Survival PvP

Survival PvP/PvE Hybrid

Notes:

• 2/3 in Expose Weakness because it should have 98% up time with just 2 talent points.

• Counterattack is in the Hybrid and PvP build because the 50% disarm talents are very nice vs. Rogues, and attaining Counterattack for only one talent point seems like an okay deal (after testing I might revisit it)

The basic rotation for Survival Hunters in PvE should be this:
Explosive Shot - Steady Shot x3 Repeat
While keeping Serpent Sting on the target.

If you have enough haste to bring Steady Shot down to 1.5 sec, than it is possible to fit 4 Steady Shots in between Explosive Shot, but that is with 0ms. And with the nerf to Steady Shot and the huge buff to Explosive Shot, I would not, even minutely, delay Explosive Shot from firing, as its just too much damage.

I plan to have a Survival Talent Guide up in the coming weeks after some experience with the tree.

1st Week Top 100 Arena 2v2 Results

Note: I know that 2v2 is the toughest for Blizzard to balance, but it is the most played bracket.

The end of the first week of Season 5 Arena has come and we begin to see trends of the best classes in 2v2 at the moment.  One team was incomplete (only had one high ranked player), so there were only 199 players out of the usual 200.

Top 100 in Arena 2v2

62 Paladins (31%)
54 Death Knights (27%)
23 Rogues (11.5%)
17 Mages (8.5%)
13 Priests (6.5%)
9 Hunters (4.5%)
8 Shamans (4%)
8 Druids (4%)
5 Warriors (2.5%)
0 Warlocks (0%)

Trends:

• Paladins and Death Knights trending higher than early in the 1st week (didn't think that was possible).

• Mages and Rogues trending lower than early in the 1st week (being replaced by DK's and Paladins).

• Priests trending higher, Hunters trending lower.  Other classes without significant shifts of representation.
  

Hunter in the #1 Arena 2's Team in the World

Doss, a BM Hunter, and Walka, a Holy Paladin, are currently the top Arena 2's team in the World.  They are currently rated 2152.  This is quite an accomplishment for Hunter's even though we are still underrepresented overall in the top 100 in 2's at the moment.

BM Hunters are going to be getting a big nerf come patch (Readiness no longer affecting Bestial Wrath), and that Viper sting will no longer own Retribution Paladins (percentage based mana drains).  These 2 big nerfs will definitely have an effect on the PvP prowess of Hunters.  It will be interesting to see what other specs Hunters will come up with to compete in PvP (especially considering the new Explosive Shot).



Interesting PTR developments:

Beast Mastery

* Master's Call now remove all root and movement impairing effects from itself and its target, and causes your pet and its target to be immune to all such effects for 4 sec. (Old - Didn't affect pet)


Marksmanship

* Arcane Shot mana cost has been reduced from 7% of base mana to 5% of base mana for higher ranks. From 10% of base mana to 7% of base mana for lower ranks.


Survival

* Explosive Shot have been greatly increased but the ability doesn't deal AE damage anymore. (Rank 4: You fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing [ 18% of RAP + 476 ] Fire damage. The charge will blast the target every second for an additional 2 sec.)


Pet

* Spore Cloud (Rank 6) range has been increased from 5 yards to 6 yards.


Others (link):

Glyph of Mend Pet: Now gives +20 Happiness per tick in addition to the 20 on initial application.


Aspects are back on the regular GCD.
Bestial Wrath is now off the GCD.

Scorpid Poison is now using the same spell AP ratio that others are using (~4.28%) rather than the 5% we modeled previously (the spreadsheet uses 5%). I think that is what they meant in the patch notes about making it the same as other abilities.

So it looks like Rake and Scorpid Poison come out of this pretty well intact.
 
 

1st Week of Arena Season 5 Data

If burst is the new king, Paladin's are the queen.  Their anti-burst bubble's make them the best class to counter burst (especially melee).

Note: It is way too early in the season to truly see where the classes are going to end up.  I'm just bringing the facts as they are written.  Just take the facts with a grain of salt; it is too early to make great judgments concerning classes.

In the top 100 in 2's, there are 57 paladins (28.5% representation, half the teams had at least one paladin)!
Source: http://www.sk-gaming.com/arena/team/2/all/all/all/all/all/

There are in fact a few Hunter's in the top 100 (12 at the moment, 6% representation).  Almost all of them are 50/21, which is getting a severe nerf come next patch.

