Returning Hunter requesting advice...

[NoDoze 1]

First I wanted to say thanks for all the work you all have done on your site's guides and forums...   

I am thinking of trying WoW again (haven't really played since WoTLK/Cata) and it looks like I will be getting a new level 100 character and am thinking of doing an Elven BeastMaster Hunter.

So far I have read quite a bit and am focusing on Azortharion's BM Hunter guide and his 100-110 leveling guide (which was written for MM & NOT BM Hunters).

My goals are:

- Be able to explore/solo quite a bit and collect Exotic pets without having to deal with griefers;

- Gear up and maybe join a family friendly raiding guild (have busy job and lots of kids so I can't be on as much as some people);

- Do fun PVP BattleGrounds;

Some questions:

- Q1: Since I am alliance and prefer an active PVE server, would US-Stormrage be the best server to look at?

- Q2: Since the above leveling guide was for MM hunters, is there anything in particular I should treat differently for BM hunters (in addition to taking the skills/talents from the BM guide)?

- Q3: Are there any things that I need to be careful about choosing while leveling up 100-110 (one time quest reward choices that matter for end game, etc)?

- Q4:  Should I use Heirlooms if I have them or should I avoid them on 100-110 (I thought I had read that they can now go to level 110 but the ones I have seem to only go up to 60)?

- Q5: Which is the best pet & spec to get for soloing/leveling these days (maybe a Tenacity Quilen)?

Edited May 18, 2017 by NoDoze

[Khallid 110]

US-Stormrage is great for PvE as Alliance. There's probably very small difference with other big alliance servers.

BM hunters have a more tanky pet and a much higher portion of your damage comes from the pet, which helps your pet maintain threat over you, so it's just a lot easier to solo content than with MM. Those are basically the only differences. BM is extremely powerful at soloing content. You can usually brush off quests that say "suggested players: 3 or 5", and just do it by yourself.

There's nothing to be careful about really, you can change talents at any time. There are no quests below level 110 that give any useful rewards whatsoever, other than the class questline to get the BM artifact weapon, which is a given.

I haven't used heirlooms ever, so I can't comment on that really. They are not necessary, but you do level faster with that exp bonus.

Pets are basically all the same in terms of stats. Their special ability is the only thing they get different. And you can switch pets to Tenacity at any point (Tenacity highly recommended for solo content). Quillen is indeed excellent since it gets a passive shield that activates when its HP is low, plus battle res. However, battle res is not useful when you're solo. The best pet to get is probably a Core Hound which gives Ancient Hysteria.

[NoDoze 1]

Thanks Khallid.  That also helps my concerns regarding the Artifact weapon.  Been reading guides on it and was hoping it was something I could not mess up.  I do plan to level it as Azortharion recommends in his article.

[Sisco 23]

the only thing you never want to do is get a refund on your artifact traits. if you accidently spend a point wrong, just work around it.

[NoDoze 1]

28 minutes ago, Sisco said:

the only thing you never want to do is get a refund on your artifact traits. if you accidently spend a point wrong, just work around it.

Thanks for the guidance.  Note that my main initial focus will be soloing and exploring on this character & capturing unique pets while leveling.  I am not 100% sure I will start raiding again but don't mind sacrificing some solo-ability for raid-viability when it comes to choices on artifact/gear... 

Currently I plan to follow this explicitly:

https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/beast-mastery-hunter-pve-dps-artifact-talents-traits-relics

I frankly am not sure I understand it fully yet and assume at this point that I do the 1.1 (Early Progression) and then do the 1.2 (Patch 7.2 Progression).   It would be good to know however if 7.2 changed things and the 1.2 section is an update that replaces the 1.1 section for someone starting new right now.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by NoDoze

[Khallid 110]

Yes do the early progression first as stated in the guide. The 7.2 changes are additional traits that can only be taken after level 35 (and doing a quest chain to open them), so it does not affect the early progression.

The only thing about Artifact levels is that it takes a lot of time to level them up, but eventually you can have all the traits. So in the long run the path doesn't matter, but in the short term it does.

Note that you will probably reach level 110 by the time your artifact is around level 10 or so (if I remember correctly, the AP requirements jump up after level 13). At level 110 your class hall has a research option to increase Artifact Knowledge, which increases the amount of Artifact Power you get and the effect is gigantic. High levels of artifact weapon are completely impossible to obtain without a high Artifact Knowledge.

