Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (11.1.5)

Note that builds here are generic recommendations for Arena. There are tweaks that are effective in certain matchups. A description of suggested alterations or options is included with each build.

If you are looking for advice on which pets to use, there is a separate page on this guide answering that question in detail. Generally, you want a Cunning pet unless you expect the enemy team to burst you in a stun, in which case you are likely better off with a Tenacity pet.

2.

The War Within PvP Talent Builds for Beast Mastery Hunters in Arena

Pack Leader Sustained Build (recommended) Pack Leader Burst Build

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Best Pack Leader Sustained Beast Mastery Arena Build

Pack Leader has been reworked in patch 11.1 and is now outperforming Dark Ranger, with powerful buffs to your pets, the Howl of the Pack Leader effect, additional Barbed Shots from Pack Mentality, as well as the additional mobility from Slicked Shoes.

The Sustained Build has high burst damage during the two-minute cooldown Call of the Wild, but trades Bloodshed for more consistent damage outside of cooldowns.

This talent build is reliable against specializations that can dispel bleeds, and is better if your composition is going to frequently swap targets on enemy defensive cooldowns (compared to Bloodshed builds which encourage you to stay on the same target once Bloodshed is applied).

Pack Leader is the better Hero Talent tree currently, but if you did want to play Dark Ranger, you would use the same Hunter and Beast Mastery talent trees and the only change would be swapping the Hero tree.

There are several talents in the Hunter tree that you will want to change regularly based on matchups, which are:

• Scrappy, which is a decent talent but can be moved around if there is another talent that would be more valuable in a matchup
• Hunter's Avoidance for when the enemy team has heavy area of effect damage
• Kodo Tranquilizer is good in almost all 3v3 scenarios but is interchangeable when there are better options (particularly in 2v2 when you do not expect enemies to be close to each other)
• Scout's Instincts if you need mobility, this can help. A target slowed by Concussive Shot cannot catch you during Aspect of the Cheetah this talent. You can also increase the availability of Aspect of the Cheetah by taking Hunting Pack or Born To Be Wild
• Bursting Shot is occasionally good if you really don't need Scatter Shot, for example, in a 2v2 game where you know that you will be the kill target and that if you are able to kite consistently, you will be able to win the game on mana. Combining this with Quick Load will give you two extra ways to create a gap from a melee DPS ( Bursting Shot uniquely does not incur a diminishing return penalty, so it can be used twice in a row with Quick Load)
• Binding Shackles is an optional "nice to have" talent, which you can replace if there's something better for a situation
• Serrated Tips can be good if you have a decent amount of Crit rating on your gear
• Emergency Salve is very good (into Assassination Rogues), decent into Shadow Priests to remove Devouring Plague and makes Subtlety and Outlaw Rogues easier to kite
• Misdirection is required to play Interlope, which is a powerful PvP talent into casters, although you should be aware of the 20 yard range requirement, and if you are casting Interlope on your pet, make sure you do it while within that range
• You can take Explosive Shot for marginally higher area of effect damage, but you do not have many "free" global cooldowns in PvP to cast this, and there are so many high value talents for PvP in the Hunter tree that it is difficult to justify spending points in Explosive Shot and Blackrock Munitions in any scenario

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

3.

Best Pack Leader Burst Beast Mastery Arena Build

Pack Leader has been reworked in patch 11.1 and is now outperforming Dark Ranger, with powerful buffs to your pets, the Howl of the Pack Leader effect, additional Barbed Shots from Pack Mentality, as well as the additional mobility from Slicked Shoes.

The Burst Build uses Bloodshed, which is a powerful cooldown because it aligns with a Beast Mastery Hunter's crowd control cooldowns ( Intimidation, Binding Shot and Chimaeral Sting), and when combined with Venomous Bite, significantly increases the damage of your Kill Command during burst windows.

This build trades some overall damage to take Bloodshed and Call of the Wild at the same time, which gives a second burst window between each Call of the Wild.

This build takes advantage of the increases to Kill Command from Pack Leader ( Pack Mentality, Lead From the Front) by combining them with Bloodshed and Venomous Bite for big bursts every minute.

There are several talents in the Hunter tree that you will want to change regularly based on matchups, which are:

• Scrappy, which is a decent talent but can be moved around if there is another talent that would be more valuable in a matchup
• Hunter's Avoidance for when the enemy team has heavy area of effect damage
• Kodo Tranquilizer is good in almost all 3v3 scenarios but is interchangeable when there are better options (particularly in 2v2 when you do not expect enemies to be close to each other)
• Scout's Instincts if you need mobility, this can help. A target slowed by Concussive Shot cannot catch you during Aspect of the Cheetah this talent. You can also increase the availability of Aspect of the Cheetah by taking Hunting Pack or Born To Be Wild
• Bursting Shot is occasionally good if you really don't need Scatter Shot, for example, in a 2v2 game where you know that you will be the kill target and that if you are able to kite consistently, you will be able to win the game on mana. Combining this with Quick Load will give you two extra ways to create a gap from a melee DPS ( Bursting Shot uniquely does not incur a diminishing return penalty, so it can be used twice in a row with Quick Load )
• Binding Shackles is an optional "nice to have" talent, which you can replace if there's something better for a situation
• Serrated Tips can be good if you have a decent amount of Crit rating on your gear
• Emergency Salve is very good (into Assassination Rogues), decent into Shadow Priests to remove Devouring Plague and makes Subtlety and Outlaw Rogues easier to kite
• Misdirection is required to play Interlope, which is a powerful PvP talent into casters, although you should be aware of the 20 yard range requirement, and if you are casting Interlope on your pet, make sure you do it while within that range
• You can take Explosive Shot for marginally higher area of effect damage, but you do not have many "free" global cooldowns in PvP to cast this, and there are so many high value talents for PvP in the Hunter tree that it is difficult to justify spending points in Explosive Shot and Blackrock Munitions in any scenario

Note: this build is countered by specializations that are able to dispel bleeds, such as Evokers with Cauterizing Flame, Paladins with Blessing of Protection, Survival hunters with Mending Bandage, and Rogues with Veil of Midnight. You should be aware of these cooldowns when facing these specializations and consider playing without Bloodshed if you are not getting value from it.

