I just got dual spec on my baby paladin so I could use all that nice looking T6 healing gear I used to have, but I haven’t done it yet on my hunter. Honestly, I can’t see a reason to… I don’t do anything but raid. If I PVPed more than casually, it might be worth it, but honestly, even rocking pure PVE gear and spec, I do quite well in battlegrounds and wintergrasp. I’m not sure it would be worth trading the ability to solo down a tank in 14 seconds just to avoid a few deaths. I don’t even bother with my pvp trinket. If I ever get into a fight where I’m stunlocked, I just respawn and go pick a fight with something other than a rogue.
The other possible reason for dual spec is if you want to go BM for soloing or grinding, but the odd time I want to do a quest, my survival raiding spec usually does just fine.
I suppose some non-hybrid classes can benefit from being more flexible in raids- rogues could have two specs that allow them to do their top DPS in more circumstances, for example. Like making their second spec with honor among thieves for when they have the optimal group composition. I can’t see any benefit for hunters though! Assuming you’re only raiding, and you’re only interested in doing as much DPS as possible, there’s really not much in the way of choice.
Aside from questing and pvp, what uses of a second spec can you guys see? I’ll bet some people will want to keep both 0/15/56 and 6/14/51, but while the latter is more theoretical DPS, it doesn’t have any replenishment or mana efficiency, and in Ulduar, that’s pretty much a requirement.
Euripides
jurgwena
lemli
eidotrope
pherra
femaledwarf
I’m actually dual-spec on my hunter. I’m Survival and Marksman. Both are raiding specs.
I’m using Marksman in Ulduar right now. The reason for this is I find the rotation to be a lot simpler than SV and it doesn’t sacrifice a lot of dps. Since all of the encounters are new, MM allows me to focus on the what’s happening around me. I’m watching for blue flames and stuff and not waiting for Lock and Loads.
Once I’m comfortable with the encounters I’ll go back to Survival. For places like Naxx I stick with Survival.
I suppose if you’re more comfortable with the marks rotation, it’s certainly an option worth considering. Luckily, I am most comfortable in survival, so I can focus on encounter awareness the best in this spec.
I’ve been raiding MM to give my raid the 10% AP boost, and while I’m losing theoretical DPS, this week on XT, I did 6500dps, so the difference isnt that big. We just picked up an Enhance Shammy, so now I’m going dual spec to be SV and MM for raids with and w/o the Shammy.
If I were ever in a raid without unleashed rage or abom’s might, I would certainly consider marks as it’s not worse enough to justify the loss of one of these types of buffs raid wide, but I’ve never been in a raid without one :)
I have dual spec on my hunter also… BM for 9% of everything… and SV for the odd time that I need Replenishment! *nods*
oops, I meant 95% of everything >.>
One reason you may want to take dual specs is because some Ulduar fights are difficult to stand still for. In those cases, you may find an MM spec (or Surv spec) without Sniper Training to be higher DPS.
Other than that, I can’t see a use for dual spec in your case. I’m BM-PvE/Surv-PvP myself, but since you don’t seem to do anything that requires another spec, why waste the 1k gold? :)
…wow, that’s weird. My comment shows up *before* yours due to the different time zones… it’s May 6th here! :P
We’re starting to get a little farther into Ulduar and I might want to go learn MM… I have a dismal uptime on sniper training.