Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Easy Mode — The War Within Pre-Patch

This build is optimal for pure single-target situations.

If you want to try a 1-minute cooldown sort of build instead, swap out Call of the Wild and Killer Instinct for Master Handler, Bloodshed, and Venomous Bite instead. These builds are very close and mostly come down to fight lengths and preference. I chose 2-minute CD's for this page as it is a bit more straightforward to play.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This is our recommended build for AoE scenarios. This works well for AoE Fights in Raids, as well as most Mythic+.

Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The goal of Beast Mastery is simply to cast as many Kill Commands as possible. To do this, you need to cast it on cooldown, and you also need to keep your Focus above 30 so that you have enough Focus to cast it on cooldown. In short, if you can press Kill Command, you always should!

Your second core ability is Barbed Shot. It applies a hefty DoT that gives you some Focus over time, and it increases your pet attack speed by 30% (35% with the tier set bonus!), stacking up to 3 times, for 10 seconds. It also has a solid chance of generating Kill Commands via the War Orders talent.

You will generate Focus mostly passively, with extra Focus infusions from abilities like Dire Beast, but it is important that you never reach 100 Focus! To prevent this, use Cobra Shot to "dump" and manage your Focus. It will also reduce the remaining cooldown of Kill Command. Make sure not to press Cobra Shot if you could be casting Kill Command instead!

Aside from these 3 buttons, Beast Mastery simply presses its other buttons on cooldown. Note that most of the abilities below are opt-in via talents, so do not be put off by the length of this list!

• Call of the Wild — Your primary damage cooldown that summons a "zoo" of pets and lets you cast far more Kill Commands and Barbed Shots.
• Bestial Wrath — A powerful mini-cooldown that improves all your damage by 25%, and your pet's critical strike bonus damage by 35%.
• Bloodshed — A powerful 1-minute burst cooldown. Only used in the 1-minute single-target build discussed above.
• Explosive Shot — A Hunter staple that deals hefty damage on a 30-second cooldown.
• Dire Beast — An additional pet summon that also generates Focus.
• Barrage — A powerful burst AoE button.
• Kill Shot — A strong single-target button. Normally only usable on enemies below 20% HP, but talents like Hunter's Prey allow it to be used on any HP!

There is only one extra thing you need to worry about for Beast Mastery on AoE, and that is Beast Cleave. This is a pet buff activated by Multi-Shot that causes all of its attacks to do AoE damage. Even if there are only 2 targets up, you should try to keep this buff up 100% of the time by casting Multi-Shot regularly. You can generally fit 3 spells between Multi-Shots. Make sure most of those are Kill Command as it will also do AoE damage via Kill Cleave!

I recommend using this WeakAura to keep track of Beast Cleave!

Exhilaration is your primary self-heal and it has a rather short cooldown thanks to the Natural Mending Talent. Use this when you drop below 50% HP to help out your Healer!

Aspect of the Turtle is your immunity. It can be used to completely negate the damage and effects of most spells targeted on you. Use it if you are assigned to, or in a pinch if you worry that an upcoming mechanic will kill you!

Survival of the Fittest is our most powerful defensive besides Turtle, a 30% damage reduction with 2 charges on a 1.5-minute cooldown each. Use it to reduce damage taken from hard-hitting mechanics. Optimal use of this ability entails using it proactively, before heavy incoming damage.

Fortitude of the Bear is an extra defensive that comes from using a Tenacity Pet (more on that in the Pets section!). It increases max health by 20% and heals you for that amount too. This defensive can be used after heavy damage, or to survive things that might one-shot you.

Feign Death is a very unique Hunter ability. It can be used to drop aggro and combat, and it can also be used to stop casts on you — mobs will usually stop casting mid-cast if you appear to be dead! It will also dispel all Poison and Disease effects from you.

This is just some of the key utility of Beast Mastery Hunter. We highly recommend checking out the fully detailed Spell Glossary page below to see everything explained in detail.

The most important thing to say about Pets is that they all deal the same DPS. The only difference is in utility and defensive capabilities!

First of all, you need to find out if you need to be using Bloodlust/ Heroism in your group. Only Hunters, Mages, Evokers, and Shamans can use Bloodlust, so if there is no one else of those classes in your group, then it is on you!

If you do need to Bloodlust, you need to use any Ferocity Pet, since these come with the Primal Rage Bloodlust Ability. Use this website to find a cool Ferocity Pet for Lusting purposes!

If you do not need to Bloodlust, then the best Pet is a Spirit Beast, as these come with the Fortitude of the Bear Defensive Ability (from Tenacity), and Spirit Mend which is unique to Spirit Beasts.

With that said, Spirit Mend is a pretty small bonus and if you do not need to Bloodlust, you can basically use any kind of pet that you want. Tenacity is ideal for its defensive ability.