I Think You Missed a Point
Posted by Amber Teasdale on February 11, 2010
“Without question a very good and very geared BM hunter can pull their weight in raids. …With good enough gear and enough skill, a BM hunter can pass any metric required of normal ICC.
However it is also without question that BM is also doing considerably less DPS than other specs, and they’re doing less DPS by choice. … Raiding is a team sport. It’s not just about carrying your minimum DPS mark, it’s about doing everything you can to help the team.” –Scattered Shots
You know what’s also important in a game? Having fun.
You know what’s also important in a team sport? Morale. My personal morale-and thus, indirectly, the morale of those who have to deal with me-is much higher when I play BM because BM makes me happy. Having a Devilsaur pet is silly. Having a cat that moonfires makes people giggle.
I play BM because I love it more than I love being on top of the meters. My guild wants me to play BM because they want me to go “NOOOO, OMNOMNOM!!!!!” over vent when my Devilsaur dies so they can LOL at me. I like LOLing and even being LOL’d at.
I don’t play this game to top meters, I play it to accomplish boss kills with my friends. In the name of different strokes for different folks, BM is more than adequate.
“Without question a very good and very geared BM hunter can pull their weight in raids.”
“Without question a very good and very geared BM hunter can pull their weight in raids.”
“Without question a very good and very geared BM hunter can pull their weight in raids.”
So shut the hell up already and go back to your epeening.
(Actually, I’d like to strike out that “very geared” part. Geared, yes, but this implies (at least, to me) that a level of being overgeared is required. If you look back at my previous post you’ll see my hunter sitting comfortably at 5k on the meters-in her first full 25 man. If my haphazardly geared alt in 10 man gear can do that, then I don’t think one needs to be “very geared” in order to hit the DPS minimums for ICC.)
RAWR Red Pet 
Morynne said
I support you wholeheartedly in your pursuit here. Play how you like, and if you do it well, even better. I wanted to play Marksman so badly during BC, I tried during Black Temple and it was just sad, so I caved and went BM for the sake of my guild. When MM became top dog again, I thoroughly enjoyed playing my class again. I don’t know that I will ever spec SV or BM again all things equal, but as a progression raider, I know I will pursue whatever spec is topping meters.
Beast Mastery does have the potential to be competitive in raids, but it’s not quite the 1-button ticket to top of the meters it was in Burning Crusade. If it’s played well, BM’s can certainly hold their own. Gear always helps. Ultimately it’s about doing what makes you happy. Keep doing your thing!
Grimmtooth said
WERD.
If BM was pulling something like 1/2 what MM was pulling, I could see it. But if all are within around 25% of each other, and it actually MATTERS, you got bigger problems than one DPS pulling 20% less than a rival spec.
Like you, I found that my BM DPS isn’t really that far off what I can pull on SV, so why be unhappy when I can have my giant red stompasaurus and be gleeing all over the place?
Kotakh said
If your pulling 5k with BM and the raid wipe at 1% of the boss health…the problem isnt that you could have done 7k dps with MM or Surv and kill the boss. The real problem is that stupid mage sitting at the bottom of the meter with 2.4k dps.
Play whatever you like as long as you’re pulling your weight and dont invite people who cant be bothered to learn their class well enough to pull their weight to raid.
Urkraft said
With BM can easily pull 6.5-7.5k DPS on most bosses at around 5.3k GS and 9k on trash AOE in ICC 25m.
Some bosses such as Festergut and Rotface
even favor BM, because during the movement phases the pet continue to hit hard !
the difference is more like an hunter that can pull 7k in BM, in MM could do maybe 7.5-7.8K. Nowhere near what most say of 20/30% difference.
The reality is that when they compare logs they compare top MM hunters and top BM hunter … and often those two types are not similarly equipped.
I will continue raiding BM, so far only better equipped hunters than me have outdpsed me. Apart from them rarely anybody else than mages and rogue are ahead in bosses.
And thank to the fact MM/SV hunters are 95% of the hunter raiding population maybe Blizzard will buff us up a bit more and make our pet scale better in the near future 🙂
Matojo said
ASDFGHJKL yes this thank you. That column pissed me off.
BM FOR LIFE (AND RED DINOSAURS)
Drew said
Amen, my BM brethren. I raid full-time as BM and lead or come in second only to our top rogue in DPS. If you’re not in a high-end, min-max, server-first type raiding guild – play what makes you happy. Especially if you can do it well.
Adding your blog to my roll, love it!