The rest of the classes in the top 100:

37 Death Knights (18.5%)
36 Mages (18%)
34 Rogues (17%)
8 Druids (4%)
6 Priests (3%)
5 Shamans (2.5%)
4 Warriors (2%)
1 Warlock (0.5%)

From the data, right now, in the first week, it looks like Paladins, Death Knights, Mages & Rogues are doing very well in some combo's in 2's.  Every other class has much less representation at the moment.

Now I also know that on my server Death Knights and Paladins are the most played class at 80, representing 26% of the player base at 80.  If this is true for most servers, than Paladins and Death Knights should do above average just because of their higher player representation (opposite goes for lower played classes).

My 2's experience this week (Hunter/Rogue):

We can blow up half the teams real fast and I can kite around pillars (except in the terrible Ring of Valor arena).  We have extreme trouble with Paladin and Death Knight teams.  This is unfortunate because we play these 2 classes in half of our games.


My 3's experience this week (Hunter/Rogue/Death Knight):

I die so fast, it hurts so bad.  Please oh god, the pain...  Cannot wait for new Deterrence... anything to stop the murdering of my poor, poor Hunter...  It did not help that almost every game was in the Ring of Valor, which was suppose to help Hunters, but in my experience, it is my worst arena by far since Hunters have terrible defensive abilities.
 

Nuramoc Tamed

 
@6:26 (Server Time), December 16th, on Blackrock, Nuramoc was tamed.


Details and information after pic.

Siphter, my loyal Rogue friend, spotted her for me.  Luckily I was logged out right by the bridge.  I logged in and flew about 50 yards to the left of this image and tamed Nuramoc.

It had been an interesting day since earlier in the day I had seen my first Nuramoc in the wild (it was on the PTR).  She flies in a figure 8 wherever she spawns.  She does not despawn in one hour if no one touches her like some people have suggested (I was afk with her for over an hour and a half).  She does fly fast, about normal mount speed.

She doesn't fly as high as some people have suggested, about only 10 yards up most the time.  Here are some pics:

 

  

  

Wow.  It has been a lot of camping and flying to try to find this rare beast.  I tried to tame her after the 3.0.2 patch came out and there was just too much competition, and I finally gave up.  But this time around, I stuck with it as there was hardly any competition so I knew I could eventually snag me a Nuramoc.  She is beautiful.

Oh, and by the way, the Arena season has begun...  I will have to jump in this week and see how I fair...  We will see if there is any type of PvP balance at 80...
 

Patch 3.0.8 Hunter Changes

Hunter

• All Hunter pet abilities with a cooldown of 30 seconds or more are no longer on the global cooldown.
• The coefficient of Rake (Cat) and Scorpid Venom (Scorpid) has been lowered.

Skills
Marksmanship

• Volley damage has been reduced by 30%. (From 505 to 353 damage for Rank 6)   
• Viper Sting now Stings the target, draining 16% of mana over 8 sec (up to a maximum of 32% of the caster's maximum mana).
• Steady Shot now only gains 10% of attack power as damage (down from 20%).
• Kill Shot cooldown lowered from 35 to 15 seconds.

Survival

• Deterrence changed to - When activated, increases parry chance by 100% and grants a 100% chance to deflect spells cast by targets in front of you. While Deterrence is active, you cannot attack.  Lasts 5 sec. 1 min cooldown.
• Aspect of the Wild now affects raid members.

Pet

• Prowl (Rank 2) level requirement lowered from 40 to 30.

Talents
Beast Mastery

• Unleashed Fury now increases the damage done by your pets by 3/6/9/12/15%. (Down from 4/8/12/16/20%)
• Serpent's Swiftness now increases pet's melee attack speed by 2/4/6/8/10%. (Down from 4/8/12/16/20%)
• Kindred Spirits now increases pet's damage by 3/6/9/12/15%. (Down from 4/8/12/16/20%)

Survival

• Improved Tracking changed to While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%.
• Trap Mastery now only increases periodic damage done by Immolation and Explosive Trap. (Old - All damage)

Marksmanship

• Readiness doesn't affect Bestial Wrath anymore.
• Marked for Death now also affects Arcane Shot.

Pet

• Call of the Wild now benefits only the hunter and his or her pet.

I have been following the Hunter changes since they first appeared on the Damage Dealing forums. Let's break down the main 3 nerfs and the main 2 buffs...

