Best Beast Mastery Hunter Talent Tree Builds - Midnight

By Tarlo Updated: 2026/03/23

Beast Mastery Hunter Talent Import CodesCurrent Recommendations

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Solitary Companion is not a viable choice in any build for competitive purposes. You lose roughly 10% of your damage by picking it over Animal Companion.

Best Beast Mastery Hunter Raid Talent Build

These builds are first and foremost focused on single-target, except for the Council encounter build. As raids generally have fewer applications for a lot of utility compared to Mythic+ or delves, you can afford to pick all of your defensive options and all of your movement options.

This build should be picked when you want to do the maximum amount of single-target damage possible in raid. You should generally pick between this and the Light Cleave build for most encounters.

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Further Details

You have the option of picking Roar of Sacrifice over Guardian's Hide and picking up Misdirection and No Hard Feelings over Improved Feign Death. This allows you to get a small external over a personal damage reduction. You should macro together Roar of Sacrifice and Misdirection if you do this to reduce the damage your pet takes and allow Roar to last longer. You can find the macro on the UI & Macros page.
Tranquilizing Shot is a recommended pickup for the Midnight Falls encounter on heroic difficulty, but not anywhere else.
The choice nodes below Binding Shot and Intimidation are options if you need additional crowd control for a specific encounter.

This build abuses Laceration combined with Dire Beast to generate a lot of Dark Hounds for encounters with some adds but still relevant boss damage. It plays for this. This is also the stronger single-target build for , but performs worse than in pure single-target.

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Further Details

You have the option of picking Roar of Sacrifice over Guardian's Hide and picking up Misdirection and No Hard Feelings over Improved Feign Death. This allows you to get a small external over a personal damage reduction. You should macro together Roar of Sacrifice and Misdirection if you do this to reduce the damage your pet takes and allow Roar to last longer. You can find the macro on the UI & Macros page.
Tranquilizing Shot is a recommended pickup for the Midnight Falls encounter on heroic difficulty, but not anywhere else.
The choice nodes below Binding Shot and Intimidation are options if you need additional crowd control for a specific encounter.

This build is for when you want to do as much AoE damage as possible in raid. This is primarily for the Lightblinded Vanguard Encounter. It sacrifices further single-target damage for the remainder of your AoE talents.

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Further Details

You have the option of picking Roar of Sacrifice over Guardian's Hide and picking up Misdirection and No Hard Feelings over Improved Feign Death. This allows you to get a small external over a personal damage reduction. You should macro together Roar of Sacrifice and Misdirection if you do this to reduce the damage your pet takes and allow Roar to last longer. You can find the macro on the UI & Macros page.

Best Beast Mastery Hunter Mythic+ Talent Build

Mythic+ builds are generally looking at a mix of single-target, cleave and priority for the purposes of efficiently clearing the dungeon as quickly as possible. Compared to raid builds, you are looking for more crowd control and utility such as Tranquilizing Shot in your class tree. This means that you can't pick everything, and you will have to make a few sacrifices in terms of utility, which you can adjust on a per-dungeon basis. See Further Details under the build for other talent choices.

in Mythic+ aims to summon as many Dark Hounds as possible for maximum cleave. It has the overall strongest profile for Mythic+ with strong cleave, funnel and defensives.

In this generic build, utility talents are chosen to provide the best overall package, but a few choices, such as Emergency Salve, are not useful in every dungeon, so you should ideally be looking to swap them based on the dungeon. Please see the Further Details section below.

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Further Details

Misdirection is generally not recommended on its own as 65% of your damage comes from pets, whose damage is not redirected.
Emergency Salve is primarily useful in Maisara Caverns and Windrunner Spire. Outside of these two dungeons, it can be dropped.
Binding Shot is not a mandatory pick up by any means, as you do not have an easy way of activating it anymore. Scout's Instincts is mostly a useless talent as well, so this allows you to free up two talent points.
Tar-Coated Bindings and Horsehair Tether are both decent ways of strengthening Binding Shot.
Kodo Tranquilizer can be swapped for Devilsaur Tranquilizer in some dungeons, or dropped entirely if neither option is appealing.
Pathfinding can be swapped for Trailblazer or Catlike Reflexes for a different movement option option.
Improved Feign Death is very decent this season given the plethora of channeled casts. Pick it up if you expect to use it a lot.

