MYTHICSIMBeta
Hunter crest

WoW Forever Hunter

Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, Survival · Alliance and Horde

Lone Wolf lets a Hunter give up the pet for a personal damage bonus, which turns Marksmanship into a self-contained ranged spec and removes the pet pathing problems that decided so many Classic fights.

Specs simmed
3
New spells
3
New talents
4
Removed
0
Playable races
7

What changes for Hunter

Sniper Shot, Strider Kick and Summon Hawk are new abilities. Rapid Recuperation, Lacerating Strikes and Expose Prey are new talents. Survival, which in Classic you mostly dipped for Lightning Reflexes, is now a melee spec.

Human Hunters are new to the Alliance, and the Skyborne can be Hunters on either faction. Dwarf and Night Elf keep their spots but lose the racial weapon skills that used to decide the choice.

Specs

  • Beast Mastery HunterDPS

    Summon Hawk adds a second companion next to your pet, and the rest of the tree is still built around the pet.

  • Marksmanship HunterDPS

    Sniper Shot and Lone Wolf are built for Hunters who play without a pet.

  • Survival HunterDPS

    Strider Kick and Lacerating Strikes turn Survival into a melee spec with its own rotation.

Simmed reference builds

Each saved board sims a fixed Hunter reference character at level 60, against a raid-boss target for two minutes, full raid buffs and consumables, no world buffs. The DPS is the spec's trinket board baseline (both trinket slots empty) and the rank is its place on the Forever DPS tier list.

Engine build a667dce, simmed 29 October 2026. Boards are re-simmed after engine updates.

Reference builds are a work in progress and will keep improving through the beta (see the changelog). Got a build you want simmed? Post it in the MythicSim Discord and we'll sim it. Any feedback is much appreciated.

New spells and talents

New spells

  • Sniper Shot
  • Strider Kick
  • Summon Hawk

New talents

  • Lone Wolf
  • Rapid Recuperation
  • Lacerating Strikes
  • Expose Prey

Removed

No removals confirmed in the demo build.

From the BlizzCon 2026 demo build via the community talent calculators. Beta will change some of this; the page is updated as it does.

Races

  • HumanNew
  • Dwarf
  • Night Elf
  • Orc
  • Tauren
  • Troll
  • SkyborneNew

Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Orc, Tauren, Troll, Skyborne. Human Hunter is new to Forever. The Skyborne can be Hunters on either faction. Racials are rebuilt so no two races share a passive, and weapon skill racials are gone. Race choice now changes your DPS in the sim.

Hunter race tier list

What the Hunter sim has to model

Beyond the engine-wide changes (unified hit and crit, Expertise, spell damage on most healing gear, periodic crits), these are the Hunter-specific pieces the Forever engine has to get right.

  • Lone Wolf as a pet-or-no-pet toggle with different damage profiles.
  • Sniper Shot in the ranged rotation and Summon Hawk as a second pet uptime source.
  • Unified ranged hit and crit, with ranged weapon skill only from gear.
  • Melee Survival at 5 yards: Aspect of the Beast, Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite off Expose Prey, Strider Kick, Immolation Trap, and Wing Clip in the spare globals. Quick Sim asks whether a Hunter fights in melee or at range.
  • Melee weaving: the Beast Mastery and Marksmanship references shoot from 12 yards and step in between Auto Shots for Raptor Strike and Immolation Trap on Sanctum's rotation; Survival shoots from 11 yards on Arc's light weave and adds Strider Kick and Mongoose Bite. Auto Shot fires only from beyond 10.5 yards of the target's center. The engine models the walk; how well weaving holds up in a real raid is not yet confirmed.

Hunter trinket boards

One board per spec, ranking every trinket a Hunter can equip at 60 by simmed DPS gain, with where each one drops.

Other Forever classes

Common questions

Is there a WoW Forever Hunter sim?

Yes, at /wow-forever/sim. Export your character with the MythicSim addon, paste it and you get a DPS number for your Hunter on the new talent trees. It runs on MythicSim's own Rust engine, open source under the MIT licence.

What new spells does Hunter get in WoW Forever?

Sniper Shot, Strider Kick, Summon Hawk. New talents include Lone Wolf, Rapid Recuperation, Lacerating Strikes, Expose Prey.

Which races can be a Hunter in WoW Forever?

Hunter can be played by Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Orc, Tauren, Troll, Skyborne in World of Warcraft: Forever. Human Hunter is new in Forever. The new Skyborne race can be a Hunter on either faction.

What are the Hunter specs in WoW Forever?

Beast Mastery (DPS), Marksmanship (DPS), Survival (DPS). Forever keeps the three Classic trees for every class and reworks their contents; there are no new specs.

Do I need a /simc string to sim a Forever Hunter?

No. Install MythicSim addon 0.3.0 or newer in Forever, click its minimap button or type /msim, then paste the JSON on the Forever sim page. Retail /simc strings use a different format.