Three Main Nerfs

• Readiness doesn't affect Bestial Wrath anymore.

This is the largest nerf to BM Hunters, as the 50/21 spec was unbelievably amazing in PvE and PvP.  Readiness in conjuction with Bestial Wrath was just too powerful.  I totally agree that this needed to happen.

• BM Talent Nerfs (Unleashed Fury, Serpent's Swiftness & Kindred Spirits)

These three talents were crucial talents and pretty much had to be picked up because of their damage increase.  I am okay with this nerf, as these talents are still very good after the nerf.

• Steady Shot now only gains 10% of attack power as damage (down from 20%).

This is a big nerf to Steady Shot for all Hunters.  This actually ends up hurting Survival the most as it is the most important part of Survival's damage (BM Hunters have their pets which do more damage than Steady Shot).  All Hunters will see their damage decrease with this nerf.

I love this change.  I can only hope they go a few steps further with the idea of Steady Shot being a filler shot and not our most important shot.  As a BM Hunter I must say PvE is ridiculously easy and extremely boring as I have to spam Steady Shot to do maximum damage.

I believe Blizz will have to buff Arcane Shot for it to be weaved into a BM Hunters rotation, even with the nerfs to Steady Shot (as Steady Shot still scales with weapon damage and ammo, while Arcane Shot does not).  Introducing more scaling with Arcane Shot would be a good boost to Hunters in PvP and allowing us to use more complex rotations for damage in PvE.


Two Main Buffs

• Kill Shot cooldown lowered from 35 to 15 seconds.

This is a solid buff to a very nice ability.  Being able to use it 2-4 times instead of 1-2 times on bosses is a dps boost, and having to wait on the cooldown in PvP will be a lot less painful.

• Deterrence changed to - When activated, increases parry chance by 100% grants a 100% chance to deflect spells cast by targets in front of you. While Deterrence is active, you cannot attack. Lasts 5 sec. 1 min cooldown.

This is a huge change.  Deterrence is now totally different than before.

If facing the target is taken out of the requirements, than Deterrence becomes a solid ability.  If facing the target remains, than when you might need Deterrence most (during a stun), Deterrence probably will not help you (as the attacker will now be behind you).

I do not like that I cannot attack the target during Deterrence, but I understand why they would have that limitation with the ability.  I wonder if Deterrence stops the damage from ticking dots when you enter Deterrence...  Basically, time will tell if Deterrence is a good ability or not, but any change to the mechanics of Deterrence is good in my book.
 

Best PvE Hunter Pet

For an updated post about 3.1 Hunter Pet DPS, view my new BM PvE page.


I have done some testing on level 80 test dummies with a Cat, Devilsaur, Wasp, Wind Serpent and Gorilla.

Pet families (tenacity, ferocity, cunning) have a large part to do with a pets damage; however, pet special abilities also factor in to pet damage.

Ferocity is the best tree for PvE (dps) and PvP.  That's just the way it works at the moment, and it is unfortunate that a whole pet family is inferior because the Cunning tree is lackluster.

Wind Serpent: Worst dps of the bunch (wait, isn't their a gorilla in the mix?...  yes there is...).  Go for the Throat makes Owl's Focus pretty worthless.  Cornered and Feeding Frenzy are trivial compared to a Ferocity's 9% crit and Rabid.  Wolverine Bite is actually okay in PvE (bad on target dummies), but does not make up the damage loss of the other abilities.  Anyways...  basically you just can't go with a Cunning pet in PvE or PvP (for min/maxing purposes)...  ; (

Gorilla: 2nd worst dps of the bunch.  Yes, Thunderstomp is just that overpowered, even for single target dps.  I'm not sure why it hits much harder that other pet special abilities, since it also hits every enemy nearby.  But there ya go, a tenacity pet that can carry its own weight in a dps fight.  I thought about taming and leveling a Scorpid but just didn't see great application for one (as they are only decent vs single target long boss fights, and I only participate in few 10 mans, and no 25 man raids), not to mention, that I just do not like the tenacity pet for PvE dps situations, the Ferocity in my opinion offers much better survival options (lick your wounds & heart of the phoenix).

Wasp: Right in the middle of the 5 test pets sits the Wasp.  This is my PvP pet.  The Sting is just too good against mages and rogues (and the debuff is good against all for the 1200 armor ignore at level 80).  However, in PvE, the Wasp seems to lose a bit of its dominance as other classes can bring their own abilities that lower enemies armor which override my Wasps sting.  Basically the Wasp is good but not great PvE dps.  For min/maxing, the Wasp does not cut it.

