I tried to follow BRKs guide to building a BM hunter, but kinda messed it up on tier 3(or 4) and am correcting now.
I'm pure BM right now, and enjoying it. I really like that I can pick up just about any pet and not have to worry about aggro. Even when they're a few levels below me. I think I'd have to use Distracting shot or get really lucky on crits to grab aggro from any of my pets.
Here she is : http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...
And here's the BRK guide : http://www.bigredkitty.net/2008/11/1...
I went to Shadowfang Keep this weekend to get a black wolf, ended up liking a white one better, and ended up soloing basically the whole instance without a death, even with a pet that was 5-levels below me.
It's the first time I'd played my hunter in months and months - I recently pulled her out of AH-mule semi-retirement.
She's fun. And easy. And I just got a gorilla. 
Although I don't have Volley yet, having the 'rilla grab 3-4 mobs and then using multi-shot instead is a lot of fun.
I need to make a Thunderstomp macro instead of letting him autocast it, but I'll worry about that closer to 40(volley).
I, too, have been considering starting a new hunter (possibly a dwarf since I don't have one of those yet). I hear good things about gorriladin aoe grinding for levelling. How effective is this really, and what spec would be recommended for that? From what I gather, BM spec isn't as great as it used to be, but I have not had any experience in hunters since I stopped levelling my first toon (he is now lvl 32) about two years ago...
Thanks for the help!
I, too, have been considering starting a new hunter (possibly a dwarf since I don't have one of those yet). I hear good things about gorriladin aoe grinding for levelling. How effective is this really, and what spec would be recommended for that? From what I gather, BM spec isn't as great as it used to be, but I have not had any experience in hunters since I stopped levelling my first toon (he is now lvl 32) about two years ago...
Thanks for the help!
And thanks for the tip about Mangle working with Rake -- our tank is now a feral druid, and she's probably appreciate the extra damage. Does Mangle also get a boost from Serpant Sting?
Actually, it the other way around -- mangle boosts bleed effects, not the other way around. Serpent Sting is actually just a nature based damage over time effect, not a bleed, so no, it won't benefit from mangle. However, your newly redesigned Piercing Shots WILL be a bleed effect, so you'll see some nice boosts there when running with a feral druid (one of the warrior DPS trees also has a similar effect with one of its abilities, but I'm not sure which).
she was missing a lot.
Yeah, Ducki is absolutely right that you could alleviate this by getting hit capped. Your current hit rating gives you a 3.4% increased chance to hit an equal level monster and your pet a 3% increased chance to hit, but hit capped (at 263, or 232 with a Draenei in your party) you will have an 8% increased chance to hit. Of course, once your pet is leveled to 80, that won't be a problem either, but just for the sake of comparison, I've been leveling a few pets from 77 or so lately, and being with my being hit capped they never have aggro problems. Of course, I get some extra wiggle room from all the pet damage increasing BM talents I have, but I think once you either level the pet or hit cap yourself (or both), you won't have a problem with a ferocity pet holding aggro.
Do you have any suggestions for a PvP pet? I sometimes use an owl (because of Disarm), and some folks swear by Hyena (because of the tendon rip when they're trying to flee.)
I don't really PvP much, but I personally I would look at pets with movement impairing abilities like hyenas, bats, ravagers, spiders, or crabs. Also, if memory serves me I remember reading that all the to arena players seem to prefer crabs. Other than that, perhaps consider what types of classes give you the most trouble. If it is casters or healers, there are a lot of pets with great abilities to disrupt casting, like nether rays and serpents, and gorillas will actually have a new family ability in 3.1 (since thunderstomp will now be a pet talent) that will be great against casters. If it's rogues, the wasp has an ability that prevents stealthing, and if it's plate wearers there are lots of great sunder armor style abilities on various pets. Oh, and the tall strider has a useful ability too, which makes all enemies nearby miss their next attack.
