I’m
Bendak, author of the
Wowhead Beast Mastery Guide. I also run my own Hunter blog called
Eyes of the Beast, and I’m co-host of the
Hunting Party Podcast.
If you enjoyed Beast Mastery in Legion, you’re probably going to like it in Battle for Azeroth. The core of the spec is the same, with a few notable changes. In terms of losses from
Мощь Титанов, I definitely miss
Гром титанов and
Волнение повелителя бурь, but the rest I can live without, especially since there’s a talent option to get a second pet.
Core ChangesThe new Focus generator,
Разрывающий выстрел, works similarly to the old Dire Frenzy talent, but it looks much better as a shot rather than your character spamming awkward /yell animations. Maintaining attack speed stacks on your pet will be key to optimal performance. This change may upset those who were fans of the “zoo build” and flinging endless
Ужасный зверьs since you’re now locked into this style of play.
Выстрел кобры reduces the cooldown of
Команда "Взять!" by 1 second, resulting in a better balance of
Команда "Взять!"s and
Выстрел кобрыs, but this also devalues the
Кобра-убийца talent.
Дух дикой природы’s duration was doubled, but Focus/sec was halved. It still feels like a mediocre cooldown, especially without
Бич грома. What I’d personally like to see is a new, big 3+ minute cooldown in its place, along with some Focus cost reduction added to
Звериный гнев (like the
Рык Семи львов legendary).
Звериный гнев being put on the GCD is unfortunate because it hasn’t seen any changes to compensate. It feels like you’re wasting a couple of seconds of the buff whenever you use it. I think
Звериный гнев could be improved if it had an instant effect on use, such as a charging pet attack (similar to
Команда "Взять!") just so there’s a tangible impact when you press the button.
TalentsBeast Mastery’s talents remain largely the same, but some have been switched around to different rows, along with a few replaced. My main concern is that Beast Mastery may overwhelmingly favor passive talent options once tuning is complete. Adding extra buttons to the rotation such as
Ужасный зверь,
Выстрел химеры, or
Шквал are problematic because they do not have a meaningful impact on
Звериный гнев windows or have any other interactions. Usually, GCDs and Focus are better spent on core abilities because they have secondary benefits like cooldown reductions and
Удар зверя.
To use the new
Ужасный зверь as an example, it costs 35 Focus (the same as
Выстрел кобры) which means every 15 sec you replace a
Выстрел кобры with one. The difference is that
Выстрел кобры is buffed by
Звериный гнев (
Ужасный зверь is not), it reduces the cooldown of
Команда "Взять!" (
Ужасный зверь has no cooldown reductions), and it benefits the
Кобра-убийца talent. If
Ужасный зверь is tuned to have very high damage it could be worth using regardless, but at this point it feels like adding a button for the sake of adding a button. Gameplay doesn’t really change, and in my opinion it should for active talents.
Level 15: The new
Инстинкт убийцы adds an execute option for Beast Mastery and is a welcome improvement over the old Big Game Hunter.
Питомец is not fully implemented as of this writing, so it’s hard to comment on that one (but I do like having the second pet option). I’ve already mentioned above why I’m not a big fan of the current iteration of
Ужасный зверь. I only really see it being a good choice if the damage is tuned to make the passive options obsolete.
Level 30: I like to call this the
Единство со стаей row, because I don’t see another choice here.
Запах крови isn’t even close to the same value as increasing your
Разрывающий выстрел resets, and
Выстрел химеры will only be a competitive option if, like
Ужасный зверь, it’s tuned to make the other options obsolete. I think
Единство со стаей dramatically improves the overall gameplay of Beast Mastery (more procs are fun!), and I would love to see it be made baseline.
Level 45: After being absent in Legion,
Камуфляж is finally back for Beast Mastery! I’m glad to have the option again.
Природное лечение is likely going to be the raiding talent of choice for the extra healing cooldowns, even though it does feel a bit underwhelming (I wish it also buffed Mend Pet).
Застрельщик is mostly going to be relegated to farming, transmog runs, and maybe some more niche uses such as Mythic Imonar — a pretty forgettable talent.
Level 60:
Стая воронов is a mainstay at this point. It doesn’t suffer as much as the other active talent options because it’s a longer cooldown, it’s buffed by both
Звериный гнев and Mastery, and it has reset potential.
Охотничий азарт gives extra reward for properly maintaining attack speed stacks on your pet (via
Разрывающий выстрел) by giving you a constant critical strike buff.
Охотничий азарт looks good on paper (it doesn’t actually work on the beta yet).
Плюющаяся кобра is underwhelming in its current form. The 1 sec of cooldown reduction is barely noticeable, but perhaps it’s just a tuning issue and it would feel better with more reduction. I think the Legion talent Bestial Fury could also work here.
Level 75: The new
Непокорный дух is a less effective version of the
Зов дикой природы bracers, but it doesn’t affect
Дух дикой природы. If you need immunities, you’re probably going to use this. In most other situations you’re probably going to use
Быстрая реакция.
Связующий выстрел is now a root instead of a stun, which diminishes the value quite a bit. Intimidation is now a baseline ability, so there’s still a stun available to Beast Mastery.
Level 90: This row deals entirely with AoE damage.
Топот activates on your pet when you cast
Разрывающий выстрел but is otherwise the same as before and will likely end up being the go to choice (currently the
Ужасный зверь talent also
Топотs, but this may be unintentional).
Шквал hasn’t changed and still suffers from the same problems that caused it to be a suboptimal talent throughout Legion (at least for dungeons and raiding). Its opportunity cost is too high for what it gives in return, though tuning could solve that (it was never tuned properly in Legion). Now that
Звериный натиск doesn’t have to compete with single target options, it could end up being a decent choice for more situations, but I think it could be a lot more versatile with a shorter cooldown or a cooldown reduction mechanic.
Level 100: The popular
Кобра-убийца is still here, but it has lost some of its value due to
Выстрел кобры already reducing the
Команда "Взять!" cooldown, and
Звериный гнев on the GCD eats a whole potential reset. I enjoy the gameplay of
Кобра-убийца so I’m hoping it can be improved. Perhaps if it had a secondary effect like extending the duration of
Звериный гнев it would recoup that value.
Дух зверя has been redesigned to buff pet basic attacks (Claw, Bite, or Smack) and increase the effectiveness of the new passive ability from each pet specialization. The main benefit to this change is you get the DPS buff regardless of your pet’s spec, plus those new passives are quite good.
Плюющаяся кобра is a former Survival talent re-purposed for Beast Mastery. It’s basically a turret that happens to be a snake. It has some problems on beta like only having a 25 yard range (I hope this will be fixed) and its usefulness is going to depend on tuning. It could turn out to be a powerful single target cooldown, which would be nice to have. I personally think it would be cooler if the snake fired a
Выстрел кобры whenever the Hunter did, rather than simple auto attacks.
Final ThoughtsThis is Legion Beast Mastery with some tweaks, so don’t expect to be too surprised if you’ve already been playing it. It’s still the only ranged spec that can cast everything on the move. It’s still great at soloing. It's the BM you know and love (or hate). It’s too early to say exactly what Beast Mastery’s strengths and weaknesses will be, but looking at its current kit I am guessing it will be fairly similar to Legion, which is solid single target damage but weaker AoE damage. I think a lot can still be improved via the talents, so I hope Blizzard continues to iterate on that before launch. I enjoy swapping talents to suit the situation (gotta keep those scribes in business), so the last thing I want to see is a cookie cutter, passives-only build used for everything.
