I'm wondering if I'm seeing things...

[Swipelynx]

Alright, so I'm new here (Hi everybody) but I have come to tankspot for guides on various bosses and just to look around. After seeing how helpful you guys are, I figured what the heck. I'll see if they can help me out. So here's my situation.

I'm a BM hunter who would like to start raiding more. I know BM hunters have gotten the short end of the stick for overall dps this time around, or at least that's what I've heard constantly. However, my dps in randoms just seems too low. I don't know if it's because it is too low or if I'm trying to compare myself to people in ICC gear, but it doesn't seem right.

This is my armory page:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Misha&cn=Furiku

I'm pretty sure my dps is around the mid 3k's in randoms (more often the low range actually), though if you want me to go and test it out on a dummy I'd be willing to. On bosses my dps can hit 4k but that's rare really.

My shot rotation is this:

Hunters Mark/ Serpent Sting/ Aimed Shot/ Arcane Shot/ Steady shot

Once I reach the end of the rotation, I'll pretty much spam steady shot until arcane is avaliable and then work my way backwards through the rotation and go back to steady shot. I try to save cool downs for bosses, though if I remember to I'll toss out a kill command. However I typically save casting HM for bosses, simply because I'm too lazy to really do it on trash. I've been thinking of making a HM/SS macro that I can hit every time I shift targets, it's just a matter of me getting off my butt and doing it.

Currently I'm running around with my wolf, Fenrir but I constantly change pets. (I've been using Fenrir to test pet specs to see if any set ups improve my own dps.)

So, I have to ask. Is there really a basis for my thoughts of my dps being too low, and if there is what would you suggest to fix it? I've been considering dual speccing to Marks for raiding and saving BM for dailies and goofing around. Would that be a better idea actually? If you need more info, just let me know.

[Griff]

Don't know much about hunters, but the ones that I see churning out the big deeps seem to be survival these days.

[Theotherone]

BM just pales in comparision to Sur with your gear and with MM as you gear up. One thing off the bat is the ring with Strength/Stam is not really doing you much good. Strength is a horrible stat for hunters. I took the liberty of running you through the female dwarf spreadsheet and your dps for BM is 5458. I then regemmed you, re-enchanted, and did a quick and dirty Survival spec and your dps comes out at 6474. I took the liberty of givng you the lowest ICC quest ring, since a couple rep runs and you'll get it. Also, I took the liberty of replacing the Mark of Supremacy with the Mirror of Truth (or Coren's Coaster) and that added another 143 dps so you came out to 6537.

The Hermuki War Token is, in my opinion, a horrible trinket for a hunter - I wasted emblems on it and hate it. Now the spreadsheets are not the be all to end all, but as you can see there's an 1100 dps difference. While BM is fun for leveling, and maybe pvp, it's not great for raiding. Especially, now when the know it all idiots in pugs see it, they'll be harsh on you.

Here's my hunter, he's MM mostly, but I have a Survival spec and gear set I use on certain fights.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Alexstrasza&cn=Wharfrat

[BlazeDale]

Its been awhile since I've been on my BM hunter but it is a viable raiding spec though a little dull when it comes dps.

First you don't have a rotation you have a shot priority.

Kill Shot > Arcane Shot > Multi-Shot or Aimed Shot > Steady Shot.

Obviously you want to keep Serpent Sting and Hunters Mark up at all times.

Secondly Haste does absolutely nothing for you. BM hunters are naturally haste capped due to talents. With BM it is also more beneficial to stack pure Attack Power over Agility. At ICC gear levels I recommend dropping Attack Power and stack Armor Pen instead. Once you hit about 700 Armor pen I would drop arcane shot all together and replace it with more Steady Shot seeing as Steady Shot scales with Armor Pen and Arcane Shot does not. At that point you would just use Arcane shot as a filler when you have to move. This is where the BM shot priority gets boring.

Kill Shot > Arcane Shot(Only While Moving) > Steady Shot
Obviously while keeping Serpent Sting and Hunter's Mark up.

The trinkets you have aren't the best for your spec. The primary stats on both of them( Haste and Hit) are completely wasted seeing as you are well over the hit cap(262.32) and haste does nothing for BM hunters. I recommend pursuing the Needle Encrusted Scorpion out of H FoS. After that get a better trinket out of ICC(One with Armor Pen).

Drop your Glyph of Arcane Shot and pick up the one of Beastial Wrath. If you are bad about using Beastial Wrath on CD you can marco it into one of the abilities you use all the time. For that matter you should macro in your Kill Command ability so you use it as soon as it is off CD.

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/cast Beastial Wrath
/cast Kill Command
/cast Steady Shot

Ideally if you are very proficient at managing your buffs like procs from trinkets you don't want to macro those abilities and save them for when you can maximize their effectiveness.

http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/11/stacking-cooldowns-with-procs/

Your spec is a little different than the one I use. I personally don't like Aimed Shot for BM. If you have mana issues and find yourself going into viper a lot you might consider points in Invigoration. Your pet crits all the time and your crits force your pet to crit so its an awesome source of mana. I also prefer the reduced CD on Rapid Fire so I can use it more often during boss fights.

Here is my armory link if you care to take a look:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Garithos&cn=Carnalfury&group=1

Obviously the Ravasour is the best DPS pet but if your group doesn't have a Rogue for Expose Armor or Warrior for Sunders you might consider the Worm.

This is all I got for now. Check out the Hunter's Union for more info
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/

GL

[Swipelynx]

Thank you for your advice guys! ^^

I'll take what you pointed out into account, and I think I'll set up a survival offspec and see how that works while still keeping my bm spec. Hopefully I'll be able to get into a few ICC runs soon.