BM Update: The Aspect of the Beast build, more legendary talk, a need for buffs, and 7.3 set bonuses

I’ve had a couple people ask me about this “new build” going around so I thought I’d touch on it. Since it was buffed a while back, Aspect of the Beast has always been pretty close to Killer Cobra when using the Stomp build, but up until now it was always enough of a gap to ignore (for me, anyway). Now, as people get upgrades (especially to their weapon ilevel), Aspect of the Beast is emerging as a competitive talent for the Stomp build.

The rest of the talents are the same — Way of the Cobra, Stomp, One with the Pack, AMOC — but Killer Cobra is changed to Aspect of the Beast. A lot of your Kill Command damage gets replaced by Cobra Shot damage, which is viable because of the higher weapon ilevel (Cobra Shot is based on weapon damage). Where this changeover happens depends on your gear, but to me it looks like around 930-940 ilevel for Titanstrike is where Aspect of the Beast can start to pull ahead — barely. It will vary from person to person.

Aspect of the Beast build (yes, really)

My own sims — yours will be different

Above is what my sims look like with these two talents. This is with the Stomp build and using Prydaz and Roar of the Seven Lions. Prydaz? Yeah, more on that later. My weapon ilevel is 945 — back when it was below 940, Killer Cobra was ahead by a few thousand DPS. In practice these results seem to match up. I haven’t played a ton of AOTB yet, but it does seem to keep pace.

What are the advantages?

Aspect of the Beast is probably a little easier to play: Just make sure you always have Focus for your Kill Command every 6-7 seconds, and in the meantime spam Cobra Shot and Dire Beast. The usual rules apply like going into Bestial Wrath with a lot of Focus.

The other advantage is you get more out of the talent in situations where you have to cleave. For example, on Mistress Sass’zine you spend a lot of time having to cast Multi-Shots which makes Killer Cobra underutilized, while Aspect of the Beast is still dealing damage as long as you Kill Command every 6-7 seconds. A lot of Hunters were already taking this talent on this fight anyway, but for fights with more brief moments of cleave (Harjatan or Kil’jaeden for example) you can concentrate more on the AoE damage and not worry about wasting Killer Cobra.

Also, more Sneaky Snake procs!

Any disadvantages?

Aside from probably being a downgrade in gameplay (at least Killer Cobra is somewhat interesting), there is also a slight downgrade in burst damage — though not quite as much as you’d expect. Cobra Shot hits pretty hard with a high weapon ilevel and Way of the Cobra, so you don’t lose as much as you’d expect from dropping all those Kill Commands.

Any changes to stats or gear?

Stats are mostly the same as a normal Stomp build, except Mastery will drop a bit in value: Crit > Haste > Mastery > Vers. Having a lot of Mastery won’t hurt, but this build craves Crit and Haste. Mastery has no effect on Cobra Shot, which will now be your #1 source of damage.

Relic trait values change a bit — mostly they drop in value (not by much) in favor of item level. For me, Slithering Serpents is worth about 5 ilevel. Unleash the Beast and Spitting Cobra around 4, and Pack Leader/Jaws of Thunder/Wilderness Expert about 3.

The biggest change gear-wise is how well Qa’pla, Eredun War Order works with this build. It’s kind of been a forgotten legendary as of late, but with this build it’s one of the better legendaries. Simulation Craft also has an updated APL to better simulate its potential.

So should you play it?

If you want. It’s so close that it doesn’t matter. There are 3 main build options now: Stomp, Stomp w/ AOTB, and Dire Frenzy. They’re all pretty close at this point, but if you’re using T19 2p the Stomp builds will be ahead in most cases.

However, I wouldn’t get super comfortable with it as it’ll probably be obsolete next tier. The upcoming Tier 21 bonuses are all about buffing Kill Command, which is obviously going to favor Killer Cobra. Actually, it’ll still be pretty decent if you use the legendary boots since you get quite a few extra Kill Commands out of those.

