WoW Forever Beast Mastery Hunter Guide

Beast Mastery is the easiest Hunter spec to play at level 60 in WoW Forever, and the one where your pet does the most work. Forever gave it two new tools. Summon Hawk sends up to two hawks at your target, and since the November 10 hotfixes they hit about 80% harder, so a hawk now beats Arcane Shot on anything that lives a few seconds. Your pet also copies your critical strike chance, so every crit item makes it stronger as well as you. The core of the spec is still the same, though. Auto Shot does about half of your damage, and Bestial Wrath is still your big pet cooldown.

This guide is written for level 60 and the live game as of the November 11 hotfixes. ConquestCapped checked every Beast Mastery talent against the Forever talent data on November 14, so the builds below follow the live values, not old Classic numbers. The guide covers where BM stands next to Marksmanship and Survival and the best race, with a raid build and a dungeon build in talent calculators you can edit. After that come the Legacy talents, the stat priority and the rotation with the hawk rhythm and AoE. The last sections cover pet choice, mana, macros, common mistakes, enchants and consumables, gear and professions.

---

Is Beast Mastery Hunter Good in WoW Forever?

Yes. Our WoW Forever tier list gives Beast Mastery an S for leveling and an A for dungeons and raids. Bestial Wrath, the hawks and a pet that scales with your gear give it steady damage with almost no downtime. Pre-raid simulations place BM in the upper half of the damage specs, within a few percent of the top. Nobody has fought a level 63 boss yet, so treat every ranking as a forecast until the raids open on December 9.

BM is also the most forgiving Hunter spec. Your pet holds a mob that runs at you, Intimidation stuns it for 3 seconds, and you never have to weave melee attacks to keep up. The weak sides are Mana and the pet itself: when the pet dies, a large part of your damage goes with it. The table sums up what BM does well and where it struggles at 60.

Beast Mastery vs Marksmanship and Survival

The three Hunter specs are close at 60, and none is weak. Survival tops most level 60 simulations, but it gets there by weaving melee attacks with Mongoose Bite and a second weapon, which is harder to play and needs more gear. Marksmanship can drop the pet with Lone Wolf and shoots from 45 yards with Sniper Shot, which makes it the safest choice on fights where pets die. Beast Mastery sits between them on damage and asks the least of your hands. It is the best choice if you want one spec for leveling, dungeons and raids without a respec. How the other two specs play is in our WoW Forever Hunter guide.

---

Best Race for Beast Mastery Hunter

Eight races can be Hunters in Forever, and the gap between the best and the worst is small, around 10 to 15 damage per second in community simulations. For Beast Mastery, the racials that help your pet as well as you come out on top, because the pet copies your crit chance. These are the four races worth a look.

Orc is the best Horde Beast Mastery race, because Command is the only racial that adds pet damage all the time. Night Elf leads the Alliance, with Human close behind. Both Skyborne branches bring Wind Blessed for 2% Haste, but your pet does not inherit Haste, so they help BM less than they help Marksmanship. Dwarf is worth it only while you are short on Hit, thanks to its 1% Hit Chance. Every Hunter race is compared for each spec in our best Hunter race in WoW Forever guide.

---

Beast Mastery Hunter Talents at 60

Every Beast Mastery build takes the same core of 31 points in the Beast Mastery tree, all the way to Bestial Wrath. The 20 points left go into Marksmanship for Lethal Attacks and Careful Aim, and then either more damage for raids or more Mana and pet survival for dungeons.

Best Beast Mastery Hunter Raid Build: 31/20/0

This is the build for raid bosses. In Marksmanship it takes Rapid Killing for a Rapid Fire every 3 minutes instead of 5, Efficiency for cheaper shots, Trueshot Aura for your group and 4 points of Mortal Shots for bigger ranged crits.

These talents shape how the spec plays.