Devilsaur/Cat: Easily top dps.  They are both very close in terms of dps.  On a target dummy the cat wins by a small margin, but buffs help a Devilsaurs Monstrous Bite, which makes them about equal in actuality.  However, there is one major flaw that a Devilsaur has... and that is Monstrous Bite, which makes the Devilsaur grow... growing its hit box with it.  This makes your Devilsaur sometimes aggro other mobs or bug out (not to mention the pounding steps).  Basically it is just a little too much of a hassle to bring a Devilsaur and since a Cat is about equal dps, I prefer the small and silent Cat instead of a Devilsaur.

Going with a Cat also allows you more options with speccing since you do not have to go a full 51 points into the BM tree.

Basically I'm just trying to stay interested in the game now that I have almost every piece of gear that I want and almost full honor points.  Can't wait for the Arena Season 5 to begin...  17th...  I feel like I'm waiting for Wrath of the Lich King all over again.
 

Hunter BM PvE at 80

Since we are still 2 weeks away from true PvP, I have been gearing up through all of the heroic 5 man dungeons that Wrath of the Lich King has to offer me.

I am enjoying my best PvE damage with this spec (I believe this to be a very popular spec):
  
 

Volley is still the bread and butter of PvE and Serpent's Swiftness and Mortal Shots help make it very strong.  And on boss fights BM is great.  So there is really no downside except for the constant spam of Steady Shot making it the most bland raiding spec (luckily Volley is still fun for me).

I believe pretty much everyone will be sporting heavy PvE gear throughout half of the 5th season of arena.  Burst damage will be key, and Paladins will be strong in Arena's because of their negation of burst (Divine Shield and Hand of Protection).

I'm going to be playing mainly in 2's with a Rogue and in 3's with a Rogue and a Death Knight.  Hopefully we will have some success somewhere.  I really hope Hunter's get a few more survival buffs and a few more on the run damage buffs before too long into arena season 5.
 

Wasp

Sting: 64 to 86 Nature damage, decreases target's armor by 1260 for 20 seconds (level 80).  While affected, the target cannot stealth or turn invisible.

The damage from Sting is actually a little bit less than the focus dump Smack, but it also costs only 20 focus, where Smack costs 25.  This leads me to believe that a Wasp is not even losing a tiny bit of damage with this special on auto-cast, but the Wasp probably does not gain any damage either.

The affect of Sting besides the damage is the real reason to get a Wasp.  Lowering your targets armor by 1260 is amazing vs. anyone with low armor.  Also the affect of not allowing stealth or invisibility is a big counter to a Rogues and Mages (great counter to instant invis from Arcane Mages).

Being a Ferocity pet, Wasps end up with the best tree for a BM hunter.  They can easily crit in PvP and can be instantly rezzed with Heart of the Phoenix.

Overall I love my Wasp for PvP and PvE.  The only thing I would change about it is the annoying sound of its wings buzzing... and now you can get rid of that noise by doing the following:

You basically just need to make a blank file (I just made an empty text file and renamed it accordingly) called "SilithidWingLoop2.wav" and put it here in your Wow game folder:

*wow program path* \Data\Sound\Creature\SilithidWasp\SilithidWingLoop2.wav"

That will override the default buzzing sound with nothing at all, which is blessed compared to what they do now. All their other sounds will play normally.

It seems all wasps at the moment use this same sound resource.
 

BM PvP Build Level 80: Hunter vs. Wild

Updated:  January 23rd 2009

41/7/23

This build encompasses The Beast Within, 2/3 Careful Aim and Hunter vs. Wild.  This is a heavy attack power and huge health build for a BM Hunter.  Survivalist + Hunter vs. Wild makes Stamina a very strong stat. 

Note: Without Aimed Shot you do lose some burst (although with Lock and Load helps add back some burst).  The 50% healing debuff is the largest loss in this build.  If you PvP with someone who provides a healing debuff than this build really shines (like I 2v2 with a Rogue, so I can get away without having Aimed Shot).

 

This is my spreadsheet that I have come up with to show the effects of Hunter vs. Wild:

I receive 438 attack power from Hunter vs. Wild with my 1,459 current Stamina.  My pet receives 534 attack power from Hunter vs. Wild (since my pet also scales from the 425 attack power that I receive from Hunter vs. Wild).

