I’m seeing a lot of hunters 30-40s spec’d Marksman. Since I’m flying through my levels as BM, I was just wondering: do you find MM to be a more viable leveling spec? Or is it for dungeon cleaves? Just curious.
MM is better dps where as BM is better for solo play
Okay, I guess. Thanks.
bm is a lot better for lvlng.. you will have no downtime and your pet is a tank… lvling as MM you will need to stop and drink a lot… I will respect mm at 60 though…
1 Like
Sticking to BM for leveling/dungeons is never a bad idea.
Dipping down to aimed shot is never a bad idea either, even if you plan to go deep in BM.
2 Likes
Marksman doesn’t beat Beast Mastery for leveling in 1.12. In earlier patches, the case could be made. As Marksman, even if you don’t open with an Aimed Shot crit, you’re likely to pull aggro from your pet just with auto-shot and multi-shot crits.
I level my Hunters about the same as an Affliction Warlock – put Serpent Sting on 3 different mobs. Send pet after one, melee down the second, melee+pet to finish the third.
I leveled my hunter in vanilla as BM. It’s great for solo, but MM beats it for actual damage. The issue in solo play is pulling threat off pet so the choice is kind of up to you.
At 40+ if you’ve never respecced it’s moderately cheap to spec and respec if you don’t like it so give it a whirl. But BM life is prime from my recollection.
I was top dps in every group (tied for a rogue in one) as bm spec every dungeon I ran up to lv 54
BM only drops off at max lev because pets don’t continue to scale, but gear does. So MM with the +5% ranged weapon damage and +15% extra Multi-Shot damage eventually far outpaces the bonus damage you are getting for pets from the BM tree
But BM is superior for leveling AND pvp up until max level. BM is pretty weak in pvp at 60
If you like BM for pvp, you could go back to it in whatever expansion changes TBW (I believe it might be cataclysm, maybe TBC but I don’t think so). Eventually TBW gets changed to give the hunter +50% damage and cc immunity as well as the pet, and the pets damage gets changed to scale better off the hunter’s if I recall
That’s when I started to see BM making a big comeback in pvp anyway
1 Like
MM is garbage until you get epics. unless you need hitcap theres no reason to spec out of BM until you get stuff like rokdelar
This right here is the truth. BM will make you less gear dependent since most of your dmg comes from your pet. MM will make you more gear dependent, but a shiny new weapon will push your dps higher than BM. Things only really change at 60 since your pet won’t get stronger anymore.
2 Likes
From my experience MM isn’t really better than BM at anything until raids.
1 Like
MM is what their video guide told them to do, it’s all they know.
1 Like
They either don’t know better or don’t care. But hunter is not a hard class. It could level just as well with any talents, or no talents.
It might even be that if you don’t need the +3% hit from surefooted, that a 20/31/0 spec could be the best possible dps
You miss out on 3% damage from humanoid slaying but that is more of a pvp talent. There is no other dps boost in the first 20 points of survival that I’m aware of
I would personally still go 0/31/20 once I get 60 just because it would be nice to save that 3% hit in itemization and use those gear slots for dps increases (which helps in pvp as well, since wearing tons of hit gear for pvp is overkill, you only need like 5% for players), plus 10% health, imp wing clip (although IMO entrapment is better for group pvp), and deterrence are very helpful in pvp, and once people hit 60 that’s all the more really is to do if not raiding or farming
1 Like
BM is the way to go for leveling. Every spec is viable for leveling but BM is more optimal.
1 Like
Excellent and helpful insight, all. Thank you!
I prefer marks to bm because the power is in your hunter rather than your pet. Yes bm is much better for solo content, I won’t try and argue against that, but marks is definitely more engaging while lvling. And Incase you encounter the opposite faction while lvling I feel like your odds of winning are a little bit better. And with scatter shot you can deal with mages, warriors and rogues that get in your face quite nicely. Finally, if your pet dies you’re not out of the game yet as marks seeing as most of the time players have gone for my pet first before me they just take the brunt of the damage while focusing my pet only to get bursted and kited later.
1 Like
Pretty sure BM is the best spec for leveling. I was a total newb back in vanilla and leveled survival cuz it “felt” cooler to me. Didn’t realize BM was much better till I finished MC at which point, survival did become one of the better specs (someone else in raid specced into TSA so I stayed survival).
But like someone else said, hunter is so easy to level already, you can’t really go wrong. It’s a matter of leveling fast or leveling super fast.
You know you can spec in more than one tree, right? I recommend BM + Aimed shot for leveling. And unless you’re planning to raid, you can stay that way. MM was used a lot in raids, because of slightly better DPS
I do it for the slightly better damage, however my wife went bm for the added pet survivability as we are running duo hunters Bhanie and Clyde, just for questing and goofing off, with an eye on BGs later. Works very well, especially with 2 aoe pets.
1 Like