On the Topic of PvP...

So I talked a bit in my last post about PvP as a Beast Master.  I've been PvPing on my hunter since WotLK, and I consider myself a pretty competent PvPer.  I've picked up some tricks along the way: things I wish I'd known when I started, things I'd like to share.  I'm not talking keybinding, spec & glyphs etc, but rather things I've picked up along the way that might help hunters who are new to PvP--and maybe even old hats will glean a tidbit from it.  Bear in mind that some of these--notably number one--are BM-specific.

1. Own a Spirit Beast.  Seems simple enough--but getting a Spirit Beast can be a pain.  The heal, though, is something you should macro and bind--with a modifier for Focus or arena-mates, if possible.  You don't need to use the Spirit Beast in every situation--although I often do--but it's definitely a must-have in many cases.  The heal is very powerful, and the damage buff is quite literally second-to-none (equal to that of the Cat).  In other circumstances, I also recommend the Chimaera and the Silithid, and more situationally the Bird of Prey--especially if you are low on Resilience.  Their ability to help you kite and to come to your aid with Roar of Sacrifice (which, like Spirit Mend and the Silithid and Bird special abilities, you should take off autocast and macro) is extremely helpful to your survival if your gear isn't quite up to scratch yet.  Once your gear is decent, though, a Spirit Beast's heals, family skill + damage-boosting talents will really help you blow **** up.

Note the duration of the fight, and the healing done--Shiver is my Spirit Beast.   This healing is all Spirit Mend.

I use the following macro, but be aware that you'll want to pick the Spirit Mend icon specifically rather than the ?, because otherwise it will show as a ? when the pet is away.

#showtooltip Spirit Mend
/cast [mod:shift, @focus] Spirit Mend; [nomod, @player] Spirit Mend

This casts Spirit Mend on me, or on my Focus when I hold Shift while hitting the keybind for it.  Incidentally, also do this for other pet abilities, be it Master's Call, Intervene, or Roar of Sacrifice.

2. Coordinate your CC and your burst.  It may be hard to hold back, but blowing all your cooldowns into that mage will go poorly if the mage turns into an ice cube.  Wait for the opponent to blow some defensive cooldowns--or if it's going to be a close fight, burst early to force defensive cooldowns, and then play defensively yourself until you can burst again; BM cooldowns are relatively short.  Hold back on burst in arena until your Freezing trap is ready (assuming the fight is longer than one BW), and control the teammate in advance--getting CC'd one second after blowing BW is not pleasant.  Also, try and save Intimidation for your burst--just as you pop BW, to prevent defensive cds, or use it to stop the enemy if they try and LoS during BW.

If for some reason you need to try and CC the dps and nuke the healer, use Intimidation just after you CC to delay the CC being cleansed.  Lastly--consider saving BW as a second trinket against CC-heavy teams who rely on CC + Burst coordination, especially if you have a partner who can put out pressure.  Just remember to use your trinket first, and then your BW, and then you can burst.  You can often get a healer out into the open if you and your teammate retreat across the arena; the DPS will follow, the healer will follow their DPS, and you can CC the dps and switch hard to pop everything into that healer.

3. Build up full focus before popping BW.  Blowing your biggest cooldown and then needing to shoot off Cobra Shots, or blowing BW at half focus and finishing out of focus with your enemy at 10% and Kill Shot on cooldown--these are not pleasant circumstances.  Also, unlike in PvE, where you'll want to save Rapid Fire for recharging focus after a BW, you can pop Rapid Fire during BW if you're hell-bent on scoring a kill.

