Simpler BM rotation?

[Earthenware 0]

Hi,

 

I've just looked at playing a Hunter again after healing for years. I played Hunter in TBC and enjoyed it, but when I looked at the BM Hunter rotation in the Icy Veins guide, it suggests using nine abilities. That's mad!

 

I'm sure some people can do it, but I can't. Is there any way to be effective as a BM Hunter using no more than four or five abilities? Or should I forget it and go back to healing?

 

Thanks.

[Kattii 40]

It's a pretty simple rotation, and bm hasn't changed that much. Hunter's mark is auto applied, serpent sting is auto refreshe'd with cobra shot. Kill command, dire beast and glaive toss on cd. You build up focus with cobra and spend it with arcane shot and kill command. Everything else is basically a dps cd. So while the opening rotation may have gotten a little bit more complicated, the overall mechanics are the same.

The guide is there to show you the order of importance. If you haven't played your hunter in two expansiono yes you are going to find the chance jarring, just give yourself time to adjust.

[Brya 3]

Heya, 

 

Playing a hunter isn't what it used to be back in the Burning Crusade, the days of the mousewheel top dps macro have long been buried with armor pen and recently readiness. You are right though in that it is quite mad how many buttons hunters do need to use especially with macros added to the list( Hence their removal of almost a dozen buttons in total needed in warlords). 

 

Sadly, to be truly optimal as any of the hunter specs you do need to use much more than five buttons. The simplest setup I can devise still uses a total of 9 buttons (as the guide suggests) while using thrill of the hunt and blink strikes: 

 

Three Cooldowns

1- Stampede/Rapid fire macro

#showtooltip Stampede

/cast rapid fire

/cast Stampede

 

2-Beastial wrath

 

3- Focus Fire

 

These abilities: Serpent Sting, Kill command, Kill shot, Glaive toss, Arcane Shot, Cobra shot

 

As Katti says though, the spec is quite simple(with some practice) compared to many other classes, and its finesse lies in how you use your cooldowns. It'll all come down to getting some practice with the spec and should you not enjoy playing beast mastery I would suggest trying the other two spec's before giving up on your hunter.

[Earthenware 0]

Thanks for the replies.

 

In TBC I used Hunter's mark, Serpent Sting, Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot - and I used to do so much damage that I would pull bosses of the tank.

 

Healing (Resto) has suffered from Ability Bloat, but nothing like this. I think I'll give it a miss, but thanks again.

[f0nZi3 7]

Ever play "Wack-A-Mole"? That's the BM "rotation" currently.

[Azortharion 60]

Ever play "Wack-A-Mole"? That's the BM "rotation" currently.

 

Your DPS must be fairly unexceptional if you whack-a-mole it honestly..

Edited June 24, 2014 by Azortharion

[f0nZi3 7]

Your DPS must be fairly unexceptional if you whack-a-mole it honestly..

Oh for crying out loud! I was making a joke - not looking for an elitist jab at my DPS.

[Azortharion 60]

I haven't seen your DPS! Didn't mean to be elitist it's just not very good advice I guess. ;P

[AMonkeyCourier 2]

Oh for crying out loud! I was making a joke - not looking for an elitist jab at my DPS.

 

It's not a good joke if you're basing it on something completely incorrect. Be tasteful.

Edited June 25, 2014 by AMonkeyCourier

[f0nZi3 7]

Cool. I'll just read the forums from now on and and shut the hell up.

[Troels 9]

You should try Survival, it's fun and easy to play while it does massive dps.

Basically just apply and maintain Serpent Sting and Black Arrow and spam Explosive shot on CD (and when it procs) and use glaive toss + T5 talent on CD, so it's the closest you get to a 4-5 ability specc :)

[Azortharion 60]

You should try Survival, it's fun and easy to play while it does massive dps.

Basically just apply and maintain Serpent Sting and Black Arrow and spam Explosive shot on CD (and when it procs) and use glaive toss + T5 talent on CD, so it's the closest you get to a 4-5 ability specc

 

But it's also worse than BM in decent SoO gear.. >_>

[Orthios 271]

BM has 2 extra cooldowns over MM and SV, plus Stampede benefits from Bm mastery, thus making it better/more potent for BM than for the other two specs.  This gives BM a *slightly* more bursty feel, whereas SV is a lot more throughput oriented.  Plus, Beastial Wrath's cd is reduced by AoC, versus Black Arrow (which gets 100% uptime with a lfr version) and Silencing Shot (seriously?), giving BM the ability to burst more often.  Focus Fire is essentially another Rapid Fire.

[Brya 3]

15.6 second silencing shot is the bomb to be fair. 

[Troels 9]

It's true that BM will do more dps compared to SV if they are both played to their full potential, but if OP wants an easier rotation SV might do better for him.