... I hear good things about gorriladin aoe grinding for levelling. How effective is this really, and what spec would be recommended for that?
I'll leave the heavy-duty theorycrafting to Zero, so consider this a perspective from a casual player:
Starting out, it really doesn't (or shouldn't) matter what kind of pet you use because leveling has been nerfed all to hell. As long as you have decent gear (greens and some instance blues) and your pet is about the same level, you'll be able to kill stuff and level up with ease. Just pick a pet you like and work with it. If you don't like it, get something else -- you've got 5 stable slots to work with.
A couple thoughts on gorillas specifically: You won't get be able to get one until you're into your 30s and can survive a trek into Stranglethorn. Plus gorillas are picky eaters -- they don't eat meat or fish, which makes feeding them a little more challenging.
As for spec, you'll get the most out of your pet if you go Beast Mastery. For a MM hunter (and probably to some degree for a Survival hunter), your pet is basically an aggro magnet so you can do damage at range.
just as you suspected, Zero, she was missing a lot. Either her attacks were dodged, or she landed merely a glancing blow.
Just a thought, but are you using "Focused Aim"? If so, understand that the To Hit bonus (3% at max, reducing hunter hit cap from 203 to 197) does not get applied to your pet.
I, too, have been considering starting a new hunter (possibly a dwarf since I don't have one of those yet).
Highly recommended...the innate bonus to guns make Dwarves excellent hunters. If you go this direction (and the same offer holds for all other hunters), I can make your guns and ammo (I'm not ashamed to admit to being an engineer with no thoughts of changing).
Like I said in the early thread, I'm a MM hunter
What are your talent specs (I haven't seen good ones for MM since WotLK came out). I've been tweaking mine for a while now, and nothing seems "right".
I, too, have been considering starting a new hunter (possibly a dwarf since I don't have one of those yet). I hear good things about gorriladin aoe grinding for levelling. How effective is this really, and what spec would be recommended for that? From what I gather, BM spec isn't as great as it used to be, but I have not had any experience in hunters since I stopped levelling my first toon (he is now lvl 32) about two years ago...
Thanks for the help!
For the last two patches BM hasn't been the top DPS raiding spec, but that doesn't mean it's not an excellent leveling spec. Now, I'm a guy who has stuck with BM for raiding despite the nerfs, so take this however you like, but I can't imagine leveling with any other spec; having a powerful pet is just too great a utility. Of course, I'm sure SV fanatics would argue that having powerful traps is a great help while leveling, and MM folks would argue that their burst damage capabilities are equally useful (particularly if you plan to PvP as you level), but I heartily recommend BM for leveling despite that.
As for what you've heard about gorillas, that's absolutely correct. Or rather, it was absolutely correct. In 3.0, gorillas had a family ability called thunderstomp which was an amazing AOE threat generator. The problem was, this meant that every leveling hunter had a gorilla to the exclusion of a lot of other cool pets. So in 3.1, thunderstomp is now a pet talent in the tenacity tree. Pets have one of three different talent trees depending on their family -- tenacity, ferocity, and cunning. The tenacity tree focuses on abilities that make your pet a good tank, where ferocity focuses on damage output and cunning has interesting utility abilities. Anyway, now any tenacity pet will be able to thunderstomp. The caveat being, of course, that they need to be of appropriate level to reach that point in the talent tree, which happens to be 44. At 44, I'd imagine that your pet talent build would look something like this:
http://ptr.wowhead.com/?petcalc=0Rzh...
Anyway, since the new gorilla family ability will now be a PvP focused anti casting ability, your best bet for leveling with AoE capability will probably now be a bear or a crocolisk, since they both have family abilities that have an AoE effect. Neither are as amazing as thunderstomp, but before level 44 they will be able to hold a couple mobs down, and after level 44 they will have both their family ability and thunderstomp and be more amazing than a gorilla ever was in 3.0.
