So far we have covered both Beast Master and Marksmanship shot rotations. That leaves us with (arguably) the most complex rotation of all: Survival. Why, you might ask, do I consider Survival the most complex of the three? Simple, the Lock and Load mechanic. But before we go there lets go over the basic Survival rotation.

The basic rotation follows the same principles of priority as the other specs. It uses the following six shots, which should be fired in the priority listed:

1. Kill Shot
2. Explosive Shot
3. Black Arrow
4. Serpent Sting
5. Aimed Shot / Multi-Shot
6. Steady Shot

Some people would put Black Arrow and Serpent Sting above Explosive Shot in priority, but I don’t recommend it. Explosive Shot is Survival’s biggest hitting shot after Kill Shot. You want to fire it as often as possible and as much as possible. While Black Arrow and Serpent Sting both buff the damage, they are not worth delaying Explosive Shot. You can also omit Aimed Shot / Multi-Shot. Some people have reported a DPS boost including it, while others have reported a DPS drop. You will have to play with it to see which works for you.

Now the complex part of the rotation: Lock and Load. L&L is triggered by the periodic damage of Black Arrow (or alternately a freezing or frost trap). What it does is let you fire two Explosive Shots, neither of which cost any mana or triggers any cooldown, other than the global. So when L&L procs you will maintain your normal rotation until Explosive Shot is off cooldown. Then fire the following sequence of shots:

1. Explosive Shot
2. *any other shot*
3. Explosive Shot
4. *any other shot*
5. Explosive Shot

The third Explosive shot will trigger a cooldown, and you will resume your normal rotation. On steps 2 and 4 you will want to fire your highest priority shot (other than Explosive Shot) that is not on cooldown. The reason for this seperating shot is so that you don’t overwrite the last tick of damage from the previous Explosive Shot. Some people simply pause a second between Explosive Shots (which would lead to an increase in DPS), but in my experience the DOT gets clipped to often without the separating shot.

And as with the other specs, stay flexible. Don’t develop tunnel vision. Misdirect and Feign Death when needed. You know the drill.

The basic Marks rotation involves the following seven shots. They should be used in the priority listed:

1. Hunter’s Mark
2. Kill Shot
3. Serpent Sting
4. Chimera Shot
5. Aimed Shot / Multi-Shot
6. Arcane Shot
7. Steady Shot

You should only have to fire Serpent Sting once per fight. After that Chimera Shot will keep it refreshed. Aimed and Multi-Shot share a cooldown, so you will want to use Aimed in a single target situation. Only use Multi-Shot when you have at least 2 targets or you waste mana. You will also want to mix in long cooldown abilities such trinkets, Rapid Fire, and Readiness at your own discretion.

Remember, don’t develop tunnel vision. Stay flexible. Move out of AOE, Misdirect, Feign Death, and drop traps when needed.

Now that shot rotations are based on priority, you will pick which shot to fire based off of cooldowns. Each shot available to you will be prioritized based on damage. Higher damage shots (which naturally have longer cooldowns) will be at the top of your list. You will then fire the shot with the highest priority that is not on cooldown. It may seem random, but you will get used to it.

There are four shots in the basic Beast Master Hunter rotation. They should be fired in the following priority:

1. Kill Shot (Only when the mob is at 20% health or less.)
2. Arcane Shot
3. Serpent Sting
4. Steady Shot

There are also two other shots which can be put in the mix, both of which would be between Arcane Shot and Serpent Sting:

1. Aimed Shot (If specced into it.)
2. Multi-Shot

In my experience, the inclusion of these shots leads to a decrease in DPS. Aimed Shot has a high mana cost meaning more time spent in Viper, and Multi-Shot does poor damage against single targets. You can include these shots at your own discretion though.

There are other skills that are not included in the rotation due to long cooldowns, such as Bestial Wrath, Rapid Fire, trinkets, Hunter’s Mark. Again, these you will want to mix in at your own discretion.

The important thing to remember is to stay flexible. Don’t lock yourself in and develop tunnel vision. Misdeirect and Feign Death when needed, drop traps to help with kiting, pull adds off of healers, etc.

• First up is a single line macro that is actually the one I use most often. You set the main tank as your focus, and then any time you use this macro it will target the same mob as him, allowing you focus fire:
  • /assist focus
• This is a simple macro to cast Hunter’s Mark and send your pet to attack with one button press:
  • /cast Hunter’s Mark
    /petattack
• This macro provides a one button switch between Aspect of the Dragonhawk and Aspect of the Viper. The last line is there to get rid of any errors that pop up:
  • /cast Aspect of the Dragonhawk
    /cast Aspect of the Viper
    /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();
• This next one is a little more advanced. This is an all in one Misdirection macro. It will first try to cast MD on your target. If you have no target or an unfriendly target, it will attempt to cast it on your focus. Failing both of those it will cast it on your pet:
  • /cast [help][target=focus,help][target=pet,exists,nodead] Misdirection
• This last one is a Steady Shot macro. What it does is attempt to use your trinkets, cast Kill Command, and then fire Steady Shot. This frees you from having to to manually activate your trinkets and Kill Command, which means less you have to keep track of:
  • #showtooltip Steady Shot
    /use 13
    /use 14
    /cast Kill Command
    /cast Steady Shot
    /script UIErrorsFrame:Clear();

Now this is just a small sampling of what you can do with macros, but it is enough to get you started. You can find additional macros on WoW Wiki or by searching google. If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to ask in the comments or email me directly.

