Beast Mastery remains as my favorite spec. It might not pull off the single target numbers of Survival, but it’s pretty darn close. It also has Beast Cleave, the most badass AoE in the game (especially with that new claw effect it received in 6.0). And most importantly, I just enjoy playing it more than the other specs. Recently there were a couple of hotfix buffs to stats which gave a decent little bump to Beast Mastery, though not as big as I was hoping.
- Mastery: Master of Beasts’ effects have been increased by 12.5%.
- The Haste stat is now 11.1% more effective. For example, characters at level 100 now receive a 1% increase per 90 Haste (up from 1% per 100 Haste).
Combined, these buffs only result in a 2-3% overall damage increase for BM (perhaps slightly more for AoE damage).
Prior to this, Multistrike was (barely) the best performing stat for BM in single target, but now it is Mastery. The question is, should you bother swapping your enchants from Multistrike to Mastery?
If you play BM and nothing else — if you literally only have one spec and never touch another — then yes, it can be worthwhile to stack Mastery. If, however, you play another spec (either SV or MM) then you will probably want to stick with Multistrike since Mastery is weaker for the other two specs. Even though Mastery has a higher value, there is very little change in actual DPS output by swapping them. The one exception would be AoE damage, where Mastery and Haste really starts to pull ahead.
Standard Disclaimer: My own personal stat weights, yours will be slightly different.
Haste and Mastery are the biggest contributors to raw Beast Cleave damage, which is why they look so good in the 3-target numbers. This has always been the case. Usually when people talk about stat priorities, they are talking about single target damage because killing bosses and priority targets is arguably the most important thing.
When it comes right down to it, BM stats are still so close in value (and so complimentary to each other) that you could enchant and gem for pretty much anything and see similar results. As for gear choices, item level will continue to be the largest deciding factor for BM. It’s not like Survival where Multistrike is so far beyond anything else that lower level gear can sometimes be better.
TL;DR
- If you play BM exclusively and don’t touch the other specs, it will be beneficial to prioritize Mastery.
- If you play SV or MM alongside your BM spec, I would stick with my original recommendations from the Multistrike post and continue to prioritize Multistrike.
- New BM stat priorities: Mastery > Haste = Multistrike > Crit > Versatility
Thank you for posting this! I love playing a hunter but sometimes can be easily confused on what stats to go with. 😀 Your blog helps me become a better hunter and not a huntard! <3 -Amy aka Vikirnoff
I really don’t get what it is that makes multistrike better than crit. Statistically, they should be the exact same if you don’t have passives that favor one over the other (which BM doesn’t). Could you enlighten me why simulations always show multistrike as better?
It’s possible that because hunters have a higher base crit chance (all agility classes do) it reduces the value of extra crit somewhat. It’s worth noting that with all other agility classes (except feral druids I think) Multistrike is also better than crit.
Crit being higher in BM AoE certainly makes sense since Beast Cleave damage is based on the original hit, and if it crits you transfer that crit onto every other target.
Just to clarify, for anyone interested, BM does have crit passives. Invigoration now includes the old mechanic Go for the Throat, which gives your pet 15 focus every time your autoshot crits. This is especially meaningful for BM hunters running SF, as it will mean lots of what used to be called Wild Hunt attacks (now it’s just a hidden mechanic, which doubles the damage your pet’s attack does if it’s over 50 focus).
Anyhow, that’s probably irrelevant to what you guys are talking about. What Bendak’s saying is: Crit and Multistrike both increase the damage of each other. So if you have 30% crit, but no multistrike, then each additional percentage of crit only increases your damage by 1%, where as a percent of multistrike will increase your damage by 1.3%.
Error bars make a scientist happy. =)
Another scientist agrees!
Thanks. I have not looked at BRF fights yet but I hope there is some AoE mixed in there because I’d love to stick with Beast Master.
I think I’ll re-enchant my gear for tonight’s raid and see if it makes a difference (probably not, right?).
On a side note: when Scattered Shots was a thing, there were several great articles on SoO on how to make a hunter shine (when to use deterrence, for example). I was hoping and pining for something similar for our current raids. I’ve discovered some bits and pieces as I’ve played but that is different from ‘knowing’ that you are nailing it.
Today’s article was perfectly timely — I’m glad I’ve bookmarked The Thrill of the and the Eyes of the Beast. Is there one more blogger who is active that I’m missing?
Oh, one more thing — I also bookmarked Bendak’s armory page (forgive the stalking) and I see the talents which he had when he logged off. Sometimes Murder of Crows, sometimes Blink Strikes. I’m curious; is anyone else? Raiding or super-soloing …
When raiding or solo’ing, I change between them and also between glaive toss and barrage. But, who am I, not a scientist, nor a super bad-ass player, just a normal slow-poke who doesn’t have a high ilvl (only 641) but I do take on lots of raiding. And don’t stalk me, as this is not my main, rofl.
It feels like a good thematic fit that mastery and haste have higher priority for Beastmasters since their dps are meant to be rooted in the pets. There is more differentiation amongst hunter specs now too.
I have difficulty understanding any other stat other than crit. I played vanilla and burning crusade then stopped til now. I am getting prideful 90 great and my base crit is now around 54% with enchants and 9 pieces of prideful.
What I noticed is how low my crit gets when I hope in a battleground. It goes to about 30% which had me wonder if I should switch my stacking to something else.
What do you think? I still regularly get top damage, kills and KBS, but it doesn’t hurt to do better.
Artehmis on Anvilmar, BM Hunter if that’s helpful.