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| Reviewed 8/26/10 Patch 3.3.5 OUTDATED |
Warning: This is an outdated Wrath guide. For current information, see the level 85 Cataclysm version of the guide Here.
BM hunters have it easy in so many ways, and one of those ways is the Beast Mastery shot rotation. The BM hunter shot rotation is the simplest and easiest rotation of any hunter spec. But despite this, I do get emails from BM hunters trying to figure out why their dps is bad only to learn that they’re making their shot cycle way more complicated than it needs to be. So this guide will lay out the best BM hunter shot cycle to maximize the dps of your shot rotation.
To Begin With, Your Pet
BM hunters love their pets more than any other hunter spec. This is only natural as they are far more loving by nature. Before we get to the shot rotation, let’s address the pet:
The following pet abilities should all be on auto-cast: Rabid, Bite/Claw/Smack, and your pet’s special attack.
BM Hunter Shot Rotation – The Ideal Shot Cycle
Okay, our pet is all set. Here is the BM hunter shot rotation:
- Put Hunter’s Mark on target (usually before combat begins, or as part of a macro)
- Send pet in to attack
- Put up Serpent Sting (reapply to boss when it goes down)
- Aimed Shot / Multi-shot
- Arcane Shot
- Hit Steady Shot until another shot is off cooldown
And that’s all there is to it.
If there are 4 or more targets, send pet in and use Volley, otherwise, it’s Sting/Arcane Shot/Multi-Shot/Steady Shot. Arcane is much better than Steady Shot for the BM shot cycle because it costs the same amount, but since it’s magic it ignores armor. You’ll do a lot more damage with Arcane Shot.
The Multi-Shot Factor
Multi-shot will do more damage than Steady Shot, even against one target. Thus to really pump out the most dps possible out of your BM shot rotation, include multi-shot in place of a Steady Shot whenever possible. Obviously you need to be aware of cc’d targets — never multi-shot when something is cc’d. If you break it, everyone’s death is your fault. You pay their repair bills.
Many hunters don’t like multi-shot because it costs more mana. This is undeniably true; however, BM hunters already have a very mana-efficient shot cycle with their rotation, and with full 25-man raid buffs you’ll probably never run out of mana. You can afford to multi-shot. It will increase your dps.
The Aimed Shot Factor
Of course you can use Aimed Shot instead of Multi-Shot in your BM shot rotation. They both do about the same damage, so there’s no need to take the Aimed Shot talent unless you really want the instant shot, or if you PVP. You can see our detailed testing and explanation of this Here. The biggest advantage of Aimed Shot in a raid environment is to have another instant shot that you can fire off while running.
Dropping Arcane Shot
Eventually BM will want to drop arcane shot from their rotation. With a good ranged weapon, and enough stats, BM will eventually get enough armor pen rating that steady shot does more damage than arcane shot. The exact crossover point depends on your specific gear and raid composition.
In general, assuming raid buffs, BM will want to drop arcane shot somewhere around 750 armor pen rating.
You’ll still want to use arcane shot when on the move, or on non-debuffed targets.
And That’s It!
Now you have optimal BM hunter shot rotation for max dps against a single, stationary target. Life gets more interesting on running fights, but 90% of the time this is what you want to be doing.
I have rudimentary macros for the rotation above, but find that SSting doesn’t usually cycle back in (I have to manually reapply), so it’s kind of a wasted macro.
I would love to see the following macros, if you have the time :)
a) runs the rotation above plus Kill Shot
b) applies and reapplies Misdirection on the tank and (preferably) /assists with pet attack (maybe even Cower?), so my pet stays on the same target that the tank does
c) any others that you think are useful. My button bars are full!!!
P.S. Keep up the great work! I have referred every Hunter in my guild to this site. You are doing an excellent job at educating people. Off topic: Idiotic level 80 Hunter claims he’s got great dps at 388…I /cried, /dueled and smoked him in less than 10 seconds. Many thanks to you guys!!!
