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BEAST MASTERY HUNTER FUNDAMENTALS COURSE

BM HUNTER GOALS

Hello again! It's now time to delve a little bit deeper into Beast Mastery as in this next video we're going to be providing you with some straightforward goals that you should be looking to accomplish inside of your arena games.

So let's get started. First up we have the most important yet pretty straightforward goal of them all.

Maximize your overall damage. Let me get real with you for a second here.

Some of you may already know this but simply put if you missed out on Dragonflight and are returning for the War Within one of the major changes to arena was the addition of solo shuffle. In solo shuffle dampening ramps up super quickly making healing let's just put it like a whole lot more challenging.

Now as a result we are left with the sad but brutally honest truth that the most important metric for both winning games and pushing rating is simply how much damage you're capable of doing.

Now, if you're a newbie to the game and you're looking to get a better understanding of the game, you might want to take a look at the game's overall damage and the overall damage.

Now, if you're a newbie to the game and you're looking to get a better understanding of the game, you might want to take a look at the game's overall damage and the overall damage.

Now, while we would love to lay out some highly advanced and intricate goals for beast mastery, when it comes to actually dealing damage though, it's really simple and there's two main factors that are really going to make the difference here. First is your frenzy stacks.

Now we're going to touch more on all this in the sustained damage portion of the course but every time you barb shot you're going to gain a stack of frenzy for 8 seconds.

These stack up to 3 and they provide your pet with 30% increased attack speed which results in a whopping 90% increase overall when it's fully stacked. This is our number one priority above all else to maintain.

Then to add to this, the second factor for maximizing your damage is keeping your barb shot and kill command rotating. Consider these our two main abilities here, both of which come with two charges.

Anytime either of these abilities are not on cooldown, simply put, you're wasting your time. So, if you're a newbie to the game and you're not sure what to do, you can always keep one charge on cooldown and keep it at all times.

Now this isn't overly complex but when you consider that barb shot can reset kill command and there's various other cooldown reductions like call of the wild, it's manageable but slightly more challenging than some people give it credit for, especially mid arena when you're focusing on other things.

But just try to remember to always keep one charge of each ability cycling at all times. Next up, the second factor is your speed.

This is a very common factor in the game where you're constantly losing potential damage. You're always wasting potential damage.

You always want at least one charge on cooldown at all times.

Now this isn't overly complex but when you consider that barb shot can reset kill command and there's various other cooldown reductions like call of the wild, it's manageable but when you consider that barb shot can reset kill command and there's various other cooldown reductions Next up, we have goal number two, which is be smart with your crowd control.

Binding shot, explosive trap, intimidating stun, freezing trap, scatter shot, I mean the list just goes on and on and on and on. Crowd control is a significant focus for beast mastery and really hunters in general.

With so much instant crowd control at your disposal, you're going to have numerous options and decisions to make during your games. Now, it's not just about which CC you use, though, or really even how you use it, but more importantly, when you use it.

One powerful quote from hunter legend BicMax really sums this up well. Quote, nobody in the history of the game has ever just randomly died because you landed a freezing trap.

Now this may sound silly, but it really is accurate. Freezing trap really does zero damage.

Remember our first goal here. If you're sacrificing your position, you're going to lose a lot of time.

You're going to lose a lot of time. You're going to lose a lot of time.

You're going to lose a lot of time. You're going to lose a lot of time.

And subsequently your damage running across the map or just wasting countless seconds in globals just to land CC. Or really, what does that even accomplish?

Throughout this course, we're going to be focusing heavily on this concept, teaching you not only the best times to push for crowd control, the best ways to land it, but also the optimal methods to chain your crowd control.

For now, though, to be smart with your crowd control, you need to always ask yourself three basic questions. Can you safely land your CC without sacrificing your positioning?

And will that CC actually force cooldowns from your opponent? Okay, so moving on, we have goal number three.

Look out for your teammates. Hunter in general, although not what you would consider a conventional support class, still just so happens to have all of the tools necessary to be one of the best utility specs in the game.

Roar of Sacrifice and the best utility specs in the game. You can also use Hunter to counter the enemy's attack.

Hunter's attack is a very important tool in the game. Hunter's attack is a very important tool in the game.

Hunter's attack is a very important tool in the game. Roar of Sacrifice and Master's Call are two key abilities that you should constantly be utilizing to help and support your team whenever appropriate.

Now, in addition to these, Scattershot, Binding Shot, and High Explosive Trap are excellent tools for defensive play. They can be used to peel for both yourself and your team.

And throughout this course, we're going to be delving into examples and scenarios where you might want to use these abilities defensively rather than offensively, and the conditions for doing so appropriately.

Improving your gameplay really involves more than just using every form of instant crowd control on the enemy healer. Being mindful of your team's needs and using your abilities strategically is going to be one of the main steps to becoming a top-tier beast mastery hunter.

Which leads us to our final goal. Goal number four is Position for a Purpose.

Much like utilizing your utility, positioning is one of the most overlooked aspects of beast mastery hunter gameplay. And mastering it is going to quickly set you apart from the rest of the pack.

Beast mastery has one undeniable advantage over any other spec in the game. Every single ability can be cast while you're moving.

This means there is never a reason to be stationary in an arena match, allowing you to leverage your positioning and your movement for various purposes. You can position aggressively to make crowd control easier, defensively to avoid damage, or even your movement to pull enemies into vulnerable spots.

And how to do all of this is going to play a huge part in this course. But for now, don't underestimate the impact of your positioning and what it can have on the outcome of the game.

Consider where you're standing at all times and what it's achieving.

BM HUNTER DAMAGE PRIORITY

Welcome back! Now that you have a broader understanding of both the playstyle and the goals of a Beast Mastery Hunter in the arena, the next step is obviously learning how to deal damage effectively.

