Hunter’s Build Shop (1700’s Arena)

Arena 2v2 Rating

So for the third week in a row, I was able to maintain my 1700 rating :) (for a good 450+ arena points), but during these few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of testing and tried many spec / strat, so let me take this chance to share some of my testing :)

These are all for “2DPS 2v2 team, aka. Burst Team”

Before I continue, this same setup/strat even got me to 1971 in Arena :D

Build Shop: Beast Mastery PvE in Burst Team

For the longest time, I took my PvE burst damage-able spec to PvP. Not the most ideal but.. it did the job of “burning down one opponent” But as you reach the 1700 barrier, you will soon realize your rivals are expert in PvP and… aren’t easily fooled or killed.

Why doesn’t the BM PvE spec worked.

1. Beastral Swiftness (outdoor 30% increased run speed for pet) is extremely important. When you fight a druid team, you need to prevent him from drinking. One drink means a full cure for the warrior… and as a burst team without a healer, that cannot happen.

2. Point wasted in Animal Handler. Your pet has a default of 95% to hit a level 70 target. Yes increased 4% hit might sound like a good idea, but when your pet is only doing 135-145dps/sec, 4-5 dmg won’t do any good. Its DPS in PvE Raids but in a PvP, your 4-5 is like nothing. Vs…

Put those points in Spirit Bond, which regenerates 2% hp/10sec. You might think how is that any better. Lets say you have roughly 11000hp, it takes roughly.. say if you were bursted, 10-12sec to kill you. A tick kicked in and hay, you just got 2% more hp, which equates to 2% MORE hp. Now say you’re in a 2v2 and your partner is getting hit while you just have DoT on, well 2%hp/10sec equates to 10% hp over time = 10% less DoT damage over time! Treat Spirit Bond like Resillence, but better since it actually works for all damage, whereas Resillence is only.. less DoT dmg, less Crit dmg and less chance to Crit.

3. Improved Aspect of the Hawk… does literally nothing. Okay you shoot and you got the buff.. so what, your enemy is running, you are running so.. chances of you able to stand there and shoot is practically none. You end up just wasting it… most of the time so yea.. why Spec :) if its for PvP. Hell people might even have a pet on you. So its not as good as you think.

Build Shop: Marksmanship PvP, Burst Team

Marksmanship holds one pretty nice aspect, high white damage (normal) and DoT’s, but it lacks the bursting ability. Not only that, I get aimed / picked as first target a lot more often when I’m on MM spec. This is my MM PvP Spec.

Marksmanship lacks survivability.

I tried 11/41/9 and 2/41/18.

But what I did found out was.. to be good in Marksmanship … you must learn how to handle 2 targets or “multitarget”. In FFXI, we do that through sub target.

With enemy cast bar turned on, you can see what both targets are casting, and with that information, you have all the information you need to stun your off target with Scatter Shot or even Silencing Shot. Its really crazy.

The screenshot on the right, you can see Nayumi is my “Off-Target” and Kalinda is my “Main target”

But even with all these cool stuff, it still doesn’t neglect the fact that MM hunter lacks survivability. Even if you spec into Survival, you get 10% more HP and etc but the only thing you have is Deterrance (25% more evasion for 10sec lol.. what about Mage Pyroblast? DoTs? Stuns? holy shyt, it does nothing)

Death = no DPS. No matter how good the Spec is… its no good when you’re dead.

I’m not saying MM isn’t good, but not for a Burst team. They will most likely get aimed first and even if you’re not dead. When you’re being ganked, you get no DPS and = good as dead.

Build Shop: Beast Mastery PvP Burst Team

In the end, I played with a few spec and I’d like this BM-PvP spec. I’ved tried some alternative such as sacrifice Rapid Killing / Go for the Throat for 4 more points into Arcane Shot or… put into Concussion Shot rather than Efficiency

Here’s a few reason why: I’ll go by rows in my talent tree.

0-5 BM Talent: Endurance Training (5).
Because Hawk is Garbage in PvP. There’s a very little chance that you get that buff AND no one is hitting you. So you can rather play with luck or.. play it safe and get more HP.

5-10 BM Talent: Focued Fire (2), Thick Hide (1), Imp. Revive Pet (2).
There are teams including myself, who goes for Pets. When a BM pet dies, you lose (Beastral Focus, Focus Fire, your only Stun (Intimitation), your Invuleranbility (Beastral Wraith), Spirit Bond…) Your pet is tied to your ability to DPS so.. if it dies, you must be able to revive it. Focus Fire is 2% DPS that is.. unavoidable.. its too good to be true and the last point is to Thick Hide. You can do evasion, and will help say when you’re being ganked and you put that up. But most of the time, you’d want more Atk power so… its not that good.

