[Archived] Beast Mastery Hunter 5.4

[Guest Kris]

Hi. I was reading over this article, and I have an issue with AMR (AskMrRobot) and the stat optimizations. After following what it had me reforge, I am now sitting at 7.1% hit and 5.9% expertise. Before the reforging it suggested, I was actually closer to the 7.5% cap on both, and they were more evenly situated. What would you suggest if AMR can't really be trusted to reforge properly? I've also tried wowreforge, but without numeric values of stat weights, I can't properly set up wowreforge to reforge me properly. Thanks.

[Zeldrak 0]

Hi. I was reading over this article, and I have an issue with AMR (AskMrRobot) and the stat optimizations. After following what it had me reforge, I am now sitting at 7.1% hit and 5.9% expertise. Before the reforging it suggested, I was actually closer to the 7.5% cap on both, and they were more evenly situated. What would you suggest if AMR can't really be trusted to reforge properly? I've also tried wowreforge, but without numeric values of stat weights, I can't properly set up wowreforge to reforge me properly. Thanks.

[Tehstool 10]

Hi. I was reading over this article, and I have an issue with AMR (AskMrRobot) and the stat optimizations. After following what it had me reforge, I am now sitting at 7.1% hit and 5.9% expertise. Before the reforging it suggested, I was actually closer to the 7.5% cap on both, and they were more evenly situated. What would you suggest if AMR can't really be trusted to reforge properly? I've also tried wowreforge, but without numeric values of stat weights, I can't properly set up wowreforge to reforge me properly. Thanks.

Overall mr robot doesn't give you optimal reforges... and you still can use wowreforge you just need to enter in the caps for hit/expertise and add a stat weight for expertise. AMR also doesn't always have the right stat priorities either. Imo I just don't like mr robot for min/maxing. Since there is a discrepancy, you may not have enough stats to cap both hit and expertise.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Tehstool

[Zeldrak 0]

Overall mr robot doesn't give you optimal reforges... and you still can use wowreforge you just need to enter in the caps for hit/expertise and add a stat weight for expertise. AMR also doesn't always have the right stat priorities either. Imo I just don't like mr robot for min/maxing. Since there is a discrepancy, you may not have enough stats to cap both hit and expertise.

Yes, I'm still lacking stats to fully balance and reach the caps for hit and exp right now. I'm currently in mixed DS 10 Normal, and Valor gear. I've gotten exceptionally close to balancing and reaching the caps now, using wowreforge though. What I need to find are the numerical values of the weights that you list on this site. I know that hit and exp have to be capped at 769, or 7.5%, but what I can't seem to find is the numerical values for Crit, Haste, Mastery, and Agility. Wowreforge has some numerical values listed, but they don't seem quite right, because they're rating Crit higher than Mastery. Mastery increases the amount of damage the pet does if you are in Beast Mastery spec. I'm just trying to find a proper set of numerical values assigned to Crit, Haste, Mastery, and the other stats so that I can plug them in and have wowreforge calculate my reforges. I used to get these weights from wowhead, but wowhead has now switched to getting their stat weights from AMR.

[Rusty 0]

Right now Icy Veins is starting to slide down in terms of trust just as happened to Noxxic.

Remember when Noxxic first came out and everyone said "Oh wow, you have to use Noxxic, they are uber"?

Then ppl started looking at it and it became fairly clear that if the advice on a given topic was clearly explained and on the first page of an EJ post, then the Noxxic advice magically agreed with it, but if the better advice from EJ was found buried away deep in a forum topic, then Noxxic quite frequently missed the point and gave out questionable advice. This lead to the view among serious gamers that Noxxic was good for noobs and EJ was the resource for those with the ability to comprehend the finer details.

This site has a lot of potential but it is spoilt by errors such as noted above.

I always was under the impression Noxxic was only setup to get people to click on advertising stuff, never thought the information was any good.

