Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Beast Mastery Hunter in World of Warcraft Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0).
If you were looking for Mists of Pandaria Classic content, please refer to our Mists of Pandaria Classic Beast Mastery Hunter gear and best in slot.
Best in Slot Gear Guide for Beast Mastery Hunter
Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Beast Mastery Hunter for Midnight Pre-Patch. Check this page to learn everything you need to know about gearing a Beast Mastery Hunter, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding, and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.
The Midnight Pre-Patch brought a major stat squish, reducing the stats and numbers of virtually everything in the game, including Item Levels and the stats on gear.
For discussion and information on Stats specifically, check out our Stats page below.
BiS Gear for Beast Mastery Hunter
Overall BiS List for Beast Mastery Hunter in Pre-Patch
This list contains the best gear in every slot for Pre-Patch of The War Within, from all sources.
In general, BiS Items for
Pack Leader Mastery are simply ones
that have lots of Crit and Haste/Mastery on them, and, ideally, 0
Versatility.
Dark Ranger simply exchanges Mastery for
Versatility.
The items are evaluated in a vacuum for the most part, meaning that collecting every single item in this list and putting them together may not actually be the highest possible DPS — but on an individual slot basis, for the most gearsets, these items are the most likely to perform the highest. There is no substitute for simming your own character on Raidbots if you want to maximize your DPS.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Operation: Floodgate, or in Great Vault | |
| Helm | Forgeweaver Araz/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
Neck ( Pack Leader) |
Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder, or in Great Vault | |
Neck ( Dark Ranger) |
Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega | |
| Shoulder | The Soul Hunters/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Cloak | Pre-Patch Questline | |
| Chest | Fractillus/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Bracers | Crafted by Leatherworking | |
| Gloves | Crafted by Leatherworking | |
| Belt | Operation: Floodgate, or in Great Vault | |
| Legs | Loom’ithar/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Boots | The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega | |
| Ring #1 | Dimensius The All Devouring in Manaforge Omega | |
Ring #2 ( Pack Leader) |
The Dawnbreaker, or in Great Vault | |
Ring #2 ( Dark Ranger) |
Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder, or in Great Vault | |
Trinket #1 ( Dark Ranger) |
Fractillus in Manaforge Omega | |
Trinket #1 ( Pack Leader) |
Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega | |
| Trinket #2 | Operation: Floodgate, or in Great Vault |
Manaforge Omega Raid Gear BiS List for Beast Mastery Hunter
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Beast Mastery Hunter in Midnight Pre-Patch from the Manaforge Omega Raid.
Note that this BiS List is for items from the Raid. I am separating the BiS lists by gear sources. This is what you send to your Raid Leader/Loot Council when they ask you what your BiS gear is from the Raid.
The items are evaluated in a vacuum for the most part, meaning that collecting every single item in this list and putting them together may not actually be the highest possible DPS — but on an individual slot basis, for the most gearsets, these items are the most likely to perform the highest. There is no substitute for simming your own character on Raidbots if you want to maximize your DPS.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Fractillus in Manaforge Omega | |
| Helm | Forgeweaver Araz/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
Neck ( Pack Leader) |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega | |
Neck ( Dark Ranger) |
Soulbinder Naazindhri in Manaforge Omega | |
| Shoulder | Dimensius The All Devouring in Manaforge Omega | |
| Cloak | Pre-Patch Questline | |
| Chest | Fractillus/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Bracers | Nexus King Salhadaar in Manaforge Omega | |
| Gloves | Soulbinder Naazindhri/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
Belt ( Pack Leader) |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega | |
Belt ( Dark Ranger) |
Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega | |
| Legs | Loom’ithar/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Boots | The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega | |
| Ring #1 | Dimensius The All Devouring in Manaforge Omega | |
| Ring #2 | Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega | |
Trinket #1 ( Dark Ranger) |
Fractillus in Manaforge Omega | |
Trinket #1 ( Pack Leader) |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega | |
| Trinket #2 | Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega |
Midnight Pre-Patch Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Beast Mastery Hunter
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Beast Mastery Hunter from Midnight Pre-Patch Mythic+.
Note that this BiS List is for items from Mythic+. I am separating the BiS lists by gear sources. This is the list you can chase when you want to improve your gear by farming Mythic+ dungeons.
