Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents (Legion 7.3.5)
Table of Contents
General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent choices for Beast Mastery Hunters in World of Warcraft Legion 7.3.5. We detail what each of the talents do and in which situations they should be taken.
The other pages of our Beast Mastery Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.
About Our Author
This guide has been written by Azortharion, the main theorycrafter of the spec. He is also an accomplished player who raids in Solaris. You can also watch his stream on Twitch.
1. Beast Mastery Hunter Talent Cheat Sheets
While optimizing talents on a contextual basis is the highly recommended method of setting up your build, the talent builds listed below work great for specific purposes.
1.1. "Stomp" or "Zoo" Build
This is the default build for most Beast Mastery Hunters, though the Dire Frenzy build below can be competitive in certain situations. To know exactly when to use one talent or the other, you should sim it with your own character using RaidBots. For multi-target, Stomp builds are pretty much always best.
It is called the Zoo Build due to
One with the Pack combined with a
high Critical Strike chance giving you a lot of
Wild Call procs that
reset the cooldown of your
Dire Beast ability, letting you send a lot
of Dire Beasts at your target.
- Level 15:
Way of the Cobra /
Dire Stable for most
multi-target. - Level 30:
Stomp - Level 45:
Posthaste - Level 60:
One with the Pack - Level 75:
Binding Shot - Level 90:
A Murder of Crows for
single-target.
Volley only for very heavy AoE. - Level 100:
Killer Cobra or
Aspect of the Beast depending on
Legendaries, and Gear.
The choice between
Aspect of the Beast and
Killer Cobra can
come down to factors such as the Mastery on your gear, and what Legendaries you
use. For example,
Killer Cobra particularly enjoys the
Roar of the Seven Lions Legendary, while
Aspect of the Beast
particularly enjoys the
Qa'pla, Eredun War Order Legendary. There is no
one-size-fits-all answer as to what is best for your particular character, as
all BM Legendaries have the potential to be Best in Slot, and therefore both
talents can be equally competitive. The only way to know for sure is to do a
Talent Comparison on RaidBots using your character.
1.2. Dire Frenzy Build
Dire Frenzy builds are now much more competitive after buffs to the T21
4-piece set bonus. An optimal Dire Frenzy build will generally require the T21
4-piece bonus, the
Call of the Wild Legendary Bracers, and the
Convergence of Fates Nighthold trinket. This brings the
Aspect of the Wild cooldown very far down, almost matching the effective
cooldown of
Bestial Wrath, allowing you to stack these 2 very often.
Even if you have all of these requirements, it is not a guarantee that this
build is better, so we again recommend simming yourself to be sure. This build
also does not work very well in Mythic+ where we recommend Stomp because of the
bursty nature of AoE in there. It is primarily a single-target build that
prefers Mastery. Good Legendaries include
Parsel's Tongue and
Roar of the Seven Lions.
- Level 15:
Way of the Cobra /
Dire Stable for most
multi-target. - Level 30:
Dire Frenzy - Level 45:
Posthaste - Level 60:
Bestial Fury for single-target.
One with the Pack
only for heavy AoE where
Beast Cleave is a significant portion of your
damage. - Level 75:
Binding Shot - Level 90:
A Murder of Crows for
single-target.
Volley only for very heavy AoE. - Level 100:
Killer Cobra most situations.
Aspect of the Beast
if you spend most of the fight AoE'ing.
2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 1 talents offer you a choice between 3 talents that increase your DPS.
Big Game Hunter causes your auto shot and
Cobra Shot abilities to have a 60% increased critical strike
chance on targets that are above 80% health.
Way of the Cobra causes your
Cobra Shot to deal
10% increased damage for each pet or guardian you have active. This includes
your main pet, Dire Beast(s), and your Artifact pet.
Dire Stable causes your
Dire Beast ability to
generate an additional 12 Focus over its duration, so that it generates 24
Focus over its duration instead of the standard 12.
Way of the Cobra is the best choice for single-target fights where you
will not often be using
Multi-Shot over
Cobra Shot.
Dire Stable is the best choice for most other situations, giving you
extra Focus to maintain
Beast Cleave while not losing as many
Kill Commands.
