A Beast Mastery Hunter has perfected the skills of taming and controlling animals. The major share of the damage is dealt by their pets.
Introduction
Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:
Advantages:
- Extremely simple in handling;
- Has the capacity to do short runs with zero DPS loss;
Disadvantages:
- The AoE damaging highly depends on the enemies’ positioning and on the position of the pet;
- You might lose in your switch if the new target is far away. This happens because your pet wastes time on short runs.
Basic information on the spec:
Like any other Hunter spec, Beast Mastery uses Focus as their key resource. The Hunter deals damage from a distance while the pets need to be in their target’s Melee zone.
Glossary
Show Glossary
(Area of Effect) is basically the area where this of that effect is actuated regardless of whether its damage or healing. This command is usually used to act in a team/raid on several targets. It is also used to describe any ability of a Boss with the aforementioned effect.
Buff stands for any positive effect. Always reflected to the left of the mini-map, by its upper edge.
Burst is an ability to do – in multiple ways – massive damage within a short period of time.
Gear is what it is.
GCD (Global Cooldown) is the overall ability recovery time.
Debuff stands for negative effect. By default, it’ reflected to the left of the mini-map by its lower edge.
DoT stands for Damage over Time.
DPS (Damage per Second) is a measure that reflects the damage done within one second.
Cleave is an ability to damage secondary targets through damaging the main one with no (or minor) loss in the damage done to the main target.
Cooldown (often CD) primarily refers to the ability recovery time. Can be often applied to bursts and various protective abilities.
Melee and Range. Melee is the close-range combat zone, also used in the titles of all the classes and specs that do effective damage in this zone. Range usually refers to a zone that is not a close-range one and is used, respectfully, in the titles of all classes and specs that do effective damage remotely.
Trait is a name for the ‘talents’ your azerite armor has.
Main abilities
Cobra shot – requires 45 focus,deals great physical damage and reduces the cooldown of Kill command by 1 sec. Multi-Shot costs 40 Focus and deals damage to the selected target and all the enemies within the 8-m range around it. It also triggers the effect Beast Cleave. Kill Command demands 30 Focus. After the casting, your pet is very quickly relocated to the target (up to 40 m) and deals major physical damage. CD 7.5 secs. Barbed shot – bleeds the target for 8 seconds and increases your pet’s haste by 30% for 8 sec, stacking up to 3 times. Regenerates 20 focus for a use and has 2 stacks with 12 sec cd.Offensive
Pet’s tools: Beast Lore allows you to find out information about the pet you choose – its characteristics, food type and whether it is considered exotic or not. Dismiss Pet allows you to temporarily remove your pet in 3 secs. Feed Pet can be used out of combat. Restores your pet 50% of their Health. Different pet types feed of different types of food. Mend Pet allows you to restore 25% of their max Health within 10 secs. CD 10 secs. Tame Beast is used when you have an empty pet summoning slot, and none of your pets are summoned at the moment. The spell allows you to try and tame a beast of your choice. You can also tame exotic beasts. Call Pet allows you to summon one of your tamed pets instantly.Pet
Aspect of the Wild increases your Crit by 10% and restores 5 Focus per sec. Active for 20 secs. CD 2 min Bestial Wrath increases the damage dealt by you and your pets by 25% for 15 secs. Each use of Barbed shot reduces the restoring time of Bestial Wrath by 12 secs. CD 1.5 min. Titan’s Thunder fills your pets and dire beasts with electric energy which makes them deal additional Nature damage to their targets for the following 8 secs. Wild Call provides 20% probability of automatic shooting’s critical hits finishing the restoring of Dire Beast immediately. Mastery: Master of Beasts increases your pets’ damage by 15% + the Mastery rating. Kindred Spirits increases max Focus stock by 20, both yours and your pet’s. Beast Cleave allows your pets deal damage to all the closest enemies with their Melee attacks once Multi-Shot is fired.Bursts, important CDs and passive effects
Aspect of the Turtle allows you, for 8 secs, deflect all attacks and receive 30% less damage. CD 3 min. Exhilaration instantly restores you 30% of your max Health, and to your pet – 100%. CD 2 min. Feign Death helps you simulate your death (to quit a combat completely, you need to first call your pet off, or buy at your class hall a Pet Training Manual: Play Dead, that allows your pet to have the same ability Play Dead). Active for 6 min or until cancelled. CD 30 secs, starts only when you exit the condition.Deffensive abilities
Counter Shot allows you to interrupt the casting of a spell by your enemy and prevents them from using a spell of the same school for 3 secs. Aspect of the Cheetah increases your running speed by 90% for 3 secs, and by extra 30% over the following 9 secs. CD 3 min. Concussive Shot slows your target down by 50% for 6 secs. CD 5 secs. Freezing Trap allows you to throw the trap onto the selected spot. The first enemy to hit it becomes paralyzed for 1 min. Any damage dealt to the enemy cancels the trap’s effect. Can be maintained on no more than 1 enemy at a time. The trap exists for 1 min. CD 30 secs. Tar Trap allows you to throw the trap onto the selected spot; when an enemy activates it, the trap explodes and creates a tar pool with an 8-m range for 30 secs. Your enemies’ moving speed within the pool shrinks by 50%. The trap exists for 1 min. Eagle Eye allows you to move your point of view over to the selected area for a minute. Flare lights up the selected area for 20 secs which allows you to uncover the invisible enemies. CD 20 secs. Disengage allows you to make a leap back. CD 20 secs. Misdirection transfers the whole menace you generate over to the selected member of your group/raid for 8 secs. CD 30 secs.Utility abilities
Talents
General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.
