Beast Mastery Hunter PvP Guide — The War Within (11.0.5)

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.

• Dark Ranger: Black Arrow damage decreased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Dark Ranger: Hunter's Prey now increases the damage of Kill Shot/ Black Arrow by 5% per stack in PvP combat (was 10%).

Beast Mastery had been overperforming in arena, largely off the high damage from Black Arrow, which had taken priority over all other spells in the Beast Mastery rotation. This change will make Beast Mastery slightly weaker in PvP but will also make the Beast Mastery rotation feel less reliant on Black Arrow procs.

• Kill Shot and Black Arrow will now appropriately damage their primary target when out of combat.

• Withering Fire will now consistently fire 3 Black Arrows and its target selection has been improved.
• Withering Fire will now consistently fire the first shot in a Withering Fire barrage at your target if they are a valid enemy target.
• Shadow Surge will no longer damage breakable crowd-controlled targets.
• Hunter's Prey's target selection will now more-rigorously filter out-of-combat targets when casting multiple Kill Shots or Black Arrows.
• Fixed an issue where Black Arrow and Withering Fire could hit targets that are breakable crowd controlled.
• Black Arrow's periodic damage will no longer cancel breakable crowd control.

The main effect of this set of bugfixes will be a reduced need to run Diamond Ice to avoid various Dark Ranger talents breaking crowd control, which gives Hunters more freedom in their PvP talent choices.

• Barbed Shot damage reduced by 25%.
• Stomp damage increased by 50%.
• Multi-Shot damage increased by 100%.
• Explosive Venom now procs at 3 stacks (was 5) and will appropriately apply Serpent Sting to enemies regardless of their distance to the caster.
• Dark Ranger: Bleak Powder no longer damages its primary target.
• Dark Ranger: Bleak Powder's damage reduced by 30% (in PvP combat only).
• Dark Ranger: Withering Fire's additional Black Arrows are now cast at 25% effectiveness (was 50%) (in PvP combat only).
• Pack Leader: Frenzied Tear proc chance reduced to 10% (was 20%).
• Pack Leader: Vicious Hunt damage reduced by 10%.

While some abilities have been nerfed in this tuning wave, the substantial buff to Stomp will largely offset the nerfs, especially with how often Stomp procs with the currently meta Call of the Wild builds that include Bloody Frenzy.

This tuning wave will not have much impact in the viability of Beast Mastery in PvP, and the buffs to area of effect damage may even make Beast Mastery stronger in scenarios where you can take advantage of the additional cleave damage.

• Kill Cleave will no longer sometimes persist while Beast Cleave is not active.

• Corrected an issue causing Phantom Pain to unintentionally deal repeated damage to the same enemy player.

• New Talent: Deathblow. Kill Command has a 10% chance to grant Deathblow. Deathblow: The cooldown of Kill Shot is reset. Your next Kill Shot can be used on any target, regardless of their current health.
• Steady Shot now generates 10 Focus baseline for all specs.
• Tranquilizing Shots empowered by Kodo Tranquilizer will now prioritize players.
• Improved Kill Shot has been removed.

Developer's note: Each Hunter specialization has a way to generate Deathblow, but only Marksmanship referred to it as Deathblow. These changes are meant to unify the Deathblow design while still allowing each specialization to interface with it in a unique way.

• New Talent: Bleak Arrows Your auto shot now deals Shadow damage. Your auto shot has a 20% chance to grant Deathblow.
• New Talent: Phantom Pain. When Kill Command/ Aimed Shot damages a target affected by Black Arrow, 8% of the damage dealt is replicated to each other unit affected by Black Arrow.
• New Talent: Banshee's Mark. A Murder of Crows now deals Shadow damage and casting Black Arrow has a 25% chance to summon a A Murder of Crows on your target.
• New Talent: The Bell Tolls. Black Arrow is now usable on enemies with greater than 80% or less than 20% health.
• New Talent: Shadow Dagger. While in combat, casting Disengage releases a fan of daggers at nearby enemies, dealing very low Shadow damage and slowing affected targets by 30%.
• New Talent: Bleak Powder. Casting Black Arrow while Beast Cleave is active causes Black Arrow to explode upon hitting a target, dealing moderate damage to nearby enemies.
• New Talent: Soul Drinker. When an enemy affected by Black Arrow dies, you have a 10% chance to gain Deathblow.
• Black Arrow has been redesigned. Kill Shot is now replaced with Black Arrow. Black Arrow: You attempt to finish off a wounded target, dealing high Shadow damage and low Shadow damage over time for 10 seconds. Only usable on enemies with less than 20% health.
• Withering Fire has been redesigned. Every 3 casts of Bestial Wrath, you surrender to darkness for 12 seconds. If you would have gained Deathblow during that time, instead a Black Arrow automatically fires at your target and two additional targets at 50% effectiveness.
• Shadow Surge has been redesigned. Periodic damage from Black Arrow has a small chance to erupt in a burst of darkness, dealing moderate Shadow damage to all enemies near the target. Damage reduced beyond 8 targets.
• Visual effects updated for Shadow Surge, Bleak Powder, Withering Fire, and Black Arrow.
• The following talents have been removed: Dark Empowerment, Darkness Calls, Death Shade, Grave Reaper, Overshadow, Shadow Erasure, Shadow Lash, Pack Leader
• Scattered Prey duration increased to 20 seconds (was 15 seconds).

