Survival Hunter DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.2.5)
On this page, you will find the best gear and best in slot items for your Survival Hunter in World of Warcraft The War Within (11.2.5).
If you were looking for Mists of Pandaria Classic content, please refer to our Mists of Pandaria Classic Survival Hunter gear and best in slot.
Best in Slot Gear Guide for Survival Hunter
Welcome to our Gear and BiS Page for Survival Hunter for The War Within Season 3. Check this page to learn everything you need to know about gearing a Survival Hunter, including the BiS Gear from all sources, Raiding, and Mythic+, information on the best Trinkets, Tier Sets, and much more.
For discussion and information on Stats specifically, check out our Stats page below.
BiS Gear for Survival Hunter
Overall BiS List for Survival Hunter in Season 3
This list contains the best gear in every slot for Season 3 of The War Within, from all sources.
In general, BiS Items for Survival are simply ones that have lots of Mastery on them.
The items are evaluated in a vacuum for the most part, meaning that collecting every single item in this list and putting them together may not actually be the highest possible DPS — but on an individual slot basis, for the most gearsets, these items are the most likely to perform the highest. There is no substitute for simming your own character on Raidbots if you want to maximize your DPS.
Slot | Item | Source/Note |
---|---|---|
Weapon | ![]() |
Eco-Dome Al'dani (710), or in Great Vault |
Helm | ![]() |
Forgeweaver Araz/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Neck | ![]() |
Nexus King Salhadaar in Manaforge Omega |
Shoulder | ![]() |
The Soul Hunters/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Season 3 Questline |
Chest | ![]() |
Fractillus/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Bracers | ![]() ![]() |
Crafted by Leatherworking |
Gloves | ![]() ![]() |
Crafted by Leatherworking |
Belt | ![]() |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega |
Legs | ![]() |
Loom’ithar/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Boots | ![]() |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement (710), or in Great Vault |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Forgeweaver Araz (710), or in Great Vault |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega |
Manaforge Omega Raid Gear BiS List for Survival Hunter
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 3 from the Manaforge Omega Raid.
Note that this BiS List is for items from the Raid. I am separating the BiS lists by gear sources. This is what you send to your Raid Leader/Loot Council when they ask you what your BiS gear is from the Raid.
The items are evaluated in a vacuum for the most part, meaning that collecting every single item in this list and putting them together may not actually be the highest possible DPS — but on an individual slot basis, for the most gearsets, these items are the most likely to perform the highest. There is no substitute for simming your own character on Raidbots if you want to maximize your DPS.
Slot | Item | Source/Note |
---|---|---|
Weapon | ![]() |
Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega |
Helm | ![]() |
Forgeweaver Araz/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Neck | ![]() |
Nexus King Salhadaar in Manaforge Omega |
Shoulder | ![]() |
Fractillus in Manaforge Omega |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Season 3 Questline |
Chest | ![]() |
Fractillus/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Bracers | ![]() |
Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega |
Gloves | ![]() |
Soulbinder Naazindhri/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Belt | ![]() |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega |
Legs | ![]() |
Loom’ithar/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Boots | ![]() |
The Soul Hunters in Manaforge Omega |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Forgeweaver Araz in Manaforge Omega |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Plexus Sentinel in Manaforge Omega |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Nexus King Salhadaar in Manaforge Omega |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Loom’ithar in Manaforge Omega |
The War Within Season 3 Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Survival Hunter
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Survival Hunter from The War Within Season 3 Mythic+.
Note that this BiS List is for items from Mythic+. I am separating the BiS lists by gear sources. This is the list you can chase when you want to improve your gear by farming Mythic+ dungeons.
The items are evaluated in a vacuum for the most part, meaning that collecting every single item in this list and putting them together may not actually be the highest possible DPS — but on an individual slot basis, for the most gearsets, these items are the most likely to perform the highest. There is no substitute for simming your own character on Raidbots if you want to maximize your DPS.
