The end of an expansion is always a common time for players to be leveling alts, and of course there are always those Johnny-Come-Lately players that join the game long after the party’s already well under way that could benefit from a bit of direction. We’ve received questions recently about where to spend your first talent points and far be it from us to leave you guys hanging!

You’ve made your way through the starting quests, finished up your pet taming quests and now you’ve got a slew of new choices to make. You open up the talent window, you’ve got a whole lot of blanks staring back at you and you’re not sure quite what to do. We’ve got you covered.

Unlike some past MMOs, WoW is extremely forgiving of mistakes, especially at earlier levels. If you’ve already spent your first talent points and you’re afraid you’ve made a mistake, that’s okay. Resetting your talents and starting fresh is extremely easy — visit your local trainer and ask them to reset your talents (there is a small fee involved, and the more often you reset your talents, the more it will cost). That’s all there is to it!

This also means that you’ve got a lot of room at earlier levels for experimentation, and you can decide to use a completely different spec at the end-game when you finally get there from anything you used to level with if you want.

A quick note before we dive right in: these builds are not the end-all-be-all of leveling builds. Some folks take leveling as seriously as others view the end-game and try to squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of leveling that they can. I’m not one of those people; which is not to say there’s anything wrong with that point of view, it’s just not one I share.

I view leveling as a time where you can try a little of this or a little of that and everything’s right in the world as long as you’re having fun doing it. As a result, builds I suggest for leveling will reflect that attitude. These are just builds that I’ve found to be successful in the past and would recommend others try out to see what they like. They may not provide the most efficient leveling experience, but that’s never been my goal. Also, variations of these builds exist for different reasons and are just as valid. I provide these builds as a starting point for players to take and branch out from if they want or stick with if they’re happy doing that. Keep that in mind moving forward, and we’ll get along just fine.

Decide What Kind of Hunter You Are

The first step to deciding where to spend your talents is deciding what kind of Hunter you are. Think of the time you spend leveling like going to college: it’s a time to learn and experiment, and anything goes.

If you rolled a Hunter because you think pets are just the coolest thing since sliced bread and you really want to see what those puppies can do, Beast Mastery might be just what you’re looking for.

If you’re a closet NRA member and blasting folks in the face sounds like a perfect way to spend a sleepy Sunday afternoon, Marksmanship is probably more your bag.

If you’re not sure what the heck you want yet, but you think you might like to try a little bit of everything and you want some added utility to really get a feel for things, Survival is probably a good bet.

The nice thing about playing a Hunter is that our talent trees are pretty self-explanatory, which allows you to spend more time focusing on playing the game and learning the class than worrying about talent choices. Beast Mastery focuses on buffing your pet and improving the synergy between Hunter and pet, Marksmanship focuses on improving ranged weapon damage and performance and Survival focuses on providing utility and increasing your ability to really stretch the limits of what the class is capable of. Choose a spec that reflects what you want to get out of playing your Hunter. Each of the three specs performs very well while leveling, so there’s no reason to avoid a certain spec if it’s really what you want to play.

Building a Spec

Once you’ve decided what kind of Hunter you want to be, that’s when the fun starts. You’ve got a tree in mind that will help you get out there and be somebody, and now you’re looking to figure out where those points would be best spent. It’s a good idea to build a spec with all 71 points mapped out first, and then decide the order in which you’ll work your way into that spec as you level up. Here are a few suggestions, listed in the order you’ll want to spend your talents. There are countless variations of these builds available, and to list them all would take weeks, so I’ll stick to choices that are rather generic across different goals and play-styles. I’m sure folks will provide additional direction in the comments section as well to help.

Beast Mastery (51/17/3)

To really get the most out of your pet, your first points are best spent on talents that will directly benefit your pet either by increasing it’s damage or improving it’s survivability to reduce down-time and increase efficiency. From there, move on to talents that will increase damage output for both you and your pet.