Edited May 18, 2017 by Khallid

[Banard 61]

17 hours ago, NoDoze said:

My goals are:

- Be able to explore/solo quite a bit and collect Exotic pets without having to deal with griefers;

- Gear up and maybe join a family friendly raiding guild (have busy job and lots of kids so I can't be on as much as some people);

- Do fun PVP BattleGrounds;

Some questions:

- Q1: Since I am alliance and prefer an active PVE server, would US-Stormrage be the best server to look at?

- Q2: Since the above leveling guide was for MM hunters, is there anything in particular I should treat differently for BM hunters (in addition to taking the skills/talents from the BM guide)?

- Q3: Are there any things that I need to be careful about choosing while leveling up 100-110 (one time quest reward choices that matter for end game, etc)?

- Q4:  Should I use Heirlooms if I have them or should I avoid them on 100-110 (I thought I had read that they can now go to level 110 but the ones I have seem to only go up to 60)?

- Q5: Which is the best pet & spec to get for soloing/leveling these days (maybe a Tenacity Quilen)?

(Q1) Yes if you want to be on a PVE server with lots of people. Basically, when stormrage dies wow be dead. Stormrage for PVE, Sargaras for PVP. These server are building..mainly from people moving from low population severs to these. 

(Q2) Simplify yar game you been out for so long...use https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/beast-mastery-hunter-pve-dps-easy-mode and worry about adjusting to the optimal setup once you hit 110 and done a few dungeons. 

(Q3) No....just sit back and enjoy. Note if you have not played since wotlk/cata...it might be nice to level a fresh hunter and see MoP/WOD those zones were amazing and levelling was fun. 

(Q4) Can't use heirlooms at that level (as of yet...think i read this is changing in a future patch. 

(Q5) I levelled with a DPS pet, simple as that. Lots of people complain about there pet dying so...maybe a tenacity Turtle/Beetle but i had no issues. 

 

UNASKED QUESTION 6: VERY IMPORTANT. - Do fun PVP BattleGrounds;

so random bgs....i am not having fun at all in these. Win or Lose..i just not liking it and I have always liked to pvp now and then. I honestly am hating it. Not trying to discourage you...but i think my hatred comes from being BM.  So soon, once my atrifact is 52 again....i plan on maxing out MM for battleground to see if that will make a difference. There has been a lot of talk about MM being fun and good in battlegrounds. 

Figure i add this to mull over in the back of your head. 

 

Side note: 

Coming from WOTLK/CATA BM will look a bit different but feel the same. 

MM is going to look like the child of some incestuous union compared to MM from wotlk/cata. Note both wotlk/cata MM was more enjoyable. 

Surv....well you use a stick....a stick...melee......../rants again on the lost of his favourite spec.  

Edited May 18, 2017 by Banard

[NoDoze 1]

Thanks Banard.  I will start with the easy mode setup and work on perfecting optimal rotations later if I decide to raid with my hunter.  I am hopeful that I will enjoy BGs again but that may not be a deal breaker... 

Note that back in the day I did play a ton of WoW and was a theorycrafter/play-tester on pretty much every class & most specs (I multi-boxed with ISBoxer and had lots of toons across my 5 accounts).  I was the main build helper in our Twink Guild for our BG teams so I tried to learn all of the classes...  For BGs I all at least tried all specs for Hunter, Shaman, Druid, Paladin, & Warlocks and did Holy/Discipline Priests and Frost Mage (& later DKs when they came out) and tried to perfect each twink build & gearset before moving to the next one...  

When I wasn't doing end game stuff or farming gear for twinks in our guild on my main BM Hunter I typically ended up playing healers in twink BGs (did Druid, Paladin, Shaman, & Priest with Druid being my favorite healer) though my BM Hunter twink was always my favorite when we had enough healers...  In short I was BM Hunter Main and my main twink was also BM Hunter unless we were short healers (which was most of the time).

Please report back when you get hands on with MM and let us know if that changes your impression of Hunters in current BGs.

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by NoDoze

[Luthixx 138]

Everyone's already summed things up pretty nicely, so I won't add much.

