Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Guide (Legion 7.3.5)

Table of Contents

• +1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 1.1. Strengths of Beast Mastery Hunter
  • 1.2. Weaknesses of Beast Mastery Hunter
• +2. Talent Choices for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 2.1. Regular Talents for Beast Mastery Hunters
    • 2.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
    • 2.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
    • 2.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
    • 2.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
    • 2.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
    • 2.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
    • 2.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 2.2. Honor Talents for Beast Mastery Hunters
    • 2.2.1. Tier 1 Talents
    • 2.2.2. Tier 2 Talents
    • 2.2.3. Tier 3 Talents
    • 2.2.4. Tier 4 Talents
    • 2.2.5. Tier 5 Talents
    • 2.2.6. Tier 6 Talents
• +3. Racial Bonuses for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 3.1. Horde
  • 3.2. Alliance
• +4. Playstyle for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 4.1. Before Gates Open
  • 4.2. The Opener
  • 4.3. Offensive Rotation
    • 4.3.1. Burst Damage
    • 4.3.2. Sustained damage
  • 4.4. Pet Talents
  • 4.5. Defensive Techniques
• +5. Best Team Compositions for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 5.1. 2v2 Arena
  • 5.2. 3v3 Arena
• +6. Useful Macros for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 6.1. Sting Focus Macro
  • 6.2. Wyvern Sting Macro
  • 6.3. Counter Shot Focus Macro
  • 6.4. Roar of Sacrifice party Macro
• 7. Gear for Beast Mastery Hunters
• +8. Artifact Traits for Beast Mastery Hunters
  • 8.1. First Golden Trait
  • 8.2. Second Golden Trait
  • 8.3. Remaining Traits
• 9. Relics for Beast Mastery Hunters
• 10. ChangeLog

Introduction

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to play a Beast Mastery Hunter in a PvP environment. The guide will cover everything from talent choices, artifacts, gameplay and rotation, and useful racial bonuses. It is most applicable to Arena content, but most talents and racial bonuses will work in Rated Battlegrounds and skirmishes.

About The Author

This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.

1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta for Beast Mastery Hunters

Beast Mastery Hunters are in a very strong position in the meta right now. They not only have some of the best single-target sustained damage, but they are also one of the hardest classes to connect to for melee. Because their pets are the main damage dealers for Beast Mastery Hunters, even when they are in crowd control, they are still capable of dealing large amounts of damage. They use abilities like Disengage to kite enemy teams and Freezing Trap to lock a healer down.

1.1. Strengths of Beast Mastery Hunter

• Great control
• Decent mobility
• Strong consistent damage

1.2. Weaknesses of Beast Mastery Hunter

• Multiple damage nerfs make it the weakest Hunter specialization
• Weak to teams with multiple stuns
• Very few defensive cooldowns

2. Talent Choices for Beast Mastery Hunters

Regular talents work in both PvP and PvE content (although they may sometimes work differently in the two environments, which is indicated by their tooltips). In other words, they are always active.

On the other hand, Honor talents are inactive outside of a PvP environment.

2.1. Regular Talents for Beast Mastery Hunters

2.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents

Way of the Cobra is the best choice in this tier. With this talent your sustained damage will increase greatly.

2.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

Dire Frenzy is the best choice in this tier. This talent provides you with great on-demand burst damage.

2.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents

Posthaste is the best choice in this tier. Beast Mastery Hunters are already a tough class to connect to, and this increases their mobility and ability to get away from enemy teams.

2.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Bestial Fury is the best choice in this tier. This talent increases your strongest burst cooldown by 15%.

2.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents

This tier is dependent on what classes are on your team.

If you are playing with partners that have stuns, Wyvern Sting is the best choice in this tier. If you are not playing with partners that have stuns, Binding Shot is the best choice in this tier.

2.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents

A Murder of Crows is the best choice in this tier. This is a very strong offensive cooldown for Beast Mastery Hunters.

2.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents

Killer Cobra is the best choice in this tier. Because most burst damage comes from Kill Commands, being able to reset it using Cobra Shot while using burst cooldowns greatly increases your overall burst damage.

