I have been a solid fan of Beast Mastery for years now. Never tried Marksmanship or Survival, never really wanted to. But a couple weeks ago I was invited to go along on a 10-man with our guild and I noticed some glaring differences in the damage meters betwixt me and the other hunters. This bothered me, because that means I'm not optimizing my character and I like to optimize everything I do. So I cogitated a bit on the problem.
Problem #1 is that my gear is mainly from 5-mans, and their's was substantially better. I did get to take home two nice pieces, so I'm slowly closing the gap (and of course in a month or so that won't matter anyway), but there was a great disparity.
Problem #2 was my pet. For some reason I couldn't call my level 80 wolf, only my level 77 pet. I visited the stable master and fixed that problem afterwards, but I wonder what difference having a level 80 out would have made, seeing as I went in BM.
Problem #3 was my glyphs. I think I had two. That problem is now solved as well.
Problem #4 was unfamiliarity with the new playing style. I didn't know that Steady Shot refilled the focus tank, and I wasn't sure what the optimum rotation was. I've done a bit of reading and I think I have a better idea of what to do now, but that was quite an experience not knowing what all my little buttons were for.
Problem #5. I know at least one of the hunters was MM, not sure about the other one. And they have that chimera shot thingy.
And so I finally bought Dual Spec and went MM. Bought the appropriate glyphs, looked up a basic shot rotation, and went hunting.
Serpent Sting (at least I think it's Serpent Sting, it's the one that the Chimera Shot replenishes. I really don't have room in my brain to remember right now:), Chimera Shot, and if they were still alive Arcane Shot. Two or three shots per mob-I could grow to like that. So I kept MM, and have been playing with that spec since. I haven't gone up against more than two mobs, and I suspect that in that situation I would want to be BM, but that's not a crucial concern.
I think I will stick with BM for soloing, however. I like having the ability to have exotic pets, and I like having an equal partner in the field. But for raiding I'll pull out the MM spec, at least until they change everything again.
Here's hoping we have time to play this weekend.
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