Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Guide — The War Within (11.2)

Beast Mastery Hunter is a powerful specialization with high single-target damage, the highest mobility of any ranged DPS specialization, a mortal strike, and a damage profile that is difficult for enemies to disrupt.

The Beast Mastery rotation is easy to pick up, and the skills that separate the best Beast Mastery Hunters are positioning and how to use their mobility and range to always be safe while keeping their enemies in danger while still using their crowd control to create kill windows.

As the bulk of a Beast Mastery Hunter's damage comes from their pets, it is difficult for enemies to avoid their damage, and Beast Mastery does not suffer from the line of sight issues other ranged DPS specializations are prone to.

The high damage, mortal strike, and ability to lock down a healer independently make Beast Mastery a versatile and powerful specialization in the solo shuffle format.

In the War Within, Beast Mastery has received a comprehensive rework offering more utility, more crowd control, more survivability, and some more specialized Hunter tree talents that are invaluable in certain matchups.

Strengths

• The highest mobility of all ranged specializations
• High single target damage which is difficult to disrupt
• Mortal Strike from pets
• Lots of defensive options and cooldowns
• Support for team with Roar of Sacrifice, Master's Call, or Interlope
• Multiple control crowd options in Intimidation, Binding Shot, Freezing Trap, High Explosive Trap, Scatter Shot/ Bursting Shot and Entrapment

Weaknesses

• Intimidation to Freezing Trap combination can be countered by many specializations
• Not many support options to keep a teammate alive when they're being trained
• Requires consistently strong positional awareness to truly excel
• Easy to break crowd control with Stomp
• Requires some awareness of crowd control effects on primary pet

No hotfixes have been announced so far for The War Within Season 3.

Beast Mastery

• Tireless Collector’s Bounties - 2-piece chance to fire a free Barbed Shot reduced by 50%.

Hunter

• New Talent: Harmonize - Pet damage increased by 4%.
• Developers' notes: Explosive Shot hasn't found a great home in Beast Mastery's kit, so we're offering an opportunity to trade it for some pet damage.
• Blackrock Munitions now also increases the pet damage bonus of Harmonize by 2%.
• Moment of Opportunity no longer has an internal cooldown.

Hero Talents: Dark Ranger

• Several talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
• New Talent: Umbral Reach - Black Arrow periodic damage increased by 100% and Bleak Powder now applies Black Arrow's periodic effect to all enemies it damages. If Bleak Powder damages 2 or more enemies, gain Beast Cleave/ Trick Shots if talented.
• Developers' notes: Black Arrow can have a confusing priority in AOE scenarios for both Marksmanship and Beast Mastery. Umbral Reach should give Black Arrow a clearer place in your AOE rotation without completely circumventing the need to use Multi-Shot.
• Soul Drinker has been updated - Now increases Black Arrow's damage by 8% and Bleak Powder's damage by 10%.
• Withering Fire has been updated - Now prioritizes units without Black Arrow's periodic effect.
• Black Arrow's periodic damage is now a rolling periodic.
• Bleak Powder damage reduced by 25%.
• Bleak Powder now deals reduced damage beyond 8 targets.
• Bleak Powder now correctly scales with Mastery: Sniper Training and Mastery: Master of Beasts.
• Phantom Pain damage share now affects up to 8 targets.
• The following talents have been removed: Embrace the Shadows, Shadow Surge
• The Bell Tolls' previous effect is now baseline to Black Arrow and has been updated - Firing a Black Arrow increases all damage dealt by you and your pets by 6% for 12 seconds. Multiple instances of this effect may overlap.
• Black Arrow damage increased by 44%.
• Phantom Pain damage replication is now 30% (was 8%).
• Dark Hounds no longer have a chance to summon alongside Dire Beasts.

