Survival Hunter DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.0)
On this page, we explain how to easily play Survival Hunter in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0), using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
The Basics of Survival Hunter in The War Within
Survival is quite simple in its execution and it is an ideal spec for someone new to raiding, or just WoW in general. It is one of the most popular specs in the game's history and has seen use in many World First kills.
If you are completely new to Survival and need more information on the abilities available to you, you can check out our Spell Summary page.
Beginner's Guide to Survival Hunter in The War Within
Best
Sentinel Single-Target Talents for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This is our strongest build for pure single-target encounters. If the
encounter does not suit the 2-minute cooldown cadence of picking
Relentless Primal Ferocity, it is viable to swap it to
Symbiotic Adrenaline for a 1-minute burst build, at only a ~1-1.5% DPS
loss.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Best
Sentinel Mythic+ Talent Build for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build is our default recommendation for Mythic+, providing by far the most damage, and even stronger defensive options.
Survival Hunter Utility Talent Considerations in Mythic+
We cannot have everything we could possibly want for every single dungeon in a single build, unfortunately. Here are the recommended utility talents to swap to for different, specific Mythic+ dungeons in The War Within Season 2.
- For Cinderbrew Meadery, Darkflame Cleft,
Theater of Pain, and The MOTHERLODE!!, swap
Kodo Tranquilizer over to
Devilsaur Tranquilizer.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
Beginner Survival Hunter DPS Rotation
The goal of Survival is chiefly to maximize your Tip of the Spear coverage
on all of your abilities. Ensure that the buff is up whenever you cast a
Flanking Strike,
Wildfire Bomb,
Explosive Shot,
Kill Shot.
Beyond this, use Raptor Strike/
Mongoose Bite as a filler and Focus spender,
with
Kill Command being your Focus and Tip generator.
AoE Rotation for Survival Hunter
On AoE, we focus far more on Wildfire Bombs, which deal amazing AoE
damage. We reduce their cooldown by using
Butchery on cooldown. If single-target is
about maximizing Mongoose Bites, AoE is all about throwing as many Bombs as
possible!
It is still extremely important to ensure that Tip of the Spear is active for all
of your special abilities.
Defensive Spells for Survival Hunter
Exhilaration is your primary self-heal and it has a rather short
cooldown thanks to the
Natural Mending Talent. Use this when you drop
below 50% HP to help out your Healer!
Aspect of the Turtle is your immunity. It can be used to completely
negate the damage and effects of most spells targeted on you. Use it if you are
assigned to, or in a pinch if you worry that an upcoming mechanic will kill
you!
Survival of the Fittest is our most powerful defensive besides
Turtle, a 30% damage reduction with 2 charges on a 1.5-minute cooldown each.
Use it to reduce damage taken from hard-hitting mechanics. Optimal use of this
ability entails using it proactively, before heavy incoming damage.
Fortitude of the Bear is an extra defensive that comes from using a
Tenacity Pet (more on that in the Pets section!). It increases max health by
20% and heals you for that amount too. This defensive can be used after heavy
damage, or to survive things that might one-shot you.
Feign Death is a very unique Hunter ability. It can be used to drop
aggro and combat, and it can also be used to stop casts on you — mobs
will usually stop casting mid-cast if you appear to be dead! It will also
dispel all Poison and Disease effects from you.
This is just some of the key utility of Survival Hunter. We highly recommend checking out the fully detailed Spell Glossary page below to see everything explained in detail.
Best Pets for Survival Hunter
The most important thing to say about Pets is that they all deal the same DPS. The only difference is in utility and defensive capabilities!
First of all, you need to find out if you need to be using
Bloodlust/
Heroism in your group. Only Hunters, Mages,
Evokers, and Shamans can use Bloodlust, so if there is no one else of those
classes in your group, then it is on you!
If you do need to Bloodlust, you need to use any Ferocity
Pet, since these come with the
Primal Rage Bloodlust Ability. Use this website to find a
cool Ferocity Pet for Lusting purposes!
If you do not need to Bloodlust, then the best Pet is a personal choice Tenacity Pet or the aforementioned Ferocity Pet.
Tenacity Pets come with the Fortitude of the Bear defensive and 5% Max Health, but you lose out on the 4% Leech which is better
for prolonged self-sustain!
Best Talents for Survival Hunter in The War Within
This is the Easy Mode page which presents things in a simplified manner with simplified builds. For our detailed, fully-fledged Talent and Rotation guides, click below!
Stat Priority for Survival Hunter in The War Within
The general stat priority for a Survival Hunter is:
- Mastery;
- Haste/Crit;
- Versatility
While the stat priority for classes is normally the same for both the Easy Mode page and our full guide, subtle differences can still occur. If you want to see the full explanation of the stat priority, as well as the absolute top choices for the priority, head to our full stats page below.
Changelog
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 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.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Preliminary update for The War Within Season 1.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6.
- 29 Jan. 2024: Updated the default M+ build to a No-CD Build.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 13 Jun. 2023: Updated the Easy Mode rotation and builds to be easier to follow.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight 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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