WoW: ForeverCGN planner & guide
Hunter class art

Class guide

Hunter

Ranged damage with a tamed pet at your side. Humans can finally be Hunters.

Blizzard Confirmed Beta BuildCGN checked October 7, 2026

Races that can play Hunter

Horde

  • Orc
  • Tauren
  • Troll
  • Skyborne (Windshaper)

Alliance

  • Dwarf
  • Human New combination
  • Night Elf
  • Skyborne (High Order)

Skyborne: Windshaper (Horde), High Order (Alliance). Skyborne guide →

CGN does not rank races for this class yet. Every race has two active and two passive racials in Forever, and Blizzard reworked most of them.

Full race and class table →

Blizzard Confirmed Blizzard, Sep 22, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Sep 22, 2026 ↗

What changed from Classic

Ranged damage with a pet, now with Aimed Shot as a baseline ability, traps you can use in combat, and a Fox pet family. Blizzard's identity line: one combat role (damage), the longest range of any class, a dead zone inside 8 yards, and no stun or interrupt.

Baseline changes

  • Aimed Shot is baseline for every Hunter at level 20. Arcane Shot no longer shares a cooldown with it, and Multi-Shot now does.
  • Traps can be used in combat, but their cooldown rose to 30 seconds. Frost and fire traps have separate cooldowns.
  • Disengage's threat reduction doubled. Aspect of the Beast also gives melee attack power. Scorpid Sting lowers the target's chance to hit by 2% instead of its Strength and Agility.
  • Pets get stats from the Hunter's gear and can no longer receive player stat buffs. Foxes join as a new family (Trickster's Dance: more dodge and attack speed for 12 seconds).
  • Every pet family can learn Bite or Claw, and Dive or Dash, plus one ability unique to the family (for example Bat Sonic Blast, Boar Charge, Crocolisk Dismember, Wolf Furious Howl, Turtle Shell Shield).

By talent tree

Beast Mastery

  • Summon Hawk (new, 16 points): instant damage and a hawk that attacks your target for 18 seconds. You can have two hawks out, and it shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot.
  • Focused Fire (new): more damage for you and your pet while the pet is active. Deadly Aspects (formerly Improved Aspect of the Hawk) now also helps melee while Aspect of the Beast is on.
  • Endurance Training absorbed Thick Hide. Intimidation now needs Bestial Swiftness and gives the pet 100% more crit chance on its next attack. Improved Eyes of the Beast is baseline.

Marksmanship

  • Lone Wolf (new, 11 points): 20% more damage with all attacks while you have no pet. Trueshot Aura moved to row 4 as the 21-point talent.
  • Careful Aim (new) turns Intellect into attack power. Rapid Killing (new) rewards killing something with your Serpent Sting on it.
  • Sniper Shot (new, 31 points): a 4-second-cast shot that hits harder than Aimed Shot and extends the range of your next three shots. Improved Hunter's Mark and Aimed Shot became baseline.

Survival

  • Strider Kick (new, 21 points): an instant weapon attack that also gives 30% movement speed for 3 seconds. Lacerating Strikes (new, 31 points) makes Mongoose Bite apply a 21-second bleed.
  • Counterattack moved up and is now a 16-point talent. Predator's Edge (new) adds melee crit damage and off-hand damage. Resourcefulness (new) merged three older talents and cuts the Mana cost of traps and melee abilities.
  • Improved Tracking merged the slaying talents. Savage Strikes now adds melee damage across the board. Survivalist's Discipline (new) shortens trap and Deterrence cooldowns.

Blizzard Confirmed Blizzard, Sep 30, 2026 ↗ (summarized in CGN's words; the Blizzard article has the full list)

Blizzard says class abilities and talents may keep changing during the beta. Where a later beta build changed something, the beta section below has it.

How talents work: Talents start at level 10 and keep Classic's rows. One-point milestone talents sit at 11, 21 and 31 points spent, and a new 16-point milestone was added. Some talents are unchanged from patch 1.12, some are changed, and some class buffs that used to be talents (Blessing of Kings, Improved Mark of the Wild, Divine Spirit) are now baseline. To respec, including Legacy talents, visit a class trainer in a major city. Dual Specialization arrives at level 40.

Talent trees and milestone talents

Each tree has one-point milestone talents. This table is built from the same beta talent data as the planner (October 1 build, with Blizzard's October 8 talent changes). A level 30 character has 21 talent points (one per level from 10 to 30), so the 31-point talents are out of reach at the beta cap. The Legacy perk Talented can unlock talent points up to five levels earlier.