• Summon Hawk 1/1. Your main button. A hawk attacks your target for 18 sec, up to two at once, on a 6-sec cooldown shared with Arcane Shot. The talent teaches rank 1, and the trainer sells the higher ranks.
• Bestial Wrath 1/1. The capstone: 50% more pet damage for 18 sec on a 2-min cooldown, and nothing can stop the pet while it lasts.
• Deadly Aspects 5/5. While Aspect of the Hawk is active, each Auto Shot has a 10% chance to give you 30% ranged attack speed for 12 sec.
• Unleashed Fury 5/5 and Ferocity 5/5. 15% more damage and 10% more crit chance for your pet and your hawks.
• Focused Fire 2/2. New in Forever: you and your pet deal 2% more damage while the pet is out.
• Bestial Discipline 2/2. Your main Mana talent: 50% of your Mana regeneration keeps going while you cast, plus 20% faster Focus for the pet.
• Frenzy 3/5. Pet crits give it 30% attack speed for 8 sec. With your crit, Ferocity and a fast pet, 3 points already keep it up most of the fight.
• Careful Aim 5/5. Turns 100% of your Intellect into Attack Power, so Intellect on your gear is no longer only Mana.

The last 2 points before Bestial Wrath go into Endurance Training 5/5, which gives your pet 15% more Health and Armor. If your pet never dies in your raid, you can move them to Frenzy 5/5 instead. Wowhead's build spends 3 points on Improved Arcane Shot, but that talent does not shorten the cooldown it shares with Summon Hawk, so it does nothing while you play the hawk rhythm.

Beast Mastery Hunter Dungeon Build: 35/16/0

Dungeon pulls hit your pet with more area damage, and long runs drain your Mana. This build stops Marksmanship at 16 points, skips Rapid Killing and Mortal Shots, and takes Efficiency 5/5 for 15% cheaper shots. The 4 points saved go into Improved Mend Pet 2/2, so each Mend Pet tick can remove a Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the pet, and into Frenzy 5/5.

The Beast Mastery core stays the same. You still have Trueshot Aura, so your party keeps its Ranged Attack Power, and your rotation does not change.

Beast Mastery Talents to Skip

Some talents look good in the tree but do little at 60, and older builds from the beta still list them.

• Improved Arcane Shot: shortens only Arcane Shot, not Summon Hawk, which you cast more often.
• Pathfinding and Improved Aspect of the Monkey: travel speed and Dodge are leveling comforts, not damage.
• Improved Revive Pet and Spirit Bond: useful for solo play, but a healer and Mend Pet cover the pet in a group.
• Lone Wolf: it needs you to play without a pet, which turns off half of the Beast Mastery tree.

The order to take these talents in from level 10 is in our WoW Forever Hunter leveling guide, and every change to the three Hunter trees is in our WoW Forever Hunter talents guide.

---

Legacy Talents for Beast Mastery Hunter

Legacy talents are account-wide perks that you unlock by playing, and the raid builds of other classes do not suit a Hunter. Reagent Economy does nothing for you, because Hunter abilities use no vendor reagents. Permanence only extends long party buffs, and a Hunter has none. The useful perks are Gourmand, which doubles the duration of your food buff, and The Quick and the Dead, which makes your helpful spells free for 2 minutes after a resurrection. That covers Revive Pet and Mend Pet after a wipe, which normally cost a big part of your Mana.

To reach those perks, the build also takes Reinforce for less durability loss on wipes and a point in Permanence, which still makes the rest benefit from a camp last longer. The last 5 points go into Diplomat for the reputations behind your gear and enchants. Every Legacy tree is covered in our best WoW Forever Legacy talent builds guide.

---

Beast Mastery Hunter Stat Priority

Your ranged weapon matters more than any stat. Auto Shot, Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot all build on its damage, so a better bow or gun is almost always your biggest upgrade. After the weapon, your pet changes the math. It copies 100% of your crit chance but only about 10% of your Attack Power, so crit helps you twice while Attack Power mostly helps you alone.

1. Ranged weapon damage per second. A better bow or gun beats almost any armor upgrade.
2. Hit Chance up to 8%. A missed Auto Shot deals nothing. The character panel shows 8% against a raid boss, and some guides aim for 9% to be safe. The Beast Mastery builds take no Hit talent, so all of it comes from gear.
3. Agility. One point gives 2 ranged Attack Power, and 53 Agility give 1% crit chance, which your pet copies.
4. Critical strike chance. Every percent counts twice, for your shots and for the pet and hawks.
5. Intellect. With Careful Aim, every point is one Attack Power and 15 Mana, which makes Intellect worth about half an Agility for BM.
6. Attack Power. Plain Attack Power counts for your shots, but your pet gets only a tenth of it.

