I've reached that point

My latest gear acquisition has finally pushed my stats to the point where my PvP-oriented Survival spec is out-DPSing my PvE-oriented BM spec on paper.

I'd thought this day would come... my penchant for stacking Agility over AP probably helped, but since a PvP-Survival spec isn't too different from a PvE-Survival spec, it was only a matter of time, really.

2pc T7.5 + 2pc T8 is still more DPS than 4pc T8 for my BM spec, but 4pc T8 is now superior for my Survival spec. Basically, the order is:

BM 4pc T8 < BM 2pc T7.5 + 2pc T8 < Surv 2pc T7.5 + 2pc T8 < Surv 4pc T8

There isn't *too* much difference between BM and Survival - 40-60 DPS assuming an absolutely perfect shot rotation and raid conditions, so I'm not worrying too much yet, especially since paperdoll DPS never turns out to be the same as actual DPS.

If, however, it ever gets to the point where I'd do significantly more DPS with my PvP spec.... I might have to think about raiding with it as well, or at least change something in my BM spec to make it more raid-optimal.

Probably the former; I get attached to certain talents/glyphs; I don't know if I'd want to give those up!

Faction Champions - Hunter tricks

I decided to compile a list of hunter abilities used in PvP - a) for raiding hunters, because quite a few don't PvP and simply forget about the fact that you can use "X" ability, and b) for raid leaders, because to organize people to CC for this fight, you need to know what each class is able to do.


The Beast Within - Save for coordinated burst DPS or to get out of being CCed

Intimidation, Scatter Shot - Use to interrupt a cast or stop a mob beating on someone

Silencing Shot - Use to interrupt a cast

Distracting Shot - Use to taunt a mob off your raid members (eg. a healer). If your tanks are taunting, it may be best to leave it to them as this shot is in the same diminishing returns category.

Wyvern Sting - Sleeps a mob; will leave a ticking sting on the target so you won't be able to CC it immediately afterward unless you replace the sting with Scorpid Sting

Scorpid Sting - Use on physical DPS mobs to make them miss

Chimera Shot - Use this after Scorpid Sting to disarm melee

Frost (or Freezing) Trap - Drop one as soon as the cooldown is up. Frost may be more useful overall for people to kite targets, particularly if you have Entrapment

Snake Trap - Chance of slowing target; if snake poison is on a target it will break CC, so may or may not be useful depending on strategy

Disengage - Use to kite melee (in conjunction with a snare if possible), or get into/out of range of a mob (or healer)

Deterrence - Use while being focussed

Feign Death - Use while being focussed or to break a spell cast (eg. sheep)

Master's Call - Use to break snares (eg. Frost Nova, Chains of Ice)

Wing Clip, Concussive Shot - Use on melee to slow their movement (towards any raid member; not just yourself)

Tranquilizing Shot - Dispell as much as possible (particularly the DPS target) to purge HoTs and buffs

Aimed Shot - Keep one up (particularly on the DPS target) for the Mortal Strike debuff to healing

Scare Beast - Usable on the hunter's pet

Counterattack - Very few hunters would have this (even the PvPers), but use to stun melee


Random notes:

- Certain pets have CC abilities (eg. Crab Pin, Ravager stun, Spider web, Nether Ray spell interrupt) and talents to help mitigate damage (eg. Roar of Sacrifice, Intercept)

- Certain hunter talents can also help (eg. Concussive Barrage), although a raid-specced hunter is unlikely to have them

- Keeping DoTs up (eg. Viper or Serpent Sting) will keep the rogue from vanishing and important debuffs from being purged; a Flare may help with the rogue as well

Pet Control: Part four - Species-specific pet abilities

To recap:

Part 1 - Attack, Follow and Stay
Part 2 - Aggressive, Defensive and Passive
Part 3 - General pet abilities

Each "species" of pet has a unique ability. Some of these are tailored for DPS, others for PvP, others for tanking... and some are just random abilities that suit the pet but aren't as useful. Below, I've separated the various abilities into specific uses for comparison.

***Note: I am NOT going to argue the pros and cons of each pet here. There are plenty of other places where you can find out which pet is best for what purpose; this guide is about pet control only***


Single target DPS:

Boar: Gore
Cat: Rake (and Prowl)
Devilsaur: Monstrous Bite
Dragonhawk: Fire Breath
Raptor: Savage Rend
Rhino: Stampede
Scorpid: Scorpid Poison
Spirit Beast: Spirit Strike (and Prowl)
Wind Serpent: Lightning Breath

Moth: Serenity Dust
Wolf: Furious Howl

All of the above are pretty standard single-target DPS spells except for Furious Howl, Serenity Dust and the bonus ability Cats and Spirit Beasts get, Prowl. On the whole, these abilities (apart from Prowl) can be left on autocast, although since some of them are DoTs you may need to be careful if you want to use crowd control.

For Prowl, I personally have a macro on my player bar:

/cast Shadowmeld
/cast Prowl

....since I like to use my cat for camping nodes in battlegrounds.


