Ghostcrawler says no buff to Beast Mastery hunter pet damage
by Brian Wood 
Feb 19th 2010 at 6:00PM
Blizzard has acknowledged before that BM isn't a raid viable spec (though we've seen that in the right circumstances they can pull their weight, though still be far behind) and they've stated that they would like to get to a point where all three hunter specs can raid. Ghostcrawler gave us one idea at what a BM buff could look like, saying, "The damage would have to be more of the slowly stacking / sustained variety..." and also gave us a peek into where they think pet damage should be -- at about 30% of hunter damage in high end gear."We don't want to buff the pet damage for BM any more for a couple of reasons. One is that it puts too much dependence on the pet... Secondly, the pet doesn't require that much babysitting. Few players are clicking their pet abilities on and off. As such, it just acts like a dot with cool art. When we talk about the risk of BM being too easy to play, we don't want to over-reward players for just doing Steady and having the pet attack."
However, today's comments make it sound like they aren't likely to just let BM do MM-level damage with their current play style. If BM wants more damage, they'll probably have to work harder for it.
Filed under: Hunter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Hollow Leviathan Feb 19th 2010 6:05PM
I know a very sad friend of a night elf named Sharptooth that wants to bite more viciously :(
KronosIII Feb 19th 2010 7:18PM
I think blizzard should be more concerned in how every smart hunter has a wolf......
IDK.....maybe make its ability given to all pets of the same tree?
That way hunters don't have to stick with a wolf for max dps so we can see some different pets in raids and cities.
Komiroya Feb 19th 2010 6:11PM
Pet r angry!!! Pet red in face!!! Pet... Dosnt do more damage cause small red crab said so.
:-/
Deathgodryuk Feb 19th 2010 6:11PM
With the raid buff announced in today's patch notes for BM it looks like they may be a bit more desired in raids, here's to hoping they can get a little bit of a personal dps boost to go along with it.
Frostheim Feb 19th 2010 9:50PM
Keep in mind all they did was increase the range -- and that buff is already provided by arcane mages and ret pallies, and they don't stack. Alas Ferocious Inspiration isn't really useful to most raid groups.
Jerkules Feb 19th 2010 6:12PM
Last i checked the Arcane Mage spell rotation was all of 2 spells. Saying they don't wanna buff BM because its to easy is pretty silly imo.
KronosIII Feb 19th 2010 7:14PM
Mages have been faceroll since day one in both pvp/pve......nothing new here
>Raided with a mage in vanilla and BC. Got bored of the faceroll in lich king
dkhar Feb 19th 2010 6:14PM
I find it ironic that hunter pets are essential to their dps(as has been said by the developers numerous times), and a BM more so, and yet no buff to the pet for BM. Not complaining, just ironic /shrug
Kirkules Feb 19th 2010 6:14PM
With Ferocious Inspiration becoming an aura, does that bring any aid to raiding BM's? Or is the 3% increase to everyone still subpar compared to personal damage of SV or MM?
Valt Feb 19th 2010 8:39PM
People will rather bring arcane mage doing same aura with 10k+ dps than BM hunter with same aura doing "7k dps", also MM hunters have trueshot aura.
So I say no, it wont. Sadly. I would like to show off my spirit beast more often
Raze Feb 19th 2010 6:26PM
Seems to me he's saying it's impossible to balance BM hunters without making them over powered for PVP.
dkhar Feb 19th 2010 6:29PM
Very possible, everything seems to be centered around pvp anyway when they buff or nerf a class.
Valt Feb 19th 2010 8:48PM
Basically this.
Frost mages, Sub rogues(funny cos its not even used as pvp spec), frost dks(kinda?) and later on destro locks have been hit very clearly by "too good in pvp so we cant really buff it too much".
jeanericuser Feb 19th 2010 6:31PM
I think this has less to do with pve and more with pvp. If a hunter pet is too powerful in pvp than every other class user will wine like crazy until its nerfed into the ground. This in turn results in pets getting made even easier to kill which in turn makes hunters wine about how their pet can be one shot by just about anyone. So wow buffs the pets until their similar to their previous stature and then the whole cycle starts over again. Personally I think the answer is just to make hunters more like Death knights. BM will serve as the class that relies on the permenent pet. MM and Survival will serve as a range only with only access to temporary pets which only can be used once every 10 minutes then go back to the stable. That way mm and survival would stand on their own depending on the brute strength of their shots as bliz wants while BM will stand as the old fashioned hunter that splits damage potential with the pet.