Expertise does nothing for your shots, because ranged attacks cannot be dodged or parried, but your pet benefits from it. Stamina keeps you and the pet alive, since the pet gets 2 Health for every point. Our WoW Forever hit cap guide explains every cap, and our WoW Forever stats and itemization guide covers what each stat does.

---

Beast Mastery Hunter Rotation and Cooldowns

Beast Mastery has no strict rotation. You keep Auto Shot firing, keep two hawks on the target, and press Aimed Shot whenever it is ready. The skill is in moving as little as possible and running out of Mana as late as possible.

Before the Pull and Opener

Get these things ready before every boss, then follow the opener below.

1. Feed your pet. A happy pet deals 125% damage, an unhappy one 75%, and you cannot feed it in combat.
2. Turn on Aspect of the Hawk and Trueshot Aura, and put the pet on Defensive or Assist. On Passive, hawks dive once and fly away.
3. Mark the boss with Hunter's Mark from up to 100 yards.
4. Send the pet in after the tank and give it a couple of seconds.
5. Press Bestial Wrath, Rapid Fire and your racial together, plus a Major Frenzy Potion if you have one.
6. Open with Aimed Shot, then Summon Hawk twice.

Do not summon the hawks before the pull. A hawk called with no fight going on dives once and then idles until it expires.

Single-Target Priority

On a boss, go down this list and press the first button that is ready.

1. Auto Shot. Stand still for 0.5 sec before each shot fires, whatever your weapon speed. Never cut a shot short to move.
2. Summon Hawk whenever you have fewer than two hawks out.
3. Aimed Shot on cooldown. Its 2-sec cast does not stop Auto Shot, so it costs you no autos.
4. Arcane Shot when both hawks are up and the shared cooldown is free.
5. Serpent Sting on a boss that will live its full 15 sec, never on trash.

On a single target, do not press Multi-Shot. It shares a cooldown with Aimed Shot, which hits harder on one target.

The Hawk Rhythm: Summon Hawk vs Arcane Shot

Summon Hawk and Arcane Shot share one 6-sec cooldown, and both cost 11% of your base Mana since November 10. A hawk lives 18 sec and you can have two, which gives you a three-step loop: hawk, hawk, Arcane Shot, and then the first hawk runs out and you call it again. In community tests after the hotfix, a hawk that lives its full 18 sec dealt about 30% to 40% more damage than an Arcane Shot. Hawks also attack faster with Rapid Fire and Deadly Aspects, so they hit hardest during your cooldowns.

On trash that dies in a few seconds, one hawk is enough. Save Mana there, and keep Arcane Shot for a mob you need to burst down. Do not take Improved Arcane Shot for this loop: it shortens Arcane Shot alone, not the cooldown it shares with the hawks.

AoE and Big Pulls

Beast Mastery has three tools for packs. Multi-Shot hits three targets on a 6-sec cooldown. Explosive Trap hits everything within 10 yards and now scales with Attack Power, and you can use it in combat on a 30-sec cooldown that all your traps share. Volley channels for 6 sec and hits everything in 8 yards of the target point every second. Since November 11 it stops if you move and no longer triggers procs.

• Two or three mobs: Multi-Shot on cooldown, a hawk on the mob the tank kills first, Auto Shot.
• Four or more: Explosive Trap where the pack will stand, Multi-Shot, then Volley if the pack lives long enough and you have the Mana.
• On pulls with many mobs, send the pet at the same target as the tank, so it does not pull a second pack.

Traps land at your own feet, so place them before the pack reaches the tank or step into the pack to drop one.

Cooldowns and Survival Tools

Line up your damage cooldowns at the start of a boss and on every cooldown after that. Use Bestial Wrath every 2 minutes without holding it, and use Rapid Fire every 3 minutes with Rapid Killing, since it adds 40% attack speed for 15 sec, and in community tests the hawks attack faster during it too. Intimidation is a 1-min stun on the pet's next hit with a guaranteed crit, but it also generates high threat, so do not use it on a boss early.

