Tag Archives: glyphs

beast mastery, guides, specs

Beast Mastery Stuff 4.0

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Okay I’ve played around with Beast Mastery a bit in heroics and stuff and I have some tips for it. Note that this is not a comprehensive guide and I haven’t done any rooting around EJ or any real math or anything.

OVERVIEW:

Beast Mastery is now providing a very different playstyle than it has in the past. See, we used to be all about burst. Now, we’re all about ramping up. Your AoE damage is gonna suck now that we’ve lost Volley and MultiShot is expensive, focus-wise. Your DPS is probably gonna suck if your group is full of warlocks doing 10k on bosses (did I mention that I’m back to leveling my warlock? >.>) and thus the bosses die within ten seconds. Where your DPS is going to shine is on longer fights that allow you to use Focus Fire, get some of those tasty Kill Command crit procs (can’t think of the name right now), and take advantage of the new Glyph of Kill Shot which is ridiculous and awesome.

In addition we have a lot of fun procs and a lot of fun buttons to press and while I still dislike the mechanic of Focus (until I get used to it anyway) I’m liking all the new stuff-to-do. I’ve spent some quality time with all three specs and I can honestly say that I find the new Beast Mastery to be the most fun– and I’d like to think that I’m not being biased when I say that, seeing that I really fell in love with Survival a couple months back.

ROTATION:

Basically on a single-boss fight you are spamming Arcane and using Kill Command when it’s up. Use Bestial Wrath when it’s up. View Steady Shot as a “Mini-Viper” of sorts (that made the transition to using Focus easier for me). I.E., when your gas tank is starting to run dry, pop a couple of Steadies to get it back up to speed. Use Focus Fire when you see the icon light up. I had a comment ask if they had to be watching their pet’s Frenzy stacks now– no, you don’t, as far as I’m aware, because Blizzard is nice and made it so you get a big shiny glowy effect on your Focus Fire button when you can use it. (Note: you also get the big shiny glowy effect when your Kill Command “Killing Streak” thing procs.)

Just like I view Steady Shot as a new Mini-Viper, I also view Fervor as a Mini-Readiness of sorts, because it restores Focus to you and gives you a few extra seconds of Fun Stuff To Do. That is, I’ll pop it a few moments into a Boss Fight, as follows:

TYPICAL BEAST MASTER BOSS FIGHT:

The Beast Within ->
Rapid Fire/Any Trinkets ->
Serpent Sting ->
Spam Arcane and use Kill Command when it’s up ->
Once Beast Within fades, pop Fervor… this will give you a little more juice now that you’re not getting the Focus cost reduction from TBW anymore. ->
Right around here Focus Fire is gonna light up, so use that. ->
Go back to Arcane/Kill Command and Steady as necessary. Serpent Sting again if you’ve got a ways to go on the boss. ->
Optional: Check Recount and feel special.

SPEC:
Pretty straightforward; scoop up the talents that give you DPS increases. Really the only choice you’ll be making is Spirit Bond vs. Improved Mend Pet. As usual I’m addicted to the latter but I imagine most people will pick the former, or perhaps put one point in each.

I had five non-Beast Master points left over, which I dumped into Go for the Throat and Efficiency.

GLYPHS:
Right now for Prime Glyphs I’m using Kill Shot, Steady Shot, and Arcane Shot. They’re sexy.

OVERALL SPEC/GLYPH SETUP:
I’m using this. Use at your own risk because I sort of just made it up as I went along.

PETS:
Corehounds are the current New Hotness because they get Bloodlust/Heroism. A lot of pets get a lot of great stuff though, check out this chart for details (I didn’t make it):

…of course, really the chart should have a line that says something to the effect of “Are you Pike -> Yes -> Use Whichever Pet is Prettiest” because you guys have to remember that I’m that person who refused to use a wolf throughout the entire duration of WotLK because I thought dinosaurs were much more awesome, so…

…yeah. *coughs*

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
I’m not sure if it’s bugged or what but Kill Command sure likes to tell me I’m “out of range” and the like when I try to use it. DISREGARD THAT, just wait to use Kill Command until your pet is actually attacking something.

Also my pets seem to be dying a lot.

Dunno, I’ll get back to you on those.

Okay, I think that’s about it. Questions/comments/rants/raves/rambles? Lemme know! *points to commenting link*

beast mastery, math

A Sad Day for Bestial Wrath Addicts Everywhere

32 Comments

I was messing around with the spreadsheet the other day and learned something outright depressing.

See, for a long time, the Holy Trinity of Beast Master glyphs has been Glyph of Steady Shot, Glyph of Serpent Sting, and Glyph of Freakin’ 1.17 Second Cooldown Bestial Wrath.

But guys… we now remove our hats and bow our heads…

Because Glyph of the Hawk is apparently a significant DPS increase over Glyph of Bestial Wrath. (By “significant” I mean “close to 100 DPS”, though whether or not that is truly “significant” is up to you.)

*Taps plays somewhere in the distance*

Needless to say I fell into a state of denial and began playing around and swapping out the Serpent Sting and Steady Shot glyphs for the Hawk glyph to see if I could keep my beloved Bestial Wrath glyph, but to no avail. Everything else was a DPS loss. But turning Bestial Wrath into Hawk was a gain. Peh.

