BeastMaster Spec, Builds, Talents, Pet Talents, and Glyphs
On this page, we present the viable talent and glyph choices for Beast Mastery Hunters in World of Warcraft WoD 6.2.2. We detail what each of the talents and glyphs do and in which situations they should be taken.
1. Talent Choices↑top
- Performance-enhancing
- Survival
- Crowd Control
- Movement
- Utility
- Situational
Talents can easily be changed, thanks to 
Tomes of the Clear Mind. You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs between encounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics. Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does and how they affect your play style.
2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents↑top
Tier 1 talents offer a choice between 3 means of improving your movement and mobility (although they also have some secondary benefits).
Posthaste causes 
Disengage to free you from all movement-impairing effects and boost your movement speed by 60% for 8 seconds.
Narrow Escape places a web at the location from which you Disengage, which roots all enemies within 8 yards for 8 seconds.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimaera reduces the cooldown of Disengage by 10 seconds, and the cooldown of 
Deterrence by 60 seconds.
Given the amazing usefulness of Deterrence, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimaera is the top choice for most encounters.
Posthaste is better for fights where you need extra mobility more than you need extra survival (or if Deterrence is not particularly useful in the encounter).
Narrow Escape can probably be quite useful in situations where you have to kite adds, but the number of such situations is quite low.
3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents↑top
Tier 2 talents offer you a choice between 3 talents that provide you crowd control and utility.
Binding Shot fires an arrow at a random enemy, debuffing this player and allies of theirs within 5 yards, causing them to be stunned for 5 seconds if they move more than 5 yards from the location of the arrow. Being affected by the arrow causes players to be immune to Binding Shot for 10 seconds. It has a 45-second cooldown.
Wyvern Sting puts the target to sleep for 30 seconds. The ability has a 45-second cooldown. Any damage done to the target will break the effect.
Intimidation commands your pet to stun the target for 3 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown.
While none of these talents will have any effect on your DPS, Binding Shot can bring some raid utility, as it can be used as a reliable stun for fights with adds. It can also be used as an interrupt, since placing it so that the add is at the edge of the targeted area will instantly stun it, regardless of whether or not it moves.
You should choose the talent that best suits your situation.
4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents↑top
Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between 3 means of improving your survivability.
Exhilaration is a self-heal that heals you for 30% of your maximum health, and your pet for 100% of its maximum health. It has a 2-minute cooldown.
Iron Hawk reduces all damage you take by 10%.
Spirit Bond causes you and your pet to regenerate 2% of your maximum health every 2 seconds, while your pet is active.
In our opinion, the choice for maximising your survivability will come down to either Exhilaration or Iron Hawk, but Iron Hawk takes the lead in most situations.
Iron Hawk provides you with a constant 10% damage reduction. This is a great asset, especially on fights where there are prolonged periods of intense raid damage. For progression raiding, this is undeniably the best choice.
Exhilaration gives you a great on-demand self-heal, which will undoubtedly save your life and help out your healers many times. Unfortunately, most deaths at this point of the game (progression-wise) come from burst damage, so damage reduction is always going to be better than reacting to the damage with a self-heal. Also, the fact that you have to actively use (and keybind) this spell is a further inconvenience, considering how many active abilities Hunters already have. Lastly, there is already something in the game which you can use to heal up instantly, namely Healthstone, so Exhilaration is really not needed.
Spirit Bond can be useful on fights where you are constantly taking damage (so that it does not overheal), but where the damage is too low for Iron Hawk to be efficient. In any case, we deem this talent to be lackluster in its current incarnation.
5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents↑top
Tier 4 talents offer you a choice between 3 talents that increase your DPS.
Steady Focus grants you a 50% increase in Focus regeneration for 10 seconds whenever you use two 
Cobra Shots in a row.
Dire Beast summons a beast to attack the target for 15 seconds. Each time the beast deals damage, you gain 2 Focus.