Tier 1. Lvl 15
- Killer instinct. Kill command deals 50% increased damage against enemies below 35% health.
- Animal companion. Your call pet additionally summons the first pet from your stables. This pet will obey your Kill command , but cannot use pet family abilities.
- Dire beast – Summons a powerful wild beast that attacks the target and roars, increasing your haste by 5% for 8 sec.
*Killer instinct. is used for any situation, granting an increase for AOE and solo target damage.
Tier 2. Lvl 30
- Scent of blood. Barbed shot generates 8 additional focus over its duration.
- One with the pack. Wild call has a 20% increased chance to reset the cooldown of Barbed shot
- Chimaera Shot. You receive the additional ability that hits the main target and the enemy closest to it dealing Nature damage to the main target and Frost damage – to the secondary one. Restores 10 Focus per each target hit. CD 15 secs.
Chimera shot is a default talent. One with the pack becomes best with Dance of Death traits.
Tier 3. Lvl 45
- Trailblazer. Your movement speed is increased by 30% anytime you have not attacked anyone for 30 seconds.
- Natural mending. For every 20 spent Focus reduces the remaining time on Exhilaration by 1 second
- Camouflage. You and your pet gain stealth for 1 min with 1 min cd
*Talents of this tier are designed for survivability of your character, choose what you like the most. It is more profitable to use Natural mending in raid for minor heal increase. In mythic mode it would be more reasonable to take Camouflage allowing you to pass by packs in stealth.
Tier 4. Lvl 60
- Venomous bite . Cobra shot reduces the cooldown of Bestial wrath by 1 sec.
- Thrill of the hunt. Barbed shot increases your critical strike chance by 3% for 8 sec, stacking up to 3 times.
- A murder of crows. Summons a flock of crows to attack your target dealing damage over 15 seconds. If the target dies while under attack, cooldown of the ability is reset
*A murder of crows. Is used by default because grants better additional damage.
Tier 5. Lvl 75
- Born to be wild. Reduces the cooldowns of your aspects for 20%
- Posthaste. Disengage frees you from all movement impairing effects and increases your movement speed by 50% for 4 sec
- Binding shot. You fire an arrow tethering all enemies within 5 yards, the arrow explosion roots the enemy for 5 sec.
* You should choose what talent is the best for you because they all grant unique abilities without affecting your dps.
Tier 6. Lvl 90
- Stomp. When your Dire Beast attacks the enemy, the closest enemies also receive medium physical damage.
- Barrage. Costs 60 Focus. Over 3 secs, you are going to shoot all your enemies in front of you dealing them major physical damage. Ca be used on the go. CD 20 secs.
- Stampede. Allows you to summon a pack of beasts that damage your enemies for 12 secs.
*Stomp – is the strongest talent in the tier,granting good single target and AOE.It is used by default although it is optional to take Barrage or Stampede that also deal good AOE damage but then keep in mind you will lose single target damage.
Tier 7. Lvl 100
- Aspect of the beast. Increases the damage of your pet’s abilities by 30% . Increases the effectiveness of your pet’s Predator’s thirst, Endurance training and Pathfinding by 50%.
- Killer cobra. While Beastial wrath is active, Cobra shot resets the cooldown on Kill command.
- Spitting cobra. Summons a spitting cobra for 20 seconds that attacks your target for 2 sec. WHile Cobra is active you gain 2 focus every 2 sec.
*Aspect of the beast would be the optional choice. It works passively and grants better benefits than other talents in this tier. de a very powerful AoE burst, but in any other situation is proves weaker than the other two talents.
The standard build looks like this:
- Killer instinct
- Chimaera Shot / Dance of Death
- Natural mending
- A murder of crows
- Posthaste
- Stomp
- Aspect of the beast
Azerite traits
BfA introduced a new trait system. Now helmet, shoulders and chest are special items with traits improved by azerite.
Beast mastery has only a few top traits you need to obtain:
Dance of Death – best trait at current state, should be stacked.
Primal instincts this is one of the best class traits for BM, granting great additional burst damage. You need to collect 1-2 traits of it.
Dire consequences – also quite good trait for additional damage but it is worth to collect only one of such trait because the maximum increase you get only with the first trait like that
Feeding frenzy – as previously it is worth to collect only one of such trait
Haze of rage– quite good trait that grants additional agility when using Bestial wrath .
Rapid Reload – is a must have trait at any AoE or Cleave encounter. King of the mythic+.
The rest of the class traits are not that good to collect. You need to obtain a lot of Primal instincts. You can use chart on herodamage.com if you don’t know what would be the best option or go on raidbots.com to see the best stats for your character.
Apart from major traits there are also minor traits which increase stats a little bit or some damage.
