Survival Hunter DPS Gear and Best in Slot — The War Within (11.0.5)
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 (11.0.5).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK 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 1. 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
This list contains the best gear in every slot for Season 1 of The War Within, from all sources.
In general, BiS Items for Survival are simply ones that have lots of Mastery on them.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Harvester's Interdiction (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes (626), or Great Vault |
| Helm |  Lightless Scavenger's Skull (639) |
Silken Court/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Neck |  Sureki Zealot's Insignia (639) |
Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace |
Neck ( Sentinel) |
 Trailspinner Pendant (639) |
Mists of Tirna Scithe (626), or Great Vault |
| Shoulder |  Whispering Voidlight Spaulders (639) |
Silken Court in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Shoulder ( Sentinel) |
 Lightless Scavenger's Taxidermy (639) |
Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Cloak |  Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) |
Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Cloak ( Sentinel) |
 Anvilhide Cape (639) |
The Stonevault (626), or Great Vault |
| Chest |  Lightless Scavenger's Tunic (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Bracers |  Glyph-Etched Vambraces (636) |
Crafted by Leatherworking |
| Gloves |  Lightless Scavenger's Mitts (639) |
Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Belt |  Lightless Scavenger's Bonegirdle (639) |
Matrix Catalyst |
| Belt ( Sentinel) |
 Reinforced Anti-Intruder Chainmail (639) |
The Stonevault (626), or Great Vault |
| Legs |  Lightless Scavenger's Stalkings (639) |
Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Boots |  Glyph-Etched Stompers (639) |
Crafted by Leatherworking |
| Ring #1 |  Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #2 |  Devout Zealot's Ring (639) |
The Dawnbreaker (626), or Great Vault |
| Ring #2 ( Sentinel) |
 Writhing Ringworm (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #1 |  Skardyn's Grace (639) |
Grim Batol (626), or Great Vault |
| Trinket #2 (Single-Target) |  Mad Queen's Mandate (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #2 (All-Rounder) |  Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #2 (More Straightforward To Use, All-Rounder) |  Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj (639) |
The Dawnbreaker (626), or Great Vault |
Nerub-ar Palace Raid Gear BiS List for Survival Hunter
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 1 from the Nerub-ar Palace 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.
Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and there are many items that are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, sometimes two if I feel there is a significant difference for Raiding and Mythic+, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list and thus, despite me not thinking you should really care much about it, it is here for your perusal.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon |  Spire of Transfused Horrors (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Helm | Lightless Scavenger's Skull (639) |
Silken Court/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Neck | Sureki Zealot's Insignia (639) |
Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Shoulder | Lightless Scavenger's Taxidermy (639) |
Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Cloak | Wings of Shattered Sorrow (639) |
Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Chest |  Goresplattered Membrane (639) |
The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Bracers |  Throne Defender's Bangles (639) |
Sikran in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Gloves | Lightless Scavenger's Mitts (639) |
Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Belt | Lost Watcher's Remains (639) |
The Bloodbound Horror in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Legs | Lightless Scavenger's Stalkings (639) |
Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Boots |  Rasha'nan's Grotesque Talons (639) |
Rasha'nan in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #1 | Seal of the Poisoned Pact (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Ring #2 | Writhing Ringworm (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #1 | Mad Queen's Mandate (639) |
Queen Ansurek in Nerub-ar Palace |
| Trinket #2 | Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax in Nerub-ar Palace |
The War Within Season 1 Mythic+ Gear BiS List for Survival Hunter
This list contains the Best in Slot Gear for Survival Hunter from The War Within Season 1 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.