Thanks Enix, that's clear enough. I'd forgotten that gorillas hate food (or so it seems!). My other hunter ran with a bear which was nice and easy to feed. I can't remember what spec he had anymore either - I think things have changed so much that right now his talent points are probably still unallocated! Now to choose between dwarves and draenai... It's too bad humans can't become hunters - I really love the diplomacy racial.
Just a thought, but are you using "Focused Aim"? If so, understand that the To Hit bonus (3% at max, reducing hunter hit cap from 203 to 197) does not get applied to your pet.
Yeah, in 3.0 Focused Aim (the tier 1 talent, not the amazing tier 2 talent Careful Aim) give you a +hit% effect that doesn't translate to your pet. In 3.1, though, that effect will now transfer to your pet as well, making it a much more attractive talent if you are having trouble getting hit capped through gear.
Rallick wrote:I, too, have been considering starting a new hunter (possibly a dwarf since I don't have one of those yet).
Highly recommended...the innate bonus to guns make Dwarves excellent hunters. If you go this direction (and the same offer holds for all other hunters), I can make your guns and ammo (I'm not ashamed to admit to being an engineer with no thoughts of changing).
For alliance race, dwarves are good for the reason troll mentioned, but also Draenei are quite good because of their racial +1% hit. The impact of this ability may not sound great, but it will translate to an easier time killing, well, everything as you level, and much greater flexibility in your gear when you hit 80. (As has been alluded to in our comments to Enix, getting hit capped at 80 is your first priority on the road to raiding.)
Thank you too, Zero. Since I don't PVP much I will be going with a bear, probably. I hate crocolisks - the sound they make drives me demented. Especially if I stand next to one in the AH. It's almost as annoying as that damn piccolo or the trainset.
Since I've started playing a DK I'm really getting into the AoE thing - there is something fun about pulling as many mobs as I can, and trying to not die. My rogue can kill stuff ridiculously fast, but only one on one. It's not much of a rush anymore. Being able to kill 5 mobs at the same time even when they are a level or two higher than you is great fun. I know that hunters aren't quite that overpowered, but I'd still like to try it.
Rallick wrote:I, too, have been considering starting a new hunter (possibly a dwarf since I don't have one of those yet).
Highly recommended...the innate bonus to guns make Dwarves excellent hunters. If you go this direction (and the same offer holds for all other hunters), I can make your guns and ammo (I'm not ashamed to admit to being an engineer with no thoughts of changing).
Yeah, that was another reason I was thinking dwarf. To be honest, I'm torn between that and the 1% hit rating. On the other hand, while female draenai are hot, the males look somewhat silly. Pure vanity, I know, but still!
In 3.1, though, that effect will now transfer to your pet as well, making it a much more attractive talent if you are having trouble getting hit capped through gear.
Excellent to hear!
For alliance race, dwarves are good for the reason troll mentioned, but also Draenei are quite good because of their racial +1% hit.
I prefer the + to damage over the + to hit, but were skinning the same cat. Go Hunters!
Darn you all with this hunter talk. You're making me miss Moki (my hunter's wolf)...
What are your talent specs (I haven't seen good ones for MM since WotLK came out). I've been tweaking mine for a while now, and nothing seems "right".
My current armory page is linked below. There are a few things that need fixing, which I'll take care of in 3.1. Try to ignore the stale blue and purplez of my gear and flip directly to the Talents tab.
Here's the 3.1 build I'm probably going to go with.
The one thing that's a toss-up is in the BM tree: Endurance Training vs. Thick Hide. I'm going with Endurance Training because I get some benefit from it. (Thick Hide benefits only my pet.) Zero, feel free to weigh on this one if I completely whiffed here.
I think the 3.1 build will work pretty well for me. Keep in mind that I quest and occasionally wander into WG. A hard-core raiding build might be a lot different.
(As has been alluded to in our comments to Enix, getting hit capped at 80 is your first priority on the road to raiding.)
