This week I decided to throw my hat into the Beast Master ring and do some ICC (25) bosses as BM.
I'm going to cut to the chase here. If there is a minimum threshold required to dps ICC (25), Beast Master hunters easily cross it. A well geared, well played (or perhaps mediocre in this case) Beast Master hunter can be a high contributing dpser in ICC.
I did Toravon the Ice Watcher, Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper and Stinky as BM, and I did Saurfang and Festergut as MM. I really wanted to do Festergut as BM, but just couldn't bring myself to sacrifice the DPS (I've been trying to break 10K on him for some time now).
A few things worth noting. My gear is tailored more towards MM than it is BM. My reliance on the focused aim talent forces me into a BM talent spec that is not optimized for raiding. Playing around with the spreadsheet and using gear that I have in my bank (or could acquire with badges) it was possible to increase my theoretical BM dps by at least 100. In other words, if I was really making the effort I probably could've done a little better. That being said I don't know that it would have significantly changed things.
Also, this is very representative of how I do as BM compared to how I do as MM in the context of my 25-man raid team. Your results may very.
THE STIGMA OF BEAST MASTER
Let's face it, BM has come under a lot of criticism lately, and has reached a point where going into a raid as BM is like wearing a scarlet letter. Sometimes though this perception can be overblown.
I did not information anyone in my raid that I had switched and would be running as BM. I used a wolf so it was a little less obvious. But nobody said a thing. There were no whispers, and no questions in Vent as to why my dps and position on the meters was lower. And it was lower.
Nobody noticed and nobody cared. Granted these were all farm bosses that we expected to one-shot. I don't know how things would have gone had these been progression bosses we had not killed yet. Still my switch to BM and related performance flew well under the radar.
So how exactly did I do as BM compared to MM. Let's take a very unscientific look.
COMPARING APPLES TO KUMQUATS
The big thing I noticed on this night was that in most cases my positioning on the meters was much lower as BM than it was as MM. That's not to say that my dps was bad or that I was not contributing. It simply indicates that when I play MM my contribution to the raid's dps is higher.
Toravon the Icewatcher (BM)
Lord Marrowgar (BM)
Lady Deathwhisper (BM)
Deatbringer Saurfang (MM)
When I switched to MM for this fight my DPS and positioning on the meters was much higher. Only one other ranged dps did better. The top five are all melee who go to stay on the boss the entire fight (I hate these guys) while I helped with adds. Also, we added another MM hunter for this fight (he's the on the bottom with the 7177.9 dps).
Festergut (MM)
On this fight the other hunter and I were the designated collapse points, so puking was the only thing interrupting our dps (definitely nice work if you can get it).
Stinky (BM)
I've included Stink because I've done over 10K on him before, and it's the only fight where I was BM and the other hunter was MM. My dps was good, but he pretty much cleaned my clock.
All and I feel that BM can definitely put out DPS and be a major contributer to a raid's success. As far as me continuing to raid as BM, I think it can best be summed up by my beer of choice for this experiment - Brooklyn Lager.