[Niix 169]

Your priority should be as follows:

 

1. Kill command.

2. Keep SS up as close to 100% as you can. (NEVER cast a Cobra Shot specifically to reapply serpent sting, unless your focus allows for it. It is better to reapply in manually if it would otherwise mean focus capping!!)

3. Glaive Toss.

4. Arcane Shot

5. Cobra Shot. (Try and stay around 40-90 focus.

 

 

There are only two reasons to cast Cobra Shot:

 

-You have a kill command that is about to come off cooldown, and you need focus.

-Your focus is below 30.

 

The reason you want to keep around 40-100 is because you need 40 to cast Kill Command which is your highest damaging ability. If you have 90, you should use arcane shot simply because another cobra shot would likely cap you, which we try our best to avoid.

 

 

Reasons to cast Arcane Shot:

 

-Your focus is nearing 100.

-Kill Command is on cooldown.

-Glaive Toss is on cooldown.

 

The reason we cast in these situations is simply because we want to avoid focus capping, but we want to maintain enough focus to be able to cast all of our abilities as soon as they come off cooldown. A lot of it is just feeling it out, after a while you will learn exactly when to cast a Cobra Shot, and when to cast an Arcane Shot. Obviously the rest of the abilities should be used on cooldown, or as close to cooldown as the priority above allows you.

 

 

Cooldown usage: An asterisk is something I've provided a macro for at the bottom of the section.

 

Your opener should look something like this.

 

1. Pot/Cobra Shot at 2 seconds til the pull.

2. Stampede/Rapid Fire/Rabid/Berserking/Blood Fury/Synapse Springs*

3. Bestial Wrath/Kill Command**

4. Glaive Toss.

5. Dire Beast.

6. Serpent Sting.

 

*This can all be macro'd together, but it is much easier to simply make a macro like this.

 

#showtooltip Stampede

/cast Stampede

/cast Rapid Fire

/cast Rabid(Ferocity Ability)

 

 

And another like this:

 

#showtooltip Berserking

/cast Berserking

/cast Rapid Fire

 

Obviously switch Berserking for Blood Fury if you're an orc. This helps with the opener, and not much else since our BiS trinket, Assurance of Consequence reduces the cooldown of Rapid Fire to way less than 3(2) minutes.

 

 

 

**Another macro that can be made to make the Kill command/Bestial Wrath cast instantaneous as well as make sure your pet is attacking your target. This helps with both pet movement if you have to switch targets, and simply making Kill Command a little bit less weird in terms of your pets targeting.

 

#showtooltip

/cast Bestial Wrath

/use 10

/petattack [target=target]

/cast Kill Command

 

 

#showtooltip Kill Command

/petattack [target=target]

/cast Kill Command

 

These macros both simplify the amount of buttons we have to click at one time as BM. It will help you squeeze out more damage. 

 

 

Focus Fire:

 

I only use Focus Fire in a few situations. My Bestial Wrath buff is about to finish, since you never want to cast it right before, or during BW, or my pets frenzy stacks are about to fall off. I try to use Focus Fire exclusively in between BW casts.

 

Having your pet at 4+ stacks of Frenzy during Bestial Wrath is a great DPS gain, and having the 30% focus when your pet isn't in BW is awesome as well.

 

All in all, Focus Fire isn't something you should use on cooldown. You need to manage it situationally, it's can be a DPS gain if used properly, and a huge DPS loss if used improperly. Mess around with it and see what works for you.

 

 

Gearing:

 

Being a hunter our agility is prioritized way higher than anything else, so if you have a heroic peice, and a heroic warforged piece. You should generally opt for the warforged gear simply because it will provide more stats overall. 

 

With that being said. Our stat priority is as follows:

 

-Hit/Expertise to cap.

-Haste=Mastery

-Crit

 

The main pieces of gear you should look to obtain are obviously trinkets. With the exception of the cleave trinket from Spoils, that is generally a DPS loss and you should avoid it. The order of our trinkets. (this is purely based on my own testing and you should try it out to see what you play best with.)

 

-Assurance of Consequence 

-Haromm's or Ticking Ebon Detonator.

 

Most hunters swear by the TED for BM but I can't stand the reverse nature of the agility proc. It requires a lot of reaction time, and the way it procs for me most of the time, I can't get a Kill Command off before it's dropped a decent chunk of agility. Therefor I opt for the Haromm's Talisman simply because it is a static proc that is a lot more consistent. Again, this is just my opinion, and as I rarely play BM anymore I feel that in the trinket department you should choose whichever you feel more comfortable using. 

 

The rest of the gearing process is simple, HWF weapon, try to get the Galakras bow since it has both our highest prioritized stats. 

 

 

Last words:

 

This is a little bit more in depth than you asked for, but I feel more information never hurt anyone. If you already knew this stuff, great, but hopefully someone who sees the post who is also looking for a little bit more information will find it useful.

 

Feel free to contact me in game, or through BattleTag. Tonix#1446

 

Hope this helped!

