Survival Hunter Patch 9.2 Changes Analysis and Tier Set Thoughts

This page will go over how the changes in Patch 9.2, Eternity's End, will affect Survival Hunters, specifically how the changes might impact its playstyle, best Legendary choices, Covenants, and the like. If you are simply interested in what the current changes are for Hunters in Patch 9.2 in general, you can instead read our full list of changes to the entire Hunter class on our dedicated page below. For an additional list of content coming with Patch 9.2, you can also check out our Patch 9.2 Overview page.

At the moment, Survival Hunters have not yet received any changes to the specialization's core kit. However, some of the further adjustments and additional content that will be arriving will likely change how you as a Survival Hunter may approach your gameplay.

As with the specialization itself, there have been no direct Talent changes made in PvE or PvP for Survival Hunters, though with a new raid and a new season for both Mythic+ and PvP will come new options for finding gear and trying out different talent combinations.

Within the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid that will be coming in Patch 9.2, every class will once again earn pieces of a gear set that is uniquely class-themed with its own two- and four-piece bonuses for every specialization. For Survival Hunters, these set bonuses currently are:

• Survival Hunter 2-Piece — When Kill Command resets, it has a 40% chance to make your next Wildfire Bomb incur no cooldown.
• Survival Hunter 4-Piece — Your Wildfire Bombs deal 30% additional damage. This bonus is increased to 80% for bombs empowered by the 2pc bonus.

As Patch 9.2 is still being developed, this tier set bonus can be changed!

These set bonuses are a massive AoE DPS increase for Survival, massively buffing its main AoE in Wildfire Bomb. It is such a large buff to the ability that the current single-target BoP build will likely be superseded entirely by Wildfire Infusion builds.

This bodes very well for Survival AoE and will also simplify the spec for single-target.

While there have been no changes to Covenant abilities or Soulbinds for Survival Hunters at this time, it is worth noting that as of Patch 9.1.5 players may freely switch between Covenants provided that they have reached Renown level 80 with any Covenant. This has opened up a lot of flexibility for Survival Hunters, allowing them to effectively choose the Covenant whose bonuses are most useful at a given time, though the choice for maximizing damage will still largely come to either Kyrian or Night Fae.

In addition, Conduits will be unlocking their final few ranks, though this will not alter gameplay in any substantial way.

Remember that in Patch 9.1, every class received a Legendary Power that was unique to each Covenant. For Hunters, these Powers were:

• Kyrian — Pact of the Soulstalkers — When your Resonating Arrow deals damage to a target, you and your party gain 10% increased Critical Strike chance for 10 sec.
• Necrolord — Bag of Munitions — Up to 2 targets hit by your Death Chakram are also hit by Explosive Shot.
• Night Fae — Fragments of the Elder Antlers — When Wild Spirits hits fewer than 5 targets, there is a 100% chance to cause Wild Spirits damage a second time.
• Venthyr — Pouch of Razor Fragments — Bonus Kill Shots from Flayed Shot cause 6 targets within 12 yds to bleed for 60% of the damage dealt by Kill Shot over 6 sec.

In Patch 9.2, you unlock the ability to eventually use a second Legendary Power, provided it is your Covenant-specific effect. This means that a Kyrian Survival Hunter could make use of both Pact of the Soulstalkers and Wildfire Cluster! In addition, this ability will be tied to a new Legendary Power that automatically switches to match your current Covenant, further encouraging the flexibility of freely changing Covenants that was introduced in Patch 9.1.5.

With the 2pc bonus heavily buffing the spec's AoE potential, a potent combination for many scenarios will be Pact of the Soulstalkers and Wildfire Cluster.