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BEAST MASTERY HUNTER ADVANCED TIPS

BESTIAL WRATH

In this next part of our Beastmastery Hunter course, we're going to be diving deeper into each and every one of your cooldowns. We're going to go over what each one of them does, when to use them, and cover any key goals, plus a few tips and tricks on how to maximize their use.

And we're going to start off with Beastial Wrath. Beastial Wrath has been a cornerstone of the Beastmastery Hunter's toolkit for over a decade.

This ability, while it is straightforward, is incredibly impactful. It comes with a 1.5 minute cooldown, and it boosts the damage dealt by both you and your pet by 25% for 15 seconds.

Now what makes it even better is that it removes all crowd control effects from your pet. This detail might seem minor, but it can actually have a significant impact on the matchup.

Now we're going to dive deeper into why this particular aspect is so significant in just a moment. But for now, with a baseline cooldown of 1.5 minutes, Beastial Wrath might seem like a little bit more than just a 1.5 minute cooldown.

It's a lengthy ability to wait for, especially since we can trap every 25 seconds. However, the Barbed Wrath talent reduces the cooldown of Beastial Wrath by 12 seconds each time you use Barbed Shot.

This talent ensures you can maximize the uptime of Beastial Wrath. Now you might be wondering, when is the best time to use Beastial Wrath?

Well, the answer really depends on the situation. So let's break it down with an example.

In this clip, the Hunter finds themselves in a full kidney shot. Now toward the end of that stun, they activate Beastial Wrath.

At first glance, you might wonder why they would ever use an offensive cooldown while they're in CC. But look closely here at what's happening in the background.

The Shadow Priest has feared the pets. Here's where that tidbit about Beastial Wrath breaking your pet out of crowd control comes into play.

Once the pet's freed from CC, the Hunter immediately follows up with a Roar of Sacrifice. If you need to peel a setup using Roar of Sacrifice, or perhaps need to use Master's Call to free your healer from a root, Beastial Wrath can be valuable even while you're in crowd control.

Now that said, it doesn't mean you should always hold Beastial Wrath for this purpose. It's entirely situational.

If the opportunity arises, and it's available, then you should use it. The second situation for using Beastial Wrath is a lot more straightforward.

Whenever you successfully land a trap on the healer, this should be your cue to pop Beastial Wrath, so that you can maximize your damage during the crowd control window. So let's take a look at this clip here.

The Hunter lands a full hit on Beastial Wrath, and then uses the Roar of Sacrifice to free the pet out of crowd control. So let's take a look at this clip here.

The Hunter lands a full trap on the Paladin healer, and activates Beastial Wrath a few seconds later alongside with other cooldowns. The match has only been about 15 seconds, yet the Hunter has already used their major cooldown.

Why did they use Beastial Wrath so dang early? Well, the answer lies in the cooldown reduction that's provided by Barbed Wrath.

The goal is to use Beastial Wrath as soon as possible in the matchup, ensuring you can fit as many casts of it as possible. One of the most common mistakes Hunters make with Beastial Wrath, is holding onto the cooldown for too long.

When Beastial Wrath is available, the rule is simple. Use it.

This ability is primarily an offensive tool. While there definitely are occasional niche situations where you can squeeze out extra value, like breaking your pet out of crowd control, it's important to remember that Beastial Wrath is not a defensive cooldown.

Your goal is to cast Beastial Wrath as often as possible to maximize your damage output throughout the match. Don't overthink, and don't hesitate.

Get the cooldown rolling.

CALL OF THE WILD

Welcome back to another installment on our Beastmastery Hunter damage course. In this video we're going to be continuing to break down our offensive cooldowns with Call of the Wild, providing with a comprehensive breakdown on how this ability works and the rules behind using it.

Call of the Wild is a 2 minute cooldown exclusive to Beastmastery Hunter's reminiscent of the old Stampede ability. When it's activated, Call of the Wild summons a random pet from your stable every 4 seconds for 6 seconds.

Beyond the horde of pets, Call of the Wild reduces the cooldown of Barbed Shot and Kill Command by 50% each time a new pet is summoned. This effect allows you to use far more Kill Commands during this window.

What this does is it makes Call of the Wild the most powerful cooldown in your arsenal and the best part, it doesn't require any changes to your rotation. Just activate it and let your pets do the rest.

Call of the Wild directly interacts with only a single talent, Blood Frenzy. With the Blood Frenzy talent, your pets gain Beast Cleave for the duration of Call of the Wild, enabling them to cleave nearby enemies with their attacks.

Additionally, every time a new pet is summoned during Call of the Wild, all active pets cast a Stomp. This talent perfectly aligns with the Set It and Forget It philosophy of Call of the Wild.

