Thougts on Skills and Abilities

Now that I am in the Outlands and have most of the skills that hunters use on a regular basis I have found that there is a handful of skills that I use almost to the exclusion of all else. So I am going to discuss these skills and what I am learning about their use and affect in the game.

Opening up in combat is, to establish focus and send my pet in. On my cat I keep Growl and Claw active. I do not use other skills on my pet right now like Cower (which I still do know how or when to use this ability), or Rake (which has a 10 second cooldown.) Prowl I use only situationally and given that I am just leveling primarily, that is not often.

Then I shoot with Serpent Sting. Now I've read here and there throughout the net that this skill should not be apart of anyones rotations or that after a certain level this shot no longer is effective. I still like this shot, as doing damage is doing damage. Most hunters I talk to seem to feel the same way. After this my next shots rely on several factors. The level of the mob I am dealing with and what Aspect I have up. I am finding that I prefer having Aspect of the Beast up most of the time as this gives my kitty even more umph!. I dearly love seeing my kitty rip mobs to shreds and except for the initial sting, not having to shoot at that mob anymore if I do not want to. This has paid in spades several time when I have been dealing with multiple mobs and I am trapping one in the process. My cat can tear them down even faster and I only have to concentrate on keeping stings up on the mobs. With lower level mobs I almost always use Serpent Sting and then only Auto Shot. With Aspect of the Beast they die really fast and I usually do not run into mana issue's unless I end up fight a whole lot of mobs.

Against mobs that are higher level than me or elite mobs, I am finding that putting up Aspect of the Viper and then running a steady stream of Steady Shot and Serpent Sting when necessay is a strong combination along with Auto Shot, and Viper makes sure that I never run low on mana during the fight. Viper is my second best friend among the Aspects. I actually find that I rarely use Aspect of the Hawk unless I am taking on only one mob for an extended period of time. With Viper, situations that would have left me high and dry in the past now are easily managable as long as I stay in combat. I have now on 2 seperate occasions successfully dealt with 6 and 7 mobs in a single fight. Between my shots, traps, melee special abilities and maneuvering I can glide through these fights because I never seem to go below 50% mana on my bar. My new favorite aspect is Aspect of the Beast as this give my kitty so much additional dps and it allows my gorilla to maintian high levels of threat so that it is less likely that I will pull a mob off of him.

I'm open to other suggestions of shots and their uses, especailly when to use them. Outside of Concussive Shot I really haven't found a whole lot of use for other shots. Arcane is my least used regular shot now that I have Steady Shot. Also of note here, and this may be just a big mistake on my part. I find that I use Hunters Mark a lot less on lower level mobs or mobs of my level. Against higher level mobs and definitely elites, I use it all the time. With the glyph I can see the difference in damage that comes with it up so I find that I use it all the time in what I perceive to be the harder fights. Or against elite mobs where I know I will definitely need the extra dps.

I haven't narrowed things down to a single rotation, but I can honestly say that while Steady Shot may be on a longer timer, I think that we are doing more damage than ever as BM, especially where the pets are concerned.