[Tehstool 10]

Yes, I'm still lacking stats to fully balance and reach the caps for hit and exp right now. I'm currently in mixed DS 10 Normal, and Valor gear. I've gotten exceptionally close to balancing and reaching the caps now, using wowreforge though. What I need to find are the numerical values of the weights that you list on this site. I know that hit and exp have to be capped at 769, or 7.5%, but what I can't seem to find is the numerical values for Crit, Haste, Mastery, and Agility. Wowreforge has some numerical values listed, but they don't seem quite right, because they're rating Crit higher than Mastery. Mastery increases the amount of damage the pet does if you are in Beast Mastery spec. I'm just trying to find a proper set of numerical values assigned to Crit, Haste, Mastery, and the other stats so that I can plug them in and have wowreforge calculate my reforges. I used to get these weights from wowhead, but wowhead has now switched to getting their stat weights from AMR.

Yeah wowreforge's stat weights have never changed... You should adjust the stat weights accordingly to match the stat priorities listed on here or EJ. Whichever resource you'd like to use.

edit: the stat numbers don't really matter as long as the numbers show what it higher on the priority list.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Tehstool

[Vlad 411]

Thanks for your response MadMonk. I read it with interest and as result went back and re-read the IV post.

Without doubt it was my misunderstanding.

My incorrect assumption was that "First, Second and Third" choices implied a priority order.

Having re-read the sections as result of reading your post I understand that it was my interpretation that was wrong.

The talents are indeed consistent between the sections.

My apologies are therefore also due to Vlad and the IV team.

Thanks again for pointing out my error.

Apologies accepted.

I would like to point out a few things, however.

Mistakes do happen. Regardless of what we're doing, mistakes will always happen. Sometimes it's because the information we're basing things on is incorrect (bad tooltips), other times it's because we lack the proper sample sizes for a correct analysis, other times it's because we simply make an error when writing the guide, and so on. We always try to make our guides as accurate as possible, and to perfect this point we do need constructive criticism.

You compared us to other websites. Regarding Noxxic, I really don't think that there is much to be said.

Regarding EJ, however, I would point out two things:

• Their guides are almost always the result of a long discussion thread. Many, many changes to the guide occur over the course of its life. Most guides, when first posted, contain next to no information in them.
• They usually have one person maintaining one guide. In some cases, one person maintains several guides of the same class, but that is it.

We, on the other hand, are only two people (Damien and myself). We cover all the class guides, as well as all the raid guides you see (and will see with Mists of Pandaria), and of course any other miscellaneous guides you see on our website. Moreover, we do not allow ourselves the sloppy practice of putting out a blatantly incomplete guide and then just having the community fill it up with dozens of thread pages of comments. We take full responsibility for our guides, and we do our best to make them as close to complete before a single other person sees them at all.

That said, we aren't really concerned with the "downfall" of EJ. They have a niche of readers who prefer their style, and the details that they go into at times (which, for the general population of WoW, we consider to be overkill). The only reason we consider it our issue that EJ is slow in putting out guides is that it heightens the importance of our task even more.

So, as more and more people look to our guides, and find mistakes in them, we can only be happy. The more comments and criticism we receive, the better it is for our guides in the long run.

One last thing to remember, is that we are still 2 weeks away from Mists of Pandaria going live. Any errors in the guides at this point are much less important than they would be when people actually use them for dungeons and raids. So, any comments you can make in this time can help us get a better "finished product" when it matters.

Your post showed a lot of hostility, and while I do not begrudge you it (as I said, your apologies are more than accepted), I do have to wonder why that is so.

looking at the cooldown rotation you guys suggest,

Make sure that Hunter's Mark is applied to the target.

Cast Lynx Rush, Dire Beast, Stampede, Bestial Wrath, and Rapid Fire (the order only matters insofar as Rapid Fire is used last).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Glaive Toss.

Cast Readiness to reset the cooldowns of all your abilities (except for Stampede).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Dire Beast.

Cast Lynx Rush.

Cast Glaive Toss.

