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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBuild Shop: Hunter 41/20/0 Leveling Spec
by Matthew Porter 
Aug 5th 2008 at 9:30AM
Welcome readers to this week's Build Shop. I know you haven't seen this feature since the middle of last June, and that's because most viable talent specs have been covered for each class. Not a lot of additions or enhancements have been added since then but that will surely change when Wraith of the Lich King arrives. So this week I thought I would try a "theme" talent spec, one designed for a particular task, leveling a Hunter. Many people agree that the Hunter is one of the easier classes to level, but for fellow WoW Insider blogger Matthew Rossi and others, it's taking longer than expected. Let's see if this beast mastery spec can give him a boost!
The Thought Behind the Build
This particular talent spec is built in mind for leveling a Hunter with minimal downtime. As the pet can be healed by bandages, spells, and food, we're gunna use a beast mastery spec of 41/20/0. Unlike the prior Build Shop on the same spec, the point distribution will be different as this is meant for a solo/grinding roll rather than a group/raiding one. For those wondering how much choosing the right pet makes a difference for leveling, in my experience it doesn't much. Get the pet you plan to use at max level, or if you're on your toes about swapping pets in and out, you can potentially level two different ones if your persistent about it. I invite you to open this WoW Head talent planner in a new browser window or tab so you can refer to it as I break down the build.
The Build Analysis
Beast Mastery (41 points)
Our purpose here is to turn the pet into the best tank it can be while maximizing damage and efficiency. There is an argument that Improved Revive Pet can be handy during those "Oh crap!" moments, but hopefully with the tanking prowess imbued by our talent choices and pet training, and use of Mend Pet and bandages, those occasions won't rear their ugly head very often.
- Improved Aspect of the Hawk (5/5): Leveling up this will be your main aspect. The haste proc added with this talent is the cherry on top of the proverbial sunday of usefulness.
- Focused Fire (2/2): You should have your pet out at all times so you might as well get 2% extra damage for doing so. And the extra crit on Kill Command will make the 60s go by smoother.
- Thick Hide (3/3): This will help turn the pet into the ultimate damage sponge.
- Unleashed Fury (5/5): Upping manaless/focusless passive damage is always good!
- Improved Mend Pet (2/2): Making the primary heal for your pet more efficient means less time drinking. Plus being able to cure debuffs off the pet means no more waiting around for that annoying curse to fade.
- Ferocity (5/5): Gotta take this as it's a prereq to one of Beast Mastery's best talents.
- Bestial Discipline (2/2): Extra focus means more special attacks done by the pet, which means more damage and agro.
- Intimidation (1/1): Perfect for stopping casters and runners, and securing agro from your pet.
- Spirit Bond (2/2): A constant manaless regen, slight though it may be, keeps us topped off in between fights meaning less downtime spent eating.
- Frenzy (4/5): If you feel you need to max this go ahead and move around a point you feel is worth it, but even at the 80% chance this effect procs like crazy!
- Bestial Wrath (1/1): Big Red time! A trademark BM talent that's good for any occasion.
- Catlike Reflexes (3/3): This will help as you enter Outlands and mob damage is higher. The extra dodge means less mana for healing and more for special attacks all adding the benefit of less downtime.
- Serpent's Swiftness (5/5): Another hallmark of the BM tree, adding passive haste to the hunter, increasing damage in the process.
- The Beast Within (1/1): The King of BM talents. With proper use of this talent and maybe a potion or two and some luck, you'll be able to solo some elite quests for big exp and loot!
For the remainder of the points, I feel that Marksmanship has the best bang for the buck, and pairs the best with our Beast Master emphasis. The choices made here won't vary as much as it did in the Beast Master tree when compared to a BM raiding specs. Hey, there's only so many good low tier talents to go around!
- Lethal Shots (5/5): A no brainer, more crit equals more damage and more procs of Kill Command and Go for the Throat.
- Efficiency (5/5): Making your shots more mana efficient means less down time spent drinking.
