Once they reach level 80 Hunters can spend a total of 71 talent points an their various talent trees. A Hunter can chose between the talent specializations "Beast Mastery", "Marksmanship" and "Survival". A Hunter will usually concentrate on one of those talent trees, spending between 50 and 60 points there and using the rest to grab some good talents in the lower tiers of the other trees.

A Beast Mastery Hunter uses her talents to augment her companion, making them stronger and more resilient and able to survive many a situation, where other pets would surely perish. The ultimate talent enables Hunters to tame so called exotic beasts, like the devilsaurs of Un'goro Crater or Core Hounds from Molten Core. These exotic pets are slightly better than ordinary pets and make for an impressive sight.

Marksmanship Hunters increase the damage of their regular shots and learn several new attacks. One of those is the Aimed Shot, which reduces any healing effects on a target by 50% and is a must have for any PVP encounters. Chimera shot is the ultimate talent in this tree, dealing lots of damage while having a secondary effect depending on the sting used on the current target.

Survival talents improve, among other things, a Hunter's traps, giving them additional effects or reduced cooldowns. Additionally a Survival Hunter will be able to train a new shot that incapacitates an enemy, and an explosive shot that does massive amounts of damage. There are also talents to increase the Hunter's defensive abilities like dodge and stamina.