Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Guide — Dragonflight 10.1

Beast Mastery Hunter is a highly mobile ranged DPS spec. It is the only Ranged spec in the game that is able to fully execute its rotation while moving. This makes it incredibly useful for dealing with mechanics in raids and dungeons, as it can do these things with no damage penalty. It is also relatively easy to pick up and play.

Strengths

• Best utility of the Hunter specs.
• Easy to play.
• High mobility.
• Uncapped AoE.

Weaknesses

• Pet AI can sometimes be wonky or cause issues.
• Poor burst damage.

We are maintaining a list of changes for Hunters, so you can see what changes with every patch of Dragonflight.

• Revive Pet now has a 2.5-second cast time, down from 3 seconds. It is also now a Physical spell, meaning it cannot be interrupted or silenced.
• The healing of the Rejuvenating Wind Talent has been nerfed by 20%.
• Roar of Sacrifice (PvP Talent) is now a choice node talent in the Class Tree, alongside Hunter's Avoidance.

• Aspect of the Wild (Talent) now causes Cobra Shot to hit 2 extra targets (was 1).
• Master Handler (Talent)'s cooldown reduction value increased to 4 seconds (was 2).
• Snake Bite (Talent)'s damage bonus increased to 75% (was 30%).
• Bloody Frenzy (Talent) has been redesigned. While Call of the Wild (Talent) is active, your Pets have permanent Beast Cleave, and Cobra Shot also applies Serpent Sting.

In Patch 10.1, not a lot changes for Beast Mastery. You will find that the Rotation and Talents page are nearly identical, as none of the changes above have meaningfully changed the meta in this regard.

Still, lots of new systems and content was introduced with the Patch. Below, I have listed some of the pages that received the biggest updates.

• Gear Page — Most changes relate to gear as there is a whole new Season's Raid and Mythic+ Dungeons to gear up from, as well as a new Gear Upgrade system, Embellishments, and more. We have added a Trinket Tier List and an endgame BiS List by popular request.

Beast Mastery has acceptable single-target, average AoE, but strong uncapped AoE on 8+ targets. Its unlimited mobility and ease of play can mean that it will often overperform in less competitive scenarios, which makes it a popular spec.

Marksmanship suffers from a lack of build flexibility. To do AoE, you must sacrifice a large amount of single-target, and vice versa.

If you want to play a Beast Mastery Hunter, but currently do not have one at max level, you can check out our leveling guide for tips on your journey.

Once you reach max level, it can be somewhat overwhelming to completely change the way you play by suddenly implementing a large number of addons in a short space of time, especially if they have a heavy visual impact on your UI. We recommend using some of the more basic addons recommended on our Addons page below while leveling, so that you have more time to get used to them during the easier phases of playing your class.

Beast Mastery Hunter is a spec about buff, cooldown, and pet management all at the same time. The fundamental rotation is simple, focused on spending Focus exclusively, since you have no active Focus generators.

Most of your time will be spent casting Cobra Shot and Kill Command, with Barbed Shot being used to maintain your pet's Frenzy buff, another big part of the spec. You will also regularly be using your main mini-cooldown, Bestial Wrath.

If you are an absolute beginner to the spec, but would like to learn the basic fundamentals of the class, recommend looking through the Spell Summary first, as well as the Beginner page linked below.

If you are already somewhat familiar with Hunters, you can head straight to the Talents and Rotation pages to jump right into the more complex, detailed information.

Despite the fact that gearing has become more challenging, due to the huge number of variables that depend on your character, you can find information on how best to gear as Beast Mastery on our dedicated gearing page, which includes the current Best in Slot from this tier.

Once you have started to gear, you will need to make sure that you have the appropriate consumables, gems, enchants, and more. We have a dedicated page for exactly this, as shown below, as well as the stats page, where you can find more information on the possibility of a changing stat priority and the necessary changes you may need to make for consumables.

Starting off as Beast Mastery can look very different from the absolute end-game raiding and progression as one. Our Mythic+, Raiding, and PvP guides can guide you to performing as well as possible, regardless of your focus in end-game content.

If you are finding your performance lackluster, but are not sure where you are going wrong, you can check out the pages below for potential tips, or answers to questions you may have.