@Brigwyn – I do take the Beast Mastery talent. Even when I don’t use an exotic pet, the extra pet talent points are nice. I think the reason a lot of Hunters skip it though is because it doesn’t feel like you get enough for a 51-point talent. Yeah exotics are nice and all, but most don’t do any more damage than non-exotic pets. Both Marks and Surv have a very powerful shot for a 51-point talent. If Blizz really wants Hunters to consistently spec 51 deep BM they need to reconsider what the talent.

But I also think Pike makes a great point on BM Hunters not speccing talents or pet talents into the things that would help buff their pets. I also think this is why GC is constantly preaching that BM hunters REALLY need to start considering the Beast Mastery Talent.

@Pike – speccing per encounter isn’t a bad idea, and I think this is probably the only MAJOR benefit we’ll get with dual specs (crosses fingers)

Now I dunno how long that would help a pet survive during Heigan or Sarth, so I dunno how much it would help, but it would at least help a little.

Also I know a lot of people disagree with me, but I myself think it’s perfectly reasonable to respec for certain encounters, that’s why those things are in the talent trees to begin with. I think it makes things interesting. Heck, when dual specs come out, I’ll probably make a glass cannon spec and my pet-survivability spec.

But as to DPS, a 17% reduction that a marks or Surv would suffer is a far cry from the 40% reduction that a BM would have to deal with. The point I was trying to make is that since it is the Beast Master tree, don’t you think that pet durability would be part of that also? I’m not saying that the pet has to be as durable as a fully geared Warrior, but being able to withstand the level of damage a Rogue deals with would be about right in my opinion. And I’m not saying that this has to be exclusive to BM Hunters. All specs could use some increase in pet durability.

As to choice in spec, I feel that all 3 trees should be on par with each other, that way the spec you choose is more of personal preference in play style than going with one simply because it beats the others in DPS.

It was EZMode, spam Steady Shot and let the pet do 40-50% of your damage. This is what he wanted to change, the scroll your mousewheel macro mentality.

It was not meant that BM should be the “Beginner’s” spec and we progress by moving to MM or SV. This was clarified later on in the postings.

“Put another way, BM played badly could beat out a lot of other classes practically with SS and the pet alone. – Ghostcrawler”

To this degree I can see their point. If anyone remembers it’s been Rilgon’s main complaints regarding BM for a long time. GC came out admitted it and now they are attempting to make changes accordingly.

But as you both state, BM does need to rely on it’s pet. The loss of the pet will lessen the BM Player’s effectiveness. However, there should and are similar restraints on the other classes. MM with Mana and shot rotation management, SV a lower base of damage and shot rotation.

So to me, the idea of class balance is to focus not only the strengths of the class, but also ensure that their is a weakness to help with maintaining that balance.

BM is easier. This is a rather obvious fact. What is not obvious (nor true) is that BM Hunters should be punished for or ashamed of that.