Note that there is no such thing as a singular, all-encompassing "BiS". The best items vary per character and situation, and there are many items that are essentially equivalent in terms of DPS, namely when we are just shuffling secondary stats around. I will list one "BiS" item per slot, sometimes two if I feel there is a significant difference for Raiding and Mythic+, but ultimately, BiS lists are not very practically useful and you should be simming your character to find out what gear to equip next. Nonetheless, there is a huge demand for this list and thus, despite me not thinking you should really care much about it, it is here for your perusal.
| Slot | Item | Source/Note |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Harvester's Interdiction (639) |
Ara-Kara, City of Echoes (626), or Great Vault |
| Helm | Lightless Scavenger's Skull (639) |
Silken Court/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Neck | Trailspinner Pendant (639) |
Mists of Tirna Scithe (626), or Great Vault |
| Shoulder | Lightless Scavenger's Taxidermy (639) |
Rasha'nan/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Cloak |  Troggstitched Drape (639) |
Grim Batol (626), or Great Vault |
| Chest | Lightless Scavenger's Tunic (639) |
Broodtwister Ovi'nax/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Bracers |  Penumbral Rimeguards (636) |
City of Threads (626), or Great Vault |
| Gloves | Lightless Scavenger's Mitts (639) |
Sikran/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Belt |  Anchor Chain Girdle (639) |
Siege of Boralus (626), or Great Vault |
| Legs | Lightless Scavenger's Stalkings (639) |
Nexus Princess Ky'veza/Matrix Catalyst/Great Vault |
| Boots |  Red Scale Boots (639) |
Grim Batol (626), or Great Vault |
| Ring #1 |  Seal of the City Watch (639) |
Siege of Boralus (626), or Great Vault |
| Ring #2 | Devout Zealot's Ring (639) |
The Dawnbreaker (626), or Great Vault |
| Trinket #1 | Skardyn's Grace (639) |
Grim Batol (626), or Great Vault |
| Trinket #2 | Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj (639) |
The Dawnbreaker (626), or Great Vault |
Best Trinkets for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 1
Raiding Trinket Tier List for Survival Hunter
This Trinket Tier List is single-target biased, as this tends to be the most important aspect of Raiding. When Trinkets are equal on single-target, I will "break the tie" by looking into which Trinket performs better in AoE/mixed scenarios.
Note that the Trinkets are compared at their highest possible Item Level, which is only 626 for Delve Trinkets. Not only that, but 639 Mythic+ Trinkets are only obtainable via the Great Vault — Not a very reliable source. 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% DPS, meaning that S-Tier Trinkets are around 0.5% better than A-Tier Trinkets, and so on.
S-Tier
Skardyn's Grace — Our undisputed BiS Trinket numbers-wise, and also enhances our burst.
Mad Queen's Mandate — Best for pure single-target, and can be played around to some extent to either reduce its
cooldown, or waiting for low HP on a boss to finish it off in style.
Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife — Very strong, even though it only goes to 626. Especially strong before you have access to other Trinkets at 639 iLvl.
Void Reaper's Contract — A single-target one-trick pony, but technically the best for this one purpose, but only very slightly moreso than the more universal Trinkets above.
A-Tier
Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg — Can be optimal when played perfectly, which entails constantly moving and then suspending the
Trinket at 20 Mastery and 10 Agility stacks, ideally with your cooldowns. This is often not very practical, however.
Ara-Kara Sacbrood — A bit more single-target-oriented than the Empowering Crystal.
Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj — A bit more AoE-oriented than the Sacbrood.
Sikran's Endless Arsenal
Dead-Eye Spyglass — Because this Trinket marks targets, it is problematic on "stop-start" situations such as Mythic+, and fights with frequent target swaps.
B-Tier
Spelunker's Waning Candle
Bottled Flayedwing Toxin
Detachable Fang
C-Tier
Quickwick Candlestick
Mistcaller Ocarina — Not great for yourself, but when its effect is multiplied onto all of your hopefully powerful allies, it is.. an okay Trinket.
Twin Fang Instruments
Concoction: Kiss of Death
Harvester's Edict
D-Tier
Treacherous Transmitter
Overclocked Gear-a-Rang Launcher
Imperfect Ascendancy Serum
Abyssal Trap
Everburning Lantern
Scroll of Momentum
Wildfire Wick
Raiding Trinket Tier List for Survival Hunter
This Trinket Tier List is single-target biased, as this tends to be the most important aspect of Raiding. When Trinkets are equal on single-target, I will "break the tie" by looking into which Trinket performs better in AoE/mixed scenarios.