As soon as the buff from Rapid Fire fades, re-cast it.

When the second Rapid Fire wears off, cast Bestial Wrath again.

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to modify it to this

Make sure that Hunter's Mark is applied to the target.

Cast Lynx Rush, Dire Beast, Stampede, Bestial Wrath, and Rapid Fire (the order only matters insofar as Rapid Fire is used last).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Glaive Toss.

Cast Readiness to reset the cooldowns of all your abilities (except for Stampede).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Dire Beast.

Cast Lynx Rush.

Cast Bestial Wrath.

Cast Glaive Toss.

When the second Bestial Wrath wears off, cast Rapid Fire again.

If you do the second method you will have rabid on still for the second Bestial Wrath and Lynx Rush. If you do the first your rabid wears off and your pet's damage diminishes.

That is just my theorycrafting because either way you will be using the CDs but your biggest pet CDs will be buffed from Rabid still being on your pet. Also rapid fire will increase your focus regen seeing as how you probably dumped a lot of it during the first and second bestial wrath it'll help you regain it.

(Had to post it this way because it was saying I was posting too many images)

Thanks. I'll make some edits to that section now :)

Hi. I was reading over this article, and I have an issue with AMR (AskMrRobot) and the stat optimizations. After following what it had me reforge, I am now sitting at 7.1% hit and 5.9% expertise. Before the reforging it suggested, I was actually closer to the 7.5% cap on both, and they were more evenly situated. What would you suggest if AMR can't really be trusted to reforge properly? I've also tried wowreforge, but without numeric values of stat weights, I can't properly set up wowreforge to reforge me properly. Thanks.

Thanks for pointing this out. We'll get back to you shortly on the matter :)

[Vlad 411]

Since Rabid is on a 1.4 minute CD (Exotic Beasts factored in the CD), wouldn't it be beneficial to turn it off of auto use and macro rabid to bestial wrath, lynx rush, etc.?

I have finally added this to the guides (about time, am I right?) Thanks for pointing it out, I had somehow missed this ability. I've indeed added suggestions to stack it with Lynx Rush and/or Bestial Wrath as BM, and with Rapid Fire as MM or SV (see below).

i prefer to macro it to lynx rush, because the cds are nearly the same (i think there is a 6 seconds difference) and because you use it rabid every 1.5 minutes this way you automaticaly use it every 3 bestial wreaths (i also think that i mentioned this in a post before^^).

I tried to macro it with Lynx Rush and just use it like that, but it doesn't quite work out. There are two problems:

• Their cooldowns differ slightly (as you mentioned), which means that as the fight goes on, they cease to stack properly. This depends on the length of the fight, and sometimes it might not be a problem, but in fights that go past 6 minutes it will be.
• Lynx Rush has its cooldown reset by Readiness, whereas Rabid does not. This means that from the very start of the fight, they cease to be synchronized. I suppose a solution would be not to use Rabid with the first Lynx Rush, and to instead use it with the Lynx Rush right after Readiness. A bit of a complication, if you ask me.

Moreover, I have the feeling (undocumented by theorycrafting) that it is a bigger DPS boost to use Rabid with Bestial Wrath where available, since not only is Bestial Wrath a great boost to you pet's DPS, it is also the time when you keep the Frenzy stacks on the pet, leading to ever greater benefit.

Personally, I think there is more to be gained by not tying Rabid down in any macros, and just using it when it is most advantageous.

[Tehstool 10]

I have finally added this to the guides (about time, am I right?) Thanks for pointing it out, I had somehow missed this ability. I've indeed added suggestions to stack it with Lynx Rush and/or Bestial Wrath as BM, and with Rapid Fire as MM or SV (see below).