2.2. Honor Talents for Beast Mastery Hunters

2.2.1. Tier 1 Talents

If you are playing against a team with multiple stuns, Relentless is the best choice in this tier. Beast Mastery Hunters are weak to stuns, so reducing their duration greatly improves survivability.

If you are not and want an on-demand trinket, Gladiator's Medallion is the best choice in this tier. It is the standard PvP trinket effect with a 2-minute cooldown.

2.2.2. Tier 2 Talents

Quickshots is the best choice in this tier. With the Haste increase, it will increase overall consistent damage.

2.2.3. Tier 3 Talents

If you are playing against a team with a melee on it, Catlike Reflexes is the best choice in this tier. This grants dodge when you score a Critical Strike, which can helps avoid enemy damage, greatly improving survivability.

If you are playing against a team with two casters, you should take Survival Tactics in this tier. This makes Feign Death a very important cooldown. It can be used to avoid incoming crowd control and, with this talent, you can remove all magical debuffs.

2.2.4. Tier 4 Talents

The best choice in this tier is Spider Sting. This allows more control when playing against casters, and it can be used to stop incoming crowd control.

If there are no casters on the enemy team, Viper Sting is the best choice in this tier. This is a great talent against most healers and can be crucial for getting a kill if it is not dispelled.

2.2.5. Tier 5 Talents

If you are playing with a team that will be stacked up, Wild Protector is the best choice in this tier. This will increase your team's overall survivability. However, if you want your Bestial Wrath to be on a shorter cooldown, The Beast Within is the best choice in this tier.

2.2.6. Tier 6 Talents

Dire Beast: Basilisk is the best choice in this tier. This ability deals a very large amount of damage, and it is best to use it when the enemy player is stunned, rooted, or snared.

3. Racial Bonuses for Beast Mastery Hunters

Racial bonuses can provide interesting PvP benefits. Here are the best races to choose for each faction.

3.1. Horde

The passive Orc racial bonus ( Hardiness) is great if you find yourself being stunned a lot and having a hard time against melee classes.

The Blood Elf Silence ( Arcane Torrent) is really strong as well. This adds to the crowd control you can bring to the table.

3.2. Alliance

The Human racial bonus ( Every Man for Himself) is a great way to get out of stuns.

4. Playstyle for Beast Mastery Hunters

The main role for a Beast Mastery Hunter is simple: use your mobility to land Freezing Traps on the enemy healer and use your strong single-target cooldowns to burst your enemies down. Beast Mastery Hunters are a very mobile specialization and some melee will struggle to connect to you. Because most of your damage comes from your pet, you can stay safely away from enemy teams and still do maximum damage.

4.1. Before Gates Open

If you are playing against a team with stealth, make sure to use Flare to try to reveal them.

4.2. The Opener

The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, they are in trouble. Beast Mastery Hunters have Freezing Trap and Spider Sting, which can help to this end.

This is the rotation you should use on your target at the beginning of the game.

1. Use Dire Beast.
2. Use Dire Frenzy.
3. Use Kill Command.
4. Use Cobra Shot at high Focus.
5. Use your burst rotation.
6. After your burst, perform your sustained damage rotation until your burst cooldowns are available.

4.3. Offensive Rotation

4.3.1. Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage. Try to use Viper Sting on the enemy healer when your team is using offensive cooldowns.

1. Use Blood Fury (if you are an Orc).
2. Use Aspect of the Wild.
3. Use Bestial Wrath.
4. Use Titan's Thunder.
5. Use A Murder of Crows.
6. Use Kill Command.
7. Use Cobra Shot.
8. Use Dire Beast.
9. Use Dire Frenzy.
10. Use Cobra Shot.
11. Use Kill Command.
12. Use Dire Beast every time you get a Wild Call proc.
13. Use Cobra Shot.
14. Use Kill Command.
15. Use Dire Frenzy.

4.3.2. Sustained damage

Sustained damage is damage you do when your burst cooldowns are not available.