Now for this, we're going to start with a clear-cut damage priority, not including any cooldowns. And this is really going to serve as the cornerstone of this entire course.

Now our highest priority, like we covered in our goals, is always going to be to use Barbshot to either gain or maintain your three stacks of Frenzy on your pet. Now a good rule of thumb here is to always look to prioritize Barbshot if you have less than four seconds left on your Frenzy.

In order to do this successfully, we really suggest grabbing yourself a Weak Aura or some alternative way of easily seeing and tracking your Frenzy stacks with ease. Now if you're running the Pack Leader hero tree, Kill Command becomes a high-priority ability since it's how we activate Howl of the Pack Leader.

However, this does only apply while Howl of the Pack Leader is active. During this window, each Kill Command is going to summon a Beast, that either deals significant damage or boosts your overall output, making it essential to use Kill Command.

Then, next in priority, we have Kill Command whenever you're currently at two charges. Kill Command, as we know, has two charges.

And like we covered in our goals section, it means any time spent at two charges of Kill Command means you are literally not only potentially wasting damage by not having a charge on cooldown, but you're also at risk of losing an entire use of it if you happen to get a reset from War Orders, when using Barbed Shot.

So, following Kill Command, we then have Barbed Shot once again, and this time from when you're at two charges, but you're not at risk of your Frenzy dropping. The key aspect of Barbed Shot isn't just the damage over time, it's the range of additional benefits that it provides.

As beyond just generating Frenzy, Barbed Shot can reset the cooldown of Kill Command, reduce the cooldown of our primary offensive ability, Bestial Wrath, and also trigger extra pet damage through Stomp.

Additionally, if you're using a skill like the one we just showed you, you can also use it to increase your ability to use the skill. If you're using Thrill of the Hunt, Barbed Shot is how you get your stacks.

We then have Kill Command for when you're at one charge and don't need to refresh Barbed Shot. And then Barbed Shot again for those times where you have one charge and aren't worried about your Frenzy stacks.

Next, we have Kill Shot, our Execute ability, which can only be used when a target's health drops below 20%. Now, while it is technically an Execute, for Beast Mastery, it doesn't hit as hard as it does for other Hunter specs.

Because of this, we still prioritize our... core abilities over Kill Shot, leaving us with our lowest priority ability, which is Cobra Shot. Cobra Shot does serve as a filler, used only when nothing else is available, and both charges of Kill Command and Barbed Shot are depleted.

BM HUNTER BURST SEQUENCE: PACK LEADER

This is the video that you have been waiting for as in this next section of our Beast Mastery Hunter Course we are going to be breaking down the exact sequence you want to be following in order to set up the highest burst damage possible. Now this burst sequence assumes all your cooldowns are ready to go.

We don't need to worry about Howl of the Pack Leader being proc'd, we have Lead from the Front as our capstone hero talent which automatically gives us a proc when we use Beastial Wrath.

So you're going to start by applying Hunter's Mark on your kill target for bonus damage if they are above 80% health, and next we are immediately going to fire off both charges of Barb Shod putting the ability on cooldown, while stacking up two charges of frenzy.

Then we'll activate our first major cooldown, Beastial Wrath to amplify our damage and start ramping up. Next we'll use one charge of Kill Command, which is going to trigger Howl of the Pack Leader.

Ideally we are going to get a Wyvern proc for a big damage boost, but any other procs will be good here. From here you'll then want to use a third Barb Shod type charged, which we can useile your other part, which we think is going to barbed shot in order to get maximum stacks of Frenzy.

Next we'll pop Call of the Wild into Bloodshed, then continue using Kill Command and barbed shot off cooldown until Call of the Wild ends. This is going to maximize the stomp proc from Blood Frenzy while also taking advantage of the reduced cooldowns.

Now if you do end up in a situation where you can't push either barbed shot or Kill Command, then you would weave in Cobra Shot or any kill shot procs.

BM HUNTER OPENER

Like other Hunter specs, Beast Mastery has two very simple goals in the opener. You want to maximize your damage and make that damage count by pairing it with Crowd Control.

The first thing you'll notice is the Hunter opening with Camouflage. That's the typical play, and for good reason.

It lets them move into position without worrying about being peeled, which makes it much easier to land a trap or just start getting damage out. And that's exactly what we see here.

The Hunter walks up to the enemy healer in Camouflage, drops a Binding Shot, and immediately follows up with a trap. While Beast Mastery does take some time to ramp up, landing that very first trap builds a lot of pressure, especially since it gives their partner a window to pop cooldowns right away.

The important thing to remember is that trap isn't just for you. It's a way for you to help your team build pressure.

Now, once that healer is trapped, the Hunter comes out of Camouflage and starts ramping damage. Beast Mastery is the most consistent, damage-focused Hunter spec, so you don't really want to sit around waiting for a perfect setup here.

You just want to start pumping damage as soon as you possibly can. You'll also notice the Hunter throwing a Chimerial Sting on the Balanced Druid.

Now, there's two reasons for why they did this. It stops the Druid from peeling when the Hunter comes out of stealth, and since that Druid used Incarnation, it helps reduce some of that incoming damage during their burst window.

Chimerial Sting doesn't always have to go on the healer, though. It's a super versatile button that you can really use based on the situation that you're in.

Now, at this point, the Hunter is looking to use their burst cooldowns. They pop Call of the Wild just 25 seconds into the game.

Holding onto it, it ain't gonna be worth it. The more times you can cast it throughout the match, the more opportunities you are going to have to win.

You don't need to wait for trap or even CC here. You just want to keep up the pressure.

Beast Mastery, it's all about using your cooldowns as often as possible, and right now, the Hunter is just focused on doing as much damage as they can.