- Go for the Throat (2/2): With a name this awesome how can you pass it up? Your pet will be rolling in the focus with this talent.
- Rapid Killing (2/2): With this you have a reason to go from mob to mob as fast as you can. And as a bonus you can use Rapid Fire more often.
- Aimed Shot (1/1): What use to be the pinnacle of Hunter shots have been nerfed into near uselessness since it now clips auto shot. It's still not a bad opener move when used in conjunction with Rapid Killing and Intimidation.
- Mortal Shots (5/5): One of the biggest reasons you dip into the Marksmanship tree, this talent really adds to your DPS potential.
Want more in depth talent analysis for every class? Check out the Build Shop archives! And for help leveling up that new alt don't miss our class leveling guides. For those looking to get into the fun of Karazhan, be sure to bone up on our gear guides. And as always, trust WoW Insider to bring you the most in analysis, news, tips, and guides for World of Warcraft! Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Leveling, Classes, Talents, Build Shop
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Matt Aug 5th 2008 11:34AM
Catlike Rexlexes is a talent only huntards use.
Also pick up FI it helps you as well.
pudds Aug 5th 2008 11:27AM
Have to disagree with a few talent choices:
I'd skip 2/2 Focused Fire as it's lackluster before kill command, and I'd never take Spirit Bond, ever. 1/2 Mend pet is also fine for leveling, since the cleanse will proc regularly and you can always down rank for mana efficiency.
In place of those points, I'd go with:
3/5 Endurance Training: the longer your pet survives, the longer you survive.
1/1 Bestial Swiftness: faster pet means faster grinding.
2/2 Pathfinding: faster traveling at low levels means faster leveling.
Its far, far from an optimal level 70 build, but the first goal is to hit 70, right?
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ce0bdtxRmzAoVVbRV
p3ngu11 Aug 5th 2008 11:31AM
how can you have a build that uses all the talent points in a "leveling" build? wouldn't that be a "solo grinding" build?
Durante Aug 5th 2008 11:33AM
Sure it'll heal large amounts over the course of a day, but its just too slow. If you want those points in pet survivability, slap then into Endurance Training instead. You'll be happy for the extra stam when that lvl 69 quest elite is smacking your pet.
thebitterfig Aug 5th 2008 3:48PM
with one of the stated goals being to turn the pet into as much of a tank as possible, the lack of endurance training is a glaring flaw.
likewise, pets that miss won't generate aggro. as any good warrior, bear, or paladin tank knows: get hit capped. thus, you want animal training, the only way to increase the hit chance of your pet.
smart move taking efficiency over IHM.
as to rapid killing, shorter cooldowns will improve dps, if you always use your abilities. Vonya at egotistical priest has a great post on this, where she says she is more likely to remember to use them if she uses them all together. basically, it depends on the player using that shorter cooldown. if it doesn't fit your playstyle, either skip a point, or change your playstyle. if coordinated 2/4 minute cooldowns gets you to use them more often, that will increase your damage more than a rarely used 3 minute cooldown.
for the first 12 points, tame a pet with a focus dump and get go for the throat first. a much better way to start, since that 10% hp for your pet won't matter if it can't hold aggro, and getting it that extra focus is the best way to get it to hold aggro.
Carrie Aug 5th 2008 11:52AM
Skip the Aimed Shot and Lethal Shots.
1. Aimed Shot takes too long and you'll never use it.
2. Lethal Shots relies on you having a good crit rating. The less you crit, the less this will help. Better to go for a steady, all-the-time damage boost. (And if you don't think your crit rating will be hopping all over the place as you level up and switch gear, think again...)
Instead, stick 5 points into Improved Aspect of the Hawk, which increases your pet's damage and aggro 100% of the time (not just when you crit). Then you've still got a point left over to boost something else up.
wowinsider Aug 5th 2008 4:56PM
No. IAotH doesn't affect your pet. You fail.
Gloam Aug 5th 2008 12:16PM
I think WOWInsider needs a copy editor. There are atrocious spelling mistakes in this article.