You don't need to adjust your playstyle or go out of your way to trigger its effects. Just activate Call of the Wild, and you're good to go.

Using Call of the Wild is pretty straightforward. Once you have your damage rolling and crowd control is on the healer, you can push Call of the Wild.

In this clip, the hunter lands a scatter shot on the Shaman and then activates Call of the Wild. However, notice their timing when they use the cooldown.

They wait for the Earthen Wall totem to expire before casting Call of the Wild. This is important because Call of the Wild isn't instant damage, it's a powerful DPS boost that ramps over time.

If you use it into defensive abilities, you're going to drastically reduce its effectiveness. In the middle of a match, it can be tricky to decide when to use Call of the Wild, but here's the simple answer.

Don't overthink it. When Call of the Wild is off cooldown, you'll want to use it.

This is especially true in deep dampening, as we see here in this clip. The hunter wastes no time activating Call of the Wild just seconds after it becomes available.

With the massive DPS boost it provides, there is no reason, no reason at all, to hold it, especially when healers will struggle to deal with the damage and the dampening.

KEEP YOUR PET IN THE FIGHT

Ever notice how the best Beastmastery Hunters always seem to have a frame for their pet's health? Well, that's because nothing is more frustrating than losing your pet in the middle of a fight.

As a Beastmastery Hunter, your pet is essential, as you kinda can't do anything without it. So before you consider rage quitting the arena after being CC'd for the umpteenth time during your revived pet cast, let us share some tips and tricks to help you keep your pet alive and in the fight.

So when facing a team with heavy cleave or rot damage, consistently using Min Pet throughout the match is going to be important. Min Pet is often overlooked by newer Hunters who might assume that their healer is going to take care of their pet.

Now while some healers might toss a heal your pet's way, they're likely never going to prioritize it. Taking just a moment to use Min Pet yourself can make all the difference in helping to keep your pet alive and in the fight.

But that's not all. While a dead pet is obviously going to be a good choice for your pet, you can also use Min Pet to keep your pet alive and in the fight.

Now while this is obviously a problem, a rooted pet isn't much better. You can spam kill command all day, but if your pet is rooted, they will not be able to do anything.

If you're up against classes with dispellable roots like Mages or like Shamans, consider grabbing the Wilderness Medicine talent. With this talent, every time Min Pet ticks, there's a 25% chance to dispel a magical effect on your pet.

Now if you're reeling in a pinch, Exhilaration can provide your pet with a full heal. This is a lifesaver if you're a Min Pet user.

But at this point, you'll still need to use Min Pet to trump off preventative passage wars, because it'll leave your Alan Nickiy and power greed unvadowed by the tegoid Threstabor Blues.

Now while you can usually prevent these situations with Min Pet, if they're focusing your pet when it's already low, sometimes Exhilaration is your only option to keep him alive. The Smokescreen talent has an interesting interaction with our pet.

By activating Survival of the Fittest , you can trigger Exhilaration , even though the heal on yourself is only 50% effective. However, trading your primary defensive cooldown solely to heal your pet can be a little bit risky, especially if you're the kill target.

This works best when you're paired with another caster, such as a mage or a warlock, as it's going to be less likely that the enemy team will swap their focus to you, but really any time you are not the kill target is a good time to use Survival of the Fittest for a pet heal.

CHOOSE YOUR STARTER

Ferocity, Tenacity, Cunning. What do these even mean?

Well, these are the three types of pets you can choose from, and you're likely going to switch between them depending on the matchup and, well, maybe your personal preferences. So let's give you a quick rundown of when to use each type of pet.

Ferocity isn't a type of pet you're typically going to be using during the match, but there is a neat little trick to them. If you activate your Ferocity pet's Bloodlust, Primal Rage, right before the gates open, you're going to start the game with this buff.

It's not game-winning, but it can give you a nice boost to the opener. Now, knowing that, the real question is Cunning versus Tenacity.

Cunning gives you Master's Call, which is a freedom ability on a 45-second cooldown, while Tenacity offers Fortitude of the Bear, which is like Desperate Prayer on a two-minute cooldown, giving you 20% increased health and healing you for 20%.

Cunning is fantastic against melee cleaves, where you're constantly on the move and need to be able to use your skills to get the best out of the game. It can also be helpful against balanced druids, allowing you to get your healer out of root beam.

Tenacity is definitely a strong choice against classes that are trying to burst you down in a setup, where an additional defensive cooldown can make a difference. If you're facing comps like Rogue Mage, Jungle, or really any other setup comp that relies on big burst setups, then Tenacity is a solid pick.