Legendaries — they’re all kinda good now

Ever since legendaries got upgraded to 970, it’s been pretty crazy just how close in value they all are. I’ve mentioned this before (and also mention it in the Wowhead guide) but it’s worth emphasizing just how close they are. It’s why Prydaz is currently one of my personal best legendaries, which isn’t something I thought would happen, but it’s true. A solid neckpiece upgrade would probably change that, but I must say I do like having that shield again (Prydaz was my very first legendary way back when). Also, I’m using 3 set bonuses which takes the chest and shoulders off the table (those two are still quite good for a Dire Frenzy build). Sephuz is even ending up on many people’s best in slot lists, which is hilarious when you think back to how much of a meme that ring used to be.

Roar of the Seven Lions is the closest thing we have to an absolute best in slot — it doesn’t take up a tier slot, and unless you have a high ilevel replacement belt, it will probably be one of your best (though not dramatically so).

Anyway, not any real new info here. Just wanted to encourage people to check out other legendaries they may have written off. A month ago I never thought I’d be rocking Prydaz.

Beast Mastery is in need of some buffs

All you have to do is look at the Warcraft Logs statistics now that Tomb of Sargeras has been out for a while. BM is pretty mediocre overall. We’re OK on a couple of fights, mediocre on most, and downright dreadful on a couple of them.

I actually think our single target damage is decent. It’s not even close to top tier, but it’s at least okay. Our true weakness is cleave and AoE. We need more of it. Most other specs destroy us in this case. Part of the problem is a lack of damage, and the other problem is a lack of spread cleave (but I’m OK with the spec having a weakness like that, as long as it’s really good for bunched up cleave).

The argument non-Hunters tend to use is “well you can cast while moving, you should do less damage.” Yes, that makes sense for theoretical/simmed DPS (classes with movement restrictions can have higher skill/DPS ceilings), but we’re talking about real world DPS here. Beast Mastery is this low even when our freedom of movement is taken into consideration. That’s a problem.

What would I do? Not that it matters, but I think these things could help our situation without making us completely overpowered:

  • Make Hati’s Beast Cleave do 100% damage (it currently does 75%).
  • Make Hati’s Kill Command do 50% damage (it currently does roughly 30%).
  • Revert Thunderslash back to 100% AP (it was nerfed to 50% AP) but keep the 35% Dire Frenzy specific nerf.

They’re small buffs, but it would help make our AoE damage a little more respectable and give just a tiny single target buff. I’ll take anything, though. Even table scraps, Blizzard.

Barrage could also be made viable for BM AoE. The opportunity cost of this talent is ridiculous, which is why it doesn’t work for BM at all, but it would work if it did a shit ton more damage. And I do mean a shit ton — like 150% more DPS. That’s not a number pulled out of my ass, that simply makes it a clearly better AoE option than Volley (as it should be since it’s an active ability)! Right now, even A Murder of Crows does more overall AoE damage than Barrage in most cases. That’s how horrendously bad Barrage is — it’s simply not worth the Focus and GCDs. Don’t even get me started how bad it is for single target.

Although I’d take it a step further and remove Barrage from BM completely and replace it with the 5.0 version of Lynx Rush. The 5.0 version was instant damage and crazy awesome burst, but they changed it to a bleed in 5.1 (because of PvP). I miss that ability!

Patch 7.3 PTR so far

Unfortunately there’s no hint of buffs on the 7.3 PTR yet. All we have is our new set bonuses, which look positively mediocre right now.

The 2-piece buffs Kill Command damage by 10% (a mere 3.5% single target increase) and the 4-piece reduces the Aspect of the Wild cooldown by 2 sec every time you use Kill Command. The 4-piece bonus works out to like an extra Aspect of the Wild on a boss fight (maybe 2 on a really long fight). Whoooopieeeeeee!! C’mon, Blizzard. I know this is a first pass, but do some napkin math on your first pass numbers at least.   😐 Convergence of Fates — a trinket that will be 2 tiers obsolete — will actually reduce the cooldown of Aspect of the Wild more than this bonus.

Since this will presumably be the final tier of the expansion, I was sort of hoping they’d give us some really cool game-changing bonuses.

Here are my fantasy BM T21 bonuses — certified to never happen!