1. 5/5 Endurance Training – This is a talent you won’t need or want at the level cap, but it does help while leveling
2. 3/3 Thick Hide – Again, this is one you won’t want at the level cap, but it’s handy for leveling
3. 2/2 Focused Fire – You’ve gotten some solid survivability buffs to your pet already, but you do want to make sure you and your pet are dealing adequate damage as well, so this one is important
4. Aspect Mastery – Aspects are a big part of playing a Hunter, so this added utility to abilities you’ll have up all the time is important
5. 5/5 Unleashed Fury – Now that we’ve given your pet some added survivability, it’s time to start buffing damage so you can work through mobs (and quests) a bit faster
6. 5/5 Ferocity – Similar to Unleashed Fury, this talent provides a much-needed buff to pet damage
7. Intimidation – Depending on your style of play, you can either get a lot out of this talent in the way of utility or you can use it simply as a stepping stone to bigger and better things
8. 2/2 Improved Mend Pet – We’ve given your pet some added survivability through increased armor and health, but that only gets you so far when you find yourself dealing with numerous mobs simultaneously. This talent will help you keep your furry friend alive and well when things start to look bleak, as they inevitably will from time to time
9. 1/2 Improved Revive Pet – This talent is especially helpful if you level in instances, as it will reduce the downtime spent rezzing your pet (which BM Hunters shouldn’t hesitate to do mid-fight since nearly half your damage comes from your pet)
10. 5/5 Frenzy – Get the most out of your pet’s increased critical strike chance by providing an additional damage buff each time it crits
11. Bestial Wrath – This talent should need no introduction; it’s a corner-stone of every BM build, and there’s a reason for it
12. 3/3 Ferocious Inspiration – You’ve buffed your pet’s damage, now it’s time to buff your own (and your groupmates’)
13. 1/2 Animal Handler – This talent is primarily useful for it’s increase to your pet’s Attack Power, though if you play on a PvP server or like to visit the Battlegrounds as you level, the buff to Master’s Call can also be helpful
14. 5/5 Serpent’s Swiftness – This talent is particularly useful for getting your Steady Shot ability in line with the global cooldown, which will reduce gaps in your shot rotation and increase overall damage output as a result
15. The Beast Within – Like Bestial Wrath, this talent is a must for any BM build
16. 3/3 Cobra Strikes – Guaranteed crits for your pet definitely helps boost your total damage output
17. 2/2 Animal Handler – Previously we placed just 1 point in this talent to get us on to the next tier of the tree; now you can finish filling it in for the extra Attack Power buff for your pet
18. 5/5 Kindred Spirits – Yet another boost to pet damage, which is never a bad thing (and a slight movement speed increase, which some players find handy to have)
19. Beast Mastery – This talent is especially attractive to “pet collectors” who have their eyes on Exotic pets, but even if you’re not after Exotics, the added talent points for your pet will provide a nice boost to utility, survivability or damage depending on your pet

Once you’ve finished putting points into the Beast Mastery tree, you can move on to putting your remaining talents into the Marksmanship and Survival trees.

Marksmanship (7/57/7)

The early Marksmanship tree is integral to most Hunter specs, even at the end-game, so your first points will really give your performance a solid boost. The rest of the tree is geared towards improving the shots you’ve already got to give them the best possible damage output.