Thrill of the Hunt is a passive ability that gives you a 6% chance to trigger a special effect each time you spend 10 Focus. When this effect is triggered, your next 3 
Arcane Shots, 
Aimed Shots, or 
Multi-Shots cost 20 Focus less.
Currently, we recommend using Steady Focus in all situations. This is particularly valuable due to the extra Focus regeneration for your pet, which results in a sizable DPS increase (especially once you obtain the 
Talisman of the Master Tracker trinket).
Dire Beast is close in value, but it is still worse.
Thrill of the Hunt is currently not optimal in any situation.
6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents↑top
Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between 3 DPS cooldowns:
A Murder of Crows summons a flock of crows to attack your target for 15 seconds, with a 1-minute cooldown. If the target dies while under attack, the cooldown of A Murder of Crows is reset.
Blink Strikes grants your pet a passive ability, causing its Basic Attacks to deal 50% increased damage. Moreover, when Blink Strikes is taken, the pet uses its Basic Attacks from up to 30 yards away (with a minimum range of 10 yards) from the target, instantly teleporting behind the target. The teleportation effect has a 20-second internal cooldown.
Stampede summons all your pets to fight your current target for 40 seconds.
Stampede is the best choice in practically every situation. It is one of the most potent cooldowns in the game, and it is affected by Beast Mastery's Mastery, which increases pet damage. Blink Strikes, while still a good option, is simply inferior in terms of damage.
A Murder of Crows could be viably taken in cases where you can have its cooldown reset regularly, especially in Mythic mode where such techniques can come in handy. We will update this part of the guide once we know when exactly it is beneficial.
7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents↑top
Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between 3 DPS abilities.
Glaive Toss throws two glaives at a target ahead of you. The glaives deal damage to all enemies in their path towards the main target, and slow them by 30% for 3 seconds. The glaives then return to you, dealing damage and applying their slow on their way back. The main target takes 4 times the damage that secondary targets take.
Powershot is a powerful shot with a long cast time and a 45-second cooldown. It deals 450% weapon damage to the target, as well as 225% weapon damage to all enemies between you and the target.
Barrage is a channeled spell that fires a barrage of shots at the main target, dealing damage over 3 seconds (a total of 16 shots in quick succession), while also dealing damage to all other enemy targets in a cone in front you (a total of 8 shots in quick succession to each target). It does not hit targets that are invisible or in stealth.
Barrage is currently the best talent in this tier, both for single target and multiple target situations.
8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents↑top
Tier 7 talents offer you a choice of various means of enhancing your DPS performance.
Exotic Munitions allows you to modify your ranged weapon to passively have one of three effects. Each effect lasts for 1 hour, and only one can be active at any one time.
Incendiary Ammo causes your autoshots to deal additional Fire damage to all targets within 8 yards of your initial target.
Poisoned Ammo causes your autoshots to deal additional Nature damage over 16 seconds. When this effect is refreshed, the damage remaining on the existing DoT is added to the new one.
Frozen Ammo causes your autoshots to deal additional Frost damage and reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds.
Focusing Shot is an improvement over Cobra Shot, which it replaces. It has a longer cast time and cannot be used while moving, but it does vastly more damage, and generates considerably more Focus (14 for Cobra Shot and 50 for Focusing Shot).
Adaptation is a passive ability that increases the effect of your pet's Combat Experience to 70% increased damage, and also grants the pet a number of new abilities.
Spiked Collar passively increases the damage done by your pet's Basic Attacks by 10%, increases your pet's attack speed by 10%, and increases your pet's critical strike chance by 10%.
Roar of Sacrifice is an active ability with a 1-minute cooldown whereby your pet protects a targeted ally (yourself included) from critical strikes for 12 seconds, but redirecting 20% of the damage that that player takes over the same period of time to the pet.
Cornered is a passive ability that causes your pet to deal 50% more damage and be 60% less likely to receive a critical strike, whenever it is below 35% health.
Boar's Speed passively increases your pet's movement speed by 30%.
