Yeah, unfortunately I was one of the folks whose name was actually included in the ESRB "reply-all" email which revealed over a thousand emails from people who complained to them about privacy. Thankfully, I keep my WoW email completely separate from anything else I use on the web, but I would strongly recommend to anyone else who doesn't already do that to do so now. Phishing scams are way more common now, and they're beginning to look more and more authentic. Some are so convincing the only way I was absolutely certain it was a scam was the email path trace included by my mail server.

Yeah, that's what happens when you send a link to a friend who doesn't play WoW anymore and would like to see Blizzard fall like Flagship Studios.

I can't say I blame him at this current stage. I'd love it if they reverse their position but I have a good feeling that they've already signed contract(s) with Facebook and Mark P. Fuckerberg (the P is for Privacy!) so backing out at this point is not possible. I'm going to continue playing through the end of my this month/August when my accounts run out, but it's my hope Blizzard comes to their senses and makes the right choice :(

I really don't want to quit but I just wouldn't feel okay about continuing to put money in the pockets of people totally unconcerned with maintaining any sense of customer privacy.

I appreciate the post, I'm going to be putting something together in the next 1-2 days (I PROMISE) with full updates for 3.3, what specs to use based on your gear, raid strategies, macros, etc. It's going to be pretty comprehensive, and I regret not spending more time updating this site. I've been busy IRL to the point where any wow related time I have ends up being spent playing wow rather than writing about it. I think the BM hunter with the latest 9% steady bonus is definitely in a good state for raids. In addition, for future posts I'll be discussing some of the announced Cataclysm changes and how that will further benefit BM hunters.

Again, sorry for the delay in posts, but I'm making time for this site again with some cool new features coming soon (iphone "app" etc. for some wow related/web stuff).

I do plan to post more entries. Things have been busy with real life stuff unfortunately with my new job, and yes I have been experimenting with MM for DPS comparison, as well as some experimentation with different BM builds (arpen, agility, AP). I'm going to be putting together a comprehensive guide to the varying BM specs, and when and how you should spec your BM tree based on gear level, as well as what's to come with the release of cataclysm and how I suspect this will affect BM's current state.

Stay tuned, I promise I haven't gone to the dark side, and if you check my armory (now on Korgath) you'll see that I still have Beast Mastery as my Primary specialization. ;)

Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate it. I've been pretty lazy lately with my site in general just with a bunch of IRL work and trying to catch up in gear on my main in my few bits of free time in the evenings, but I definitely think providing a good resource for multiboxing would be good in addition to a couple BM hunter articles I'm currently planning. Thank you so much for the kind words. I have to say that BM hunters seem like some of the nicest people in this game (in addition to picking the most awesome spec ;P).

It's come to my attention that some folks have had issues posting. I've gone over the validation methods and modified a few things in that library as there were a couple exceptions where errors were being thrown when they shouldn't have. If anyone's still having issues please don't hesitate to let me know.

Yeah, Beast Mastery is needed to tame any of the spirit beasts. However, once tamed, you can switch specs to anything you'd like without fear of losing the pet -- it will simply be limited to your stable until you have Beast Mastery again, at which point you can call it from the stable for use.

I'll admit that trolls are the best race for hunters for their racial bonuses, but they're so damn ugly! Plus, I have a lot of fun PvPing other hunters and turning my back to them, popping disengage, and then popping Arcane Torrent right next to them while my pet eats their face (probably wouldn't work out so hot if I wasn't BM though).

AP definitely is more beneficial than agi for BM hunters. With that in mind you definitely want to gem for AP, and you'll also find that Might is better than Kings for both you and your pet (for you because of the AP bonus on your pet, and your pet because it's still better than 10% with its low pet stats).

If Blizzard is willing to put another spirit beast in the game I have no problem adding him to my collection (or my site header) :)

I think after playing a Dark Elf in L2 I couldn't play anything but a Blood Elf in wow :)

BBB > BLT, amirite?

@Schoolias: You make a good point regarding frenzy, but I find it interesting that with the raid spec you've posted, you have two points placed in Spirit Bond. Additionally, I don't find your -1 point to Cobra Strikes or Go for the Throat to be self explanatory and would actually be interested to learn why you find that to be a more raid oriented spec. In my post, I acknowledged that even with 4/5 points in Frenzy you'll most likely be fine in the majority of raid fights, but "having the extra point ensures that every time your pet has a chance to attack, they'll likely have a 30% speed increase" for fights where you'll be managing your pet more closely.

I'll elaborate further with the faction champs fight. In both 10 and 25man Trial of the Crusader, when fighting the faction champs your pet will be taken out of the fight for seconds at a time due to the multitude of CC spells/skills being used. So, for those "pockets" of time when your pet will be dealing damage, I've found that having a 100% chance to proc is far more reliable. This is also the case in fights like Onyxia where tail swipe takes your pet out of the fight for several seconds. With your build, there's the potential that they won't even get their speed increase before the next tail swipe, hurting your DPS a lot. It's important to get the proc off immediately to maximize your pet's DPS, rather than expecting it to be statistically likely at some point. Essentially it's worth it to know that the first time your pet scores a crit (which should be very soon into the fight), they have a 30% speed increase that's maintained with no down-time, as opposed to hoping it goes off early on in the fight. I'd prefer not to have a 40% chance for my pet NOT to proc when he gets back into the swing of things.