1. Use Titan's Thunder when you have a Dire Beast active.
2. Use Dire Beast.
3. Use Dire Frenzy.
4. Use Kill Command.
5. Use Cobra Shot at high Focus.

4.4. Pet Talents

Pets do not have talent trees, and instead you can choose one of three specializations for your pet (Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity).

Each specialization gives your pet a few abilities. Currently, Cunning provides the ability Roar of Sacrifice, so we consider it to be the recommended specialization.

4.5. Defensive Techniques

Aspect of the Turtle is our main defensive cooldown. Use this when the enemy team is focusing you down and your healer can not heal you through the damage or is stuck in crowd control. Although you can not attack with this cooldown active, you still have the ability to trap. Using this to ignore incoming attacks and use Freezing Trap on an enemy healer could be crucial. With the artifact trait Mimiron's Shell, you will also be healed while it is active.

Exhilaration is a very strong instant heal. Try to stagger Aspect of the Turtle and Exhilaration and you will be very hard to kill.

Aspect of the Cheetah is a great way to kite away from enemy teams. If you are being focused or out of position on a map, use this to create distance between you and the enemy team. Its cooldown is shorter with the Pathfinder trait.

Feign Death is also a good defensive when used correctly. This can stop any incoming crowd control on you and most importantly, it can buy you 1-2 seconds if an ability is almost off cooldown. After using Feign Death, you can quickly Disengage away and get away from the enemy team.

5. Best Team Compositions for Beast Mastery Hunters

Now that you have the correct talents and understand your damage rotation, it is time to step into the Arena with your team. Beast Mastery Hunters have very strong burst cooldowns in the form of Bestial Wrath and A Murder of Crows. These cooldowns, paired with multiple crowd control abilities and strong sustained damage, make this spec a threat to most teams.

5.1. 2v2 Arena

In 2v2 Arena, you have a few options. If you are playing against a healer that is using Vim and Vigor, you will want your pets targeting them. This will force the healer to heal themselves more often and results in them using more Mana. While your pets are attacking the healer, you should focus your damage on the enemy DPS. If you are playing with a Holy Paladin or Restoration Druid, they should use their stun to start the crowd control. Follow that up with a Freezing Trap and Wyvern Sting. At the same time you should be doing your sustained damage rotation. With this strategy, you are trying to do so much spread damage to your targets that the enemy healer will not be able to heal through it. If you do not have a reliable stun, you can use Intimidation instead of Wyvern Sting.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 2v2:

• Beast Mastery Hunter + Discipline Priest
• Beast Mastery Hunter + Restoration Druid
• Beast Mastery Hunter + Holy Paladin
• Beast Mastery Hunter + Holy Priest

5.2. 3v3 Arena

Your role in 3v3 is similar to 2v2 Arena. You will be focusing on maximizing your single target damage while still crowd controlling the enemy healer with Wyvern Sting and Freezing Trap. When you start the crowd control chain, your teammate should stun the kill target and you should use burst rotation. You do not always have to stun the kill target. If your team only has one reliable stun like Hammer of Justice or Mighty Bash, it is best to use it on the enemy healer.

Here is a list of the best team compositions for 3v3:

• Jungle (Beast Mastery Hunter + Feral Druid + Holy Paladin/Discipline Priest)
• Cupid (Beast Mastery Hunter + Retribution Paladin + Restoration Druid/ Discipline Priest)
• Beast Mastery Hunter + Frost/Unholy Death Knight + Holy Paladin/ Restoration Druid
• Beast Mastery Hunter + Arms Warrior + Restoration Shaman/Holy Paladin

6. Useful Macros for Beast Mastery Hunters

Macros are crucial to be successful in PvP. They allow players to use abilities on enemies without having to target them. This helps increase overall damage/healing and general awareness in the arena. Here are a few macros that all Beast Mastery Hunters can benefit from.

6.1. Sting Focus Macro

• #showtooltip
• /cast [pvptalent:4/1,@focus] Viper Sting; [pvptalent:4/2,@focus] Scorpid Sting; [@focus] Spider Sting

You will often be changing your tier 4 honor talents. This is an all-in-one macro that switches depending on which talent you take. This macro will also use the ability on your focus target, saving a lot of action bar space.