I think calling it a cycle is a tad misleading … its one freaking button!
oh well … bye-bye easy street tonight — Ill have to write the Arcane shot macro now :-(
Shot rotation is right but seeing its so easy to perform I don’t understand why ppl are trying to macro it. A macro is a loss of dps from manual weave. If anything I would say macro pets kill command to steady shot but you shouldnt be incorporating full rotation into 1 macro.
I worked downto aimed shot for my BM hunter and use that in my shot rotation since it only shares a cooldown with multishot. Should i stop using it for raids because of the high mana cost? I get good dps while using it, but do have to switch to viper for a few seconds on 10 man raid bosses.
Is there an addon to show when Serpent Sting needs to be re-shot? I find it very difficult to spot when its tiny icon hidden among a multitude of other debuffs on the boss goes away.
@Clinh
Check out Power Auras….it’s an awesome addon.
If you want to try before you buy take a look at http://www.BigRedKitty.net to see a review.
Hi ive found this site on my phone at work and i read it in my breaks have to say this have verry nïce info but i have a Q myself i hate rogue s in pvp so bad iam sv shall i go bm or tell me what to do pls. Luv you x
since when arcane does more dmg than steady?
steady does much more dpm and if u r lucky enuf to have “Tho’ridal, the Stars’ Fury”, then arcane is much less
lets say u have 2000 ap, then this will be the case:
Arcane Shot: 382 DPS 2.49 DPM
Steady Shot: 411 DPS 5.60 DPM
auto shot is ur most valuable shot because no mana at all….so ur rotation shuld be simple: as soon as auto shot leaves the weapon, start steady shot, and repeat, i guess always have mark and pet attack first
spacetrain, rogues are genearlly easy, if u see one unstealthed mark him immiedietly. send ur pet in and concussive shot.after he is slowed wiht concussive, put a freeze trap down. he will come at u, just spam steady shot and when he gets close and trap works, wing clip and run through him. when u get some distance, put down another freezing trap and repeat. when dueling a rogue, always have ur pet on aggresive right next to u and stand on top of a freezing trap, he will come and get attacked by ur pet and slowed, then do what i said above, if u follow these stesp u shuld have no trouble killing rogues
Hope this helps
umbra, if u are bm, aimed shot is pretty useless in raids. it has high cast time and it also shares cooldown with ur auto shot, which is a lot of ur dps. i wuld recommend steady shot instead
hope this helpls
Correction to beastmaster’s comments.
Aimed shot is an instant cast, and has no relation to your auto shot. This is old BC info from when your auto shot could clip. Auto shot no longer clips and will cast even while other shots (like steady shot) are casting.
Furthermore, Aimed Shot does much more damage than steady shot. However, multi-shot does the same damage as auto shot. If you’re looking to absolutely maximize your dps, you should indeed use multi or aimed (which share a cooldown) instead of steady shot when available.
I do exactly the BM hunter shot cylcle ( without knowing it ) and it works perfectly for pve and raids.
@Selissia try something like…
#showtooltip Auto Shot
/cast Kill Shot
/castsequence reset=3 Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot
Be wary of mana expensive shots — you can often do more damage over the long haul by playing conservative with your rotation.
@ Selissia, i know this is a little late, but just found this site.
this is what i use for my MD on tank, just make the tank as your focus and it will do it automatically. you do not have to have the /s in it, i keep it in so it announces it, you can also get simplemd mod if you have more than 1 hunter in the raid to help coordinate the rotation of the MD’s. It also has an announce, but i have that turned off.
/focus [modifier:alt]
/stopmacro [modifier:alt]
/s ****Casting MD on %f ****
/cast [target=focus] Misdirection
My macro is
/castrandom Kill Shot, Kill Command, Bestial Wrath
/castsequence Arcane Shot, Multi Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot
there are a few things in there, just to get rid of erros and the annoying “that ability is not ready yet” but thats my macro. I hit average 3500dps in heroics with ilvl200 gear.
any adv on this macro?
what should be your dps damage as a bm hunter???? alot of people are telling me to switch but i like my spirit beasts i have and they kick but
regarding Aimed Shot, what spec are you using that allows you to reach Aimed Shot? The 3.1 BM spec I’ve seen and have been directed to is http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cxdMzxgRfu0est0eMoZx00b which does not grant Aimed Shot. Would you go with that same spec and move the 3 points from Careful Aim to max out Mortal Shot and the 1 from Go For The Throat to Aimed Shot.
