[Updated] Upcoming Hunter Buffs for July 13th / 14th

[Shadowaxe-mannoroth (Shadowaxe)]

With the buff, Hydra bite might be viable. Also the Venthyr lego was buff to 60% on the bleed. It may be a viable build to have Hydra, and the Venthyr lego for both ST and AOE situations.

[Brew-stormreaver]

I was wondering about that, but I still don’t think the venthyr leggo can compete outside of lower target cleave. Wildfire is just going to smash it outside of 5 targets, but it’s certainly worth considering.

[Jaggles-lightbringer]

@Gromgarr-azgalor

Making KC cleaeve sounds like the best solution ive heard so far. It would add quite some more damage and would also add more much needed skill epxression to the spec.

I don’t PvE enough to really say for sure (this xpac.) What’s the average CD on that ability for BM? I’d rather have Multishot damage buffed, because adding passive AoE to more abilities sounds REALLY lazy to me. Unless, like trick shots, it wouldn’t cleave unless Multishot hit X number of targets first. Still seems lazy, though.

@Brew-stormreaver

Probably because SV mastery affects kill shot damage and they’re worried about it being too strong somehow? I dunno.

I would LOVE to see them switch mastery up a bit per spec.

• BM: Pet damage, but more clearly defined as abilities that incorporate critters, i.e., Crows, Spitting Cobra, KC, Beast Cleave, etc. Basically anything that’s an animal and does damage (whether prompted by the Hunter or on their own.)

• MM: Shot damage, to me, makes sense here. I’d love ArP, but I think that ship has sailed.

• SV: Dots, bleeds, “magic” damage. You’d lose the amp on Kill Shot, but everything leading up to that would be more potent.

[Shadowaxe-mannoroth (Shadowaxe)]

I would agree. But also remember, I think the lego is limited to range and not targets, so it could perhaps due better ? I need to look it up, but yes, I think the WF cluster lego would still out do it.

For ST I use the NTA build which really can get the job done, done right.

[Gromgarr-azgalor]

@Jaggles-lightbringer

I’d rather have Multishot damage buffed, because adding passive AoE to more abilities sounds REALLY lazy to me.

You dont want passive aoe but then want to simply buff a spell which would have no effect on the rotation whatsoever?
Since KC get its cd reduced by CS, you can improve your dps significantly over the completly passive 4 second beast cleave window. Managing your cd reduce better will result in more aoe dps, which is rewards good playstyle. Unlike just giving some % to an already existing aoe ability which sounds REALLY lazy…

[Jaggles-lightbringer]

@Gromgarr-azgalor

You dont want passive aoe but then want to simply buff a spell which would have no effect on the rotation whatsoever?

You’re either conflating the conversation of AoE vs ST, or you’re using Multishot as your focus dump? My argument is, you make a choice to press MS if the situation warrants it. You never make that choice with KC.

[Gromgarr-azgalor]

Well, you rarely make the decision not to press KC. However, a major factor to differentiate good bms from bad ones is how well they handle their focus and their cd reduce, which will result in more KCs.

I dont think it takes much skill to press MS every 4 seconds in aoe, but if KC would cleave (given that beast cleave is active) it would also reward better play and not just the simple pressing of MS every 4 seconds.
Making KC cleave would lead to an increased skill expression while just buffing MS would basically do nothing except be a passive aoe buff. Unless you want to buff it by like 500% so it could actually be used more than purely as activator for beast cleave. Would you want MS to be a viable focus dump?

[Ghorak-laughing-skull]

@Jaggles-lightbringer

What’s the average CD on that ability for BM?

7.5 sec, reduced by Haste.

@Jaggles-lightbringer

I’d rather have Multishot damage buffed, because adding passive AoE to more abilities sounds REALLY lazy to me. Unless, like trick shots, it wouldn’t cleave unless Multishot hit X number of targets first. Still seems lazy, though.

Multi-Shot hits each target, max of 5 targets, for 37.5%(43% with the new buff) of AP as Physical damage.

They will never buff MS for BM to a point where it’s useful to press it more often than now where you do it once every 4 sec just to keep Beast Cleave up. The whole gameplay loop of BM is designed so that you shouldn’t spam MS.

[Jaggles-lightbringer]

Is there not a break point where, say, pressing MS on 2-3 targets is a dps loss over another skill?

[Onostoolan-zangarmarsh (Onostoolan)]

They did not take this far enough to realy benefit BM.

Gromgarrs Idea of KC being able to cleave in beast cleave window would be excellent !

Personally I would also like to trade 5% or even 10% of the damage from Cobra shot and add it to the base 15% we get to Kill Command. Thematically better and if they would make KC cleave bonus.

Overall as was pointed out in another thread by Cognisant
[Updated] Upcoming Hunter Buffs for July 13th / 14th - #12 by Cognizant-thunderlord

The entirety of these buffs are roughly equal to a 5% overall aura buff so Meh again.

[Sylina-moon-guard]

I wish haste made rapid fire’s cooldown shorten. I feel like that would improve MM’s rotation a bit.

Will be interesting to see how the buffs affect hunter’s ST in the raid logs. I feel like BM will benefit a lot, considering the amount of movement on fights in Sanctum.

[Cognizant-thunderlord]

My opinions about BM Hunter and why I switched to Priest…

1. The entire spec is very mediocre. None of the abilities really stand out. Kill Command is supposed to be the big hitter, but barely does more damage than our filler Cobra Shot. On my Hunter, it’s 2214 KC and 2139 CS.

