Top Tier Hunter Talents: Bestial Wrath
by Mark Asher 
Dec 13th 2005 at 12:00PM
Are these even worth getting? Which one is best? Ever since the Hunter class was revamped, Hunters have had a pleasant problem -- each talent tree has some nice and useful stuff, and you can make a variety of Hunter builds. Before the revamp most Hunters put 31 points into the Marksmanship tree and that was that. The Beast Mastery tree 31 point talent is Bestial Wrath. This is the talent that makes the pet turn red and huge for 15 seconds and do 100% more damage. It's likely that the pet will also Frenzy, increasing attack rate by 30%. You get an enraged pet on you and its like someone dropped you into the lion cage wearing a meat suit. It's not pretty. An enraged pet will chew up a rogue and just about any caster most of the time.
Unfortunately, other players do have some defenses against an enraged pet. Other hunters will Feign Death and the pet will immediately stop attacking and return to its owner. The pet owner will have to retarget and redirect the pet at the feigning hunter, and this uses up a good chunk of the brief time the pet will be enraged.
Mages will blink away from the pet, mana shield and do their ice cube thing if they are specced that way. This pretty much saves their cloth-wearing hides.
Paladins will just use their infernal bubbles and heal themselves. When I was specced for Beastial Wrath I didn't even bother using it against them. Nerf pallies! (Just kidding pallies, don't beat me.)
Priests can bubble and heal too.
Druids will go into bear form to absorb the damage and then heal themselves.
Warriors will just plain outlast the 15 seconds of Bestial Wrath due to their armor and hit points. Nerf warriors!
Warlocks are just plain ornery with their ability to siphon life from foes and (I believe) their pets. Still, an enraged pet can put a good dent into them.
Rogues probably have the toughest time with the pet. They have no way of escaping other than sprinting, and many pets can match their sprint speed. About the only tool they have is Evasion, which should help them avoid damage for the 15 seconds of Bestial Wrath.
Bestial Wrath isn't supposed to be an "IWIN" button but my issues with it are that too many classes have ways of sidestepping my pet when I use this ability, and it's on a two-minute cooldown so I get one chance at it per fight.
The benefits of going with the Bestial Wrath talent is that you spend points in other Beast Mastery talents and end up with a significantly tougher pet as a result. I did try this tree for quite some time and do really like having an uber pet, but ultimately I felt like I was sacrificing too much damage potential for my Hunter on the other talent trees.
The talent is scheduled for a bit of revamp in the upcoming 1.9 patch. The pet damage will be reduced but the length of the wrath will be extended from 15 to 18 seconds.
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jon Dec 13th 2005 12:16PM
Wouldn't Vanish help a Rogue escape from the wrath of an enraged pet? Or does that only work against regular pets?
pulsedrive Dec 13th 2005 1:04PM
Well, the mainstream thought on hunters is this: use the beast mastery tree to level, but once you hit 60, go either survival or marksmanship for PvP, etc. Which is a pretty solid argument in my opinion. BM just doesn't have as much of an advantage in the later game, except for the occasionaly "pet pull" in a high end instance.
Ouch Dec 13th 2005 2:21PM
I'd say it has limited use in PvP. It's ok for PvE crowd control, but personally I'd spec MM if you have the PvP bent.
John Naked Dec 13th 2005 5:06PM
Yea, rogues will just vanish (saves me in almost every situation, especially if I have something to decurse me).
I've got a 50 hunter now, I'm still a fan of MM - probably because I'm more PVP oriented than anything else right now.
Top Rogue Dec 13th 2005 4:35PM
No, a rogue cannot use Vanish to escape... unless the Hunter is foolish enough not to put a Hunter's Mark on the Rogue. Once Hunter's Mark is placed on a Rogue they are unable to vanish or stealth their way out of anything. Typically speaking (and there are always exceptions to every rule) in the Rock-Paper-Scissors game of World of Warcraft... Hunter's always beat Rogues.
John Naked Dec 13th 2005 7:32PM
Top Rogue, I'm not sure, but I think vanish will still "end combat," the drawback of Hunter's Mark is that you will be visible and targetable. After you vanish, the pet should run back to the hunter - giving you time to sprint if need be.
I'll do a little test tonight. :)
Staarkhand Dec 13th 2005 8:24PM
It should be noted that probably the best aspect of Bestial Wrath is that your pet is immune to crowd control. And it is an I WIN button vs. cloth wearers in most situations.
Very few serious endgame types stay with the BM spec. It's nice for solo PvE, small group and (especially) solo PvP, but in raid-type PvE and PvP this spec doesn't play towards the hunter's strengths, so it's considered suboptimal.
Mark Asher Dec 14th 2005 1:07AM
Vanish will break the pet aggro just like feign death will break pet aggro when two hunters are fighting.
The difference is that if you have the rogue marked, vanish will not break your own hunter's focus on the rogue, so all you have to do is click the pet attack button immediately and the pet will be right back on the rogue. When the hunter feigns, the other hunter has to first click on the feigning hunter and then click on the pet attack button. it takes an extra couple of seconds usually.
Besital wrath will tear up an opponent but there are too many ways to mitigate the damage. The new 1.9 changes that lower pet damage but extend the wrath time by three seconds may help hunters.
I posted a couple of other blogs about the other 31 point talents. I'd be interested to hear your comments.
Mark Asher Dec 14th 2005 1:13AM
"Well, the mainstream thought on hunters is this: use the beast mastery tree to level, but once you hit 60, go either survival or marksmanship for PvP, etc. Which is a pretty solid argument in my opinion. BM just doesn't have as much of an advantage in the later game, except for the occasionaly "pet pull" in a high end instance."
Yeah, hunters don't use pets in the raid instances much. In the PvP instances they are very helpful though. In Arathi Basis I'd be guarding the blacksmith and just looking around and I'd see an enemy on the road way off. I could send my BM enhanced pet at an enemy and sometimes kill him. It was like having a long-range neverending DOT. Man, that was cool, ha ha.
Utlimately I have abandoned the BM tree at 60, but I do love a tough pet. I'll just spend the gold now and then to respec for fun.
Lzu Dec 15th 2005 3:46PM
"Druids will go into bear form to absorb the damage and then heal themselves. "
Hibernate is the way to go to take a pet out of the picture for a druid.