I know that you already have a pet, but just because that pet was great for leveling and soloing does not mean that it will be great for end-game. Tenacity pets are great for solo work and Cunning pets can be fun, but they are far from optimal for heroics and raids. So leave the bears, boars, gorillas, sporebats, wind serpents, ect. in the stable and go out and get a Ferocity pet.

When looking for a Ferocity pet, you can choose from the following pet families. You can check either WoWHead or Petopia to see what skins are available and where to tame the different skins. The family skill is also listed after each family:

• Carrion Bird – Demoralizing Screech
• Cat – Rake
• Core Hound (Exotic – BM only) – Lava Breath
• Devilsaur (Exotic – BM only) -Monstrous Bite
• Hyena – Tendon Rip
• Moth -Serenity Dust
• Raptor – Savage Rend
• Spirit Beast (Exotic – BM only) – Spirit Strike
• Tallstrider – Dust Cloud
• Wasp – Sting
• Wolf – Furious Howl

One thing you need to keep in mind when choosing a pet is the family skill. Some, such as Furious Howl, provide a buff for the player and/or group. Others, such as Sting, apply a debuff to the pet’s target. Then of course there are the straight DPS skills such as Rake.

Once you have chosen and tamed your pet, you will need to level it to 80. If you don’t it will miss an insane amount of the time, seriously gimping its DPS, in turn gimping yours. And feel free to try out different pets. You have 5 stable slots, so there is no reason you can’t have different pets to suit your mood.

And Now you just need to spec your pet. As with your own spec, feel free to spec your pet however you want but keep in mind that some talents will be better for raiding. You are taking a Ferocity pet for their damage, so talents like Great Stamina and Natural Armor are not ideal, while Cobra Reflexes and Spiked Collar are. Here are a few example builds that you can use or modify to your liking:

• Build 1
• Build 2
• BM build (The 51-point BM talent gives your pets 4 extra talent points)

Also, one last thing. Don’t let some one tell you that you have to use a certain pet because it provides the highest DPS. Pick a pet you like, one that you enjoy playing with. After all, this is ultimately just a game. I raid with a Moth. When I first started raiding with my guild, they laughed at it. They absolutely could not believe that I had brought a Moth to a raid. But they stopped laughing when they noticed me and my Moth consistently come in no lower than third on the meters, if not top them completely.

But you don’t want to be labeled a “Huntard”, so there is a small amount of prep work you need to do. Namely your spec. Your spec has the single most important impact on your performance in end-game (other than skill and experience of course). You can have the best gear in the game, but if you slop a spec together your performance is going to be dismal.

I have always been one to advocate playing how you want. You don’t have to follow cookie-cutter specs or spec into a specific tree just because it provides the best DPS. You can spec however you want to. But there are a few conventions that you will need to follow to be successful. Some talents are obviously PvP oriented, some are for soloing. But each tree has core talents that you will need to pick up to be a successful raider.

Below are some example specs that you can study, try out, even modify to suit you. Don’t feel like these are set in stone and that no variance is allowed:

• Beast Mastery: This tree is all about your pet. Most of the talents here buff the pet rather than the Hunter. Expect your pet to provide 45-50% of your overall DPS if you spec into this tree.
  • Build 1 – This build focuses on buffing up your pet for max DPS.
  • Build 2 – This build focuses on buffing up your pet, but emphasizes pet survivability instead of DPS. I consider this more of a leveling build, but if you are having issues with keeping your pet alive, you might look into it.
• Marksmanship: Mail wearing Mages. This tree is all about cranking up your RaP.
  • Build 1 – This is the build I used when I tried Marks out for a brief time. I know it is far from perfect, but I make no claim to be an expert in the Marks tree.
  • Build 2 – This is another sample spec that I pulled off the armory from a respectable Marks hunter.
• Survival: Hunters specced here are crit junkies who are all about explosions, whether it be a trap or a shot.
  • Build 1 – This is the build I am running with currently. I stay at max range and unload the pain.
  • Build 2 – This is one of the more popular Survival builds currently.

Like I said above, these are simply example builds. Feel free to move a few points around if you wnat to. If you hit rating is a little low, grab a point or two in Focused Aim. You can adjust how many points to take in some talents based on your crit rating. A player’s spec really needs to be tailored to them, not what some jerk on a forum claims is the best.

If you have any questions or would like some help with a spec, drop me a line, I’ll be glad to help. As always, thoughs and comments are appreciated.

*All builds linked here are current as of patch 3.0.9