The items are evaluated in a vacuum for the most part, meaning that collecting every single item in this list and putting them together may not actually be the highest possible DPS — but on an individual slot basis, for the most gearsets, these items are the most likely to perform the highest. There is no substitute for simming your own character on Raidbots if you want to maximize your DPS.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Operation: Floodgate, or in Great Vault | |
Weapon ( Dark Ranger) |
Tazavesh: So'leah's Gambit, or in Great Vault | |
| Helm | Forgeweaver Araz/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Neck | Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder, or in Great Vault | |
| Shoulder | The Soul Hunters/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Cloak | Pre-Patch Questline | |
| Chest | Fractillus/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
| Bracers | Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder, or in Great Vault | |
Gloves ( Pack Leader) |
Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder, or in Great Vault | |
Gloves ( Dark Ranger) |
Priory of the Sacred Flame, or in Great Vault | |
| Belt | Operation: Floodgate, or in Great Vault | |
| Legs | Loom’ithar/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault | |
Boots ( Pack Leader) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or in Great Vault | |
Boots ( Dark Ranger) |
Eco-Dome Al'dani, or in Great Vault | |
| Ring #1 | Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder, or in Great Vault | |
| Ring #2 | The Dawnbreaker, or in Great Vault | |
| Trinket #1 | Operation: Floodgate, or in Great Vault | |
Trinket #2 ( Dark Ranger) |
Priory of the Sacred Flame, or in Great Vault | |
Trinket #2 ( Pack Leader) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, or in Great Vault |
Best Puzzling Cartel Chip Purchases for Beast Mastery Hunter
Note that the pre-patch has invalidated all the theorycrafting that went into this section for Patch 11.2.5, and there are no simulations. So, this section will be a tad more "generic" and will have recommendations that work well for both Hero Talents, since they are both competitive, and sims are required to truly know what is "objectively" best.
Patch 11.2.5 reintroduces the
Puzzling Cartel Chip system. As before,
you can complete a weekly quest to obtain these Chips, which are used to
purchase high-value items from Manaforge Omega and Mythic+ dungeons.
You may buy any trinkets or special cantrip items available, all the way up to
Myth track quality.
However, purchasing an item requires you to have already defeated the boss it
drops from, on the corresponding difficulty. For example, to purchase
Araz's Ritual Forge Mythic, you must first defeat Mythic
Forgeweaver Araz. Dungeon trinkets additionally require you to have
timed every keystone at level 12 or higher.
For simplicity, your recommended purchase order assuming full Mythic boss access is:
Below is a breakdown of the high-value items to prioritize with Cartel Chips in Midnight Pre-Patch as a Beast Mastery Hunter. This list is not exhaustive or strictly prioritized. Always sim yourself for the optimal choice, as the best item depends on your current gear.
- A very well-tuned Trinket that is excellent for all content, for both Hero Talents.
- The Cantrip effect scales with item track. Mythic-track boots are a substantial upgrade compared to Heroic-track versions.
Astral Antenna is the best passive option for both Hero
Talents.- If you lack a Mythic weapon, this can be a fallback. Only buy if you have Mythic access, and delay until your final purchase.
- The best Mythic+ trinket if you do not have access to anything from Mythic Raid.
- The best Mythic+ trinket to pair with
Signet of the Priory.
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (Myth) - Click for Details
Interloper's Chain Boots (Myth) - Click for Details
Astral Antenna (Myth) - Click for Details
Lacerated Current Caster (Myth only) - Click for
Details
Signet of the Priory (Alternative) - Click for
Details
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (Alternative to pair with
Signet) - Click for Details
Since Mythic-level purchases require you to have defeated the corresponding bosses, avoid buying Heroic versions if you plan to progress further. You will only receive 3 total purchases for the rest of the season—choose carefully.
Reshii Wraps for Beast Mastery Hunter
Patch 11.2 adds the unique
Reshii Wraps Cloak that can be obtained
through the Ghosts of K'aresh quest chain. It starts at iLvl 694, and can be
upgraded throughout the Season to iLvl 730. There are no other Cloaks currently, this is it.
The unique effect is a high damage proc that splits damage on AoE, and gets stronger against low-HP targets. Its effect is made stronger by specific items from the Manaforge Omega Raid:
Interloper's Chain Boots - Boots from The Soul Hunters.
These simply increase the proc rate of your Cloak and are always BiS. Do not
craft Boots, you will want these even from lower difficulties if you can.
Band of the Shattered Soul - Ring from Dimensius The All Devouring, the final
boss. Gives you occasional Cosmic damage reduction. This is a good Ring in
general due to its high Haste, the extra benefit is quite subtle and not a
bonus that you will explicitly chase this Ring for alone.