Big Game Hunter is not worth using in any relevant scenario.
3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 2 talents offer you a choice between 3 talents that increase your DPS.
Stomp causes your
Dire Beast to do high AoE
damage when they are first summoned.
Dire Frenzy is an active ability that replaces
Dire Beast. It causes your pet to rapidly deal high Physical
damage over 5 attacks, and gives your pet a buff that increases its attack
speed by 30% for 8 seconds. This buff may stack up to 3 times.
Chimaera Shot is an active ability that deals high damage on
a 15-second cooldown which is reduced by Haste. It can hit up to 2 targets that
are close to each other, and it generates 10 Focus for each target hit.
Stomp is generally the best choice in most gearsets and is the most
common default option.
Dire Frenzy is generally worse than Stomp, but it can be better
under certain gearing conditions. You should consider Dire Frenzy when you have
more Mastery than you have Critical Strike and do not have any set bonuses.
Additionally, if you can combine
Parsel's Tongue and
Call of the Wild
with
Convergence of Fates, then you have the ingredients for a "cookie
cutter" Dire Frenzy build which has the highest single-target potential.
Chimaera Shot is not desirable in any situation and should not be
chosen as part of any optimal build.
Ultimately there is no one-size-fits-all answer here, and the best talent depends on your build. We always recommend using RaidBots.com to sim your gear combinations and talent setups.
4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between 3 means of improving your mobility.
Posthaste causes
Disengage
to free you from all movement-impairing effects and boost your movement speed
by 60% for 5 seconds.
Farstrider causes your damaging ability critical strikes to have a
15% chance to reset the cooldown of
Disengage.
Trailblazer increases your non-mounted movement speed by 25% after
you have not attacked anything for 3 seconds. It expires when you attack
something again.
Your default choice should be
Posthaste, as it will make you much
better at covering long distances on a regular basis. You can use
Farstrider if you never have to move more than the distance a single
Posthaste will take you.
Trailblazer is only really worth
using for non-mounted periods where you will be moving between combat zones for
a long time. Since dungeons have nearly constant combat, and World Quests allow
you to mount up, there are not many places where you can reliably do this.
There is a conceivably use for it for Survival in dungeons, since the spec does
not have a lot of mobility when running between packs besides its
Harpoon ability.
5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 4 talents offer you a choice between 3 talents that increase your DPS.
One with the Pack vastly increases the chance for your
Wild Call passive ability to reset the cooldown of
Dire Beast
and
Dire Frenzy.
Bestial Fury increases the damage
bonus of
Bestial Wrath by an additional 15%, to make it 35%.
Blink Strikes grants your pet a passive ability, causing its Basic
Attacks to deal 100% increased damage. Moreover, when Blink Strikes is taken,
the pet uses its Basic Attacks from up to 30 yards away (with a minimum range
of 10 yards) from the target, instantly teleporting behind the target. The
teleportation effect has a 20-second internal cooldown.
One with the Pack gives you significantly more Dire Frenzies and
Beasts, which leads to pet attack speed uptime and Dire Frenzy attacks in
general. It is the best choice for most AoE for this reason. It is used in all
situations where you would also use
Stomp, meaning all builds that do
not use
Dire Frenzy. The talent benefits enormously from Critical
Strike.
Bestial Fury should be chosen for all situations when using the
Dire Frenzy talent, but not with the Stomp build (unless you are
getting the talent by using the
Soul of the Huntmaster Legendary).
Blink Strikes is rarely used in a competitive raiding setting. While
it is very good for multi-target as it enhances pet damage significantly, which
translates into more Beast Cleave damage, it is very rare that AoE is the main
priority point of a fight. Additionally, Blink Strikes loses value compared to
the alterantives whenever the AoE is bursty in nature (which is nearly all the
time in both raids and Mythic+).
6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between 3 talents that provide you crowd control and utility.
Binding Shot fires an arrow at a targeted location on the
ground. If an enemy comes within 5 yards of the arrow, and then steps more than
5 yards away from it again, they will be stunned for 5 seconds. This ability
has a 45-second cooldown.
