Survival Hunter DPS Mythic+ Guide — The War Within (11.1.0)
In this guide, you will find tips and advice to tackle Mythic+ dungeons with your Survival Hunter in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0).
Survival Hunter Mythic+ Guide for The War Within Season 2
In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Hunter in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities in the most optimal way.
If you are unfamiliar with Mythic+ and its associated general mechanics, you can read more about it on our dedicated Mythic+ page below.
To learn more about the Mythic+ Meta, check out our Mythic+ Tier List below.
Survival Hunter in The War Within Mythic+
Survival Hunter is a solid all-rounder in Mythic+, able to deliver both solid AoE and single-target in one package, and without varying its rotation too much. It has some of the best utility of the Hunter specs, and the best survivability (true to its name!) overall.
Best Mythic+ Talents for Survival Hunter in The War Within
For a more general overview of Talents for Survival Hunter, please visit our dedicated Talents page.
Best Mythic+ Talents for Survival Hunter
Best
Sentinel Mythic+ Talent Build for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build has the highest AoE of our two Mythic+ builds, but has vastly inferior single-target and priority-target damage, so I do not recommend it for general use, though it is very viable and can do strong overall DPS.
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!
Best
Pack Leader Mythic+ Talent Build for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This build offers vastly more single-target and priority-target damage than
Sentinel, at a cost of AoE. This is, in my opinion, a more efficient
build for general Mythic+, as even Sentinel Survival has poor AoE. I would
rather lean into Survival's strengths than be mediocre at everything.
Wait,
Flanking Strike over
Butchery?
Yes. As described further below on this page, my Mythic+ builds are
optimized for dungeon completion time, which is achieved via a mixture
of single-target damage, priority-target damage, and general AoE DPS. The
perfect Mythic+ build is something like the perfect middle-ground of these 3
disciplines. In this case, Butchery is such a massive single-target
DPS loss (upwards of 15%), but is a much smaller AoE DPS gain (10%, often
less), that
Flanking Strike's incredible single-target and
priority-target damage will actually complete keys more efficiently overall,
finding a ton of time save in destroying bosses and priority targets in packs.
If AoE is the goal,
Sentinel simply does a better job of this.
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!
Mythic+ Utility for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This section talks mostly about the uses of different spells. For in-depth explanations of all Hunter Abilities and Talents, including these, check out our Spells page.
Utility of Survival Hunter in The War Within
Interrupts, Stuns and Stops
Muzzle is your "kick" and your most important bit of utility in
Mythic+, used to stop enemy casts for the benefit of the group and especially
the tank. It is highly recommended to use a Focus Kick macro for this.
- /stopcasting
- /stopcasting
- /cast [@focus,exists,nodead][@mouseover,exists,nodead] [] Counter Shot
This macro will kick your focus target if you have one, mouseover if you have no Focus target, and your target if you have neither of those.
To quickly set a focus target in hectic scenarios, we also recommend a Focus Mouseover macro.
- /focus [@mouseover]
Make sure that your UI shows your Focus Target's casts clearly, so that you are always able to kick it on cooldown, or in coordination with the rest of your group.
Stunning and "Stops"
Implosive Trap is your "AoE stop". shortly after arming, it will knock up all targets in a generous radius, stopping
their casts. This is very potent when combined with
Binding Shot cast beforehand, as the knock-up effect will trigger the stun from
Binding Shot, turning your AoE stop into a 3-4 second AoE stun for the cost of a global.
Intimidation is your second-most important utility and is your
single-target "stop" for negating casts that cannot be normally interrupted. We recommend
using this in the same way as your Counter Shot, with the same macro (with
Intimidation swapped in for Counter Shot, of course).
Binding Shot can be used to save your tank in hectic moments by
helping him kite mobs and generate some range. It will most commonly be used in conjunction with
Implosive Trap to enable a stun alongside the knockback offered by the latter.
Freezing Trap can be used as an additional stop alongside
Intimidation, but it has a bit of travel and arming time and is not quite as reliable.
Bursting Shot can be used as an additional stop, like
Implosive Trap, but it will knock enemies back which can be
disruptive and so it should be a last resort. Sometimes, you will use it to knock straggling enemies into the "deathball" of AoE that your
tank has made.