2. Talents aren’t diverse enough. Pretty much every BM uses the same talents. Animal Companion is the best talent in the first row by a good clip and it’s been bugged since it was introduced. On my Priest, I change talents frequently based on the content I’m doing.

(For those that don’t know, Animal Companion reduces your pet’s damage by 35% to offset having two pets. Unfortunately, it seems to be an aura debuff that applies to all pets - including Spitting Cobra and guardian pets from quests/dungeons.)

3. I don’t know if this is still the case on Live, but Domination shards give a “increases damage by x%” buff. Since it’s not a stat increase, BM pets aren’t getting the buff. This makes the entire Domination shard system half as effective for BM Hunters.

That being said, what I would like to see to fix the spec:

• Fix Animal Companion and adjust other talents to provide more variety.
• Fix the Domination shard system(if it hasn’t been already).
• Change Frenzy stacks to increase damage in other ways than just haste. Perhaps each stack provides 30% haste AND 5-10% more damage. This would reward those with more skill at keeping frenzy stacks up.
• Explosive Trap should be baseline. I’m mixed on this one, but I’ve had far more need for explosive trap in PvE than PvP. Perhaps just uncapped AoE damage in PvE, but a knockback with lower damage in PvP.

[Ghorak-laughing-skull]

@Cognizant-thunderlord

1. Talents aren’t diverse enough. Pretty much every BM uses the same talents. Animal Companion is the best talent in the first row by a good clip and it’s been bugged since it was introduced. On my Priest, I change talents frequently based on the content I’m doing.

(For those that don’t know, Animal Companion reduces your pet’s damage by 35% to offset having two pets. Unfortunately, it seems to be an aura debuff that applies to all pets - including Spitting Cobra and guardian pets from quests/dungeons.)

Yeah, I made a bug report for it just recently. Not holding my breath though as well, it has been like this since the launch of BfA(and before that really, with the Alpha/Beta).

Beast Mastery, Talent: Animal Companion - hidden aura

So, this talent was first introduced with BfA. Since then, there has been a hidden aura modifier that applies whenever you select this talent. This aura intends to reduce the damage dealt by your main pet(and by extension) the second pet as well, so that they both deal 65% of normal damage each. Talent: Animal Companion Talent Requires Hunter (Beast Mastery) | Requires level 15 Your Call Pet additionally summons the first pet from your stable. This pet will obey your Kill Command, but canno…

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@Cognizant-thunderlord

That being said, what I would like to see to fix the spec:

• Fix Animal Companion and adjust other talents to provide more variety.
• Fix the Domination shard system(if it hasn’t been already).
• Change Frenzy stacks to increase damage in other ways than just haste. Perhaps each stack provides 30% haste AND 5-10% more damage. This would reward those with more skill at keeping frenzy stacks up.
• Explosive Trap should be baseline. I’m mixed on this one, but I’ve had far more need for explosive trap in PvE than PvP. Perhaps just uncapped AoE damage in PvE, but a knockback with lower damage in PvP.

I like those ideas. Not sure on Explosive Trap though.

Long term, I would like to see something more for BM. Posted this earlier in this topic but anyway, looking past Shadowlands really, this is more or less where I want BM to be:

Beast Mastery - future improvements[Partial rework]

I know this is a big overkill in terms of suggestions for a 0.5 patch(any mid-expansion patch really). But I though I’d take another look at what I would like to see from Beast Mastery in the future, based on it’s current design. Some things, such as a lack of potential single-target burst, cleave, or burst AoE/AoE in general, have been mentioned by others in regards to the spec several times both recently and further back in time. Along with the “squishy” nature of Hunters. Hopefully, some of …

[Nippyss-barthilas (Nippyss)]

I’ll be making that legendary the second the patch drops

I’ve gone from like 18% haste to 30% haste this week on my hunter, my kill shot damage has gotten pretty wild

I think it’s actually going to be really strong and the whole ability just scales so well with stats there might actually be a point where it gets kinda OP, kill shot damage on ST might actually take over my goose bite damage with enough procs

Interested to see how it will perform in AoE

Going to be a very fun week

[Badsneakerz-stormrage]

So you are getting a lot more procs on Kill Shot with that much haste? I have been focusing crit>verse=haste even though it’s not ideal because i like those massive numbers.

[Nippyss-barthilas (Nippyss)]

I need to use haste because I’m survival spec

And yeah I get boat loads of procs with more haste

I’d love to get the conduit upgraded for it

[Badsneakerz-stormrage]

I’m survival also. I know haste sims super high for us, but I have two hunters. My night fae hunter is haste/verse and my Venthyr hunter is at 40% base crit. I ended up focusing on the venthyr one for this patch.

I took two different approaches just for some variety I guess.

The Venthyr one is so far behind on M+ damage compared to the night fae that it’s really making me start to regret going venthyr.

[Bullëtproof-zuljin]

Wild Spirits is almost 20% of my M+ damage.

[Nippyss-barthilas (Nippyss)]

Good lord that’s a lot of crit rating, you’d get some big slaps from the kill shots ahaha

I’d like to try a crit mastery build just to see how high the kill shots could go

[Badsneakerz-stormrage]

That was my original intent also, but i’m not finding much crit/mastery gear. it’s mostly crit/vers so far.