TBC Classic Beast Mastery Hunter Guide (2024)

Last updated on May 06, 2022 at 02:47by Impakt25 comments

Welcome to our Beast Mastery Hunter guide for TBC Classic, tailoredfor PvE content. Here, you will learn how all you need to know to playBeast Mastery Hunter proficiently. Click the links below to navigate the guideor read this page for a short introduction.

Hunters are master marksmen and, with the help of afierce animal companion, can deal damage from range without ever letting theirtarget get close. With special tracking abilities, traps, and a wide range ofutility spells, Hunters are a great choice for anyone looking for a strong soloclass with incredible ranged damage and unique utility.

Beast Mastery Hunters specifically are absolute powerhouses in the BurningCrusade. While Hunters may have been off-meta and not sought after in Classic,that all changes in TBC - Hunters are one of the strongest DPS classes for theentire expansion, topping meters with incredible single-target damage output.This is because in TBC pets finally scale with your stats, enabling them to doreal damage at max level and scale with gear. In addition to tearing up themeters, Beast Mastery Hunters bring Ferocious Inspiration as anincredible party buff that is highly valued in both raids and dungeons.

If you would like to see where Beast Mastery Hunters fall in the overall rankingsamong DPS specs for both PvE and PvP in TBC Classic, we have created pagesdedicated to explaining what classes and specializations are the best of the bestthrough multiple factors. However, ultimately, you should not let these listsdissuade you from playing what you enjoy.

The best Horde Hunter race for both PvE and PvP is Orc

For Horde, the choice is no contest. Orc gives you 5% more pet damage fromCommand and Blood Fury as a nice DPS cooldown. Thiscombination is quite strong, and Orcs will be the best PvE race almost all ofthe time. Trolls are close in PvE, but in PvP Orc is dominant because ofHardiness. The stun resist is just too valuable in PvP to pass up.

• Beast Slaying gives a 5% damage bonus against Beasts.
• Berserking is a 3-minute cooldown that gives you between10-30% increased attack and casting speed depending on your health, with theeffect being greater the more hurt you are.
• Bow Specialization increases your crit chance by 1% when using a Bow.
• Throwing Specialization increases your crit chance by 1% when usinga thrown weapon.
• Regeneration gives +10% passive health regeneration andallows you to regenerate 10% of your total health regeneration during combat.

Trolls are a strong PvE choice, but ultimately are worse than Orcs.Berserking is a strong offensive cooldown, but requires you to useit after taking damage for optimal usage. When used optimally, this is actuallya very strong cooldown. Beast Slaying is powerful while leveling, but isonly useful for a handful of bosses in raids and dungeons.Bow Specialization is also quite strong, but only if you are using abow. Luckily, you will use a bow for a large portion of the time in TBC.Throwing Specialization and Regeneration are both ultimatelynegligible and should not influence your choice of race.

• Axe Specialization increases your expertise by 5 while wielding an Axe.
• Blood Fury is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your Attack Powerby 282 (at level 70) for 15 seconds, but also reduces healing effects on you by50% during that time.
• Command increases your pet damage dealt by 5%.
• Hardiness increases your chance to resist stuns by 15%.

Orc is the dominant race choice for both PvP and PvE as a Marksmanship Hunter.Hardiness is an incredibly powerful racial and can change theoutcome of any fight where you resist a stun, especially against Rogues.Command provides a strong damage bonus to your pet, which is what makesOrc so powerful in PvE with how strong pets are for Hunters in TBC.Blood Fury is also a great DPS cooldown now that the AP applies toranged attacks as well in TBC.

• Cultivation increases your Herbalism skill by 15.
• Endurance increases your total health by 5%.
• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• War Stomp is a 2-minute cooldown that stuns up to 5 enemieswithin 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5 second cast time.

War Stomp can be a great ability for PvP and the 5% increasedhealth from Endurance is nice, but Tauren does not give anydamage increase. War Stomp is also only situationally useful, as it requiresyou to be close to your target, which only really happens when you have amelee target chasing you. Tauren is the weakest choice for PvE and onlysituationally good in PvP.