• New Talent: Snakeskin Quiver. Your auto shot has a 15% chance to also fire a Cobra Shot.
• New Talent: Serpentine Rhythm. Casting Cobra Shot increases its damage by 25%, stacking up to 4 times. Upon reaching 4 stacks, the bonus is removed, and you gain 8% increased pet damage for 8 seconds.
• New Talent: Barbed Scales. Casting Cobra Shot reduces the cooldown of Barbed Shot by 2 seconds.
• Cobra Senses has been redesigned. Now reduces the Focus cost of Cobra Shot by 5 and increases its damage by 35%.
• Hunter's Prey has been redesigned. Kill Shot will strike 1 additional target and deal 10% increased damage for each of your active pets. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Multi-Shot damage increased by 300%.
• Barbed Shot damage increased by 100%.
• Barbed Shot cooldown increased to 18 seconds (was 12 seconds) and duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
• Barbed Shot's pet Frenzy duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
• Thrill of the Hunt duration increased to 12 seconds (was 8 seconds).
• Pack Tactics energy regeneration increased to 125% (was 100%). Pack Tactics now replaces Steady Shot.
• Animal Companion no longer reduces the damage of all your pets by 35%.
• The following pet ability damage has been reduced by 35%: Bite, Bloodshed, Claw, Kill Command, Smack, Stomp
• Training Expert is now a 1-point talent.
• The following talents have been removed: Improved Kill Command, Kindred Spirits
• Shadow Hounds has been updated. When summoning a Dire Beast, you have a 25% chance to also summon a Shadow Hound. Shadow Hounds now have Beast Cleave for their duration.
• Kill Command damage reduced by 35%.

The increased duration of Frenzy and cooldown of Barbed Shot will reduce amount of time you spend maintaining stacks and give you larger windows to crowd control and ramp your burst damage, which is a welcome change given how global cooldown-heavy the Beast Mastery rotation is.

Beast Mastery Hunters now also have more agency over when Barbed Shot will be available. The new talent Barbed Scales will allow you to reset the cooldown of Barbed Shot if you're close to losing Frenzy by casting one or two Cobra Shots instead of relying on lucky Wild Call procs. You can also take Savagery to further increase the time you have between each Barbed Shot proc to maintain Frenzy.

The slightly longer cooldown on Barbed Shot in turn lowers the value of Stomp and may free up that talent, which would in turn give you more freedom to play without fear of breaking Freezing Traps with your single target rotation, and free up the PvP talent point which was otherwise used on Diamond Ice (although currently the splash damage from Black Arrow still hits crowd controlled targets so you may need Diamond Ice more than ever!)

The previous iteration of Black Arrow encouraged you to play Call of the Wild to get the most from the damage over time effect, and although that synergy is gone a new one has been introduced, and you will still want to take Call of the Wild for the synergy between Bloody Frenzy and Bleak Powder.

Currently, Dark Ranger is still ahead of Pack Leader in all PvP scenarios (although that may change subject to tuning hotfixes). Black Arrow makes up a large portion of a Beast Mastery Hunter's overall damage, which particularly helps its performance when facing high armored plate wearers.

• Survival of the Fittest now provides 25% damage reduction in PvP combat (was 30%).
• Survival Tactics (PvP Talent) now has a 2 second duration (was 3 seconds).

• Dark Ranger: Smoke Screen now applies Survival of the Fittest at 50% effectiveness in PvP combat.

• Basilisk Collar damage bonus per damage over time effect reduced to 2%/4% (was 5%/10%).
• Kill Command damage increased by 18%.
• All damage dealt by you and your pet's abilities increased by 8%.

This round of PvP tuning aims to reduce Hunter's survivability. The nerf to Survival Tactics particularly will make it so that you are less likely to survive a stun using only a pre- Feign Death.

The survivability bonus from Dark Ranger has also been reduced by both the nerf to this talent and the nerf to Survival of the Fittest, which indirectly makes Pack Leader a more viable defensive choice because Den Recovery has not been reduced.

The damage buffs to Beast Mastery are a welcome change that will increase the power of Beast Mastery in Arena, even though they are slightly offset by the Basilisk Collar reduction.

• Beast Cleave damage increased to 90% (was 80%).
• Kill Cleave damage increased to 90% (was 80%).

These are mostly PvE focused buffs to Beast Mastery's area of effect damage and are insignificant in PvP. Kill Cleave and Beast Cleave are not taken in Arena builds and the only time the Beast Cleave buff will be active when using a currently meta PvP build is during Call of the Wild when talented into Bloody Frenzy. These changes will not affect the viabilty of Beast Mastery or the talent builds played in Arena or Battleground Blitz.

• Kill Command damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Cobra Shot damage increased by 15% in PvP combat.
• Kill Shot damage increased by 40% in PvP combat.
• Barbed Shot damage increased by 20% in PvP combat.

These much needed throughput buffs to your most commonly used abilities will help Beast Mastery become a competitive DPS spec in the current meta, where it was previously underperforming.

• Vicious Hunt damage increased by 10% for Beast Mastery.
• Howl of the Pack critical strike damage bonus increased to 5% for Beast Mastery (was 3%).

These are small tuning adjustments, the more significant being the Vicious Hunt damage increase, as Kill Command forms the basis of your rotation outside of maintaining Frenzy stacks. Even with the buffs, Dark Ranger will be the generally preferred Hero Talent tree.

• 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.