 

Good luck,

     Niix

Edited June 27, 2014 by Niix

[Azortharion 60]

Everything is right except your stat prio and Focus Fire and BiS weapon and opener and Berserking usage.

 

There's no compelling reason to go Haste = Mastery > Crit, any BM hunter with the leg. meta gem should be going Haste > Mastery > Crit.

 

The only way using Focus Fire improperly can be a "huge DPS loss" is if you don't use it at all.

 

There are different ways to go about it, mine is pretty long and complicated, it's in that thread in my sig.

 

The Malkorok gun is BiS (in HC gear), not the Galakras bow. Stat budgets, etc.

 

Also SimCraft doesn't know how to "optimize" TED either, but it's still miles above Haromm's, so even if it feels shit, you should be using it.

Pre-Cobrashotting is a waste of your time - as is prepotting at 2 seconds, losing you.. Well, 2 seconds of potion for no reason. Dire Beast is also higher priority than Glaive Toss, especially if you're using Haromm's anyway. But you should be precasting Glaive Toss anyway.

Q: How do I open as Beast Mastery?

Precast Glaive Toss (at approx 1.5s at 25-30yd range)
Pre-pot right before the glaives hit.
Serpent Sting
Stampede + All cooldowns
Kill Command
Dire Beast
Proceed

 

Berserking (for both SV and BM) should be macroed with Stampede and forgotten about, as Stampede scales with the melee haste to give it another attack for a small, but easy-to-achieve DPS increase.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Azortharion

[f0nZi3 7]

Okay, I have to interject and ask.

 

How is it that the Kor'kron Hand Cannon is siming above Hisek's Reserve Longbow (in other words, which sim is stating this or is it all of them)? I was under the impression that Hisek's was BiS for BM based on the sims I've done using SimulationCraft.

[Niix 169]

Everything is right except your stat prio and Focus Fire and BiS weapon and opener and Berserking usage.

 

There's no compelling reason to go Haste = Mastery > Crit, any BM hunter with the leg. meta gem should be going Haste > Mastery > Crit.

 

The only way using Focus Fire improperly can be a "huge DPS loss" is if you don't use it at all.

 

There are different ways to go about it, mine is pretty long and complicated, it's in that thread in my sig.

 

The Malkorok gun is BiS (in HC gear), not the Galakras bow. Stat budgets, etc.

 

Also SimCraft doesn't know how to "optimize" TED either, but it's still miles above Haromm's, so even if it feels shit, you should be using it.

Pre-Cobrashotting is a waste of your time - as is prepotting at 2 seconds, losing you.. Well, 2 seconds of potion for no reason. Dire Beast is also higher priority than Glaive Toss, especially if you're using Haromm's anyway. But you should be precasting Glaive Toss anyway.

Q: How do I open as Beast Mastery?

Precast Glaive Toss (at approx 1.5s at 25-30yd range)

Pre-pot right before the glaives hit.

Serpent Sting

Stampede + All cooldowns

Kill Command

Dire Beast

Proceed

 

Berserking (for both SV and BM) should be macroed with Stampede and forgotten about, as Stampede scales with the melee haste to give it another attack for a small, but easy-to-achieve DPS increase.

This is all good information, the reason I use Haromm's over TED is simply because I'm awful at using TED. It sims higher but I do less DPS with it on than I do with my Haromm's. SimCraft is good and all but I would much rather test things live and see what works for me. 

 

I don't actually main BM anymore and haven't played it in raids in months, so obviously my information is a little outdated, thanks for correcting. :)

[Azortharion 60]

There's nothing to "using" TED, you just equip it and consider it Haromm's, you won't do less DPS using it, whatever you've experienced is placebo, or affected by something that is absolutely not the trinket you're wearing.

[Niix 169]

All I'm saying is that when I use my TED my DPS goes down. My rotation doesn't change at all. I don't know what it is but if it's dropping my DPS obviously I'm not going to use it. 

[Azortharion 60]

It's not dropping your DPS because it literally cannot drop your DPS.

 

I do not think you realize just how many factors play into what your DPS is gonna be.

 

Unless you did a raid boss a thousand times in a row with and without TED and averaged the results (you know, like SimCraft does in 10 seconds) you cannot conclude that TED lowers your DPS. It's statistically inaccurate, biased, and mathematically wrong because TED -is- better.

[Niix 169]

I haven't played BM in 3 months because I don't like the spec, if you play BM, you know more about it than I do, you're also probably a lot better at it than I am. I haven't kept up to date with anything but if what you're saying is true, which I believe. Then yes something else was causing my DPS to drop, I was probably trying too hard to have things up during the first part of the proc. Either way, I'll snag a TED this week if I can and give BM another go to see how I do with it. Either way I like survival so much more than BM right now.

[Azortharion 60]

Play what you want, honestly, I'm just talking about BM because it's what I play/it's the stronger spec across the board.