Season of Discovery Hunter Melee DPS Talents and Runes

While Beast Mastery and Survival provided similar power levels for melee hunters previously, the addition of 10 extra points going from level 40 to 50 is significant enough to make Beast Mastery the better specialization as a melee Hunter now. You can get the full benefit of the Beast Mastery tree and the substantial pet bonuses that it provides, while also taking Monster Slaying and Savage Strikes from the Survival tree. This will give you most of what the Survival tree previously offered for melee power, really only missing out on the 15% agility further down. If you went full Survival instead, there are no DPS talents open for the remaining 10 points. Beast Mastery is now the superior tree at level 50, especially with the powerful new runes available.

• Pants — Flanking Strike
• Gloves — Beast Mastery
• Chest — Aspect of the Lion
• Belt — Melee Specialist
• Boots — Dual Wield Specialization
• Helm — Catlike Reflexes
• Wrists — Raptor Fury

For the gloves rune, while Beast Mastery is the only real choice since it will be the largest buff to your pet. In the current state of Season of Discovery, pets are more powerful than they've ever been in Classic WoW.Making your pet as strong as possible is the best choice, even as a Melee Hunter. Carve is a weak option except for on high-target AoE, but ultimately that just is not common enough in raids or dungeons to justify the loss of pet damage. Flanking Strike is the strongest melee rune by far, making it a no-brainer especially compared to the other lackluster options in this rune slow.

For chest rune, Aspect of the Lion is the strongest option by far now that it is an aura. The additional stats scale the damage of both you and your pet, as well as providing an exceptionally powerful raid buff. For belt and boots, Melee specialization and Dual Wield Specialization are the two new runes added that are specifically buffing the melee play style, which should make it more viable at level 40.

For the two new runes at 50, there are again obvious choices. Raptor Fury and Catlike Reflexes are the new melee runes with no other choices even in competition for how powerful they are.

More Engravings are likely to come out as we reach higher level caps, so make sure to checkout our general Runes guide to get a better understanding of what all tools you have available to your Hunter.