Survival Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — 12.0.5

Survival exclusively plays Pack Leader for all content. One of the specs' great boons is that it loses very little single-target to deal great AoE/cleave. In fact, its Mythic+ build is only two talent swaps apart from its full single-target build!

As a result, with the exception of literally pure single-target fights, Survival runs variants of its AoE build for all scenarios.

If you are on a raid encounter where Boomstick cooldown reduction isn't needed, such as Imperator, swap Lethal Calibration to Twin Fangs.

Quick Start Import Codes:

The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have it's own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

Midnight introduces new Apex Talents, unlocked between Level 80 and 90. Survival gets:

1. Raptor Swipe
2. Raptor Swipe
3. Raptor Swipe

They cause Raptor Strike to occasionally turn itself into Raptor Swipe, dealing increased damage, and causing it to hit multiple targets as well. Very simple and passive, yet very powerful.

Available at level 71 Hero talents are mutually exclusive trees you can choose to slightly alter gameplay and visuals. Survival Hunter can choose between Sentinel and Pack Leader.

Sentinel is our simplest Hero Talent, adding almost nothing in terms of gameplay intrigue or complexity. It regularly gives you Sentinel's Mark procs when you spend Tip of the Spear, significantly buffing the damage of your next Wildfire Bomb. In addition, when you activate Takedown, the Takedown button itself will turn into Moonlight Chakram, a filler ability that does heavy damage on use. We try to use this as a filler, since we only get one use of it during Takedown.

Defensively, Sentinel gives us Don't Look Back, which procs nearly constantly and offers a great deal of passive tankiness.

Pack Leader is considered the more "hardcore" Hero Talent to play for Mythic+. Occasionally, your Kill Command will trigger a Beast via Howl of the Pack Leader. These Beasts simply do damage, or increase your damage done. In addition, your first Kill Command after Takedown will summon a Stampede; a line of pets that do heavy AoE damage to all targets caught within. We detail its usage more on our Rotation page.

Defensively, Pack Leader gives us Shell Cover, which buffs the effectiveness of our Survival of the Fittest. Not great.

War Mode offers several benefits for you in the open world.

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• At least 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will be available for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of all PvP Talents for Survival Hunter

1. Survival Tactics is useful for negating powerful casts from mobs and other players that you cannot otherwise stop.
2. Mending Bandage is a potent out-of-combat heal that also clears lingering debuffs.
3. Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open world content.

You can consider the other options essentially down to preference.

Azortharion

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Azortharion, a full-timer Hunter Guidewriter, Theorycrafter, Content Creator, and top player since 2014 who is widely considered one of the best PvE Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with hundreds of top parses across all Hunter specs. He is the Head Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the official Hunter Class Discord. You can find him on his stream on Twitch and his channel on YouTube. He also has his own, personal Discord server where you can freely ask him any Hunter questions you may have!