I’ve had a number of folks email and IM to ask me about the talent builds I’ve been sporting as I work my way through the Beta. Because of the nature of Betas (mechanics constantly in flux), true theorycrafting is difficult at best. As such, I’ve been using the Beta as an opportunity to play around some with talents I may not necessarily have chosen on the live servers as well as a chance to check out the new offerings. Today, I’d like to take some time to discuss the builds I’ve tried so far and some builds I may toy with further down the road.

51-Deep Survival

The first build I chose in the Beta was, not surprisingly, a 51-deep Survival build. I chose this build for a number of reasons:

1. I was already geared for it
2. I was already (reasonably) familiar with it
3. Explosive Shot just sounded awesome

Explosive Shot definitely seemed to live up to the hype. Unfortunately, since choosing this build there have been a number of changes made to the Survival tree (most notably: the change to the Expose Weakness mechanic) such that we were awarded a free respec. (Which actually isn’t as awesome as it sounds: respecs on the Beta only cost 1 copper, as far as I know.)

I wish I had taken a screenshot of the exact build I ended up using (I did post a few screenshots previously of possible builds I would use, but not the one I actually went with), because the talent calculators have changed as well (which they should), and so I can’t go back now to display what I was actually using. D’oh! Live and learn, I guess.

38/33 MM/SV Hybrid

The new build I’m currently sporting in the Beta came about for two reasons:

1. We got a free respec
2. Expose Weakness is full of fail at the moment

For those of you who haven’t heard, Expose Weakness will only provide it’s buff to the hunter who applied it in the Beta, thus nullifying any raid benefit it once had. As you might guess, I’m fairly unimpressed with these changes. As such, I’ve jumped ship and foregone a full 51-point Survival build in favor of a Marksmanship/Survival hybrid, at least for the time being.

This build is the one I am currently using (although, fewer talent points, since I’m not 80 yet). At the moment, this build affords me a few nice benefits from both trees: I get the lowered hit cap and additional Agi from the Survival tree, as well as the increased attack power from Trueshot Aura and a RAP bonus from Intellect. With this build, I had 800 Agility and 2900 RAP (with Trueshot Aura and Aspect of the Hawk up). I was not at all dissatisfied with the numbers I was seeing.

Unfortunately, “the world server is down” was Blizzard’s response to my respec and attempts at questing in Dragonblight shortly thereafter, so I didn’t have as much of an opportunity to test drive my new build as I would’ve liked. I can say, however, that I liked what I saw. With the utility and power this build brings to the table, I can easily see it becoming my defacto build when Wrath goes live (provided they don’t futz with it).

51-Deep Beast Mastery

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: BM brings the numbers, there’s no denying it, but I’m definitely not “BM material”. I just don’t care enough about my pet to ever be a self-respecting BM hunter. I may make the occasional foray into the tree just to see what all the fuss is about now and then, but it will never be a permanent transition for me.

As such, I may take a trip to BM Land during my stay on the Beta to check out the new exotic pets, but that’s probably the extent of it. That being the case, any BM build I attempt will have to be a 51-Deep endeavor.

This is the build I would likely use. As someone who can’t get overly excited about a BM build, I honestly don’t have much in the way of commentary on it. Personally, I can recognize that the numbers from a BM build are arguably the best for a raiding hunter, but I still cannot get excited about the style of game-play. Micromanagement isn’t difficult. It’s the giving a damn that I just can’t master. Don’t get me wrong, I love my pets, but I certainly wouldn’t risk my hide to save theirs, and I just can’t muster any grief over the death of something I can easily resummon in a few minutes.

I will say, however, that it would be neat to have a different fuzzy creature trotting along side me for a change, though, however temporarily.

So there you have it. At the moment, these are the three possible builds I’m working with in the Beta. As I mentioned above, my current build is the MM/SV Hybrid and so far I’m really enjoying it. I think this build will provide a nice alternative for my fellow SV Hunters who, like me, are rather disgruntled at the changes to Expose Weakness and are looking for something with a bit more oomph.