4. Keep Mend Pet up at all times.  I mean, ALL TIMES.  You should be specced for Imp. Mend Pet anyway, and this will clear CC on your pet as well as heal it (just beware of UA and VT being placed on your pet by saavy casters).  Hopefully as BM, you'll also have it glyphed.  Use Spirit Mend on every single cooldown on whoever is being hit--the heal is powerful, and the cooldown is short.  DO NOT send a pet out of LoS without Mend Pet on.  Also, keep Cower on the pet's bars, and use it early if the pet gets focused; don't be afraid to pull the pet back to let Mend top it up.  Don't be afraid to use Spirit Mend on the pet itself if it's getting focused, either!  Remember, too, that your pet's Growl can be used to taunt enemy pets who aren't set to Passive.  You can Growl Grounding Totem as well, simply by pressing Growl as soon as the totem drops, regardless of which enemy your pet is on (assuming it's in range). 

Also, one final note--remember that, if your pet is getting focused and is likely to die, you can DISMISS PET, and then (once you're far enough away that it won't get one-shot when resummoned) call it back out.  This isn't a good idea if there's tons of DoTs on it, since the pet will likely have only a few thousand HP for several seconds after being summoned and the DoTs may kill it before scaling adjusts its hp to full.  That said, if you have more than one of the same type of pet with you, you can simply dismiss the focused pet and call another.  TL;DR, your pet should NEVER die--it is half of you, and if it dies, you will die too.

5. You can Tranquilizing Shot without breaking CC.  Take advantage of this.  In a duel, for example, you can trap a mage or paladin and purge off every single buff--and you should.  It will either force an early bubble or trinket, or you'll strip off every single buff and be able to Tranq off Avenging Wrath or other nasty buffs & procs before they become problematic (having already removed trash buffs you'd normally have to peel off first).  Remember too that Tranquilizing Shot removes Enrage effects--so Tranq off a Warrior's enrage the second it appears.

6. Feign Death!  For those who don't know, this drops your enemy's target.  A brief Feign Death can give you several seconds of uninterrupted burst while your opponent struggles to retarget you.  This is especially useful just after an enemy triggers Snake Trap, or as an interrupt on an offensive cast.  These are both nasty tactics, and quite effective ones--and I sadly see very few people using FD in PvP videos.  If they've aggroed the snakes in your trap, they will have to manually click you or tab through ten or so snakes first (assuming they don't have a /targetlasttarget macro).  Using Feign Death versus a Warrior after you've Disengaged is also a good tactic--they will almost always charge your Disengage, and the Feign will often give you just enough time to outrange that--or to drop a trap.  Or, you can Feign after the charge, leaving the warrior hitting Tab while you regain range (this is also a good time to pre-emptively Master's Call).  Remember though that, in duels, party members will not lose their target on you if you Feign.

7. Use your pet to pressure.  If you have to Deterrance, continue to use your pet to harry the enemy.  The same goes for if you need to LoS or bandage, or anything else.  You can also leave your pet on a healer while you hurt the DPS--you can Kill Command the healer for pressure and use Intimidation at will as an interrupt, and prevent the healer from drinking.

8. Disengage is awesome.  You can leap off a bridge or cliff and Disengage right back, and sometimes your enemy will leap after you.  Practice first--duel or trap a lowbie mob on a ledge and try it.  You can also use it to chase your enemies, and you should practice at this, too.  Disengaging after someone and Kill Shotting them while flying through the air is great, and even if you don't score a kill with it, it looks really impressive--and in the end, isn't that all that matters?  Remember, you can use it to cover ground any time you're in combat--so feel free to get into combat if you're somewhere where you want to move quickly without mounting.  Throw anything at a passing enemy or critter and spin-jump wherever you're wanting to go.  Oh, and you can get into combat on top of a cliff, and Disengage at the bottom to avoid fall damage, assuming it's not too far to lose combat--for example, you can shoot someone at Lumber Mill in AB, jump, and Disengage at the bottom.  Keep this in mind if you manage to get hit by a knockback on a ledge--or if you're quick enough, you can Disengage right back to the ledge.