People should stop saying “Manual weaving is always better than a Macro”. This isn’t ALWAYS true. /castsequence macros rely on a reply from the server before progressing to the next spell in the sequence, so their performance is heavily dependant on latency.
Manual weaving allows you to ‘clip’ the cast timer by beginning your next shot before your current shot is actually finished (this used to be /stopcasting). This works because by the time your next shot cast reaches the server, your current one has just fired, so no error. You can see the same thing in action when you begin to run a moment before you are finished summoning your mount, and rather than interrupt your mount summon, you suddenly burst away on your beast.
Similarly to manual weaving, a macro that does NOT use /castsequence works in exactly the same way, and I don’t care HOW good you are – there is no way you can manually weave shots cutting as close to the latency buffer as you can by rapidly spamming a macro.
Macros can do fantastic things to help out your performance.
However, a castsequence macro is less efficient and less effective than skillfully mnaually weaving. Of course you can cut the latency buffer just as close — you have 1.5 seconds between GCDs, and with castsequence you still only get one shot per button push. The difference is when you spam your manual shot sequence you always get the correct shot for that moment.
Crystalla,
Using the Macro I have posted above, I can easily do 2.5k dps in heroics and can push 3.5k in OS25, which I think is pretty good for a BM Hunter. I hate the SV build, I know the rotations, have the L’n'L addon, but just enjoy playing it. BM all the way for me!
http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Nagrand&n=Nton
Oh, btw, I dont have latency issues, tend to run at around 100ms. The only time my macro causes me an issue is when i have CC’d mobs around. For those occasions I have the same macro, just drop the Multi Shot from it.
Good to know Nton.
I’m going to try your macro (two actually – nothing worse than breaking a cc – lol).
I like BM spec, but getting ‘told’ I’ll need to respec MM for raiding… remotely close to the damage you’re putting out they’d have to be happy right lol
Just to reinforce a point, the castsequence macro will underperform manually handling your shots in just about any raid fight, with the *possible* exception of Patchwerk. The amount of moving throws your sequence off, but the macro will doggedly keep going where you left off.
A SV or MM build should see at least 500 dps more than the same character in a BM build. I think BM is viable for raiding; however, it is just plain lower dps, and significantly lower at that.
I would have no qualms bringing a BM hunter into a raid. They can hold their own. But. If we were having dps problems, I’d ask them to respec in a heartbeat (assuming we were getting the Ferocious Inspiration buff from another class).
i should say, i have added a 10 second reset into the macro since i posted it. that way the sequence resets if i havent used it for 10secs so it shouldnt make any diff to my dps in a moving fight. If anything a BM hunter has should be slightly better surely as we dont loose Sniper Training from the movement.
damn guys. Thanks so much for this. this is really useful stuff. I’m dual spec – SV and BM. I mainly use BM for questing etc so i don’t aggro as much. I’m gonna try Nton’s macros. Oh, and does anyone know whether the Misdirection macro will work in the middle of Nton’s BM shot rotation macro? Thanks in advance =)
I use an addon called simplemd from wow-interface.com makes life easy. it auto creates the macro for you
NIce guides….Glad I found you as I’ve been missing BRK and the blogger they have at wow.com seems to be writing for the beginning hunter most of the time.
Up until reading these I was thinking about dual speccing as Survival (sorry I’m BM through and through), but now thinking about dual speccing as BM (extreme solo/pet tanking) cause that sounds like just plain fun.
On rotations, while I used Power Auras Classic for a bit, but I found it too complicated and just switched to Needtoknow. With it I just move the bars to a place I can see them and my dps went up dramatically. Thus, my rotation is Hunter’s Mark, Kill Command, Serpent Sting, Steady Shot until Ferocious Inspiration procs then Arcane Shot. I’ve also bound my on-use trinket Incisor Fragment to my Aimed Shot which I weave in as well, but rethinking tossing that out of my spec in favor of at least a point in Improved Arcane Shot.
