How to Use The Beast Mastery Build to its Best – A Hunter’s Guide

Hunter Beast Mastery Build

The Hunter is one of the most popular classes in WoW, and not just because they’re easy to solo and level fast, but because of the huge array of pets that come with them.

My other half plays a Hunter, and she loves all the different options she has as she levels up, from cats and wolves to raptors and owls.

So what are the advantages to having a strong pet build?

To me, higher survivability and less deaths are big points, and rank up there if you’re trying to level quickly.

Great flexibility in pets is another big plus, and with the correct selection of pets (cats are great), a very high DPS.

Combine high DPS and excellent survivability and you have an awesome class.

And so with all this talk of cool pets, here’s a quick run down on how to maximize your Hunter’s killing power through making the most of their pets.

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Beast Mastery Hunter Build:

Row 1: (Improved Aspect of the Hawk, Endurance Training)

IAotH is passed over, but consider putting a few points in it AFTER you’ve maxed this tree out. I put 1 point here after I max the line.

Endurance training gets 5/5 points – this is important to take especially if you’re after a DPS pet (which I feel is a must if you go beast mastery), because DPS pets are pretty flimsy and easily killed if you’re not careful.

Row 2: (Focused Fire, Improved Aspect of the Monkey, Thick Hide, Improved Revive Pet)

2/2 if Focused fire for an extra 2% damage for you, and more importantly, your pet gets an extra TWENTY percent chance to score crits while Kill command is active.

Imp Aspect of the Monkey and Improved Revive Pet are passed over, too many points needed here for too little DPS. When choosing build, choose a theme, and ensure all your points overlap, leverage and back each other up until you have a big stack of bonuses all working together.

Take 3/3 Thick Hide, again giving your DPS pet more armor is pretty much mandatory to keep them in one piece in hairy situations, and if your pet dies, your pet heavy build is useless.

Row 3: (Pathfinding, Aspect Mastery, Unleashed Fury)

Max out every skill on this line, Pathfinding is “only” a utility skill, but given the beast mastery spec is a good choice for leveling, running speed is prioritized in this build. Aspect Mastery for only 1 point gives a raft of handy bonuses, so take that, and Unleashed Fury is a no brainer with 5/5 points giving your pet a monster 15% damage bonus.

Row 4: (Improved Mend Pet, Ferocity)

Leave Improved Mend Pet, with the DPS you’re doing and armor built in you should just be focusing on causing damage, and basic mend pet will serve you just fine. On the other hand, if you’re doing a lot of raiding mend pet CAN come in extremely useful for ridding your pet of some nasty debuffs which sharply decrease your dps… so keep this one in mind for later if you’re not already raiding.

Ferocity on the other hand is another core choice in this build, an amazing 10% improved critical strike chance for your pet equals win! Take this with cobra reflexes for another 30% increase to attack speed, and all those extra (but slightly lower damage hits) will mean a LOT more crits.

Row 5: (Spirit Bond, Intimidation, Bestial Discipline)

Another skill that helps the pair of you stay alive longer is Spirit Bond – for only 2 points you regenerate 2% of total health every 10 seconds and gives you a small bonus when someone else heals you.

Intimidation for 1 point gives your pet the ability to taunt your enemy and stun it for a lengthy 3 seconds, which is great to use as a panic button, or just as an every other fight bonus.

Bestial Discipline also gets 2/2 points to give your pet 100% faster focus regeneration to ensure you keep ticking along quickly with your mob killing. If you’ve ever sat around waiting for your pet’s focus bar to rise you’re wasting precious leveling time.

Row 6: (Animal Handler, Frenzy)

Animal Handler is a take it or leave it skill for me, put 2 points into it if you like, but it just doesn’t have enough benefit there for me. PvP’ers might find the ability to get out of snares handy though so if you’re in battlegrounds a lot, go for it.

Frenzy – dump 5 points into this, no question – who wouldn’t want a 100% chance to gain 30% attack speed increase for 8 seconds after dealing a critical strike? Combine this with the aforementioned cobra reflexes and you’ve got a mighty fast attacking DPS pet.

Row 7: (Ferocious Inspiration, Bestial Wrath, Catlike Reflexes)

This is a great row, max out all skills in it — Ferocious Inspiration is great for players in groups, or if not, the 9% Arcane shot bonus aint bad, Bestial Wrath is awesome for tough mobs giving a 50% additional damage bonus for 18 seconds, and only has a 2 minute cooldown. Catlike reflexes is another goody for keeping kitty alive with an extra pet dodge bonus of 9%.

