Azerite Traits
Hunter's Edge Dove Feeding Frenzy Decoy System Bring doves in with their simulated natural feeding behavior with the Hunter's Edge Dove Feeding Frenzy Decoy System. This decoy unit rotates 3 Winged Dove decoys in a circular bumping motion that closely mimics the behavior of doves feeding on the ground. In addition to what’s been said here already: If you’ve got one Feeding Frenzy trait your buff lasts the same amount of time as your pets & if you have your own character stuffs showing under your character model w/Numerical timers enabled you can see how many stacks and how long it has remaining. Time to Change Traditional Ways of Feeding Your Horse. There are a lot of choices when feeding horses. Chances are that if 100 horse feeders were lined up, there would also be 100 different ways to feed horses. But the best way to fuel a horse may also be the most simple.
Spec Specific Azerite Traits
I will only be listing azerite traits that are of impact to the spec right now. Any azerite not listed is not ideal and should be simmed to achieve the best outcome for your setup, bare in mind these are SPEC SPECIFIC only (no open world/PvP traits).
Primal Instincts: Primal Instincts gives you a charge of Barbed Shot when pressing Aspect of the Wild in addition to giving a massive amount of mastery for the 20 seconds Aspect duration. Stacking this trait will only increase the mastery gained not the charges gained. You should aim to have 1 Primal Instincts, giving you a huge burst window on Single Target and AoE + a Stack of Barbed Shot.
Haze of Rage: This will buff your Bestial Wrath. Bestial Wrath is used quite often to burst down a priority target or a big AoE pull. The Agility proc will help you burst more and can make a big difference in your short burst phases. Stacking this trait will increase the agility gained by it, so there is no downside in having more than one.
Feeding Frenzy: This trait is very specific and only useful to have once. Feeding Frenzy increases the duration of your Frenzy buff on your pet to 9 seconds. On top of that the Barded Shot DoT will do some additional damage over time. The problem with this trait is that you don't want to have more than one ever because the duration increase is a huge deal with this trait and unfortunately it does not stack. Having multiple should be avoided.
Dance of Death: Currently the best Trait and you should aim to Stack 3 of those. This specific Trait will also change your stat weights around (going heavy crit). Dance of Death will give you a chance on using Barbed Shot to gain Agility equal to your Critical strike chance for 8 seconds. As this trait works with Crit, using this trait will increase the value of Crit for you by a large amount, making it most likely your best stat.
Rapid Reload: This is probably the most broken trait for Mythic + and AoE content for BM Hunters. Rapid Reload fires an additional barrage of arrows when you hit at least 3 targets and also reduces your Aspect of the Wild’s cooldown by 1 second per target hit. This means the larger the pull size the greater the reduction. A must have trait for M+ and any AoE where you can hit at least 3 targets to make use of the cooldown reduction.
Heart of Darkness: This raid only trait is special and requires you to have a corruption level of 25 or above (after corruption resistance). Even though the requirement is special, the trait is pretty underwhelming as it only increases your secondary stats by 72 per trait.
Recommended Azerite Traits
Outer Ring:
You should aim to get 3x Dance of Death + a combination of Primal Instinct, Blightborne Infusion, Haze of Rage, Heart of Darkness (only when you are playing with 25 corruption).
If you manage to get 3x Dance of Death + 3x Primal Instinct you are able to play another build with Vision Major, so this is also a good combo.
For AoE you should definitely have at least one Rapid Reload trait as it is the best trait for 3+ targets. Here simming your current Azerite is the most important thing because some traits might get better or worse depending on your gear.
Inner Ring:
For the inner ring you should aim to get 3x Overwhelming Power/Unstable Flame (with the Dance of Death trait) as it is by far the best trait for BM Hunter right now.
After that, Gutripper or Heed My Call traits are relatively equal. Elemental Whirl and Blood Siphon are sadly not good traits, but also not the end of the world. Azerite Globules is by far the worst trait and should be avoided at all times.
Major Essences:
I will only be covering the Essences you are currently using in the Raid and M+ the other Essences that didn't make the cut are just not good enough at the moment.
Blood of the Enemy: The best all-rounder essence at the moment, it is definitely worth picking up. The only negative with this essence is you need to be in melee to use it.
Worldvein Resonance: For raiding, the current default pick on single target. However, when the fight has a lot of movement this essence will lose value as you need to spawn new crystals at the spot you moved to.
Breath of the Dying: Burn your target with a bolt of Azerite, dealing Fire damage. If the target has less than 20% health or more then 80%, the cooldown is reduced by 30 sec. If Reaping Flames kills an enemy, its cooldown is lowered to 5 sec and it will deal 100% increased damage on its next use.
Unique: Corruption Resistance increased by 10
Condensed Life Force: This Essence is the best 3 minute CD essence and adds a lot of burst to your opener or cooldown windows during a fight. At rank 3 you will gain the biggest power spike with this essence as the 10% haste it gives is super strong.
