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Beast Master Spec
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Dual-Spec Quick FAQ
Q: When I respec, do I have to respec both of my specs?

A: No. When you select to untrain all of your talents, you will untrain the talents of your active spec, leaving your other spec alone entirely. So before you respec, make sure the spec you want to untrain is active! Otherwise, you'll be paying for both respecs.
Q: How does it work when I have Beast Mastery for one of my specs and not for the other?

A: If you switch from your spec with Beast Mastery to your spec without it, you will have your default 16 pet talent points refunded to you and you will have to distribute them all over again. However, if you switch from your spec without Beast Mastery to your spec with it, you will keep the 16 points you've already distributed and only have 4 you can distribute.
Q: Can I still use my exotic pet with my specs that don't have Beast Mastery?

A: Unfortunately not. To use any exotic pets you've tamed, you'll need to have the spec with Beast Mastery active.
Q: How do my glyphs work in conjunction with my specs?

A: You will get a glyph set for each spec. Be sure to check out the new Explosive Shot and Kill Shot glyphs. They're expensive to come by (unless you've got an Inscriber for a buddy that's high level) but they're worth it, especially for Survival Hunters.
Q: Do my action bars reset when I switch specs or when I untrain a spec?

A: They shouldn't; however, some Hunters have experienced phantom skills taking their rightful place after a respec (Raptor Strike especially likes reclaiming it's Button 2 spot). You may experience your action bars resetting but not to an extreme. It should be limited to replacing a few skills from your skills book.

 



View My Armory Spec

At present, Survival and Marksman are the top raiding specs for Hunters with Survival leading in damage capability. After 3.1's release, even veteran Survival Hunters had trouble finding the optinum DPS (Damage Per Second) build. I, myself, spent nearly 400 gold in respecs because I continuously tweaked my talents as I progressed in understanding my new talents, limits and strengths.

Unlike Beast Masters, Survivalists and Marksmen focus on buffing themselves rather than their pets. For those of us who became Hunters for the team effort of a master-pet relationship, it's sad to know that, as a Survivalist or a Marksman, your pet becomes little more than added damage in a fight. Buffing them and tweaking their skills over your own is a disservice to yourself and those you group/raid with because it will not be an efficient trade-off like a Beast Master. As a Survivalists or a Marksmen, your sole purpose is to DPS your little heart out as fast as you possibly can. As with any raid DPS class, you should always aim to be #1 on Damage Done and DPS. Pushing yourself to that limit will, inevitably, result in a better DPS average than settling for what you can do "base" (ie: without pushing yourself to the limits and actively trying to be better/faster).

I've finally settled into a spec that I can enjoy, appreciate and top the damage charts with. You can view my spec on the armory. I played around a lot with various specs when 3.1 came out and this is the spec that has allowed me to go further on the damage list than any other.

A question I spent a lot of time deciding over, and you probably will, too, was: "Is it better that I sacrifice 3 points so that I can take Focused Aim and be hit-capped?" Depending on your current hit rating, the answer may be different. 9% is a Hunter's hit cap so if you're sitting at around 5%, taking Focused Aim will hurt your DPS but not too badly. You will still top the damage charts - moreso than if you were to swap the 3 points for something else. Until you get up to 7.5 or 8% hit, I would recommend putting those 3 points into Focused Aim. Once you're into the 25-man content, it won't be long until you are naturally hit-capped because of your gear. I do not - I repeat: DO NOT - recommend gemming for hit rating. You can read more about gemming/enchanting here. Inspect gear carefully for hit rating and pick and choose your stats that way. If you lose a small percentage (~0.50%) of critical strike rating and/or attack power (~60-100) for a good amount of hit (~0.50%+), I certainly recommend taking those two losses for the one gain as hit rating is significantly harder to make up for and your gemming/enchanting will help you balance out attack power/crit losses.

Hunters use either a shot sequence (thumbs-up!) or a shot rotation (thumbs down!). As similar as they sound, they are not the same thing.

