WoW Forever beta Hunter build for level 20: Beast Mastery with Deadly Aspects

Overview

Levels 10–20 · Beast Mastery Hunter, solo questing and grinding.

Guide sites put Hunter at the top of their leveling tier lists, and Icy Veins calls Beast Mastery “top-tier leveling”. Your pet tanks, pets now scale with your stats, and you shoot from safety. This build follows Icy Veins’ level 20 path. Deadly Aspects turns Aspect of the Hawk into your strongest combat buff. Pathfinding speeds up Aspect of the Cheetah while you travel without a mount. Focused Fire adds damage while your pet is out, and Improved Revive Pet cuts downtime when it dies. Written for the first beta phase: level cap 20, client build 1.60.1.69913. Talents and tuning will change before the level 30 phase and again before launch on November 4.

Why this build

• Your pet tanks. Most fights are you shooting while the pet holds the mob, so you rarely take damage.
• Pets scale with your stats in Forever, so upgrades for you are upgrades for the pet.
• Travel speed. Pathfinding makes Aspect of the Cheetah faster, and there are no mounts before level 40.

Weak spots

• Deadzone and pet management. Players still ask Blizzard to remove the minimum range deadzone.
• Ammo and pet food are extra upkeep that other classes do not have.
• Some testers found it slow. One player said Hunter felt as slow as Classic Era, while Paladin raced ahead.

Talent order by level

One point per level from level 10 to 20. The talent tree above shows the finished level 20 build; use the level slider to see it at any level.

• Levels 10–14 · Deadly Aspects 5/5 — Gives Aspect of the Hawk (and Aspect of the Beast in melee) a chance to proc a big attack speed buff. Your strongest combat talent at this level.
• Levels 15–16 · Pathfinding 2/2 — Faster Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack. Travel time is a large share of leveling without a mount.
• Levels 17–18 · Focused Fire 2/2 — +2% to all damage you deal while your pet is active, which for Beast Mastery is always.
• Levels 19–20 · Improved Revive Pet 2/2 — Faster, cheaper Revive Pet, and the pet returns with more health. Less downtime after a bad pull.

Key levels

• Level 10 · First point into Deadly Aspects, and keep Aspect of the Hawk up in every fight.
• Level 15 · Deadly Aspects is maxed, so take Pathfinding for faster travel.
• Level 20 · Focused Fire and Improved Revive Pet complete the build.

How to pull and kill

1. Send the pet first and let it build threat for a second or two.
2. Aspect of the Hawk in combat, Aspect of the Cheetah when traveling. Never fight in Cheetah.
3. Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot on the target, then Auto Shot while the pet tanks.
4. If a mob reaches you, step back and let the pet pull it off rather than meleeing in the deadzone.

Leveling tips

• Keep your pet fed and happy. A happy pet deals more damage.
• Buy ammo in bulk before long quest trips.
• Summon Hawk arrives at 25, after this phase. It becomes a core ability once the cap rises.
• Tauren and Human are the strong racial picks according to Icy Veins, but there are no weak choices.

After level 20

When the cap rises, continue with the Beast Mastery Hunter leveling guide. Summon Hawk at 25 is the big new ability.

Sources

The talent path and leveling advice adapt these Classic guides to the WoW Forever talent trees; talents that are new or changed in Forever are chosen from this site’s talent data.

• WoW Forever Builds: beta class report (level 20)
• Icy Veins: Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Guide - WoW Forever