After the nerf this essence became a bit weaker. You might want to consider using Essence of the Focusing Iris for cleave or AoE bosses, but for pure Single Target this is still the best choice.
Essence of the Focusing Iris: This Essence is an AoE one and might come in handy for some special situation in raiding but is mostly used in M+. On a 1.5 minute cooldown you get a high amount of AoE burst and a good haste minor effect.
For raiding, this Essence might come in handy when you have a cleave or AoE fight. It will still remain one of the best M+ essences as well.
Crucible of Flames: This Essence is the default essence everyone gets in the start. It is not bad as a single target essence but is mainly used in minor. The on use effect on a 30 second cooldown is decent for some situations.
Sadly this Essences finds no use in M+ or raiding in the Major Slot.
Memory of Lucid Dreams: This Essence increases your focus regeneration by 100% for 12 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown.
This Essences finds no use in M+ or raiding in the major slot.
Minor Essences:
Vison of Perfection: This one reduces your Aspect of the Wild cooldown by a good amount and is often paired with a Rapid Reload trait and/or Blood of the Enemy Major.
Crucible of Flames: As a minor essence this just does decent damage and is not a bad pick.
Essence of the Focusing Iris: One of the best minor ones for raiding as it gives you a lot of Haste while attacking one target for a bit.
Conflict and Strife: Another super good minor essence at rank 3, it provides a good amount of versatility with high uptime.
Memory of Lucid Dreams: As a minor Essence this one is actually pretty good for survival and helps to resource a lot of resources during the fight.
Purification Protocol: As a minor Essence this one is actually pretty good for AoE and might be used in fights against Aberrations.
The Formless Void: At rank 3+ every time an ally within 40 yards uses an Azerite Essence you gain main stat and Haste for 20 sec. The ally who used an Azerite Essence also gains Haste for 20 sec.
Feeding Frenzy Huntersville
Unique: Corruption Resistance increased by 10.
This minor is scenario dependent and might be super strong or bad. This minor will be good in a huge raiding group, plus you want one Corruption Resistance essence.
Spark of Inspiration: At rank 3+ your spells and abilities have a chance to increase yours and 2 other allies' Haste for 8 sec and reduces the cooldown of yours and 2 other allies' currently slotted Major Essence by 1 sec.
Unique: Corruption Resistance increased by 10.
This minor is scenario dependent and might be super strong or bad. This minor will not find a lot of use for most classes.
Breath of the Dying: At rank 3+ your spells and abilities have a chance to strike your target for fire damage and to heal you for 50% of the damage dealt. If your target is below 20% health, the chance for extra damage is increased by 400%.
Unique: Corruption Resistance increased by 10.
This minor is strong for overall damage and super good for execute in addition to the Corruption Resistance it gives you. If you have it at rank 3, this is most likely your default pick.
Recommended Beast Mastery Essences
Raiding Essences
- Major: Worldvein Resonance or Vision of Perfection or Blood of the Enemy
- Minor 1: Conflict and Strife or Vision of Perfection
- Minor 2: Essence of the Focusing Iris or Crucible of Flames or Vision of Perfection
- Minor 3: The Formless Void or Breath of the Dying
Mythic+ Essences
- Major: Essence of the Focusing Iris or Blood of the Enemy or Worldvein Resonance
- Minor 1: Conflict and Strife or Vision of Perfection
- Minor 2: Crucible of Flames or Blood of the Enemy
- Minor 3: Breath of the Dying
Corruption
What is Corruption
Corruption has been added to 8.3 as a replacement for Warforging and Titanforging. When you get a piece of corrupted gear, it has a chance to roll with a number of different positive effects that give different amounts of corruption. It also comes with a few very negative effects so you don’t want to get too much corruption. Due to this, you want to get the right corrupted pieces so you can do the most damage.
Negative Corruption Effects
- Grasping Tendrils - Happens at 1 Corruption - Puts a snare on you for 5 seconds. Can be removed with the Posthaste Talent so not a big deal if you have the Talent selected.
- Eye of Corruption - Happens at 20 Corruption - Randomly summons a circle around you that deals damage while in it for 8 seconds. Not a Big Deal for the most part but can sometimes be super bad if you need to move to a specific Position.
- Grand Delusions - Happens at 40 Corruption - Generally not worth going up to this corruption level as this is where it gets a bit tricky to deal with the effects. This can randomly deal over half your life if you don’t see it. Due to this, you can get killed unexpectedly just because you miss it. It really isn’t worth going up to this level while you are doing progression.
- Cascading Disaster - Happens at 60 Corruption - If you are struck by a Thing from Beyond summoned by Grand Delusions, you instantly get affected by Eye of Corruption and Grasping Tendrils. If you get up to this level you need to dodge the Thing from Beyond.
- Inevitable Doom - Happens at 80 Corruption - Increases your damage taken and reduces your healing taken by 5% baseline, increasing with your corruption amount. Going to 80 corruption is a really bad idea and I don't advise anyone to do it.