Indeed. 3/3 in Focused Aim (a Tier 1 talent that's really designed for PvP) means that I need only about 160-165 in hit rating to be hit-capped. Without it, I'd need to be closer to about 250 or so.
I haven't found a whole lot of +hit out there, frankly. It seems to be a tough stat to come by.
If you play a dwarf hunter, do NOT use a bow. You get a bonus for using a gun, so use one.
Dwarf hunters who use bows make King Magni cry.
Indeed. 3/3 in Focused Aim (a Tier 1 talent that's really designed for PvP)
My only thought here, is that Focused Aim is for MM or Surv (that is to say, a spec not centered around the pet). It gives a quick hitcap to those that use their pets as secondary AP).
I haven't found a whole lot of +hit out there, frankly. It seems to be a tough stat to come by.
You will find it following the outlands. The 70+ areas recognize the hunter need for +hit.
Endurance Training vs. Thick Hide
Thick Hide is a decent talent to take in a leveling spec (since your pet will be getting attacked directly) but it's of little use in a group setting. Directly comparing those two talents, I'd choose endurance training every time because it gives you a bigger health pool for absorbing AoE/incidental damage. However, if you mean to use that spec for raiding, I'd say you'd be better off with those two points moved into Improved Revive Pet. In a raid, much of the time that 4% pet health you are getting from those points won't be enough to save him. He's either going to be healed and live or he's going to die, and being able to rez him quickly and cheaply will be of great use when he goes down.
Anyway, I don't follow the MM theorycrafting too closely, but over on the EJ MM thread I'm seeing lots of specs the either follow Enix's 11/55/7 pattern, or alternately a 7/57/7 pattern.
http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=cxbZ0...
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunt...
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunt...
Basically, Survival Instincts (SV tier 2) is a very attractive talent (it's part of my preferred BM spec too), and it's hard to take that and get all the way down to BM tier 3 for Aspect Mastery.
Enix wrote:I haven't found a whole lot of +hit out there, frankly. It seems to be a tough stat to come by.
You will find it following the outlands. The 70+ areas recognize the hunter need for +hit.
I believe what Enix means is that the late 70s quest and instance gear is pretty lacking in +hit. You only really start seeing it on rep gear (the Wyrmrest stat sticks, for example) and on heroic gear. That's fine, though. You need to be hit capped for raids, where the bosses are considered three levels above you and thus misses are much more frequent. Heroic bosses (I believe) are still level 80, so +hit isn't quite as important there. So as you are gearing up for raids by running heroics and grinding rep, you'll start getting a lot more hit gear, and probably enough so that through gems and enchants you can start raiding with maybe only one or two points in Focused Aim to be capped. And once you start getting Naxx gear, you'll soon get to a point where you only need to devote one or two gems to +hit (if any) in order to be capped on gear, and you can move those Focused Aim talent points to places where they offer direct DPS increases.
I believe what Enix means is that the late 70s quest and instance gear is pretty lacking in +hit. You only really start seeing it on rep gear (the Wyrmrest stat sticks, for example) and on heroic gear. That's fine, though. You need to be hit capped for raids, where the bosses are considered three levels above you and thus misses are much more frequent.
What Zero said. You will see that Northend gear (primarily rep and Heroic+ gear) has more +hit, but it'll take a while to negate the +hit gem "dependency".
A couple thoughts on gorillas specifically: You won't get be able to get one until you're into your 30s and can survive a trek into Stranglethorn. Plus gorillas are picky eaters -- they don't eat meat or fish, which makes feeding them a little more challenging.
1) Level 32, to be precise, and you only have to go a SHORT ways into STV from Westfall/Darkshire. If you have the northern STV flightpath, your gorilla is only about 1-2 minutes away, and just off the road to the east. Turn on tracking.
2) Food is irrelevant if you get the Glyph of Mend Pet, which turns Mend Pet into a Happiness generator. I don't feed ANY of my pets. Just heal them until they're happy. I can make these, but might need mats.