Row 8: (Invigoration, Serpent’s Swiftness)

Give Invigoration a miss – 2% mana per crit doesn’t get me excited, as it just doesn’t regenerate our mana fast enough.

Serpent’s Swiftness however is another solid gold must have – 5 points here to get 20% increase in ranged attack speed for you, and 20% for melee on your pet.

Row 9: (Longevity, The Beast Within, Cobra Strikes)

Another maxed out line in row 9 – some great cooldown reductions here, mana saving when your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, and a kick ass bonus of 2 critical strikes for your pet when you crit using Arcane shot, Steady shot, or Kill shot.

Row 10: (Kindred Spirits)

More DPS magic in row 10 comes from Kindred Spirits, put all 5 points here for 20% extra damage from your pet and 10% faster movement for you.

Row 11: (Beast Mastery)

Given Beast Skill points only come around every 4 levels, this is one talent every Beast Master specced Hunter looks forward to — gain 4 pet talent skill points immediately.

So what is this BM Hunter build best at?

While it will serve you well where ever you are, definitely solo leveling — your pet is in the line of fire most of the time (use that to your advantage and die less often), and your stock ranged fire and spells are awesome.

After making this build up to Row 11, I drop 5 points into the Marksmanship tree to get 5% bonus to critical strikes with ranged fire, and then another 7 points into Survival to get Hawk Eye (6 yards extra shooting range), Savage Strikes (massive crit chance in hand to hand), and Survival instincts to increase crit chance even further with ranged fire, and reduce all damage taken by 4%.

This build will also serve you well in pick up games for PvP, but if PvP is where you live, then you can definitely tweak this build to make your killing more efficient.

Beast Mastery is also a good raid spec – you put out a good consistent level of damage with average criticals that rival every class in the game.

So to sum up, if you’re an up and coming Beast Master, this spec will do well for you in any area of the game. If you ever decide to specialize your talent build in raiding, PvP or leveling, some minor tweaks of this build is all you’ll need! Good luck!

Look out for my accompanying cat talent build for an accompanying high DPS pet, any day now.

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Enhancement/Elemental Shaman

Shaman’s are one of my favorite classes – they offer amazing flexibilty, and some really great tools that help you get by in your day to day leveling and adventuring.

One of those paths is the Enhancement Shaman. I’ve spent a lot of time putting together this Shaman spec to make it well suited for players who want some flexibility. One day you might be raiding, the next some PvP, and then maybe some solo and perhaps dailies when you level to that point.

With that in mind, the build below will serve well as a DPS focused build. This means you’ll be doing a lot of damage, and will be well suited for groups, PvP or solo work.

Solo is always better to do with a strong DPS build, and raids obviously will need an assortment of roles – DPS being one of them.

Row 1 (Enhancing Totems, Earth’s Grasp, Ancestral Knowledge)

The first row is totem heavy, with a nice intelligence buff.

Since this build includes a talent further down the tree that takes strength from high intelligence, max out 5 points in Ancestral Knowledge, and put 3 points into Enhancing Totems to give yourself another 15% Strength of the Earth effect, and 15% to Flametongue. Leave Earth’s grasp – we’re looking for damage per second, not extra tanking ability.

Row 2 (Guardian Totems, Thundering Strikes, Improved Ghost Wolf, Improved Shields)

Leave Guardian totems alone, it can be great for adding to a raid or party but not in this build. Put 5/5 into Thundering Strikes – the 5% extra chance to crit is too good to pass up on a DPS build. Leave Improved Ghost Wolf, but put another 3/3 points into Improved Shields for an extra 15% buff to your lightning, water and earth orbs.

Row 3 (Elemental Weapons, Shamanistic Focus, Anticipation)

This row includes one of the enhancement Shaman’s biggest draw cards – a buff to their impressive Windfury Weapon effect of 40% to damage. I recommend everyone use Windfury above any other weapon effect, its been proven by countless players as the highest DPS of them all. So 3/3 into Elemental Weapons is an easy one.

Put 1 point into Shamanistic Focus – reducing the mana cost of one of your best instant cast spell lines is another no brainer – 45% savings is awesome and welcome to any Shaman.

