Hunters in World of Warcraft offer a great variety of abilities, heightened mobility, and some cool pets, too.
Each one of the Hunter specs offers something unique for World of Warcraft fans to enjoy, and I personally love playing as them. I have a BM Hunter who I tend to PVP with, and she’s one of my favorite characters on my account.
Before we get into the rankings of which Hunter spec is the best in Dragonflight, it is worth noting that the most important thing to consider when picking a spec is to pick one that you genuinely enjoy. No matter how viable a spec is for PVP or PVE, if you dislike the rotation, you’ll burn out and lose interest.
There are some Hunter specializations that are better suited for certain areas of the game.
To help you pick the one that best suits your needs, I’ve put together this guide on the best Hunter spec in Dragonflight.
Best Hunter Specialization for Solo Leveling
If this was a ranking of which classes were ideal for solo leveling, Hunter would be an S-tier class without a doubt. It’s solo player-friendly, with great survivability and the ability to take down tricky mobs without having to get too close.
Out of all the specs, though, Beast Mastery stands out as the best for a quick, smooth solo leveling experience.
The main reason for this is the variety of pets on offer. BM pets can take a lot of damage and deal it too, with unique abilities that can help with other aspects of leveling, like additional movement speed.
Call of the Wild and Dire Beast are both punchy moves that center around cool wild animals, and they can be a lot of help when trying to take on larger groups of mobs, too.
Beast Mastery Hunters also have some great defensives and utility-based abilities that can help with solo leveling, too.
Survival of the Fittest and Fortitude of the Bear are great damage mitigation abilities, the combination of Natural Mending and Exhilaration can be a lifesaver, and Binding Shot can be a great way to control foes.
Beast Mastery Hunters are incredibly mobile and they specialize in single-target damage, making them perfect for solo leveling. It’s my preferred spec to level Hunters with, and I’d highly recommend picking it. Most importantly, it’s a lot of fun to play.
Best Arena PVP Hunter Spec
If you take a look at the most popular Arena comps that feature Hunters, you’ll see a lot of Survival Hunters with Marksmanship Hunters following closely in popularity. Survival Hunters play a key role in the popular comps Jungle and Thugcleave, and they’re great for team fights.
One of the main reasons why Survival Hunters are so effective in Arenas is their single-target damage output. Abilities like Mongoose Bite and Flanking Strike are powerful, and abilities like Ranger can add an immense amount of strength to your attacks.
Survival Hunters also offer some great AoE attacks that can be useful for multi-target damage. Wildfire Bomb and Butchery can both be great in Arenas if you time them properly, especially if you have a talent like Guerrilla Tactics selected in your talent tree to give you extra charges for Wildfire Bomb.
There are some great modifiers to be aware of with Survival Hunters too, including Spearhead and Tip of the Spear. Having several punchy modifiers and passive abilities active in an Arena is a simple yet effective way to gain an advantage over an enemy.
Survival Hunters offer great mobility and utility, too. They do require a good level of pet management for damage and resources, but it’s well worth the effort for Arenas.
Best Hunter Spec for PVP Battlegrounds
My recommendation for the best Hunter spec for Battlegrounds would be Survival again. Marksmanship would be a close second, though, and I’d encourage PVP Hunters to spend some time checking that spec out as well.
I’ve already detailed how Survival Hunters have effective damage output and passive abilities, but it’s worth noting how they have some great DoT abilities that can be super helpful in a team fight. Viper’s Venom is a powerful poison-based move that fans of Rogue specs will enjoy, and Wildfire Infusion can do a lot of damage, too.
Something that makes Survival Hunters stand out as a pick for Battlegrounds is their range. It sounds simple but it can make all the difference, in my opinion. Moves like Aspect of the Eagle and Lunge can help you defeat enemies who are on the move much easier, and they work very well in a Battleground environment.
My main Hunter spec recommendations for most things in Dragonflight will be Beast Mastery or Survival, but I would push Battleground fans to check out Marksmanship, too. It’s a lot of fun to play in a BG, and has some unique abilities that the other specs don’t have.