The best Hunter Alliance race is ultimately a personal choice for PvE. ForPvP, Dwarf is going to be the best race.

For PvE, Draenai will be the best choice early on because ofHeroic Presence. This is incredibly useful in getting the hit cap early,and is even a party-wide aura. However, this just means that each group in araid only needs one Draenei for the entire group to benefit from the aura. AllShamans will be Draenei for the Alliance, so they usually have that covered. Ifyou did want to play a Draenei Hunter to be useful, that also means you wouldneed to level from Level 1 - you cannot use a 58 boost on Draenei characters.However, Night Elf and Dwarf offer no meaningful PvE benefits other than NightElf having a slightly higher base Agility, so if you did want to make theinvestment, you could.

For PvP, the choice is much easier. Dwarf is the best PvP raceentirely because of Stoneform. Stoneform is specifically valuable inarenas, where it is an incredible defensive cooldown against Rogues and Warriors.The other races do not bring anything as valuable for arenas, but if you aremore interested in battlegrounds and open-world PvP, Night Elf is also anexcellent choice because of Shadowmeld.

• Nature Resistance increases your Nature Resistance by 10.
• Quickness increases your Dodge Chance by 1%.
• Shadowmeld is an ability that allows you to become stealthedwhile standing still when used, on a 10-second cooldown. This cannot be used incombat.
• Wisp Spirit causes you to transform into a wisp upon death,increasing your movement speed by 50% while dead.

Shadowmeld is a powerful ability for PvP which allows you tostealth in a single spot, potentially giving you the opener if you can positionyourself carefully. It is also very useful while leveling because you can macroShadowmeld together with your food and water to eat and drink while stealthed,reducing the chance that something will catch you off guard.Quickness is also useful in PvP when fighting melee. Night Elfis technically superior to Dwarf for damage, but only because of their higherbase Agility, meaning the difference is marginal.

• Find Treasure allows you to sense nearby treasure (chestsmainly), making it appear on the minimap.
• Frost Resistance increases your Frost Resistance by 10.
• Gun Specialization increases your crit change by 1% while using a Gun.
• Stoneform makes you immune to all bleed, poison, and diseaseeffects, as well as increasing your armour for 8 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown.

Gun Specialization would be strong, but unfortunately Hunters almostnever use guns throughout TBC. In PvE, the best weapons are almost exclusivelybows and crossbows all the way through the expansion. Stoneform is avery powerful ability for PvP and can give you the edge when fighting Warriorsand Rogues, as you can immune their bleeds and poisons.

• Gemcutting increases your Jewelcrafting skill by 5.
• Shadow Resistance increases your Shadow Resistance by 10.
• Gift of the Naaru is a scaling heal that will heal your target overthe course of 15 seconds.
• Heroic Presence increases the hit chance for everyone in your partywithin 30 yards by 1%

Hunters do lack self-healing in combat, so Gift of the Naaru can bequite nice to have, especially in PvP. For PvE, Heroic Presence is anexcellent party buff that is incredibly strong early on for every group to have.However, only one person in the group needs to be a Draenei for everyone tobenefit - this does not stack.

Leatherworking is far and away the best profession in TBC as aHunter. This is primarily because of Drums of Battle and Greater Drums of Battle, but also because of the crafted gear early on.Specifically, the Primalstrike crafted leather set gives you 3 pre-raid BiSpieces early on, as well several other near-BiS options. No other professionoffers even close to this level of benefit for a raid group.

The second best profession to have as a Hunter is Engineering.It provides powerful items that you can use in both PvE and PvP content to eitherdeal damage or help you get out of a tough spot.

If you do not want to pick up Engineering though, I would highly recommend picking upSkinning. Skinning will be extremely valuable to start out with, specificallyfor leveling up your Leatherworking and crafting your 70 gear.

If you would like to learn more about how your profession of choice can beused to supplement your goldmaking, along with a variety of other means tobolster your income, see our full goldmaking guide linked below: