Para - I mentioned I'd post some of the BM stuff I was looking at and here it is. Keep in mind after 3.0.8 steady shot gets nerfed and cat and scorpid damage get nerfed so BM will change quite a bit.
At low gear levels and/or for short fights 50/21 is a great spec because it lets you pop Bestial Wrath a lot - the thing is there are many little details within that spec. If you have a lot of hit you can drop Careful Aim.
Right now I run:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbMzxtRwu0ekxceVb0bzWith more hit you can max out improved stings and get 2/2 Rapid Killing which gives you one more Rapid Fire in a 3+ minute fight.
For those who are wondering about other things: Spirit Bond used to be ok for leveling, useless for raiding. Now it's much more useful since it increases healing effects on you and your pet - that means less mend pet to keep your pet alive if it takes damage.
Now at higher gear levels - full epics through Naxx 25, some interesting things happen with BM. Pets do so much damage that
Aspect of the Beast yields more DPS than Dragonhawk! (using Glyph of AotB). Hunters with that kind of gear run something like 54/12/0 +5 With the last 5 points going into improved tracking or MM skills:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbMzxtRwuMesx0eVbZbWith that you still don't take the 51 point BM talent - but you max out the DPS talents like invigorate and cobra strikes, meaning less AotV and more AotB time. I've seen reports of hunters doing over 6000 DPS with this build, 3000+ of that being pet DPS alone... that's right, a pet that does 3000 DPS on its own.
BM is still a lot of fun for me - after the upgrades I got on Thursday I was putting out 3000 DPS on Archavon on this undergeared alt, all while popping TBW 4 times during the fight. I'm still getting used to keeping Serpent Sting up (BM was even lazier than being a fire mage before so adding Serpent Sting to Steady is already a big thing to remember, lol) so my uptme on serpent sting is probably closer to 90% than 100%, but it's really just as easy and spammable as before.
The interesting part to me is how 50/21 evolves as your gear improves and finally gives way to 54/12+5 when you no longer want readiness because your damage is consistently high.
