During the extensive pre-cataclysm boredom stage, I decided to knock out loremaster of northrend. I haven't bothered with the old world one because I knew in cataclysm you will be able to fly in it. Also, it is a LOT easier now with a combination of quest number achievements by zone instead of just a total quest count, so I am glad I waited.
But basically, let us go through each spec with the pros and cons before I give you my opinion.
First off, BM.
For the longest time BM has been regarded as "The leveling spec". Mainly because the pet would be tanking throughout the majority of leveling, so a spec that increases the durability of the pet as well as the threat it puts out seems ideal and makes it very easy. Also, the pet doing most of the damage the process is mostly automated and you don't have to do that much. Kind of like first-class service. But, in cataclysm, pet threat is a nonfactor. We have the amazing glyph of misdirection which resets the cooldown when it is cast on our pet. So with any spec, our pet has 100% threat regardless. Also, all of our pets have had enormous buffs to their durability. Mend pet is buffed as well as proper scaling from our gear. They are in no real fear of dying anytime soon.
But BM is not completely useless! It is very good with the new focus mechanic, your pet has good regeneration and it is pulling most of the weight, and you get cooldowns that help your focus like fervor and the beast within that reduces cost by 50%, but most importantly I enjoy the faster mount speed, an all purpose bonus to questing, and not to mention the self-heals from the spirit beast, a godsend in our time.
But what I feel this spec lacks is that it is extremely cooldown-reliant. It is only focus efficient for a short duration and then is pretty poor between fights. While leveling, you will be constantly killing without pause, and this spec loses its benefits.
Survival. My staple tree of specialization, and the currently best raiding and pvp spec in cataclysm. This is obviously the best choice for leveling, right? In my opinion, it isn't. "Why not?", you might ask. One, this tree has no survivability. No self heals. Second, this tree has zero focus regeneration outside of procs. That means it isn't good for rapid leveling without annoyance. Example, Shoot explosive shot, mob dies, shoot explosive shot, second mob dies.. You are now completely OOF and have no way of regenerating save spamming steady shot or waiting. This is why I won't level with this spec. Also, this spec has damage that is very dependent on your debuffs on the target. Serpent sting, 10% more damage, (not to mention that your dots crit a lot harder than as other specs) Black arrow, ticks hard and procs locknload. That means a typical SV rotation is black arrow, serpent sting, explosive shot. Then the mob is dead before the dots get to use their full effect. So then you are simply ending up with neglecting your maximum potential dps to just spam explosive shot. That could work, but then you run out of focus with no way to restore. I have a better solution.
Marksmanship. My spec of choice for leveling. Why? Well, first off it requires extremely minimal buttons to press. You press two buttons to kill things, chimera shot and arcane shot. They require no shots to be set up beforehand, they will apply Hunter's mark, chimera shot no longer needs serpent sting so you do not even have to use it. Other than that, the PRIMARY reason why MM is the superior spec is rapid recovery. Every time you kill a mob, you get 50 focus back. 'Nuff said. If this tree had ONLY that I would be sold, but it has far more. It has very nice aoe damage with bombardment, as well as using concussive barrage you can effectively kite multiple mobs at once. Silencing shot. A very useful ability for the inevitable caster mobs that you'll encounter while questing as well as those elite quests that only hunters can solo, because we are so pro. It also has readiness, so you can do whatever you want a second time, including feign death to prevent dying and running through quests to pick up that item you need, and of course self heals from chimera shot. It isn't much, I know, but it is enough that you don't have to stop.. since your pet will be taking the majority of the damage.
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