Beast Mastery Hunter Guide for WoW Forever

Beast Mastery turns your pet into a second damage dealer and a tank you never have to invite. The pet holds the mob, you shoot it, and in Forever almost every point you spend pays out twice: your pet inherits 10% of your Attack Power and all of your Critical Strike chance, and Focused Fire raises the damage of both of you while it's out. Your pet takes the hits, so you level with little downtime and few deaths, and at 60 you bring Bestial Wrath: 50% more pet damage on demand.

Forever adds a second kind of companion. Summon Hawk sends a hawk to dive-bomb your target and keep attacking it for 18 seconds, and two hawks can be out at once. Unleashed Fury and Ferocity buff hawks as well as your pet, so a Beast Mastery Hunter fights with three animals on the target. Deadly Aspects finally gives the tree a real ranged talent in tier 1: Auto Shot procs a 30% attack speed boost.

At level 30 you run 21 points of pure Beast Mastery. At 60 you take the tree to Bestial Wrath, then add crit, Rapid Fire cooldown reduction and Improved Tracking from the other two trees.

Strengths

• Built for solo play. Your pet tanks, mobs rarely reach you, and you stop to eat far less often.
• Damage split across you, your pet and two hawks, so a missed shot or a resisted sting costs you little.
• Bestial Wrath adds 50% pet damage for 18 seconds every 2 minutes, and your pet can't be feared or stopped while it lasts.
• Intimidation gives you a 3-second stun on a 1-minute cooldown, plus a burst of threat that pulls a loose mob back onto your pet.
• Crit does double duty. Every point of Critical Strike you gear for also crits for your pet.
• Easy on mana. Bestial Discipline lets half your mana regeneration continue while you fight, and a hawk keeps attacking for 18 seconds from a single cast.

Weaknesses

• Your pet is a second health bar you have to watch. Mend Pet costs you globals and mana.
• A dead pet is a big damage loss, and Revive Pet is a 10-second cast.
• Raid AoE kills pets. You spend points in Endurance Training and still lose it to some bosses.
• Your own shots hit softer than a Marksmanship Hunter's: no Mortal Shots, no Sniper Shot, and no Trueshot Aura in the default build.
• Pet threat control takes attention in dungeons. A pet with Growl on steals mobs from your tank.

What's new in Forever

Best races

Alliance: Night Elf. Elune's Light gives 10% crit to all your attacks for 15 seconds every 3 minutes, and your pet copies your crit, so it lands on both of you. Line it up with Bestial Wrath and Rapid Fire. Shadowmeld drops you out of a bad pull, and Quickness adds 1% Dodge and 2% run speed.

Alliance raiding: Human. Sword Specialization gives +2% crit to every attack while you have a sword or two-handed sword equipped. Hunters can hold one in the melee slot while they shoot, so the bonus never turns off. Will to Survive breaks a stun every 3 minutes.

Alliance leveling: Dwarf. Big Game Hunter gives 5% more damage against Beasts, a big share of what you kill from 1 to 60. Stoneform clears Bleeds, Poisons and Diseases and cuts Physical damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds.

Horde: Orc. Blood Fury adds 10% Attack Power for 15 seconds every 2 minutes, and your pet scales with your Attack Power. Axe Specialization gives +1% crit with an axe equipped. Hardiness shortens stuns by 20%.

Horde leveling: Troll. Beast Slaying gives 5% more damage against Beasts, Berserking speeds up your attacks for 10 seconds, and Rapid Regeneration heals half your health over 6 seconds between pulls.

All playable races

• Human (new for Hunters): Sword Specialization, The Human Spirit, Will to Survive, Perception.
• Dwarf: Big Game Hunter, Stoneform, Find Treasure and Mace Specialization (+1% crit with a mace equipped).
• Night Elf: Elune's Light, Shadowmeld, Quickness, Wisp Spirit.
• High Order Skyborne (Alliance, new): Wind Blessed for 1% Haste, Elemental Insight for 5% damage against Elementals, Read Ley Line and Walk on Air.
• Orc: Blood Fury, Axe Specialization, Hardiness, Shatter Curse.
• Troll: Berserking, Beast Slaying, Regeneration, Rapid Regeneration.
• Tauren: Endurance for 5% health and 1% hit, War Stomp, Plainsrunning and Cultivation.
• Windshaper Skyborne (Horde, new): Wind Blessed, Elemental Insight, Walk on Air and Skysight.

Every pet uses Growl and Cower, most bite or claw, and all of them learn Great Stamina, Natural Armor and the resistances through Beast Training. The family decides the one ability that makes it special. You tame at your own level or below, so plan ahead: the tame you want at 30 lives in a level-30 zone.

