Hunter Hero Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

This page is specifically about Hero Talents in The War Within. If you want to learn more about the best regular talents for Survival Hunter, check out our Talents page:

Pack Leader is the strongest for single-target, but relies heavily on being able to maintain high uptime on Howl of the Pack. This is generally not a problem on Raiding Encounters, however.

Sentinel is a tad behind for single-target, and also relies heavily on Lunar Storm, a ground effect that tanks frequently move out of and cost you DPS from.

Sentinel is theoretically a little behind, but is nowhere near as hampered by downtime between pulls, and is stronger defensively. In practice, it will also do more DPS unless you are chain-pulling very aggressively, which is not a reliable strategy in most keys.

Pack Leader is a viable alternative, but Howl of the Pack uptime loss is more of a concern in Mythic+, and it is also worse defensively.

2.

Best Hero Talent Builds for Survival Hunter

Sentinel Single-Target Build Sentinel Mythic+ Build Pack Leader Single-Target Build Pack Leader Mythic+ Build

3.

Best Sentinel Build for Survival Hunter

Sentinel is very straightforward to build. The only thing we swap for AoE is Overwatch/ Crescent Steel, with the latter providing more Sentinel hits overall on a single target, because you will generally only get the Overwatch trigger once in such scenarios.

We also have a choice between Sentinel Watch and Eyes Closed. The former offers a shorter cooldown, and the latter offers a stronger cooldown. Generally speaking, we pick Sentinel Watch whenever we would also pick the Spec Talent Symbiotic Adrenaline, such as most Mythic+ scenarios, and we pick Eyes Closed when we do not.

3.

Best Sentinel Build for Survival Hunter

Sentinel is very straightforward to build. The only thing we swap for AoE is Overwatch/ Crescent Steel, with the former providing a lot more Sentinel hits in AoE scenarios. Get a single target below 20% HP, and watch mobs melt from 20-0% HP.

We also have a choice between Sentinel Watch and Eyes Closed. The former offers a shorter cooldown, and the latter offers a stronger cooldown. Generally speaking, we pick Sentinel Watch whenever we would also pick the Spec Talent Symbiotic Adrenaline, such as most Mythic+ scenarios, and we pick Eyes Closed when we do not.

3.

Best Pack Leader Build for Survival Hunter

Pack Leader grabs Scattered Prey for single-target.

3.

Best Pack Leader Mythic+ Build for Survival Hunter

Pack Leader on AoE swaps Scattered Prey out for Covering Fire, as we lean more into the Merciless Blows part of Butchery, rather than Butchery's damage itself.

Sentinel will regularly change the way we think about using our second Wildfire Bomb charge. In essence, if the remaining "internal cooldown" of Lunar Storm is up in a couple of seconds, you will want to hold your second/final Wildfire Bomb charge for that moment, ensuring we squeeze out as much uptime as possible. Our Rotation page covers this.

But, other than that minmax, Sentinel is completely passive.

Pack Leader will significantly raise the priority of Kill Command, making it a more valuable button than most of your standard fillers. It also introduces Furious Assault procs that we want to lean into by using Tip of the Spear into 5- stack, Furious Assault-buffed Raptor Strike/ Mongoose Bites.