Best Beast Mastery Hunter Delve Talent Build

Delves and solo content generally contain shorter encounters where a lot more pressure is put on your pet to survive. The utility talent picks lean further into personal maneuverability and pet survivability.

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Utility choices for this build are generally very flexible, as solo content allows for more personal expression in terms of how you approach each encounter. We therefore recommend you experiment a bit with choices and adjust them to your own playstyle. This build should offer a solid starting point.

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Beast Mastery Hunter Leveling Builds

If you're searching for advice on both the best talents to pick while leveling and the optimal order in which to take them, our leveling tips page has got you covered. There, you will find information about different leveling talent builds, the recommended order in which to pick them, and information about your spec's rotation and cooldowns.

Beast Mastery Hunter Leveling Tips

Our Beast Mastery Hunter guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs. Make sure to check our changelog for this page by clicking on View Changelog in the Quick Facts column or on the book icon at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Beast Mastery Hunter guides for , make sure to browse the Navigation Bar at the top of the page, along with our list of Related Guides just beneath the Table of Contents.

Tags: PvE

Comments

Comment by Zoeila

Killer instinct is WAY over rated here. with animal companion your kill command basically does 120% of normal damage ALL the time reguardless of mob health plus there's chances for crit's on both pets. it seems like it's a widely misunderstood talent

Comment by SomeoneSneaky

Did Scent of Blood change? I was double-checking the build I've been using throughout BFA, and realized the Scent of Blood I have says 'Barbed Shot generates 8 additional focus over its duration', compared to this version, where Bestial Wrath grans 2 additional Barbed Shots. If this is posted in preparation of Shadowlands, what about now, when it's still not out?

Comment by ginkeltjes

So why is the talent build using Trailblazer for the Single target and AOE build? Thats so useless, it even states so below

This talent has very limited usefulness in max level content. It's nice to have when farming old raids or any time you're doing a lot of running without attacking.

Comment by Psychorealm

The pets guide is outdated, spirit beast no longer have offensive dispell.

Comment by Merrykig

for the "ferocity pets" recommendations just under the talents, Core hounds are also an option other than Rays/bats for primal rage :) as I much enjoy having my big white 2 headed hound from Azuremyst Isle!

Comment by micaello

Bloodshed does NOT interact properly with Animal Companion as per 17th January 2021 :/, so this guide is a bit misleading.

Comment by Coffinboffin

Erm, in the single target dps raiding tree, you've picked Dire Frenzy, which buffs Dire Beast, but you haven't picked Dire Beast... You've even gone so far as to explain why you've picked the Dire Beast buff talents and why you haven't picked Dire Beast. What gives? lol

Comment by Jaiie

Based on experience in beta and now confirmed by current sims, sharp barbs is a weaker talent than Dire Beast. It's just a 1:1 swap on points vs what you have in your Raiding Single-Target Talent Build. And it's showing about a 120 dps improvement vs the sharp barbs. Largely this is for a couple reasons: 1.) They nerfed the crap out of barbed shot. 2.) They buffed the crap into Dire Beast. But, even if you ignore the damage of Dire Beast (which I do), the 5% haste buff for 8 seconds out of every 20 is a good thing.

Realistically, though, this build only works in Patchwerk style fights which don't occur frequently. It's worth having a single target build, I suppose, even if it is infrequent in usage.

Comment by Nevada

Stomp should NEVER be used, If there is a nearby enemy in a Freezing Trap, Stomp will free it. If there are neutral creatures Stomp will pull them into battle against you.

Comment by corvenos

i heard the talent animal command reduces your pets dmg by more then 50% is it true and if so is it still worth getting?

Comment by Lomack

Just wanted to comment to say thanks for the Leveling Talent Build. It is a nice starter template for deciding what to pick for leveling in the next expansion. Very few other class/spec talent builds offer this perspective.

Comment by Whiterhino

Would it be more worthwhile in the single target build to take the 2 points from stomp and put those into the last sharp barbes and cobra senses? Or even wailing arrow or dire beast? Stomp just doesn't do a lot of damage for me

Comment by Mixine

One question for author why u not suggesting MD to be used in M+ build? Md is not just for others useful it is also for aoe dps save your pets to die. I had chance in DF got pets to die in aoe fights.
" I also sometimes dabble in Mythic+" Ok now I get it u don't even do M+ so that guide is just guessing xDD

Comment by Arcaila

Which build would you recommend for regular dungeons and maybe an LFR, but mostly casual?

