BM vs Marksmanship vs Survivalism In Arena

So talent specs. I'm not going to go into specifics today just a brief overview of builds and what strengths and weaknesses they have and to some extent their viability. Now note that if your partner is exceptionaly good you can get away with less than optimal specs and the same applies you can be perfectly specced and you and your partner don't work together you won't see >1500 ratings.

So Specs:

BM High DPS (41/20/0)
Key Talents: 5/5 Endurance Training, Intimidate, Serpents Swiftness, Mortal Shots, Frenzy, Bestial Wrath+TBW (spirit bond optional).

Strong: When free 41/20 can sustain a nice load of good dps. Nothing bursty but a nice steady 700dps in arena gear. TBW provides good protection against being stuck in mele as well as dmg from being frozen by mages (a frost mage relies on freezing you not just to avoid dmg but it increases their own dmg ALOT).

Weakness: A big lack is the missing burst damage. You will have far lower attack power than your marksman counterparts in pvp and as such your specials for burst (arcane multi your instants) hit for less. The biggest weakness of this build is utility. While you have tools to get out of hairy situations you lack the big tools to put the opposing team into a hairy situation. 700 dps is great for slowly wearing down a healers mana however a healer can heal through your dps and you lack the tools to shut down a healer or drain him more effectivly (improved stings).

Viability: BM is arguably the best dueling spec. It does well in BGs but BM is hit HARD by resiliance. Pets have a static crit rate aside from talents. Now resiliance cannot push pet crit completely off of the table but the big decrease in crits gimps you dmg against well geared opponents by ALOT. The net result of the resiliance is a lack of frenzy (30% pet dps) and ferocious inspiration uptime (3% dmg for party). The other glaring issue with BM in arena is a lack of shut downs you can't effectivly drain a casters mana and you dont have silence/scatter to help out a teamate. When it comes time to burn an opponent down you'll often find that your dps isn't enough to get through the heals and you lack a way to shut down the heals. A smart priest will be able to assist you via silence or fear but this is a bandaid for the spec.

BM Arena Tank (41/4/16)
Key Talents: 5/5 Endurance Training, 5/5 Survivalist, Deterence, Bestial Wrath, Intimidate, Imp Wingclip, Optional Spirit Bond.

Strong: You have a ton of health, it only gets to be more as you get geared. You have TBW as well as deterence to shut down mele dps on you. You can soak up a rediculous beating for a hunter while you do low dmg and your partner brings the other team down.

Weakness: Your dps is abysmal and you cant use this spec as a pvp/pve spec. In 2v2's you are forced into a 2dps team as well as in 3s. You have no interupts as well aside from a 1 minute cooldown.

Viability: This build somewhat works when undergeared. It helps you live and its less likely teams will realize the "tankhunter" strategy and will still focus on you. As you get more gear and play better teams this build just fails if you are not the focused target. You won't have tools to help your teamate get free and your dps.... SUCKS

Marksmanship (0/42-3/18-19)
Key Talents: Mortal Shots, Improved Stings, Scatter Shot, Silencing Shot, Trueshot Aura, Entrapment, Barrage Talents, Surefooted +++ IN 2.3 Improved Arcane Shot, Aimed Shot

Strong: Utility for assisting teammates in the form of entrapment and scatter allowing you to help focus targets reduce inbound dmg and get free of mele and casters. Good burst dmg from improved multishot allows you to take out a low HP target fast as well as spread a good amount of dps around the opposing team forcing the healer to spread heals and heal more per mana spent. Improved stings is a great tool for OOMing teams who slow play with healer+halfhealer lineups in 2's as well as in 5's and 3's. Silencing shot can help reduce incoming caster dmg and stop heals for a burn down. It also provides more (albeit shitty) dps while on the move. With the 2.3 changes this build will get more tools with the aimed shot change as well as the purge from imp arcane. The deadzone removal will help up the dps of this build making it harder to shut down the dps via positioning.

Weakness: MELE, you're going to be in a way like a warlock. You will HATE making a mistake with a rogue or warrior because it means you're going to get hit more than a few times and will need heals. Dealing with mele is where this build needs skill rather than GOGOLOLWITHIN to get free. Good use of your range to get warriors into combat fast as well as scorpid sting and deterence will help you survive and get free.

Viability: This build is far more popular on top end pvp hunters. For good reason, silencing shot is the easiest to use, shortest cooldown silence in the game. Scatter is great for offensivly dmging and stopping heals as well as helping a teammate get free of mele focus trains. Having been a BM raider I was pvping as BM and found the issues above. I was consistantly playing in the 1400-1550 range and never improving. The respec to 0/43/18 has made a huge improvement for me and will get better as I learn it. The better you get at 5-7 kiting warriors and dealing with mele focus the better you will do. You have alot of strong tools and using them to your advantage is key. Throwing out scorpid on mele, viper on caster dps and good use of frost traps for entrapment are all key. Swapping to this build I've shot up to near 1700s (and they will be 1700 by tuesday :P) within 2 weeks.

Survivalist:
Key Talents: Wyvern Sting, Expose Weakness, Survivalist, Lightening Reflexes, Deterence

Strong: High crit, higher mele dmg reduction via dodge

Weak: Resiliance Owns your buff and overall dps.

Viability: DONT DO EET. I tried it, it worked when noone had resiliance but resiliance OWNS expose weakness and your lack of scatter and silence removes all the good utility of this build. The instant cast wyvern sting my change this but I think that with its long cooldown it will still not be as effective as silence. I have yet to see a team matrix make good use of this build. I'll maybe do an update post 2.3 when the wyvern to instant change goes in perhaps 0/24/37 will make a comeback with good multishot dps and an instant wyvern for burndown.