So after leveling my hunter non-stop over the past month or two strictly as BM I have found myself falling into two separate "grooves" of how I play depending on my situation. Are these the best instructions for overall Max DPS in instances? Probably not but it works well for me when soling and feels "comfortable" I guess.
Single Mob Pulls
- Hunter's Mark + Pet Attack
- Mend Pet
- Serpent Sting
- Arcane Shot
- Steady Shot
Basically the idea here is to keep Serpent Sting and Mend Pet refreshed at all times. Then use Steady Shot when Arcane Shot is on cooldown. I macro Kill Command to all of my shots to make sure I get the most use out of it.
Multi-Mob Pulls
- Gather Mobs w/ Mend Pet up
- Kill Command + Thunderstomp
- Multi-Shot
- Volley
I can usually take 5 - 6 mobs safely, more than that and it gets dicey from time to time. What I like to do is turn off auto-cast on Thunderstomp while I gather the mobs. I use a combination of pet pulling and misdirect to gather the mobs quickly, hit Kill Command then set Thunderstomp to auto-cast again. Your pet should have plenty of initial aggro now. I like to throw out Multi-Shots in between Volleys when it is available. Be prepared to Feign Death after your second Volley, especially if you get lucky with crits. Always keep Mend Pet up.
Aspects
If I am feeling lazy I will stay in Viper pretty much 100% of the time and never have to worry about pulling aggro or running out of mana. Basically a hunter in Viper is a well oiled machine that never has to slow down or stop for any reason. Most of the time however I am using the Dragonhawk aspect and going full bore out, burning up my Misdirects on my pet whenever it is available so I don't pull aggro. If I run low on mana I just switch to Viper for a pull and top myself back off.
Pets
While soloing I almost always go with my Tenacity pet, in my case Smokey the bear. I love the cleave component of his Swipe ability. While I have the Tenacity pet out I tend to AoE a lot more than single target DPS. However I do spent a good portion of my time with my Devilsaur pet (Lou), who is appropriately a Ferocity pet. Mostly I use him for instances, but I also pull him out in areas where AoE grinding just doesn't work well. In these cases I single target DPS down mobs alternating Misdirect and Feign Death from pull to pull.
I hope these tips can help any new BM hunters out there!