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

You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has its uses, but some are better for certain strategies and matchups than others.

Survival Tactics is the best overall PvP Talent. It turns Feign Death into your best defensive ability by negating damage for two seconds. This talent is very powerful into burst specializations when timed correctly.

When facing matchups where you are guaranteed not to be attacked, there are occasionally better options, but it is safer just always to play this talent.

Diamond Ice makes your Freezing Trap undispellable but reduces the duration and makes the target immune to all spells while active. This is useful not only because Beast Mastery has passive area of effect damage ( Stomp) that can break traps but also:

• Against Shadow Priests, Demon Hunters, and Affliction/Destruction Warlocks that are otherwise able to dispel your Freezing Trap
• To crowd control DPS players without the healer being able to dispel the trap
• To keep a target at low health (you can trap a target at low health and swap to another enemy, and their healer will not be able to recover the target's health during the trap).
• When you are playing with a specialization like Unholy Death Knight, which has area of effect built into a lot of its spells and would otherwise break traps if a healer was near your kill target.

Diamond Ice also reduces the duration of Freezing Trap by two seconds, which makes it difficult to justify taking. In Patch 11.1 Freezing Trap was adjusted to have a small damage threshold before breaking, so you can avoid taking Diamond Ice unless you know that your traps will definitely break instantly otherwise.

Kindred Beasts is a default pick for Beast Mastery Hunters in most cases. Usually you will use this with a Cunning pet for the additional mobility for you as well as your pet, but it is also very powerful with a Tenacity pet when you expect to be the kill target, and the Ferocity effect is situationally decent.

• Cunning pets: The reduced cooldown on Master's Call is great for countering one of Beast Mastery's biggest weaknesses: pets being prone to getting slowed or rooted. Often, you will want to use Master's Call to break your pet out of a Frost Nova or Earthgrab Totem, and with the reduced cooldown, the opportunity cost of using Master's Call to break your Pet out of slows is greatly reduced. It is also very helpful for your mobility (and the rest of your team, as the freedom effect does not affect nearby allies).
• Tenacity: Your Fortitude of the Bear (which is usable while you are in crowd control as long as your pet is not in crowd control) now has a one minute cooldown and increases the health of nearby allies by 10% for 10 seconds
• Ferocity: Your Primal Rage is now usable in Arena and grants 12% haste for 20 seconds to your team.

Chimaeral Sting is a versatile ability that can be used in many ways, for example:

• To silence an enemy healer while bursting their partner (note that it does damage on application and the silence only applies after 3 seconds, so you cannot Chimaeral Sting during or immediately after a trap)
• To silence a healer before swapping to them (particularly good against priests as they cannot use Pain Suppression when silenced, when they would have been able to if you swapped with Intimidation)
• To peel a DPS on their go (for example, use Chimaeral Sting on a Mage when they cast Dragon's Breath; they will still be able to Polymorph your healer, but will be silenced immediately afterward and not be able to capitalize on the Polymorph, or cancel a Shaman's Lightning Lasso when you know it is coming)
• To cancel a Restoration Druid's Tranquility by casting Chimaeral Sting before they use it
• To deny a healer's trinket by casting Chimaeral Sting when they are stunned (when they trinket the stun, they are instantly silenced)
• To apply a powerful slow to a melee DPS when you have no other options

The Beast Within will give a slight damage bonus to all of your pets but will also make you and your pet immune to fear and horror effects for 8 seconds after using Bestial Wrath. It is important to note that you can use Bestial Wrath during crowd control, but even with this talent, Bestial Wrath will not break fears on yourself. You must use Bestial Wrath before the fear, Mortal Coil or Psychic Horror is used on you to be immune to it.

Dire Beast: Basilisk summons a powerful, slow moving pet on your target when you use Call of the Wild. This is a good choice into targets that have low mobility to kite the Basilisk and increases the potency of your main burst cooldown. This is also powerful when playing with a Death Knight, who is able to lock down targets into one area and heavily slow them. The spawned Basilisk does a surprising amount of damage when a player does not move away from it.

Interlope is powerful into casters and hunters. You can Interlope your healer when they are stunned, to eat an enemy Hunter's Freezing Trap or use it on yourself/your team to absorb spell casts. The pet positioning requirement of this spell can make it awkward to use, but when used properly, it is a very powerful defensive talent. (Remember that you need to talent into Misdirection to use this!)

Hunting Pack is a mobility talent that vastly reduces the cooldown of Aspect of the Cheetah and applies its buff to your teammates but requires your teammates to be within 15 yards. There are better talents available to you in most cases, but this is occasionally worth taking.

Wild Kingdom will help you keep your pet alive. With proper positioning of your pet and using Mend Pet and Exhilaration properly, your pet should not die often. Remember that if your team already has a Mortal Strike effect, you can use a Mechanical family pet, which will be significantly more tanky than a regular pet anyway.

Dire Beast: Hawk does some area of effect damage in a 10-yard radius, but the damage isn't significant, and in Arena, where you want damage to be focused more on one target, Dire Beast: Basilisk is more valuable against a target that isn't moving.

This is an interesting kiting tool but requires you to not take Scatter Shot which makes it difficult to justify in most matchups. It is particularly effective against melee specialisations that are not able to remove slows, as the self-knockback does not push you very far.