Slot | Item | Source/Note |
---|---|---|
Weapon | ![]() |
Eco-Dome Al'dani (710), or in Great Vault |
Helm | ![]() |
Forgeweaver Araz/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Neck | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement (710), or in Great Vault |
Shoulder | ![]() |
The Soul Hunters/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Cloak | ![]() ![]() |
Season 3 Questline |
Chest | ![]() |
Fractillus/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Bracers | ![]() |
Priory of the Sacred Flame (710), or in Great Vault |
Gloves | ![]() |
Tazavesh: Streets of Wonder (710), or in Great Vault |
Belt | ![]() |
Eco-Dome Al'dani (710), or in Great Vault |
Legs | ![]() |
Loom’ithar/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
Boots | ![]() |
Eco-Dome Al'dani (710), or in Great Vault |
Ring #1 | ![]() |
Priory of the Sacred Flame (710), or in Great Vault |
Ring #2 | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement (710), or in Great Vault |
Trinket #1 | ![]() |
Halls of Atonement (710), or in Great Vault |
Trinket #2 | ![]() |
Operation: Floodgate (710), or in Great Vault |
Best Puzzling Cartel Chip Purchases for Survival Hunter
Patch 11.2.5 reintroduces the Puzzling Cartel Chip system, available
starting October 21st. As before, you can complete a weekly quest to obtain
these Chips, which are used to purchase high-value items from
Manaforge Omega and Mythic+ dungeons. You may buy any trinkets or
special cantrip items available, all the way up to Myth track quality.
However, purchasing an item requires you to have already defeated the boss
it drops from, on the corresponding difficulty. For example, to purchase
Araz's Ritual Forge Mythic, you must first defeat Mythic
Forgeweaver Araz. Dungeon trinkets additionally require you to have
timed every keystone at level 12 or higher.
For simplicity, your recommended purchase order assuming full Mythic boss access is:
Below is a breakdown of the high-value items to prioritize with Cartel Chips in The War Within Season 3 as a Survival Hunter. This list is not exhaustive or strictly prioritized. Always sim yourself for the optimal choice, as the best item depends on your current gear.
- Our strongest trinket by a wide margin.
- The Cantrip effect scales with item track. Mythic-track boots are a substantial upgrade compared to Heroic-track versions.
- These Trinkets are closely tied for the best on-use. Antenna has higher
potential as you can delay orb pickups for better orb syncs, while
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker has higher peak bursts, but its efficacy can drop off a cliff if you are desyncing your cooldowns from its fixed 1-minute timer. Antenna is probably best for most people.
- If you lack a Mythic weapon, this can be a fallback. Only buy if you have Mythic access, and delay until your final purchase.
- The best Mythic+ trinket if you do not have access to anything from Mythic Raid.
- The best Mythic+ trinket to pair with
Lily of the Eternal Weave.
Araz's Ritual Forge (Myth) - Click for Details
Interloper's Chain Boots (Myth) - Click for Details
Astral Antenna/
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (Myth) - Click for Details
Obliteration Beamglaive (Myth only) - Click for Details
Signet of the Priory/
Cursed Stone Idol (Alternative) - Click for Details
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker (Alternative to pair with Signet) - Click for Details
Since Mythic-level purchases require you to have defeated the corresponding bosses, avoid buying Heroic versions if you plan to progress further. You will only receive 3 total purchases for the rest of the season—choose carefully.
Reshii Wraps for Survival Hunter
Patch 11.2 adds the unique Reshii Wraps Cloak that can be obtained through the Ghosts of K'aresh quest chain. It starts at
iLvl 694, and can be upgraded throughout the Season to iLvl 730. There are no other Cloaks in Season 3, this is it.
The unique effect is a high damage proc that splits damage on AoE, and gets stronger against low-HP targets. Its effect is made stronger by specific items from the Manaforge Omega Raid:
Interloper's Chain Boots - Boots from The Soul Hunters. These simply increase the proc rate of your Cloak and are always BiS. Do not craft Boots, you will want these even from lower difficulties if you can.
Band of the Shattered Soul - Ring from Dimensius The All Devouring, the final boss. Gives you occasional Cosmic damage reduction. The stats on this ring are nothing special, and we are not likely to use for the Cosmic damage reduction alone.
The stats of the Reshii Wraps are modified by the Fiber Socket, which can be swapped at any time out of
combat. These Fiber Socket Gems can be acquired at Rare/Blue quality from Hashim on K'aresh, or crafted by Tailoring at Epic/Purple
quality. As Survival, you should generally use
Energizing Fiber /
Pure Energizing Fiber to get Mastery.
For more information on acquiring your Cloak, check our dedicated page that goes into more detail:
Best Trinkets Tier List for Survival Hunter
This Trinket Tier List is based on an average of Single-Target Raid and Mythic+ AoE Performance, weighted 65/35 (Mythic+ has single-target too!).
Note that the Trinkets are compared at their highest possible Item Level, which is only 710 for Delve Trinkets. Not only that, but 723 Mythic+ Trinkets are only obtainable via the Great Vault. At equal iLvls, the picture may be very different and that is why you should sim yourself.
A "Tier" as defined by this list is around 0.5%-1% DPS.