Tsani Aug 5th 2008 12:16PM
When Solo or levelling I found myself using Viper a lot to minimize drinking downtime. So I switched out IAotH for Endurance Training.
The points in Serpents Swiftness are better used in Ferocious Inspiration and Animal Handler. The extra attack speed may speed up the fight, but so does hitting more. As a levelling spec you are not Hit-capped, so to-hit is more important to minimize downtime. You can shoot a dozen arrows a second, but they won't do much if you can't hit the broad side of a dragon. ;)
That 5th point in Frenzy will mean a near constant Ferocious Inspiration buff if you have that talent maxxed. Again, when levelling extra damage is a lot better compared to extra speed. Though in the end the fight will often be about the same length.
Use Impr Hunter's Mark instead of Efficiency. The mark will help your pet's damage and aggro generation, and when using Viper you won't miss Efficiency. This is intended to be a BM-let-the-pet-do-the-work spec, not a MM-Mana-guzzling spec.
Personally I'd toss out Aimed Shot and Mortal Shots and add those to the BM tree, or grab that Efficiency if you find yourself drinking too much.
A levelling build can start out from a cookie cutter build (which I'm sorry to say this most certainly is), but don't be afraid to adjust it to your own playstyle. If you have mana coming out of your ears (as I do with 49/12/0 and Viper), then don't be afraid to hop over to the trainer for a little respec to trade the mana saving/generation talents for extra pet building talents. Even a levelling spec sometimes needs to be adjusted to the player's personal style.
wowinsider Aug 5th 2008 4:56PM
Anybody recommending against Serpent's Swiftness has no idea what they're talking about. This is backed up by the fact that you think Animal Handler improves your personal hit rating. It applies only to the pet. Further, you recommend against Mortal Shots. Huntards are coming out of the woodwork.
Tsani Aug 6th 2008 8:05AM
Reply to wowinsider
You forget what the whole background of the talent spec was: Levelling Solo as 41/20 BM with as little downtime as possible. Not grouiping, not raiding, not MM-let's-top-the-damage-meters. Most of the different suggestions (not just mine) try to keep the 41/20 base. That severely limits what you can choose from what tree. Try reading the whole post next time... I recall something about putting more points into BM. Guess what, those points could, would and probably should go to Serpent's Swiftness.
Downtime is the mostly the time spent eating, drinking and bandaging. If your pet takes the damage then you won't HAVE to bandage/eat, and healing the pet is a lot faster. A BM hunter works with the pet as a team, with the pet generatng enough aggro to keep the mob from even thinking about who's using it for target practice. Animal Handler helps the do exactly that. Anything that makes the pet better serves to lower your downtime. And I don't recall saying anything about Animal Handler improving the hunter's personal (!) hit rating. As BM hunter you don't HAVE a personal hit rating unless you're teaming with a tank. In Solo play your pet's hit rating is as important if not more so. Ask any full MM specced hunter whose pet can't tank for more than 15 seconds before it croaks or is out-aggro'd by the hunter.
And if you think Mortal Shots is the end-all-and-be-all of the MM talents then you might as well forget the whole BM -levelling- idea, cause you'll end up outaggro-ing your pet and be stuck with meleeing the mob or -heaven forbid- not doing any damage at all because you have to stop shooting or are too busy playing possum.
The whole trick to a BM spec is a balancing act. A bit less damage from me and a bit more from my pet or no damage at all from me and a high chance of a very fast very dead pet. Three guesses which is worse for your downtime and thus levelling speed.
The difference between a Huntard and Hunter who can make an off-spec work is that the first only thinks about what is or isn't a cookie-cutter spec and the second can think outside the box to make a spec work with his or her playstyle and balance the advantages and disadvantages of both style and spec.
wowinsider Aug 6th 2008 11:19AM
My god, you make my brain hurt.
"Guess what, those points could, would and probably should go to Serpent's Swiftness." You didn't say that. You said to swap the points out of it into two other talents. The real strength of the BM tree is in SS. Every BM hunter should be maxing it out. No exceptions.