Other Utility
Feign Death can not only be used to drop aggro, but also negate
certain casts and channels on you. In some cases, these mechanics will simply
re-target someone else in the group, but occasionally the mechanic will be
entirely negated with huge benefits. If you notice a cast or effect on you, try
to
Feign Death it! It will also remove all Poisons and Diseases on you, and this WeakAura can help alert you when that is possible.
Tranquilizing Shot can negate beneficial Enrage and Magic effects
from enemy
targets, and with the
Disruptive Rounds Talent, we do not lose
meaningful damage from doing so. If the Dungeon is especially heavy on these dispels, you may choose to change our default Talents into grabbing either
Kodo Tranquilizer or
Devilsaur Tranquilizer.
Tar Trap can be used to aid your tank in kiting by slowing mobs. It is good to reflexively throw down a Tar Trap if your Tank dies, as it gives everyone else a better chance at kiting and surviving.
Affix Tips, Tricks and Management for Survival Hunter in The War Within Season 2
This section has Hunter-specific tips for dealing with the various affixes of Mythic+. If you want general guides for each of our Dungeons or Mythic+ in general, check out our dedicated page below.
Affix Guide for Survival Hunter in The War Within
Ascendant Affix Management for Survival Hunter
Use AoE Crowd Control tools like Implosive Trap and
Bursting Shot on dense clusters of Orbs to take out as many as
possible. You can use
Intimidation and
Freezing Trap for
remaining, singular ones.
Voidbound Affix Management for Survival Hunter
Nothing specific to say here — use your solid target-swapping capabilities to focus the Void Emissary down as quickly as possible.
Pulsar Affix Management for Survival Hunter
Pop Aspect of the Cheetah and dash around
to grab as many orbs as quickly as possible.
Devour Affix Management for Survival Hunter
Feign Death's Poison/Disease dispel (via
Emergency Salve) is a
source of dispel type for removing
Void Rift. You can also
Exhilaration to heal it off, but that costs a GCD.
How To Sim Mythic+ for Survival Hunter
MDT Sim
MDT Sim is the best way to sim Mythic+ for Survival Hunter. It allows you to sim an entire dungeon, pull-by-pull, with appropriate HP amounts and so on. In this way, you get a full picture within a single sim, of various target counts and durations. I have created a route that I feel is a good "average" of all dungeons that you can use. Drop the contents of the Pastebin into your Raidbots > SimC Expert Mode at the bottom > 'Footer'. Detailed instructions and more info on MDT Sim can be found on the MDT Sim Wago page.
On our Gear Page below, we have compiled BiS items for Survival Hunter that also apply to Mythic+.
Changelog
- 25 Mar. 2025: Updated for March 25 Updates.
- 18 Mar. 2025: Updated the recommended MDT Sim/Mythic+ Simulation Route Pastebin.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.0.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 13 Nov. 2024: Updated the Mythic+ Sentinel Build to account for Ruthless Marauder previously having been undersimming.
- 06 Nov. 2024: Added M+ builds and added a note of a good Talent Swap for beginners.
- 30 Oct. 2024: Updated for October 29 Hotfixes.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.5.
- 27 Sep. 2024: Updated Ara-Kara Tips.
- 13 Sep. 2024: Updated and clarified some tips.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Preliminary update for The War Within Season 1.
- 12 May 2024: Added Misdirection to the M+ Build by default.
- 11 May 2024: Added section on how to survive the highest of keys with Tank Trinkets and Embellishments.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 03 May 2024: Added tip for Chargath in Neltharus.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated 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.
- 18 Dec. 2023: Added Mythic+ Dungeon Tips.
- 28 Nov. 2023: Updated the Mythic+ Talent Build.
- 12 Nov. 2023: Added a T30 Mythic+ Build.
- 09 Nov. 2023: Small change to the Mythic+ build, for more single-target.
- 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.
- 23 Jun. 2023: Updated the Mythic+ Builds in light of recent APL changes.
- 02 Jun. 2023: Significant updates to the talent builds, both in terms of what is recommended for Fortified/Tyrannical, and the talent builds in themselves.
- 27 May 2023: Added separate Fortified, Tyrannical, and Cooldown Builds for Survival Mythic+.
- 13 May 2023: Updated the recommended AoE/Mythic+ Talents.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Updated the recommended M+ Build.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 29 Oct. 2022: Updated the Venthyr Mythic+ Build Talents.
- 26 Oct. 2022: Added a Kyrian build that is superior for heavy AoE keys.
- 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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