1. May 19, 2021  

    [Guide] The Beast Within: Beast Mastery in PvP

    The Beast Within: Beast Mastery PvP Guide Revised
    I'm getting back from a long break and rolling out on the Icecrown realm. I will rewrite this guide fully. Sorry for the missed private messages.

    Table of Content
    1. Introduction
    2. Race
    3. Talents & Glyphs
    4. Itemization
    5. Professions
    6. Pets

    Introduction

    Best Mastery Hunter while not considered as a meta spec is still can be incredibly fun to play and fairly viable. It's maybe the best way to level your hunter of course but will fall off fast in terms of DPS as soon as end-game PvE content kicks in. However, in PvP it's a bit of a difference. Marksmanship Hunter sure will perform better in the arena and have an overall better chance to win a fight in a controlled environment. Also, Marksmanship will have a more "fair" chance in a duel. Beastmastery Hunter on another hand will crush pretty much any low-skill player and be incredibly strong against several classes in a mid to high-skill bracket but at the same time, it will have next to zero chance to win a fight against any skilled Warrior, Death Knight, or a Paladin. As a bonus, Beast Mastery also has a better chance of winning a fight if you are ambushed.

    To put it more simply:
    Advantages:
    • You have an extra trinket and CC immunity in the form of The Beast Within.
    • Some minor amount of extra healing due to Spirit Bond
    • Opt-in access to exotic pets.
    • Element of surprise.


    Disadvantages:
    • Any skilled PvP Plate Spec will kill you unless you run away.
    • Your pet is your life, damage, utility, buffs... everything. And it sorta dies easily in any massive fight.


    Race

    Alliance
    • Night Elf. The main point to roll this race would be a Shadowmeld. If used correctly it can save your life. By "melding" in a fly time of a spell you can avoid its effect completely. As an example now warlock won't lend a death coil on you.
    • Draenei. Heroic Presence is nice to tweak your stats a bit more. Gift of the Naaru can save you a bit but also is affected by healing reduction talents and can be dispelled (I'm not 100% sure about a dispel).
    • Dwarf. Stoneform in my opinion is the weakest racial from the Alliance side. Gun Specialization is completely useless except if you are going to use a Wrathful Gladiator's Shotgun.


    Horde


    Please, note that I did skip all resistance racial skills and racial skills that don't have a direct impact on a hunter's gameplay.
    Also, you are free to pick any race just based on appearance and it won't be any problem most of the time.

    Talents & Glyphs

    I was mostly used to having 2 talent specs. One with Exotic Beasts and another one with Readiness.
    Here are links and some extra explanations:

    Exotic Pets spec

    Link: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#cqb...Rt0eVso:0VbM0V
    This is a fairly standard spec I used to do World PvP and Arenas with. You can take out 3 points from Improved Arcane Shot and 2 points from Spirit Bonds and put them elsewhere.

    Readiness spec

    Link: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?talent#cqb...beVso0z:0VbM0V
    Sacrificing Exotic pets for a utility that Readiness provides

    Glyphs are included in talent builds.

    Itemization

    I really can't give you a BiS list for this spec but rather stat caps you need to reach and some general recommendations.

    Stats:
    Hit - 5% is a cap but you can go for some swap part to get an extra 2% hit against Rogues and Paladins because since they have talents that makes them 2% harder to hit.
    Resilience - for the most part I would sit around 1.2k and it should work just fine.

    Prio for rest: Attack Power > Agility > Crit chance > ArP > Haste.

    Main set I would keep full Warthful as well as all offsets that give you agility. The rest are PvE items.

    As for a melee weapon, it's a good idea to have one PvE two-hander with attack power enchant and two PvP one-handers with attack power and titanium chain enchant. Normally you are going to use two-hander for more stats and swap for one-handed weapons against classes that have a disarm.

    For Trinkets, you normally want to use your best DPS trinket paired with a Medalion of Alliance/Horde. Sometimes, in BGs or the open world, you can switch to having double DPS trinkets and deal some fancy damage while using your Bestial Wrath to get out of crowd-control effects.

    Gems and enchants are mostly a personal thing in my opinion. Mainly you try to reach your resilience and hit caps. After that just try to get as much Attack Power as possible. Do not gem/enchant ArP and Haste.

    Professions

    Almost for any PvP spec Engineering is just a very nice thing. Same for a Hunter so I would 100% pick it as a first profession.

    As for a second option, I think the most useful would be either jewelry crafting or Blacksmithing. They give you the biggest stat amount and versatility.

    The next tier for the second profession would be Enchanting and Leatherworking for a static Attack Power bonus or Tailoring as a burst option. Alchemy is also very nice and can be fun to play around in the open world or BGs.

