Last updated on Jun 10, 2024 at 21:10by Azortharion123 comments
Welcome to our comprehensive guide on the Beast Mastery Hunter changes in World of Warcraft's latest expansion, "The War Within."This page is designed to help you navigate the new changes, optimize your gameplay, and get the most out of your Beast Mastery Hunter in PvE environments.
In this guide, you'll find detailed breakdowns of the new Hero Talent Trees for Beast Mastery Hunter. We'll explore the most significant updates,and offer insights into how these changes will impact your overall playstyle.Whether you're a veteran Beast Mastery Hunter or new to the class, our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to excel in "The War Within."
1.
Beast Mastery Hunter: The War Within Expansion Preview
Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Beast Mastery Hunter.Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about theBeast Mastery Hunter spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion,including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the stateof the spec going into the expansion.
This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regularchanges expected as updates hit the War Within beta. This is not meant to bea launch guide for Beast Mastery Hunter, but instead serves as aresource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, andwhat you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.
2.
The War Within Changes for Beast Mastery Hunter
2.1.
Hunter Core Changes
The Hunter Class Tree has received a substantial rework, with theentirety of the Class Talent Tree as well as all Spec Trees having been redesigned. Below, I have listed some of the most central changes that will affect your gameplay, decision-making, and power in The War Within.
Survival of the Fittest is now a 30% baseline damage reduction. Through other talents, it can get a 1.5-minute cooldown, 2 charges, and an 8-second duration. This is a huge boost to Hunter survivability!- Counter Shot can now, via talents, get a 22-second cooldown, down from 24.
- Tranquilizing Shot can now, via Talents, either remove an additional Magic effect on cast, or have a 5s shorter cooldown if it only removes one Enrage effect.
- Intimidation can now, via Talents, hit up to 2 additional targets for 50% effectiveness.
- Explosive Shot is now placed in the Class Tree in such a way that all Hunter specs will be using it, all the time.
- Feign Death and Aspect of the Turtle can now, via a Talent, remove all Poison and Disease effects from you. This is extremely powerful in some niche scenarios.
- Bursting Shot is now available in the Class Tree.
- Intimidation and Binding Shot can now, via Talents, have their cooldowns reduced significantly via Scrappy.
- In additional, several Talents that used to be 2-pointers are now 1-pointers. This means that we can have all of the DPS-related Talents in the Class Tree, and most of the utility without having to choose. There are other changes too, but these are the most important ones.
2.2.
Beast Mastery Hunter Changes
The Beast Mastery Hunter Spec Tree has also been reworked from the ground up. Below, I will list all of the new talents and some interesting interactions and outcomes from the redesigned layout of the Tree.
- Hunter's Prey is now far more accessible and will likely lead us to using Kill Shot far more, at least on single-target.
- The new talent Venom's Bite lets us apply Serpent Sting with Kill Shots.
- A Murder of Crows is now a passive that causes every 5th Kill Command to apply a powerful DoT on its target for 15 seconds. This debuff does approximately three Kill Commands' worth of damage.
- Barrage is now available in the Spec Tree, and now also applies Beast Cleave. It can be used as an additional burst AoE button.
- The new talent Huntmaster's Call causes every 3 Dire Beast casts (or Dire Command summons) to trigger Hati or Fenryr, each offering powerful buffs. Hati increases all of your pet damage, while Fenryr increases your Haste and applies a powerful bleed to the target worth roughly 3 Kill Commands' worth of damage.
- Dire Beast now grants 20 Focus on cast. This includes Dire Command summons!
- Killer Instinct is now available in the Spec Tree, and gives Beast Mastery a substantial boost to execute damage on targets below 35% HP.
- The new talent Explosive Venom causes every 5 casts of Cobra Shot or Multi-Shot to apply Serpent Sting, offering us a way of spreading Serpent Stings on AoE.
- The new talent Basilisk Collar improves our pet damage for every DoT on a target. This only seems to work with DoTs that come from the Beast Mastery Hunter Tree, with the exception of the Fenryr Bleed.
- Bloodshed now has two new choice node talents below it. You can either choose for it to hit 2 additional targets, or double its damage increase while also increasing Kill Command's damage by 20% for the duration.
- Beast Cleave is now a 1-pointer instead of a 2-pointer, meaning we should lose less single-target DPS when going for AoE builds than before.
2.3.