Re: Dwarf hunters - I'd love to play one, but can NOT stand the low camera angle of Dwarves and Gnomes. I wish I could get past it, but I can't. Try before you buy is all I'm saying. Don't dump a lot of money to give your little guy BoE bags and such until you are sure you can handle the low camera.
Re: Food. Seriously, just ask me for the Mend Pet glyph. It's way easier to hit that more often than to take up bag space and mental space with pet food.
Oh, and I could probably use a new gun on Ducarina. I'll have to hit one of you engineers up next time I log in.
Re: Food. Seriously, just ask me for the Mend Pet glyph. It's way easier to hit that more often than to take up bag space and mental space with pet food.
Definitely the case, except currently, there is a bug where if you have the Improved Mend Pet talent (highly recommended for a leveling BM spec!) the glyph doesn't function properly. This bug will be fixed in 3.1 though. Thankfully, aside from the glyph, each of the three pet talent trees include talents where the pet generates it's own happiness while in battle (Bloodthirsty for ferocity pets, Guard Dog for tenacity pets, and Carrion Feeder for cunning pets). You'll certainly be able to use the glyph before you have access to these talents, but between the two feeding your pet is essentially a thing of the past.
Re: Dwarf hunters - I'd love to play one, but can NOT stand the low camera angle of Dwarves and Gnomes. I wish I could get past it, but I can't. Try before you buy is all I'm saying. Don't dump a lot of money to give your little guy BoE bags and such until you are sure you can handle the low camera.
Re: Food. Seriously, just ask me for the Mend Pet glyph. It's way easier to hit that more often than to take up bag space and mental space with pet food.
Oh, and I could probably use a new gun on Ducarina. I'll have to hit one of you engineers up next time I log in.
Bring me the mats one evening when we're hitting Naxx. I might not have bought the recipe from the trainer, but that's an easy bit. I'll try to remember to pick them up next time I log in.
Oh, and I could probably use a new gun on Ducarina. I'll have to hit one of you engineers up next time I log in.
Just send a request to TrollSlayer.
On the other hand, while female draenai are hot, the males look somewhat silly.
I believe what Enix means is that the late 70s quest and instance gear is pretty lacking in +hit. ...
Exactly. It seemed like hit was less of a problem at 70, when I had the crafted Ebon Netherscale set and a bunch of gem slots. Now, I've got just two gem slots and a set of crafted armor (Swiftarrow) which is otherwise fine except for its complete lack of +hit. I'm not a raider and don't run instances very often, so my pool of +hit is very shallow.
But +hit isn't impossible to find. I normally walk around with +112 hit:
+16 from a Cenarion Expedition (!) head enchant
+40 from my Kalu'ak pig sticker
+16 from the yellow gem in my popgun
+28 from a ring
+12 from the Icewalker enchant on my boots
And when I wander into an instance, I swap out:
+ 24 from a green-quality pendant I picked up from a Grizzly Hills quest
+ ?? from a ring from I-forget-where. That puts me up till about 160, which means I don't often miss. There might be more +hit out there, but I haven't exactly stumbled on it.
What I really need to get ahold of is the Ring of Scarlet Shadows ... it's +38 hit with AP and crit. Pretty sweet.
2) Food is irrelevant if you get the Glyph of Mend Pet, which turns Mend Pet into a Happiness generator. I don't feed ANY of my pets. Just heal them until they're happy. I can make these, but might need mats.
That's a good point. I think I grabbed that one because the minor glyphs for hunters are otherwise lousy. Since then, I've noticed that my pets no longer beg me for food.
If only there were a real-world glyph like this for cats, dogs and children ...
If only there were a real-world glyph like this for cats, dogs and children ...
Glyph of Hug Other: Every time you hug another living thing, you give them nourishment equal to one day's worth of calories and nutrients.
I am down with this!
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