    The rest of the professions are around the same.

    Pets

    So pets are a complicated topic for a Beastmastery hunter.
    For a simple answer, you can go with Core Hound to the arena and with Chimeara to everywhere else.

    A more detailed tier for pets from my experience would be:

    Ferocity
    [b]S Tier[b]
    Core Hound (Exotic pets) for Lava Breath. It's a nice thing to have on an enemy caster. As a bonus, it is magical damage so it ignores armor but the target may have a spell resistance.
    Wolf (Readiness spec mostly) for Furious Howl. Same reason as for a PvE. More attack power = better.
    A Tier
    Devilsaur and Spirit Beast (both are exotic). They both deal nice damage and might suit your playstyle better. No specific PvP ability, just damage.
    B Tier
    Cats are good for their Rakeagainst rogues. Pretty much makes stealth impossible and makes fighting a rogue much easier. As a downside, it's maybe the only thing they are good for.
    Hyenas for Tendon Rip. Hyenas deal less damage than a wolf and can be justified only for open-world PvP for this slow ability if you are playing a Readiness spec.
    C Tier
    Raptors and theirs Rend. It's a low-key Devilsaur wannabe. I wouldn't use them unless you just like the looks.
    D Tier
    Moths and Wasps. They both have the weakest spells. I would never pick one for PvP.
    I dare you to kill me

    Tame Mazzranache.
    Get Dust Cloud.
    Play good and make people hate you!
    It's a pet for those who just love to piss others off!

    Ferocity specs
    For Exotic Beasts specced hunters: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?petcalc#mqd00bszzhoRb
    For Readiness spec: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?petcalc#0Md00bszzh0oo

    Cunning
    S Tier
    Chimaeras. Froststorm Breath is just a perfect thing for kiting. As a bonus, it can't be dispelled!
    A Tier
    That will be a skip tier for a cunning.
    B Tier
    Silithids. They are big, scary exotic spiders. Venom Web Spray is a nice addition. Just make sure to cast a trap right before the Web wears off so it won't disrupt a trap with damage.
    C Tier
    Bats, Nether Rays, Birds of Prey, Ravagers, and Spiders are rather very situation pets used for some fun as a Beastmaster Hunter.
    D Tier
    I don't see any reason to pick Sporboats, Dragonhawks, Serpents, and Wind Serpents.

    Cunning specs
    For Exotic Beasts specced hunters: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?petcalc#cibo0zsh0boRd
    For Readiness spec: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?petcalc#cMd00och0b0Rz

    Tenacity
    S Tier
    Worms and their Acid Spit
    Situational Tier
    Pretty much every other pet except one in a tier above and one in a tier below is situational and if you pick them then you should know what are you doing.
    "Blizzard, why?" Tier
    Rhino, Stampede. Really?

    Tenacity specs
    For Exotic Beasts specced hunters: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?petcalc#mVzhubh0bokM
    For Readiness spec: https://wotlk.evowow.com/?petcalc#0wzhzbh0bokz

    I will continue writing a guide within the next two weeks and will finish it. Thank you for reading. If you find any mistakes or have any ideas feel free to contact me here or send an in-game mail to a Gwathriel | Icecrown. It's my new character I spend most of the time on right now
    Edited: January 15, 2024 Reason: Full revision

  2. May 19, 2021  
    50/21/00 is usualy the better Arena spec.

  3. May 20, 2021  
    Wow.... not even mentioning the orc pet damage increase bonus, not mentioning tailoring at all which is huge....

    talents im not gonna argue as everybody plays as they like, BM isnt viable enough to have one true/good build.

    Using sindragosa neck and frostbrood ring is just wrong and stupid. While Sindra can make some sense if you are with a healer on bg and can freecast, going for frostbrood over signet of twilight is the worst move you can make.
    Also, pvp cloak and neck should be used. If you look for more damage then try swapping wrist/belt/feet for BiS pve, makes way more sense than swapping the cloak/neck.

    Oh. And I just saw your meta gem. why.... the movement speed is lost due to your prefinal BM talent not being stackable. Only viable choice is the 3% crit damage increase one with agil, and trust me I've tested all the AP ones. The only one I found kind of viable was the one healing you, but still far inferior to relentless earthsiege.

    gems.... im not gonna argue skipping socket bonuses as everybody plays how they like, but I want to recommend you to try out blue ap + stamina. Also I dont ever use crit yellows, its always AP + resil.

  4. May 20, 2021  
    Thanks for advises. As I said at start I'm not Pro BM and it's mostly attempt to group up all info about BM.
    Will make some changes.

  5. 50/21/00 is usualy the better Arena spec.
    Got a link to this layout?

  6. Got a link to this layout?
    In Talents spoiler last paragraph

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