Hunter milestone talents
Tree11 points16 points (new)21 points31 points
Beast MasteryBestial SwiftnessSummon HawkIntimidationBestial WrathOut of reach at level 30
MarksmanshipLone WolfTrueshot AuraScatter ShotSniper ShotOut of reach at level 30
SurvivalDeterrenceCounterattackStrider KickLacerating StrikesOut of reach at level 30

Open Hunter in the planner

Beta Data Blizzard, Oct 1, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 8, 2026 ↗ (talent data is Icy Veins' calculator data for the October 1 build, with the October 8 talent changes from Blizzard's notes)

Tier placement at level 30

These are Wowhead's October 6 level-30 beta placements, verified on October 7 and shown on CGN's tier lists. Wowhead groups several DPS classes at this level bracket, and CGN expands those class placements across the applicable DPS trees. Level-30 Beta Rankings: not level-60 launch or raid rankings.

Hunter tier placement at level 30
SpecDPSHealerTank
Beast Mastery HunterSDPS listNot rankedNot ranked
Marksmanship HunterSDPS listNot rankedNot ranked
Survival HunterSDPS listNot rankedNot ranked

Community Observation Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ · Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ · Wowhead, Oct 6, 2026 ↗ (Wowhead's terms bar automated reading; see the tier lists page for how CGN handles that)

Level-30 builds

CGN publishes one 21-point level-30 build per role-spec, each decoded from Icy Veins' level-30 guides and validated against the planner data.

Hunter level-30 builds
SpecRoleSummary
Beast Mastery HunterDPSThe best Hunter leveling spec at 30: Deadly Aspects for haste procs, then Unleashed Fury and Summon Hawk.See the build →
Marksmanship HunterDPSA 21-point Marksmanship build for dungeon AoE (Lone Wolf, Trueshot Aura). For questing, Icy Veins says to play the Beast Mastery build instead.See the build →
Survival HunterDPSIcy Veins calls Survival the weakest Hunter spec to level at 30; this build makes it a workable melee spec with Predator's Edge and Strider Kick.See the build →

A build here is not "best in slot": CGN has not validated a full item pool at the beta cap.

Beta changes so far

October 8 build (Oct 8, 2026)

  • Disengage now reduces threat twice as much, as intended.
  • Pets no longer gain health over and over when low.
  • Beast Mastery: Unleashed Fury now increases your pet's damage.
  • Marksmanship: Improved Concussive Shot triggers at the correct chance.
  • Survival: Expose Prey lasts 10 seconds (was 5).
  • Survival: Entrapment has diminishing returns and triggers only on Frost Trap's first activation, not periodically.
  • Survival: Improved Wing Clip triggers at the correct chance, and less often with ranks far below your level.

October 1 build (updated October 2) (Oct 1, 2026)

  • Marksmanship: the Improved Stings icon was changed to feel more like the original game.
  • Marksmanship: Sniper Shot, the 31-point talent, now has a 45-yard range and adds 10 yards to your next 3 shots within 10 seconds.
  • Survival: the Predator's Edge icon was changed to feel more like the original game.
  • Survival: Deflection gives 1/2/3/4/5% parry (it was 2/4/6/8/10%).
  • Pets: Aggressive Mode is back, found under the pet tab of the spellbook. Blizzard's note: Some tameable beasts had pet ability ranks that were too high for their level. Those were fixed, and a pet may appear to have forgotten an ability.

September 24 build (Sep 24, 2026)

  • Pets: Furious Howl's attack power bonus was cut by 40%. Sonic Blast now works for Bat pets. Tame Beast no longer works on beasts above the Hunter's level.
  • Marksmanship: talenting out of Lone Wolf no longer leaves a -4% damage penalty while your pet is out.
  • Survival: Lacerating Strikes can land critical hits. Strider Kick now gives 30% movement speed for 3 seconds.

Every change, by build → · Known issues →

Beta Build Blizzard, Sep 24, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 1, 2026 ↗ · Blizzard, Oct 8, 2026 ↗

Open or promised beta issues that mention Hunter

  • The Cooldown Manager is still a work in progress, and how complete it is varies by class. Banes and curses do not track after you drop and re-acquire a target, Healthstone, Arcane Blast, pet cooldowns and item enhancements (Windfury, rogue poisons) cannot be tracked, a Mana gem needs another spell cast to start tracking, and Priest tracks all spells by default.
  • Hunters with the Ferocity talent don't see their pet's higher critical strike chance on the character sheet. Display only.
  • Warlock pets do not show Mana on the character sheet or their scaling from the master. Work in progress.
  • Warlock pets show the wrong Health-from-Stamina scaling on the character sheet. Work in progress.
  • Pet hit chance for Hunters and Warlocks does not show the master's scaling coefficient.
  • Pet Expertise is not shown for Hunters and Warlocks.
  • Pet movement speed on the character sheet does not show the right base values in yards per second.
  • Skyborne Druid Bear and Travel Forms have their updated textures, but Skyborne Cat Form, various Zephras Isle creatures and some mounts, pets and other creatures get theirs in a later build.

What we don't know yet

  • How Hunter compares at level 60: the beta cap is 30 and the 31-point talents cannot be tested yet.
  • Final abilities and talents, which Blizzard says may change during the beta.

Sources on this page

Labels: Blizzard Confirmed Beta Build Beta Data Developer Interview Press Report Community Observation Survey / Concept Only Not Yet Known