BM Rule Number One: Never Treat Your Pets Like You Would A Sims Character!

The title says it all really. I don't know about the rest of you but all I did on Sims was find ways to kill them and once I got bored of that, never played any more. Tis a good thing that I care about my pets more then. But wait, you didn't come here to read me comparing Hunter Pets to Sims people now did you? I didn't think so.

Due to some recent guild drama yesterday, I've got a couple of articles coming up related to the challenges of trying to be a raiding guild and asking whether it's okay to leave an alt in a guild when you leave it with your main. But before all that, I wanted to get to one of these Hunter articles again since I've neglected them and I think they'll start going all emo on me at this rate and threaten to self-harm if I don't show them attention. So here's an article on Beast Mastery, the spec I use the most and enjoy the most.

Races

Alliance

Draenei-Beast Mastery links well with the Draenei and their starting zone questing. Your character hits 10 and realises that now's a good time to get himself a pet since you realise that you're gonna need a pet to survive if you decide to explore the rest of the world. Draenei are a caring race by nature and some of them would care deeply for their pets and be BM.

Dwarf-Perhaps it's a mix of bias (with Shinyspoon) and the opening trailer for original WOW but my favourite pick for an Ally BM Hunter is a Dwarf. It's not an easy choice to make though. Dwarf BM Hunters would be the types who would pick a pet they feel is formidable and grow to respect and care for the pet.

Human-It's not hard to understand why a Human would be good at BM. In real life, you get those humanoids who love their animals and dote on them. WOW would be no different for these people.

Night Elf-I view Nelf Hunters as being "Ranger" type hunters. Therefore, a BM Nelf has most likely grown attached to their pet because it's their main companion and possibly their bestest friend when they go wandering through the lands.

Worgen-It's interesting to consider a BM Worgen Huntard. It will be a human who is cursed to turn into a beast leading a beast. Will the beast side connect more with the pet on a feral level? Perhaps the Worgen Hunter becomes "packleader" to the pet when in Worgen form. I feel sorry for a Worgen's pet...it might get confused when it's master keeps changing.

Horde

Belf-A BM Belfy is interesting in my head because I imagine it to be a hunter who has some sort of an exotic pet like a Dragonhawk. I think that they would be attached to the pet for a mixture of care and vanity and I imagine that they are the ones who would make sure their pet always looks fabulous on the Horde side.

Goblin-A Goblin BM Hunter is interesting too. When I make my Goblin Hunter, I think he'll have BM as one of his two specs because he'll be a Hunter who values having a pet to keep him alive and therefore, it will be worthwhile buying the food to keep the pets he has happy. I imagine BM Goblins start off getting a pet for convenience and become attached to them over time.

Orc-An Orc BM Hunter isn't my favourite choice though they can happily be one of course. I imagine them to be the type who would pick an honourable pet or one who can prove itself well in battle or already has done so against the Orc Hunter.

Tauren-Out of all the Hunters, I reckon Taurens will be the ones who will be the most mystical about hunting and being a Hunter. A Tauren BM Hunter would have chosen pets because they probably sensed that it had a noble spirit and are one of the Hunters most likely to view a pet as an equal. This is my favourite choice for a Horde BM Hunter.

Troll-Similar to Orcs really...I have nothing against them but I'd prefer a Tauren or a Belf or a Goblin. It might just be me but I think that Alliance Hunter races all lean more towards BM and Marksmanship whereas Horde Hunter races lean more towards Survival and Marks.

Undead-There is only one way I can see a BM Undead Hunter working and that's if they use Undead skin pets to show that just because they are undead, it doesn't mean they aren't useful. It might be a personal thing and all. Otherwise, I don't see BM working at all for the Undead. I mean, it involves CARING about the pet much more then the other two trees and the Forsaken LACK emotion. It's a major thing about them. And I'm not even going into the wants-to-kill-all-the-living stuff.

Abilities

Aspect Of The Monkey-The first aspect a Hunter gets to enjoy. Best used if you get stuck in melee with something. However, as you get higher, you should find that it will be easier to avoid having to get into a melee situation. Will be replaced by Dragonhawk at 74.

Aspect Of The Hawk-Got Mana? Then use this aspect to do more ranged damage. You'll find yourself mainly using this aspect unless you're in dire need of mana (Viper) or someone's got a bit too close for comfort (Monkey). Will be replaced by Dragonhawk at 74. I'm a parrot!

Call Pet-Is your pet there? Did they die? If no, use this and stop being that hunter who doesn't have their pet out with them!

Dismiss Pet-I rarely use this because it makes me feel guilty. If you're worried about jumping down and your pet running around and causing a trail of mobs to come, just tell it to stay and go away from the pet and it will despawn anyway without making them grumpy.

Feed Pet-While pet talents will make pets happy and reduce the need to feed them, it's always important to feed to keep them happy so they do more damage. Also, I like the new animation for this ability. It's the little things in life that make me happy.

Revive Pet-If your pet dies, revive it asap. Simple as that really.

Tame Beast-The key spell to getting pets. Make sure to use a combo of Concussive Shot and Frost Trap and you should be able to tame a beast easy enough.

