Comments on: Bring mathematicians, guns and money

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:29:33 +0000

I’m not going to throw my 2 cents in on the spec, I think enough people have done that. I agree with all of them that if you want any advice BRK is the best place to get advice not because he’s the best theory crafter in the world but because he’s such a great writer and you enjoy even the drier stuff on numbers.

I thought I’d comment more on the fact that I admire you’re ability to admit that you haven’t been getting the most out of your toon and have decided to change that.

I’m a guildmaster that wishes more of his guildmates would take the time to research where the best stuff for their class drops and try to go out and get it.

Nothing pushes my buttons more than under geared players wanting a free ride through heroics trying to take immense shortcuts in gearing up by making guildmates pick up the slack. I mean I enjoy these people or I wouldn’t be in the same guild as them but I wish they’d put in more effort rather than taking advantage of the good nature of all those around them.

By: Artorin

Artorin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:07:53 +0000

@ Solidstate, Unless they change the amount of spell resist need for cap then i would say no it is not a waste since you need 15% to be spell hit capped as opposed to 9% for melee and ranged. Also I’m not sure trap resists operate on spell hit.

My hunter leveled to 59 as marksman and then switched to SV untill 70 and after awhile at 70 I lost interest in playing my hunter for a few months. Few months ago I got back into her and resepced BM and have been having fun.

I really think hunters regardless of spec are alot of fun and just changing things up a bit can make all the diference. So for WoTLK I may be lvling as Marksman or SV again to try it out.

By: Solidstate

Solidstate — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:16:19 +0000

@Niteshana, is Trap Mastery any good or a waste of points? Especially as in patch 3.0.2 the hit and spell hit rating will become one, meaning I guess an already hit-capped hunter will also become spell hit-capped (for level 71 mobs)?

By: Niteshana@arygos

Niteshana@arygos — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:15:17 +0000

My main is a survival hunter and is always in the top 3 DPS for any kara or ZA run, despite the fact that i have heavy duty trapping duties. IMHO The 1st 20 points in MM are really mandatory for either a BM or SV hunter to maximize their DPS. If u love the trapping, i strongly suggest regemming with a bunch of agility and going into a survival build and abandoning the BM points altogether.

As a SV hunter, one of my favorite things is that my traps can theoretically last forever thanks to 3 points in Resourcefulness. With resourcefulness, your trap cooldown is over before the effects of the trap are over–this is amazingly reliable CC for pve in 5 man and 10 man content. (i know–useless for pvp)

In fact, I once tried testing how many times I could trap a mob (same level) and got tired of the test before the traps failed–my count was 80 freeze traps on the same mob and i stayed within the same 30 square yard area. My guild’s MT has so much confidence in my traps, he will sometime forget that i still have something trapped and goes off and does the next pull.

If you love trapping a full SV build is a lot of fun, and with gear, you will still be near the top of the DPS charts.

By: bloodelfchicks

bloodelfchicks — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:58:18 +0000

Small matter which may no longer be relevant… But the easiest way to get the last two Engineering skill points are to make the ‘Copter (the blue one, of course).

They turn yellow at 375, so it’s a confirmed skill-up and require very commonly available mats (just a lot of them… lol)

By: Stale

Stale — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 01:12:51 +0000

For a rogue (for Cassie), the hit cap is 360ish… But I have been told by my rogue buddies that once you are over 320, (340 food buffed), its better to go with ap/crit then hit… the 5 times you may miss in the whole of a raid’s bosses is minimal to the extra dmg from all hits.

And with a moonkin you get 3% hit anyways :P

By: Gryphonheart

Gryphonheart — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:33:38 +0000

Personally, I’d say go with whichever playstyle you think you’d like best. If you enjoy Survival, then re-gear. If you think you’ll enjoy Beast Mastery or Marksmanship, then respec. If you’re not sure…well, respeccing is easier than re-gearing, and also less permanent if you’re in the habit of vendoring/disenchanting gear you feel you no longer need.

By: Darksentinel

Darksentinel — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:54:44 +0000

It really depends how geared your guild is for Kara and if you have a Priest.
When I do Kara on my hunter I only ever find myself trapping on Moroes, often sharing that duty with another hunter. If we have at least one Priest or a Paladin tank, all is fine and dandy for most of the run anyway, otherwise we just use our two tanks. So far none of the Hunters we have have been Survival spec, (personally I did muck around with a 44/0/17 trapping-BM build for a while but found that the DPS was sadly lacking).
Unless a respec would cause you to wipe endlessly, I’d say respec (and regem). The hunter who solo traps on Moroes when I’m playing my Druid is BM, and still manages a respectable DPS while doing so (although from experience, coordinating traps between two people involves a lot of running around and shouting on Vent, although I may be exaggerating).
I used to use Disengage all the time while levelling, especially on adds, but now I find it either doesn’t land and doesn’t remove enough threat.

Wing Clip kiting. It’s the best.

By: bigbearbutt

bigbearbutt — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:51:51 +0000

Yeah, I don’t really run normal instances, so I’d have to go with the reason I did it, which was heroics and Kara. If I wasn’t running Heroics and Kara, it never would have occured to me. Thanks a lot about the Entrapment pointer, you’re right, that was a bad idea to take.

I have to say I LOVE the ‘specced intelligently’ line, that made me laugh in real life.

By: toque

toque — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:46:50 +0000

Yeah i pretty much agree with Josh. Go 41/20/0 and bring the dps.

If you are trapping in heroics and kara alot, then by all means try out the trapping talents. They are not needed in normal instances though.

In the past I’ve been specced into survival for the traps, as they break ALOT in heroics and kara. The trap talents really do help. Trap Mastery virtually eliminates trap resists in heroics. Its really set and forget then. Without the trap talents you really have to be on top of your game trapping heroics. You need to be on top of your cooldowns and positioning, and have a backup plan in case of a resist or multiple resists (practice your kiting skills. you’ll need them).

Lose Entrapment though, as its not so useful in pve. Ask yourself as a tank if you would like random mobs to be rooted while you’re trying to position them.

Put 1 point in any of the other talents to get to the next tier, then put the extra in Survivalist and/or deterrence if you want another oh-shit button.