Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Guide (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• 1. Spec Overview / Place in the Current Meta
• 2. Gear
• +3. Artifact Traits
  • 3.1. First Golden Trait
  • 3.2. Second Golden Trait
  • 3.3. Remaining Traits
• 4. Relics
• +5. Talent Choices
  • 5.1. Regular Talents
    • 5.1.1. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
    • 5.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
    • 5.1.3. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
    • 5.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
    • 5.1.5. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
    • 5.1.6. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
    • 5.1.7. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 5.2. Honor Talents
    • 5.2.1. Tier 1 Talents
    • 5.2.2. Tier 2 Talents
    • 5.2.3. Tier 3 Talents
    • 5.2.4. Tier 4 Talents
    • 5.2.5. Tier 5 Talents
    • 5.2.6. Tier 6 Talents
• +6. Racial Bonuses
  • 6.1. Horde
  • 6.2. Alliance
• +7. Playstyle
  • 7.1. Before Gates Open
  • 7.2. The Opener
  • 7.3. Offensive Rotation
    • 7.3.1. Burst Damage
    • 7.3.2. Sustained damage
  • 7.4. Defensive Techniques
• 8. 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 2300 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

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.

2. Gear

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.

3. Artifact Traits

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.

3.1. 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. Even though Multi-Shot is not used often in PvP, it is still good to increase its damage.
3. Take Mimiron's Shell. This increases overall survivability and is very useful if your healer is still in crowd control while you use Aspect of the Turtle.
4. Take Jaws of Thunder. Because Kill Command will be used often, this will often proc and increase your overall consistent damage.
5. Take Master of Beasts. This trait increases your overall burst damage significantly.

3.2. Second Golden Trait

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

1. Take Furious Swipes. This will increase your overall consistent damage.
2. Take Unleash the Beast. This trait increases your overall burst damage.
3. Take Surge of the Stormgod. If an enemy team is stacked and you are using Multi-Shot, this will deal a large amount of spread damage to the enemy team.

3.3. 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.

4. Relics

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

5. Talent Choices

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.

5.1. Regular Talents

5.1.1. 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.

5.1.2. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents

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

5.1.3. 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.

5.1.4. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents

Blink Strikes is the best choice in this tier. This talent gives you more consistent damage without having to use cooldowns.

5.1.5. 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.

5.1.6. 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.

5.1.7. 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.

5.2. Honor Talents

5.2.1. 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.

5.2.2. Tier 2 Talents

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

5.2.3. 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.

5.2.4. 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.

5.2.5. 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.

5.2.6. 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.

6. Racial Bonuses

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

6.1. 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.

6.2. Alliance

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

7. Playstyle

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.

7.1. Before Gates Open

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

7.2. 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.

7.3. Offensive Rotation

7.3.1. Burst Damage

When you have the enemy healer in crowd control and you are trying to kill an enemy, you use your burst damage.

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.

7.3.2. 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.

7.4. 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.

8. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 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.