Beast Mastery in ToC

Finally got back into ToC 25 today, for the first time in more than a week. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've really had a go at it since I picked up my 4-pc Tier 9 -- and the results were good.

As a reminder to everyone: Yes, I raid Beast Mastery (Except for Twins). I don't concentrate on DPS at the cost of everything else: On Jaraxxus, I'm chasing adds. On Anub, I'm backup on permafrost. On Beasts, I'm ready to Tranq, and on faction champions, I'm hitting aimed shot and tranq shot every time they're up. I interrupt/stun any time I can. I'm using my fear, I'm not standing in the fire, I'm bringing down snobolds.

My DPS is at the top of almost every fight; even on fights with better geared players, and players who have been playing much longer. These are not scrub players; we are slowly pushing into ToC hardmodes, and it is the strongest group of people I have played with during my time in WoW, both gear-wise and skill wise.

Min/Maxing is useful for a lot of things. It's useful for gear upgrades, gem considerations, and a great tool to look at playing with your spec. However, what it is not is a measure of how you will perform in a given scenario, and it is also not the end-all be-all answer. Player skill will *far outweigh* the potential differences between theoretical DPS.

A side note to all you people out there wanting to play Beast Mastery in a raid environment: Try it! BM provides a different play style, and still provides excellent burst, a useful tool to have when raiding high-end raid content. (Nether portal go boom.) Additionally, depending on your composition, it may provide a significant raid-wide DPS boost: Unless you have a ret pally (or in 3.3, an Arcane Mage) you'll get a unique buff from Ferocious Inspiration, giving a 3% raid-wide DPS boost.

Measure performance in raiding, not on spreadsheets. Spec and Gear can help determine where you'll end up, but a good player will be able to far outperform a bad player 100% of the time. Learn where you perform in the various specs -- you may surprise yourself.