Wyvern Sting puts the target to sleep for 30 seconds. The ability
has a 45-second cooldown. Any damage done to the target will break the
effect.
Intimidation commands your pet to stun the target for 3
seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown.
While none of these talents will have any effect on your DPS,
Binding Shot can bring some raid utility, as it can be used as a
reliable stun for fights with adds. It can also be used as an interrupt, since
placing it so that the add is at the edge of the targeted area will instantly
stun it, regardless of whether or not it moves.
You should choose the talent that best suits your situation, but
Binding Shot should generally be your default choice.
7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between 3 active abilities that increase your DPS in different ways.
A Murder of Crows summons a flock of crows to
attack your target for 15 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown. If the target dies
while under attack, the cooldown of A Murder of Crows is reset. It costs 30
Focus.
Barrage is a channeled spell that fires a barrage of shots at all targets in front of you, dealing moderate damage over 3 seconds (a total of 16 shots in quick
succession) to all of them. It
does not hit targets that are invisible or in stealth.
Volley is an activated ability that causes your auto shots to also
launch a volley of shots that deal moderate Physical damage to your target, and
all other targets within 8 yards. While Volley is active, it will drain 3 Focus per autoattack (about 1 Focus per second on average).
A Murder of Crows is currently the best talent
in this tier for most situations, including single-target. It does extremely
high damage for a low cost of Focus and time, because it benefits from Beast
Mastery's Mastery stat, which increases pet damage.
Volley should be used for multi-target scenarios where
single-target damage is simply not a priority. Fortified Mythic+ Dungeons are
an example of this, as well as heavy AoE fights like the Antoran High
Command.
Barrage is not worth taking in any realistic situation. It does low
damage and it is very expensive.
8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter
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Tier 7 talents offer you a choice of various means of enhancing your DPS performance.
Stampede summons a variety of beasts to charge towards your
target, dealing massive damage to all enemies in their path for 12 seconds.
This ability has a 3 minute cooldown.
Killer Cobra causes your
Bestial Wrath ability to always
make
Cobra Shot reset the cooldown of
Kill Command.
Aspect of the Beast is a passive ability that enhances your
Kill Command ability in different ways, depending on the spec of
your current pet.- For Ferocity, which is your preferred pet DPS spec, it causes
Kill Command to also deal low Physical damage to the target
over 6 seconds. - For Tenacity, it gives your pet a 30% damage taken reduction for 6 seconds.
- For Cunning, it reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
- For Ferocity, which is your preferred pet DPS spec, it causes
Use
Killer Cobra or
Aspect of the Beast depending on your
Legendary/gear setup.
Killer Cobra prefers
Roar of the Seven Lions
in particular, while
Aspect of the Beast combines well with
Qa'pla, Eredun War Order, but the only way to know for sure is to simulate
it on your own character using the RaidBots.com "Talent Compare" feature.
You should always use
Killer Cobra whenever you are also using
Dire Frenzy.
Stampede, while it provides excellent burst AoE, is not worth the single-target penalty and should not be taken.
9. Pet Talents
Pets do not have talent trees. Instead, you can simply choose one of three specialisations for your pet (Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning). You can change your pet's specialisation at any time (while out of combat), free of cost.
Each specialisation grants your pet a few specific abilities. Currently, Ferocity provides the highest DPS in a raid environment, so it should be the default choice for all specs.
10. ChangeLog
- 19 Feb. 2018: Updated outdated mention of T19 2pc, updated tier 2 talents explanation and guide. Slightly revised Volley explanation.
- 07 Feb. 2018: Updated the Dire Frenzy build description to mention the Dire Frenzy CDR build after the T21 4p buffs.
- 05 Jan. 2018: Updated talent suggestion sections and cheat sheet + explanations for Aspect of the Beast/Killer Cobra.
- 02 Dec. 2017: Reworded and expanded on some descriptions and headers.
- 07 Oct. 2017: Reworded and simplified many of the talent descriptions.
- 06 Sep. 2017: Removed the Mythic+ talents cheat sheet as it does not really differ from whatever your "Main" talents are (Dire Frenzy or Stomp builds), making it obsolete.
