Staying True to Your Spec
by Santyn on Jan.28, 2009, under Hunter
I have noticed lately, via Twitter and the blogosphere, that a lot of Beast Master Hunters have had trouble getting into PUG heroics and raids. Luckily I have not run into this myself, but I do recognize this as a huge problem. Ghostcrawler himself said that you should focus on bringing the player not the class. And in the case of a pure DPS class, I would assume he means spec also.
The numbers prove that people leaving out BM Hunters on the basis of low DPS are wrong. Just last night in 10-man VoA and OS with my guild I put out between 1900 and 2000 DPS. That put me in the #5 spot on the meter, only ~300 DPS behind #1. Also note that the other players in the runs have seen a good chunk of Naxx and are better geared than me.
Now correct me if I am wrong here, but doesn’t that mean I am just shy of the required DPS needed to clear Naxx? As a Beast Master no less. Sure, I could switch to Marks or Survival and see a jump in numbers, but is it required to raid? No.
In the blogging community, there seems to be somewhat of a split reaction. Some Hunters, such as Amava and BigRedKitty, have switched to Survival. I understand why they did it, and I can’t fault them for it. On the opposite side of the spectrum you have Hunters like Rilgon and Mirshalak who have stuck by their Spec through thick and thin. Then in the middle you have those like Pike. They tried the other specs, but went back out of pleasure instead of numbers.
Me? I am also one of those Hunters in the middle. I thoroughly enjoy Beast Master, and I can produce sufficient DPS to Raid. But I also enjoy being at the top of the damage meter. So what I plan to do is try out the other specs and see if I enjoy one of them as much as I enjoy BM. And also hope Blizzard introduces Dual Specs soon.
What’s your plan?
5 Comments for this entry
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January 28th, 2009 on 11:30 am
Funny.. My plan has changed so much since I re-rolled. I’m now much more laid back. Starting over gave me the freedom to not think of raiding or PUGS (atm anyways). When I get to that point? Meh.. I’ll probably hang out with players that are like minded and feel it’s better to have fun and enjoy a raid than worry about min/max.
January 28th, 2009 on 3:03 pm
I’m staying BM for now, but for how long.. I don’t know. Survival seems to be winning out since the patch, so it’s likely I’ll change over to that so I can do the best DPS I can. I’m still waiting for the dust to settle a bit more before messing around with respeccing.
January 28th, 2009 on 5:15 pm
I will always min/max and I will always play the spec that will provide the largest DPS. That is my role and I feel required to bring the best I can, not in comparison to everyone else, but in comparison to myself.
January 29th, 2009 on 5:19 am
I think I’m on the same line as Pike, I will give it a shot to see what it’s like while it’s good, but I will be back to BM in a week or two.
At the end of the day there is no harm in trying a new spec, it’s only gold after all. We will all fall back to what we love the most, and if that means some hunters stay SV then that’s ok.
February 1st, 2009 on 3:23 pm
I’ve stayed BM thru this nerf (and plan on staying). While it is true that I altered my playing a bit, namely a new shot rotation, I have still out dps’d comparably geared MM and SV hunters. I do consistently bring all I can to every raid, but spending 100s of gold in re-gemming and re-enchanting my gear (not to mention outright re-gearing in certain slots) to maybe get a small increase in dps for a few weeks and completely changing every aspect of how I play (which would also gimp my dps for a while as I try to get the hang of things), just doesn’t seem worth it. In short, at this point I do not see the risk outweighing the reward. When I do encounter real evidence to the contrary, I’ll respec. In a heartbeat.