  • T21 2-piece: Kill Command deals 75% increased damage on targets below 20% health. (this is similar to a small increase to KC across the whole fight, but is much more interesting as an execute IMO, plus it’s called Kill Command…it makes sense!)
  • T21 4-piece: Bestial Wrath causes the Hunter to take on the traits of a wild beast, gaining one of 3 random combat enhancements:
    • Wrath of the Bear: Increases your Agility by 7500 and reduces damage taken by 30%.
    • Wrath of the Wolf: Reduces the Focus cost of all abilities by 50% and increases your haste by 30%.
    • Wrath of the Serpent: Your attacks have a chance to spit venom at your target, dealing 200,000 additional Nature damage, and your critical strike chance is increased by 30%.
    • These numbers are all made up on the spot, but you get the general idea. Essentially it turns Bestial Wrath into a mega awesome cooldown that is a little different to play each time. 

A Hunter can dream, right?


Update August 2nd:

Kill Command, Cobra Shot, Multi-Shot, Stomp, Barrage, Chimaera Shot have been buffed by 4% in PTR build 24727. This is a pretty small single target buff, but as I said I think our single target wasn’t in need of tons of help, so smaller buffs like this make sense. However, our AoE is still left lacking IMO.

Update August 18th:

Blizzard reverted this small buff in the latest PTR build. No comment.  😡

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

55 thoughts on “BM Update: The Aspect of the Beast build, more legendary talk, a need for buffs, and 7.3 set bonuses”

  1. Many Thanks for the article bendak, and im glad you finally came round to my aspect of the beast mindset we discussed ages ago on your site 😛

  2. On a more constructive note from my end, im simming highest at the moment with ‘soul of the huntmaster ring’ ‘mantle’ and 2 piece t19 and 2 piece t20, i did aquire a 4 set of t20 but normal only atm having bad rng with loot on heroics and it didnt justify, replacing my mantle with a t19 heroic titanforged 915 shoulder piece amongst other decisions and swap outs i made 🙂

  3. Really like this article great stuff Bendak. I run Aspect of the Beast on all 5 of my 110 hunters the highest weapon ilvl is 933 the lowest is 898. I totally agree with what you said about legendaries My current best combo is belt and Sephuz Ring which I put in my bank and thought it would never be useful. I have the normal ToS 4 piece but it sims a bit less than my T19 heroic set. I’ve had really bad luck with heroic drops so far. The Stomp/Aspect build is about 100-150k DPS higher than the Dire Frenzy Build.for me. I’ll be sticking with Stomp for a while.

  4. Bendak (et al)-

    I don’t know if this is true in the most recent simcraft nightly build, but in my copy of simc Sephuz is auto-enabled to have near-max uptime on the interrupt/CC proc. (Note: I always sim in Helter Skelter; it occurs to me that it may not be enabled in patchwerk.) While just looking at Sephuz *would* indicate it has the best AotB stat distribution of the three legendary rings, I worry that folks might be making their Sephuz judgements based off the auto max-uptime proc simulation. There are a lot of fights in ToS where you can’t get the proc to happen at all, let alone maintain a 20+% uptime.

    Anyway, not sure if it’s actually a problem in the modes other people are simming, or in the most recent build, but it’s probably worth checking. For me personally, that little quirk adds 50-60k to Sephuz’s sim value that actually isn’t really there. I have to manually calculate and subtract the proc value to get good numbers.

    Secondary question- anybody been using Simpermut? If so, what do you think of it? I actually manually simulated 53 different gear and talent setups before my last raid, and then I got new gear so I have to do something similar again. Some automation might be nice.

    Tertiary question- does anyone have any insight into the management of the simcraft hunter module? The helter skelter sim routinely breaks while trying to generate stat weights, especially on AoE. Even raidbots can’t get it to complete a lot of the time. It’s been that way for months, and I’m curious if either anyone else has gotten it to work consistently, or knows if the module managers are aware/interested in fixing it. Most of the work (and community judgments) seem to center around the patchwerk module, which definitely delivers slightly different weights, even for a perfectly mobile spec like beast mastery. (The helter skelter sim includes not only movement but stuns and a boss immunity/phase transition).

    1. Helter Skelter does have interrupts, so does “Casting Patchwerk” but regular Patchwerk does not. Sephuz is still good for a lot of folks even before the proc. I’m playing around with a CotW/CoF + Sephuz setup right now and it’s looking pretty good even without the proc.