Now, that doesn't mean you have to take Tenacity, but it can be incredibly useful if you're struggling to rotate your cooldowns.

TRAP LIKE A PRO

We get it, landing traps can be tough, but don't worry, we got some tips you can use to make it easier. As you probably know, landing traps is crucial to your win condition, and without them, you lack strong crowd control to close out the game.

Everyone knows the typical intimidation into trap, but did you know that you can use binding shot paired with high explosive trap? This is going to trigger the binding shot and stun the healer, allowing you to get a trap.

Now, any knockback effect will work for this. If you're playing with a druid, you can have them typhoon or even a mage can blast wave for you.

Really, our goal is to use binding shot as another way to stun the healer for a trap since intimidation isn't available for every trap. You can also use tar trap to root the healer to land your freezing trap, but do be careful when trapping off a root.

The healer might try to immune the trap with abilities like phase shift or dispel themselves out of the root and run away. If you want to trap off a root, it's best to do so when you're standing right at the top of the healer rather than trying to trap from max range.

This gives you a better chance of landing the trap successfully. There is one more trick up your sleeve here, scatter shot.

Now you might think, why would I even DR my trap? Well, sometimes the game winning play is right in front of you.

However, all your stuns and roots are on cooldown. So what do you do?

Go for a scatter shot into a trap. It's not ideal, but in those clutch moments, it could be exactly what you need to close out the game.

PERFECT YOUR BARBED SHOT TIMING

Listen, Barbshot might seem straightforward at first. It applies a dot to the target and buffs your pet for 12 seconds.

Simple, right? So what's there to perfect?

But wait, what's that? An 18 second recharge time?

Now we see the issue. We want 100% uptime on a 12 second buff, but the ability takes 18 seconds to recharge.

So how are we gonna manage that? Well let's break it down.

Since you have two charges of Barbshot, timing this ability correctly is important. The general rule is to use Barbshot when there are about two seconds remaining on the Frenzy buff.

If you time it right, your Barbshot charge will have about eight seconds left on its cooldown just as you reapply it. This creates a small window where you can use Barbshot again without losing your stacks.

This will allow you to maintain the buff, and you'll just repeat this throughout the entire match. Now if you fall out of rhythm, you can use Barbshot to get a full charge of the barbed scales.

But if you're playing the barbed scales talent, Cobra shot provides cooldown reduction for barbed shot. So if you find yourself in a situation where your Frenzy stacks are about to drop, it's a good idea to fire off a few Cobra shots to get back on track.

It's always worth sacrificing a bit of DPS to preserve your Frenzy stacks.

MELEE SURVIVAL TIPS

You might think Beastmastery Hunters have it easy. With all their abilities being instant cast and the advantage of being ranged, what issues could they possibly have against melee?

Well, just like any other ranged class, melee can absolutely tear through Hunters. Sure, you can dish out decent damage even while being tunneled, but that won't matter much if you end up dead on the ground.

When dealing with melee, a great strategy is to pull them away from their healer. This puts them in a tough position where they either have to run back to stay within their healer's range or continue chasing you, which could allow you to secure a kill.

You can even drop a binding shot while they're out of their healer's line of sight, cornering them in a really bad position. We can see this in action right here.

The Hunter is constantly dragging the Warrior back, trying to move him out of line of sight of the Paladin. This forces the Paladin to reposition, effectively interrupting their healing.

Once the Paladin is back in line of sight, the Hunter moves to the other side of the pillar, once again forcing the Paladin to move. This constant repositioning makes it difficult for the healer to stay ahead and keep up with the damage.

Another effective tactic is to lure melee opponents onto Z-axis ramps or elevated platforms, setting them up for a knockback from high explosive trap. Chances are they've already burned their mobility trying to chase you down.

Knocking them off the map not only makes it harder for them to reconnect, but also gives your healer the opportunity to catch up. Disengage is more powerful than you might think, and can be a great tool for staying alive.

However, it shouldn't be used randomly. Instead, try to time it as a direct response to your opponent's mobility cooldowns.

For instance, against a Warrior, wait for the charge, and then disengage. If you disengage too early, they're gonna charge you mid-leap.

You can also use it to counter a Death Knight's grip. If you disengage from max range while mid-air, you can still out the grip.

It's also a smart idea to keep your distance from melee whenever possible. In this clip, notice how the Hunter avoids positioning directly on top of their teammates.

This helps avoid a swap by the enemy team. As a ranged class, you should absolutely play like one.

While it might be tempting to disengage and try to land that trap, doing so can be absolutely risky, sometimes even costing the game if things go wrong.

ASPECT OF THE TURTLE BM TIPS

In this course, we are going to be diving deep into defensive play and cooldown management. Surviving is just as important as dealing damage.

