Beast Master Leveling Build: Cataclysm

In this article I would like to discuss some leveling builds. With the up and coming expansion I expect a lot of people to want to level up new characters to check out old world content. With the major overhaul to the talent trees you won't be getting talent points every level so I might be a little more difficult to decide where to put things.

One of the first things we need to look at is when we will be acquiring certain spells.

Lets take a look at the Beast Master Tree first. Luckily we receive both Kill Command and Aspect of the Hawk at level 10. As some extra crit on Kill Command won't be that useful we will go ahead and take One With Nature.

Level 10: 1/3 One With Nature
Level 11: 2/3 One With Nature
Level 13: 3/3 One With Nature
Level 15: 1/2 Improved Kill Command
Level 17: 2/2 Improved Kill Command

Next is where you can really pick and choose what you would like to do. In a soloing sense in BM, pet's are your main focus really. So keeping them alive is a pretty big deal. With the new change to mend pet, getting improved mend pet could prove to be essential for pet tanking.

Level 19: 1/2 Improved Mend Pet
Level 21: 2/2 Improved Mend Pet
Level 23: 1/2 Spirit Bond
Level 25: 2/2 Spirit Bond
Level 27 1/3 Frenzy or 1/3 Bestial Discipline

At this point your fights really shouldn't last that long so getting Frenzy and Focus Fire won't be that big of a deal just yet as you would probably not really use Focus Fire.

Level 29: 1/1 Frevor
Level 31: 1/3 Cobra Strikes
Level 33: 2/3 Cobra Strikes
Level 35: 3/3 Cobra Strikes

You will now have Kill Shot. It is an amazing shot with no focus cost and should be used whenever your target is below 20% health.

Level 37: Frenzy or Bestial Discipline, whichever you prefer.

You could do one of each. We'll grab them later anyways.

Level 39: 1/2 Killing Streak
Level 41: 2/2 Killing Streak
Level 43, 45, 47: I would finish out either Frenzy or Bestial Discipline and 2/3 the other. Frankly mobs won't be alive long enough to worry about getting Longevity just yet.

Level 49: 1/1 Bestial Wrath
Level 51: 1/1 Ferocious Inspiration
Level 53: Finish Frenzy or Bestial Discipline
Level 55: 1/3 Longevity
Level 57: 2/3 Longevity
Level 59: 1/1 The Beast Within
Level 61: 1/2 Invigoration
Level 63: 2/2 Invigoration
Level 65: 1/2 Kindred Spirits
Level 67: 2/2 Kindred Spirits
Level 69: 1/1 Beast Mastery

So, at level 69 you will be able to tame your exotic pet. You now have the 31 points needed in one tree to open up the other two. Now that fights are starting to get a bit longer you can go ahead and take Focus Fire.

Level 71: 1/1 Focus Fire
Level 73: 1/2 Go For the Throat
Level 75: 2/2 Go For the Throat
Level 77: 1/2 Rapid Killing

With pet scaling the increase in stamina will help you survival as well as give your pet more health and will improve the amount that mend pets heals also.

Level 79: 1/3 Hunter vs. Wild
Level 81: 2/3 Hunter vs. Wild
Level 82: 3/3 Hunter vs. Wild

At this point you have 3 points left to spend. You could put them into efficiency to help with some focus issues. Add some extra burst damage with Improved Serpent Sting. It's really up to you. Just to finish this out I will put them into Efficiency.

Level 83: 1/3 Efficiency
Level 84: 2/3 Efficiency
Level 85: 3/3 Efficiency

So the final build will look like this.

Please note that this is a leveling guide. Once you reach the max level of 85 you will want to respec into a proper raiding spec for maximum dps. You can check out some viable raiding specs on the Beast Mastery page.