      I usually just use Patchwerk or Hectic Add Cleave to look at different situations, and try different fight lengths.

      I haven’t tried Simpermut yet but it does look helpful.

      1. Thank you for the clarification- I’d somehow missed that helter skelter had interrupts inherent to the template, despite using it for years. I feel dumb, but at least there’s a reasonable explanation. I agree that even without that unique simulation issue, Sephuz is still good- as you point out, the parity between legendaries is extraordinary at the moment. I was just afraid that the issue I was having with the simulation template was common to others- apparently it’s just me! Story of my life.

        Also wanted to express that I love the Lynx Rush idea. I’d forgotten that ability even existed, but it would fill a perfect niche for burst aoe *and* it fits the spec theme. I’d sign that petition in a heartbeat.

  5. Hi there. First at all, congratulations Bendak for your amazing job.

    Well, I post because of I need some help, and I`ve decided that the best way to find a solution is chating with others hunters. I don`t know others BM hunters around me with knowledge enough to solve my doubts.

    I’m a BMH iLvl 911 (916 max) with all legendaries, six heroic pieces of T19 and five normal of T20. I have several trinquets (low and middle level) as CoF 895, Foci905, BTI880, Arcanocrystal860, TSM885, EoE900 and TfB900.

    I use Simulationcraft, Raidbots and AMrR. AMrR told me that my best gear is roar+kiljaden+2T19+4T20+BTI. Simulationcraft told me roar+apex+4T19+2T20+BTI+CoF. When I simulated this sets each in other, l lost a great amount of DPS.

    I don´t Know how solve this problem, my character is broken from 7.2.5 update. I did tons of simulations and everything is confused.

    If I try to change to stomp path, everything is the same.

    PD: My apologies because my English is basic.

    1. I don’t know enough about the current state for AMR to comment on it really. My advice is to just stick with one (probably simc/raidbots) and use that to help your decision. If you use both you’ll just end up confused.

      Assuming your T19 stuff isn’t higher than your T20 stuff, my gut tells me 2T19 + 4T20 is your best bet, but if simc is telling you otherwise, there must be something in your gear that makes it like that. There’s even a comment above where someone else is showing similar results as you (4T19). What build are you using?

      BM is definitely in a confusing state right now when it comes to builds, set bonuses, and legendaries. They’re all so close that there’s a million permutations to consider. You seem kinda frustrated so my advice is don’t pull your hair out over a few thousand DPS here or there in sims. In the real world you aren’t going to see such differences.

      1. Tky Bendak for your prompt answer.

        I’ve been simulating 2T19+4T20 vs 4T19+2T20, very similar ilvl between T19 (900-895-890-890) and T20 (905-905-900-900), with SimC and I lost close to 70k (933k with 4T19+2T20 vs 864k with 2T19+4T20) with the DF build. I simulate with 1 enemie and raid boss as target level.

        And, you are right when talk about permutations, it’s frustrating to me, but it’s only a game.

        1. Depends on high you can get the crit proc set (shoulders/bracers) from archway/cos they can be potentially better then your teir 19. It all depends on the ilevel of your items.

          Did some testing after i got 930 shoulders …if i can get 920+ bracers then it comes out just a wee bit ahead. Lots of choices out there.

  6. AMR is currently in a broken state not just for hunters but other classes as well. It’s giving some pretty wild recommendations . Im using t Simcraft, Ask Mr Robot, and queuing for LFR those have really helped me get a good grasp on the confusing state of BM gear right now. Im also behind your Lynx Rush idea.

  7. Interesting, thanks!

    I’ve been running Beast Cannon with KC, Belt, Huntmaster ring and loving it. Will have to sim/mess with the AotB/Boots build a bit though and see how that feels to run. AotB was a bit below KC for me on sims before but I didn’t try it with the legendary change.

    One (unrelated) question that I’ve been having though:

    What’s the correct way to use Aspect of the Wild? I’ve tried a few things and nothing feels quite right to me.

    (Also, Prydaz is awesome. I finally got it on my last character last night and was thrilled – 4 of the 5 chars use it, my hunter is the only one that doesn’t lol.)

