Part 1 - Major Class Changes
  • Kill Command has had its damage increased by 34%
  • Arcane Shot does 125% ranged weapon damage up from 100 and costs 50% more focus
  • AMOC Has had 40% increased Damage
  • Lynx Rush has 30% increased damage
  • We have counter shot which is an interrupt that replaces SS
  • The 5.3 stampede nerf has been reversed in PvE, damage is no longer reduced by 75%
  • Deterrance has a 3 min cooldown and 2 charges
  • Disengage has a cooldown of 20 seconds, down from 25

These changes will affect how we build our hunters. Overall we seem to be preforming quite well.

Part 2 - Talents

These are pretty interesting for 5.4. What I have here is based off my PTR experience as well as reading up on quite a bit of theroycrafting - places like the EJ forums etc.

Tier 1- Either Posthaste or Crouching Tiger Hidden Chimera based on the fight. Posthaste is nice when movement is needed, for example on Siegecrafter Blackfuse. Posthaste if movement fight, Crouching Tiger Hidden Chimera if damage mitigation is needed (HC Jin'Rokh is a good ToT example)

Tier 2- No DPS here, whatever works best for you. Raid wise this isnt the most useful of tiers.

Tier 3-Iron Hawk is probably still the go too choice. After chatting with the guilds healers they said they would prefer this, even in spite of the nerf. They are pretty damn good at what they do so im going to follow their advice. Iron Hawk in most cases

Tier 4- *This is probably the most tentative part of the guide* Dire Beast and Thrill are close in terms of simulated results with DB having a slight edge. I would recommend DB as thrill has a tenancy of messing up your focus, since it will make your next 3 AS's cost 10 focus instead of 30. It also leads to GCD bloat, where you have available thrill of the hunt arcane shots but are not able to use them as a more valuable skill, such as Kill Command, has came off cooldown.
Dire can be applied right before a Bestial Wrath to give more focus without any difference to your rotation.
Single target go for Dire Beast. Ill update for Thrill info.

Tier 5- Single target Murder or Crows is the best, assuming you get full use out of the cooldown. On fights with target switching Blink Strikes will be best as your pet will be able to move from target to target faster, this minimising travel time and increasing dps. Murder of Crows for single target,Blink Strikes (and fervor) for AoE.

Tier 6-Glave toss is still the best talent here for single target situations. For AoE you should chose Barrage. Quite a lot of hunter talents vary on the kind of fight.

Part 3 - Glyphs

Glyphs are largely unaffected. There are only a few that are that helpful which I have mentioned here.

Major
Glyph of Animal Bond increases healing taken by 10%
Glyph of Deterrence increases the damage reduction by 20% up to 50%
After this Glyph of Liberation is probably your berst bet. Its a 5% heal when you disengage. Honestly our glpyhs are not that interesting damage wise.

Minor
Glyph of Revive Pet removes push back effects during the cast of Revive

Part 4 - Gems, Enchants and Reforging
The easiest way to do this is to just plug your character into askmrrobot.com. It will calculate the best reforge to do and display the optimal gems and enchants.

Gems
Once you are ready to raid you shouldnt have to gem into hit or expertise. In my experience reforging can take care of that quite easily which allows for easy gemming choices. If you badly need hit or expertise then you can go for the hit/exp version of a gem.

Meta - Either the Agile Primal Diamond OR, if you have access to it, the Capacitive Primal Diamond
Red - Go for the Delicate Primordial Ruby OR Perfect Delicate Pandarian Garnet. JC's should go for the epic JC agi red gem.
Yellow - Deadly Vermilion Onyx OR Perfect Deadly Tiger Opal
Blue - Glinting Imperial Amethyst OR Perfect Glinting Roguestone. If you are having issues reaching the hit cap you can use the "Rigid" version of the gem.

Enchants
Shoulder - Greater Tiger Claw OR Secret Tiger Claw if you are a scribe.
Chest - Glorious Stats
Wrist - Greater Agility OR Fur Lining Agility if you are LW. BS can socket a bracer.
Hands - Superior Expertise if you need exp OR Greater Haste. Synapse Strings if Engi OR Socket is BS
Waist - Living Steel Belt Buckle with a Delicite red gem.
Leg - Shadowleather Leg Armor OR Primal Leg Reinforcements if you are LW as its cheaper.
Feet - Blurred Speed
Weapon -Lord Blastington's Scope of Doom
Ring - Enchant Ring - Greater Agility (Ench only)
Cloak - Superior Critical Strike OR Accuracy if hit is needed.

Stats
1- As much agility as possible
2- Hit and Exp to atleast 7.5, use Askmrrobot to calculate exact reforging.
3- Crit Strike Rating
4- Haste
5- Mastery

Part 5 - Rotation
Opener
After pre potting you want to use Rapid Fire, Stampede,Bestial Wrath, Kill Command, A Murder of Crows, Serpent Sting, Dire Beast, and kill command. Depending on your latency etc you should be able to fit an Arcane shot inbetween dire beast
and the final kill command.