Rotating defensives properly means more uptime, more pressure, and more chances to secure the win. So Aspect of the Turtle, which is often just called Turtle, is one of the most misunderstood hunter cooldowns because people mistake it for a true immunity.

While it does prevent incoming attacks, any projectiles already in the air will still hit, and bleeds or damage over time effects will continue ticking. Area of effect abilities like Blade Flurry can also go through it, making it far less reliable than actual immunities like Ice Block or Divine Shield.

It's a powerful defensive tool, but knowing its limits can mean the difference between surviving and just getting deleted. With a hefty amount of time, you can easily get to the bottom of the game.

So if you're three-minute cooldown, Aspect of the Turtle is not something you can just throw out whenever. It needs to be used strategically.

There are two key situations where you're going to want to pop it. First, when you're at low health and you know your healer won't be able to save you in time.

This is more of a last resort play since you're already low, damage over time effects can still finish you off. Second, when you use it preemptively to avoid dying in a go, especially if you or your healer don't have a trinket.

So let's get started. Let's break these down.

The first situation is when Aspect of the Turtle becomes your absolute last resort cooldown when you have no other way to survive and your other defensive cooldowns just won't cut it. Take this clip as an example here.

The hunter is taking heavy damage and their healer is struggling to keep up. The moment their healer gets caught in a full trap, the hunter pops Turtle.

Even though they're sitting at about 20% health, they're not too worried about dying to the dots. Now you really want to be careful when using Turtle low.

If you're not careful, you're going to get killed. So if you're not careful, you're going to get killed.

Because you can still die through it if there are any casts in the air. We can see this here where the hunter uses Turtle immediately out of a stun, but because Chaos Bolt was already in the air, they die anyway.

You cannot forget, this is not an immunity. Turtle, it isn't a full immunity.

It stops new attacks from hitting you, but anything already in the air is still going to hit you. Just because you have Turtle, it doesn't mean you always have to use it.

In fact, it's not uncommon to use Turtle. You can use Turtle to get rid of the enemy's attack, but it's not a full immunity.

Turtle is your last line of defense. The cooldown you hit only when everything else is gone.

If you have other ways to survive, it's often better to hold on to Turtle rather than just use it too soon.

EXHILARATION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST BM TIPS

Welcome back to another installment in our Beast Mastery Hunter Course.

In this video, we're going to be continuing to break down our defensive cooldowns with two important cooldowns in this video, Exhilaration and Survival of the Fittest, providing you with a comprehensive breakdown on how the abilities work and the rules behind using them.

So let's dive into two cooldowns that are often used in similar situations, Exhilaration and Survival of the Fittest. If you're rocking the Dark Ranger hero tree with the Smokescreen talent, these two cooldowns can even proc each other.

Survival of the Fittest reduces the damage you take by 30% for 6 seconds. Meanwhile, Exhilaration instantly heals you for 30% of your health and with the Rejuvenating Wind talent, also applies a small hot to keep you topped off.

Together, they are an awesome combo for staying alive when things get tough. So let's dive into how and when to use Exhilaration, starting with the basics.

Exhilaration is a skill that can be used to heal your opponent's team members. Exhilaration is a skill that can be used to heal your team members.

Exhilaration is your self-heal, instantly restoring 30% of your health plus 100% of your pet's health while also applying a small hot. Pretty straightforward, right?

The trick is using it at the right moment and that's what separates good hunters from great ones. And as a general rule, you want to pop Exhilaration when you're around 40-50% health and you notice your healer is either struggling to keep up with the damage or is about to be crowd controlled.

If you wait until you're almost dead, well, chances are you're still going to die, even with Exhilaration. Exhilaration is a fantastic ability to use when kiting.

It gives you a little extra breathing room, buying time for your healer to get out of crowd control, all while making it harder for the enemy team to land a kill on you. It's also great as a burst damage response.

If you're taking heavy damage, popping Exhilaration can save you from dying. This means your healer doesn't have to waste more crucial cooldowns like Spirit Link or Void Shift.

Survival of the Fittest works best, but it's also great when you're still at high health. Let's face it, a 30% damage reduction isn't what it used to be.

So using it when you're at 10%, 20%, or even 30% health isn't going to cut it. You're still likely to die.

When you see the enemy team popping their big cooldowns, do not wait until you're on the brink of death. Pop your wall early to negate their burst, and with two charges, you can rotate Survival of the Fittest for nearly every go, ensuring you're always prepared for the damage.

Survival of the Fittest is a great way to use it to your advantage. If you're about to be stunned, you can go for a pre-wall, using the cooldown right before you get stunned.