I leave Anticipation, the benefits just aren’t worth it, maybe PvP players will consider putting 3 points into it, otherwise leave it alone.

Row 4 (Flurry, Toughness)

Flurry is another killer Shaman talent you can’t afford to miss. 5/5 points here to get an increased attack speed of 25% for 3 swings after you crit – great to combine with your previously taken Thundering strikes. Toughness is another great talent, 5/5 gives your stamina a 10% boost, and reduces movement slowing effects. Being all geared for damage can make you a little fragile so take this talent.

Row 5 (Improved Windfury Totem, Spirit weapons, Mental Dexterity)

A great row, with some attack boosting effects and reduction of threat. Max out this entire line – Mental Dexterity gives you a big boost in attack power thanks to your row 1 selection of Ancestral Knowledge.

Row 6 (Unleashed Rage, Weapon Mastery, Frozen Power)

We begin this row by leaving Unleashed Rage — points can be better spent elsewhere to provide you a more balanced Shaman, but if you’re big into raids you might consider filling it. Weapon Mastery is up next letting you increase damage you deal with all weapons by 10% – A big, big boost and another no brainer for a DPS build… all 3 points go in here. Frozen Power gets 2 points for a 100% chance at an ice root effect, which is awesome for PvP or tight spots you and party need to flee from.

Row 7 (Dual Wield Specialization, Dual Wield, Stormstrike)

A great line of talents, being an Enhancement Shaman to me means going Windfury, Flurry, and Dual Wield to the max, which means this whole line gets filled up, DWSpecialization means you’ll hit more often, which is very important for our dual wielding DPS Shammy. Stormstrike, I’m on the fence about, but with a good selection of shocks after your Stormstrikes, a 20% damage increase can’t be passed up.

Row 8 (Static Shock, Lava Lash, Improved Stormstrike)

A sparse line for those wanting to keep their DPS ticking along strong. 0/3 for Static Shock – the lazy man’s shield solution, 1/1 in Lava Lash for an ok instant cast that can be combined with Flametongue, but which I really only took to open up the next line. Improved Stormstrike, again on the fence about this one, getting 40% mana back after a SS is awesome, but its robbing us of more important DPS generating effects right now. Come back & fill it after you max out the Enhancement tree, and I won’t scoff at you.

Row 9 (Mental Quickness, Shamanistic Rage, Earthen Power)

Max this line out – Mental Quickness benefits from our two intelligence talents earlier and piles on the benefits, Shamanistic Rage lets you shrug off 30% of damage with a 2 min cooldown, and Earthen Power can be great again for groups in tight spots of PvP with snaring opponents.

Row 10 (Maelstrom Weapon)

Hold out here, and go straight to Row 11. Insta cast spells are good and all, but as Shaman’s we’re already loaded with them, so I see these as five wasted points. Perhaps a good idea for builds that want to be able to deliver emergency heals.

Row 11 (Feral Spirit)

Feral Spirit, the end of the enhancement tree and a great DPS burst for big bosses, or for the occassional one of when the time is right in pretty much any other time in WoW.  The three min cooldown and 45 duration make this pair of wolves difficult to time well, but just hold off on the temptation to overuse them and you’ll be fine.

This build is great for people who want a Shaman that fights toe to toe with his foes. He’s great for any part of the game, but not super specialized. If you want to take a tertiary healing role while you dole out big damage, or you just want to help a single grouping buddy out better as you level up, go resto.

If you’re keen to raid or PvP, Elemental is the obvious choice.

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Shadow Spec With Some Holy

Are you ready to crack those DPS problems that keep you from joining raids or PvP events?

Over the past month I have been fiddling around with the shadow talent tree hoping to boost my stats. The problem I ran into was with every increase in this talent tree I lost something big in another area.

Back and forth I went trying to come up with the right combination until I finally settled on something that I feel is perfect for people who want a flexible shadow priest. A shadow priest who can handle the DPS requirements of raids, take out PvP opponents with burst damage, and of course level up quickly.

Keep in mind additional rows will open up after every 5 talent points used.

Row 1 (Spirit Tap, Improved ST, and Darkness)

The 1st row is built around increasing your spell damage and regenerating mana. Any Priest knows you need a substantial amount of mana when healing others, so this will be important. Make sure you use 3 talent points in the Spirit Tap. I recommend skipping over the Improved Spirit Tap and focus on filling the Darkness ability with all 5 points.