    1. I use Aspect of the Wild with Bestial Wrath 90% of the time. BW is up enough that you don’t have to sit on AotW for too long. When using the legendary wrists and CoF combo, I’m a bit more liberal with it. I might use it 5-10 sec before BW if I’ve already been sitting on it for a while, and hope for a Wild Call proc. At the very least it partially overlaps with BW. Uptime is almost tripled with that combo so you have a lot more to use.

      1. Thanks. 🙂

        I simmed the AotB/Boots build for my guy last night, it’s about 20k ahead (KC/Huntermaster at almost exactly 1M). Probably helps that I just got a 930 Slithering relic off heroic Goroth. Still 4pc T19/2pc T20, can’t get new set pieces to drop at all.

        Might have to finish out normal with it to give it a spin. 🙂

  8. “Although I’d take it a step further and remove Barrage from BM completely and replace it with the 5.0 version of Lynx Rush. The 5.0 version was instant damage and crazy awesome burst, but they changed it to a bleed in 5.1 (because of PvP). I miss that ability!”

    It didnt even fix pvp at the time because it wasn’t the true reason BM started off OP in PVP. It took multiple nerfs for them to figure it out.

    http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2012/11/stampede-no-longer-does-4x-damage-in-arenas-bugfix/

    Lynx Rush was just collateral damage.

  9. Dude – we need you as a dev on the inside… Let’s make it happen 😀 (Also, while I play the other ranged spec that you do not like, I also enjoy BM a lot and can empathise with you with regards to boring 2- and 4 set bonuses)

  10. We should get some fireworks and write that buff message into the sky in front of Blizz’s office.

    I used to do fairly well as MM in the emerald nightmare, but after they mucked it up I returned to my beloved pets again. And now….I tried MM…I really am trying. I have pretty weak aura’s to inform me of focus requirement points and what not, talents for pure st, sort of st and mt….but unless it’s an aoe fight I just don’t really do the damage except for an occasional exception. So I need my solid BM back!

  11. I got my belt today just to find out it sims 15k lower than qa’pla. It’s so weird, I was so happy but qa’pla with sephuz is so huge right now for me. I reached 40% crit and it’s still higher than mastery, but closer.

    Maybe the boots only sim higher, but on actual gameplay with sometimes doing aoe the belt will average out about the same or higher.

    1. Yeah I imagine the belt would come out ahead in any AoE situation but it’d be close either way. I’ve gone full crazy and now use Prydaz+Sephuz for a lot of stuff. Sephuz+Boots is about the same for me (using AotB build) but I like having the absorb shield. And yeah, crit does not seem to drop in value with the AotB build unlike the Killer Cobra build. No matter how much crit I add, it stays on top.

      I like Sephuz+CotW+CoF for Mythic+ because it’s nice to have Aspect up for almost every pull. In combination with the Sephuz proc it’s pretty nice burst AoE.

      1. Is Sephuz that high even when you can’t proc the special? *boggle*

        I can totally understand for things like M+ where you can nearly always proc it with Binding, but for something like Goroth?

        I wonder how much of that difference is because of lower BW uptime without T19 4pc as well. I’m still running 4 T19/2 T20, so I can’t imagine any scenario where Belt isn’t best for me right now.

        1. Yes even without the proc. The stats are just really good for the build. If you can do the proc on cooldown it adds another 80k dps or so (single target).

          1. Ok, that’s hilarious. I simmed a bunch of setups (picked up a 930 belt and 925 boots tonight of course), and my best is Sephuz/Wrists/CoF, but only a couple k above Sephuz/Prydaz (and that shield is so so good for raids).

            My crit went from 29% all the way to 40%, no wonder. And yes it’s still top weighed like you said.

            Thanks! (From a now fellow full-crazy hunter!) *laugh*

      2. Have you tried sephuz and kiljaedens for mythic+ instead? i intend to test that combo out tonight on mistress sazzine 🙂

  12. Well, 7.3 PTR patch build 24727 provides the kind of buffs we all know Blizzard is best at, especially when it comes to BM. Damage increase from 6% to 10% in the BM Hunter core passive template. I know it’s a long-running joke and I don’t want to be the guy who looks a gift horse in the mouth, but I wonder if anyone working on the hunter team at Blizz even plays the class. A week before 7.3 drops they will increase it again by something ridiculous like 50%, and two weeks in, nerf the hell out of our talents. As Bendak mentioned in this article, we have the perfect vessel in Hati to really fine tune things, resulting in much needed adjustments/buffs. I don’t know why they can’t or refuse to do so.