I tried to macro it with Lynx Rush and just use it like that, but it doesn't quite work out. There are two problems:

• Their cooldowns differ slightly (as you mentioned), which means that as the fight goes on, they cease to stack properly. This depends on the length of the fight, and sometimes it might not be a problem, but in fights that go past 6 minutes it will be.
• Lynx Rush has its cooldown reset by Readiness, whereas Rabid does not. This means that from the very start of the fight, they cease to be synchronized. I suppose a solution would be not to use Rabid with the first Lynx Rush, and to instead use it with the Lynx Rush right after Readiness. A bit of a complication, if you ask me.

Moreover, I have the feeling (undocumented by theorycrafting) that it is a bigger DPS boost to use Rabid with Bestial Wrath where available, since not only is Bestial Wrath a great boost to you pet's DPS, it is also the time when you keep the Frenzy stacks on the pet, leading to ever greater benefit.

Personally, I think there is more to be gained by not tying Rabid down in any macros, and just using it when it is most advantageous.

RF gives ranged haste which doesn't benefit your pet. So would the benefit from stacking rabid and rapid fire just increased damage for you (from the rapid fire) and increased damage to your pet (from rabid)?

Also even if you do use rabid before BW and LR the 20 second duration will accommodate for the CD difference. However I personally have it off of auto use and have a macro for just rabid of rabid with BW/LR because if you need to stop dps or are going into a phase where your pet is not going to be attacking and it does happen to use it's rabid CD. That will be a huge loss.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Tehstool

[Vlad 411]

RF gives ranged haste which doesn't benefit your pet. So would the benefit from stacking rabid and rapid fire just increased damage for you (from the rapid fire) and increased damage to your pet (from rabid)?

Also even if you do use rabid before BW and LR the 20 second duration will accommodate for the CD difference. However I personally have it off of auto use and have a macro for just rabid of rabid with BW/LR because if you need to stop dps or are going into a phase where your pet is not going to be attacking and it does happen to use it's rabid CD. That will be a huge loss.

You make a very good point about Rapid Fire. That's my mistake. I'll fix it right now.

Regarding the second, I know that Rabid has a 20 second duration, but in my tests, even in fights of less than 10 minutes, it ends up that Lynx Rush and Rabid don't overlap at all anymore. So, personally, I think it's best to just use Rabid "manually" for best results.

Thanks for posting :)

[Guest Paiste]

Interesting note, if you are using your second Lynx Rush before you use all 9 jumps from the first one, the attack is canceled entirely. So be aware that in your opener you should wait until all 9 jumps have been performed before using your second Lynx Rush or you could see as little as 2-3 jumps instead of 18.

[Guest arizona]

looking at the cooldown rotation you guys suggest,

Make sure that Hunter's Mark is applied to the target.

Cast Lynx Rush, Dire Beast, Stampede, Bestial Wrath, and Rapid Fire (the order only matters insofar as Rapid Fire is used last).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Glaive Toss.

Cast Readiness to reset the cooldowns of all your abilities (except for Stampede).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Dire Beast.

Cast Lynx Rush.

Cast Glaive Toss.

As soon as the buff from Rapid Fire fades, re-cast it.

When the second Rapid Fire wears off, cast Bestial Wrath again.

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to modify it to this

Make sure that Hunter's Mark is applied to the target.

Cast Lynx Rush, Dire Beast, Stampede, Bestial Wrath, and Rapid Fire (the order only matters insofar as Rapid Fire is used last).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Glaive Toss.

Cast Readiness to reset the cooldowns of all your abilities (except for Stampede).

Cast Kill Command.

Cast Dire Beast.

Cast Lynx Rush.

Cast Bestial Wrath.

Cast Glaive Toss.

When the second Bestial Wrath wears off, cast Rapid Fire again.

If you do the second method you will have rabid on still for the second Bestial Wrath and Lynx Rush. If you do the first your rabid wears off and your pet's damage diminishes.

That is just my theorycrafting because either way you will be using the CDs but your biggest pet CDs will be buffed from Rabid still being on your pet. Also rapid fire will increase your focus regen seeing as how you probably dumped a lot of it during the first and second bestial wrath it'll help you regain it.