• Feign Death drops your threat on a 30-sec cooldown. Cancel it once you are safe, because after 6 min you really die.
• Disengage lowers your threat when a mob reaches you in melee.
• Tranquilizing Shot at level 60 removes a Frenzy effect from a boss. If your raid fights a boss that frenzies, it is a Hunter job.
• Freezing Trap still works as crowd control in dungeons, and you can now place it in combat.

Pet Choice and Pet Management

For raw damage, a fast cat is the safe pick for raids and dungeons. Pet attack speed comes from a passive the beast already has when you tame it, so tame a fast one: Broken Tooth in Badlands attacks every 1.0 sec and The Rake in Mulgore every 1.2 sec. A wolf with Furious Howl is the pick for a melee-heavy group, since the howl buffs every party member within 15 yards. In raids, pet debuffs may be replaced by similar class debuffs, so choose a raid pet for its damage, not for its debuff.

• Turn Growl off before every group, or your pet pulls threat from the tank.
• Keep Claw or Bite on autocast, not three abilities at once, so the pet does not run out of Focus.
• Use Mend Pet when the pet drops below half Health on long fights, and do not dismiss the pet often, since that costs happiness.

Where to tame every fast beast and which ability each family learns is in our WoW Forever Hunter pets guide.

Mana Management

Mana is the real limit of a Beast Mastery Hunter at 60. In pre-raid simulations, a BM Hunter who fires every hawk and Arcane Shot runs dry about halfway through a 3-minute boss fight. Forever has no Aspect of the Viper, so you manage Mana with talents, consumables and choices:

• Bestial Discipline and Efficiency are your talent tools. Do not drop them for damage.
• Skip Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot on trash. Your pet, one hawk and Auto Shot kill normal mobs fine.
• Use a Major Mana Potion and a Dark Rune or Demonic Rune on long fights. They are on separate cooldowns.
• Intellect from Careful Aim gear gives you Attack Power and Mana at once.

When the Mana bar runs low, stop casting hawks first and keep Auto Shot going. Auto Shot costs nothing and is still more than half of your damage.

Useful Macros for Beast Mastery Hunter

The Auto Shot macro starts your shots on the nearest enemy if you have no target, and the exclamation mark keeps a second press from turning Auto Shot off:

#showtooltip Auto Shot
/cleartarget [dead]
/targetenemy [noharm]
/cast !Auto Shot

This one sends your pet and marks the target with one key:

#showtooltip Hunter's Mark
/petattack
/cast Hunter's Mark

Players also send the pet with every hawk, so the pet never stays idle when you switch targets:

#showtooltip Summon Hawk
/petattack
/cast Summon Hawk

More pet macros, including one that keeps the pet from breaking a Freezing Trap, are in our Hunter pets guide.

Beast Mastery Hunter Mistakes to Avoid

These are the habits that cost a BM Hunter the most damage or Mana in Forever.

• Moving while Auto Shot winds up. Every step in that 0.5 sec delays your biggest damage source.
• Leaving the pet on Passive, which makes the hawks dive once and leave.
• Letting the pet go unhappy. An unfed pet deals 75% damage instead of 125%.
• Pressing Multi-Shot on one target and losing the Aimed Shot that shares its cooldown.
• Putting Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot on every trash mob and drinking after each pull.
• Keeping Aspect of the Cheetah on in combat. Any hit dazes you.
• Taking Improved Arcane Shot, which does nothing for the hawk loop.

---

Enchants and Consumables for Beast Mastery Hunter

Enchant the pieces you plan to keep, which usually means your ranged weapon, chest and a stat stick you will not replace soon. The ranged weapon takes a scope instead of an enchant, and Forever adds necklace and new bracer enchants. These are the best options a Hunter can get before the raids:

Where every enchanting formula drops is in our best enchants in WoW Forever guide.

Consumables matter more for BM than for most specs, because so many of them also feed your pet through crit.