  13. Ive gotta damit this sephuz secret bandwagon alot are jumping on (which i have aswell) regardless of procing it, is pretty op and im genuinely surprised it would be

  14. Ok so went back to the sim drawing board, now i have a lot of bm legenderies now which im not going to list as i dont want to wind others up that dont have as yet, best results i can get from an extensive simming session seems to be to use ‘sephuz and the boots’ along with aspect talented, what i also did was installed the addon ‘clique’ which let me create a mouseover binding in 2 secs for binding shot, in my case ive decided i want my middle mouse button to scroll up to activate the spell on whatever mouseover target i choose, eels from sazzin for example, this set up im really happy with atm others may want to try those 2 leggos out and see if its a good combo aswell 🙂

  15. Since the AotB build may lead to a resurgence in Qa’pla use, does anybody know if Simcraft skill settings model opportunity cost for sub-optimal DB/KC use with the Qa’pla proc? I mean, I don’t think it’s as rigorous as something like bad blood talons use for Feral Druids, but I’m wondering if the standard modeling (which uses “elite” player skill as a base) induces an artificial delta in Qa’pla value versus real world execution, and if so, what that delta might be.

  16. Thanks for this. I’ve managed to squeeze more dps by using the boots and switching to Aspect of the Beast. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s 15k or so. With the state of BM right now, anything is an improvement.

  17. It´s been a long time since I posted here. Tried AotB with Boots/Ring last night..and hell yeah..this is FUN! Buttonsmashing on it´s best. Played 95% bracket on Goroth HC, improved on most fights by 5-10% (except Mistress, where I forgott to skill volley…) SO MUCH FUN having back action while playing a BM. The only problem is getting rid of focus at the beginning of a fight with heroism and everything proccing

  18. Bendak, et al-

    Does anything change about Qa’pla execution during Bestial Wrath with the tier 20 2 piece? I never had to worry about it with killer cobra- killer cobra’s 2 spell spam synergized beautifully with the 2 piece, and then I could defer dire beast for low focus or 2 charge cap avoidance. But with the Qa’pla rotation looking for carefully interspersed dire beasts in between kill commands, I feel like I’m not getting as much out of the 2 piece, what with dire beast not being on the bonus-stacking list.

  19. Whilst it’s great we have options with our legendary gear it’s a bit of a pain when you get a new drop. I’ve had 3 different combinations this week based on improvements in sim dps. To find those combinations takes a bit of messing around. I think I actually preferred it when I knew what my BiS items were. Sorry to be negative!

    1. Simpermut is your friend, especially in the current gear-agnostic environment. I cannot say enough good things about this tool. Only downside is that it won’t permutate talents and gear simultaneously, but running 2 lists and cross-comparing results is fairly easy.

      I even run it during raids if something drops I’m not sure about so I can decide to keep it or offer it to the guild for trade. Simpermut + raidbots has been the metaphysical equivalent of the resurrection of the shandara/cheeky spreadsheet or zaherah’s website.

    1. That bonus is nowhere near as good as T19 2-piece. I have that set at ilvl 900 and it was a huge loss over the T19. But if T19 isnt an option for whatever reason, it’s a fine little bonus to have.

  20. “The biggest change gear-wise is how well Qa’pla, Eredun War Order works with this build. It’s kind of been a forgotten legendary as of late, but with this build it’s one of the better legendaries.”

    I’m confused by this. It’s demonstrably true, yet the whole point of going AotB is to emphasize cobra shot, and the whole point of qa’pla is to give you more kill commands. It seems counterintuitive as heck. Why does this work out like this? o.O

    1. I wouldnt say the whole point of Aspect is to emphasize cobra shot, not when its tooltip is telling you ‘kill command will cause an effect based on your specialisation’ , ive never seen aspect of the beast as a way to emphasize the importance of cobra shot personally. To me its buffing my boots ability, ive always viewed aspect this way ‘ a buff to my legendery boots’ Still its interesting that others view it as a different benefit.