I could roll MM and survival, but given the fact that I've spent the vast majority of my time playing BM and testing out different specs to find what's worked best, it would hardly be fair for me to then "test" it against Surv/MM as you say because I would obviously still be biased toward my own spec (BM). I respectfully disagree with your view on it being "unfair" to test your DPS in a live, "real world" in-game setting. Spreadsheets can be useful tools at times but if they can't carry over directly to real gameplay results due to someone's computer (for a game that's been out for several years now) then what good are they? I appreciate the feedback though and hope to incorporate spreadsheets in further articles to solidify the points I've made.

As for the other two specs, I invite anyone who feels confident with their hunter build to write me and talk about contributing, as I hope to have numerous authors on this site at a certain point. I'm hoping to incorporate the concept of competition rather than comparison -- Have everyone build their very best for their spec and pit them up against each other, rather than having one person attempt to address all specs and potentially allow one to rise to the top due to biases or lack of experience with the others.

It's an all-encompassing PvE spec (including raids). Not sure where you got the idea that it's exclusive to heroics -- I run 25mans with this spec and pull extremely high DPS. As for the improved mend pet, it's not essential to the build but you need the point for requirements further down the tree and I've found that it's probably the most beneficial place to put it. I'm hoping to elaborate further with additional articles on the usefulness of the BM spec but I've found that it's not limited to "niches" any more than survival or marksmanship so I'm not really sure what you meant by that. Thanks for commenting :)

Well, I currently have all four spirit beasts and a devilsaur. When I'm worried about pulling as much DPS as possible in 25 man raids, I use the devilsaur, otherwise I just use one of my spirit beasts (usually Skoll, although I've been using Arcturis more recently just for fun). I had a wolf but found that I just wasn't using him, because any instance where I found he'd be necessary I was better off using the devilsaur (so I abandoned him for Arcturis). Wolves are great but I've found that with BM you don't really need them when you have a devilsaur. Having a constant 9% dps increase for your pet is pretty nice. Your pet already has so much attack power, another 320 plus the extra 320 on the hunter doesn't scale as nicely as a percentage increase (especially when you factor in raid buffs like might, kings, etc.).

For things like heroics, a spirit beast still comes pretty close to wolf DPS. The reduced cooldown on Spirit Strike with Longevity maxed at 3/3 ensures that it's being used nearly every fight, whereas the wolf's Furious Howl might not be up for some fights, or may only be up partially for a boss fight (which can typically be as quick as 15-30 seconds in most 5 man heroic instances). As a BM hunter, any excuse you have for using a wolf can be used to justify a devilsaur instead, otherwise why not use a spirit beast? They look so damn cool it's worth the very small downgrade in DPS, at least in my opinion!

@Omalaud: It uses talent points from all 80 levels, but if you're not 80 yet you can just work your way down the tree basically in the same order listed :)

I tried MM for a little while in BC, but beyond that I've been exclusively BM. My confidence comes from the fact that I've played with numerous marksman and survival hunters with differing levels of gear (usually better geared than myself), in a variety of different places (heroics, 10mans, 25mans) but I've always managed to out DPS them with BM. So in that sense, you could say I've tested my spec by simply comparing it directly with experienced MM and SV hunters, starting out automatically at a disadvantage with lower level gear. I would argue that taking that approach is likely to give you a far better idea of your actual comparative performance, at least for myself, as I would Spreadsheets are cool and all, but until a Blizzard created spreadsheet comes out their accuracy is always questionable because they simply can't replicate the same variables found in-game.

If you're really unsure, I'd recommend at the very least just spending the gold on a respec, try out the DPS, and see if it's even comparable to what you're pulling now. Gems and enchants are nice, but if you're already setup for MM you won't need to switch them over to BM in order to have a good idea how your DPS will change.

As for your raid leader, I'd recommend you simply don't show up with an exotic pet, and don't say anything about it. It's been my experience that simply calling attention to the fact that you're specced BM typically will be the only time others in your raid will say anything, which of course is based on their preconceived notion that BM is bad. Considering most hunters are specced BM until they hit 80, it's easy to see how personal experience playing with fresh newbie hunters specced BM can negatively affect someone's opinion on the spec. Obviously they'll probably catch on when they see your pet grow giant and red, but by then it'll be too late and they won't have any room to complain when you're still pulling solid DPS. In a nutshell, you don't have to go head first into the spec if you're unsure about it. Just try the respec to see if it suits you.

@Asphyxy: Haha, so true. It would be pointless to run it in an instance, but the concept remains for elites. Thank you for catching that (I had a total, "Oh shit!" moment when I attempted to answer that question in my head). Post has been edited :)

@Carson: Yes, but only when fighting more than 1 mob. Otherwise you'll see a DPS drop.