USE: A sequence: Sequences are based on the priority of Hunter abilities and Hunters prioritize by determining the most effective damage-dealing abilities. So if you are using abilities 1-4, you will be focusing on their cooldowns rather than a trap of 1... 2... 3... 4. Say you mark 1 as your lowest damage ability and 4 as your highest, you will be carefully watching your 3 and 4 cooldowns and sacrificing your 1 and 2 abilities for a chance to use your 3 and 4 abilities. So, instead of 1... 2... 3... 4, you may very well be doing 4... 3.... 2... 1... 3... 2... 4, etc.

DON'T USE: A rotation: With a rotation, you use a planned out, prioritized set of abilities that you stick to no matter what. Once again, if you are using abilities 1-4 (on your main action bar) in your rotation, you will go through the rotation of 1... 2... 3... 4 without deviating from it. While easy and mindless, this method enables Hunters to ignore their cooldowns while failing to use their highest damage abilities - especially since, on average, Survivalists and Marksmen will use around 7-8 abilities regularly.

I have my hotbar set up this way:

1: Autoshoot
2: Hunter's Mark
3: Multi-Shot
4: Volley
5: Kill Command
6: Kill Shot
7: Steady Shot
8: Explosive Shot
9: Serpent Sting
0: Black Arrow
-: Trinket
=: Feign Death

ON TRASH: I classify "trash" as any mob that consists of 3+ targets which need to be taken down at (roughly) the same time. I open up with Multi-Shot, use Volley through 1 full cast and about 50-75% through the second cast before I go back to Multi-Shot. I weave in Kill Command and Kill Shot whenever possible. If it is a mob with a "big guy" and a bunch of "little guys" (ie: Freya flower trash in Ulduar), I will use my single-target sequence on the "big guy" and move into my trash sequence for the "little guys."

SINGLE-TARGET: My single-target sequence is significantly more complicated. I prioritized my abilities (from most damage to least) as Kill Shot, Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot. When I first open up on a target, the very first ability I use is Hunter's Mark and then I blow my trinket. After I've blown my trinket, I start in with my sequence. While I don't have it on my hotbar, I'm also sure to use Rapid Fire after the first time I'm able to use my Kill Shot. It can be a little challenging and daunting at first; however, adjusting to an effective sequence is key in achieving the most DPS you can do.

Maxing out your DPS doesn't end at your spec, shot sequence, gear or even all of those combined. There's also raid awareness and Hunter aids that help you, too. The type of pet you choose is also a significant portion of your DPS, too, and it matters how you spec out its talents.

SURVIVALIST TALENTS
(From Top and Left to Right in Your Talent Tree)
TALENT
WHAT IT DOES
NUKUMI'S OPINION
Improved Tracking
While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids or Undead, all ranged damage done to those types is increased by [1% / 2% / 3% / 4% / 5%].
 LIKE IT: You can't go wrong with any permanent damage increase, especially when the cost is as minimal as making sure you remember to track what you're fighting.
Hawk Eye Increases the range of your ranged weapons by [2 / 4 / 6] yards. IT'S OKAY: Increased range capability is never a bad thing but with the current raiding instances you rarely find yourself out of range.
Savage Strikes Increases the critical strike chance of Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite and Counterattack by [10% / 20%]. DON'T LIKE IT: Not beneficial to any type of Hunter unless you pull aggro and something tries to eat your face. Better that you use a Frost Trap or Mongoose Bite on it, get some range and rinse/repeat until you can Kill Shot it.
 
Surefooted Reduces the duration of movement impairing effects by [10% / 20% / 30%]. DON'T LIKE IT: For the amount of times that you will find yourself unable to move (and capable of dispelling that effect), which is rare, this otherwise good talent becomes a wasted talent point in comparison to other talents you could select.
Entrapment When your Frost Trap, Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Snake Trap are triggered, you entrap all afflicted targets, preventing them from moving for 4 seconds. LIKE IT: I actually like this talent a fair amount and only resisted taking it because of how infrequently I actually use traps in an instance. For the times I do use them, I can see this talent being exceedingly useful. However, I only have so many talent points to use and felt that there were better ones that took a greater priority than Entrapment.
Trap Mastery Increases the duration of your Frost Trap/Freezing Trap by [10% / 20% / 30%], the DOT done by your Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow by [10% / 20% / 30%] and the number of snakes summoned by your Snake Trap by [3 / 6 / 9]. LIKE IT: As much as I like every aspect of this talent, I admit that I only took it because of the DOT bonus it gave to Black Arrow. Everything about this talent is great and useful but the DOT aspect gaurantees and increase in damage, which is what I look for in my Survivalist spec.
 