    2. Well, Cobra Shot is only emphasized because you have nothing else to spend Focus on. You’re not really taking the talent just to cast more Cobras, but because at higher weapon ilevels the damage of CS is high enough that it’s worth the trade off, especially since the AOTB bleed makes up for some of the lost Kill Commands from Killer Cobra. With the boots you make up for a lot of the lost Killer Cobra procs and get most of those extra Kill Commands back, along with the bleed. Relics also play a role here (and even more so with the Netherlight Crucible). If you’re loaded up on Kill Command traits, the AOTB build is going to lose some ground. Opposite is true if you have Cobra Shot relics.

      1. Concerning the relics and the playstyle it is completly dependent on the Legendarys you wear. I just compared your and my best Goroth Heroic Kill, we both ended up in the 90+ bracket (itemlevel wise). While you played with Sephuz and Prydaz, I played with Soul and Q´pla. Completly different playstyle, completly different enchants but, and this is hilarious, almost the same result. Who would have ever thought, that the legendarys are so close to each other but provide such a diverging playstyle. If you like, have a look at it. https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/compare/Yvzf1LgyFMB3wKpA/yxgc9qhL2vXtBaTG#fight=2,2&source=10,45&type=auras
        I do believe, that the relic determines, which legendary to choose (next to the encounter design itself). I only can recommand trying the Q´pla with AotB. It feels like you got still KillerCobra with the bleeding dot

  21. Just to further complicate things lol, when i sim i use ‘helter skelter mode’, problem is it assumes your always proccing sephuz, this simply isnt the case on all tomb fights, cant be done on first boss at all, easily done on inquisition though cant be done on sisters etc etc, so bearing that in mind i ran sims in a different mode ‘hectic add cleave’ simming in this mode as opposed to ‘helter skelter’ tels me ‘apex predators claw and boots’ is best combo with aspect talented…… so maybe equip boots and apex then (apex is giving a decent amount of crit anyway) on fights you know you cant proc sephuz on, and ‘boots and sephuz’ on fights you know you can proc it on?

    1. Yeah, Apex sims well on that mode because of all the beast cleaving. Last time I checked for me, I think Sephuz was really close even on that mode (without procs). But usually when there’s adds you can proc Sephuz anyway.

  22. Hey Bendak, I dont have any cobra relics but was going to try the AotB build (using sephuz / boots or sephuz/belt combos). My relics are 2 x pack leader and 1 jaws of thunder. Do you think I am better off running a different build until I get some cobra relics?

  23. What is the % for the Crit and Haste that you want for the Stomp/AOTB Build? I have Huntsmen Ring and War Order Boots; Also Sephuz and KJ Trinket – I was wondering what would be the best two Lego to use? I have 4 Set ToS Tier and 2 Set NH Tier too use too. Just unsure of the Crit and Haste threshold that is required to make the build viable. My wep ilvl is 928 with 57 Traits.

    Thanks.

    1. You have to sim it, it’s different for all of us now. There is no set combination of legendaries that would be best for everyone.

  24. We ever going to get a stable upgrade? I’m bursting and full at 100 pets – and they are nearly all unique rares. Will we ever get more?

  25. I’ve gotten some upgrades over the past couples weeks and my sims are confusing to me. I’m still running with the stomp build, but when I sim with 4pc T20 due to ilvl finally surpasing T19 2pc Mastery keeps coming out on top. I’m currently on Sargeras – NièdzWièdz and was wondering if there is a reason why mastery is rated higher. My Crit is now below 35% which I thought was unheard of for this build. Is it my current weapon relics by chance skewing my results? I’m using 10 minute fight with 50,000 iterations on raidbots. Looking for some advice as I continue down this rabbit hole

  26. Hey, Bendak! Quick question. You have an amazing transmog in that photo. I know the shoulders are Feludius’ Mantle, but what is the rest of the outfit?

  27. As an alternative cool idea for 4 Set bonus Kill Command have Dire Beasts also Kill Command, I dunno how to translate that to Dire Frenzy but it’d at least be interesting/cool.

Comment on this post

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.