Scalpel... sponge... my super gun...
Hello everyone, and welcome to my first Under the Gun post! This is where I dissect a talent with a gun, giving you all pointers on why to take it and for what reasons.
Yes, I am that good. Dissecting with firearms, however, is not advised. Please do not do it at home. Please.
Before we get to our featured talent, let’s take a quick refresher on what a “talent” is. In the World of Warcraft, talents are passive abilities your character acquires every level starting at level ten. These talents are very important, as they change your style of play in a significant way.
For example, a restoration druid will be able to heal very effectively, but the druid’s ability to tank and do damage will be severely limited. As a result, a restoration druid will be a healer, not a tank or a DPSer.
You need to be sufficiently talented in one area to take higher level talent in that tree, and some talents have prerequiste talent(s) you must take beforehand. It’s also impossible to take all the talents, which means you’re going to have to make choices.
That’s what Under the Gun is going to help with: making your choice easier. It’s still a choice, but the information presented here will hopefully give everyone a clear understanding of what the talent is capable of doing. Now, without anymore blathering, lets get to analyzing this installment’s talent: Spirit Bond.
TALENT: SPIRIT BOND
What is it?
Spirit Bond is a mid-level beastmastery talent with no prerequisite. It’s located on the 5th tier, and has two ranks. You must be at least level 30 and have 20 points invested in the tree in order to get it.
When you get it, Spirit Bond has two effects. First, you and your pet will regenerate 1%/2% of your total hit points every 10 seconds. The second effect is that healing done to both you and your pet is now increased by 5%/10%. If your pet dies or is dismissed, neither effect takes place.
To note, the bonus healing from Spirit Bond affects all healing done: bandages, healing spells, potions, bloodthirsty, Spirit Bond itself… everything that heals you or your pet will heal for 10% more than usual.
Simple Math
Right now, I am sporting 13 181 hp total. So long as I have my pet with me, I will be regenerate 263-264 hit points(2% of my total health) every ten seconds. This is before applying the healing bonus however: after applying the bonus to healing, I will be gaining 289-270 every 10 seconds.
My wolf, Link, has around 9 500 hit points. Link will regenerate 190 hit points before the healing bonus, and 209 hit points after the bonus, every ten seconds.
If I am being healed by a priest’s greater heal, they normally heal for about 9 500 and hit critically for 14 500 hit points. When we do the math, a 9 500 heal will actually heal us for around 10 450 while a critical hit will heal us for 15 950. For the normal heal, that’s an extra 950 hit points, while the critical hit has an extra 1 450, all thanks to Spirit Bond. That’s a lot of extra hit points!
PvE Applications
Spirit Bond doesn’t contribute very well to a raiding or dungeon-crawling experience. The healing is nice, but a smart hunter should be able to avoid a lot of incoming damage, and therefore not need the extra healing.
If you are working through progression content, however, the extra heals might mean the difference between a wipe and a kill if you are walking in to the fight blind. It allows for errors, which happens in an instance you’re not familiar with. Once you are familiar with a fight though, you shouldn’t need this talent anymore.
Not Reccomended for PvE
PvP Applications
This talent is incredibly potent in PvP. Heals are the lifeblood of PvP, and a team without heals will always lose to one with them. Spirit Bond makes for free heals, and free heals are always good in PvP. The increase in heals allows you to bandage yourself for more hit points in arenas, recover from a battle more quickly, and eat faster.
For Beastmasters involved in PvP, this talent is spectacular.
Heartily Reccomended for PvP
Solo Applications
Spirit Bond is a very good talent to have while soloing. There are times where you pull more than you can chew, and Spirit Bond’s heals help with that a great deal.
A Mend Pet that normally heals for 1 050 every 3 seconds now heals for 1 165 instead. A mend pet in its entirety heals for 5 250 hit points. Now it heals for 5 775 instead. This kind of healing advantage can save you in tricky situations, deal with tougher foes, and keep questing for longer periods without having to eat food and rest.
Heartily Reccomended for Soloing
Verdict
Spirit Bond is a PvP/soloing talent, with a some very minor applications in PvE. I would not normally use Spirit Bond in any PvE setting, as my job is to deal damage and avoid incoming damage to the best of my ability. Healing myself doesn’t get me brownie points, so I don’t get Spirit Bond normally in PvE.
For PvP and soloing, I take this talent, hands down, no issues. It helps my healers keep me alive, it helps them keep my pet alive, and it gives me and edge to outlast any opponents(like rogues) with little to no self healing ability.
Overall, Spirit Bond is a quality talent in a good number of situations, but it doesn’t really sparkle in PvE environments.
That’s it for Under the Gun, for now! If you have anymore questions, comments, queries, or even a request for the next talent to be examined, please e-mail me! You can find my e-mail under my “Contact me!” page.
Au revoir, for now.
/flourish
