World of Warcraft: Forever Beast Mastery Hunter - Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities

The Hunter rotation is built on the principal idea of maximizing your number of Auto Shots while following your ability priority list as much as possible. This means ensuring that you are standing still for at least 0.5 seconds when you have an Auto Shot ready, and just hitting your buttons when they come off cooldown. In general, you will not be pressing abilities 100% of the time; there are gaps in your rotation where you can choose to use utility spells, move around, or just sit and wait to conserve mana.

While not an active part of your rotation, the other core tenant of Beast Mastery DPS is pet management. Your pet is a substantial portion of your DPS. You need to always ensure that your pet is attacking the right target, and that you are proactively commanding your pet to attack new targets as needed.

These lists assume you are using the recommended builds in the Beast Mastery Hunter Talents page, and are at maximum level. If you are still leveling, refer to the Beast Mastery Hunter Leveling page for leveling rotations.

This will be your priority rotation for whenever you are fighting either just a single enemy, or you need a specific enemy in a group to die as quickly as possible. Note that this i sa priority list, so work your way down from the top, and use the ability listed highest that is available for you to use.

• Put Hunter's Mark up on your target before combat.
• Command your pet to attack your target first, with its abilities on auto-cast.
• Maintain Serpent Sting.
• Use Summon Hawk on cooldown, always keeping 2 hawks active.
• Cast Aimed Shot on cooldown.
• If you will have 2 hawks active for more than 6 seconds, use Arcane Shot.
• Drop an Immolation Trap in melee range.

This will be your priority rotation for whenever you are fighting a group of enemies, between 2 and 7 targets. Note that this is a priority list, so work your way down from the top, and use the ability listed highest that is available for you to use.

• Put Hunter's Mark up on your target before combat.
• Command your pet to attack your target first, with its abilities on auto-cast.
• Use Multi-Shot on cooldown.
• Place Explosive Trap on cooldown.
• Use Summon Hawk on cooldown, always keeping 2 hawks active.
• If you will have 2 hawks active for more than 6 seconds, use Arcane Shot.
• Channel Volley.

This will be your priority rotation for whenever you are fighting a large group of enemies, specifically 8+ targets. Note that this is a priority list, so work your way down from the top, and use the ability listed highest that is available for you to use.

• Put Hunter's Mark up on your primary target before combat.
• Command your pet to attack your target first, with its abilities on auto-cast.
• Place Explosive Trap on cooldown.
• Channel Volley.
• Use Multi-Shot while moving.

Bestial Wrath causes your pet to deal 50% more damage for 18 seconds, and it becomes unstoppable for the duration. This will be your primary DPS cooldown to use on a 2-minute timer. Generally you will want to use this off cooldown as much as possible, so plan accordingly.

Rapid Fire is Hunter's primary DPS cooldown as a class, giving you a massive boost to your attack speed for 15 seconds. Generally you will want to overlap this with your trinket and other cooldowns. Since this has a longer cooldown at 5 minutes baseline, you typically only get a single use of this per encounter.

Hunters are known for a variety of unique utility tools that are both incredibly useful and flavorful for the class.

Hunters have a full class of abilities known as traps, such as Freezing Trap. These leave a trap on the ground under you, which will persist for up to 30 seconds. If an enemy runs over the trap, it triggers its effect. For Freezing Trap, this means encasing the enemy in a block of ice, controlling them for 20 seconds.

You can only have a single trap active at a time, and when you use a trap it triggers a 30-second cooldown on all trap spells.

Hunters have three most used traps: Explosive Trap for AoE damage, Freezing Trap for single-target crowd control, and Frost Trap for a larger AoE slow that can affect multiple enemies.

Hunters can always have one of their aspect buffs active. Most of the time this should be Aspect of the Hawk as it will give you a massive damage increase. However, if you are confident that you will not take damage, Aspect of the Cheetah will be a better choice while moving to ensure you move faster and can return to standing still for more Auto Shots.

Hunters have other important utility options available, most notably Feign Death. This will take you out of combat by pretending to be dead, which can be a very useful temporary threat reset on a target. However, this will not apply to your pet, so keep that in mind when your pet is also attacking. If threat is still an issue, you can use Disengage in melee range to reduce your threat on a target.

More WoW Forever Hunter Guides

Marksmanship Hunter Ranged DPS Guide Marksmanship Hunter Ranged DPS Stats Survival Hunter Melee DPS Leveling Beast Mastery Hunter Ranged DPS Leveling Beast Mastery Hunter Ranged DPS Guide Survival Hunter Melee DPS Rotation

More WoW Forever Guides from Other Classes

Holy Priest Healer Leveling Fury Warrior Melee DPS Rotation Enhancement Shaman Melee DPS Stats Assassination Rogue Melee DPS Talents Retribution Paladin Melee DPS Stats Affliction Warlock Ranged DPS Guide