9. If you're at low health and you come up against another hunter, sit on them.  No, seriously.  Run into melee range, Wing Clip and keep them close; Disengage after them if they use it.  Drop traps for Entrapment, Concussive if they do get range, and close the gap.  You can still kill them with your pet, and if they can't shoot you, they can't kill you.  This is mainly a tip for a BM hunter fighting against a non-BM, but if the enemy hunter is also Beast Mastery, try and taunt their pet with yours before putting your pet back onto the hunter, or CC the pet if you can.  With Kill Commands and good counter-kiting, you CAN kill them.  Remember, you have almost identical cooldowns--so if they Scatter Shot you to get range, Scatter Shot and run right back!  Fellow hunters rarely expect this, and often don't know how to counter it.  You can also use this tactic as a recovery period until your defensive CDs are ready again (mainly Feign Death and Spirit Mend).  Just remember, keep Mend on your pet to cleanse any CC the hunter may throw at it.  You can also use this tactic if your CC is on cooldown and you're wanting to nuke a different target, and the hunter is trying to focus you; if you're very good you can keep pressure on your secondary target while preventing the hunter's damage through counter-kiting, all at once.

10. Don't be afraid to trap + bandage.  Obviously, wait until any DoTs are off you before doing this, and preferably force the enemy to trinket in advance.  That said, you can try to force a trink (or bubble or block) early by trapping + bandaging even if you don't really need the heal.

Why I Play Beast Mastery

Why Beast Mastery?

   As long as I've played my hunter, I've played Beast Mastery.  Why?

   It isn't because of the numbers, or the abilities--although I've learned that regardless of numerical disadvantage, a knowledgeable and determined player can top charts or get titles regardless of spec. 

   I rolled Beast Mastery because I liked the idea of it.  The theme of being one with an animal partner is the reason I rolled a hunter in the first place, and BM really emphasizes that.  Some players might choose the hunter class because they like the idea of stalking the wilds or sniping from a distance, but for me the idea of rushing into battle with a massive wolf by my side was too appealing to pass up.  My other favorite classes have been shaman and druid, for similar reasons: a druid can shapeshift into beasts, and a shaman can take on the form of a ghost wolf to travel more quickly.  And while World of Warcraft depicts these in very graphically simplistic form, the idea is there, and it's the idea that I love.  I have two BM specs now: one for PvE, and one for PvP.  They're quite different, but they're both BM.

How is Beast Mastery different?   Well, the playstyle is entirely different in PvP, for one thing.  Your focus is on pulling together a cluster of specific conditions, then unleashing huge burst damage.  It revolves around positioning, micromanagement and keeping your pet alive and in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time.  Your pet is an extention of your own character, and the extra control is a must.  Anyone who claims that Beast Mastery is a simple spec has never played it to its full potential!  I've come to love BM just as much for the challenge of getting the most out of an underused spec as for the theme of it.

In PvE   I started raiding as BM back in WotLK.  I found that once I'd gotten the spec, glyphs and pet choice (and talents!) just right, and completely mastered the rotation, I could outperform even the top raiders in every guild on my server's faction, single-target or not.  Running ICC, I don't think I was ever outdone by another hunter--at least not consistently.  My green devilsaur, Valak, and my gray worg Grim were my main raiding pets during this time, and I remember the competition (for BM hunters, anyway) between Devilsaurs and Wolves being very fierce.  Part of the reason for my success, too, was probably my Orcish race--Command is nothing to sniff at for a BM hunter!

   Anyway, the point is: raiding as BM in WotLK was difficult.  You couldn't waltz in and do your part--you had to really crunch numbers, bring everything you could to the table and push to be the best.  BUT, if you did put in the effort, you COULD succeed.

