The Basic BM Shot Rotation

First, at the start of a boss fight:

• Make sure you're in Aspect of the Dragonhawk
• Put up Hunter's Mark.
• Send in your pet.

Then, always hit the highest shot available on this list:

• Serpent Sting if it is not already up on your target.
• Arcane Shot
• Aimed Shot / Multi-Shot
• Steady Shot

In general this means most of the time you'll be hitting one of three buttons: Arcane Shot, Multi-Shot, or Steady Shot. You also generally want to use Bestial Wrath and Rapid Fire any time they're available. There are some other nuances and ways to optimize your rotation and DPS but those are beyond the scope of our Beast Mastery 101 class.

For AOE situations you'll just use Volley.

Gems

Gemming your BM hunter is pretty simple, and requires you to wrap your head around one simple concept: socket bonuses are not always worth it. Think of your socket bonus like an elf -- fancy looking and probably a dirty hippie and useful in some situations, but certainly not something you'd ever go out of your way to get.

• Meta Gem: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond.
• Red Socket: Bright Cardinal Ruby.
• Yellow Socket: Bright Cardinal Ruby unless the socket bonus is extra AP, then go for Wicked Ametrine.
• Blue Socket: use Nightmare Tear for your first blue socket, and use Bright Cardinal Ruby in the rest.

Glyphs

You have a few options for glyphs, and we're going to look at the top four choices.

• Glyph of Steady Shot: This flat 10% bonus to Steady Shot damage is well worth it for BM hunters, who use Steady Shot far more than any other.
• Glyph of Bestial Wrath: Lowering the cooldown of Bestial Wrath makes this glyph a must-have for any starting BM hunter.
• Glyph of the Hawk: BM hunters have a faster rate of fire than any other spec, meaning your Improved Aspect of the Hawk will be proccing more often than for other specs.
• Glyph of Serpent Sting: extending the duration of Serpent Sting essentially allows you to get in more Steady Shots over the course of fight.

For minor glyphs you're certainly going to want Glyph of Mend Pet and Glyph of Feign Death.

Enchants for Endgame

• Head: Arcanum of Torment
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe
• Back: Major Agility
• Chest: Powerful Stats
• Wrists: Greater Assault
• Hands: Major Agility or Precision
• Belt: Eternal Belt Buckle
• Legs: Icescale Leg Armor
• Feet: Superior Agility or Icewalker
• Ranged: Heartseeker Scope
  
• Melee 1h: Superior Potency or Accuracy
• Melee 2h: Massacre

And that wraps up our Beast Mastery 101 course! Of course there is more you can do and more you can learn -- you certainly want an understanding of threat and aggro, how stacking cooldowns works, managing movement, maximizing Bestial Wrath, mana management, understanding how to time abilities depending on fight mechanics, the list goes on and on.

But start off with the information here, and you'll be 90% of the way there. The vast majority of what you need to do to optimize your DPS is the basics. That last 10% is where all the work comes in, and check in here on Mondays and Thursdays for a continuing disucssion of how to squeeze every last drop of DPS out of your hunter.

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You want to be a Hunter, eh? Well then you came to the right place. You start with science, then you add some Dwarven Stout, and round it off some elf bashing. The end result is massive dps. Scattered Shots is the WoW.com column dedicated to helping you learn everything it takes to be a Hunter. Each week Scattered Shots will cover topics to help you Fix Your DPS, Choosing the Right Spec, Gear Selection, Macros and Pet Selection, Pet Specs and Management.

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