Hunter Hero Talents — The War Within (Season 1)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Beast Mastery Hunter, check out our Talents page:

Dark Ranger is our strongest Hero Talent for all scenarios, providing the highest single-target DPS by a massive margin while being very competitive on AoE.

Pack Leader's primary strength is pure AoE, which it does slightly (~2-3%) better than Dark Ranger. Even when AoE is a thing in the raid, however, it is often not the most important thing, and going Pack Leader for such encounters is often not worth it if your goal is killing the boss as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Dark Ranger is our best Hero Talent for Mythic+. It is very slightly (~2-3%) behind Pack Leader for pure AoE, but far ahead (~7%) on both priority- and single-target damage while doing such AoE. Smoke Screen is a very powerful defensive node for Mythic+, too, allowing us to use Exhilaration to counter one-shot mechanics on the highest of keys.

Pack Leader is strong for pure AoE, but lags too far behind in priority- and single-target damage to justify its pick over Dark Ranger, at least for high keys where such things are valid concerns. On lower, more casual keys, there is something to be said for the simplicity (and arguably more fun) gameplay of Pack Leader in AoE scenarios.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Beast Mastery Hunter

Dark Ranger Universal Build Dark Ranger Pure Single-Target Only Build Pack Leader Universal Build

2.

Best Dark Ranger Mythic+ Build for Beast Mastery Hunter

Dark Ranger offers us one important decision between Dark Empowerment or Grave Reaper. For AoE and Mythic+ scenarios, we pick Grave Reaper. While we will not always be able to make use of this, resets will happen with some regularity, and it is essential to have a Black Arrow prepared for every new pack.

Note that Grave Reaper is currently bugged and providing its benefit even when not specced, which is why this Tree seems to take it in contradiction of the statement above. Once this disclaimer is gone, then it is fixed.

2.

Best Dark Ranger Pure Single-Target Build for Beast Mastery Hunter

Dark Ranger offers us one important decision between Dark Empowerment or Grave Reaper. For PURE single-target, we pick Dark Empowerment since Grave Reaper is worthless. But, if you can get just a single Black Arrow reset off on an encounter, you should run Grave Reaper instead.

2.

Best Pack Leader Build for Beast Mastery Hunter

Pack Leader is very straightforward to build, with the same setup being optimal for all scenarios.

Dark Ranger has to apply Black Arrow on cooldown, and this will regularly grant Barbed Shot resets, much like Wild Call does. When you press Black Arrow, you will also get a Kill Shot proc, thanks to Death Shade proccing Hunter's Prey.

Pack Leader has no appreciable impact on your rotational priorities, though it does impact its feel. You will occasionally notice Frenzied Tear procs that reset the cooldown of Kill Command seemingly randomly, and Kill Command will also regularly reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot thanks to Furious Assault. On AoE, your Kill Command will extend your Beast Cleave by 1 second, thanks to Covering Fire. In terms of your actual priorities, however, nothing changes.