Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — The War Within Pre-Patch

This build uses Call of the Wild and is based around 2-minute burst.

Your choice of the two single-target builds is going to come down to the timings of the encounter, and the overall killtime expected. The 2-minute build performs best on fights that last around 2:30, 4:30, 6:30 and so on, while the 1-minute build performs best on fights that last around 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, and so on.

If you have no idea how long the fight is going to be at all, your best bet is probably the 2-minute build.

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

This build uses Bloodshed and is based around 1-minute burst.

Your choice of the two single-target builds is going to come down to the timings of the encounter, and the overall killtime expected. The 2-minute build performs best on fights that last around 2:30, 4:30, 6:30 and so on, while the 1-minute build performs best on fights that last around 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, and so on.

If you have no idea how long the fight is going to be at all, your best bet is probably the 2-minute build.

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

This is my recommended build for AoE scenarios, such as Mythic+, and Raid AoE Talents. It has the optimal blend of excellent AoE damage and solid priority- and single-target damage in one package.

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

This is my recommended build for AoE situations where single-target is still very important. It sacrifices the Master Handler and Scent of Blood from the standard M+/AoE build and puts them into the heavily single-target-biased Bloodshed/ Venomous Bite. This gives you a capable AoE build that still does very well for boss/priority target damage. I recommend it for most AoE-inclined raid fights, and high Tyrannical dungeons if you need more boss DPS.

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

This is my recommended build for pure AoE. That means scenarios where single-target is completely irrelevant. These scenarios almost never come up, and I do not recommend you play this build outside of fights like Primal Council.

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

We have two primary choices of single-target builds. One is focused around the 2-minute cooldown, Call of the Wild, and the other is focused around Bloodshed with Venomous Bite, for a 1-minute burst window.

These two builds perform within 1% of each other on average. Therefore, your choice comes down to the encounter and the expected fight length, which varies heavily from group to group. You cannot really go wrong with either, but try to pay attention to the usual killtimes of your group and pick accordingly.

Usually, when people talk about AoE builds, they are really talking about Mythic+. Pure AoE is a very niche and uncommon occurrence, since even the most AoE-heavy fights tend to have a single, "big bad" boss that needs to be killed to end the fight. Exceptions occur, of course, such as with Primal Council.

With that in mind, the Mythic+ build I recommend on this page is not strictly speaking the best AoE build. Instead, it is focused on trying to get the best of both worlds, combining simulations of single-target and various kinds and durations of AoE. The goal of doing damage in Mythic+ is to finish the dungeon quickly, after all, and that is what this build accomplishes.

To add some numbers to this, my M+ build deals ~11% more single-target DPS than the Heavy AoE build, but only ~4% less pure AoE DPS. It also deals ~5% more priority target damage while doing its AoE.