Beast Mastery Tier SetThe 9.2 Beast Mastery Hunter tier set is focused on buffing
Ordine di Morte. It relies on high
Frenesia uptime, which increases both Kill Command and
Tiro del Cobra damage. The tier set may also vary our talent builds, stats, and legendary choice slightly.
For talents, we'll likely continue to use
Odore del Sangue due to the high uptime of
Frenesia required from the 2 piece but we'll likely see a shift to
Cobra Assassino in single target due to how many more
Ordine di Mortes 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
Freccia Risonante 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
Appetito Feroce conduit in conjunction with the tier set could lead to a very low cooldown of
Aspetto della Selva. For legendaries, we'll continue to use
Zanne Perforanti del Predatore di Rylak most likely, but we may be able to use legendaries such as
Morso del Cobra del Destafiamme or
Richiamo Selvaggio 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
Ordine di Morte, 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
Frammenti delle Corna Antiche. 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
Tiri Ingannevoli, 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
Tiro Miratos or
Rapidità di Tiros will be buffed by 30%.
So let's break it down, aside from buffing our damage, what does this imply? Gaining
Tiri Ingannevoli passively means that we will passively be doing AoE damage, without actually forcing our AoE via
Tiro Multiplo. 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
Raffica. Volley naturally gives us
Tiri Ingannevoli 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
Flusso Continuo and
Mira Precisa, 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
Rapidità di Tiro damage increase,
Tiri Crescenti of course gains value, but we might also be using
Segreti della Veglia Impassibile. 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
Tiro Mirato 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
Patto degli Inseguitori d'Anime. 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
Tiri Ingannevoli 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.