Moves like Trueshot in the Marksmanship Hunter talent tree can be incredibly powerful in a Battleground, especially with an ability like Eagletalon’s True Focus.
Marksmanship Hunters excel with burst damage and cleave damage, if there are smaller stacks of foes, making them very useful for team fights in Battlegrounds.
While Survival would still be my main recommendation for Battlegrounds, Marksmanship is also viable and worth checking out for PVP fans, too. Marksmanship is definitely geared towards RBGs more than Arenas at the time of writing, so this is the best area of the game to try it out in.
Strongest Hunter Solo Shuffle Spec
Solo Shuffle battles require specs with strong damage output, self-reliance and survivability, and the flexibility to fit into a number of comps. Beast Mastery offers this in spades.
With the right pet and some strong gear, BM Hunters can take complete control of a Solo Shuffle line-up. They’re one of the most popular specs in the Solo Shuffle scene right now, mainly thanks to their mobility and ability to deal consistent damage while staying on the move.
The wide variety of pets that Beast Mastery Hunters can tame also come in handy during Solo Shuffle battles. The more niche Exotic pets like Clefthooves and Stone Hounds have great damage mitigation abilities and self-heals respectively, which can make them incredibly hard to take down in a fast-paced fight.
Something else that’s great about BM Hunters for Solo Shuffle is that they’re not overly reliant on waiting for cooldowns. They’re able to consistently stay on top of enemies, giving teammates time to recover mana or heal up where needed.
Marksmanship would be a close second when it comes to picking the best Hunter spec for Solo Shuffle queues but, in general, Beast Mastery is the best one to go for.
Best Hunter Specialization for PVE
The main Hunter specialization that I’d recommend for PVE is Beast Mastery. Beast Mastery is very popular in Dragonflight right now, and it’s easy to see why.
One of the main reasons why BM Hunters are elite for Raids and M+ Dungeons right now is that they bring plenty of utility to the table.
Primal Rage boosts Haste for the party by 30% for 10 seconds, which can speed up boss fights immensely, and Tranquilizing Shot can remove Enrage and Magic effects from a target, too. This immediately adds extra value to the spec.
BM Hunter mobility was mentioned earlier but it’s worth bringing up again. Unlike other ranged specs from classes like Warlocks and Mages, BM Hunters are hardly impacted by movement requirements at all and can use most of their abilities while on the go. This makes them very handy for completing additional raid mechanics.
With emergency defensive mechanics and solid pets to pick from, what’s not to love? Beast Mastery Hunters do have some issues to counter (namely, the inability to spread damage amongst non-stacked enemies) and pet AI can be fiddly, but they’re exceptional in PVE nonetheless.
Best Hunter Spec for Soloing Old Content
Beast Mastery Hunters have got a lot of love in this article, and for good reason. It’s an immensely fun spec that can fit a wide variety of situations with ease. While every Hunter spec is arguably a good pick for soloing old content, I would advise picking Beast Mastery over the other two Hunter specs.
The main reason for this is simply the focus on pets. Having powerful pets with you when attempting to solo raids and dungeons from past expansions is a great way to mitigate damage and make tricky boss mechanics a lot easier.
Having damage mitigation abilities like Natural Mending and Exhilaration can be very handy as well, especially for content from the previous patch that is still somewhat tricky to solo. Beast Mastery is a spec with a lot of survivability.
You can also find some of the best Hunter pets in the game while soloing old content, making the BM ability to tame Exotic pets very handy.
What to Do After Picking a Spec
Once you’ve decided which Hunter specialization suits you best, there’s a few things you can do to help make your gameplay experience smoother.
If you’re leveling a brand new Hunter, pick up a good Hunter pet in your starting zone and check out some speed leveling methods to help you get to end-game content.
If you’re interested in doing PVE, make sure to start off with the easier dungeons and M+ dungeons as you level to give yourself time to get used to the spec. If PVP is your jam, start off with standard Battlegrounds and see how you get on.
Hunters are a lot of fun to play and they suit lots of different areas of the game. Whether you’re a competitive raider, dedicated PVP fan, or an avid collector, you’ll be able to use the various Hunter specializations to your advantage.