The stats of the
Reshii Wraps are modified by the Fiber
Socket, which can be swaped at any time out of combat. These Fiber Socket
Gems can be acquired at Rare/Blue quality from Hashim on K'aresh, or
crafted by Tailoring at Epic/Purple quality. As Beast Mastery, you
should generally use
Precise Fiber /
Pure Precise Fiber to get
Crit, although if you are already past 40% Haste, you may want to pick the Haste
or Mastery Fibers instead. It is worth simming!
For more information on acquiring your Cloak, check our dedicated page that goes into more detail:
Best Trinkets Tier List for Beast Mastery Hunter
This Trinket Tier List is based on an average of Single-Target Raid and Mythic+ AoE Performance, weighted 65/35 (Mythic+ has single-target too!).
Note that the Trinkets are compared at their highest possible Item Level.
A "Tier" as defined by this list is around 0.5%-1% DPS.
S-Tier
Unyielding Netherprism (
Dark Ranger)
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (
Pack Leader)
Astral Antenna
A-Tier
Ara-Kara Sacbrood
Araz's Ritual Forge (
Dark Ranger)
B-Tier
Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
So'leah's Secret Technique (Generally Haste)
Cursed Stone Idol
Lily of the Eternal Weave
Signet of the Priory
Algari Alchemist Stone
C-Tier
Sigil of the Cosmic Hunt
Void-Touched Fragment
Harvester's Edict
Araz's Ritual Forge (
Pack Leader)
Incorporeal Essence-Gorger
Screams of a Forgotten Sky
Soulbreaker's Sigil
D-Tier
Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope
Essence-Hunter's Eyeglass
E-Tier
Perfidious Projector
Automatic Footbomb Dispenser
Unyielding Netherprism (
Pack Leader)
Depleted K'areshi Battery
F-Tier
Mind-Fracturing Odium
Chaotic Nethergate
"Simming" Yourself as a Beast Mastery Hunter
Throughout this page, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots, as it is an indispensable aspect of optimizing your character.
While we do offer generic sim charts for Trinkets, this should not be a replacement for simming yourself, at least not if you want to minmax sub-1%!
If you are new to simming and Raidbots, check out our detailed guide below.
Best Crafted Items for Beast Mastery Hunter
Our BiS Crafts are pretty straightforward. We want 2x
Dawnthread Lining on some sensible slots.
For players coming right into the Season from its beginning, the choice is very different as we are not just concerned about the best
Crafted Slots and Embellishments, but also potentially short-term Item Level gains. While the 2x
Dawnthread Lining setup is optimal
in the longer run, in the short-to-medium-term, crafting a Weapon with a Darkmoon Sigil can be preferable because of the immediate, short-term
value of a weapon upgrade.
Please note that double-
Dawnthread Lining has a tendency to not work outside of combat in some scenarios. If you have two of them
equipped, but are only getting Crit from one of them, try to intentionally drop below 80% HP and then heal yourself back up. this WeakAura can help alert you when it is not working so you can fix it.
The sections below describe, in detail, the best endgame options for Raiding and Mythic+, but keep the above in mind.
As for the stats, you either want Haste-Mastery or Haste-Crit.
Best Embellishments and Crafting Order for Beast Mastery Hunter
P.0.W. x2 (Early Season, costs 2 Sparks) — This
item is not our long-term BiS, but it is a very strong early Season
option. It is not as good as the 2x
Dawnthread Lining setup in the long
run. The second boss on Mythic difficulty will drop a better Weapon, and you
can get better weapons from the Great Vault. Crafting a Weapon does
have some risk factor to it for this reason.- (BiS, 1 Spark) —
Glyph-Etched Gauntlets with
Dawnthread Lining — Note that if Crafting this right away will mess with your Tier Set acquisition, you may want to go for Bracers first. Note that as
Dark Ranger, you can use
Duskthread Lining instead, which grants Versatility and will often sim similarly to Dawn while offering damage reduction. - (BiS, 1 Spark) —
Glyph-Etched Vambraces with
Dawnthread Lining. Note that as
Dark Ranger, you can use
Duskthread Lining instead, which grants Versatility and will often sim similarly to Dawn while offering damage reduction. - Next, chase Item Level where needed, preferring Weapon > Helm/Chest/Legs (though these are likely occupied by tier) > Boots/Belt/Shoulders > Rings/Necks > Cloaks.
- At this point, you are mostly done crafting. You can spend future Sparks on off-spec items, alternatively statted crafts for different situations, and so on.
