WoW Forever Hunter Guide

The Hunter in WoW: Forever is still the long-range damage class with a pet, but pets, traps and talents are all reworked. Aimed Shot is baseline, traps can be laid in combat, every pet family has a unique ability, and you can even choose to play without a pet. This page summarizes Blizzard’s official class deep dive.

Plan your build: the WoW Forever Hunter talent calculator uses the full talent trees from the game client’s own data, with every rank, row requirement and tooltip.

Human Hunters are one of the six new race and class combinations in Forever.

Baseline changes every Hunter gets

• Aimed Shot is baseline at level 20 instead of a talent.
• Multi-Shot now shares a cooldown with Aimed Shot, while Arcane Shot no longer does.
• Traps can be used in combat, but their cooldown rises to 30 seconds. Frost and Fire traps have separate cooldowns. Traps are still placed at your own location.
• Aspect of the Beast also gives melee Attack Power.
• Disengage removes twice as much threat.
• Scorpid Sting now lowers the target’s chance to hit by 2% instead of reducing Strength and Agility.

Pets in Forever

• Pets gain stats based on your gear, and they can no longer receive player buffs that raise their stats.
• Every family can learn Bite or Claw (some both) and Dive or Dash.
• Foxes are a new pet family with Trickster’s Dance, which raises the pet’s dodge and attack speed for 12 seconds.
• Each family has one ability unique to it:

Family	Unique ability
Bat	Sonic Blast: damage and a spellcasting slow
Bear	Swipe: hits 3 targets
Bird of Prey (formerly Owl)	Mine!: damage and disarm
Boar	Charge: charge and root the target, then a stronger next attack
Carrion Bird	Demoralizing Screech: area damage and lower enemy melee Attack Power
Cat	Prowl: stealth and a stronger opener
Crab	Pinch: damage and a movement slow
Crocolisk	Dismember: damage and 50% less healing received
Fox (new)	Trickster’s Dance: more dodge and attack speed
Gorilla	Thunderstomp: area damage
Hyena	Tendon Rip: slow plus a bleed
Raptor	Savage Rend: bleed
Scorpid	Poison: stacking damage over time
Spider	Web: root plus damage over time
Tallstrider	Dust Cloud: lowers armor
Turtle	Shell Shield: less damage taken and slower attacks for 12 seconds
Wind Serpent	Lightning Breath: 20-yard ranged attack
Wolf	Furious Howl: party melee Attack Power

Talent structure

Talents start at level 10 with gold medal talents at 11, 16 (new), 21 and 31 points. Respec at a class trainer in a major city; Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40.

Beast Mastery

• Summon Hawk (new 16-point gold medal): instant damage and a Hawk that attacks your target for 18 seconds; up to 2 Hawks at once; shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
• Focused Fire (new): more damage for you and your pet while the pet is out.
• Deadly Aspects (formerly Improved Aspect of the Hawk) also supports melee attack speed with Aspect of the Beast.
• Endurance Training now also includes Thick Hide’s armor bonus. Aspect of the Monkey gives twice the dodge and shares half with your pet.
• Intimidation now requires Bestial Swiftness and makes the pet’s next attack far more likely to crit.
• Bestial Discipline also lets you regenerate mana from Spirit while casting.
• Improved Eyes of the Beast is now baseline.

Marksmanship

• Lone Wolf (new 11-point gold medal): 20% more damage while you have no active pet.
• Trueshot Aura moves up to the 21-point gold medal with new lower-level ranks.
• Sniper Shot (new 31-point gold medal): a 4-second cast, 15-second cooldown shot that hits harder than Aimed Shot, with 45-yard base range, and extends the range of your next 3 shots by 10 yards.
• Careful Aim (new): Attack Power from Intellect. Rapid Killing and Rapid Recuperation (new) tie Rapid Fire and mana regeneration to kills and Serpent Sting.
• Lethal Attacks and Improved Stings move earlier; Efficiency discounts stings and melee too.
• Barrage now also boosts Aimed Shot.
• Improved Hunter’s Mark and Aimed Shot are now baseline.

Survival

• Survival now supports a melee Hunter build.
• Counterattack becomes the 16-point gold medal; Strider Kick (new 21-point gold medal) is an instant weapon attack that adds 30% movement speed for 3 seconds; Lacerating Strikes (new 31-point gold medal) makes Mongoose Bite leave a bleed.
• Improved Tracking (new) replaces Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying: more damage against whatever creature type you are tracking.
• Savage Strikes boosts all melee damage; Predator’s Edge adds crit damage and off-hand damage when dual-wielding; Expose Prey can activate Mongoose Bite.
• Resourcefulness (new) merges Wyvern Sting, Killer Instinct and Improved Feign Death and lowers the cost of traps and melee abilities.

Strengths and weaknesses, according to Blizzard

Hunters only fill one role, damage, but their pet can tank in solo and small group play. They have the longest range of any class. Their ranged attacks are unavailable in the “dead zone” within 8 yards of the target, they cannot stun or interrupt, and traps can only be placed where you stand. The talent trees let you specialize in ranged combat, in your pet, in playing with no pet at all, or in moving between ranged and melee.

What is not confirmed yet

• Which beasts belong to which family and where to tame them in Forever. We will add a pet list once it can be checked in game.
• Exact per-level damage and healing numbers in some talent tooltips; these scale with your character, so our Hunter talent calculator shows them as formulas or dashes.
• Gear lists for Hunters, which depend on launch and on raids opening December 9.

Related guides

• Hunter talent calculator
• All WoW Forever classes
• Race and class combinations
• Class picker tool
• Camping system