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Spec Overview
Survival Hunter is currently the second best DPS class in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. It ranks #2 on our WoW DPS Tier List Unlike the other two Hunter's specializations, Survival is melee and offers unparalleled mobility for a melee character. At the same time, it has a very high single-target and AoE DPS and is one of the most well-rounded classes in World of Warcraft. Survival Hunter can also control Pets, and you can time your powerful attacks with them. Survival Hunter utilizes two-handed weapons, mainly Spears and Staves, and if you decide to min-max your build, it appears that Gnome race leads by a small margin on the DPS charts.
Pros | Cons |
Very high burst AoE damage | Hectic AoE rotation |
High single-target DPS | You will never find a room for two Survival Hunters in a Raid party |
Amazing mobility for a melee class | Mediocre defenses compared to other melee classes |
Easy and powerful single-target rotation | |
Decent crowd-control |
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Statistics Priority
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The Best Talent Choices
Level 15: Recommended choice - Alpha Predator |
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Alpha Predator - which gives your Kill Command two charges, and causes it to deal 30% increased damage. It's one of the two recommended options on this tier, while it provides the highest DPS in the hands of a more experienced player, it is slightly more difficult to master than playing with Viper's Venom. | |
Viper's Venom is another viable choice on this tier. It gives your Raptor Strike a chance to cause your next Serpent Sting free and do an additional 250% damage initially. It's fairly easy to use and fits into most of the possible situations, making it a more suitable choice for general usage. Terms of Engagement, on the other hand, increases the damage of Harpoon and makes it generate 20 Focus over 10 seconds. It has no use in higher tier content, but can be very useful during leveling and exploring. | |
Level 30: Recommended choice - Guerrilla Tactics |
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Guerrilla Tactics - which causes your Wildfire Bomb to have two additional charges and deal 100% increased damage, is the best choice on this Tier. It is the best choice for both single-target DPS and when burst AoE damage is required. | |
Hydra's Bite shines when you can apply multiple poisons using Serpent Sting combined with Latent Poison. However, it has greatly reduced usability in short fights and when you have to deal with multiple targets. Butchery is a decent AoE attack which helps you deal with multiple enemies instantaneously. | |
Level 45: Recommended choice - Natural Mending |
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Natural Mending - Reduces the remaining cooldown of Hunter's Exhilaration by one second for each 20 Focus you spend on abilities; This gives you on average a 30 seconds cooldown reduction. This grants very good self-healing in Raids and Mythic+ Dungeons boosting your survivability greatly | |
Trailblazer increases your movement speed by 30% if you have not attacked for 3 seconds which is a nice mobility bonus between packs, but in general quite useless in actual encounters. Camouflage grants healing over time and puts you into stealth for one minute. It grants considerably less healing compared to Natural Mending and is usually used in PvP builds | |
Level 60: Recommended choice - Bloodseeker |
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Bloodseeker - causes your Kill Command to inflict bleeding on your target for 8 seconds, and increases your (and your Pet's) attack speed by 10% for every bleeding enemy. It is the single best pick for this Tier which is useful in all types of situations. It makes you deal considerably more damage than other Talents here, and it truly shines in fights against several targets | |
Steel Trap deals a moderate amount of damage and immobilizes your target for 20 seconds. It deals way less damage than Bloodseeker, and can only be considered as a crowd-control skill. On the other hand, A Murder of Crows has near to none usability, making it only viable during leveling and open world farming when the cooldown reset makes it a valid choice. | |
Level 75: Recommended choice - Posthaste |
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Posthaste - Using Disengage will remove all movement impairing effects and grant 50% increased movement speed for a short duration. It's our recommended Talent choice for this tier which grants decent mobility bonuses and greatly helps out with repositioning yourself. | |
Born to be Wild reduces the cooldowns of Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Turtle which is the best option when it comes to pure mobility. Binding Shot is an AoE snare which lets you snare multiple enemies if they move 5 yards away from the position of the arrow. Since it is no longer an AoE stun, it has greatly reduced utility and is very situational. | |
Level 90: Recommended choice - Mongoose Bite |
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Mongoose Bite - replaces Raptor Strike and becomes a powerful attack that deals increased damage with each consecutive hit, stacking up to 5 times. This scales greatly with high Attack Speed/Haste making it the best pick on this tier. It works best during single-target fights. | |
Tip of the Spear causes Kill Command to increase the damage of your Raptor Strike by 20%, stacking up to three times. Overall, a very competitive choice when it comes to DPS in both AoE and single-target fights, however, we find it more suitable with characters with slightly lower Haste Rating. Flanking Strike makes you and your pet charge on your target dealing high burst damage. It can be found useful in Mythic+ Dungeons. It could also be used in PvP to finish off your enemies, but in general, it grants significantly less DPS than Mongoose Bite. | |
Level 100: Recommended choice - Wildfire Infusion |
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Wildfire Infusion - casting Wildfire Bomb makes your next cast have an additional effect. It grants the highest bonus DPS out of all Talents on this tier and since you can see which bonus you got, you can adjust your rotation accordingly for optimal performance. | |
Birds of Prey makes your Raptor Strike and Carve increase the duration of Coordinated Assault by 1.5 seconds with each cast. This is the preferred choice if it comes to solely increase your single-target DPS. Chakrams, on the other hand, is a decent AoE/cleave ability, however, because of high cost and cooldown, it's not recommended. |
Basic Survival Hunter Rotation
Survival Hunter's rotation may seem complex at first because of various effects Wildfire Infusion can have, and how it's affected by Alpha Predator. If you have played other builds, you may see how it affects the decision making for Survival Hunters.
Use the following priority list to maximize your Single Target Damage output:
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Multiple Targets Rotation is very similar to your single-target rotation, just make sure to: | |
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Survival Hunter's offensive cooldowns: | |
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Survival Hunter's offensive cooldowns: | |
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Survival Hunter's utility cooldowns: | |
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Tips and Tricks for Improving your Gameplay
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END NOTE This is the premiere version of our Survival Hunter Pocket Guide. We plan to upgrade it and add further sections. If you feel like the guide is missing certain important aspects, or you would like to leave your feedback, you can do that in the comments below. We will appreciate your contribution including constructive criticism if it helps us improve our content. |
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.