Beast Mastery vs. Survival

[Sushidip 0]

I'm seeing conflicted reports on the dominant spec for top dps, BM or survival. My experience has been survival trumps BM, any thoughts? Also opinions on tier 4 talent choice?

[Guest WeeWilly]

Not to make you or others angry, but why does it matter? Everything is so close right now, a player worth his/her salt can make any of the 3 specs shine. 

 

I think you like Survival.  That's great!  I like Beast Master. :D 

 

As far as the 4th tier - Dire Beast all the way, though I have played with all the tier talents. As a BM, since I don't take blink strike, fervor is of no use to me due to my play style.  But even then, I would have to see what the situation was and can/will change my talents (I always keep 20 Tomes of the Clear Mind on me at all times) accordingly.  

 

Right now I have Murder of Crows, but yet, I use Barrage.  This setup has served me well. 

 

But again, any spec is viable.  No one spec is perfect.  A persons play style, their role in their raid group all will dictate the spec they want to play, talent setup, etc.   

 

Good topic - thanks!

 

-wee willie

[Orthios 271]

Exactly what wee willy said, any and all of the specs are good. I've been switching between BM and MM myself recently, and I've gotten both specs to do equally well on most fights. There will always be a fight or two where one spec is slightly ahead of the others, and then there are the fights where that spec lags behind a bit. I say play whatever spec you like most and run with it. Talent wise..... Yeah, dire beast will do the most direct damage. Fervor is good for MM as a good focus regen for/after AMoC and/or aimed shot. TotH is honestly really lack-luster (I was drowning in procs myself, but never when I had the focus to use them). As for lvl 90 talents, I go with glaives whenever I'm soloing content (timeless isle) and I'll take barrage if a raid boss has a good number of adds.

All in all, every hunter spec is great an offers it's own play style, poke around and find one you like.

[Kattii 40]

Play the spec you like! Its a game, and games are ment to be fun.There are some fights more catered towards BM and some fights more catered towards SV, but that doesn't mean you can't play a different spec and not do great dps.

 

I will say though if you are running BM to take dire beast and blink strikes. Dire beast scales with BM's mastery so it will hit harder for a hunter playing BM. And blink strikes increases your pet's basic attacks by 50% as well as allowing them to teleport behind a target. So not only does it help your pet do more damage, it also helps your pet get to a new target quicker.

 

If you wanted to run SV you could choose Dire Beast which is great for single target fights or Fervor which is great for multi-shot aoeing. If you choose Fervor, I would suggest A Murder of Crows its great for fights were there is one main target who summons adds. Fervor will help to offset the high focus cost of AMOC.

 

With the way talents are currently set up there really is no right or wrong talent set up. It all just depends on what you need to do. I myself switch talents a couple times every raid night.

 

[tog 0]

i myself have the same question as well. BM or survival.Personally i find survival more easy to play with.My other spec is currently MM for pvp so i have to choose one spec to go with raiding.

 

My character is rapidfire - deathwing

 

I did some checks with both specs (4 set ilvl 553 gear ,no cloak, no epic gem,) during the legendary quest in LFR(tot and soo) and im witnessing that surv provides me with higher dps than bm they way i play hunter.(around 20k dps more)

I have all 3 trinkets from normal Soo (asurance,haromms and tickering). Im using haromms and asurance as surv and tickerin and asurance as bm.

Im reforging crit>haste as survival and crit=haste=mastery as bm (using refore lite add on).Weapon is a warforged dagryns.

i want to choose between surv-bm so i can provide the max dps possible to my group

 

Here are some extra questions i would like some feedback at:

 

1) What reforge to go with bm/surv? should i use reforge lite or MR. robot?

2) i usually go with +160 agi gems on all sockets for max agility. is that ok?

3) Should i drop my  4 set-piece (its currently 1lfr helmet/normal chest-legs-hands) for higher ilvl gear and if yes for what kind of ilvl difference?

4) should i drop my warforged weapon for a lower ilvl with better secondary stats for that spec?

[Orthios 271]

You do better with survival, then play survival. Simple as that.

As for your questions:

1) for BM or survival go with haste=crit>mastery. Mastery is a small damage buff and is nice to have, but it's up to you. I prefer crit and haste, so I reforge out if mastery.

2) Red and prismatic sockets: 160 Agi gem. Yellow: 80 Agi + 160 crit/haste orange gem. Purple: depends, if it's a single socket, use a 160 Agi gem, if it's one of 2 or 3 sockets on an item: 80 Agi + 160 hit purple gem (allows you to reforge out of hit).

3) If you are goin to drop the 4-piece, then drop the helm for a normal helm.

4) Obly drop te weapon if it's from normal war forged to normal. And even then I still think that would be a loss (less main stats).

[Guest WeeWilly]

oh man Orthios, you and I think a lot alike.  I too prefer crit and haste.

 

Aye, Tog, what Orthios says for 1 thru 4 is very very viable.    

 

And for #4 - I believe it would be a loss to your stats too.

 

bye for now...

 

-wee willie  the crafty

[Kattii 40]

Sorry I wasnt able to pull up your armory so I can't speak on specifics.

 

The 2 and 4 piece set bonuses are so amazing this tier for Survival that if you have the set bonus I would suggest keeping them if at all possible. I have had lock and load procs that go on for ages, like 11-14 hits or more. I get a little excited everytime that happens lol. On average it's lasts for about 4-6 hits.

 

Weapon damage is important as well. Remember getting a piece with less than desirable stats on it isn't has bad as it used to be because we can reforge stats.

[blazeblue 0]

both specs are indeed viable survival being the top spec for both single target and aoe fights (only with the tier 16 4 set) BM is the better sepc if you have not got the 4 set. but Bm beats survival on fights where you need either single target burst like when soloing the belts on siegecrafter or AOE burst like on phase 1 garrosh.But also you want to take into consideration what you find funnest to play. i only really suggest thinking bout the best spec if youre pushing HC raiding other wise play whats best for you as a player becuase no one is going to tell you, you cant raid becuase your taking BM over SV becuase they are both so close but if you are pushing heroic raiding then you must think about all 3 specs and not just BM and SV becuase MM has alot of use on later HC bosses in SOO.

 

the 4 set is amazing if you need and off piece then take the legs from nourshen as they are BIS.

Also crit>haste>mastery is the strongest way to reforge haste used to be top secondary stat until the trinket changes then crit became best again but haste is close to crit .

also when i play survival i got crit>mastery>haste i find it gives me the best dps possible when im on a heavy aoe fight other than that then stick to crit>haste>mastery

[WaggleBaggle 4]

BM is amazing with single target damage, survival is great multi-target dps.

[Kattii 40]

with the boost to beast cleave a while back BM's aoe is really strong. Both bm and sv are viable options right now for both single target and aoe fights

[WaggleBaggle 4]

I don't find BM to be very AOE oriented. SV however, has a passive skill, serpent spread,"multi-shot spreads your serpent sting to any targets affected." Not to say SV isn't good single target,multiple dots make for good single target DPS, but if we are talking about best AOE, SV. Best single target, BM. Try the proving grounds, that's where I got my feeling for the best hunter specializations, and where I learned the spec's strengths and weaknesses.

[Kattii 40]

Beast cleave makes bm's aoe very strong. If your pet has blink strikes, 5 stacks of frenzy, and you pop wrath that's a lot of cleave damage going out.

The debate over bm vs sv is subjective. Play whichever spec you are good at. I know I personally am better at survival than beast master. Both specs are viable for every boss fight.