This can save your trinket and might even save your healer's trinket, giving your team more options to react. If your healer is really struggling, you can pair both cooldowns together for a powerful survival combo.

Ideally, you're going to want to use Survival of the Fittest first, especially if you're about to take a lot of damage. After that, if your healer is still having trouble, or you feel like you might die, you can also follow up with Exhilaration to give yourself that instant heal and extra time to recover.

But if you're already low on health, you can use Exhilaration first, and then immediately follow up with the wall.

ROAR OF SACRIFICE BM TIPS

Welcome back to another video in our Beast Mastery Hunter course. Today we're going to be taking a closer look at Roar of Sacrifice.

We're going to walk you through how Roar of Sacrifice works, when to use it, and the strategies to ensure that you're going to be getting the most out of this ability when you do.

Roar of Sacrifice has gone through some significant changes, and now it's part of the standard Hunter tree rather than being a PvP-only talent. Alright, so what does Roar of Sacrifice actually do though?

It's an ability that's cast by your pet that lasts for 12 seconds. It has a relatively short 1-minute cooldown and makes the target immune to critical strikes, redirecting 10% of their damage to your pet.

However, keep in mind that this doesn't mean the target is receiving a 10% damage reduction, it just means that 10% of the damage they would normally take is now being absorbed by your pet instead.

The cool part is since it's a pet ability, you can use Roar of Sacrifice while your crowd continues, and you can also use it to control your target.

Roar of Sacrifice can be traded out on pretty much any cooldown to help reduce damage, which makes it especially useful for mitigating those random, spiky hits that can catch you off guard.

If you're up against a class with critical strike based cooldowns, like a Fury Warrior with Recklessness, or maybe a Fire Mage with Combustion, it's really going to be a good idea to hold onto Roar of Sacrifice for those cooldowns.

Since it has such a short cooldown, you can usually time it between these cooldowns, but do try to pair it up with major offensive skills, or even just use it to get the most out of your offensive cooldowns first to really maximize its value.

Roar of Sacrifice is most effective when it's used at the start of a burst phase rather than at the end. By using it early, you can help reduce the incoming damage right from the beginning, which is going to be key for surviving those big bursts.

Waiting until you're at 10% health or your teammates are near death, it really isn't going to do much since crit immunity at that point is not going to save you.

While you can still use it in a pinch if you have no other options, it won't provide nearly as much value as it would have if you used it proactively at the start of the enemy's big cooldowns. Timing it right is crucial.

Since Roar of Sacrifice redirects 10% of the damage to your pet, it's important to keep an eye on your pet's health after using it. If your pet takes too much damage and it dies, Roar of Sacrifice is going to end early.

To prevent this, it's a good idea to toss out a min-pet at the same time you use Roar of Sacrifice. This helps keep your pet alive longer and ensures the full duration of the ability.

FEIGN DEATH BM TIPS

The last defensive cooldown we're going to explore in detail for this course is Feign Death, along with the various interactions that it has. Feign Death is one of those deceptively powerful abilities that every hunter should be making the most of.

With a 90% damage reduction for 2 seconds, it's essentially a mini-immunity, letting you survive huge bursts of damage when timed correctly. For that 2 whole seconds, you are almost untouchable, and the best part?

This ability is only on a 30 second cooldown, meaning you get to use it pretty dang often. Feign Death is incredibly versatile, and there are a ton of creative ways to use it.

So let's go over a few key scenarios here. First, you can use it to stop enemy casts.

Let's say you're about to take a massive hit from a Chaos Bolt, and your healer's stuck in CC. Instead of just waiting to get blasted, you can Feign Death.

Not only that, but you can also use it to stop enemy casts. Not only does it provide you with that huge damage reduction, but it also stops the cast entirely.

It's not just for spellcasters either, though. You can use it against melee and pets to force them to de-target you, even if it's just for a second.

That brief moment of de-targeting can absolutely be enough to buy you time to survive. For short CCs on your healer, like Storm Bolt or Paralysis, Feign Death can actually serve as a substitute for Survival of the Fittest.

Since these crowd control effects don't last long, Feign Death is often enough to survive the go and avoid the damage. But here's the trick.

You can chain another defensive off of it. After using Feign Death, you can immediately follow up with something like Roar of Sacrifice or Exhilaration, ensuring you stay alive and keep your team in the game.

Feign Death can also be a way to drop combat. By dropping combat, you can immediately pop Camouflage.

This is particularly going to be useful if you're trying to wait until your healer has Trinket or just delay a big go from the enemy team. While this is definitely a rare use case and won't come up in most games, it can absolutely be a game changer in certain situations.