Beast Mastery Tier SetThe 9.2 Beast Mastery Hunter tier set is focused on buffing
杀戮命令. It relies on high
狂放 uptime, which increases both Kill Command and
眼镜蛇射击 damage. The tier set may also vary our talent builds, stats, and legendary choice slightly.
For talents, we'll likely continue to use
血之气息 due to the high uptime of
狂放 required from the 2 piece but we'll likely see a shift to
杀戮眼镜蛇 in single target due to how many more
杀戮命令s it yields. As for stats, we'll likely start to stray away from Critical Strike since we essentially get 45% Critical Strike on our Kill Commands from the 2 piece. This will devalue Critical Strike a fair bit and we'll likely gravitate more towards Haste and Versatility. This is especially true for Kyrian Beast Mastery Hunters who will be severely over Critical Strike cap (100%) during
共鸣箭 windows. Night Fae and Kyrian seem to like the tier set the most, so we'll most likely stay Night Fae for most PvE content. In terms of legendaries and conduits, we may see some new contenders as this highlights some potentially new and interesting builds. The
凶残食欲 conduit in conjunction with the tier set could lead to a very low cooldown of
野性守护. For legendaries, we'll continue to use
飞龙追猎者的刺骨之牙 most likely, but we may be able to use legendaries such as
火妖的眼镜蛇钉刺 or
荒野的召唤 since they synergize well with the tier bonuses.
Things are still up in the air as we haven't actually been able to test the tier sets yet, but the set bonus seems to be fairly decent for Beast Mastery Hunters in single target. Since it strictly buffs
杀戮命令, by nature, the tier set is a very strong single target boost but contributes nothing in AoE. With that said, it's looking like Beast Mastery may just be a single target spec heading into 9.2 with some niche midrange burst damage via Night Fae's
宏角碎片. Other than its mid-range burst, Beast Mastery's AoE is rather lackluster when compared to other specs in AoE.
Marksmanship Tier SetThere's been a lot of confusion going around about the Marksmanship Hunter tier set. Many people are frustrated because they seem to think it's only applicable in AoE. I'm happy to say that that's not the case! The 2 piece is very AoE-centric, but the kicker is the 4 piece. Spending 80 Focus grants 2 charges of
技巧射击, regardless of how many targets are present. That means every ~10 seconds in single target, we gain 2 charges of Trick Shots. Due to the 2 piece, our next two
瞄准射击s or
急速射击s will be buffed by 30%.
So let's break it down, aside from buffing our damage, what does this imply? Gaining
技巧射击 passively means that we will passively be doing AoE damage, without actually forcing our AoE via
多重射击. This also means we don't necessarily need 3 targets present to contribute to AoE. We have
passive 2 target cleave! This also means we won't have to sacrifice single target damage to contribute to AoE, a large issue with Marksmanship AoE presently. Of course, like most tier sets, these bonuses will slightly alter our talents, legendaries, and potentially covenant choice.
One of the coolest synergies we gain from this is
乱射. Volley naturally gives us
技巧射击 which is buffed by the 2 piece. It'll most likely be our go-to talent, even in single-target situations with the tier bonus. The tier set also increases the value of both
行云流水 and
精确瞄准, so we might see a new single target talent setup going forward. In terms of legendaries, we may have a new contender entering the fray. Due to the
急速射击 damage increase,
激涌射击 of course gains value, but we might also be using
无懈警戒之秘. It plays into the tier set bonus quite nicely, as we'll be gaining Trick Shots a ton throughout encounters. Its major drawback is that the
瞄准射击 procs are free, meaning we won't be making use of the 4 piece as often. Finally, let's talk covenant choice. The set bonus heavily benefits Kyrian Marksmanship Hunter, however, there's a caveat. In 9.2, we'll be able to use double legendaries with a requirement that one of those legendaries has to be the covenant legendary. For Kyrian Hunters in specific, we'll be forced to use
灵魂追踪者之契. This means we'll be at a natural disadvantage as the legendary is severely behind the other covenant legendaries (even factoring in its group contribution). So while Kyrian may be the go-to in terms of the tier set, we may end up playing Night Fae or Venthyr just because of how bad the Kyrian covenant legendary is. Hopefully, we see a buff to the legendary in the coming weeks.
With all this being said, there's still quite a lot to test that we aren't really sure about yet. There are still some unknowns and thus we can't say for sure how some of these interactions will pan out. For example, does the ability that pushes you over the 80 Focus threshold count towards the damage buff, or is the next ability buffed? Regardless of the answer, we'll most likely have to track how much Focus we spent to fully utilize the two charges of
技巧射击 accordingly, which will of course change our rotation. All in all, the set bonus for Marksmanship Hunters is (preliminarily speaking) actually a very well-designed set bonus that gives us a very diverse toolkit and changes gameplay quite a bit. It patches up some of our weak points of 2 target cleave, leans into our strong AoE niche, and potentially has some cool interactions with talents and legendaries.