• Elixir of the Mongoose adds 25 Agility and 2% crit, and Elixir of Greater Agility adds 25 Agility if you cannot afford the Mongoose.
• Grilled Squid gives 1% crit as its food buff, which your pet copies.
• Major Frenzy Potion adds 80 Attack Power for 30 sec and belongs in your Bestial Wrath window.
• Major Mana Potion and Dark Rune keep your Mana up on long fights.

Ammo still adds damage to every shot. The best pre-raid stacks are Miniature Cannon Balls and Doomshot from dungeon bosses, and a quiver such as Harpy Hide Quiver adds 15% ranged attack speed. Swiftstrike Shot and Swiftfeather Arrow, the new raid ammo, are no longer Bind on Pickup since November 10, so you can buy them from an Engineer instead of learning Engineering yourself.

---

Beast Mastery Hunter Gear Overview

Beast Mastery wears the same gear as the other Hunter specs: a ranged weapon with the highest damage per second you can get, Hit Chance up to the cap, then Agility and crit. Crit pieces are slightly better for BM than for Marksmanship, because your pet copies every point, which makes Blackhand's Breadth one of your best early belts. The full slot-by-slot list, the best bows and guns, ammo and quivers are in our WoW Forever Hunter BiS guide.

---

Best Professions for Beast Mastery Hunter

Skinning and Leatherworking are the classic Hunter pair and still the easiest choice. Leatherworking makes strong Agility mail and leather from level 10, and Skinning costs you almost no time, because the pet starts on the next mob while you skin. Engineering is the stronger raid profession thanks to Goblin Sapper Charge and Dense Dynamite, extra damage that no other profession gives. With the raid ammo now tradeable, you no longer need Engineering for ammo, so pick it for the explosives or not at all. Which pair suits each class is compared in our best professions in WoW Forever guide.

More Guides for Your Beast Mastery Hunter

These guides cover the rest of the work before the raids: the class overview, the best gear for every slot, the pet that suits your group, every talent change and the best race for your faction.

---

WoW Forever Beast Mastery Hunter FAQ

These are the questions players ask most about Beast Mastery Hunter in WoW Forever.

Is Beast Mastery Hunter good in WoW Forever?

Yes. ConquestCapped ranks it in S tier for leveling and A tier for dungeons and raids. It is the easiest Hunter spec to play at 60, with steady damage from Auto Shot, the pet and two hawks. Its weak points are Mana and losing damage when the pet dies.

What is the best Beast Mastery Hunter build in WoW Forever?

For raids, 31/20/0: the Beast Mastery tree to Bestial Wrath, then Lethal Attacks, Careful Aim, Rapid Killing, Efficiency, Trueshot Aura and Mortal Shots in Marksmanship. For dungeons, 35/16/0 adds Improved Mend Pet and full Efficiency instead of Rapid Killing and Mortal Shots.

Should I use Summon Hawk or Arcane Shot?

Summon Hawk first. Since the November 10 hotfixes a hawk that lives its full 18 sec deals more damage than an Arcane Shot. Keep two hawks up and use Arcane Shot in the gap: hawk, hawk, Arcane Shot, then call the first hawk again.

What is the best pet for Beast Mastery Hunter in raids?

A fast cat for damage, such as Broken Tooth or The Rake. A wolf with Furious Howl is worth it in a melee-heavy group. Pet debuffs may not stack with class debuffs in a raid, so pick for damage.

What is the hit cap for Beast Mastery Hunter?

8% against a raid boss, with some guides using 9% to be safe. Beast Mastery builds take no Hit talent, so all of it comes from gear. Our WoW Forever hit cap guide explains every cap.

Is there an Aspect of the Viper in WoW Forever?

No. Hunters manage Mana with Bestial Discipline, Efficiency, Intellect through Careful Aim, Mana potions and runes, and by skipping stings and Arcane Shot on trash.

What is the best race for Beast Mastery Hunter?

Orc on the Horde, because Command adds 5% pet damage all the time. Night Elf on the Alliance, because your pet copies the 10% crit of Elune's Light, with Human close behind.

Do I need to melee weave as Beast Mastery?

No. Weaving Raptor Strike between shots adds a few percent at best and is the core of Survival, not BM. Stand still for Auto Shot and let the pet and hawks do the melee work.