AoE DPS:

Bear: Swipe
Crocolisk: Bad Attitude
Sporebat: Spore Cloud

Swipe and Spore Cloud can both be left on autocast, as their cooldown is quite short. However, keep in mind that Swipe only affects mobs in front of the Bear, and Spore Cloud acts like a Paladin's Consecration - it will only affect the area where it's dropped.

For Bad Attitude, I'd recommend pulling this onto the pet bar and leaving it off autocast, as it's a fairly long cooldown.

PvP Utility:

Bat: Sonic Blast
Bird of Prey: Snatch
Chimaera: Froststorm Breath
Core Hound: Lava Breath
Crab: Pin
Gorilla: Pummel
Hyena: Tendon Rip
Nether Ray: Nether Shock
Ravager: Ravage
Serpent: Poison Spit
Silithid: Venom Web Spray
Spider: Web
Wasp: Sting
Worm: Acid Spit

As these stuns, snares, debuffs and DoTs are all situational and important to cast at the right time, I'd recommend pulling them onto the pet bar and leaving autocast off.

In some cases (Sting, Poison Spit, Lava Breath and Froststorm Breath, for instance), the spells are on fairly short cooldowns, so you may be able to get away with leaving them on autocast. However, you still run a risk of not catching your opponent out if your pet runs out of Focus or the autocast is mis-timed and wasted.


Miscellaneous:

Carrion Bird: Demoralizing Screech
Tallstrider: Dust Cloud
Turtle: Shell Shield
Warpstalker: Warp

Demoralizing Screech can be kept on autocast, as it's a fairly short cooldown.

Dust Cloud, Shell Shield and Warp are all situational and should be pulled onto the pet bar to use manually.


Now that all the pet abilities have been covered, the fifth and final part of this guide will focus on how to organize the million and one pet spells onto 4 measly spell slots on your pet bar!

Flying by the front paws

Apparently when cats Levitate, they do the swimming animation instead of hovering.

When running forwards, they run normally (although a foot off the ground), but as soon as you stop they go back to swimming - very odd!

I have never said this before

1. Blood elves can be hunters? Bugger, wish I could have joined the Horde under Sylvanas Windrunner.
Never mind, I've spent so much time on my hunter; I don't want to make another hunter.

2. You can only use ONE potion in combat? Bugger. I guess Alchemy wasn't that useful after all; should have taken Engineering.
Never mind, at least I still use quite a few mana and health potions while soloing/raiding.

3. You can change Factions now?
Never mind, I've spent a lot of time on this server with my guild; I won't change to Blood Elf.

4. Level 60 Onyxia is no more? Yikes, what about the Sinew for Rhok?
Never mind, hopefully Blizz will keep the quest in but make the sinew drop somewhere else; off black whelps perhaps.

5. Forsaken hunters and Night elf mages? Bugger. Wish I could have been those classes.
Never mind, I've spent so much time on my night elf hunter in a friendly guild and server; I won't change now.

6. Hunters will no longer use mana?

For the first time ever, I will join the millions of whiners that seem to think WoW should be made for their own ideals and no-one else's to ask:

What the hell are you doing to my class?

Seriously... I made Phyllixia for the pet, the ranged, the "caster" with mana, Shadowmeld and Rhok - now, mages have a pet (water elemental), are ranged, are a caster with mana and can cast Shadowmeld as a night elf. And then there's druids, which can be a tank, healer AND two different types of DPS; how's that for flexibility?

Both of those classes are what I *almost* chose over a hunter, with me wanting to be a night elf and doing a "test of skill" quest for Rhok being the deciders. Similarly, my expected liberal use of mana and health potions was the decider for Alchemy over Engineering.

Of course, there's a small problem with rerolling: My Achievements. And I don't just mean the ones you get points for - I also mean things like soloing Onyxia, being able to chain trap and kite forever as well as DPS and of course getting Rhok as BM spec.

I've spent a lot of time on Phyllixia the Night Elf Hunter and I can't really throw that out.... but I guess it will depend on whether I'll like the new "Focus" system or not.

Hopefully I will, although I'm still going to mourn having even less use for potions than I did previously - maybe I should switch to transmute or elixir mastery....

4pc T8 bonus fail

Can someone explain why 2pc T7.5 (Valorous Cryptstalker) and 2pc T8.5 (Conqueror's Scourgestalker) is actually better DPS (theoretically) than 4pc T8.5?


Bonuses:

2pc T7.5 - Your pet deals an additional 5% damage

2pc T8.5 - Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting by 10%
4pc T8.5 - Your Steady Shot has a chance to grant you 600 attack power for 15 sec


No, it's not just because I'm BM.

On the hunter DPS spreadsheet, my Survival spec also comes out on top if I pick the 2pc pet bonus over the 4pc Steady Shot bonus (although admittedly not by much).

The only thing I can think of is that because Survival uses a lot less Steady Shot, the bonus doesn't proc as much. For BM, while Steady Shot is used often, my pet is more important for DPS.