This was an extremely fun build to pursue.  I love that Stamina is a new stat that I can stack, it is very different from my usual stat collection.  I thoroughly enjoy having extremely high health, great attack power and a pet that is out for blood.  I also enjoy having The Beast Within available for those "oh shit" moments in PvP.
 

Level 80 Pet Leveling Build

After an enjoyable leveling experience to 80, I have reached the finish line... sort of.

Unfortunately, now I have to level some of my pets to 80.  This is going to be a time consuming process, taking many hours for each pet.  The options I now have at 80 allow me to build my character for the sole purpose of leveling pets.

The fastest way to level pets is aoe'ing mobs with Volley.  Unfortunately only Gorilla's can keep mobs off of you while you Volley.  So this build expects you to not have a Gorilla.  It offers top Volley damage while excellent protection from the many mobs attacking you during Volley.  Also, it has no mana downtime; infinite mana in Dragonhawk.  There is some health downtime though as your tanking these mobs, so you will probably need plenty of food or bandages.

Note: Some of the non essential talents I have are personal preference and may differ from popular opinion (ex. picking up Savage Strikes in Tier 1 of Surival because I hate having to switch my tracking to exactly what I'm killing) 

The essential points of this Pet Leveling Build are these:

• Aspect Mastery
• Reduces incoming damage by 5% when in Dragonhawk and also gives you 90 more attack power in Dragonhawk

• Careful Aim, Lethal Shots & Mortal Shots
  
• Careful Aim gives me 400 more attack power, the extra crit and damage on crit is very nice for Volley

• Trueshot Aura
• Self explanatory; gives me just over 300 attack power
  

• Barrage & Improved Barrage
• Increases damage of Volley by 12% and allows you to keep channeling Volley while being hit (essential, as only Gorilla's can keep mobs off you during Volley)

• Rapid Recuperation & Rapid Killing
• Zero downtime, always at 80% mana or more; essential for speed aoe'ing (never have to switch to Viper)

• Survival Instincts
• Reduces incoming damage by 4% (stacks with Aspect Mastery)
  

• Hunter vs. Wild & Survivalist
• The extra health from Survivalist is very nice and the extra attack power from Hunter vs. Wild is nothing to sneeze at.  I recieve 374 extra attack power from Hunter vs. Wild with my current gear.
  

   
I believe this build to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, way to level pets up to 80.

Well, I guess its back to leveling...  *grumble grumble*... the only class to have to level past the cap...

 

Wrath of the Lich King BM Hunter Leveling Spec

My Leveling Spec at 70:

I went with Invigoration only because a Gorilla's Thunderstomp multiple crits will proc Invigoration multiple times (this is the only way that this talent is decent at all).

I didn't pick up GftT because I plan to mostly be using Volley, which does not proc GftT.

Frenzy isn't required as my pet is an aoe king, not a solo king; and this allows me to pick up better talents throughout the tree (better talents in respect to aoe leveling).

I plan to finish Serpent's Swiftness at 71.  And then put points into Kindred Spirits & Beast Mastery.  I'll probably finish up leveling by putting points into Hawk Eye for my personal satisfaction.

My Gorilla's Leveling Spec at 70:

 

   

Picked up the best tanking talent points available and plan to pick up Pet Barding as I level.

  

I'm not sure how long it will take to level from 70 to 80, but I bet it is going to be much more fun than 60 to 70, because of our much better ability to aoe.  

 

Oh, and head's up...  Glyph of Volley (Decreases the mana cost of Volley by 20%) will probably be available on the AH shortly after Wrath is released.  I advise picking that puppy up for aoe leveling.

 

Two Level 80 BM Hunter Builds for Arena Season 5

Arena Season 5 begins on December 16th.  That gives everyone a little over a month to get their 70 character to 80.  That should be enough time for most people to get to 80 if they only play one character to 80.  For Death Knights it will be a little bit tougher...

There are 2 difference specs I would like to try at 80.  One involves BM / Marks and the other is BM / Survival.

