I’ve been thinking about BM talents and after watching the talk Max had I don’t agree with their overall sentiment. I’ve been maining BM for several years now, even in it’s 9.2 state, and I think the spec tree has some major issues.
If you spec BM out you will see there’s about 8 nodes that will likely never see play in their current state. I think the BM tree is only “good” because there’s clearly defined single target and AE builds. There’s very few actual choices though with Rylaks and Barbed Wrath being in the tree you have to get them which leaves the left side basically dead; and old Stampede (Wild Call) is such a great addition who in their right ming wants to miss out.
Exacerbating the problem between the two lower sides Barbed Wrath low in the tree and located behind Aspect of the Wild on the way to Wild Call. Wild Call is great fun thematically for the spec but AotW is a VERY bad CD that is currently being held up by other CDs (Wild Spirits). Throwing in the CD reduction makes it better but only in terms of what it does for BW, alone it is a dud.
That aside my main issues with the tree are, in no particular order:
- Stomp is an AE talent and yet is in a single target line.
- Sharp Barbs is a very minor buff for the cost, costs 2 pts making what’s below it hard to reach, and is just a weak Qa’pla.
- Murder of Crows really belongs in the class tree, where nessingwarrys is.
- Beast Cleave is just too expensive and it’s the nerfed version. Combined with the stomp issue makes BM AE even simpler.
- In for the kill costs too much for what it does.
- Wailing Arrow is too hard to get to.
- One with the Pack is twice as expensive as Wild Call making Qa’pla too difficult to reasonably reach.
- Qa’pla should be 1pt.
- Dire Command at 3pts makes it DoA.
- Dire Pack is under 3pt Dire Command making it far FAR too expensive to even reach.
- When you do take Dire Pack the fact that it buffs multi is absurd. Even removing multi, it buffing cobra makes it one of the worst talents in the tree, the barbed shot % buffs are probably the actual worst.
There is mandatory, multi-point, pet damage % and kill command damage % talents. These points may be numerically good but they are insanely boring.
Then there’s the mechanical issues with the spec/tree interactions. The spec doesn’t really function without Barbed Shot having 2 charges (Loaded Quiver) AND 2pts in Wild Call; you cannot maintain frenzy without both and you throw away a talent on Scent of Blood without taking Loaded Quiver. Barbed shot 2nd charge is a throw away point to just make the spec work that doesn’t really facilitate you moving down the tree in any way (you likely will take AC) and should just be rolled into the base Barbed Shot or have an additional effect added onto it (Feeding Frenzy/Bloddletting). Wild Call is in the tree in a really bad spot and needs to get moved into an easier to reach location; the basics that make a spec function should be easier to reach than % damage nodes. Additionally, One with the Pack is literally half of what Wild Call is per point so it needs to go to 1 point or get rolled into Wild Call.
Since there are VERY few pure single target fights Beast Cleave and Killer Cleave will be in 95%+ of all raid builds, and every single dungeon build, which is an extremely limiting 5 points. BM needs a tree shuffle and a cost reduction on some key choices; beast cleave, wild call, thrill of the hunt to name a few.
And finally, there was some really interesting ideas that I’m surprised we’re left out of these trees. Stuff like Feeding Frenzy/Bloodletting, Dance of Death, Primal Instincts. There’s plenty of stuff to add into the tree that feel fun to play with without being +% damage to cobra/multi, +% damage to barbed shot, a worse version of flayed shot, etc.