I get a lot of Google hits from people looking for a good Beast Master leveling spec. Probably because it’s a topic I’ve written about a lot. The reason I’ve written about it so much? Because for the past six months or so, every time a new patch has come out, I’ve had to come up with a new leveling spec. Yeah. (Oh, and let’s not forget the part where I’m leveling a million hunters. /cough)
I’m relatively certain things are at least… decently set in place now though, and it’s not like leveling specs are a super big deal anyways, so here‘s what I currently recommend:
Now remember, the best leveling spec is the one that works best for you. This isn’t really something that you min/max. Also, this spec isn’t designed to make your pet a supercrazy tank. If you’re looking for that, then I heartily recommend checking out Big Red Rhino!
However, when I level my hunters, I like to take a basic Beast Master DPS spec and tweak it a bit to add some extra pet survivability and talents that decrease downtime, while still maintaining enough DPS talents to allow me to perform reasonably well in an instance situation. When I level a hunter, I usually do a lot of solo quests and then sprinkle some instances into the mix… so my leveling spec is designed for that. We focus on pet survivability: Endurance Training, Thick Hide, 2/2 Improved Mend Pet– I have recently discovered that my pet can survive on Heigan with 1/2 Imp Mend Pet, but I’d still go 2/2 for leveling– and Spirit Bond at the cost of some DPS-oriented talents that we can do without while solo’ing. I have also opted for Invigoration over Cobra Strikes: I figure you won’t be critting all that much when you’re still leveling, but your pet will because his crit is based off of talents instead of gear, so Invigoration will help to decrease your overall downtime. (Not like we have a whole lot of downtime with Aspect of the Viper, but hey. Low-level hunters are the biggest mana hogs I’ve ever seen. x_x) Oh, and 2/2 Go for the Throat rather than 1/2. While 1/2 may be more than enough in an end-game situation (especially combined with Bestial Discipline), but as previously mentioned your crit probably isn’t all that hot while leveling, so go for 2/2.
Remember: You can level pretty much however you want to. I say this as someone who has leveled a druid to 70 as pure-resto. >.> Hunters obviously have it a little easier than that. When I leveled Tawyn from 70 to 80, I stayed with a purely DPS-oriented spec because I was in instances a lot (and because I’m a stubborn huntard) and I did just fine when I was out solo’ing. But I almost always give my lowbie hunters some variation of the above “leveling spec” and it’s worked out well.
So go ye forth and level!
My biggest problem when placing my talent points has always been those tasty, tasty talents in the beginning of the Marksman tree. They’re right there! I can get them! At 80 I’ll have them for sure!
But …
To take them now would keep me from getting my 51 point BM talent. At level 60 I value that over any of the stuff in the 1st tier of MM.
@ Splat – I always put 5/5 in Lethal Shots first thing, before going into Beast Mastery. But I’m stubborn. >.>
This build may not make your pet a SUPER crazy tank, but it would do the job for leveling.
When I level hunters, and thats been a few, I frequently take on orange quests, group quests, and elite mobs solo. This build, paired with a tenacity pet, will give you alot of potential for taking on tough content.
You might consider two pets, a ferocity for quick killing, and a tenacity pet for tougher content.
No love for Pathfinding?
Yeah, of course it’s useless for DPS, and doesn’t help with survivability at all, but you are *levelling* here, which isn’t exactly a challenge as any kind of Hunter, especially BM.
From what I remember the largest and most annoying part of that time is spent running & riding around getting from place to place, and 10% (or however it actually works out) less of that on the way can’t be a bad thing, especially as it helps with both mounted speed & those long walks back out of underground areas!
Ooh great! I was wanting to look into a BM levelling spec for some new hunter guildies 🙂
How would you recommend spending the points as you level? I’m thinking something like…
– BM until Intimidation (21 points or 28 points if you want the other Tier 5 goodies)
– MM points
– BM until Beastial Wrath (~32 points)
– SV points
– Finishing off BM?