Beast Mastery Hunter Guide — Class Guides · WoW Classic

Pet-focused damage: a stronger, faster pet and Bestial Wrath. The easiest hunter to level and solo with.

A ranged fighter in leather, and later mail, who fights at a distance with a bow, gun or crossbow, tames beasts as pets and controls enemies with traps and stings. More about the hunter

Class: Hunter
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Leveling
Top talent: Bestial Wrath
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Classic

How to play

Beast Mastery makes your pet the star. Bestial Wrath makes it hit much harder and shrug off crowd control, Frenzy and Unleashed Fury raise its damage, and Endurance Training and Spirit Bond keep it alive. It is the best leveling tree in Classic: the pet tanks, you shoot, and fights rarely go wrong.

In Classic your pet doesn't grow with your gear, so pick it for its family: cats and raptors deal the most damage, wolves bring Furious Howl for the group, and a boar's Charge is great while leveling.

In raids your pet has to survive area damage, so Beast Mastery's damage varies from boss to boss. In the open world and in battlegrounds it is the most forgiving hunter spec.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Classic.

Rotation and priorities

1Send your pet in first and let it build threat for a few seconds.
2Hunter's Mark, then Serpent Sting on enemies that will live a while.
3Keep Auto Shot going; fit Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot between Auto Shots without delaying them.
4Bestial Wrath (and Rapid Fire) for the dangerous part of a fight.
5Mend Pet when your pet falls low; Feign Death if you pull threat.
6Intimidation to stun an enemy attacking you.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The smoothest solo leveling of any spec.
Your pet ignores crowd control during Bestial Wrath.
Forgiving: mistakes rarely kill you.

Weaknesses

Pets die to raid-wide damage.
Less personal damage than Marksmanship at level 60.
The pet has to be fed and kept happy.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
Agilityattack power, crit and armour
2
Hitto 9%
3
Critical strike
4
Ranged attack power
5
Intellectmana
6
Stamina

What to look for

Agility above all, then hit and crit.
Your pet doesn't scale with your gear in Classic, so its damage comes from its family and talents.
Some Intellect so you aren't out of mana halfway through a fight.

Items worth chasing

Blastershot LauncherA Molten Core gun, from Golemagg the Incinerator.
Devilsaur GauntletsCrafted leather gloves with attack power and hit.
Blackhand's BreadthA trinket of critical strike chance.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Beast Mastery
Marksmanship
Survival

Bestial Wrath Packleader
DamagePvE
3120
31/20/0
Beast Mastery for raids: Bestial Wrath and Frenzy make the pet a real damage source, with Mortal Shots and Aimed Shot from Marksmanship.
- Bestial Swiftness 1/1
- Intimidation 1/1
- Bestial Discipline 2/2
- Frenzy 5/5
- Bestial Wrath 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Wild Beast Wanderer
DamageLeveling
3120
31/20/0
The fastest hunter leveling: pet damage and survival first, Bestial Wrath at 40, then Marksmanship for Aimed Shot and Mortal Shots.
- Bestial Swiftness 1/1
- Spirit Bond 2/2
- Intimidation 1/1
- Frenzy 5/5
- Bestial Wrath 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Bestial Wrath · top talent, up to 1
Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.
Thick Hide · tier 2, up to 3
Increases the Armor rating of your pets by 30%.
Bestial Swiftness · tier 3, up to 1
Increases the outdoor movement speed of your pets by 30%.
Unleashed Fury · tier 3, up to 5
Increases the damage done by your pets by 20%.
Improved Mend Pet · tier 4, up to 2
Gives the Mend Pet spell a 50% chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the pet each tick.
Ferocity · tier 4, up to 5
Increases the critical strike chance of your pets by 15%.
Spirit Bond · tier 5, up to 2
While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 2% of total health every 10 sec.
Intimidation · tier 5, up to 1
Command your pet to intimidate the target on the next successful melee attack, causing a high amount of threat and stunning the target for 3 sec.
Bestial Discipline · tier 5, up to 2
Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 20%.
Frenzy · tier 6, up to 5
Gives your pet a 100% chance to gain a 30% attack speed increase for 8 sec after dealing a critical strike.

Beast Mastery abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.