Comment by Chaindog

DF 10.0.7 guide version

@Tarlo #Tarlo I'm curious why the Hybrid Build doesn't use Dire Beast even though you've included x3 Dire Command (with 30% chance to proc x1 Dire Beast from Kill Command), 2x Dire Frenzy (with +2 secs and +60% dmg of Dire Beast), and x1 Dire Pack (which requires x5 Dire Beasts to proc). All three of which call on Dire Beast for additional goodness.

That is x6 talents used for a 30% chance for all 5 sub-talents to be used. Or is it because that 30% is dependent on Kill Command, which has a faster CD than the 20 seconds that Dire Beast's CD requires? (Kill Command is 6.3 secs and 50 yrd range vs Dire Beast's 20 secs and 40 yrd range.)

So in 1 minute if Kill Command procs 1x that chain of talents may activate. Though the 3x/min actual activation of Dire Beast would activate that chain 3x leading to the 5 stacks required for Dire Pack's massive goodness to reset Kill Command (+save Focus, and +50% CD on it). Thoughts?

Comment by Voxxel

Mythic+
Raid ST
Raid MT
Raid Mixed

Would love an Alt-friendly build, I mean a build for open world questing, farming stuff, killing 2-minutes rare elites, etc.

Comment by Troelsy

Says updated for 10.2 but none of the BM trees have used all 30 points. Worst is the single target raid build, where only 28 points are spent. I thought I would give it a quick look before servers went down to see where I should spend my extra points from the 2 3 point nodes before servers get back up. But nope.

Comment by Khorrin

I dunno if you even considered this, but your Raid AOE and your Raid Bloody Frenzy build is EXACTLY THE SAME... there is no difference at all.

Comment by Cimegs5088

Hmm so we're not picking up Call of the Wild for aoe anymore?

Comment by biggiy05

Do we no longer have a dedicated M+ build? I'm still trying to read through everything because honestly, there is far too much bloat in this guide and a lot of repetition that has builds and their options looking identical at first glance and even after the 2nd and 3rd. I don't know what the "default setup" is for M+ because there's nothing to indicate a build is for M+. It's more raiding than anything.

Comment by mallust

Funny they gave us barrage and we dont even use it as BM lol.

Comment by Panjja

Just curious, why we take Venom's bite but not Hunter's Prey, pretty useless without Hunter's prey, or am I missing something?

Comment by Juusanban

I get very confused by some of the advise here.
In the Priority Damage AoE Build I can take Aspect of the Beast instead of Bloodshed.
But you haven't choosen Bloodshed?

Comment by pjay

Is it just me? keep getting error messages when trying to import, addons off still error messages

Import string is corrupt, node type mismatch at nodeID 102339. First option will be selected.
Import string is corrupt, node type mismatch at nodeID 102366. First option will be selected.
Import string is corrupt, node type mismatch at nodeID 102415. First option will be selected.
Import string is corrupt, node type mismatch at nodeID 102421. First option will be selected.

Comment by Alreadyded

Nice talents

Comment by BlackClover

Can you please fix the missing talents for beast master thank you !

Comment by piediddly

For the BM talent builds, they are not showing up with all the talents chosen, so it's not very useful for importing in-game. In the Survival builds, the first one doesn't even show up at all for me. MM seems to working as intended for ease of importation. Also, does BM not have a dedicated Mythic+ build anymore? Guess for the time being I'll be sticking to MM.

Comment by dillybar

AGAIN, as many people have agreed with, STOP doing changelogs and start doing new guides for each expansion. That's a courteous way of doing things.

Comment by lovelywaz

My question is what exactly is the purpose of Changelog when it doesn't actually "logs" what was changed? There have been multiple changes made in last few days alone but no mention of WHAT changed. Was it talent points? Because if that's the case then we need to import new strings. Even if it was correcting some spellings/grammar errors, it should be mentioned in the "Changelog". It's not a log when there's nothing logged, is it?

Comment by lovelywaz

Sharing a WA for A Murder of Crows proc. https://wago.io/8_FDgnjDH

Comment by SteampunkBATz

What's the difference between high explosive trap and implosive trap, they read the same.