6.2. Wyvern Sting Macro

• #showtooltip Wyvern Sting
• /cast [target=focus] Wyvern Sting

If you find that you do not have much room on your action bars, you can use a focus macro. This is much simpler to use than the arena123 macro. Put an enemy on focus and this macro will cast Wyvern Sting on that player while you are still focused on your target.

6.3. Counter Shot Focus Macro

• #showtooltip Counter Shot
• /cast [target=focus] Counter Shot

This macro will use Counter Shot on whichever enemy you have on focus. Because you will be primarily using Counter Shot on the enemy healer, you should only need this focus macro.

6.4. Roar of Sacrifice party Macro

• #showtooltip Roar of Sacrifice
• /cast [target=party1] Roar of Sacrifice

Using this macro will use Roar of Sacrifice on party player 1. This makes it easier to use this defensive on a teammate while damaging the rest of your team. If you want a macro to use Roar of Sacrifice the second party member, change the party1 to party2.

7. Gear for Beast Mastery Hunters

With regards to gear, the biggest change in Legion is that there is no more PvP gear. Your strength in PvP will be determined based on the average item level of your gear (as displayed on your character sheet). For example, the base item level at level 110 is 800, so your stats in PvP will be adjusted accordingly. For every 10 item levels you gain, your stats are increased by 1%.

The implication is that it does not matter where your gear comes from, and all that matters is its item level. Gear from quests or PvE content is just as good as gear you get as a reward from PvP (which, in fact, will be very similar to PvE gear; there are no more PvP stats on gear).

Practically, you will simply look to collect gear with the highest item levels possible, and the stat distribution on the gear will not matter.

8. Artifact Traits for Beast Mastery Hunters

Below, we will explain what the recommended order for artifact traits is, if you wish to maximise your PvP potential. It is quite possible that your artifact path (at the time of reading this guide) differs from our suggestions. If this is the case, do not worry, and use the information below to help you understand your traits and guide your future choices.

If you have suddenly decided that you want to turn to PvP, the best thing to do in your artifact progression is continue to your closest Golden trait, and then follow the recommendations below. Picking up the most useful traits ( Embrace of the Aspects, Mimiron's Shell, Unleash the Beast, Natural Reflexes, and Pack Leader) along the way is a great way to boost your potential.

8.1. First Golden Trait

The first Golden trait you want to reach is Master of Beasts.

1. Take Beast Master.
2. Take Focus of the Titans.
3. Take Mimiron's Shell.
4. Take Jaws of Thunder.
5. Take Master of Beasts.

8.2. Second Golden Trait

The second Golden trait to go for is Surge of the Stormgod.

1. Take Furious Swipes.
2. Take Unleash the Beast.
3. Take Surge of the Stormgod.

8.3. Remaining Traits

After this, you should head for your last Golden trait, Titan's Thunder, picking up any remaining traits after that. Pathfinder, Pack Leader, and Wilderness Expert along the way.

9. Relics for Beast Mastery Hunters

Relics are disabled in PvP, so they are not a concern to you.

10. ChangeLog

• 21 May 2018: Added an Arena Compositions section.
• 10 Apr. 2018: Made several updates to the guide and its structure.
  • Added sections for Macros, Strengths, and Weaknesses.
  • Moved Gear, Artifact Traits, and Relics sections to the end, since they are not that important.
• 13 Feb. 2018: No major changes needed for patch 7.3.5.
• 24 Dec. 2017: No major changes needed for patch 7.3.2.
• 21 Oct. 2017: Added Pet Talent section.
• 21 Sep. 2017: Several changes made for Patch 7.3
  • Removed Artifact Trait descriptions.
  • Changed recommended tier 4 regular talents.
  • Changed recommended tier 4 honor talents.
  • Updated burst damage rotation.
• 16 Jul. 2017: Changed recommended Tier 1 and 2 regular talents and recommended Tier 6 honor talents. Also updated sustained and burst damage rotation.
• 11 Apr. 2017: Beast Mastery Hunter Hunter PvP guide created.

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