"And I don't recall saying anything about Animal Handler improving the hunter's personal (!) hit rating." Let me remind you then: "You can shoot a dozen arrows a second, but they won't do much if you can't hit the broad side of a dragon. ;)" Your pet doesn't use arrows, hence you are talking about the hunter.
"As BM hunter you don't HAVE a personal hit rating unless you're teaming with a tank." What are you babbling on about? When it comes time to solo your group quests, you'll want hit.
"And if you think Mortal Shots is the end-all-and-be-all of the MM talents then you might as well forget the whole BM -levelling- idea, cause you'll end up outaggro-ing your pet and be stuck with meleeing the mob or -heaven forbid- not doing any damage at all because you have to stop shooting or are too busy playing possum." ROFL. You act like you have more experience as a hunter. That's cute kid. The fact is, with the gear you'll be sporting up until 70 lacks the oomph to cause you to pull aggro off any DPS pet (given you have any idea how to train it). Mortal Shots is the real juice in the MM tree and will improve your DPS dramatically, reducing the length of fights. You might also take a look at GftT. When you crit, your pet gains focus. More focus means more focus dump attack, which means more threat. Trust me pal, it makes up for the extra threat you just generated (plus the extra attacks gave more opportunity for a crit, meaning a Frenzy proc, meaning even more attacks and more threat).
"The whole trick to a BM spec is a balancing act. A bit less damage from me and a bit more from my pet or no damage at all from me and a high chance of a very fast very dead pet. Three guesses which is worse for your downtime and thus levelling speed." Not really. You don't need to deprive yourself of personal DPS to boost your pets. There's no reason to not take Mortal Shots. There are no fluff talents leftover in the BM tree that add anything meaningful to you or your pet.
"The difference between a Huntard and Hunter who can make an off-spec work is that the first only thinks about what is or isn't a cookie-cutter spec and the second can think outside the box to make a spec work with his or her playstyle and balance the advantages and disadvantages of both style and spec." ROFL. I love the old "it works for my playstyle" fallback argument. You crack me up. But seriously, keep telling yourself you know better than me. We all do what we need to so we can sleep through the night.
wowinsider Aug 6th 2008 1:50PM
LOL. Found you.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Cenarius&n=Tsani
You're depriving yourself of significant DPS for:
2 points in Spirit Bond. Go up and read other comments as to why this is a waste.
2 points in Pathfinding. No hunter after 30 should have points in this.
2 points in IRP. Until you reach Gruul level raiding, there's no need. Wasted points.
1 point in Catlike Reflexes. My sides are hurting from laughter. Please stop.
1 more point in Frenzy to get 5/5. You do know that 4/5 is enough to maintain good uptime and that the diminishing return on the fifth point isn't worth the talent point, right? Of course you do. You're pro. LOL
Here's some gear tips smart guy:
1. The expertise on the netherwing dagger is wasted iLvl points. Try to find a good 2 hander. You have enough rep for the Hellforged Halberd. Get it until you can get the Sonic Spear/get the S3 axe/run Kara for Legacy.
2. Buy the Boots of the Crimson Hawk pattern off a guild running T5 content. The pattern is cheap now and the boots will last through T6.
3. Ignore the socket bonus on your pants.
4. The Sunfury bow is the wrong speed for BM. Get the WSR or save up badges for the chicken on a stick.
5. FFS enchant your gloves. Assault is fine if you're low on cash. Also, get assault on your bracers. +4 stats is wrong. Enchant your cape.
6. Wrong meta for your helm. Get a Relentless Earthstorm Diamond when you get a decent one.
7. Beastmaw Pauldrons suck now. Get the Merc shoulders.
8. No pure stamina gems, even if they're Uncommon quality (it's time to use rares at least).
Seriously man, read up a bit.
STereo Aug 5th 2008 12:44PM
I play on a pvp server. To me, a leveling spec is a pvp spec or you're gonna be ganked from one side of Northrend to the other.
