With Forever launching on November 4, we’re looking at how each class performed during beta, how players received their changes from Classic, and how they are shaping up for the Forever launch and level 60.
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The info below was written based on our experiences during beta and feedback from our Hunter writers, Impakt and Veramos.
Beast Mastery Hunter
Unlike other classes, Hunters get their main power boost right away at level 10 as they gain their 
Tame Beast ability and access to their first pet. This is the reason for Hunter’s fame as the strongest leveling class in WoW, and it rings true in Forever as well.
For Beast Mastery, at level 30 we already had access to all our rotational abilities, with the last one being 
Summon Hawk at 25. The core loop at 30 was incredibly fun, and it only improves from this point onwards, with abilities like 
Bestial Wrath available later.
For the large part of beta, Hunter pets were overpowered, which gave everyone playing the illusion that Hunters themselves were overpowered. These have been mostly fixed by the end of beta, but there might be issues with pet balance going into live, so it is worth watching for it.
For Beast Mastery veterans, Forever brings many welcome additions, like Traps being usable in combat, pets inheriting part of our stats, and baseline protections like 90% damage reduction from AoE damage, leading to more durable pets than before.
Unlike Classic, Beast Mastery and Survival now have a place in endgame as well. Beast Mastery will likely be a simpler-to-play specialization than Marksmanship and will rely more on their pet, which will grow stronger the more gear you obtain. With pets being a core part of the Hunter fantasy, Beast Mastery will finally be able to live its dream.
Marksmanship Hunter
Marksman is a sibling spec to Beast Mastery to a fault, with its experience feeling very similar in the early levels. The change is the emphasis on buffing your own damage instead of your pet’s as time goes on.
The biggest highlight for Marksmanship in Forever is the introduction of 
Lone Wolf, which allows for a petless Hunter playstyle. While not mandatory, number-wise, the spec seems to be balanced with it in mind. While it helps create a separate identity from Beast Mastery, it also hurts the spec’s strength when leveling or doing solo content.
While not an issue, Blizzard changed how auto-shot works in beta. Whereas before you were able to stand still for a fraction of a second and get an auto-shot out, now you need to once again stand still for about 0.5 seconds before the shot goes out. This doesn’t change the number of shots being fired, just their cadence.
There have been many improvements to Marksmanship in Forever when compared to Classic. 
Aimed Shot is now just a baseline Hunter ability, part of your core rotation. Abilities no longer interrupt your auto-shot rotation, meaning you no longer need to weave abilities in between auto-shots like in Classic.
While Marksmanship used to be the only real Hunter spec in Classic, now all three options are viable. For Marksmanship, expect it to be the petless Hunter spec in endgame content, being a stationary spec that sets up 
Serpent Sting, uses either Aimed Shot or 
Multi-Shot, and fires 
Sniper Shot when safe. 
Trueshot Aura being promoted to a raid buff means that even if MM isn’t a high-performer, there might be room for it in a raid group.
Survival Hunter
Survival as a spec has finally gained an identity with Forever, becoming the melee spec for Hunters. During beta, we already had access to many of its tools like 
Raptor Strike, 
Lacerate, and 
Strider Kick, but it was an incomplete preview, with many core parts of the spec, like 
Resourcefulness and 
Expose Prey, only available later on.
Survival as a spec only really becomes a thing around level 30, with Lacerate and 
Aspect of the Beast being locked until then, which is one of the biggest issues it faces when leveling. One concern spread across the community is range-weaving: a playstyle where the Survival Hunter needs to weave in and out of melee range to take advantage of ranged-only abilities. However, due to the change to auto-shot requiring 0.5s to fire, this playstyle might not see the light of day.
From Classic, the biggest improvement is hands-down having the abilities required to make melee Hunter a real spec. The ability to use traps in combat is the second follow-up, together with fire traps now scaling with attack power.
For endgame, it is unclear what role Survival will perform, with the spec not having a carved niche right now, as an almost brand-new specialization. There is much more that we need to discover about this specialization before raids open on December 9th.
Tomorrow Preview
Will Hunters find their prey in Forever? Or will they just camouflage in the background?
Tomorrow: Warrior! See you then!
