- Author: Jamielolx
- Date: July 14, 2022
- Updated: July 14, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
Horde has Alliance beat in terms of racials for Beastmaster, in particular, Orc will beat out any other race by a landslide due to increased pet damage. and having their on-use racial be the perfect priority stat for Beastmaster, this will all be explained in this section.
Horde
Orc is the best race for BM Hunter by a landslide, both their offensive racials (Blood Fury and Command) are utilized to the fullest by this spec.
It’s not even a competition — Orcs get 5% extra pet damage and an Attack Power on-use effect that syncs up with your pet cooldowns. Meanwhile your pet eats up Attack Power for breakfast, making it a monster.
- Blood Fury is an on-use spell that increases your Attack Power and scales with your level. At level 80 it will provide +322 attack power for 15 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. The fact that this is an on-use ability means you can freely stack it up with Beast Within and Bestial Wrath. Its 2-minute cooldown makes it perfect for BM Hunters, allowing us to stack it with multiple cooldowns every time.
- Command is a very powerful racial, that keeps on scaling and will get on par with Blood Fury.
- Axe Specialization increases your expertise by 5. This talent is not useful for hunters.
- Hardiness is an incredible PvP racial, as Hunters can get killed fairly easily if they get stunned. Sadly, it’s not as relevant in PvE, as there aren’t many stuns this passive can help you with.
Trolls are #2 for Horde hunters. Thanks to Berserking, you at least have the offensive racial ability, but overall efficacy doesn’t even get close to Orcs, however. The only fights I can see it beat out Orcs is on Maexxna and Northrend Beasts. this is because they count as the ”Beast” class which Troll do 5% more damage against due to Beast Slaying.
- Berserking is an on-use spell that offers +20% increased attack speed for 10 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. The fact that this is an on-use ability has big implications for burst phases / stacking your cooldowns. However, the 3-minute cooldown is a bit awkward for us, as it does not sync with any of our other cooldowns. Haste is not a powerful stat for us, making this racial anything but solid anyway.
- Beast Slaying increases your damage dealt to Beast-type enemies by 5%, which is very powerful. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of Beasts in Wrath of the Lich King, especially inside raids, making this racial not too impressive in practice.
- Da Voodoo Shuffle passively reduces the duration of movement slowing & immobilizing effects on you by 15%. Generally mostly a PvP racial, but it can occasionally come in handy in PvE as well.
- Bow Specialization and Throwing Specialization increase your critical strike chance with bows & throwing weapons by 1%. A neat little bonus, but nothing major when you compare it to Orcs
- Regeneration increases health regeneration by 10% and allows you to regenerate health during combat at 10% of your normal regeneration rate. BM Hunters don’t have any active health regeneration unless you spec into spirit bond, (it does not apply to healing effects, like potions, just health regeneration) thus this talent is only relevant while leveling or questing.
Besides being cute and having sort of a free mana pot, racial Blood Elves don’t bring much more to the table for BM Hunters.
- Arcane Torrent is an on-use spell on a 2 minute cooldown that silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds, while also restoring a small portion of your mana. The silence effect can be useful in dungeons and PvP, but most bosses are unfortunately immune to silence. The mana restoration component is handy, though it isn’t much.
- Magic Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Magic spells by 2%. This essentially combines all the various Resistance-type racials out there, making it surprisingly flexible. Still, its benefit is mostly neglectable in PvE, while being alright in PvP.
- Arcane Affinity increases your initial and maximum Enchanting skill by 15. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
Despite a few neat racials, Tauren ultimately doesn’t have much to offer BM hunters.
- Endurance increases base health by 5% — meaning your natural health at level 80, without your extra health or stamina from equipment, buffs, etc. This can help you survive slightly better than other Hunter races, but only marginally so.
- War Stomp gives you an on-use AoE stun with a 2-minute cooldown. you’ll very rarely use it in PvE, though in PvP it can be very useful.
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Cultivation increases your initial Herbalism skill by 15., this is a nifty little quality of life improvement.
Alliance, while having weaker objective racials do have a larger variety to pick from for their ”Best in Slot race” – you can honestly pick any class and be fine but my advice if you’re purely looking for usefulness and not looks I would go with Draenei – other classes do have a favorite when it comes to races. so having a hunter be Draenei will be an excellent perk for your raid group.
Alliance
Dwarf is a good pick primarily for Phase 1 because there is a big presence of guns.
- Gun Specialization increases your critical strike chance with guns by 1%. This is the reason you pick Dwarf. Phase 1 is full of guns, so you’ll get a decent benefit out of this racial, though later phases tend to favor other weapons, meaning Dwarves unfortunately fall off.
- Stoneform is an on-use spell that gives you +10% increased armor for 8 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. This only helps in a handful of fights.
- Frost Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Find Treasure is a fun RP / questing racial, which unfortunately does not benefit you in the slightest in raids.
- Mace Specialization increases your expertise by 5 when using maces. As Hunters attack with their ranged weapons almost exclusively, this racial is unfortunately almost completely pointless.
Draenei is another great pick for Beast Mastery Hunters and could be argued to be the best race for a Hunter thanks to the amazing Heroic Presence racial. However, let’s be honest here — you’re mostly picking Draenei for the female Draenei crossbow animation — the racial buff is just a bonus.
- Heroic Presence increases the chance to hit with spells and physical attacks by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards. Every single DPS group will want to have at least 1 Draenei for this powerful buff, and Hunters are a great choice for Heroic Presence provider as their other races don’t provide much of a benefit anyway.
- Gift of the Naaru places a heal-over-time effect on a single target that lasts 15 seconds, with a 3 minute cooldown. This can help save your life occasionally, and may even come in clutch with healing the tank during a high damage period, but it’s generally not a great racial, it does scale with gear however.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Gemcutting increases your initial Jewelcrafting skill by 5. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
Although the difference is minimal, I would not recommend Night Elves for Beast Mastery. Their agility being higher doesn’t matter as much compared to for example the Survival or Marksmanship specs.
- Quickness reduces the chance you’ll be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 2%. This does nothing.
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Shadowmeld can be used in order to escape combat and become stealthed once every 2 minutes. It will also cause you to drop all threat on every target you’re currently engaged in combat with, but all threat will be restored the moment you leave stealth – essentially a 2nd Feign Death.
- Elusiveness reduces the chance to be detected if you are stealthed. The only way to go stealth as a Hunter is through Shadowmeld, making it more of a Rogue/Druid racial.
- Wisp Spirit increases your movement speed by 75% while dead. You could take a bathroom break with the time saved I guess?
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