It looks like the closest thing hunters will have to a pvp sepc will be survival. That's would I would recommend for leveling on a pvp server.
For me, I think I will be leveling a DK.
zenpunk Aug 5th 2008 1:57PM
If the sole purpose is leveling speed there are many wrong choices here.
Keep in mind, leveling speed is ALL about how often the pet can hold aggro, and how much punishment it can take. Taking little dps boosts here and there don't help you one little bit. The hunter already has enough dps even with zero talent points spent to *easily* pull aggro from the pet. EVERY point should be spent to increase the pets aggro abililty, the PET'S dps, or the PET'S damage soaking ability. Abilities like the 5% to ranged crit and +30% crit damage will actually slow your grinding down. Remember, you won't be leveling (quickly) attacking green mobs you can 2 shot. You want slow, steady dps while your pet holds aggro on yellow (or greater) mobs, while conserving mana so you can go right to the next mob when that one is down.
Right from the start this build really flounders. The blogger chooses an autoshot haste proc over more health for the pet. As if it wasn't already easy to pull aggro from your pet using anything but autoshot, he wants a proc to make even autoshot pull aggro. So, that's already a bad choice, but what makes it even more ridiculous is the fact that while leveling, to minimize downtime, hunters should be using aspect of Viper, NOT hawk, 24/7. So, right from the start, 5 wasted talent points.
Other great leveling talents he skipped...
1. Beastial Swiftness (after every kill, guess what... your pet has to run to the next mob, which is probably wandering about 45 yards away. Taking 30% less time to get to that mob... and EVERY mob from lvl 20 to 80... is a LOT of time. An absolute must talent if the goal is leveling speed.
2. Animal Handler (the mount speed increase is useless, but the 4% pet hit will let your pet hold aggro much better against mobs that are higher level than you, which is a main factor in leveling speed)
3. Improved hunters mark (gives your pet the attack power benefits of hunters mark) which translates to better pet dps and aggro holding ability
not as important as the others to leveling speed but personally i'd take..
4. Hawk eye (more distance between you and the mob while your pet is tanking means more distance the mob has to reach you if/when your pet loses aggro. And, well, i find it's just a more relaxing grind not having to run 6 extra yards to get to every mob scattered all over the land) So, not a crucial leveling talent, but I'd take it cus it makes grinding a little smoother, with less running.
So, here's my build for leveling speed, and nothing but leveling speed...
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cV0GzggRwzGoxEbZ0h
Yes, the pts from hawkeye should probably be in serpents swiftness, and i'd move the pts from imp revive pet to focused fire if Kill Command aggro went to the pet instead of the hunter, but it didn't used to. If so i'd move the points... maybe. Imp Revive pet lets you do a nice grinding method it areas of multiple mobs that are higher level than you. Send in pet on one mob, kill it just as mobs kill you pet and turn torward you, fein death, rez pet, send pet in to kill second mob of pack, rinse and repeat.
Sl0th Aug 5th 2008 5:34PM
I disagree with using Spirit Bond. The talent is honestly a joke. Two percent of your health every ten seconds does precious little to help with downtime. Even if you had a huge health pool, you're still going to be taking more incidental damage than Spirit Bond heals and on the pet side, tossing an occasional Mend Pet will serve you far better than relying on that talent.
Put your points elsewhere. Even a fifth point in frenzy and one in Ferocious Inspiration will ultimately serve you better.
Raevon Sep 16th 2008 8:52AM
Speaking of maxing out dps, this spec doesn't do it.
Spirit bond / catlike reflexes = useless. Either this page is outdated or just flat out wrong.
You want the maxed out points in animal handler so your pet hits. Hit rating is just as important to the pet as it is to the hunter.
And you also want maxed out Feroc. Insp. The 3% damage does a little more dps for yourself, but also if you're in an end game raid...your raid group should have at least 2 other BM hunters in it to stack everyone in that group to +9% dps.
Please update