(Had to post it this way because it was saying I was posting too many images)

When do you suggest to fit in Serpent Sting?

[Tehstool 10]

You make a very good point about Rapid Fire. That's my mistake. I'll fix it right now.

Regarding the second, I know that Rabid has a 20 second duration, but in my tests, even in fights of less than 10 minutes, it ends up that Lynx Rush and Rabid don't overlap at all anymore. So, personally, I think it's best to just use Rabid "manually" for best results.

Thanks for posting

No problem. I agree with you on the rabid thing. I guess I overlooked the big cooldown difference.

Interesting note, if you are using your second Lynx Rush before you use all 9 jumps from the first one, the attack is canceled entirely. So be aware that in your opener you should wait until all 9 jumps have been performed before using your second Lynx Rush or you could see as little as 2-3 jumps instead of 18.

Yeah, I always end up using the second one after a 4 second period because of how I set up my rotation.

When do you suggest to fit in Serpent Sting?

hmm, not sure I usually end up applying it at the beginning then reapplying it after it wears off because I have so much focus. However, I'm not sure what is the optimal way. I'll put up some calculations. In an (almost, missing the seal of primordial shadow) full bis hunter, I have around ~40% crit chance raid buffed. My SrS does about 4k ticks and 8k crits. This ticks 5 times every 3 seconds meaning you will get approximately 2 crits off, so 2 crits (16k) + 3 hits (12k) = 28k. My arcane shots do about 13k hits and 36k crits. So it's a matter of " do you feel lucky punk" So all in all if you do get lucky the damage difference will be small but if you don't get lucky its much more of a loss than a gain. SrS also has a higher potential for more damage simply because this is how crit should work out on paper but in-game critting doesn't make you less likely to crit again so you can theoretically crit a good amount of times in a row which would bring SrS higher. So in conclusion I say if you don't want to chance the arcane shot loss/gain you should SrS at the beginning and then when it falls off apply it again for the last application throughout the fight (presuming there aren't any mechanics that prevent this from happening.) Edited September 11, 2012 by Tehstool

[Vlad 411]

I've made the necessary mentions about being careful not to clip Lynx Rush. Should be up soon :)

[Guest Valoryn]

Thanks for the responses! I did some testing and, no it appears that lynx rush does benefit from bestial wrath... http://www.worldoflo....10/?s=77&e=166 http://www.worldoflo.../?s=1131&e=1212

The first is with bestial wrath and the second is without.

So I'm not here to say I'm the hunter master, but having bestial wrath macrod in my abilities seems like it would be the better choice. Now even if I am wrong (which I can accept), I will still continue to use bestial wrath in my macro since for me it seems like the best option.

Edit: I guess i'll have some macro testing to do Tuesday!

Testing it out on the beta brings me to the conclusion that if I apply SrS and spam arcane shot and kill command until the duration of bestial wrath ends I wont get focus capped.

Im doing exactly the same with great burst as a result, 47k as opposed to 27k average dam. on the dummy, then i reapply SrS, click readyness and do it one more time

[Tehstool 10]

Im doing exactly the same with great burst as a result, 47k as opposed to 27k average dam. on the dummy, then i reapply SrS, click readyness and do it one more time

Yeah that was old. I don't pop RF when bestial wrath is up after I use readiness however. Also you should be doing

Kill Command > Readiness > Kill Command if you aren't already.

[Guest Mewe]

Hi.

I've just reached 90 with my hunter and I'm trying to get a better understanding of how BM hunters work. I've read the BM guide that is provided by Icy-veins, as well as the SV guide, and all the comments therein. But I'm struggling at the moment to understand the use of all CDs. As BM, choosing the talents that IV recommends, I get a total of 7 CDs that are 15s or above. My bars were already full at 85, but now I really can't fit everything in there.

First I've read here that one shouldn't stack all CDs, then I read that one could actually do that. That Lynx Rush benifit from BW, right use of Rabid, etc. etc.