This is probably going to be very similar to most PvP BM Hunters come 80 (although I prefer Hawk Eye in all my builds).  Here is the BM / Marks build:

The BM / Survival build is my personal gem that I really want to try out come 80.  The premise is attaining Hunter vs Wild which gives you and your pet a lot of attack power, which BM lacks (in both the Hunter and pet).  It also makes Stamina the best stat to stack by far.  I chose Savage Strikes instead of 2 points instead of Improved Tracking because I find it really annoying to switch from Tracking Stealth since tracking is on the GCD.  Here is the build: 

 

Wolf - Furious Howl: My pet for PvP

Furious Howl is an ability that can always be up on your wolf (10 second duration on a 10 second cooldown).

It gives you and your party 138 attack power (which is very nice for 2v2 or 3v3 with my Rogue friend).  But it also buffs your pets attack power by 168!  Since by boosting your attack power, your giving more attack power (30) to your pet along with the 138 attack power of Furious Howl.

This is a nice ability since its a self buff and cannot be resisted, blocked, dodged or parried.  The wolf is also a Ferocity pet so it can reliably crit in PvP (Ferocious Inspiration & Frenzy do not go to waste) and has great survivability talents (Lick Your Wounds & Heart of the Phoenix).  Also Call of the Wild is freaking ridiculous, 20 second Trueshot Aura, thank you.

This pet seems to be a true winner for a double dps Rogue Hunter team, and even for a 3's team with a Rogue, Hunter and Healer.  I cannot wait until 80 to get more pet talent points and talent points for myself.  A little under 2 weeks...
 

Hyena: Not Impressive

Since switching to a build without the 51 point Beast Mastery talent I decided I should try the slowing capabilities of the Hyena, since I loved my Chimaera so much.  To get straight to the point, the Hyena slow does not compare to the Chimaera slow at all.

With Longevity it is on a 14 second cooldown (6 second slow).  So theoretically it should be up 43% of the time.  However, it is a physical ability and therefore can be dodged, blocked or parried.  This means against Rogues, Warriors and Feral Druids (melee classes), this slow will not be up reliably.  Against casters this slow will fare better.

Compared to other pet specials this is not a top ten ability.  The only real good thing going for the Hyena is that it is a Ferocity pet, which allows it to crit (with talents) reliably in PvP.  However, there are other Ferocity pets out there that are better than the Hyena.
 

1658 Hunter Rogue Arena

It may not sound like an accomplishment, but my Rogue friend and I just got above 1650!  Disregarding the OP Ret Paladins, I feel as though Hunter's are better off in the Arena than what they were before the 3.0.2 patch.  We still have a way's to go, but we are getting better.

It took us two big run ups to get past 1650.  This time however, we did vs some Ret Pally teams, and actually won half of the time (some of those Paladins were absolutely terrible, most of the good ones are probbly above 2k by now).

We versed a Warrior Warrior team and got 24 points (were very good against melee teams).  And then we versed a couple different Warrior Druid teams and got some good points to get us past 1650.  To defeat the Warrior Druid teams we blew up the Warrior and my Rogue would blind Druid at a crucial point and then stun him up and I was left alone to finish the Warrior.  With our burst we were able to down the Warrior decently easy, in about 15-20 seconds, and our gear isn't that great yet (burst is very high since patch).

When 3.0.3 goes live, I expect Hunter's to be in a better position (given the buffs to Hunter's and nerfs to Paladins).  I would expect to be able to get into the 1700's after the patch.  We will still be rather weak vs casters, which is unfortunate but with a Rogue, it is definitely not impossible to beat a good caster team.

Well, back to the honor grind for my new Guardian's Band of Triumph.
 

Hunter & Rogue 2v2 Arena - 3.0.2

I 2v2 with my rogue friend.  We were a win away from attaining 1650 yesterday, but unfortunately we started queuing the Ret Pally teams, and we could not close the deal.

As a Hunter, I have zero defense vs. casters and therefore cannot engage them out in the open and hope to live to tell the tale.  There is only one reliable defense against casters: LOS!

Every game I find a pillar and stick on it, laying a frost trap by it and kiting around it.  My Chimeara helps kiting with Frostorm Breath.  The Beast Within can also help with kiting or damage depending on the need.

Most players trying to kill me will give up way too late, after my partner has already killed the healer or their other dps.  With nameplates in sight no matter where you are in the Arena, LOS'ing has never been easier.

This LOS worked incredibly well at defending me against mages, warlocks, priests, warriors, rogues and shamans.  It did not help in defending me against Paladins, because of Freedom, and it only helped a little bit verse Hunters, because of Pets.

There definitely is some sweet redemption to LOS'ing the same classes who use to LOS me in the past.