Astral Antenna
Araz's Ritual Forge
Cursed Stone Idol (AoE/M+)
A-Tier
Improvised Seaforium Pacemaker
Signet of the Priory
Ara-Kara Sacbrood
B-Tier
Miniscule Mailemental in an Envelope
Lily of the Eternal Weave
C-Tier
Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj
Incorporeal Essence-Gorger
D-Tier
So'leah's Secret Technique
Sigil of the Cosmic Hunt
Algari Alchemist Stone
Void-Touched Fragment
Essence-Hunter's Eyeglass
E-Tier
Unyielding Netherprism
Incorporeal Warpclaw
Harvester's Edict
F-Tier
Soulbreaker's Sigil
Automatic Footbomb Dispenser
Mind-Fracturing Odium
Depleted K'areshi Battery
Ticking Sack of Terror
Screams of a Forgotten Sky
Perfidious Projector
Chaotic Nethergate
"Simming" Yourself as a Survival Hunter
Throughout this page, we regularly refer to the importance of simming yourself on Raidbots, as it is an indispensable aspect of optimizing your character.
While we do offer generic sim charts for Trinkets, this should not be a replacement for simming yourself, at least not if you want to minmax sub-1%!
If you are new to simming and Raidbots, check out our detailed guide below.
Best Crafted Items for Survival Hunter
Our BiS Crafts are pretty straightforward. We want 2x Dawnthread Lining on some sensible slots.
For players coming right into the Season from its beginning, the choice is very different as we are not just concerned about the best
Crafted Slots and Embellishments, but also potentially short-term Item Level gains. While the 2x Dawnthread Lining setup is optimal
in the longer run, in the short-to-medium-term, crafting a Weapon with a Darkmoon Sigil can be preferable because of the immediate, short-term
value of a weapon upgrade.
Please note that double- Dawnthread Lining has a tendency to not work outside of combat in some scenarios. If you have two of them
equipped, but are only getting Crit from one of them, try to intentionally drop below 80% HP and then heal yourself back up. this WeakAura can help alert you when it is not working so you can fix it.
The sections below describe, in detail, the best endgame options for Raiding and Mythic+, but keep the above in mind.
As for the stats, you will generally want Mastery-Haste.
Best Embellishments and Crafting Order for Survival Hunter
Vagabond's Careful Crutch/
Charged Halberd (Early Season, costs 2 Sparks) — This item is not our long-term BiS, but it is a very strong early Season option. It is not as good as the 2x
Dawnthread Lining setup in the long run. The first boss on Mythic difficulty will drop a better Weapon, and you can get better weapons from the Great Vault. Crafting a Weapon does have some risk factor to it for this reason.
- (BiS, 1 Spark) —
Glyph-Etched Gauntlets with
Dawnthread Lining — Note that if Crafting this right away will mess with your Tier Set acquisition, you may want to go for Bracers first.
- (BiS, 1 Spark) —
Glyph-Etched Vambraces with
Dawnthread Lining
- Next, chase Item Level where needed, preferring Weapon > Helm/Chest/Legs (though these are likely occupied by tier) > Boots/Belt/Shoulders > Rings/Necks > Cloaks.
- At this point, you are mostly done crafting. You can spend future Sparks on off-spec items, alternatively statted crafts for different situations, and so on.
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension vs
Darkmoon Sigil: Vivacity
These are two weapon-only Embellishments with different secondary stat effects. On sustained encounters, ones that keep you in combat for
several minutes, Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension is about 0.5% better. However, because Ascension takes a whole 80 seconds to reach full
power, if you are primarily doing non-Raiding content,
Darkmoon Sigil: Vivacity is better as it does not have this problem.
Best Gear Crest Upgrades for Survival Hunter
You will be able to upgrade your items via Crests such as
Gilded Undermine Crest. Once you have upgraded a slot to a certain item
level, upgrading other items of that slot to that item level is free.
When you upgrade with Crests, you should think of it as upgrading slots and not items.
Additionally, since Crests are a limited resource, you will want to obtain the highest item-level possible before upgrading a given slot, as this means you will spend fewer Crests on that slot in total. If you are at all capable of doing a +9 Dungeon, for example, it would be a VERY bad idea to upgrade an item from a +8 Dungeon, as those are wasted Crests you may not get back for a very long time.
We see a ton of players, even at a high level, mess up their upgrade priorities, and upgrading prematurely. Getting this right will put you far ahead of most players.
Below is the slot priority you should upgrade your items in. If you ever want to deviate from this, you should have a very good reason.
- Weapons
- Trinkets
- Helm/Chest/Legs
- Shoulders/Gloves/Belt/Boots
- Rings and Necks
- Cloaks and Bracers
Note that exceptions are possible, such as special items that have more Item Level scaling than their slot would imply.