1. 5/5 Lethal Shots – Increasing your crit chance with ranged weapons (the only kind you should ever be using!) right off the bat is a great way to start boosting your damage output
2. 5/5 Mortal Shots – You’ve already boosted your chance to crit, now give those extra crits a damage buff to get the most out of them
3. 1/2 Go For the Throat – While pet damage isn’t a primary concern for Marksmanship Hunters, you’ve boosted your crit chance already, so give your pets some benefit from those extra crits by translating them into extra focus your pet can use for more frequent use of special attacks or abilities (like Growl to help them keep aggro as you solo!)
4. 3/3 Careful Aim – While stacking Intellect isn’t necessary, it is needed to help increase your mana pool so you spend less time using Aspect of the Viper (which decreases your damage output), so you might as well maximize it’s benefit by converting it into Attack Power as well
5. 3/3 Focused Aim – As you level, +Hit Rating can be difficult to come by on items and in classic content you’re not able to gem for it. All those missed shots are costing you damage, so this talent will help get your Hit up until you have more manual control over it
6. 3/5 Efficiency – The benefits of this talent should be fairly obvious: reduced mana cost for your shots means more shots fired before needing to switch to Aspect of the Viper or stopping to drink
7. Readiness – Being able to reset your cooldowns has a lot of potential for utility; for example, you could lay a trap then immediately reset the cooldown and lay another, giving you the ability to temporarily crowd control more mobs simultaneously, which is a handy thing to be able to do (not to mention this talent is required to pick up Trueshot Aura…)
8. 3/3 Improved Arcane Shot – Arcane Shot is a big part of most Hunters’ rotations (with the exception of Survival Hunters with Explosive Shot, which shares a cooldown with Arcane Shot), so buffing the damage dealt by Arcane Shot will provide a non-trivial increase to overall damage output
9. Aimed Shot – This shot is usually considered optional and a lot of builds don’t bother with it, but it can be handy if you PvP, want an extra shot you can fire on the run, or run instances frequently and would like the healing debuff
10. 3/3 Ranged Weapon Specialization – What’s not to like about increased damage for your ranged weapons?
11. 2/2 Combat Experience – Increasing both your Agility and Intellect provides a double boost to your Attack Power, as well as increasing your crit chance and mana pool
12. Trueshot Aura – Long considered the signature of the Marksmanship tree, this party/raid buff scales reasonably well with your gear and is a “set and forget” constant damage boost
13. 3/3 Piercing Shots – Don’t underestimate the power of DoTs (just ask Warlocks how great they are!); Steady Shot should be a regular part of your rotation by now (even if Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot aren’t), so being able to squeeze a little more damage out of it is definitely worth it
14. 1/3 Improved Hunter’s Mark – Hunter’s Mark should always be included in your rotation, the extra damage it provides for a relatively low investment on your part is well worth the trouble; buffing the bonus you receive from it (and reducing the cost), especially while leveling, is a good way to increase damage output with little effort on your part
15. 5/5 Master Marksman – Even more crit chance? Definitely worth it. If that weren’t enough, it also reduces the mana cost of a couple key shots in your rotation which means less time spent in regen mode
16. Silencing Shot – This is another optional shot; what makes it particularly useful while leveling is that it makes pulling casters to you a lot easier, whether you’re soloing or running instances; additionally, it’s handy to have if you’re on a PvP server or like to run Battlegrounds occasionally
17. 3/3 Improved Steady Shot – Again, because Steady Shot is a regular part of your rotation, getting added benefits from using it seems like a no-brainer
18. 1/3 Wild Quiver – Free shots just from using Auto Shot (which can no longer be clipped by other shots in your rotation)? Yes, please.
19. 5/5 Marked For Death – If you didn’t already have enough reason to use Hunter’s Mark, this talent would do it; it increases the damage dealt on shots and special abilities by you and your pet against marked targets
20. Chimera Shot – If the extra shot damage weren’t enough to pique your interest, this shot does a whole lot more than just that: it refreshes your stings (which means less mana spent doing so manually and eliminates the chance you might forget to refresh your stings) and also applies an additional effect depending on the sting you currently have active on the target

With your remaining points, finish filling in Efficiency, Improved Hunter’s Mark and Wild Quiver and then move on to the Beast Mastery and Survival trees.

Survival (2/14/55)

The first half of the Survival tree will largely focus on added utility by increasing your survivability and improving your traps, while the later half of the tree will give you major boosts to your damage output.