Last Stand is an active ability with a 6-minute cooldown, which increases your pet's maximum health by 30% for 20 seconds (and also grants the pet 30% of its health for the duration of the effect).
Blood of the Rhino passively increases all healing effects on your pet by 40%, increases your pet's armor by 20%, and reduces your pet's chance to be critically hit by melee attacks by 6%.
Great Stamina passively increases your pet's total health by 12%.
Currently, Adaptation is the best talent choice in this tier, in both single and multiple target situations. Adaptation simply adds more damage to your pet with its bonus than Focusing Shot and Exotic Munitions can give you. Against multiple targets, the Beast Mastery rotation is relatively low on Focus, and Focusing Shot becomes great for keeping up buffs like Beast Cleave, but in the current content tier there are no fights that really justify taking Focusing Shot.
9. Pet Talents↑top
Pets do not have talent trees. Instead, you can simply choose one of three specialisations for your pet (Ferocious Adaptation, Tenacious Adaptation, and Cunning Adaptation). You can change your pet's specialisation at any time (while out of combat), free of cost.
Each specialisation grants your pet a few specific abilities. Currently, Ferocious Adaptation provides the highest DPS in a raid environment, so it should be the default choice.
10. Major Glyphs↑top
There are several Major Glyphs that provide you with survival and utility improvements. You should choose these based on the encounter and based on your own personal needs.
- Glyph of Animal Bond increases the healing you and your pet receive by 10% while your pet is active. This is a valuable asset during raids, and this is the only practically mandatory glyph.
- Glyph of Deterrence increases the damage reduction offered by Deterrence by 20%. This glyph is very useful and should be taken in practically all situations
- Glyph of Disengage increases the distance you travel while disengaging. This glyph is very useful, but you must be aware that in some cases traveling farther when Disengaging might not be beneficial.
Glyph of Liberation heals you for 4% of your maximum health each time you use Disengage. While this glyph can be useful in some situations, keep in mind that it is exclusive with Glyph of Disengage.
Glyph of Distracting Shot sends the target of your Distracting Shot to attack your pet instead of you. The usefulness of this remains to be determined based on which bosses are susceptible to Distracting Shot.
Glyph of Mending causes 
Mend Pet to now tick every 1 second, and also increases the amount of healing by 25%. This can prove very useful for keeping your pet alive.
Glyph of Mirrored Blades causes all spells cast against you during Deterrence to be reflected back to the attacker, but it does not work against raid bosses. Also note that this glyph is exclusive with Glyph of Deterrence.
Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot removes the cooldown of Tranquilizing Shot, but causes the spell to cost 40 Focus. This could prove to be beneficial when it is important to use Tranquilizing Shot more often than every 10 seconds.
Finally, 
Glyph of Endless Wrath prevents your pet from being killed while Bestial Wrath is active. This glyph may come in handy in some situations.
11. Minor Glyphs↑top
Minor Glyphs do not provide any improvements to your performance, but there are a few that we believe are still worth mentioning.
Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah removes the dazing penalty when you are attacked while Aspect of the Cheetah is active. Instead, your Aspect is removed. This glyph can be very useful in a number of encounters, where you are able to benefit from the increased movement speed for extended periods of time (and it allows you to do so without the risk of being dazed).
Glyph of Aspect of the Pack increases the range of Aspect of the Pack by 15 yards, making it more convenient to use in raid groups.
Glyph of Fetch teaches you the Fetch ability, which allows you to have your pet retrieve the loot from a far-away corpse. This ability is excellent while questing or farming, significantly reducing the amount of time you spend running around to loot corpses.
Glyph of Play Dead causes your pet to also feign death when you do. This glyph is extremely useful.- Glyph of Lesser Proportion reduces the size of your pet, slightly. This can be useful in raids, so that other raid members (especially tanks and melee healers) can have a better view of the boss and the boss mechanics.
Glyph of Tame Beast reduces the cast time of Tame Beast by 4 seconds making it easier to tame some rare or damaging pets.