11-15 BM Talent: Beastral Swiftness (1), 20% more Pet Dmg (5).
Beastral Swiftness is a must… because this is the only way you can win a Druid + DPS team, to make sure the Druid doesn’t drink his Star’s Tears. The rest of the Talent is in Pet Dmg! Its very nice DPS increase because it also increases your Crit Dmg! You need 5 because you’ll hav a spare Talent later to advance to the next Talent Tree.

16-20 BM Talent: Imp. Mend Pet (1), Pet Crit Strike (5)
There is no doubt to increase your Pet Crit Chance. Its really good DPS, and its 4% more chance from each Talent Point.. its crazy. Also, there are also two ability which is relies on your pet able to Crit.. so putting all possible point in this one is a must. Anyawy.. 1 in Imp. Mend Pet is to Anti-lock from DoTing your pet to death. They do it because your pet have absolutely no resilience. So therefore you need at least to cleanse those dirt off your pet. It also cleanse frost nova and rogue poison so.. its definately nice to have :)

21-25 BM Talent: Spirit Bond (2), Intimitation (1), Beastral Focus (2)
Focus Regeneration is your friend. Focus Regeneration = Flee on your Pet = Chase your Enemy and bite them = DPS. No focus = cannot run after your enemy = lost in DPS. Intimitation is BM’s Only Stun…. You need this stun. Spirit Bond is nice because like I explained above.. it directly equates to 2% HP, in the worst case even if you get burned. For long fights… this will save you :) free small “renew” :)

26-30 BM Talent: When Pet Crit Strike, 80% will give buff to increase atk speed of 30% for 9sec (4)
People have done the math on WoW forum, that only 4 is needed to “statistically” keep it up 100%. With the Crit-increased talent, your pet have a rough estimate of 30% to crit your enemy. Assuming your enemy have a 400 Resil, it still puts the enemy having a 20% gettin Crit. With a 1.26sec atk speed of a Cat, it takes roughly 7.2sec (if all hit lands), to get the buff and get 30% increased atk speed, and after that, your pet atk like super fast and it takes around 6.0sec to get another buff. WIth 80% activating the Buff… it makes the buff statistically proc around every 8.4sec and since it last 9sec, 4 talent is what you really need before you experience a diminishing return! Therefore, the extra Talent point was spent on 4% increased pet damage on 11-15 Talent Build.

31-35 BM Talent: Beastral Wraith (1), Feracious Focus (3)
Beastral Wraith is… self explainatory.. Feracious Focus is.. a buff that gives damage increase to all party member, including your partner. It activates on Crit so… its free DPS buff :)

36-40 BM Talent: Serpent Swiftness (5)
20% increased in range atk speed, 20% increased in pet melee speed… self explinatory.

41 BM Talent: Beastral Within (1)
Your 17sec of Immunity… self explinatory. Its probably the only reason why Hunter isn’t the main target, because with this, “nothing can stop you” :)

0-5 MM Talent: Crit Strike 2% (5)
Self Explainatory. DPS!

6-10 MM Talent: Efficiency (5)
You might think… why would I need it. This is purely a talent not only for the long lasting of your DPS, but also Anti-Drain team. There are teams which drains all your mana and when Hunter runs out of Mana.. you’re good as dead. This allows your MP pool to “last thorugh” your burst before you can be exhausted! Its a must for most team combos!

11-15 MM Talent: Go for the Throat (2), Aimed Shot (1), Rapid Killing (2)
Some people might prefer 4 talent in Arcane Shot (for a 0.8sec reduction). That is definitely plausible but from my experience, it doesn’t really help that much. Since its a lower of recast and not even MP cost, you need the MP pool to support it and from my experience, even a Blood Elves MP pool isn’t capable of sustaining Arcane Shot for the long fight so.. I don’t really see a point. I’d rather my pet get Focus when I Crit :) which directly equates to more DPS.

16-20 MM Talent: Mortal Shot (5)
In MM spec, there’s no point to do Imp. Sting. Since patch 2.3, Stings directly correlate to.. Atk Power and since BM is about Speed not ATK Power, then there’s really no point to get good Stings. Stings are for people who are doing MM Spec, becuase as you spec downwards into your MM Tree, you can access Atk Power Increase… which also directly correlates to Imp. Sting!

This is the end of Mai… Hunter’s PvP Build Shop for today :) I’ll post up while I get more testing done ^^; There are numerous ways to build a Hunter Tree.. but whatever you do, make sure you don’t do what this guy did… didn’t spec into the “most important stuff of a Hunter” lol..