Row 2 (Shadow Affinity, Improved Shadow Word: Pain, and Shadow Focus)

Add all 3 points to the Shadow Affinity and gain a 25% decrease in threat from Shadow spells. Also, fill the Shadow Focus with all 3 pts. You want to decrease as much mana cost as possible and this removes 6%.

Row 3 (Improved Psychic Scream, Improved Mind Blast, and Mind Flay)

You will need to fill the IPS if want the Silence ability (which I recommend). Plus, putting the lone point in Mind Flay will allow you to slow opponents by 50%  – great for PvP priests.

Row 4 (Veiled Shadows, Shadow Reach, Shadow Weaving)

The two important abilities here are Shadow Reach and Weaving. Placing 2pts in Shadow Reach will give you an extra 20% range on Shadow Spells. Putting 3pts in Shadow Weaving will add a 100% chance to increase your Shadow damage by 2% for 15 seconds.

Row 5 (Silence, Vampiric Embrace, Improved Vampiric Embrace, Focused Mind)

Adding the 1pt needed for Silence allows you to keep an opponent from casting spells for 5 seconds, again great for PvP, especially against enemy spell casters.

Vampiric Embrace and Improved Vampiric Embrace should both be filled as well and will keep your health ticking along nicely during solo play or to top up after copping a few whacks in a tough dungeon. During a 5 minute period, any Shadow spell damage will revert 15% health to you and 3% to party members. The IVE allows a 67% health reimbursement. Then of course Focused Mind should be filled to reduce mana costs on all Mind spells by 15%.

Row 6 (Mind Melt, Improved Devouring Plague)

I’m not big on 4% critical strikes for Mind Melt, so unless you’re really heavy on PvP, I skip it. Fill up the Improved Devouring Plague talent… you will increase the total damage duration by 15% and deal a 15% instant strike of the total damage caused over time.

Row 7 (Shadowform, Shadow Power)

It’s very important to add the talent point needed for Shadowform. It adds 15% damage, decreases 15% damage to you, and reduces threat by 30%. However, the big boost is a 100% crit hit with Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch. Fill the Shadow Power as well so you can increase your Mind Blast, Flay, and SW: Death spell crit damage by 100%.

Row 8 (Improved Shadowform, Misery)

You definitely want to add the 2pts needed for IS. It allows you to remove movement impairing effects 100% of the time you use the Fade ability. Good for PvP, and good for running away from monsters… not that you’ll be doing any of that with this build… right? Improved Shadowform is also great for PvP when you’re trying to get a cast off on a melee class like a rogue or enhancement shaman who hit you with a flurry of attacks, no more watching your casting bar stay still!

Row 9 (Psychic Horror, Vampiric Touch, Pain and Suffering)

You will have to fill each one of these abilities in order to hit the next row. You’ve got a good fear spell here, and then Vampiric Touch and the nasty Pain and Suffering both boost your shadow damage.

Pain and Suffering is especially nasty for Shadow Priests as it refreshes your Shadow Word Pain ticks for even more damage.

Row 10 (Twisted Faith)

Place 5pts. here so you can increase your spell power by 10% of your total Spirit. There is also additional help to your Mind Blast and Flay by 10%. Combining spirit heavy gear with this talent can result in some really nice boosts to spellpower, so consider giving that a go if your bank account is up to the challenge.

Row 11 (Dispersion)

There will be times that this can be extremely useful – its a real “get out of jail free card, and can be intensely annoying to PvP opponenets. Its also gotten me out of more certain deaths than I care to recall.

Add a point here to finish out the tree and reduce your damage taken by 90%, regenerate mana over 6 seconds at 6% of total per second and eliminate several movement impairing effects.

Specialize Your Shadow Priest From Here

What to do with the other 20 points?

When you’re finished here you can go back and add the extra 20 points to your Shadow tree, or give your Priest a nice boost in other areas. Since I’m not sure what you use a lot, this will be up to you. In the end though, having a Shadow talent pool like this will help you become one of the better DPS dealers in your guild, make you survivable in groups and very hard to kill in PvP.

My personal pick for the last 20 points is putting it all into holy healing talents to make me useful in small parties, but if you’re into PvP I think its pretty hard to go past putting the rest into the balance.

That’s all there is to it. If you’re really mad keen on leveling quicker check out my Horde Leveling Guide front page for info on some commercial guides… They’re not really necessary, but are admittedly a nice luxury to have.

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