Will it effect me? Probably not. Because am I keeping the Bestial Wrath glyph(s, since I have three hunters that use one currently)? Probably yes. Guys. I’m raiding as the spec that does the lowest theoretical DPS of all of them and I’m not even using an optimal pet. When you’re already missing out on a thousand-ish DPS, by choice, 100 DPS doesn’t seem like a huge deal anymore, ya know?

On the other hand I’m gripped with the desire to do as much DPS as possible as a Beast Master, to make up for all the inherent shortcomings, but to be fair if we really need the DPS I’ll just switch to Marksmanship anyway. (Not like I do much more DPS as a Marksman than I do as a Beast Master, but ya know.)

Before my account expired, I did a couple heroics on Tawyn. I have a screenshot of 5.5k DPS in Halls of Lightning as a Beast Master. I’m happy. Whether you are happy is up to you, thus, the decision on whether to reglyph is also up to you! I just wanted to be sure I’m always here bringin’ you the news.

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait, Pike, your account expired? OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!!one!”

Yeah, my WoW account expired yesterday and I have not yet resubscribed. There are a couple reasons for this:

a.) both my birthday and Christmas are next week and people have been hinting around that I’ll be getting WoW game time cards as gifts, so I don’t really feel like restarting a credit card subscription cycle if I’m just going to be getting said cards next week anyway, and…

b.) some issues have come up in my personal/family life which have the potential to flip my life upside down, Prince of Bel-Air style, so I sort of don’t want to resubscribe before I know what’s going on with that. (Don’t worry, I’m not dying).

Ironically I have a lot of WoW-related blog post ideas floating around in my head at the moment, and my second account– home to one level 60 resto druid and one level 12 hunter– is still active for another couple of weeks if I need a fix, so! No worries.

I am seriously considering starting a second blog, however, specifically for non-WoW-related stuff, so in case the hiatus turns out longer than planned I will still have somewhere to jabber at. (I know I’ve pimped my Livejournal before in the past but frankly I don’t think LJ works very well as a public blogging medium– it’s more of a social networking thing– so I’d rather just make a subdomain here and start fresh. I’ll letcha know when I’ve got that set up.)

Wow, so, that blog post didn’t stay on topic, now did it…?

guides, hunter kindergarten

Glyphs for the Discerning Beast Master: Part Two

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Continued from Part One:

Part Two: Minor Glyphs

Hunter Minor Glyphs are a tricky subject because there aren’t too many that are going to help you out in a PvE situation– it’s the PvPers who get luckier with them this time I think. Let’s take a look at all of them:

Glyph of Feign Death:
What it Does: Decreases the cooldown on your Feign Death by 5 seconds
Why it’s good: More Feign Death is never a bad thing. Even though I find myself using it less these days because WotLK tanks are monsters (in a very good way, of course!) I’m sure there are going to be situations in the future in raids where it gets resisted 99.9% of the time like it did for me in Burning Crusade *mutters*

Overall, a very nice little glyph.

Glyph of Mend Pet:
What it Does: Every time you use Mend Pet your pet gains 20 happiness. It’s a one-time thing (i.e., your pet does not gain happiness per tick.)
Why it’s good: Even though pet feeding is less and less needed these days what with pet talents available that almost make it a moot point, that doesn’t chase away certain scary memories in my head. Scary memories of starting a long boss fight and then watching my pet go from “Happy” to “Content” about ten seconds later cause I forgot to feed him before hand. That’s a big DPS loss and you can’t feed him until you’re out of combat.

Another scenario: a hard fight and your pet dies mid-action. You rez him and send him back. Previously you’d have had to send him in “Content” (and possibly even “Unhappy”). Now you just pop your Mend Pet a couple times and he’ll be good to go.

A hugely helpful glyph and an absolute Must-Have for Beast Masters.

Those are the two glyphs that I currently have in my spellbook. Let’s take a look at the others.

Glyph of Possessed Strength:
What it Does: Increases the damage done by your pet while in Eyes of the Beast by 50%
What it’s For: When I first heard about this glyph I think my reaction was akin to “… … … *blink*” But I’ve actually heard of hunters who are really into the whole gorilla-tanking-instances thing who this to generate threat. So I’m going to toss this one into the “Unconventional Solo Uses” category.

Glyph of Revive Pet:
What it Does: Removes pushback when you’re casting this spell
What it’s For: My pet rarely dies when I’m out solo’ing and chances are good that if you’re reviving your pet in an instance or raid, you’re not being attacked, because either you’re still mid-fight and the tank is taking the damage, or you’re recouping after a wipe. So this strikes me as being almost purely a PvP glyph. Especially seeing as pets seem to be everyone’s new favorite target in AV (they were the last time I was there, at least >.>)

Glyph of Scare Beast:
What it Does: Removes most of the pushback when you’re casting this spell
What it’s For: This would be really handy at low-levels when you’re cruising through the Barrens/Ashenvale pre-Freezing Trap. After that, though, this glyph seems to be basically for one thing, and one thing only: druids and hunter pets in PvP. And let me tell ya, this would be a pretty nice glyph for that purpose.