Hero Talents: Pack Leader

• Shell Cover has been updated - When dropping below 60% health, summon the aid of a Turtle, reducing the damage you take by 15%. Damage reduction increased as health is reduced, up to 35% damage reduction at 10% health. Can only occur once every 90 seconds.
• Better Together has been updated - Damage dealt by your pets is increased by 3/15%. Frenzy's attack speed bonus is increased by 3%/ Tip of the Spear's damage bonus increased by 15%.
• Dire Summons has been updated - Raptor Strike/ Mongoose Bite reduction increased to 1.5 seconds (was 1 second).
• Rend Flesh's damage reduced by 30%.
• Developers' notes: Bleeds ignore armor, which Rend Flesh was not doing before, so this reduction is intended to keep its damage roughly neutral in power.
• Howl of the Pack Leader now displays an activation overlay when a Beast summon is ready.
• The Pack Leader Bear now properly benefits from pet avoidance.
• Fixed an issue causing Rend Flesh to not be treated as Bleed.

Beast Mastery

• Several talents have changed positions in the talent tree.
• New Talent: Wildspeaker - Dire Beasts will now obey your Kill Command, dealing damage at 30% effectiveness. Bestial Wrath now sends your Dire Beasts into a rage, increasing their damage dealt by 15% for 15 seconds. Dire Beasts summoned during a Bestial Wrath will benefit at a reduced duration.
• Mastery: Master of Beasts has been updated - Now also increase the damage of your shots and traps at 50% value.
• Dire Beast has been updated - Now a passive ability. Damage from your bleed effects has a 4% chance of attracting a powerful wild beast that attacks your target for 8 seconds.
• Bloodshed has been redesigned - Duration reduced to 12 seconds (was 18 seconds). Damage over time increased to every 1 second (was 3 seconds). Bleed damage increased substantially. Bleed damage from Bloodshed now has a higher chance to attract a Dire Beast.
• Killer Instinct has been updated - Kill Command's damage is increased by 8/16%.
• Developers' notes: Beast Mastery was bringing more execute damage than we'd like. We'd prefer Marksmanship to be the Hunter class's premier execute damage contributor.
• Huntmaster's Call has been updated:
• Now requires 6 Dire Beast summons to trigger.
• Hati and Fenryr base damage increased to about double of a normal Dire Beast's damage.
• Hati and Fenryr duration reduced to 10 seconds (was 15 seconds).
• Fenryr's Ravenous Leap damage increased by 500%.
• Fenryr Haste buff reduced to 4% (was 8%).
• Hati pet damage buff reduced to 4% (was 8%).
• All damage dealt reduced by 10%.
• Barbed Shot now replaces Steady Shot.
• Hunter's Prey no longer causes Kill Shot to strike additional targets.
• Developers' notes: By removing the additional targets, we can more reliably increase Black Arrow's power without creeping Beast Mastery Dark Ranger's AoE.
• Liberation of Undermine 2-set updated - Chance to trigger the bonus reduced and no longer scales with Haste.
• Liberation of Undermine 4-set updated - Bestial Wrath cooldown reduction reduced to 0.1 second (was 0.25 seconds). Mutagenic attack damage reduced by 33%.
• Fixed an issue with Huntmaster's Call that was causing Hati and Frenyr's attacks to have higher than usual variance.
• Master Handler has had its icon updated.
• Dire Beast is no longer tracked on the Cooldown Manger.
• The following talents have been removed: Barrage, Shower of Blood, Venomous Bite

• On the Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Talents page, you will find an analysis of the talents available to Beast Mastery Hunters, as well as an overview of the PvP talents, with advice on which ones to take and under which conditions.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Pets page, you will find an overview of the advantages of each pet type with advice on which ones to take and under which conditions.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Rotation and Playstyle page, you will learn how to use your spells, depending on the situation (dealing damage, surviving, controlling enemy players, etc.), and what is generally expected of your class and spec in PvP.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Stat Priority and Gear page, you will find the stat priority to follow in PvP, as well as advice for choosing your gear, which may vary depending on your playstyle and composition.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Best Races page, you will find lists of the Alliance and Horde races, ranked by how good they are for Beast Mastery Hunters in PvP, as well as explanations regarding why and how their racials benefit you.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Useful Macros page, you will find a collection of useful PvP macros for Beast Mastery Hunters.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter Arena Composition page, you will find the list of the most powerful Arena compositions featuring Beast Mastery Hunters in both 2v2 and 3v3 modes.
• On the Beast Mastery Hunter in Battleground Blitz page, you will find a summary of how to play Beast Mastery in Battleground Blitz specifically, including the playstyle, role in specific battlegrounds, talent builds, and macros.