Survival Instincts Reduces all damage taken by [2% / 4%] and increases the critical strike chance of your Arcane Shot, Steady Shot and Explosive Shot by [2% / 4%]. LIKE IT: This is a win/win situation right here: damage reduction and critical strike chance. You can't go wrong with such a straight-forward talent.
Scatter Shot A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and disorients the target for 4 seconds. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Turns off your attack when used. DON'T LIKE IT: Hunters have far too many good crowd control methods to use a risky liability like Scatter Shot. Disorienting your target could end up sending it into a neighboring mob, defeating your attempt to control your target.
Deflection Increases your chance to parry by [1% / 2% / 3%] and reduces the duration of all Disarm effects used against you by [16% / 25% / 50%]. This does not stack with other Disarm duration reducing effects. DON'T LIKE IT: While the parry aspect of Deflection is good, I find the disarm portion a little too useless in current raiding instances. In fact, I don't recall the last time I was actually disarmed for a lengthy period.
Survival Tactics Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability and all trap spells will be resisted by[2% / 4%] and reduces the cooldown of your Disengage ability by [2 / 4] seconds. IT'S OKAY: If we had unlimited talent points, I'd take this one. Its bonuses aren't poor but they're not as useful as some of the others. My Feign Death and traps are hardly ever actually resisted and Disengage has never worked all that well once you start getting up thered in damage since you easily overpower your pet if you go all out.
 
T.N.T. Increases the damage done by your Explosive Shot, Explosive Trap, Black Arrow and Immolation Trap by [2% / 4% / 6%]. LIKE IT: As a Survivalist, Explosive Shot and Black Arrow are going to be two of your most frequently used abilities. Increasing their damage - even by a small percentage - is a huge benefit to your DPS.
Lock and Load Your have a 100% chance when you trap a target with Freezing Trap, Freezing Arrow or Frost Trap and a [2% / 4% / 6%] chance when you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap or Black Arrow to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot spells to trigger no cooldown, cost no mana and consume no ammo. LIKE IT: With the attack speed of most high-end bows, crossbows and guns these days, you go through ammo like crazy. Nah! That's just an extra side-bonus to this talent. The meat of what makes this talent great is getting in 2 extra shots with Explosive Shot back-to-back simply because you use Black Arrow whenever you can.
 
Hunter vs. Wild Increases you and your pet's Attack Power and Ranged Attack Power equal to [10% / 20% / 30%] of your total Stamina.

This talent requires 5 points in Survivalist.		 LIKE IT: Easy, permanent way to increase your and your pet's Attack Power. If your Stamina is 1207, you're increasing your own Attack Power by 362 (25.8 DPS) and your pet's by 72.4. Both are significant increases.
Killer Instinct Increases your critical strike chance with all attacked by [1% / 2% / 3%]. LIKE IT: Critical strike chance is easily one of the most important stats we Hunters have. Increasing it on all of your attacks will make all your dreams come true.
Counterattack A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. It deals 53 damage and immobilizes your target for 5 seconds. It cannot be blocked, dodged or parried.

This talent requires 3 points in Deflection.		 IT'S OKAY: The concept is nice but there's not a lot of times where this is going to prove useful in end-game or even questing to justify spending the points in it.
 
Lightning Reflexes Increases your Agility by [3% / 6% / 9% / 12% / 15%]. LIKE IT: I'm an Agility fangirl, what can I say? It not only gives us attack power but also critical strike chance.
Resourcefulness Reduces the mana cost of all traps, melee abilities and Black Arrow by [20% / 40% / 60%] and reduces the cooldown of all traps and Black Arrow by [2 / 4 / 6] seconds. LIKE IT: Fast-paced combat can be an extreme drain on our mana and this kind of decrease really helps us out.
Expose Weakness Your ranged criticals have a [33% / 66% / 100%] chance to grant you Expose Weakness, increasing your attack power by 25% of your Agility for 7 seconds.