Note that the Trinkets are compared at their highest possible Item Level, which is only 626 for Delve Trinkets. Not only that, but 639 Mythic+ Trinkets are only obtainable via the Great Vault — Not a very reliable source. 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% DPS, meaning that S-Tier Trinkets are around 0.5% better than A-Tier Trinkets, and so on.
S-Tier
- Skardyn's Grace — Our undisputed BiS Trinket numbers-wise, and also enhances our burst.
- Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg — Complex trinket, ideally suspended with 20/10 secondary/primary stats after movement on your
Coordinated Assault.
A-Tier
- Shadow-Binding Ritual Knife
- Ara-Kara Sacbrood — A bit more single-target-oriented than the Empowering Crystal. More straightforward than Ovinax.
- Empowering Crystal of Anub'ikkaj — A bit more AoE-oriented than the Sacbrood. More straightforward than Ovinax.
- Harvester's Edict
B-Tier
- Sikran's Endless Arsenal
- Treacherous Transmitter
- Spelunker's Waning Candle
- Void Reaper's Contract
- Twin Fang Instruments
C-Tier
- Quickwick Candlestick
- Mad Queen's Mandate
- Bottled Flayedwing Toxin
- Mistcaller Ocarina — Not great for yourself, but when its effect is multiplied onto all of your hopefully powerful allies, it is a solid Trinket.
- Dead-Eye Spyglass
D-Tier
- Overclocked Gear-a-Rang Launcher
- Imperfect Ascendancy Serum
- Abyssal Trap
- Everburning Lantern
- Concoction: Kiss of Death
- Scroll of Momentum
- Wildfire Wick
- Detachable Fang
"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. While
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension and its 
Writhing Armor Banding can perform similarly for some
characters, it takes 80 seconds to stack up Ascension to full power while in combat, and it will regularly drop off between packs in
Mythic+.
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 is preferable because of the immediate, short-term
value of a weapon upgrade, and because we start the Season with 2 
Spark of Omens.
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.
You should ideally sim the optimal stats to craft for your particular character, but Mastery/Crit or Mastery/Haste are generally safe "overall" choices.
Best Embellishments and Crafting Order for Survival Hunter
Charged Halberd (Early Season, costs 2 Sparks) — This item is not our long-term BiS, but if you are coming fresh into the Season with Mythic0 606
iLvl gear or below, then the sheer Item Level value of a Weapon is going to exceed the value of the best Embellishments. For
reference, the value of upgrading a Weapon by 30 iLvl is around 8% before even considering an Embellishment, while the value of upgrading
some other slots (as below) with Embellishment by 30 iLvl is only around 4-5%. That said, if you wait until your first Great Vault and it has a Weapon, then you may wish to craft something else instead. As for
Embellishments, I recommend 
Darkmoon Sigil: Ascension for Raiding and 
Darkmoon Sigil: Vivacity for Mythic+.
Glyph-Etched Stompers with 
Dawnthread Lining (1 Spark) — Cloaks, alongside Bracers, have the
lowest Item Level
Budget of all Armor items. However, we rate the defensive value of the 
Wings of Shattered Sorrow Raid Cloak over this consideration.
If you cannot access this Cloak on Mythic, then craft 
Consecrated Cloak here, instead.
Glyph-Etched Vambraces with Dawnthread Lining (1 Spark) — Similarly to the Cloak, we get Bracers here as it is the best long-term play.- Next, chase Item Level where needed, preferring Weapon > Helm/Chest/Legs (though these are likely occupied by tier) > Boots/Belt > 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 Harbinger 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 1 Tier Set for Survival Hunter
The Tier Set is comprised of 5 items, all carrying the Lightless Scavenger moniker. Unique DPS bonuses are unlocked when wearing 2, and 4 pieces from the set:
Hunter Survival Season 1 2pc —
Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 5%. It is hard to
provide any commentary on this.- Hunter Survival Season 1 4pc —
Mongoose Bite/
Raptor Strike deals 10% increased
damage to targets affected by Wildfire Bomb. With Bombs
being so plentiful, this will be up for the vast majority of the
time.
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 Chest, due to its lack of Mastery. Check out the BiS List for more information.
Changelog
- 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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