Comment by lovelywaz

If anyone, like me, is having hard time to keep up multiple DoTs to gain the most benefit from "Priority Target AoE Build" with Basilisk Collar at least in M+ runs, I switched to good old Bloody Frenzy and at least for me it's been working great. I am talking about mid high keys, 15s. Here's the build string I started using.

C0PAFBU0uAhOaNI6RqWjIx917BAAAAAAAAAAAgBAAAAAAwMz2MPwYmBmZGDzYmhZMmZmJzwYmxMzYmxMMGzMDjZYMD2A

This also keeps Kill Cleave up during AoE burst AND keeps Kill Command off CD too, without trying to juggle between Cobra Shot to reset KC CD while also using Multi Shot to keep up BC during BW AoE time, not to mention all the multi DoTs and target switching, ALL of that goes away with this build. It's obviously not as great on ST boss but at least in 15s this week with Tyranical, I was still doing good enough damage to keep up with others.

Have fun during this odd Pre Patch time, maybe the above mentioned builds in the guide will do better at 80 with hero talents and secondary stats squish with new xpac and lower gear, but for now I simply couldn't enjoy playing with those builds.

Comment by Mixine

Please fix talent builds and links all is broken looks like this heading=false] and copy talents in game shows error.

Comment by Daisaigo

thanks for fixing the talent trees!

Comment by sinestra139

Can someone explain what is the point of taking Venom's Bite without also taking Hunter's Prey? Is there any point in putting an 18 sec DOT on something with less than 20% health? Ok, maybe on boss fights, but how helpful is this in M+. With Hunter's Prey there is a chance for your Kill Shot to proc at above 20% health putting the DOT on the mob at an earlier stage of the fight, so it makes more sense to use Venom's Bite then. Is it due to the interaction with Basilisk Collar where another DOT will increase that damage?

Comment by cwwood0322

Not too crazy about the only option for raid is through the Dark Ranger tree, a build I will refuse to play! There should be a build for the Pack Leader side of the hero talents for raids! One reason I don't like the dark ranger side is one reason Sylvanas!

Comment by datgrl

What is the advantage of spec-ing into DR Shadow Surge if you don't take the Multi-shot talent?

Comment by Dykarius

Can someone explain me point of having the DISSIMULATION skill for the Generalist AoE Mythic+ build ? I don't see the point ?

Comment by Meilao

I am curious why are we running with no multi-shot talent in raid encounters when one of our dark ranger hero talents (shadow surge) focuses on that?

Comment by Nevada

I'm a PvE player. Stomp is not only worthless to me, but it can get me killed. When I use my Barb Shot, my pets do a Stomp, and all the near by neutral beast mob me. I hate to give up using Barb Shot. I finally gave up Stomp and Barrage and added almost useless Multi-Shot. Both Icy and Wowhead see no value in Barrage.

Comment by DigitalDecaf

How do you not take Barbed scales with a 6 second difference between barbed shot duration and cooldown, when frenzy uptime is the most important aspect of our dps profile?

Comment by DigitalDecaf

"The builds are very slightly different due to minor differences in the specs, such as Pack Leader wanting Brutal Companion due to talents relating to Basic pet attacks." ---> Proceeds to not take the talent in the build ::kappa::

Comment by Fahrenheit285

I will never understand why you leave out Aspect of the Beast when it is better than Piercing Fangs in literally any situation

Comment by FLambda

Can you change the builds to use the same template that almost every other build page uses, with visible tree names, like here? It didn't used to be as important, but now it's very important to show the name of the Hero Spec used.

Comment by HushGlowie

Where's all the PvP talent builds? Went to the PvP specific page and it said it's outdated and to come here, but there's no PvP builds at all.

Comment by karaste

All the build links in the summary section at the top are for Frost DK...

Comment by biggiy05

No dark ranger build for s2?

Edit: I stand corrected. The sims for dark ranger are.....painful.

Comment by byne

How much of a dps loss is solitary companion?

Comment by Headaches

How are all the Dire Beast talents taken but not Dire Beast itself? I am so confused. Is it just that we get 12second of Dire Beast instead of 10 seconds from the summoned Dire Beast?

Comment by r1dd3l

guide is not updated? no cd build sims a lot lower than the build from icyveins

suspicious energy drink sims higher than signer is it only for me or not

also i seen the cd build being played atm and listed as top on archon.gg thoughts ?