Of course, I like having the 20 pet talent points, but I hate the exotics. I know the Devilsaur does the most damage, but should I just abandon my Cunning Pet? Right now, I have 2 Ferocity (a wolf and a cat(my lvl 10 pet)) and 2 Tenacity (a boar and a bear(which I just got after reading this) and 1 Cunning (a wind serpent).
I don’t particularly like the Devilsaur either. Something about the look of the exotics that I find kind of off-putting…
I have actually gone SV now, do far more dps. However, i do like to go round as BM if not raiding and i use my exotic Gondria. Like Dbodinem, I to hate Devilsaurs, as well as the other stupid exotics that have the annoying thumping around effect.
The only thing with Gondria is that i have to dismiss when i enter a city or I just get spammed constantly by ppl wanting to know where he came from.
Brillaint site, hopefully i can use what I have read here to improve what is an appalling DPS rating. Base agility of 1300 but only DPS about 1500. Must have something to do with my shot rotation will be trying the above tonight.
Nice site – ty
Following on from the great shot macros above a very simple macro you can run BEFORE you start your shot cycle – I call it “Atomic” as its the bomb that hurts before the infantry start shooting…… The idea behind it is to hit the mob with EVERYTHING you have first up, whilst still following Frostheims suggested rotation – and if your pet is ferocious, that means getting him nice n agro’d up on the way in. Unlike Frostheim I run Bite, (pet special ability), Cower and Growl into my 4 autocast pet slots and weave Call Of The Wild and Rabid into the macro. Simply add into the macro what you dont have on auto for maximum effect.
And like the post from Dbodiman above, I have two AP geared trinkets also woven in – if you dont, or if your trinkets are not geared for hurt, simply leave the lines out.
Atomic
/cast Hunter’s Mark
/petattack
/use (name of trinket one)
/use (name of trinket two)
/cast Bestial Wrath
/cast Kill Command
/cast Rabid
/cast Call of the Wild
/cast Serpent Sting
So thats every BIG weapon I have – pet, spells, abilities, stings and the kitchen sink all thrown at the mob. Yes, the cool down is long – I certainly dont use it on all mobs. But when I’m about to hit a boss or mob with big numbers, this little macro makes a nice hole and allows me to concentrate on the rest of my shot selections. Please feel free to play with it – add in, delete or change – I have constantly updated it as I was leveling to reflect my biggest damage toys. Try it and see what dps you generate….
Use the rotation above with some changes.
1. Misdirect to tank
2. Bound Hunter’s Mark, Kill Command, and petattack to a macro and open with it. Then have another macro:
/assist [insert Tank's name here]
/cast Hunter’s Mark
so that I’m always marking when I switch to the tank’s new target.
3. Start with Serpent Sting, then Steady Shot until “Ferocious Inspiration” (FI) procs,
and weave in Arcane Shot during the proc. I use Needtoknow addon and set it so that it shows me FI procs and just keep hitting Arcane Shot every time its up. I’ve also bound my trinket (Incisor Fragment) to Multi-Shot in a macro so that I get the proc before doing the white damage of Multi-Shot. And often I’m misdirecting to tank before firing off another Multi-Shot or Volley.
Recently, I’m only using Volley on 4 or more targets and that’s helped my dps a lot. And I’m using Bestial Wrath a lot more than I used to.
One question: Ideally it would be nice if every healer kept my pet alive so I could just dps, but quite often they don’t or make it such a low priority that it doesn’t happen. Since my pet does 40% of my dps, when should you stop dpsing and rez my pet? I do Mend Pet quite often to keep it alive. I tend to do it before phase shifts or before picking up the next group of mobs.
Ferocious Inspiration
Rank 3
When your pet scores a critical hit, all party and raid members have all damage increased by 3% for 10 sec. In addition, increases the damage dealt by Arcane Shot by 9%.