In terms of pets, literally just go with whatever type of pet you want appearance wise, as you can change your pet specialisation as easily as you can your own. For leveling, stay with ferocity for just general mobs but if it's an elite mob or a quest elite or you're struggling to kill things, just change your pet to tenacity.

In terms of pvp, BM is actually incredibly strong at the moment, but the transition from PVE to PVP if you've got good gear is soul-crushing. No more PVP gear and no PVE effects in PVP. Everyone is a lot more equal and the only difference is your stats go up by 1% for every 10 ilvls, so if you're ilvl 800 (base) in a BG, going up against someone ilvl 915 they'll have a 10.5% stat advantage over you.

I'll agree with Banard about how horrible the other specs really are... MM in WoD was 10000x better than what it is now. Survival is incredibly fun and insanely OP if you can unleash your full burst on someone, but it's quite a complex spec to play and even harder to play competitively in PVP.

 

[Khallid 110]

I don't do much PVP but my impression is that BM is slightly better than MM for the most part. BM has a stronger burst than MM, so when I drop all my cooldowns I can usually kill any dps in 5 to 10 seconds, and we're not particularly weak to anything. MM has more range and better burst cleave, but I don't tend to cleave so much in pvp. BM does have a fairly bad downtime after all the cooldowns are spent (due to lack of legendary and pve tier effects), but that happens to almost every class.

However, my impression is that our cc is fairly weak (both MM and BM, probably also Surv but I haven't checked), and good cc is very important for pvp, so I find that I'm not that good at dealing with healers, since I basically only deal damage. The interrupt has a long cooldown, and I usually can't get good stuns going unless I talent Intimidate, which has a horribly long cooldown. The ice trap is too slow to throw to effectively stop healer casts and since it breaks to damage it usually doesn't do that much, or I just suck at using it.

The advantage of mobility is not as good in pvp as it is in pve, except for maybe following someone who tries to run away. Running away from pets doesn't work well for most classes. Switching targets can be a bit slow since the pets need to run to the next target, but kill command has a decent range.

[Banard 61]

Let me reiterate ....i has nothing to do if BM is doing fine in BGs. For most game i top the charts on wining or losing teams, not every game but the majority.  

Quote

 

but we now play meleecraft and although they removed a bunch of CC there is more roots & stuns then ever before. This makes random BGs horrible...in random BGs for 10+ years ...cc occured but was rare and it broke..cause you know random. CC was amazing in arena and RBG.

we no longer live in that world...now its stunville where peeps can damage you and not break it. 

Also, for 10+ years you use to get an amazing healer that was immortal and would not die...now it seems like it is every healer in the game. 

 

^ i made this a quote to highlight this is SPEC independent....just why i am not enjoying random BGS.  

MM can mow down the whole team at once....with huge cleave that BM does not have. Its why RBG teams take MM hunters...i am hoping this makes BGs more enjoyable for me...but time will see...i got me BM weapon to 52 last night so i started pumping up MM. 

This BM/MM for random BG is all personal opinion of course and i am still making my mind up on it. 

The only tip i can say about random bg for sure....its going to sound weird but dont target a healer until you see melee on it. Pointless. You can't do nothing against a healer. I look for the healers and watch em, as soon as i see a melee switch i need switch to it. 

god i miss silence shot.....

[NoDoze 1]

Wow all I can say is that you all rock.  Getting such detailed input on the questions I asked (and some I didn't think to ask) from 4+ different current players was more than I could have hoped for.  You all are a credit to this site.

[Banard 61]

On 2017-5-18 at 6:43 PM, NoDoze said:

 

Please report back when you get hands on with MM and let us know if that changes your impression of Hunters in current BGs.

 

So i did random bgs as a MM hunter....its slow getting use to but it feels better. 

1 vs 1 <---BM all the way..MM feels bad ..at least with my limit xp.

Hunter vs Healer...BM horrible....MM a little better

Team Fights....MM all the way...if you can "get lost in the crowd" and pew pew...really good. Also, if you see a melee on a healer and switch to it...he actually may die...as BM...nothing. 

BM in random bgs, pets get rooted or the team is spread out and yar cleave does nothing....or someone switched to you and your pets are too far and it takes FOREVER for them to get to you.....MM has none of these issues. 

I think i am sold on MM for random bgs.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2017 by Banard