The best minor trait for Survival is Overwhelming power – when it procs it grants haste which is your primary stat. Another good trait is Gutripper for its increased chance for execution proc. It is useful on mythic bosses where the most difficult fights are the last phases.
Stats for AzeritePowerWeights:
( AzeritePowerWeights:2:"herodamage.com - Stacks_1T_T24":3:253: 211=10, 575=8.73, 526=8.28, 522=8.28, 82=8.02, 193=7.75, 562=7.68, 366=7.64, 192=7.25, 196=7.16, 501=6.51, 161=6.18, 367=6.09, 478=5.99, 479=5.84, 521=5.73, 483=5.72, 480=5.63, 504=5.55, 157=5.52, 494=5.48, 488=5.48, 492=5.15, 486=5.15, 505=5.07, 195=4.97, 365=4.95, 485=4.83, 489=4.82, 495=4.82, 30=4.74, 481=4.67, 523=4.57, 482=4.48, 561=4.20, 194=4.14, 107=3.93, 156=3.65, 498=3.58, 576=3.35, 500=3.26, 459=2.96, 493=2.85, 487=2.85, 21=2.68, 31=2.67, 560=2.65, 22=2.36, 499=2.11, 541=2.04, 496=1.89, 490=1.89, 18=1.86, 461=1.69, 491=1.67, 497=1.67, 462=1.66, 369=0.05: )
Essences
MAJOR
- Condensed Life-force (Source: Eternal Palace drop) – great option to increase you burst potential on single target
- The Crucible of Flame (Source: Heart of Azeroth level) becomes a great tool for additional dps increse, especially at level 3
- Essence of the Focusing Iris (Source: Mythic+ dungeons) – strong option for aoe encounters
MINOR
- Essence of the Focusing Iris (Source: Mythic+ dungeons) – if Condensed Life-Force in major slot
- Condensed Life-force (Source: Eternal Palace drop) – if Essence of the Focusing Iris in major slot
- The Crucible of Flame (Source: Heart of Azeroth level) gives a lot of passive damage at level 3
- Worldvein Resonance (Source: Island Expeditions) is good to, if you have lots of raiders who is using it too
- Vision of Perfection (Source: “Operation: Mechagon” drop) might be helpful sometimes
Rotation
AOE:Main priorities
Bestial wrath Should be used as often as possible. Of course before using it you need to gain enough focus and not hold it overcapping. While bursting you need to deal as much dmg as possible which leads to spending focus. Don’t forget that Dire maul or Barbed shot reduce the remaining time on Bestial wrath by 12 sec but keeping up Frenzy is the priority. It is more effective than to lose stacks while managing Bestial wrath to reduce earlyCooldown usage
If you have Primal instincts trait use 1 stack of Barbed shot before Aspect of the wildOpener
Stats
The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:
Crit>Mastery ~ Haste~ Versatility
Remember – all the stats of Beast Mastery are very close in value and depend from your current gear and azerite traits a lot. Check your character’s stats on raidbots.com in Stat weights tab. You can also use Pawn addon to import the information from the site into the game.
The current specialization’s Mastery increases the damage dealt by the pets.
Haste reduces the restoring time for such abilities of yours as Kill Command, Dire Beast, Barbed shot and Chimaera Shot; induces Focus regeneration, reduces GCD and allows you to trigger automatic shots and pet attacks more often.
It is recommended, once you receive new equipment, you use Simcraft or Raidbots.com. There is no way to get a more precise answer to which stat to focus on first, but through a simulation.
Based on the aforementioned characteristics and results of your character’s own simulation results, you can draw conclusions on Gems, Chants and Raid Chemicals.
- Gems.
Leviathan’s Eye of Agility
Deadly Lava Lazuli 50 crit - Enchantments
Rings: Accord of Critical Strike
Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Masterful Navigation, or Crow’s Nest Scope with any Dance of Death traits - Food
Raid feast for 131 agility or Mech-Dowel’s “Big Mech” for Crit - Flasks and pots
Greater Flask of the Currents 360 agility for 1 hour
Superior Battle Potion of Agility – Most versatile for all situations
Potion of Unbridled Fury – Single Target encounters
Potion of Empowered Proximity – Consistent 4+ target AoE situations, only if you can stay in melee range
Macros
Counter Shot with a modifier, with the Shift key held, the ability is applied on a remembered target, without – on the current one.
/stopcasting /cast [mod:shift,@focus][]Counter Shot
Aspect of the Turtle and Feign Death with stopcasting:
/stopcasting /cast Feign Death
or
/stopcasting /cast Aspect of the Turtle
Cancel Aspect of the Turtle – you can’t always be in it because you can’t attack while it’s active.
/cancelaura Aspect of the Turtle
Trap macros. There are two convenient options: you can set your macros to place a trap under your character or at your cursor’s position. Here are the respective examples:
/cast [@player] Freezing Trap
or
/cast [@cursor] Freezing Trap
It is also recommended to have macro for all your offensive abilities that will also force your pet to attack your target:
#showtooltip Kill Command /petattack /cast Kill Command
What’s next?
- Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
- Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
- Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.
Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.
