BM Hunter’s PvP gameplay can be very enjoyable and effective or very, very frustrating. As a Beastmaster, a good amount of your Hunter power resides within your pet. There are a couple of situations where the BM hunter will shine and a couple where your hunter will be affected. Don’t worry, it takes some time to really learn how to play this spec in a PvP environment.

When it comes to one-on-one PvP scenarios, the BM Hunter will tend to be at a disadvantage, especially when up against a skilled player. Once an enemy knows how to deal with, ignore, or bypass his pet in a one-on-one match, hunters can quickly toast.

If you find yourself in a fight with a finger wag (wizard, balance druid, warlock, etc.), the odds will be in your favor if you can catch the pet quickly. Since the pet is chewing a caster type, you’ll tend to have better pet crit chances and a good chance to interrupt its cast… which is always a good thing. However, when facing a melee type, you will have more problems.

One of the roles that a BM PvP hunter has very well is defending a flag or node on battlegrounds. Take a well equipped BM Hunter along with a Shaman or Druid and you have a very serious combination. With this combo you will have some nice buffs that will help your pet’s crit chance and DPS. The crowd control (CC) this combo offers is also perfect for holding off an attack until help arrives.

The reason you’ll tend to see a lot of BM Hunters in PvP, especially at lower levels, is that a lot of players will level up as a Beastmaster. Starting their toon, they see someone else running around with a huge Red Kitty and think, “That’s great! I’m going to BM!” Naturally, this continues as they explore the battlefields and arena. In fact, a lot of hunters start seriously considering other builds after they’ve run a few BGs with their BM Hunter. After going out a few times, these players decide that PvP just sucks or that they need to change their builds.

Now don’t get me wrong here, running the BGs as a BM is totally doable. I’ve seen some nasty BM hunters causing total mayhem and racking up honor points. You don’t see as many topping the leaderboards as those Hunters running Marksman or a Survival-Marksmen combo, but it happens.

If you enjoy smashing mages and holding your own in BGs, then BM Hunter PvP is something you might want to explore. If you’re more into jumping straight into the fray and going toe-to-toe, dealing tons of damage and screwing people over with traps and CC, you might want to consider a Marksman – Survival Build. Thank you for reading!