Leveling picks

• Boar (level 1): Charge closes the gap, roots the mob for 1 second and adds a burst of Attack Power to the next hit. The pet has aggro before your second shot lands.
• Bear (level 12): Swipe hits three enemies at once, so a bear holds two or three mobs off you.
• Turtle (level 20): Shell Shield halves the damage your pet takes for 12 seconds. It is the tank for pulls you shouldn't take.
• Gorilla (level 30): Thunderstomp deals Nature damage to every enemy within 8 yards. It's the AoE threat tool for multi-mob pulls.
• Spider (level 12): Web roots a mob, so it's the pet for kiting and for runners.

The level in brackets is when the family ability first becomes available. A bear or spider tamed at 10 fights without its special until 12.

Raid and dungeon picks

• Tallstrider: Dust Cloud lowers the target's armor by 505 at max rank. Every physical attacker in the raid benefits.
• Wolf: Furious Howl raises the melee Attack Power of party members within 15 yards for a minute. Bring it when your group is melee-heavy and stacked on the boss.
• Raptor: Savage Rend adds a Bleed on top of your pet's normal damage.
• Carrion Bird: Demoralizing Screech lowers the attack power of everything in melee range for 30 seconds. Tanks love it on trash.

Utility and PvP picks

• Crab Pinch and Hyena Tendon Rip: 50% slows for 9 seconds.
• Crocilisk: Dismember cuts healing on the target by 50% for 10 seconds.
• Bird of Prey: Mine! disarms for 4 seconds.
• Fox: Trickster's Dance gives your pet 50% Dodge and 30% faster attacks for 12 seconds.
• Cat: Prowl stealths your pet and adds 50% damage to the first attack.
• Wind Serpent: Lightning Breath deals Nature damage from 20 yards.
• Scorpid: Scorpid Poison stacks a Nature damage over time effect up to five times.

Leatherworking and Skinning is the leveling pair. Skinning pays for itself on every beast your pet kills, and Leatherworking turns the hides into your armor, your quivers and your ammo pouches.

Engineering is the raid pick at 60. It makes every scope from Crude to Sniper, plus Biznicks 247x128 Accurascope for 3% hit.

For gold, level with Skinning and Herbalism or Skinning and Mining. Beast Mastery spends its whole leveling career killing beasts, and every one of them is a skin.

Your job in a group is damage and crowd control, with your pet as a spare off-tank when a pull goes wrong.

• Turn off Growl. Your pet attacks what the tank attacks, never first.
• Freezing Trap works in combat now. When the tank calls a crowd control target, drop Freezing Trap between it and the group and shoot it once. It stays frozen for up to 20 seconds at max rank, and any damage breaks it: keep Multi-Shot, Volley and your pet off it.
• Hunter's Mark the kill target. Every ranged attacker gains Attack Power against it.
• Intimidation stops a runner or a caster for 3 seconds.
• Feign Death drops your threat when you pull aggro. Feign Death has a 30-second cooldown.
• Aspect of the Pack speeds up the run between pulls. Turn it off before combat: any group member who takes damage while wearing it is dazed for 4 seconds.
• Aspect of the Wild raises Nature resistance for everyone in range, party and raid alike. From 56 it's 60.
• Tranquilizing Shot removes a Frenzy effect from an enemy. You learn it at 60 from Tome of Tranquilizing Shot, not from the trainer.

Beast Mastery puts two attackers on your opponent. Your pet pressures the enemy while you shoot, and Bestial Wrath means it can't be feared or stopped for 18 seconds.

• Open with the pet on the target and Intimidation for a 3-second stun that lands with extra crit.
• Pick the pet for the matchup: a crocilisk's Dismember halves the healing your target receives, and a bird of prey's Mine! disarms a melee class for 4 seconds.
• Traps work in combat. Drop Freezing Trap at your feet when a melee class closes in, then walk away.

Mend Pet early. A pet at half health with Mend Pet ticking is a pet you don't revive.

Feed your pet between pulls, not during fights. Feed Pet raises its happiness, and food close to its level works best.

Crit is a pet stat. Your pet copies all of your crit, so Lethal Attacks and your racial crit bonuses count twice.

Pull back your pet when you pull too many. A pet that keeps attacking a pack drags it all onto you. Set it to follow and trap the extras.

Send your pet and start shooting in one button. The Mark line casts your highest rank. At 58 and up, that is rank 4; to stay on rank 3 as the boss openers advise, write it as Hunter's Mark(Rank 3).

#showtooltip Hunter's Mark
/petattack
/cast Hunter's Mark
/cast !Auto Shot

One button for your pet's health: revive it if it's dead, call it if it's gone, heal it otherwise.

#showtooltip
/cast [@pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; Mend Pet

Burst: your top trinket slot and Bestial Wrath on one key.

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/use 13
/cast Bestial Wrath

Intimidation on your focus target, or on your current target if you have no focus.

#showtooltip Intimidation
/petattack [@focus,harm,nodead][]
/cast Intimidation

Call your pet back and drop a Freezing Trap when a pull goes wrong.

#showtooltip Freezing Trap
/petfollow
/cast Freezing Trap