- 28 Aug. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.3.
- 08 Aug. 2017: Wrote some clarifications about having to simulate the different builds to know which is better.
- 05 Aug. 2017: Rewrote One with the Pack/Bestial Fury, and Stomp/Dire Frenzy sections.
- 20 Jul. 2017: Removed an obsolete section about Stampede.
- 18 Jul. 2017: Added a lot of notes about Aspect of the Beast and notes about Zoo build usage, and a lot of references to the importance of simming yourself for these character-specific choices.
- 13 Jul. 2017: Removed obsolete mentions of the Nighthold.
- 30 Jun. 2017: Dubbed the Stomp build the "Zoo" build.
- 22 Jun. 2017: Added note about using Stomp instead of Dire Frenzy when using the T19 2-piece.
- 17 Jun. 2017: Fixed some ambiguous wording and made it clear that the Stomp build is best with T19 2pc and not beyond.
- 14 Jun. 2017: Swapped a talent recommendation for the Stomp/OWTP build and fixed the graphic. Reworded the "title" of the OWTP build, and when to use it.
- 13 Jun. 2017: Changed some recommendations slightly for 7.2.5 changes and reworded the whole level 100 talent choice explanation. Put the Raid Encounters cheat sheet above the Mythic+ one. Reverted some One with the Pack wording that was based on a reverted change.
- 04 May 2017: Edited recommended talents for M+ in the cheat sheet.
- 17 Apr. 2017: Checked today and deemed updated.
- 02 Apr. 2017: Recommended Dire Frenzy for multi-target as well.
- 30 Mar. 2017: Updates Level 60 talent recommendations for Legendary Shoulders.
- 27 Mar. 2017: No changes needed for Patch 7.2.
- 21 Mar. 2017: Give Blink Strikes its own paragraph to clear up confusion.
- 17 Mar. 2017: Updated note about Bestial Fury/Blink Strikes.
- 09 Mar. 2017: Added note about Aspect of the Beast being really nice with the Qa'pla Legendary Boots.
- 09 Feb. 2017: Added note about 4pc hotfix for Dire Frenzy, making it the best single-target choice.
- 28 Jan. 2017: Treat the Talent Cheet Sheet more like an actual quick glance, rather than an easy-mode thing with overly simple answers.
- 24 Jan. 2017: Added note about One with the Pack with The Mantle of Command.
- 17 Jan. 2017: Updated single-target recommendation to Way of the Cobra now that Cobra Shot got buffed.
- 11 Jan. 2017: Further fixes.
- 08 Jan. 2017: Updated for 7.1.5.
- 30 Oct. 2016: Removed talent table at the beginning of the page.
- 25 Oct. 2016: Updated for Patch 7.1.
- Updated Posthaste's duration. Was changed in Patch 7.1 to be 5 seconds (down from 8).
- Trailblazer replaces Dash.
- 08 Oct. 2016: Fixed a small typo.
- 20 Sep. 2016: Added note about Stampede vs Killer Cobra for Mythic+.
- 18 Sep. 2016: Updated some talent choice explanations.
- 06 Sep. 2016: Updated Bestial Fury vs Blink Strikes discussion.
- 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
- 06 Aug. 2016: Updated talent simulations and recommendations to reflect kill times in HFC and methodology updates with the simulations.
- 21 Jul. 2016: Added talent simulations, changed some stuff for tier 1 talents.
- 20 Jul. 2016: Added simulation results for Level 30 talents.
- 19 Jul. 2016: Gave more explanations as to why some talents are not currently viable.
- 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.
CONTENTS
FROM THE HUNTER FORUMS
- Beast Cleave WeakAura
- Stat weights?
- BM Hunter - Dire Frenzy During Bestial Wrath
- Hunter MM crazy simcraft weights
- Sephuz as Survival
Useful External Resources
- Trueshot Lodge Hunter Discord
- Petopia (Hunter Pet Information)
- Wago — Hunter WeakAuras
- RaidBots — Sim your character online
- Azor's Guide to Simming Your Items
- WoWAnalyzer — Analyze your logs
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