Normal Abilities
If you do this correctly you will have preformed the opening well and can settle into the regular rotation. Honestly it isnt really a rotation, more a priority system. Use your head and you will be fine.
Kill Command should be used on cooldown and must not be delayed
Arcane shot is your filler. It costs 30 focus so you must be sure not to bring yourself under 40 focus before Kill Command comes off cooldown.
Serpent Sting will already be applied and is refreshed by Cobra Shot.
Your main focus regen ability is Cobra shot, simply use this to regen focus. You always want to have 40 focus ready for your next kill command. If something like AMOC is coming off cooldown you will want to build up a "bank" of focus a few seconds before so you can use it instantly.
Glave Toss should be used on cooldown. If possible try to line up some mobs between you and the target.

Cooldown Usage
Now that the main abilities are out of the way lets talk about cooldowns.
Our biggest one is Stampede. 5 min CD and can be used 1-2 times a fight in most cases. Use it on the pull along. It benefits from the haste that Rapid Fire gives.

Rapid fire is the next cooldown. This has a 3 min cooldown. This means that it can be combined with every third Bestial Wrath. This should be done for maximum effect - note that you should never delay either ability in order to stack.

Since Bestial Wrath is 1 mind and DB is 30 seconds, you want to be doing dire beasts every 30 secs so that you can use it just before Bestial Wrath.
Also you should time bestial wrath so that you can use 2 kill commands during it. Since Kill Command is a 6 sec CD you should really use it in the first 3 seconds of BW to ensure you can fit a second one in at the end.

Focus Fire will burn your pets frenzy to give you a haste buff. This should be used once you get 5 stacks of focus fire. It should not be used during BW as you dont want to waste a cooldown. Also it may not be 100% effective when stacked with rapid fire as it would push you under the GCD

Rabid is a pet ability that should be used on CD. If you can stack with BW its nice but dont delay it.

Part 6 - Macros and Addons
Macros are very helpful. Here is what I use:

If I am not in combat this will use my pot and cast dive/dash on my pet, allowing my pet to get into combat quickly. In combat it will use rapid fire Stampede and Rabid. It definatly helps out having a smooth opener.

/use [nocombat] Virmen's Bite
/cast [nocombat] Dive
/cast [nocombat] Dash
/cast [combat] Rapid Fire
/cast [combat] Stampede
/cast [combat] Rabid
/petassist

This casts BW and Kill Command. This is quality of life and means you will have to use less buttons.

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/cast Bestial Wrath
/petattack
/cast Rabid
/cast Kill Command

As for addons I will do a full video eventually, but basically I use bartender, JSHB, Shadowed Unit Frames omni CC and Tell me When. There are a few old mod videos on the channel that you can check out.

Part 7 - Full 5.4 BM Changes
Last here are the changes for those of you who want the exact details

GENERAL
The following Hunter pet abilities no longer cost Focus to use: Dash, Dive, and Charge.
Arcane Shot now deals 125% ranged weapon damage (up from 100%) and had its focus cost increased by 50%.
Counter Shot is now a baseline interrupt ability learned by all Hunters at level 22.
Deterrence now has a 3-minute cooldown (up from 2 minutes) but has 2 charges.
Disengage now has a cooldown of 20 seconds (down from 25 seconds).
Explosive Trap had its overall damage decreased by 30%. Proportionately, more damage has been removed from the initial damage than the periodic effect.
Readiness has been removed.
Revive Pet no longer requires the Hunter to have line-of-sight to their pet.
Stampede damage dealt by pets when the ability is used outside of an Arena or Battleground is no longer reduced by 75%

BM
Stampede damage dealt by pets when the ability is used outside of an Arena or Battleground is no longer reduced by 75%
Kill Command damage has been increased by 34%.

Talent
A Murder of Crows now deals 40% more damage.
Aspect of the Iron Hawk now reduces all damage taken by 10%, down from 15%.
Glaive Toss no longer initiates auto-attack.
Lynx Rush's damage has been increased by 30%.
Silencing Shot is no longer a talent and is now an ability that replaces Counter Shot for Marksman Hunters.
Spirit Bond now regenerates 3% of total health every 2 seconds while the Hunter's pet is active (up from 2%).
Wyvern Sting now has a range of 40 yards (up from 35 yards).

GLYPHS
Glyph of the Lean Pack: Reduces the range of Aspect of the Pack to 7 yards.
Glyph of Enduring Deceit: Camouflage also reduces spell damage taken by 10%
Glyph of Mend Pet now has a 100% chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the Hunter's pet on each tick (up from 50% chance).
Glyph of Mending now speeds up the periodic effect of Mend Pet to restore health to the pet every 1 second doubling the total amount healed over 10 seconds.
Glyph of No Escape now increases the ranged critical strike chance against targets affected by the Hunter's Freezing Trap by 100% (up from 20% chance).