Best Corruption Effects
Not all corruption effects are that amazing, some due to scaling with stats that aren’t good, others due to the fact that they just aren’t strong, and a few just because they have too much corruption.
Corruption effects that are not listed here are either not relevant for dps or not worth considering to use because you have limited corruption to work with.
Some corruption effects have tiers, with their effectiveness scaling on those tiers. For example, the stat increasing effects are 6%, 9%, and 12% based on the amount of corruption they have.
- Severe - 10/15/20 Corruption - Increases the amount of critical strike you gain from all sources based on the corruption tier.
- Expedient - 10/15/20 Corruption - Increases the amount of haste you gain from all sources based on the corruption tier.
- Masterful - 10/15/20 Corruption - Increases the amount of mastery you gain from all sources based on the corruption tier.
- Versatile - 10/15/20 Corruption - Increases the amount of versatility you gain from all sources based on the corruption tier.
- Strikethrough - 10/15/20 - Increases the damage you deal with critical strikes based on the corruption tier.
- Glimpse of Clarity - 15 Corruption - Your spells and abilities have a chance to grant you a Glimpse of Clarity, reducing the cooldown of your next spell cast by 3 seconds.
- Deadly Momentum - 10/20/35 Corruption - Your critical hits have a chance to increase your Critical Strike by ([X] value based on the tier) for 30 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. T1 (10) Corruption -> 31, T2 (20) Corruption -> 41, T3 (35) Corruption -> 72.
- Racing Pulse - 10/20/35 Corruption - Your spells and abilities have a chance to increase your Haste by ([X] value based on the tier) for 4 seconds. T1 (10) Corruption -> 546, T2 (20) Corruption -> 728, T3 (35) Corruption -> 1275.
- Honed Mind - 10/20/35 Corruption - Your spells and abilities have a chance to increase your Mastery by ([X] value based on the tier) for 10 seconds. T1 (10) Corruption -> 392, T2 (20) Corruption -> 528, T3 (35) Corruption -> 915.
- Surging Vitality - 10/20/35 Corruption - Your spells and abilities have a chance to increase your Versatility by ([X] value based on the tier) for 20 seconds. T1 (10) Corruption -> 312, T2 (20) Corruption -> 416, T3 (35) Corruption -> 728.
- Echoing Void - 15/25/50 Corruption - Your damaging abilities build the Echoing Void. Each time it builds, Echoing Void has a chance to collapse, dealing X% of your Health as Shadow damage to all nearby enemies every 1 sec until no stacks remain. T1 (15) Corruption -> 0.4%, T2 (25) Corruption -> 0.6%, T3 (50) Corruption -> 1%.
- Ineffable Truth - 50 Corruption - Your Spells and Abilities have a chance to show you the Ineffable Truth, increasing the rate your cooldowns recover by 50% for 10 seconds.
- Infinite Stars - 20/50/75 Corruption - Your spells and abilities have a chance to strike a nearby enemy with an Infinite Star, dealing Arcane damage and increasing their damage taken from your Infinite Stars by 25%, stacking up to 10 times. The damage proc scales with the Corruption and Item Level.
- Twilight Devastation - 25/50/75 Corruption - Your attacks have a chance to trigger a beam of Twilight Devastation, dealing damage equal to X% of your health to all enemies in front of you. T1 (20) Corruption -> 6%, T2 (50) Corruption -> 12%, T3 (75) Corruption ->18%.
- Twisted Appendage - 15/35/66 Corruption - Your attacks have a chance to spawn a tentacle which Mind Flays your target for Shadow damage every second for 10 seconds. The damage proc scales with the Corruption and Item Level.
- Void Ritual - 15/35/66 Corruption - Gain Void Ritual, giving your spells and abilities a chance to increase all secondary stats by (X value) every second for 20 seconds. This chance is increased if at least 2 nearby allies also have Void Ritual. T1 (15) Corruption -> 14, T2 (35) Corruption -> 34, T3 (66) Corruption -> 64.
- Gushing Wounds - 15 Corruption - Your damaging spells and abilities have a chance to cause your target to ooze blood, dealing 91% of Attack or Spell power damage over 7 seconds. The damage proc scales with Item Level.
Recommended Corruption Effects
The most powerful effect is hard to find, but right now the Severe effect seems to be the most consistent one. For all other Corruption effects, make sure to sim yourself and consider which negative effects you are able to play with on the given boss encounter.
Corruption Items
The Range Corrupted Bow from the Raid:
- Whispering Eldritch Bow - 25 Corruption - Your auto-shots reduce the remaining cooldown of a random Hunter ability by 1.0 sec.
This one doesn't look good at the moment so you might end up not using the effect but make sure to sim everything before you remove it.
The Melee Staff from the Raid:
- An'zig Vra - 35 Corruption - Your auto attacks have a 25% chance to bite into the target's soul, dealing 2.00% of your health in damage and healing you for that amount.
This one looks good at the moment but the same case with the Bow make sure to sim before removing the corruption effect.
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