Mergetvs Feb 19th 2010 9:05PM
That quite possibly is one of the Worst ideas that I have ever heard. Have you Ever played a hunter before? Imagine the pain of Having to Kite Every Single Mob You Fight, or Having to Re summon your pet Repeatedly. Get Rid of the Melee Zone completely or buff Melee damage considerably, and your brilliant plan Might work. We Use Our Pets to Keep Our enemies at Range. Go back to playing your DK.
jeanericuser Feb 20th 2010 7:50AM
No it shows you haven't been playing a hunter long enough or encountered some of the many different ways that hunters play. Let me first of all state some simple facts that show you havent played a hunter long enough,
1. A melee hunter with buff to melee or not is still the worst idea since their armor can still be easily ripped through by other melee.
2. There are plenty of ways to get out of the melee zone in a fraction of a second. If you get killed because you cant keep someone out of melee range than you have other issues to deal with.
3. Hunter pets are increasingly becoming issues in raids and 5 mans because the desire for pets to achieve agro solo has caused them to disrupt the delicate agro balance that other tanking classes require. Sure you can turn growl off but still it gives anyone an excuse to kick you simple because they do not like your pet.
4. A temporary pet doesnt need to be managed on a constant basis compared to a permenent pet that often does. Besides if hunters were strong enough on their own without the pet with high dps similar to mage level than adding a pet for a short time would in fact serve as a considerable boost to dps.
5. Last of all there is this wonderful invention bliz put in called dual spec. If you feel you have the need for a pet at your side constantly than you can just have one talent tree be full on beastmastery and the other on whether you prefer mm or survival. These days you dont have to be permemently chained to the hip to the spec that seems the most important.
With all these things in consideration my idea actually makes some sense and would allow hunters to truly show whether a hunter can stand on its own like many other classes. If a hunter is just not ready to do that there is still classic bm though just in case you don't think you are ready to be alone.
me2hot4this Feb 28th 2010 4:51AM
wow jeanericuser, have you ever played a hunter before?
"melee hunter?" gg dude, shows you have never played a hunter past level 20 before.
pets getting aggro from tanks? lols, if that happens, you kick the tank, not the hunter.
lols, your idea makes absolutely no sense and please go back to your dk columns, and stop trolling on our hunter forums.
From blizzard's opinion of hunters: "Hunters also possesss a primal connection to the beasts of Azeroth, capable of taming and training them to keep as loyal guardians... fighting beside their pets in battle." and on their class info page, hunters are the only class that has a pet in their picture.
Alassiel Feb 19th 2010 6:37PM
Honestly, I'm sick of people saying that BM is not a viable raid spec. You just don't see more BM hunters out there because of everyone saying "but it's not a viable raiding spec!". Someone who can play their chosen class and spec well can out DPS someone better geared in a "viable spec". I am admitted clicker, keyboard turner, and I use the default UI. I raid in BM spec. And I can still come in as one of the top 2 DPS in a raid where we're all pumping out 3.8k-4k+ dps. It's about skill too, not just spec and gear.
msbush Feb 19th 2010 11:34PM
You're in the sweet spot of BM. Keep it up. When the rest of your raid is in ICC25 doing 7k, 8k, or 9k... your BM hunter will still be at 5.8-6k
BM is great when you're overgeared for the instance, or doing older content (yes, ToC is old now). When it's in the cutting edge raid, with cutting edge gear, it just can't keep up.
I was there 3 weeks ago. Raiding ICC10 and occasionally ICC25 as BM. I was doing 5k on bosses, and 7-9k on AoE (doesn't matter really)... switched to MM after reading the linked article on BM raiding and saw my dps go up 800-1k instantly (that's close to that 20% mark, for those keeping score at home).
Anyway, Best of luck to you. :)
sjaecu Feb 22nd 2010 11:59AM
Let's be a bit more detailed about BM raiding....while it definitely falls behind the potential of MM and SV, it can still do well; well being much more than 4k, more like 6k+.