Beast Mastery Hunter Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes in Patch 9.2, Eternity's End, will affect Beast Mastery Hunters, specifically how the changes might impact its playstyle, best Legendary choices, Covenants, and the like. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Hunters in Patch 9.2 in general, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Hunter class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming with Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

At the moment, Beast Mastery Hunters have not yet received any changes to the specialization's core kit. However, some of the further adjustments and additional content that will be arriving will likely change how you as a Beast Mastery Hunter may approach your gameplay.

As with the specialization itself, there have been no direct Talent changes made in PvE or PvP for Beast Mastery Hunters, though with a new raid and a new season for both Mythic+ and PvP will come new options for finding gear and trying out different talent combinations.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for every specialization. For Beast Mastery Hunters, these set bonuses currently are:

• BM Hunter 2-Piece — Your Kill Command Critical Strike chance is increased by 15% for each stack of Frenzy your pet has.
• BM Hunter 4-Piece — Kill Command critical hits increase the damage and cooldown reduction of your next Cobra Shot by 40%.

As Patch 9.2 is still being developed, this tier set bonus can be changed!

Beast Mastery Hunter's current strongest area is single-target DPS, and these set bonuses are amplifying that strongly while leaving its AoE unchanged. This is a little disappointing for players who enjoyed using Beast Mastery for Mythic+, particularly since Patch 9.1.5's uncapping of Beast Cleave's AoE damage.

Both set bonuses work together to facilitate a faster rotation with more Kill Commands being available. With the crit levels expected in Patch 9.2, the vast majority of Kill Commands will be crits, and therefore proc an empowered Cobra Shot which will reduce the cooldown of Kill Command by a larger amount, leading to more Kill Commands that can crit, and so on.

Numbers-wise, this is a strong single-target DPS benefit, and it enables use of currently unpopular talents like Killer Cobra, as you will be able to alternate rapidly between amplified Kill Commands (via the 2pc), and amplified Cobra Shots (via the 2pc+4pc combination).

It will also amplify the Ferocious Appetite Conduit significantly, allowing us to use it to reduce Aspect of the Wild's cooldown to as little as 45 seconds.

While there have been no changes to Covenant abilities or Soulbinds for Beast Mastery Hunters at this time, it is worth noting that as of Patch 9.1.5 players may freely switch between Covenants provided that they have reached Renown level 80 with any Covenant. This has opened up a lot of flexibility for Beast Mastery Hunters, allowing them to effectively choose the Covenant whose bonuses are most useful at a given time, though the choice for maximizing damage will still largely come to either Night Fae or Venthyr.

In addition, Conduits will be unlocking their final few ranks, though this will not alter gameplay in any substantial way.

Remember that in Patch 9.1, every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Hunters, these Powers were:

• Kyrian — Pact of the Soulstalkers — When your Resonating Arrow deals damage to a target, you and your party gain 10% increased Critical Strike chance for 10 sec.
• Necrolord — Bag of Munitions — Up to 2 targets hit by your Death Chakram are also hit by Explosive Shot.
• Night Fae — Fragments of the Elder Antlers — When Wild Spirits hits fewer than 5 targets, there is a 100% chance to cause Wild Spirits damage a second time.
• Venthyr — Pouch of Razor Fragments — Bonus Kill Shots from Flayed Shot cause 6 targets within 12 yds to bleed for 60% of the damage dealt by Kill Shot over 6 sec.

In Patch 9.2, you ability to eventually use a second Legendary Power, provided it is your Covenant-specific effect. This means that a Venthyr Beast Mastery Hunter could make use of both Pouch of Razor Fragments and Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs! In addition, this ability will be tied to a new Legendary Power that automatically switches to match your current Covenant, further encouraging the flexibility of freely changing Covenants that was introduced in Patch 9.1.5.

It will be possible to combine Pact of the Soulstalkers' crit chance increase with Rylakstalker's Piercing Fangs which increases the crit damage of your pet significantly. This could be a potent combination for Kyrian Beast Mastery Hunters, although it is not going to make Kyrian the new meta in general.

One could also combine Kyrian's Legendary Power with Soulforge Embers in AoE and Mythic+ situations, since Tar Trap and Resonating Arrow's cooldowns will line up on every second use.