With the upcoming buffs to Disengage and Aspect of the Monkey, Hunter's will be in an even better position against Melee, while still lacking magic defense.  Unfortunately Arcane Mages will still be crazy bursty, as will Moonkins, but at least Ret Pallies might not continue their crusade of destruction.

I still think Hunter's are in the basement of the Arena class pool, especially if the better classes are casting classes (as we have no defense against them).
 

Chimaera: Froststorm Breath + Wolverine Bite = Win

For the last week I have been absolute in love with one pet, a Chimaera (exotic pet).  There is nothing quite like seeing my pet Froststorm Breath someone from range in the face and slowing them down so I can stand there and unload.

Froststorm Breath is the special Chimaera's have.  The ability inflicts 30-40 Frost & Nature damage (scales & doubled in 3.0.3) and slows the target for 5 sec.  Froststorm Breath is on a 10 sec CD, but 3/3 Longevity make it a 7 sec CD (that's an uptime of 71.4%).

Even if Froststorm Breath were the only thing going for a Chimaera, they would still be excellent for PvP.  But there is an ability in the Cunning tree called Wolverine Bite.  This ability causes 355 damage, modified by pet lvl, that your pet can use after its target dodges, and cannot be dodged, blocked or parried.  It is on a 10 sec CD, but that's 7 sec CD with 3/3 Longevity.

My screenshot of the Wolverine Bite critting the Rogue in Warsong Gulch for 3.2k is evidence enough that this ability kicks some serious ass.

Here is some data that I have compiled after a long World PvP session in front of the Scarlet Monastery.  It is not entirely accurate as sometimes I would kill a few low lvl mobs in the way, but for the most part it gives us an idea about the Chimaera's abilities in PvP.

Chimaera Data

Melee:

As you can see, the Chimaera being a Cunning pet, does not tend to crit often in PvP (Resilience blows).  The htis and crits are not anything special.

Bite:

Bite crits a little more often due to Cobra Strikes.  It's damage is right around a melee hit.

Froststorm Breath:

Again, FB crits more often than Melee because of Cobra Strikes.  FB's damage is not very good.  However, when the damage is doubled it will do a little more damage, on average, than Bite or Melee.  That is pretty huge considering it also slows for 5 sec.

Wolverine Bite:

And last but not least we have Wolverine Bite.  It seemed to crit considerably higher than other special abilities and I'm not sure why that is.  As you can see the damage is amazing, average hits were 597, and average crits were 1147.  To get the much higher hits and crits with Wolverine Bite, Kill Command needs to be used (1492 hit, 2835 crit).


I have been completely surprised on how deeply I've fallen for my Chimaera.  In World PvP & BG's there is no other like my Chimaera.  In Arena's its a little more dependant on group makeup.
 

Anti-Melee Hunter & Hunter Glyph Guide for PvP

Over the last few days trying I've tried out a few BM talent builds.  I believe I have found one of the best Anti-Melee Hunter builds available at 70.

I have been able to easily beat all types of Rogues, Warriors and yes, even some Ret Paladins.

The talent build is 53/7/0 (the specific build can be found on the BM PvP page).

The key pet in this build is the Chamaera pet.  Its special, Froststorm Breath, decreases movement speed by 50% for 5 seconds every 7 seconds (with Longevity).

Combine Froststorm Breath with concussive shot (4 second daze) and your target can always be slowed from range.

It is also a Cunning pet, which has Wolverine Bite available.  Wolverine Bite comes into play after the target dodges, which will usually happen against a melee target, and it hits hard, crazy hard!

This was on a Rogue in Warsong Gulch, my buffs that created this monstrous Wolverine Bite crit are just Aspect of the Monkey, 200 AP Trinket, Bestial Wrath & Kill Command.

Another key point of this build is having the Glyph of Frost Trap (increases radius by 2 yards) and the Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey (after dodging while in Aspect of the Monkey your movement speed is increased by 30% for 6 secs).  This allows me to kite melee classes around my larger frost trap while most of the time running at 30% faster speed.

Bestial Wrath / Beast Within & Intimidation are some other essential tools available with this build (but I'm guessing your very familiar with them).

Disengage & Deterrence are some other major tools available that can be of excellent help in defeating melee opponents.

With all these tools in this build Hunter's can defeat and even dominate melee classes... now caster classes, that's a different story...


I also have posted a Hunter Glyph Guide for PvP.