Survival Hunter DPS Guide — The War Within (11.1.0)

Survival Hunter received substantial changes in Patch 11.1, with several brand new talents, a totally reworked Pack Leader Hero Tree, and more. Below, I will list the most impactful changes, but it will not be an exhaustive list. For A FULL list of changes, check the Hunter Changes button below!

• Flanking Strike and Butchery have been made mutually exclusive by turning them into a choice node. Flanking Strike is the single-target option, while Butchery is the AoE option.
• The Frenzy Strikes and Merciless Blows Talents have been updated to reflect this split between Flanking and Butchery, giving them separate and powerful bonuses, including a significant attack speed bonus from Flanking Strike.
• With the Pack Leader rework described below, several nodes and mechanics have been moved to the Survival Tree, like Cull the Herd, and new talents like Born to Kill that key off of it.

Pack Leader has been redesigned from the ground up.

• Howl of the Pack Leader is the new core mechanic. Every so often, your Kill Command will summon either a Wyvern, Boar, or Bear, rotating between them in that order. Casting Kill Command and Raptor Strike/ Mongoose Bite reduces the cooldown of this effect (base 30s). When a Beast spawns, it grants you 10 seconds of Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction.
• Each Beast confers different effects, aside from dealing damage; the Wyvern increases you and your pet's damage done globally, while the Boar and Bear deal heavy damage in general. The Bear will also grant you Flanking Strike/ Butchery cooldown reduction, while the Boar's attacks will stack up Hogstrider, buffing the damage and target count of your next Raptor Strike/ Mongoose Bite, as well as giving a 25% chance of generating Mongoose Fury on each hit.
• Lead From the Front causes Coordinated Assault to summon a Beast.
• Horsehair Tether/ Slicked Shoes is a utility choice node that either grants Disengage cooldown reduction, or causes Binding Shot to pull affected mobs to its center - great for mobility and AoE crowd control, respectively.
• Shell Cover is a weak defensive node. It can, at most, grant 6 seconds of 10% damage reduction every 90 seconds, and you do not get to trigger it on your own. This is laughably bad.

Overall, these changes are significant enough to affect both our Talent Builds and Rotation in substantial ways.