Beast Mastery Hunter Guide — Class Guides · WoW Burning Crusade

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, Player versus player
Top talent: The Beast Within
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Burning Crusade

How to play

Beast Mastery is the strongest hunter raid spec for most of The Burning Crusade: Bestial Wrath and The Beast Within make you and your pet deal extra damage and shrug off crowd control, Ferocious Inspiration raises your party's damage when your pet crits, and Serpent's Swiftness speeds up both your shots and your pet's attacks.

Shoot Steady Shot between Auto Shots, Kill Command whenever it lights up, and keep your pet alive. Your damage grows with your pet's, so choose one that hits hard, such as a cat, raptor or ravager.

The pet also makes Beast Mastery the easiest leveling spec in the game.

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 Burning Crusade.

Rotation and priorities

1Hunter's Mark and Aspect of the Hawk; pet attacking.
2Steady Shot between Auto Shots without delaying them.
3Kill Command whenever it lights up.
4Bestial Wrath (with The Beast Within) and Rapid Fire with trinkets and Bloodlust.
5Aspect of the Viper when mana runs low, back to Hawk once it is restored.
6Misdirection on the tank at the pull.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The highest hunter raid damage for most of TBC.
Ferocious Inspiration helps the whole group.
The easiest leveling.

Weaknesses

Your pet must survive raid damage.
Less raid utility than Survival's Expose Weakness.
Mana management with Viper.

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
Agility
2
Hitto 142 rating
3
Critical strike
4
Ranged attack poweryour pet gains from it too
5
Haste
6
Intellect

What to look for

A ranged weapon with high damage per second and a scope.
Agility gems in red sockets.
The quiver with the most ranged haste.

Items worth chasing

Sunfury Bow of the PhoenixA raid bow.
Dragonspine TrophyAttack power and a haste proc in a trinket.
Bloodlust BroochA burst of attack power on use.
Hourglass of the UnravellerHit, and attack power after crits.

Builds

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

Beast Mastery
Marksmanship
Survival

The Beast Within
DamagePvELeveling
4120
41/20/0
Beast Mastery for raids and leveling: The Beast Within and Bestial Wrath for burst, Ferocious Inspiration for the group and Serpent's Swiftness for attack speed.
- Intimidation 1/1
- Ferocious Inspiration 3/3
- Bestial Wrath 1/1
- Serpent's Swiftness 5/5
- The Beast Within 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Beast Within Survivor
DamagePvP
4120
41/0/20
Beast Mastery/Survival for PvP: The Beast Within makes you immune to control while it lasts, and Survival adds Deterrence for the counter-attack.
- Intimidation 1/1
- Ferocious Inspiration 3/3
- Bestial Wrath 1/1
- Serpent's Swiftness 5/5
- The Beast Within 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

The Beast Within · top talent, up to 1
When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.
Improved Mend Pet · tier 4, up to 2
Reduces the mana cost of your Mend Pet spell by 20% and 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 pet by 10%.
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 100%.
Animal Handler · tier 6, up to 2
Increases your speed while mounted by 8% and your pet's chance to hit by 4%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.
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.
Ferocious Inspiration · tier 7, up to 3
When your pet scores a critical hit, all party members have all damage increased by 3% for 10 sec.
Bestial Wrath · tier 7, 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.
Serpent's Swiftness · tier 8, up to 5
Increases ranged combat attack speed by 20% and your pet's melee attack speed by 20%.

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.