Season 3 Tier Set for Survival Hunter
The Tier Set is comprised of 5 items, all carrying the Midnight Herald's moniker.
In Season 3, there are two Set Bonuses per spec, one for each Hero Talent.
Pack Leader Hero Talent Tier Set Bonus for Survival Hunter
Hunter Pack Leader 11.2 Class Set 2pc — Increases pet damage by 15% and Beast damage by 15%. Whenever you summon a Beast, you gain 6% Haste/Crit/ Mastery for 8 seconds, depending on the Beast summoned. Boar gives Haste, Bear gives Mastery, and Wyvern gives Crit.
Hunter Pack Leader 11.2 Class Set 4pc — Summoning a Beast during
Lead From the Front (aka
Coordinated Assault) causes a
Stampede, sending out a line from your character with beasts that do heavy damage over 7 seconds.
Sentinel Hero Talent Tier Set Bonus for Survival Hunter
Hunter Sentinel 11.2 Class Set 2pc —
Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 10%. When
Lunar Storm fades, gain the
Boon of Elune, causing your next 2
Wildfire Bombs to deal Arcane damage and have their initial damage increased by 150%.
Hunter Sentinel 11.2 Class Set 4pc —
Sentinel's damage is increased by 25%. The
Boon of Elune is now active for the duration of
Lunar Storm at 100% effectiveness.
The Tier Set Bonus is absolutely mandatory for competitive play, and you should prioritize obtaining it. You can use the Matrix Catalyst to convert regular items (from Mythic+, for example) into Tier Items.
You only need 4 pieces out of 5 to get both set bonuses. We recommend you get all items except for the Gloves or Shoulders, due to their lower item level budget than other tier items. Check out the BiS List for more information.
Best Durable Information Securing Container Titan Discs for Survival Hunter
Durable Information Securing Container is a Belt item added in
Patch 11.1.7, and is obtained by completing Delves
as part of a short questline starting in Dornogal.
The Belt comes pre-socketed, and also offers the ability to embellish it with
"Titan Discs", special effects that offer stat boosts or damage-dealing cantrip
effects. To get the most out of the Belt, it is essential you choose the right
Titan Disc!
In Season 3, this Belt is very potent and competes with 723+ iLvl, Socketed Belts with solid stats. It does eventually get replaced, but it will take a Mythic-track Belt with great stats to make the swap worth it, and the upgrade, even then, is rather small, so do not commit Crests to making this swap if you could spend them on just about anything else.
Best Titan Discs for Survival Hunter
Static Charge is your best option here by a substantial margin, for all situations. Even though Versatility isn't a great stat for us on its own, there is just so much of it on offer that it is still worth it.
As of Patch 11.2, the Belt can be obtained by doing all Delves, not just Overcharged ones. For more information on how to acquire or upgrade the Belt, make sure to check out our dedicated Delves guide!
Changelog
- 05 Oct. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.2.5.
- 02 Sep. 2025: Trinket Tier List and BiS updates.
- 16 Aug. 2025: Updated Trinket Tier List for tuning.
- 04 Aug. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.2.
- 26 Jun. 2025: Updated Titan Disc recommendation.
- 23 Jun. 2025: Updated the Titan Disc recommendation based on the latest hotfixes.
- 15 Jun. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.7.
- 10 May 2025: Updated the wording/Dinar recommendation status for House of Cards and Signet slightly.
- 09 May 2025: Updated Corruption Enchants & Puzzling Cartel Chip Dinar section.
- 21 Apr. 2025: Add list of Dinar-purchasable items.
- 29 Mar. 2025: Updated the position of Eye of Kezan in the Mythic+ Trinket Tier List.
- 25 Mar. 2025: Updated for March 25 Updates.
- 14 Feb. 2025: Updated Amorphous Relic placement after buffs.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 17 Dec. 2024: Updated for the Cyrce's Circlet now going to Item Level 658.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 30 Oct. 2024: Updated for October 29 Hotfixes.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 11.0.5.
- 02 Oct. 2024: Updated the BiS Trinkets for pure single-target.
- 20 Sep. 2024: Updated the Trinket Tier List and Best Trinkets after re-evaluations and simulation tools maturing.
- 13 Sep. 2024: Added note about double-Dawnthread Lining not working and how to fix it.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Preliminary update for The War Within Season 1.
- 27 Aug. 2024: Added a note about Crafted gear to the Pre-Season BiS List.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 25 Jul. 2024: Updated the BiS Trinkets, Crafting List, BiS List, and more.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
More Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Guidewriter, Theorycrafter, 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!
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