I'm trying to find macros that work and doesn't result in any dps loss because of stacking two CDs together. Just one macro would help me a great deal to get more room on my bars. But I can't seem to find any macros that actually fulfill this and are up to date, since all comments here predate the release of MoP.

I'm writing here in hope that some knowledgeable people could help me out with this.

Thanks in advance,

Mewe

[Tehstool 10]

Hi.

I've just reached 90 with my hunter and I'm trying to get a better understanding of how BM hunters work. I've read the BM guide that is provided by Icy-veins, as well as the SV guide, and all the comments therein. But I'm struggling at the moment to understand the use of all CDs. As BM, choosing the talents that IV recommends, I get a total of 7 CDs that are 15s or above. My bars were already full at 85, but now I really can't fit everything in there.

First I've read here that one shouldn't stack all CDs, then I read that one could actually do that. That Lynx Rush benifit from BW, right use of Rabid, etc. etc.

I'm trying to find macros that work and doesn't result in any dps loss because of stacking two CDs together. Just one macro would help me a great deal to get more room on my bars. But I can't seem to find any macros that actually fulfill this and are up to date, since all comments here predate the release of MoP.

I'm writing here in hope that some knowledgeable people could help me out with this.

Thanks in advance,

Mewe

First off, take your rabid off of auto use. Your pet uses that before stampede and all your other pets don't get it.

#showtooltip Lynx Rush

/use 10

/cast Rabid

/Cast Lynx Rush

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath

/use 10

/cast Rabid

/Cast Bestial Wrath

where as 10 is for engineers and their synapse springs

Now as for the CDs, you want to pop just about everything you have in an organized manner. This is what I do

Stampede

Bestial Wrath

Kill Command

Lynx Rush

Dire Beast

Glaive Toss

Serpent Sting

Rapid Fire

Kill Command

Readiness

Kill Command

Glaive Toss

Dire Beast

And I believe by that time your BW would've worn off so pop BW and LR then after BW wears off do RF.

[Guest Fala]

Isn't useing RF after you blow all your CD's and before you use readiness in the opening a DPS gain vs stacking it with BW if you are to be able to use 2 Readiness in a fight?

[Vlad 411]

Hi.

I've just reached 90 with my hunter and I'm trying to get a better understanding of how BM hunters work. I've read the BM guide that is provided by Icy-veins, as well as the SV guide, and all the comments therein. But I'm struggling at the moment to understand the use of all CDs. As BM, choosing the talents that IV recommends, I get a total of 7 CDs that are 15s or above. My bars were already full at 85, but now I really can't fit everything in there.

First I've read here that one shouldn't stack all CDs, then I read that one could actually do that. That Lynx Rush benifit from BW, right use of Rabid, etc. etc.

I'm trying to find macros that work and doesn't result in any dps loss because of stacking two CDs together. Just one macro would help me a great deal to get more room on my bars. But I can't seem to find any macros that actually fulfill this and are up to date, since all comments here predate the release of MoP.

I'm writing here in hope that some knowledgeable people could help me out with this.

Thanks in advance,

Mewe

Tehstool's reply is actually great. To expand further, I would say that you just have to "man up" and find a way to handle your keybinds better. The reason is that there isn't very much efficient macroing that you can do for these abilities, and it's always going to be a better DPS gain to use them yourself in the very best way for the situation, than to rely on having them automated.

That said, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a way to keybind them, since outside of them you should only have a handful of other things keybound to accessible keys.

You should not stack all cooldowns. The exception is the start of the fight, when you can and should stack Rapid Fire with Bestial Wrath (which you should otherwise not do). Lynx Rush benefits from both Rabid and BW, this is correct as well. Also, you want to hold off on consuming your pet's Frenzy stacks when you use BW, and so on. I believe it should be in the guide, but you seem to understand it anyway :)

Isn't useing RF after you blow all your CD's and before you use readiness in the opening a DPS gain vs stacking it with BW if you are to be able to use 2 Readiness in a fight?