Comment by DestinyXVI

top notch! thank you

Comment by Groovinglen

In the single target build, why is there two points in Dire Frenzy which buffs the damage of Dire Beast if we aren't playing Dire Beast? Wouldn't those be better spent elsewhere?

Comment by Sinister79X

In your AOE Mythic + build you have 2 points spent in Dire Frenzy but no points towards Dire Beast. Is there a reason for this? Im not sure if it makes any sense to have 2 allocated points in something thats inactive.

Comment by cethlol

FYI: Delves Code doesn't work

Comment by EpochDarkleaf

I don't like it, 3 less abilities, Bloodshed and Call of the Wild out and Barrage removed completely, i don't even care if the damage is better i liked how I played my Hunter. I'm so bummed right now.

Comment by Dangerbook

well, I'd love to see a build that used tar trap - but since none of them do, why is entrapment even mentioned in the notes?

Comment by lovelywaz

Seeing how new "AOE" build for TWW S3 has suddenly lost some VERY useful utilities, this is the one I am currently using.

C0PA11Mk8aZ38kAf+zso3nZ9IAMmxwCZDmRDNsBAAAAAgxMm5BsMzMMzYwyMmZGjZmZyMmxMmZGmZMDjxMGmtBbLzgNAAAAAAYGA

It drops, somewhat useless Misdirection (not sure WHY it's in the build now), and also two others not useful (in my opinion) points spent in Tar-Coated Bindings and Binding Shackles.

What it gives me, doing mid keys 10-15 range in pugs, is Emergency Salve VERY useful, and Trailblazer which is always handy to have when you are on a timer! Last point is to spend on 3rd Row and pick either Devilsaur Tranquilizer or Kodo Tranquilizer.

I am still trying to work out, what to drop to pick up Tar Trap but that seems to be a tough option. Could skip Trailblazer to pick up Tar Trap at least in outdoor dungeons but any indoor dungeons where Mounts aren't allowed, having that movement speed boost is extremely useful.

Comment by DestinyXVI

Hey everyone!

On the next patch there will be a significant buff on the Dark Ranger BM hunter. Will we have any updates on that? Like updated trees etc?

Comment by Nocturnalia

Listen, I'm the first to admit I've got that brain thing, but it seems that you're advocating for a DR Single Target build, but the ST build listed here is clearly utilizing PL. Error? Please fix?

Comment by Locknut

My level 690 BM Hunter simmed out at 500,000+ higher DPS with Pack Leader rather than Dark Ranger following the updates in 11.2. SIM your character, not all are the same.

Comment by codeshark

I am confused, the talent tree does not match my current talent tree... Need your help please...

Comment by smoere

why are the specs already switched to 12.0 if the guide is supposedly for 11.2.7?

Comment by mtmf

Why are all pack hunter builds recommending Masterful Call? Are we supposed to be running cunning pets now? That doesn't look like a good recommendation since you will more often be using a ferocity pet for lust.

Comment by diablowow

Meanwhile every single delver is going Pack leader, then right hand of the tree to get pack tactics for the focus and then dumping everything else in the left hand side of the tree, (and pack leader, you don't need disengage in a delve when they've forced you to shorted feign death's time) you have to sacrifice the extra 10% in killer instinct but you more than make up for it as It's not only the absolute definition of face melting in a T11, but also incredibly satisfying to play. It's simply a rotation that works rather than what they've done with say, ret pally which feels even more like whack-a-button with this patch. It's the absolute control and lack of procs that does it. Not saying it's the best ever build for raiding but my god is it amazing to be able to let your pet charge on ahead doing insane threat generation and AOEing packs of elites to dust in seconds while you charge up your beastial wraths and kill commands.

Comment by lordluthar

Well, thank you Blizzard for #$%^& up Hunters. Half my bars are empty now because I've lost abilities. I can't even kite decently any longer as Beast Master without Multi-shot.

Blizzard has F'd up hunters so bad, Noxxic can't event run Sims for Hunters due to the instability.

Comment by EpochDarkleaf

So the Recommended Pack Leader build doesn't have dire beasts but the Dark Ranger does? How backward is that, if I'm a "pack leader" I want to see my pets, I have the glyph to do so. I was upset when Barrage was taken away now I'm really upset and now bored with combat.

Comment by elbardo

Could you stop recommending feign death cooldown reduction specially when you don't take the talent that makes it remove poisons and diseases?

Best Beast Mastery Hunter Talent Tree Builds - Midnight

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