This talent requires 5 points in Lightning Reflexes. 		LIKE IT: Any increase in attack power is a plus, especially since it's best to collect and stack Agility. This talent is almost like having an added bonus to focusing on Agility.
Wyvern Sting A stinging shot that puts your target to sleep for 30 seconds. Any damage will cancel the effect. When your target wakes up, the sting causes 300 Nature damage over 6 seconds. Only one sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time.

This talent requires 3 points in Killer Instinct.		 IT'S OKAY: Good for crowd control but not remarkable on its own. Unfortunately, it's required for Noxious Stings so I do recommend putting the 1 point in Wyvern Sting.
Thrill of the Hunt Gives you a [33% / 66% / 100%] chance to regain 40% of the mana cost of any shot when it critically hits. LIKE IT: Great way to help get past the mana crutch.
Master Tactician Your successful ranged attacks have a 10% chance to increase your critical strike chance with all all attacks by [2% / 4% / 6% / 8% / 10%] for 8 seconds. LIKE IT: This is a fabulous skill because it's guaranteed that you'll be hitting things almost without a miss so the chance to gain such an increase is fairly significant.
Noxious Stings If Wyvern Sting is dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by Wyvern Sting lasting [16% / 25% / 50%] of the duration remaining and increases all damage done by you to targets afflicted by your Serpent Sting by [1% / 2% / 3%].

This talent requires 1 point in Wyvern Sting.		 LIKE IT: Your Serpent Sting is one of our two DOT (Damage Over Time) abilities and any beefing up of it will pay off big time in the long run in terms of your DPS.
Point of No Escape Increases the critical strike chance of all attacks on targets affected by your Frost Trap, Freezing Trap and Freezing Arrow by [3% / 6%]. LIKE IT: This is a good skill. It's not one that will come into play terribly often - it'll be as often as you use your traps. Still, you will use your traps from time to time and this is an added bonus for when you do.
Black Arrow Fires a Black Arrow at your target, increasing all damage you do to it by 6% and dealing Shadow damage over 15 seconds. The amount of Shadow damage caused by Black Arrow is determined by taking your Ranged Attack Power * 0.1 + 2765. Black Arrow does share a cooldown with traps. LIKE IT: This is a huge damage bonus and hands-down our best DOT ability. If you have 5000 RAP, you'll be dealing an additional 500 damage to your target over 15 seconds. This really helps your DPS during lulls or times in a fight where you can't do DPS.
Sniper Training Increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Shot ability by [5% / 10% / 15%]. While standing still for 6 seconds, you will gain Sniper Training, increasing the damage done by your Steady Shot, Aimed Shot, Black Arrow, and Explosive Shot by [2% / 4% / 6%] for 15 seconds. LIKE IT: Can't lose - it's a critical strike chance and a damage increase.
Hunting Party Increases your total Agility by an additional [1% / 2% / 3%] and your Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot and Steady Shot critical strikes have a [33% / 66% / 100%] chance to grant up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 1% of the maximum mana per 5 seconds. This effect lasts 15 seconds.

This talent requires 3 points in Thrill of the Hunt.		 LIKE IT: Not only does it give you an Agility bonus (*squeal*) but this is an ability you can use to help out your fellow raiders/group members. As Hunters, we don't get a lot of utilitarian skills (aside from traps) so it's nice to have one "buff" effect, so to speak.
Explosive Shot Fire an explosive charge at your target, dealing fire damage determined by your RAP * 0.14 + 386/464. The charge will blast your target every second for an additional 2 seconds.

This talent requires 1 point in Black Arrow.		 LIKE IT: If you have 5000 RAP, you will end up dealing between 1086-1164 with Explosive Shot. This is a huge shot and one that you can use rather frequently.

NOTE: I HAVE NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN MARKSMAN. I HAVE NEVER SPECCED MARKSMAN AND NEVER WILL UNLESS IT PULLS AHEAD OF SURVIVAL FOR DPS. A VERY EXPERIENCED MARKSMAN HUNTER ON EARTHEN RING IS SLOTMANE OF <SERE VALA>. HE HAS BEEN MARKSMAN SPECCED FOR WOW'S ENTIRE LIFE AND I WOULD RECOMMEND ANY HUNTERS EXPLORING MARKSMAN TO GET IN CONTACT WITH HIM IF YOU HAVE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SPEC ITSELF.


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