1. 5/5 Improved Tracking – Our tracking abilities are a big part of what makes us Hunters, why not really put them to work and have them also increase our damage output as well? The trick here, especially for you gatherers (miners and herbalists, I’m looking at you), is to remember to switch our tracking appropriately which can sometimes be difficult while leveling when you’re trying to track nodes to make some cash
2. 2/2 Survival Instincts – While the incoming damage reduction can be nice while leveling, the real benefit from this talent is the added crit chance for Steady and Arcane or Explosive Shot
3. 3/3 Trap Mastery – This is purely a utility talent, increasing the effectiveness of your traps, which is especially helpful if you’re trying to test your limits and need some added crowd control or damage
4. 5/5 Survivalist – The extra health is handy, especially while leveling, but what we really want from this talent is access to Hunter vs. Wild later on
5. 3/3 Lock and Load – This talent is one of the corner stones of a high-damage Survival build and gives a huge damage boost when it procs; it’s especially great in instances that require crowd control, because your Freezing Trap ability will automatically trigger it
6. 3/3 T.N.T. – While this talent is of questionable benefit at early levels (unless you’re using Explosive Trap frequently, which many do), it really shines once you pick up Black Arrow and Explosive Shot
7. 3/3 Hunter vs. Wild – This talent provides a lot of potential for increasing your damage output whenever you also increase your survivability (and that of your pet) by increasing your Stamina; as a result, picking up this talent makes the extra Stamina from Survivalist totally worth the points spent
8. 3/3 Killer Instinct – More frequent crits always provide a damage increase, and as an added bonus, this talent will provide access to Noxious Stings further down the tree
9. 5/5 Lightning Reflexes – So much of a Hunter’s effectiveness is based on Agility and the other stats Agility also increases (like Attack Power and Crit Chance), so spending points in a talent that will help increase your Agility scaling is well worth it
10. Wyvern Sting – While this shot is useful under certain circumstances (it’s handy in PvP and provides back-up crowd control when needed), the real reason we want it is for access to Noxious Stings later on; if you end up using it frequently, more power to you (it can be helpful to have), but if not, that’s okay too
11. 2/3 Expose Weakness – This talent was a lot more attractive when it was the Survival tree’s version of Trueshot Aura, acting as a raid-wide damage buff, but it’s benefit to our personal damage now isn’t anything to scoff at; all three points aren’t necessary, but a couple are definitely worth the trouble
12. 5/5 Master Tactician – This talent isn’t quite as beneficial at lower levels where players aren’t likely to be hit-capped, but it does provide a non-trivial damage boost through increased crit chance on hits that don’t miss (and Focused Aim will help with this, when you get it)
13. Black Arrow – This shot is a primary piece of the Survival rotation, particularly once you get out of content that favors crowd control (so you’re not getting Lock and Load procs from Freezing Trap anymore) and need something else to provide damage and get those procs up
14. 3/3 Noxious Stings – Finally we’ve got access to Noxious Stings; the aspect of this talent pertaining to Wyvern Sting is really only beneficial in PvP, what we’re really after is the added damage on targets affected by Serpent Sting (which should be any single target you’re attacking!)
15. 3/3 Thrill of the Hunt – Aside from all those crits providing increased damage, give ‘em legs and really put ‘em to work! The mana regen on crits from this talent will significantly reduce your time spent in Aspect of the Viper
16. 3/3 Sniper Training – While we tend to do quite a bit of moving and shaking in raids, in regular five man instances and as we solo we’re frequently afforded the luxury of standing still; this talent will help increase your damage output even more when you do get the chance to plant your feet and let ‘em have it
17. Explosive Shot – This shot is the bread and butter of the Survival build and the majority of our damage (and talents) are tailored to really make it cook
18. 3/3 Resourcefulness – Reducing the mana cost and cooldowns of your traps and Black Arrow will not only increase your utility, but also your damage output when you’re able to fire Black Arrow more frequently giving you more damage from that single shot itself and also having more opportunities for Lock and Load to proc giving you more Explosive Shots
19. 1/3 Hunting Party – The big thing from this talent for solo players is the increased Agility that provides synergy with so many other talents in the tree, the mana regen for you and your groupmates is just icing on the cake

Once you’ve finished putting points into the Survival tree, you can move on to putting your remaining talents into the Marksmanship and Beast Mastery trees.

Final Notes

Remember: these aren’t “the absolute bestest most leetest” leveling builds out there. Far from it, most likely. These sample builds are intended as exactly that: a sampling of what’s possible for each tree as you level that you can use to experiment with as you learn the class and what you like most about it.

My recommendation is to try at least one build featuring each of the three trees so you can get a feel for what Hunters are truly capable of and what you like best about them. Each tree favors a different flavor and style of play, and no single build is right for everyone. The time you spend leveling is intended for you to learn how the class is played, what all our abilities do and what you really like best about it. Don’t get bogged down by obsession with what’s “best” or “fastest”, at least not yet. You’ve got plenty of time for that once you reach the level cap! Use your time leveling to have fun (whatever that means for you) and learning the class.

If you’ve got a build that you’ve used for leveling that you really liked, tell us about it in the comments!

Happy Hunting!