Systems Changes
Aside from the changes to Beast Mastery Hunter's core features,The War Within also has major implications for all specs thanks to the HeroTalent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondarystats when entering a new expansion.
Beast Mastery Hunter gets to choose between the Pack Leaderand Dark Ranger Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk moredeeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and somethoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.
3.
Beast Mastery Hunter Hero Talents in The War Within
Pack LeaderDark Ranger
2.4.
Pack Leader Hero Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter in The War Within
The Pack Leader Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on interactions of
Kill Command and pet Basic Attacks like 
Claw, 
Bite,and 
Smack.
Gameplay-wise, expect a mostly passive kit that occasionally gives youcooldown resets of Kill Command, and increased 
Beast Cleavedurations when you press Kill Command.
Power-wise, expect a solid all-rounder that amplifies our existing kit morethan applying new stuff on top of it. Pack Leader looks especially strong onAoE, thanks to all of its effects tying into Beast Cleave and
Kill Cleave damage.
Defensively, Pack Leader is pretty weak. 
Den Recovery attaches adecent 20% heal to 
Aspect of the Turtle and 
Survival of the Fittest,and an extra +5% if used sub-50% HP.
2.4.
Dark Ranger Hero Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter in The War Within
The Dark Ranger Hero Tree Talents are primarily based on its core ability,
Black Arrow, and its resets of 
Barbed Shot, a free
Kill Shot when you press Black Arrow, passive damage increases to ourmain abilities, and a Dark Hound pet that occasionally charges in to do Shadowdamage.
Gameplay-wise, expect a mostly passive kit that occasionally gives youcooldown resets of Kill Command, and increased Beast Cleavedurations when you press Kill Command. You will be pressing Black Arrow on cooldown, followed by Kill Shot, and then justpassively enjoy the extra Barbed Shots that you get.
Power-wise, Dark Ranger does not look very exciting on its surface. ExtraBarbed Shots are not particularly exciting or high-value, and it is possiblethat with enough gear, we will often get more Barbed Shots than we really want,because we are so focused on spamming Kill Command. A lot of the nodeshere are very single-target oriented as well, with the free Kill Shot from
Death Shade being single-target, as well as the Dark Hounds from
Shadow Hounds, and of course, Black Arrow itself.
Defensively, however, Dark Ranger is the strongest choice forBeast Mastery Hunter thanks to 
Smoke Screen — A free,full-power Survival of the Fittest attached to your low-cooldown
Exhilaration is simply insane. Survival of the Fittestactivating Exhilaration at 50%, as well as a full-power
Rejuvenating Wind, is also quite strong, and pairs well with its reduced cooldown in the War Within.
3.
Beast Mastery Hunter Tier Set in The War Within
Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Beast Mastery Hunter in The WarWithin. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentarythat is italicized.
- Hunter Beast Mastery 11.0 Class Set 2pc — Barbed Shot furtherincreases your pet's attack speed by 5%. In other words, increases Frenzy's pet attack speed contribution to 35%, up from 30%, perstack. This basically means +15% attack speed most of the time.
- Hunter Beast Mastery 11.0 Class Set 4pc — Your pet's attacks have a 10%chance to increase all pet damage you deal by 10% for 10 sec. This willbasically have ~100% uptime, so this basically translates to 10% pet damage.
Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have anygameplay impact.
3.1.
How Good is the Beast Mastery Hunter Tier Bonus in The War Within?
The 2pc bonus is numerically very weak, with pet auto-attacks (the onlything this affects) rarely contributing more than 15%. The predicted DPSvalue of this bonus is around ~2-2.5%, as a very rough estimate.
The 4pc bonus is much stronger. With pet damage easily contributing upwardsof 80% of our total damage, this set bonus can be worth as much as8-9%.
The total expected value of the Tier Set is around 11-12%. Compared toprevious tier sets, this is pretty good in terms of power.
4.
Beast Mastery Hunter Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
- Significantly more durable thanks to 1-minute, 2-charge Survival of the Fittest.
- More build hybridization opportunities thanks to Barrage granting Beast Cleave.
- Core gameplay remains similar, but with more flavor and procs that introduce rotational variety.
- Enhanced execute damage.
Weaknesses
- AoE Builds remain expensive in terms of single-target damage lost, due to Multi-Shot/Beast Cleave/Kill Cleave being 3 points of investment.
- Several mechanics cause hard-to-predict, powerful procs that may proc when you least want them. The damage can feel out of your hands at times.
5.
Changelog
- 18 Jun. 2024: Page added.
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