Glyph of the Pack:
What it Does: Slightly increases the range of your Aspect of the Pack.
What it’s For: Running back after a wipe… realliy I can’t think of any other circumstances where I use Aspect of the Pack, I’m afraid.

The Verdict:

So for a lot of us, we are left wondering what our third glyph should be. I don’t think there is really a wrong or right answer here and you should go with what you think will fit better for your own playstyle. If you PvP a lot, Glyph of Scare Beast has a lot going for it. Myself, I think I will probably wind up with Glyph of Revive Pet. I don’t feel like I need it, but I don’t see myself as having many more good options and I don’t PvP enough these days to warrant Glyph of Scare Beast.

And that’ll do it for my little dissertation on hunter glyphs. Hopefully it answered some questions for you. As always, lemme know if you have questions or if I’ve made a mistake or error. (And if you had a question for me on my last guide and I haven’t answered it yet, I will answer it when I get home from work. >.>)

guides, hunter kindergarten

Glyphs for the Discerning Beast Master: Part One

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I’ve been getting a couple requests for guides lately and one of the popular ones seems to be glyphs.   So, Pike will go into teacher-mode and tell you about the glyphs she’s currently using and recommends for BM Hunters and why!

Part One: Major Glyphs:

Glyph of Steady Shot
What it does: Buffs your Steady Shot by 10%.
Why it’s good: If you are a BM hunter, then Steady Shot is a very hefty chunk of your damage. Boosting that all by 10%? Yeah. Yeah. The trick is to keep Serpent Sting up at all times in order to take advantage of this glyph. The DPS increase is huge. Even post-incoming-nerf I still think this is going to be important to help pull your Steady Shot back up to speed. Don’t leave home without it.

Glyph of Bestial Wrath
What it does: Decreases the cooldown on Bestial Wrath/The Beast Within by 20 seconds.
Why it’s good: Let’s talk about all the stuff that BW/TBW does. Firstly, it increases your pet’s damage by 50%. Secondly, it increases your own damage by 10%. Thirdly, it decreases the mana cost of all your abilities by 20%. Fourthly, it makes you and your pet basically immune to CC and Fear. Fifthly, it’s one of the most fun hunter abilities on the planet. Don’t you think? Now shave 20 seconds off the cooldown with this glyph. Now further decrease that cooldown with Longevity. If you are a BM fan and you aren’t drooling yet then I want to know who you are and what you did with the hunter that was previously reading this blog! D=

Those two are basically a given. Now let’s talk about the two contenders for the third spot.

Exhibit A:

Glyph of Aspect of the Viper
What it does: Increases your mana regen from ranged attacks when in Aspect of the Viper by 10%.
Why it’s good: The new Aspect of the Viper is a nifty concept, but not all good things are free and mana regen is no exception. When you are in Aspect of the Viper, your damage is nerfed by 50%. Now, us Beast Masters have it better than most. For starters, we have Aspect Mastery, which reduces that damage reduction down to 40%. And secondly, we have our powerful pet unaffected and still pounding away. So overall we lose less damage on this than others would.

However, we still want to spend as little time as we need to in Viper and spend most of our time in Hawk/Dragonhawk. Which is where this glyph comes into play. The more mana we regen the quicker we can hop back out to Hawk. It’s that simple.

Exhibit B:

Glyph of Serpent Sting:
What it does: Increases the duration on your Serpent Sting by 3 seconds (or 6 seconds, after a coming patch!)
Why it’s good: The longer your Serpent Sting is active, the more you can use your Steady Shot without having to spend a cooldown period refreshing your Serpent Sting. Six extra seconds would theoretically buy you four extra Steady Shots. Of course I imagine most of us are not D.A.R.Y.L. or living in a lagfree world and we’d probably only get in three extra Steadys, but still, that can make a difference.

So which of those two am I supposed to use, Pike?

The answer is… I’m still not sure. Today, in the name of science, I spent some gold on a couple each Glyphs of Aspect of the Viper and Glyphs of Serpent Sting and battered those training dummies silly, taking note of how much DPS I did with each after a set number of Dragonhawk/Viper cycles. The results were… inconclusive. Just as I was starting to think Serpent Sting was winning out, Viper suddenly came back with a big vengeance. Really it’s hard to say and I’m going to theorize that when you toss human error into the equation they’re fairly similarly good overall and you should either do your own testing, and/or go with whichover one is cheapest or more appealing to you. I personally am sticking with Viper for now. Warning though!: Results may change with the upcoming buff to the Serpent Sting glyph. I’ll get back to you on that. *nod*

Next time: Minor Glyphs and why Pike is only using two of them right now. Until then, as always, poke me if you have questions or if I have made some sort of dire mistake or ungodly typo. Hey, I’ve made those before.

Oh and before I forget again, thanks Brigwyn for making me the guest of honor and letting me be interviewed over at his site, The Hunting Lodge. And if you are absolutely insane and can’t get enough Pike Questions, there are rumors on the internets that she will be appearing in bigger venues soonish. Stay tuned!