Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Spell Summary (Legion 7.2)

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Last updated on May 13, 2017 at 18:46 by Azortharion 466 comments

General Information

On this page, we list the spells that you will often use as a Beast Mastery Hunter.

The other pages of our Beast Mastery Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Azortharion, the main theorycrafter of the spec. He is also an accomplished player who raids in Vanguard. You can also watch his stream on Twitch.

1. Spell Summary

This will cover synergies, cooldowns, and core concepts of the spec to get it working in Legion. If you already have experience and are very comfortable with Beast Mastery, it is okay to skip past this, otherwise this is a great point to get a base understanding before moving onto later sections of the guide that covers nuances of gameplay.

2. Main Resource

Hunters and their pets use a unique resource, called Focus. Focus works in much the same way as other class resources, like Rage and Energy, in the sense that some abilities grant Focus, while others cost Focus to be used.

A Beast Mastery Hunter's Focus has a maximum capacity of 120, and regenerates at an innate rate of 10 Focus per second. This rate is increased by Haste. In addition to this, certain abilities such as Arcane Shot Icon Arcane Shot (Marksmanship-only) also grant Focus.

Most of the abilities in the hunter rotation cost Focus to use, and some talents decrease the Focus costs, or offer other ways to gain additional Focus.

Hunter pet Focus works similarly, and is of no concern to you as you cannot do anything to modify it, nor will you be casting pet abilities manually.

As a general rule, you should always have enough Focus to cast your abilities as soon as they come off cooldown, but also to never have 120 Focus (as any extra Focus you generate would then go to waste).

3. Basic Abilities

Cobra Shot Icon Cobra Shot is your "Focus dump" ability, used as a filler between other, hard-hitting abilities to spend excess Focus and to activate certain mechanics, namely the Killer Cobra Icon Killer Cobra talent.

Kill Command Icon Kill Command is the bread and butter of your damage, with a 6-second base cooldown and a Focus cost of 30. It will do up to 35-45% of your total damage and getting as many casts off as possible is one of the most important aspects of the spec.

Dire Beast Icon Dire Beast is your only source of active Focus regeneration. It summons a random beast that attacks your target for moderate damage over 8 seconds. Throughout this time, it also generates 12 Focus. Finally, whenever you cast it, the remaining cooldown on Bestial Wrath Icon Bestial Wrath is reduced by 15 seconds.

Multi-Shot Icon Multi-Shot is your AoE ability. It does very low Physical damage to all targets it hits, but it activates Beast Cleave Icon Beast Cleave which is described below.

Your AoE damage comes in the form of Beast Cleave Icon Beast Cleave. It is a 4-second pet buff that is activated by Multi-Shot Icon Multi-Shot. It causes all your pet's automatic attacks (as well as Dire Frenzy Icon Dire Frenzy attacks) to also hit all targets within 10 yards for the same damage as the original hits.

4. Movement Tools

Disengage Icon Disengage is your primary mobility ability. It causes you to leap backwards on a 20-second cooldown at no cost. Certain talents like Posthaste Icon Posthaste and Farstrider Icon Farstrider amplify this ability, causing it to give you increased movement speed, or gives your damaging abilities a chance to reset its cooldown. You can use this to quickly go from one place to another — even in a forwards direction by jumping, turning around and casting Disengage to catapult you forwards instead of backwards.

Aspect of the Cheetah Icon Aspect of the Cheetah is your second mobility ability, acting as more of a cooldown. It increases your movement speed by 90% for 3 seconds, and then by 30% for another 9 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown. Note it does not stack with Posthaste Icon Posthaste, so you should make sure to use Disengage and Aspect of the Cheetah separately for movement.

5. Important Procs and Passives

Hati is your additional pet and companion. It is by default a lightning wolf that you acquire as an additional pet through the quest line for your artifact weapon, and it is tied to the weapon. It mirrors most of your pet's main attacks, including Kill Command and Beast Cleave, although it does significantly less damage than your main pet.

Wild Call Icon Wild Call causes your auto-shot critical strikes to have a 20% chance to reset the cooldown of Dire Beast Icon Dire Beast.

6. Offensive Cooldowns

Bestial Wrath Icon Bestial Wrath is the main offensive cooldown for Beast Mastery. It increases all damage done by your and your pet by 25% for 10 seconds on a 1.5 minute base cooldown. This cooldown is reduced whenever you cast Dire Beast Icon Dire Beast.

Aspect of the Wild Icon Aspect of the Wild increases your critical strike chance for 10%, and your Focus regeneration by 10 Focus per second for 10 seconds.

Icon Titan's Thunder is an additional cooldown/ability that is acquired as the 26th trait in the artifact weapon. It causes your main pet, Hati, and all your already summoned Dire Beasts to deal moderate nature damage to the target every 1 second for 8 seconds. If you have specced Dire Frenzy Icon Dire Frenzy, it causes your next Dire Frenzy to deal additional Nature damage on all its 5 attacks.

7. Additional Utility & Traps

Aspect of the Turtle Icon Aspect of the Turtle is the Hunter's primary defensive. It is an 8-second immune (from most abilities) and 30% damage reduction that makes you unable to attack for its duration. With certain artifact traits, it also heals you for up to 48% of your total health throughout its duration. As mentioned, it is an immunity from most attacks, although most important encounter mechanics will still target you or do damage to you when it is active. It has a 3 minute cooldown.

Exhilaration Icon Exhilaration is the Hunter's self heal. It heals you for 30% of your total health, and your pet for its full health on a 2-minute cooldown.

Freezing Trap Icon Freezing Trap is a long-term crowd control for all Hunter specs. It places a trap on the ground that encases the first enemy (not bosses or most big encounter adds) to touch it in ice for 1 minute. The effect breaks on damage. The trap has a 30 second cooldown, and the trap will exist for 1 minute after placing it.

Tar Trap Icon Tar Trap is an AoE slow for all Hunter specs. It places a trap on the ground that causes a patch of tar to appear on the ground in an 8 yard radius around it when it is triggered, slowing all enemies in it by 50% for as long as they are in it. The patch of tar persists for 30 seconds, and the trap itself will exist for up to 1 minute before being triggered.

Flare Icon Flare places a flare on the ground that reveals stealthed players and mobs nearby. It lasts for 20 seconds, and has a 20-second cooldown.

Feign Death Icon Feign Death lets you pretend to be dead, dropping all threat/aggro on all enemies. When not in raid or dungeon encounters, it is a quick way to drop you from combat. In raids and dungeons, it can help you survive a wipe by using it when everyone else is about to die.

Misdirection Icon Misdirection causes you to redirect all the threat you do to a friendly target for the next 8 seconds. It has a 30-second cooldown. It is very useful for aiding your tank in picking up enemies that are spread far apart, such as wide-scale dungeon trash pulls, or adds that spawn further away from the boss such as on Tichondrius. Note that this only applies to threat you personally generate, not that of your pet(s).