I mean, I know both of my specs are far from optimal DPS in either case, but seriously... stop giving us @#$% tier bonuses, Blizzard!

Pet Control: Part three - General pet abilities

See Part one (Attack, Follow and Stay) or Part two (Aggressive, Defensive and Passive) for pet commands and stances.

Besides pet commands and stances, your pet will have several "active" abilities or talents that you will need to control. Some will be species-specific (such as Prowl or Pin), but most will be shared abilities between all pets, or within the pet families of Tenacity, Cunning and Ferocity.


Shared pet abilities:

Growl and Cower - Generally, you should have either Growl *or* Cower on at any time, as these abilities will help with your pet's threat control (for either tanking or DPSing, respectively).

One exception to this would be in PvP, where threat control is rarely needed. In this case, however, Growl can be used to your advantage by manually Growling at player pets, taking their focus off the player until your opponent redirects them.

Bite/Claw/Smack - Every pet has one of these abilities, which are pretty much all the same spell. This is a "Focus dump" ability, which means any spare focus your pet may have will be used by casting this spell.

Usually, you would want this on Autocast, as the other pet abilities that cost Focus have a longish cooldown and the Focus would be wasted. However, if for some reason your pet is constantly out of Focus, or you want to make sure your pet will have Focus for when you really need it (a stun or CC ability in PvP, for example), you can turn Autocast off.

Dash/Dive or Charge/Swoop - Keep Autocast off, as this ability will get used every cooldown and waste Focus even if your pet isn't moving.


Tenacity-specific abilities:

Thunderstomp - For AoE tanking, this can be kept on Autocast. If some kind of crowd control is required (or if you don't want your pet pulling aggro on mobs), this needs to be turned off.

Intervene - You may want to macro this, as you need a friendly target to cast it on. A simple macro may look something like this:

/cast [target=player] Intervene

...for yourself, or perhaps:

/cast [target=mouseover] Intervene; [target=player] Intervene

...which will cast Intervene on your mouseover target or yourself if you don't have a target.

Roar of Sacrifice - See above for Intervene. This is also a Cunning ability.

Last Stand - If you expect to use this in a hurry, I would recommend pulling this out onto your pet bar, or creating a macro and pulling it onto the player bars instead. Although it won't be used often, trying to find it in your spellbook can be annoying.

Taunt - See above for Last Stand. In addition, make sure your pet is attacking the target you want it to Taunt before you hit this spell.


Cunning-specific abilities:

Carrion Feeder - Unless you use this a lot and don't need all four spaces for pet abilities, you can leave this one in your spellbook.

Bullheaded and Roar of Recovery - See above for Last Stand.

Roar of Sacrifice - As above for the Tenacity talent.


Ferocity-specific abilities:

Heart of the Phoenix, Call of the Wild and Lick Your Wounds - See above for Last Stand.

Rabid - In general, this can be left on Autocast as for Bite/Claw/Smack. Again, if you find you need to save Focus, you can turn Autocast off.


That's it for now. Stay tuned; I will be covering species-specific pet abilities and how to organize your pet bar (Blizzard really needed to give us more than 4 slots on that thing...) in another post.

(Sorry it's taking so long for these info posts to come out, but I've been rather busy!)

Who's the tank?

Gotta love PuGs.

Surprisingly, we didn't wipe, although the 3 DPS frequently pulled aggro (the other two were shaman and warrior, so I was the only one with a decent threat reduction ability).

Good thing most people are overgeared for 5mans now (it was heroic Drak'Tharon Keep); that paladin tank wouldn't have survived the run if the rest of us weren't smashing the place!

I finally caught up

I've now killed everything in the game except the last few bosses of Ulduar and beyond... not counting all of the various hard modes and Achievements, of course.

I will have to go back to Sunwell again though... KJ still has my bow!

I'm in ur raidz, PvPing ur bosses

While everybody else is either busily speculating about the next WoW expansion involving Worgen and Goblins or the fact that the Icecrown raid will have at least 31 bosses, my interest was drawn to a less significant revelation in the latest Blizzcast episode:

In the Trial of the Crusader, which is the 10- and 25-player raid, we have some interesting new mechanics for us. One of the encounters is sort of the raid version of the Priestess Delrissa encounter that was in Magister’s Terrace..........here in this encounter you’ll actually be able to use pretty much everything. So you can sheep them, stun them, snare them, so it’ll be an opportunity for players to use a lot of abilities that they don’t normally get to use in raids, which is really exciting for us.

I know a lot of my (PvE server) guildies will probably hate it with a passion, but I love this kind of thing. Any PvE encounter that involves some sort of dynamic challenge where your skills need to extend beyond doing a perfect DPS rotation gets a thumbs up from me, whether it involve kiting (Gluth, Hyjal trash), chain trapping (Moroes), PvP (Delrissa) or heavy coordination (Achievements in heroic Oculus).

Bring it on!