*when should I stop dpsing and rez my pet?
Depends on the fight, Dbo. If it’s trash, it’s probably not worth it to rez. If it’s boss, rez rez rez.
BM pet is anywhere from 30-40% of your damage, and the raid can’t afford you NOT doin your best on bosses.
Just be on the lookout for pet unfriendly fights. (Heigan back in Naxx was particularly horid). As a BM the loss of the pet is a hard hit. So actually, the best answer to your question is:
“Don’t let Fluffy Die” :)
Micro your pet in pet unfriendly fights. Yes, your damage output will suffer because you’re not spamming your rotation…but if you don’t, your damage will plummet because your pet is lying in a pool of his own juices. :/
When soloing should I have growl on autocast or not? is the extra threat needed? Or is it a waste of Focus.
P.S. AMAZING site I am new to wow and am loving it.
Yes, you should have growl on autocast when soloing – or any time you want your pet to hold aggro. It does indeed make a huge difference.
as a disc priest I always treat the hunter pet, and lock pet, as a member of the group. they get full buffs, bubbles and heals. Cant tell you how many times a hunter pet has saved me from a sloppy tank’s lack of aggro control.
I also have a lock and a BM hunter so I understand that the pet is very important to its owner. the only pets I’m not as worried about is the DK perm pet. with the unholy tree the pet costs no reagent and is an instant cast, so if it dies its no big deal to get it back.
A question to the group, what is the BM hunters most important stat? agi?
I have been gearing to get the most agi I can since it is one stat that affects my crit, armor and ranged attack power. is there a better stat for BM hunter? is there a second stat I should be gearing for?
I have lvl 80 bm hunter with surv as second spec, I personally think along with agil you need hit rating…having high hit rating can increase dps moderately
Haven’t been here for a while. been busy :)
Stacking Hit is only good upto the Hit Cap as per Frosts Hit Cap Guide (263). Stack more than the cap and its wasted.
I’m sure Frost and the others will correct me if i’m wrong, but, the stat of choice for BM is AP, followed by Agi.
Agi is the stat of choice for SV. My hunter now runs at hit cap, with 5003 AP and 47.55% crit chance. Since switching to SV and resetting enchants and gear, my DPS has increased to around 3.8k in Hcs, raids vary, depending on the boss fight.
i quite wow for about 3 mounth i guess it was mostly cause i thot i could be doing much more in my shot rotation and wasnt doing it i had thot that the hunters that got high dps had a differnt rotation unlike the stuff i was doing and i couldnt find iny other usefull rotation ells from this one ,tho i made tones of settups useing other types of attacks finding no good result… turns out after reading your guide i now that i dont half to stress iny other attacks in my cycle from the basics without the stress of this and unsucessfull testing rotations ill be able to be confedint that im doing the best my hunter will allow me to do this was very supportive and because of it im going to give wow another try … ty
I’ve been theorizing about Aspect of the Beast lately and I thought that I’d best post it here (as kind of a Aspect-rotation).
The thing is, at high gear levels (T9 and higher?), it seems useful to switch to Aspect of the Beast as soon as you activate Bestial Wrath, as this will increase your pet’s damage even more. At the last second of Bestial Wrath, it seems nice to reapply Serpent Sting while reactivating Aspect of the Dragonhawk again, for maximum effect. I’ve tried this out with a macro (where Aspect of the Beast is linked to Bestial Wrath and Aspect of the Dragonhawk to Serpent Sting, so the right macro is active at the right time). My question is: do you think it would be worth it to switch aspect? Because the combined bonusses of Dragonhawk are still pretty nice.
Ok I don’t see points in improved Arcane shot in the MM tree as the preferred build for BM raiding. I was wondering why, is the extra 15% dmg from Arcane shot not worth it? I say this because Shouldnt I be hitting Arcane every time its off cool down? keep up the good work thanks in advance
The BM Hunter shot rotation above is the one I’ve always used with great success. However, there is no mention of concussive shot prior to steady shot. There is a damage bonus on “Steady” if target is stunned. Am I just stating the obvious or am I missing something. Also, depending on the Target I always have Viper on my bar for the Casters. Again, I’m probably stating the obvious but throwing Arcane shot at casters usually disrupts their casting depending on lvl.
