Hey all, thanks for taking the time to read this post. I have some questions about trying to raid properly as a BM hunter. My first question is about Barbed Shot. All of my research has said that your priority is to maintain as many stacks (on your pet) for frenzy, as you can at all times, optimally 3 so you you cast barbed shot as late as possible to increase your chances to maintain it. My question with this, is that every site that shows rotation advice, says that if you proc a 2nd charge of it, or you are going to hit a 2nd charge, to just cast barbed shot anyway. But I don’t understand why you would do that since barbed shot damage doesn’t stack on the enemy. What am I not getting with this? My next question is regarding Azerite Traits. Primal instincts is amazing, as is feeding frenzy, but which one is more beneficial after you already have one stack of it, considering Primal Instincts doesn’t grant multiple charges of barbed shot if you have more than one of the trait, just as Feeding frenzy doesn’t add more than one second to barbed shot. Which one is more beneficial after that first trait.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me with this
Barbed shot doesn’t stack, correct, but the reason you would want to cast it as you are approaching max charges is simply so you keep the cd rolling. It refreshes the duration so there’s really no harm done. If you’re really lucky you’ll get several procs in a row and you don’t want it to go to waste if you constantly sit on 2 charges. The stomp damage is also valuable with each barbed cast. If you’re struggling with management and timing on when to press it, there are weak auras that can help.
As for the traits question, primal instincts further stacks more mastery with each duplicate and is more valuable to stack than feeding frenzy. It increases your burst damage heavily, its also a crazy good trait in m+ with 1x rapid reload. Dance of Death has fallen into the meta recently though and you want at least two of those now, ideally 3.
Barbed Shot in itself has several functions.
When used, it applies a bleed/DoT on the current target. If you use Barbed Shot again before that bleed has disappeared, it’s just refreshed. It does not stack in any way.
However. Barbed Shot when used, also buffs your pet for the same duration as the bleed/DoT. Baseline that duration is 8 seconds. Gives your pet increased attack speed. This buff, called Frenzy, can stack up to 3 times, for a total of 90% increased attack speed.
This is the buff all sites and guides are talking about. The one you want to have as much uptime of as possible(at 3 stacks). Which is why guides recommend that you only use Barbed Shot, maybe 1 second or a bit less before the Frenzy buff on your pet falls off.
If the Frenzy buff does fall off, you would want to wait until you have almost 2 full charges of Barbed Shot available for use before you re-apply it again. As this will give you the most uptime of the best version of the buff, at 3 stacks total.
If you’re lucky and you get a lot of Wild Call procs(passive effect that grants you extra charges of Barbed Shot), you can use them more freely as long as you focus on maintaining that Frenzy buff on your pet.
They tell you to cast Barbed Shot early in cases like this as having the ability sitting at 2 charges ready with no CD recharging is essentially a waste. If you have multiple targets to hit, you can switch target fast and apply the bleed to that enemy and then switch back and continue as usual.
And, as Barbed Shot also reduces the remaining CD of Bestial Wrath every time it’s used, if you get extra charges of said ability, then this will mean more uptime on Bestial Wrath = more damage.
As for Azerite Traits
In general, you want several pieces that give you the Primal Instincts trait.
The bonus charge of Barbed Shot on use doesn’t stack with more traits, but the mastery bonus it gives, does. With several traits, you will get a lot of extra damage during your Aspect of the Wild.
Having one piece that gives you the Feeding Frenzy-trait is something to aim for as well as it will increase the duration on Frenzy by 1 second(9 sec total). And also give some damage.
Only aim for 1 “stack” of that trait though, as you can only get the increased duration bonus from 1 trait. That bonus effect does not stack, only the extra damage dealt does.
And as Snowfury pointed out, a more recent build that focuses on crit, has been figured out to have a lot of potential. That build is based on that you have a lot of crit chance and have picked the One with the Pack-talent instead of, for example Chimaera Shot.
With this build, you would also want to get as many traits as you can of the one called Dance of Death as it gets better the more crit you have.
This is however not a build that will automatically mean more damage for you. You will want to sim yourself to see if it actually is better for you than the normal build/setup.
And like he also said, if you can only get 1 Dance of Death trait total, I wouldn’t recommend switching. You would want at least 2 of that, and preferably 3 if you go for it.
Barbed Shot - A Focus regenerating shot that applies a bleed to your target, and also reduces the cooldown of Bestial Wrath and increases your pet’s attack speed by 30% for 8 sec, stacking up to 3 times.
Primal Instincts - Aspect of the Wild increases your Mastery by 1018, and grants you a charge of Barbed Shot.
BM’s current meta is with the use of 3x Dance of Death provided that you have high crit stats. If you dont have high crit stats, going for 3x Primal Instinct must be your goal. 3x Primal Instinct + 1x Feeding Frenzy is a good combo. Getting more than 1x Feeding Frenzy is not good.
I am playing 3x Dance of Death with 3x Primal Instincts. It’s a very solid combo for Single Targets. My DPS is now dictated by how much ilevel I have for those Azerite gear.
For AoE or Mythic +, I am with 3x Primal Instinct + 2x Dance of Death +1x Rapid Reload. Rapid Reload is godly on AoE but zero value on Single Targets. You can switch gear when not in combat in Raids. Show those DH’s, Mages and Rogues on who’s the AoE DPS king by putting Rapid Reloads. I am on PuGs. AoE DPS on trash distorts everyone’s damage meters showing the one with Top AoE damage on top of Overall Damage.
Thank you guys so much. That answers everything I was wondering. I really appreciate the time you guys took for this!