Page Updates

I have started to update the talent pages with new information regarding specs, gemming, and enchants for 4.0.1 and Cataclysm.

Check them out:
Beast Master
Marksmanship
Survival

Don't forget to check out my Template Contest. You can also find some helpful tips from ZAM users at this thread.

Glyphs

In this article I would like to talk about the new changes to glyphs. There is a new tier of glyphs now called Prime glyphs. These new prime glyphs are for a lot of the major shots fired. Just like in the old system you can have 3 prime glyphs active, as well as 3 major and 3 minor.

Below is a complete list of all the glyphs. After this list I will discuss what I think will be the most widely used glyphs for each spec.

(Please note that I have taken this information from the PTR and used the links from wowhead. A lot of the links on wowhead are under the wrong category, ie. say prime when they are major and so on.)

Prime:
Aimed Shot
Arcane Shot
Chimera Shot
Dazzled Prey
Explosive Shot
Kill Command
Kill Shot
Rapid Fire
Serpent Sting
Steady Shot

Major:
Bestial Wrath
Concussive Shot
Deterrence
Disengage
Freezing Trap
Ice Trap
Immolation Trap
Master's Call
Mending
Misdirection
Raptor Strike
Scatter Shot
Silencing Shot
Snake Trap
Trap Launcher
Wyvern Sting

Minor:
Aspect of the Pack
Feign Death
Mend Pet
Revive Pet
Scare Beast

Now I would like to discuss which glyphs I believe will be seen most often for each spec:

Beast Mastery:
Prime:
Arcane Shot
Kill Shot
Kill Command, Rapid Fire
Since Arcane Shot is BM's most used shot it needs to be there. Kill shot I believe will be the one glyph ever spec has. It allows for 2 instant Kill Shots on a 6 second cooldown. The last glyph will kind of be up to the numbers. Reducing the focus cost of Kill Command is good and will probably outweigh the haste bonus during Rapid Fire. I would probably choose Kill Command.

Major:
Bestial Wrath
Misdirection
Trap Launcher
Misdirection I believe will be a glyph every spec uses. It allows you to instantly send some of your threat to your pet and immediately send more towards the tank allowing you to be able to focus on dps rather than threat. Bestial Wrath is just an obvious choice. It's a powerful glyph for BM hunters. The last one was hard to decide. I picked trap launcher just because nothing else really fit. Less focus to throw out traps might be useful.

Minor:
Aspect of the Pack
Feign Death
Mend Pet
There isn't much to choose from, these are the exact same in all three specs. The others left don't really provide anything special.

Marksmanship:
Prime:
Aimed Shot
Kill Shot
Chimera Shot, Rapid Fire, Kill Command
Aimed Shot of course as it will most likely be widely used in MM. Kill shot I believe will be the one glyph ever spec has. It allows for 2 instant Kill Shots on a 6 second cooldown. The last one will come down to numbers. With Chimera Shot not dealing instant damage from serpent sting and not being on a strict rotation with Aimed Shot means you don't really need to reduce the cooldown. Reducing the focus cost of Kill Command is good and will might outweigh the haste bonus during Rapid Fire. With heavy focus shots like Aimed and Chimera, Rapid Fire might be a better choice.

Major:
Misdirection
Silencing Shot
Trap Launcher
There aren't too many glyphs that benefit MM. Misdirection I believe will be a glyph every spec uses. It allows you to instantly send some of your threat to your pet and immediately after send more towards the tank allowing you to be able to focus on dps rather than threat. You can get a bit of focus from Silencing Shot. Lastly, I picked trap launcher just because nothing else really fit. Less focus to throw out traps might be useful.

Minor:
Aspect of the Pack
Feign Death
Mend Pet
There isn't much to choose from, these are the exact same in all three specs. The others left don't really provide anything special. 

Survival:
Prime:
Explosive Shot, Arcane Shot
Kill Shot
Kill Command, Rapid Fire, Serpent Sting
Explosive Shot and Arcane Shot will be up to the numbers in the end. SV has very high crit in the first place and you might not even need the Explosive Shot glyph, in which case Arcane Shot would be a better choice. Kill shot I believe will be the one glyph ever spec has. It allows for 2 instant Kill Shots on a 6 second cooldown. The last will come down to the numbers. The extra time added from Serpent Sting plus Cobra Shot might be worth it so you don't have to keep reapplying Serpent Sting, but if Cobra Shot can keep Serpent Sting up then it won't be worth it. So then it would come down to Kill Command and Rapid Fire. In SV I can see Kill Command not being used as much since Black Arrow and Explosive Shot take up a big chunk of focus therefore making Rapid Fire the obvious choice.

Major:
Misdirection
Wyvern Sting
Trap Launcher
Misdirection I believe will be a glyph every spec uses. It allows you to instantly send some of your threat to your pet and immediately after send more towards the tank allowing you to be able to focus on dps rather than threat. Wyvern Sting is really the only other glyph that deals with SV. Lastly, I picked trap launcher just because nothing else really fit. Less focus to throw out traps might be useful.

Minor:
Aspect of the Pack
Feign Death
Mend Pet
There isn't much to choose from, these are the exact same in all three specs. The others left don't really provide anything special.

Tier 11 Armor Sets

The tier 11 armor sets are here. The hunters set is called "Lightning-Charged." These are item level 359. These have been acquired from MMO-Champion.

Tier 11 Hunter:
Lightning-Charged Headguard
Lightning-Charged Tunic
Lightning-Charged Legguards
Lightning-Charged Gloves
Lightning-Charged Spaulders

These do look pretty solid. Only one item with hit and one item with mastery. With so much hit being put onto items most hunters will probably reforge some to other stats. Mastery has shown to be very powerful for BM hunters on beta. You might see mastery becoming a major stat to reforge or stack over haste. We'll have to wait until it all comes live though.

I have noticed there is only 1 gem socket per each item. This is something different, but the socket bonuses are a lot more powerful than they have been in the past. This could be to counter the lack of sockets. But this will also put a little bit of a hinder on JC and making some money.

Other item level 359 mail pieces that will surely be looked into are:
Moccasins of Verdurous Glooms - Feet
Viewless Wings - Cloak
Fluid Death - Trinket

Item level 349 pieces which can be obtained with Justice Points through Heroic Cataclysm dungeons:
Vest of the True Companion - Chest
Gloves of the Passing Night - Hands
Willow Mask - Head
Hillside Striders - Legs
Wrap of the Valley Glade - Shoulders
Belt of the Dim Forest - Waist
Amulet of Dull Dreaming - Neck

Also the gear for Arena Season 9/Rated Battlegrounds has been released. You can see all those items here at MMO Champion.

Contest Corrections and Extension

The Template Contest has been extended to October 30th as the deadline and the winner will be chosen on Monday November, 1st. It was also come to my attention that the email I had posted was incorrect. These corrections and the extension can be seen on the official page linked above.

The correct email is Landoforcs@gmail.com, sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Get out there and earn your ZAM premium subscription and 30 day World of Warcraft Digital Game Card.

Thanks

Malazee's "Pet Usage Flowchart and Ability Spreadsheet"

Malazee over on the Petopia forums has provided some amazing spreadsheets and charts detailing the new abilities for pets. Here is the topic and all credit goes to Malazee for the creation of these.

The first up is the pet abilities.

After that we have the PvP-ish Utilities

 Next is the raid buffs and debuffs

 

And finally we have the flowchart

These are absolutely incredible and will be very useful in Cataclysm and most hunters should have these stashed away somewhere for future reference. Thank you Malazee again for these spreadsheets