Survival Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (11.0.5)

• Maximizing Focus and Tip of the Spear stacks generated by casting Kill Command on cooldown without ever letting it cap you on either resource.
• Maximizing Focus spent on Mongoose Bite by never Focus capping.
• