Season of Discovery Beast Mastery Hunter DPS Talents and Runes

These are going to be the optimal talent points to take at level 60 in Season of Discovery, with little variation. If your goal is to do the most damage possible at level 60, this is your only real choice. Hunter does not have many alternative dps talents to take at this level, leaving these as the obvious choices. Improved Aspect of the Hawk is by far the most important, but as a Beast Mastery Hunter you will be locked into going down the tree and picking the only DPS increasing pet talents available. The full 31 points are required to pick up Bestial Wrath, which is an incredibly powerful cooldown.

Past the initial 31 points, you're going to want 20 points in Marksmanship to get 5/5 in Mortal Shots, Efficiency, and Lethal Shots. These are the highest DPS talents available outside of the BM tree. None of the other options provide any meaningful DPS benefit, and Monster Slaying is a higher point for point value than Lethal Shots.

• Pants — Kill Shot
• Gloves — Chimera Shot
• Chest — Beast Mastery
• Belt — Expose Weakness
• Boots — Trap Launcher
• Helm — Rapid Killing
• Wrists — Focus Fire
• Cloak — Hit and Run
• Ring 1 — Ranged Weapon Specialization
• Ring 2 — Fire Specialization

For the gloves rune, Beast Mastery is the only real choice since it will be the largest buff to your pet. In the current state of Season of Discovery, pets are more powerful than they've ever been in Classic WoW. Making your pet as strong as possible is the best choice, and Beast Mastery is currently the top Hunter spec for DPS output.

For pants, after the recent buffs Sniper Training is too powerful to pass up for the massive increase to your crit. The other options don't compare when you account for your own damage.

For chest rune, Cobra Strikes is the only pet-based option for Beast Mastery.

For your belt, Steady Shot will provide you a consistent filler shot to use.

Finally, for boots, you'll either use Trap Launcher for shorter or AoE based encounters where traps are going to have an impact or Invigoration for the Mana sustain that will be invaluable on longer encounters.

At level 50, your two new runes will be Lock and Load and Focus Fire. There are not many options to choose from, and while these aren't particularly stellar, the other options are designed specifically for melee. These will be your go-to runes in all situations, although Rapid Killing could prove to be useful on a fight that is under 3 minutes, allowing a second Rapid Fire. However, even then, it's still rather mediocre when you cannot proc its secondary effect at max level. Rapid Fire will be decent for leveling from 50-60 or for PvP.

At level 60, you have access to the back and ring rune slots. These will be relatively static due to the nature of the runes. For back, Resourcefulness is the best option by far due to the huge trap benefit this offers, as well as some mediocre secondary options. For rings, you have the leeway to pick what you want here, but you will always want to just take whatever weapon types you are currently using.