So, new patch – it’s time for us Survival Hunters to roll the dice again. Will we be great? Will we suck? Who knows? But what we do know is that patches always change something – talents, new glyphs, stat priorities, reforging or gems. This guide will get you back Explosively Shotting in WoW patch 5.3 and MoP in no time – no need to read a wall of text!
Updated 22nd May 2013 to World of Warcraft Patch 5.3
Survival Hunter changes in Patch 5.3
No major changes, but a solid damage buff.
Survival “Rotation” and Priorities
Survival’s rotation hasn’t changed much in MoP – although veterans should note that Lock and Load is now simpler.
Remember, Misdirect is important! Always Misdirect onto the tank at the start of any pull.
Single-target DPS
When starting to attack any target, put Hunter’s Mark and Serpent Sting up on them. You shouldn’t subsequently have to refresh either.
- Top Priority: Fire Explosive Shot if it’s available. If Kill Shot is available, use that.
- Second Priority: Otherwise, fire Black Arrow if it’s available. Fire Serpent Sting if it’s no longer up for some reason.
- Third Priority: If you’ve got more than 60 Focus, use Arcane Shot. If not, use Cobra Shot.
AOE DPS
For less than 4 opponents, perform your single-target rotation, but use Trap Launcher with Explosive Trap rather than Black Arrow.
Against 4 or more opponents:
- Top Priority: Fire Multi-shot if it’s available. Place an Explosive Trap under your opponents with Trap Launcher, if one’s not already running.
- Second Priority: Fire Explosive Shot or Kill Shot if they become available.
- Third Priority: Fire Cobra Shot.
Cooldowns
- Rapid Fire – Use whenever it’s available.
- Readiness – Use after you’ve used most of your other cooldowns to reset them.
- Feign Death – Please do remember to use this if you get aggro!
- Disengage – Leap backward – useful in a wide variety of situations.
- Stampede – Powerful DPS cooldown – use whenever it’s available.
- Deterrance – Powerful defensive CD – most often useful if Feign Death is on cooldown or didn’t work!
Buffs
Keep Aspect of the Hawk up.
Survival Hunter Talent Choices
Several tiers of Hunter talents are very situational – Tier 1 and 3 in particular for PvE – so you should experiment to find your favourite talents. However, here’s a solid build to get going with:
- Tier 1: Posthaste – alters Disengage to speed you up after using it. Great talent!
- Tier 2: Silencing Shot – gives you a spell interrupt ability.
- Tier 3: Aspect of the Iron Hawk
- Tier 4: Dire Beast – gives you a new damage cooldown. Use whenever it’s available.
- Tier 5: Murder of Crows – another damage cooldown. Use whenever it’s available.
- Tier 6: Power Shot – ANOTHER damage cooldown. Use whenever it’s available, etc, etc.
Stats, reforging and gemming for Survival Hunter
Big change here: we need Expertise now.
Stats order: Agility > Hit (until capped at 2,550 / 7.5%) and Expertise (until capped at 2,550 / 7.5%) > Critical Strike Rating > Haste > Mastery
Reforging: Reforge for Hit and Expertise cap first, then reforge for Crit. Reforge out of excess Hit and Expertise first, then Mastery, then Haste.
Gems: Delicate gems in Red sockets, Deadly gems in Yellow sockets, Glinting gems in Blue sockets.
Meta Gem: Agile meta gems.
Survival Glyphs
Glyphs are a matter of personal preference these days, so don’t feel there’s a “right” option. However, here are some good ones for PvE:
Major: Glyph of Deterrence, Glyph of Animal Bond, Glyph of Liberation
Minor: Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah is great, as is Glyph of Fetch – with the latter, your pet can loot for you!
Survival Hunter enchants and item enhancements
You should almost always use a profession enhancement item if it provides appropriate stats instead of a general enchant.
- Shoulder – Greater Tiger Claw Inscription
- Cloak – Accuracy or Superior Critical Strike, depending on if you’re at hit cap.
- Chest – Glorious Stats
- Wrist – Greater Agility
- Hands – Superior Expertise
- Belt – Living Steel Belt Buckle
- Legs – Shadowleather Leg Armor
- Feet – Blurred Speed
- Ranged – Lord Blastington’s Scope of Doom
Links
If you want to get into more detail with your Survival play:
- Elitist Jerks’ Survival Hunter guide is excellent as always
- Icy Veins have a good Survival Hunter guide too
- And of course, Warcraft Hunter’s Union is an excellent source for all styles of Hunter
- Finally, as a WoW player, you should really check out the latest and greatest from the blogosphere on World of Warcraft, here at the Melting Pot.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi I was reading about SV hunters and had a question about the below info. Is this an equation? Why not just state 191.25, I am guessing you mean something different than how I am reading that.
(until capped at 2,550 / 7.5%)
Ah, I see the confusion. No, that’s not an equation – it’s two ways of saying the same thing.
In WoW, Hit Rating of 2,550 is equal to a Hit Percentage of 7.5%. So, if you have either of those two things, you’re good to go!
Position certainly applied..
“Gems: Delicate gems in Red sockets, Deadly gems in Yellow sockets, Glinting gems in Blue sockets.”
- Everything else I’m reading leads me to believe it’s not this simple, unfortunately. Sometimes it will be appropriate to substitute Delicate gems in yellow or blue sockets, depending on the socket bonus. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how good the socket bonus has to be to make using a Deadly or Glinting gem worth it.
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