Mend Pet-Simple...use this and your pet will stay alive for longer. Don't and it will die. Also, Glyph of Mending is a handy one to pick up for levelling Hunters. I'm not sure how useful it would be for a raiding BM Hunter but I imagine it has the potential to be handy.

Eagle Eye-Works just like a Shaman's Far Sight spell. Perhaps the two spells are twins who happened to have a falling out over how nature should be viewed.

Eyes Of The Beast-Now, I know this could be used for scouting purposes...but I honestly have only ever used this spell to make my pet jump around me and others nearby to my location. Should be renamed "Eyes Of The Disco Beast" really.

Scare Beast-Useful in PvE if you get swarmed by beasts and can be used on another Hunter's pet, druids in Cat/Bear forms and Shamans if you catch them in Ghost Wolf in PvP.

Aspect Of The Cheetah-Useful if you wanna get somewhere quick and you won't have the risk of combat. I used it a lot back when you didn't get a mount till 40. As a side note, it bugs me that it doesn't improve swimming speed. Is it too much to ask for a swim speed increase when it comes with the Daze disadvantage?

Aspect Of The Viper-I love this aspect. Who needs drinks when you have Viper eh? Just use it when you're low on mana to get mana back then switch back to Dragonhawk and let rip again.

Beast Lore-The most powerful trick in a Hunter's arsenal...IT WILL CONSUME YOUR SOUL! Okay, not really. Think of it as a Pokedex for WOW.

Aspect Of The Beast-This is only really useful for Battlegrounds when you wish to be really good at hide and seek. However, I do use this a fair bit sometimes cause I like to melee with Shiny whilst questing to help raise weapon skills and cause I like to get stuck in every so often for fun.

Aspect Of The Pack-Generally only useful if you wipe in an instance and wanna get everyone back to where you wiped quick or for helping lowbie friends get to flight paths faster. However, it does have the chance to shine in the fight with Anub'Rekhan in Naxx and there may be other situations like that. I can't say I know all the boss fights raid wise yet after all.

Aspect Of The Wild-If you, your group or your raid need some nature resistance, stick this on and flex. Otherwise, ignore this Aspect and don't let the fact it says "Wild" fool you into thinking it's an uberaspect.

Kill Command-We're finally into the more useful BM spells! Not that Feed Pet or Aspects aren't useful but this was the first BM-orientated spell that felt like I did something useful with my pet that wasn't feeding it, healing it or making sure it isn't running off to hump other pets. Anyway, I find it's best to either use this with Bestial Wrath or wait for a proc from the Cobra Strikes talent if you have it.

Aspect Of The Dragonhawk-I'm all for making things easier on my toolbars. This Aspect does that. Once you hit 74, use this and don't worry about all that switching between being a Monkey and being a Hawk.

Master's Call-Even though you should have plenty of reasons to keep your pet alive anyway, this is another one. You can use this to remove your pet and yourself or another person out of roots and movement impairing effects.

Call Stabled Pet-This is a very handy spell indeed. There have been complaints that it's a lvl 80 spell but I believe this is done because of the fact that if you shift to a different spec via Dual Spec, the cooldown is gone. So you can essentially change pets on the go at any point as long as you have Dual Spec. However, since you can get Dual Spec at 40, I see no reason why this shouldn't be of use at 40.

Intimidation-A handy spell to do a stun on an enemy/player. It currently does it on the next attack but if the patch 3.3. notes are correct, it will do it automatically as long as the pet is in melee range. This is a buff for both PvE and PvP.

Bestial Wrath-This recently had a makeover and left some Hunter players confused. Is it a nerf? Is it a buff? Is it a plane? I've spent some time looking at this before deciding that it's more nerfy. The 10% dps buff that they handed to us isn't really enough to make BM Hunters feel they are equal to Surv/MM Hunters and it's a heavy hit for PvP BM Hunters. I think 10 seconds was too harsh a nerf and I'd like Blizz to move it up to 12 seconds duration or possibly even 15. 10 seconds is too short for my liking...even if they've increased the mana cost reduction to 50% and all.

Master's Summon-This is my suggestion for a new BM only move. Let a BM Hunter be able to summon a second pet from the stable for a period of time. You'd be able to highlight a pet in your stable and that one would be the one summoned. This pet would appear beside you for a minute or two and fight alongside you and your current pet but you aren't able to control the second pet you summon in terms of their focus moves since I think that's a bit too much. This would really give BM Hunters a way to access dps for PvE scenarios. Also, it won't unbalance PvP too much now we have the Avoidance changes coming up for 3.3 which means pets can be AoE'ed swiftly by other players.

And there we have it. Bit of a lengthy article, I know...but I don't really want to split it up into two parts. Apologies if it feels too longz! Anyway, I haven't decided the order yet but the next article will either be the Marks Hunter one or the one about the challenges a guild faces when it tries to become a raiding guild. Watch this space!

(Well, don't watch this particular space since this article's been published already. You're better off looking at the space above this post since that's where the next one will appear.)