Are you suggesting that Rapid Fire should be the very last action you perform before casting Readiness, at the start of the fight?

[Guest Mewe]

Thanks Tehstool and Vlad for your answers, I really appreciate them.

I have tried out your recommendations in dungeons today, and naturally, I got some follow-up questions.

In the beginning of every boss fight, I have always waited for BW to run out before I pop Rapid Fire and Readiness. On average, it's a matter of 3-4 sec remaining on BW. But from what I've just read, you actually want me to pop everything that Tehstool listed right away, just as every global gets ready?

And after I followed the suggested rotation, I just pop everything as it comes off cooldown. And of course, return to the rule of not stacking BW and RF.

Perhaps I should have been a bit more clear about the macros and keybindings. I'm someone that likes to have all my abilities that I often use on some kind of keybind (atm, I have 36 functional and effective keybindings). Ever since I started playing, I have had a certain "section" of keybindings for longer CDs. Usually, there has only been 3-4 CDs to put there. But now when I play BM I suddenly got a lot more, and due to that, Intimidation is the ability that has gotten robbed of its place. It may not be as important in PvE, but as I said, I would like to have everything that's useful available on my bars.

However, I guess I'll just give it some time, and probably I will find a solution that would satisfy me

Again, thanks for your response, and I if I need help again I will check back here.

[Guest Fala]

Are you suggesting that Rapid Fire should be the very last action you perform before casting Readiness, at the start of the fight?

Pretty much, since the idea is to not stack BW with RF normally, why do it in the start IF the fight is long enough to give us the same amount of readiness(1-2) as "pop everything" does as this would delay things. Not the mathwiss on these things so thought I should ask.

[Tehstool 10]

Tehstool's reply is actually great. To expand further, I would say that you just have to "man up" and find a way to handle your keybinds better. The reason is that there isn't very much efficient macroing that you can do for these abilities, and it's always going to be a better DPS gain to use them yourself in the very best way for the situation, than to rely on having them automated.

That said, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a way to keybind them, since outside of them you should only have a handful of other things keybound to accessible keys.

You should not stack all cooldowns. The exception is the start of the fight, when you can and should stack Rapid Fire with Bestial Wrath (which you should otherwise not do). Lynx Rush benefits from both Rabid and BW, this is correct as well. Also, you want to hold off on consuming your pet's Frenzy stacks when you use BW, and so on. I believe it should be in the guide, but you seem to understand it anyway

Are you suggesting that Rapid Fire should be the very last action you perform before casting Readiness, at the start of the fight?

If you cast RF at the end of readiness and wait for the duration to pop BW and LR, you will lose the buff rabid on your pet by doing so. Either way you will get off both cooldowns just that you will benefit more from popping both BWs consecutively regardless of if your rapid fire is up or not because rabid has a 20 second duration and both BWs together last 20 seconds (until you get your 4 piece). Imo if you want to space them out as best as possible you could move it further up on my rotation list, but even then you are only spacing it out by 1 or 2 seconds.

Pretty much, since the idea is to not stack BW with RF normally, why do it in the start IF the fight is long enough to give us the same amount of readiness(1-2) as "pop everything" does as this would delay things. Not the mathwiss on these things so thought I should ask.

Even if you do that your stampede will not benefit from rabid or if you delay rabid and BW and LR, you are pushing back your greater dps cooldowns for some ranged haste that doesn't even benefit your pet. Also if you do end up delaying readiness you will be resetting the cooldowns of your abilities but while doing so you actually push them back because of the 15 second rapid fire duration. You will be resetting partially completed CDs and your Dire beast will be halfway done and you will end up resetting it.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Tehstool

[Guest Tehstool]

Rabid has been changed (Source)

Rabid has been changed and now increases a pet's attack speed by 70%. Pet attack power is now unaffected by this ability.

[Guest MisterBW]

Any toughts on the Rabid change?