Introduction
Welcome to the Method Beast Mastery Hunter guide written by me, Qenjua. I've been a Hunter main for the past 7 years. I’m occasionally streaming both Progress as well as high Mythic+. If you want deeper insights into this class, that the guide might not be able to provide, you can find my coaching on: https://metafy.gg/@qenjua. Feel free to join my Metafy Group for my UI, as well as some tips and tricks for Hunter.
Beast Mastery Hunter is a ranged spec with very high mobility and can do all their damage while moving. Thanks to their pets, this is one of the best classes for soloing content. This class also grants a bunch of unique utilities such as, Binding Shot with Horsehair Tether, Freezing Trap, Misdirection, and Primal Rage, as well as an immunity Aspect of the Turtle, a Freedom with Master's Call and a damage redirection ability with Roar Of Sacrifice.
For AoE Damage, BM Hunter has Beast Cleave and Dire Cleave for sustained passive cleave damage as well as Kill Command with Kill Cleave and Wild Thrash for active AoE damage.
The weakness of this spec is that it depends on your pet to deal most of your damage, which means if your pet is stuck, you don't do damage. Dark Ranger Hero Talent tree can help a lot with shifting some power away from pets. Also, pet travel to the next target might take some time in fights where you must switch targets. Beast mastery hunter also tends to sacrifice a lot of single target damage to get access to the entirety of your AoE damage which is also limited to the area around your current main target.
What has changed
Midnight Pre-Patch Changes for BM Hunter
Hunter Class Tree:
- Hunter's Mark, our raid buff, is now a flat 3% damage increase against the marked target.
- Several Talents have changed positions
- New Choice Node (Roar Of Sacrifice / Guardian's Hide) which grant either active damage redirection or passive damage reduction
- New Guttural Roar makes Intimidation an AoE stun.
- Previous Pack Leader Node Horsehair Tether got moved to the Class Tree
- %HP increase from Rejuvenating Wind got moved into a new Node - Touch of Grass
- New Node Shell Wall - Reduces damage taken during Aspect of the Turtle by an additional 20%
- New Node Combat Experience - Increases Agility by 3%
- New Node Precision Strikes - Increases auto shot damage by 25%
- Natural Mending changed to be a flat 60s cooldown reduction on Exhilaration
- Wilderness Medicine no longer reduces Exhilaration cooldown
- New Node Improved Feign Death - Reduces Feign Death Cooldown by up to 10 seconds
- Kill Shot and Deathblow removed
- Explosive Shot/ Harmonize removed
- Bursting Shot removed
- Explosive/Implosive Trap removed
Beast Mastery Tree:
- Several Talents have changed positions
- Fortitude of the Bear is now a passive, that grants you 3% damage reduction
- War Orders now grants a flat 3 second reduce of Kill Commands cooldown
- Multi Shot is replaced by Wild Thrash, essentially and AoE Kill Command
- Barbed Wrath replaced by The Beast Within turning Bestial Wrath into a static 30 second cooldown
- Frenzy Mechanic removed, and replaced with a Talent that increases your pets attack speed by a static 40%
- Thrill of the Hunt now increases Barbed Shot and Cobra Shot critical strike chance
- Pack Tactics now makes Barbed Shot generate 25 Focus instantly
- New Node Heart of the Pack granting you Haste whenever you summon a Dire Beast
- Bloodshed now gets applied on Bestial Wrath cast
- Wild Instincts reworked, making Stomp spread Barbed Shots
- Bloody Frenzy reworked, buffing Barbed Shot damage massively during Bestial Wrath
- Call of the Wild removed
- Wild Call removed
- Poisoned Barbs removed
- Hunter’s Prey removed
- Serpentine Rhythm removed
Dark Ranger Hero Talent Tree:
- Soul Drinker Reworked - Working as a replacement for the old Deathblow talent, granting Kill Command and Barbed Shot a high chance of proccing Deathblow
- Phantom Pain replaced by Through the Eyes - increasing Black Arrow damage by 20% to targets that have the Black Arrow DoT
- Banshee’s Mark / The Bell Tolls reworked and put into a choice node, increasing Black Arrow Critical Strike damage or Pet damage respectively
- New Node Blighted Quiver - Tuned down version of the TWW season 3 Tierset, making Black Arrow fire extra Black Arrows during Withering Fire
- New Node Corpsecaller giving you a chance to turn Dire Beasts into stronger Dark Hounds
- New Node Wailing Dead summoning a Dark Hound everytime you cast Bestial Wrath, also replaces Bestial Wrath with Wailing Arrow for the duration
- New Node Pact of the Hollow allowing your Dark Hounds to deal AoE damage whenever you cast Kill Command
Pack Leader Hero Talent Tree:
- Ursine Fury changed to now summon Dire Beasts together with your Bear summon. Choice Node with new Sharpened Claws, increasing the damage of your Bear.
- No Mercy reworked to increase damage of your Bleed effects instead
- Shell Cover reworked to increase the damage reduction of Survival of the Fittest by 10%
- New Choice Node between Hoof and Blade - buffing your Boar summon / Wyvern’s Gaze - buffing your Wyvern summon
- Horsehair Tether replaced with Masterful Call increasing Master’s Calls’ duration and movement speed bonus
- New Node Lethal Barbs making your auto shots stronger and restore Focus to you and your pet
- New Node Sharpened Fangs increasing Mastery by 3%
- Lead from the Front replaced by Stampede - Tuned down version of the TWW season 3 Tierset, making you send out a Stampede over 7 seconds during every Bestial Wrath