   Nowadays things are easier.  The mockery toward BM hunters still actually exists, I've found, in some unenlightened circles, but in truth BM now competes for top hunter PvE spec.  The main difference between BM and the other specs in PvE is that your DPS (and threat) are split.  You give less initial threat through Misdirection, and have to watch your threat far less while nuking.  You can put your pet on one target and yourself on another, giving decent DPS to both.  Heavy movement fights are somewhat easier on your numbers if you need to swap aspect, as the pet will stay on-target and continue with steady damage.  On the other hand, a fight where you need to keep your pet on passive, change targets often or recall your pet to avoid damage will result in a much heavier DPS loss.  If you're doing a lot of AoE, your numbers will be lower than a Survival hunter's--but if it's AoE now and then, and your BW is off cooldown, your AoE will be insane, as you can simply spam Multishots until everything is dead.

   We also now have a lot more cooldowns to manage than before.  We have Fervor to worry about, along with lining Kill Commands up with BW, trinket/racials and preferably Call of the Wild.  Building up focus before a BW burst, properly timing Rapid Fire, even knowing when to pop Distracting Shot + Deterrance and then feign in an absolute emergency (and how, so you don't wipe a group or raid with positioning)--these are all key to becoming a good BM hunter.  Granted, not all of these are BM-specific--but they're all important.

On the PvP front, the differences get more pronounced.  As MM, you have a lot of control and a lot of damage--but it's more glass cannon-esque.  You have Readiness for two Deterrances, sure, and Chimera Shot.  You also have double silences, and that is an extremely good advantage against any caster, but healers in particular.  BM has a much tougher time, in my experience, taking down healers--but on the flip side, I've never died to one, either.  Spirit Bond and a Spirit Beast's heals are pretty much all you need to be a force to be reckoned with, and the steady heavy damage from a geared BM hunter is rather scary to many healers (I've been on the receiving end, too!), especially when paired with a good melee dps.  A Kill Command can finish off someone who's dipped out of your LoS to heal, and Kill Command and the pet damage in general makes pillar-humpers far less of an issue (although the issue is certainly still there).  The pet of a CC'd BM hunter will still put out a decent amount of pressure as well.

   BM, though, needs to be extremely judicious about cooldown usage, and has to learn to be good at timing CC with burst.  As BM you also need to know when and how to play defensively, kiting and using cooldowns to turn the fight around rather than going for pure damage.  I think that preventing the enemy from hurting you--through CC's, stuns, kiting and the use of defensive cooldowns--is probably the biggest key to successful BM--and, really, overall hunter--PvP.

   BM suffers from a couple weaknesses, of course.  We lack the control of the other specs, for one thing, despite having the extra stun and periodic burst.  Our sustained damage is lower than that of MM.  If our pet is CC'd, we don't just lose Master's Call and the pet's talented or family abilities--we lose half our damage and a stun to boot, as well as any procs from the pet's abilities.  That said, if we ourselves are CC'd, the pet is still out there putting out good damage--and preventing the healer from drinking (assuming the healer isn't abusing sit bugs, although a good Kill Command crit will make them think twice about doing this).  Another weakness is fighting Death Knights--a good Death Knight will use Death Strike on your pet, meaning that you either need to out-damage his healing, or failing that, pull your pet back and kite and kill the Death Knight without a pet at all.  Both are quite doable, but it's not a cakewalk by any means, assuming the DK is any good.

   I think the biggest weakness, though, for a BM hunter is...

   The bridge in Blade's Edge Mountains.  If you're attempting to kill someone there, you can forget it; if your pet chases them up there, they can simply jump down and have a good few seconds with only half of your damage on them, and no chance to stun them.  By the time the pet catches up with them, they're back on the bridge jumping off again!  You'd better hope it's not just you versus them at that point, or the fight quickly becomes an exercise in massive frustration, regardless of kiting & traps.

   Screw you, BEM Bridge.  Screw you.

   But yes--there's my take on BM, why I play it and where I think its strengths and weaknesses lay.  I find it an impressively fun spec, and quite a fun class overall--but it isn't an easy spec to play to its full potential.


P.S. I had relevant screenshots, but posting pictures of Recount numbers seemed a bit much, so enjoy the random pet + hunter screens instead ;D