Hunter

Observed BlizzCon talent guide

The Hunter preview puts the pet question on the tree itself. Beast Mastery improves pets and hawks, Marksmanship includes a no-active-pet condition, and Survival turns Hunter’s Mark into a route toward Mongoose Bite and a bleed. Blizzard confirms Hunter as a class available to both factions of the Skyborne and names Human Hunter as one of six new race-and-class combinations. The class-specific tree details below are observed Wowhead preview data, not a Blizzard-published build.

The three Hunter trees

The calculator displayed 51 points available. Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap confirms the 11-, 16-, 21- and 31-point milestones while keeping the familiar row structure. The named final-row talents and prerequisites above show the routes exposed by the preview without choosing an endpoint or cross-tree combination for you.

Beast Mastery: pet, hawk and attack-speed links

Beast Mastery is the branch that repeatedly checks whether a pet is active. Focused Fire increases Hunter damage while the pet is active. Endurance Training improves pet Health and Armor, and Unleashed Fury increases the damage of pets and hawks. Bestial Swiftness is the prerequisite for Intimidation, which then gates the final-row Bestial Wrath talent.

The branch also has two attack-speed paths. Deadly Aspects can trigger ranged attack speed while Aspect of the Hawk is active and melee attack speed while Aspect of the Beast is active. Ferocity raises pet and hawk critical chance. Frenzy requires five Ferocity points and lets a pet gain an attack-speed increase after a pet critical strike. Those links give the preview a clear pet-state structure to compare.

The unusual node is Summon Hawk. It calls a hawk to attack for a duration, allows two active hawks, and shares its cooldown with Arcane Shot. That shared cooldown joins the pet tree to an ability outside the node’s name.

Marksmanship: ranged choice and Sting effects

Marksmanship contains both group utility and a visible no-pet condition. Lone Wolf increases all attack damage while no active pet exists. Trueshot Aura increases the ranged Attack Power of nearby party members and gates Sniper Shot. The final-row talent is a casted ranged attack with a 15-second cooldown in the observed text.

Improved Stings changes all three named Sting effects together: it raises Serpent Sting damage, lowers Viper Sting’s cooldown and lengthens Scorpid Sting. Rapid Killing lowers Rapid Fire’s cooldown and gives the next Shot extra damage when you kill a non-trivial enemy or an enemy dies while afflicted by your Serpent Sting. Rapid Recuperation then ties Serpent Sting and the Rapid Killing effect to casting-time Mana regeneration. For a player comparing this branch, the relevant choices are pet state, Sting upkeep and kill timing.

Survival: traps, parry and Mongoose Bite

Survival combines control and melee effects. Entrapment holds targets after a trap triggers, Deterrence raises Dodge and Parry for its duration, and Counterattack requires Deterrence and becomes active after parrying. Clever Traps improves the duration of Freezing and Frost Trap effects and the damage of Immolation and Explosive Trap effects.

The deeper path changes the melee identity. Expose Prey gives attacks against Hunter’s Mark targets a chance to activate Mongoose Bite. Lacerating Strikes requires two points in Expose Prey and adds a bleed to Mongoose Bite. Predator’s Edge increases melee critical damage and off-hand damage, while Survivalist’s Discipline reduces Trap and Deterrence cooldowns. The rank-2 text for Survivalist’s Discipline contains an unresolved $m% placeholder in the raw response, so that value stays out of this guide.

What Blizzard has confirmed, and what remains open

The What’s Next recap places Hunter among the classes both Skyborne factions can choose. The Deep Dive adds Human Hunter to the confirmed new combinations but does not publish a complete Hunter talent list, weapon matrix or role comparison. The Hunter calculator and observed talent response provide the tree names, talent descriptions and prerequisite links used here.

Wowhead describes this calculator as reconstructed from BlizzCon testing and streams before beta datamining was available, and warns that damage numbers may vary. The beta build must verify the pet, hawk, Sting and Survivalist’s Discipline behavior before any build recommendation is defensible.

Use the Hunter class page and Forever class index for the confirmed roster. The Warrior guide covers a direct Rage and weapon tree, while the Rogue guide follows combo points and stealth. The character-creation overview lists Skyborne faction paths and the six new race-and-class combinations.