@Rick:
I think that is because the other talents give a greater boost to you dps. To show you an example:
Assume that Arcane Shot deals 15% of your overall DPS. If you boost it’s damage by 15%, then your total dps will increase by 0.25*0.15=0.0225 (2.5%). Three points in Improved Tracking would increase your overall damage by 3% and as such do more for your overall dps. Arcane Shot deals a lot of damage, true, but it can only be used once every 6 seconds, meaning that its relative contribution to your dps is small.
@Jack:
I could be mistaken, but I believe that it’s due to the fact that you only gain 175 damage from it, while at the same time you’re losing a Steady Shot worth a 1000 damage or more. However, I admit that I don’t know the precise numbers.
maybe this was answered in a previous reply, and i’m sorry if it’s a repeat. Your rotation says to use aimed/multi shot. But in looking at the your ideal BM talent build 52/12/7, aimed shot is not included. Am I missing something. or is multi the intended shot?
Aimed shot and multi-shot will do about the same damage for BM; however, aimed shot can be used on the move, since it’s an instant. So Aimed shot isn’t really *required* for BM, per se, but I do strongly recommend it just to have another shot to fire off while moving.
hello out there fellow hunter’s! frost im new to the game I been reading you site (awesome site btw) been follow the guide for bm but I think something still missing can you or some1 with XPsee the caracter & let me know what in the world Im doing wrong or got wrong? http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackwing+Lair&cn=Westus PLSS HELP!
@Solo1m I’ve looked at spec and gear, I’m not quite sure about Frost’s spec in the BM section of the website, but I haven’t tried it yet either so we’ll just have to wait and see.
But your gear I see some major fallacies if you will. For starters, you have AP/Stam gems in your gear. Never, under any circumstances do you ever gem anything stam. A blue socket is best left to the Nightmare tear so pick wisely which socket bonus you want. If something has and agi Socket bonus of <6 then yes go for it but only if you can use a Nightmare Tear to achieve it in the 1 blue socket of the item, or if you can achieve it with an orange AP/(Crit or Hit depending). Also, never gem haste. Don't shy away from it on gear, but don't gem it.
Read the rules before posting, they will NOT respond to “Please look at my toon and tell me what’s wrong” questions any longer…
hmm i dont understand why i cant get this macro going
/castsequence Arcane Shot, Multi Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot, Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Steady Shot
it just get stuck with arcane shot and cant figure out to move on in the sequence, help please !!
@facehunter:
Don’t use a macro to do the work for you. It’s inefficient, and you will do less dps than you could it you just wove your shots yourself. One thing you can do is macro Kill Command onto your shots because it’s off of the global cooldown.
@kyle m8.
its not because i couldnt do it, its just that i need to kill the waste time from global cd to me actually pushing the button, it is not inefficient if one choose to make smaller like 3 combo macros.
But my Question is still, why dosent it work? is it not the right command for making it work?
Im no wiz with macros, so if any know how to make it, the excact command, and what needs to be done to make it work :D
umm i am new to being a hunter im only lvl 49 atm almost 50 but i have found out that afteer you finish the rotation for a little boost of dps you can apply volley and it will increase a good bit but not to much….always good to use if you are battleing it out on dps in a raid with another hunter.. ty for his you helped me out alot man
lol @ macro using hunters, the only macro you should use is /assist [main tank] and /assist [off tank]. if you need a macro to shoot….. you need to reroll.
Can a BM hunter have aimed shot because last time in knew they didnt have aimed shot
Whitepaw, that was just a mean childish thing to say. Many including myself use macros and alter it accordingly per needs atm. Just because we use a macro doesnt mean we dont understand the reasons and concepts behind what we are doing. Please don’t talk about the splinter in my eye when you have a two by four in yours… Re roll your attitude….