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension vs
Darkmoon Sigil: Vivacity
These are two weapon-only Embellishments with different secondary stat effects. On sustained encounters, ones that keep you in combat for
several minutes,
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension is about 0.5% better. However, because Ascension takes a whole 80 seconds to reach full
power, if you are primarily doing non-Raiding content,
Darkmoon Sigil: Vivacity is better as it does not have this problem.
Best Gear Crest Upgrades for Beast Mastery Hunter
You will be able to upgrade your items via Crests such as
Gilded Ethereal Crest. Once you have upgraded a slot to a certain item
level, upgrading other items of that slot to that item level is free.
When you upgrade with Crests, you should think of it as upgrading slots and not items.
Additionally, since Crests are a limited resource, you will want to obtain the highest item-level possible before upgrading a given slot, as this means you will spend fewer Crests on that slot in total. If you are at all capable of doing a +10 Dungeon (701 iLvl), for example, it would be a VERY bad idea to upgrade an item from a +9 Dungeon (697), because you just wasted 15 Crests that could have been saved by just farming the slot on a +10.
We see a ton of players, even at a high level, mess up their upgrade priorities, and upgrading prematurely. Getting this right will put you far ahead of most players.
Below is the slot priority you should upgrade your items in. If you ever want to deviate from this, you should have a very good reason.
- Weapons
- Trinkets
- Helm/Chest/Legs
- Rings and Necks
- Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots
- Cloaks and Bracers
Note that exceptions are possible, such as special items that have more Item Level scaling than their slot would imply.
Pre-Patch Tier Set for Beast Mastery Hunter
The Tier Set is comprised of 5 items, all carrying the Midnight Herald's moniker.
Midnight Pre-Patch made all Tier Sets generic in preparation for the new expansion. They increase your damage by 6% and 10%, respectively.
The Tier Set Bonus is absolutely mandatory for competitive play, and you should prioritize obtaining it. You can use the Matrix Catalyst to convert regular items (from Mythic+, for example) into Tier Items.
You only need 4 pieces out of 5 to get both set bonuses. We recommend you get all items except for the Gloves, due to their lower item level budget than other tier items. Check out the BiS List for more information.
Changelog
- 19 Jan. 2026: Updated for Midnight Pre-Patch.
- 30 Nov. 2025: Reviewed for Patch 11.2.7.
- 05 Oct. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.2.5.
- 12 Sep. 2025: Updated Trinket Tier List and BiS List.
- 07 Sep. 2025: Updated BiS Ring.
- 06 Sep. 2025: Updated BiS Lists and Trinket Tier Lists to include Dark Ranger-specifics.
- 02 Sep. 2025: Trinket Tier List and BiS updates.
- 16 Aug. 2025: Update Trinket Tier list for tuning,
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.2.
- 24 Jun. 2025: Updated the Titan Disc recommendation again based on further analysis into Static Charge oversimulating its actual performance.
- 23 Jun. 2025: Updated the Titan Disc recommendation based on the latest hotfixes.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.7.
- 13 May 2025: Updated the ordering of Dinar recommendations.
- 10 May 2025: Updated the wording/Dinar recommendation status for House of Cards and Signet slightly.
- 09 May 2025: Updated Corruption Enchants & Puzzling Cartel Chip Dinar section.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Add list of Dinar-purchasable items.
- 29 Mar. 2025: Updated the position of Eye of Kezan in the Mythic+ Trinket Tier List.
- 25 Mar. 2025: Updated for March 25 Updates.
- 17 Mar. 2025: Updated wording on Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 17 Dec. 2024: Updated for the Cyrce's Circlet now going to Item Level 658.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 30 Oct. 2024: Updated for October 29 Hotfixes.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 24 Sep. 2024: Updated a BiS Ring.
- 13 Sep. 2024: Added note about double-Dawnthread Lining not working and how to fix it.
- 10 Sep. 2024: Streamlined Crafting recommendations, split them by Raiding and Mythic+, and reformatted. Removed Disclaimer. Fixed some BiS List discrepancies.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Updated for The War Within Season 1.
- 30 Aug. 2024: Preliminary update pass in preparation for Season 1.27 Aug. 2024: Added a note about Crafted gear to the Pre-Season BiS List.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
More Hunter Guides
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This guide has been written by Azortharion, a full-timer Hunter Guidewriter, Theorycrafter, Content Creator, and top player since 2014 who is widely considered one of the best PvE Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with hundreds of top parses across all Hunter specs. He is the Head Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the official Hunter Class Discord. You can find him on his stream on Twitch and his channel on YouTube. He also has his own, personal Discord server where you can freely ask him any Hunter questions you may have!
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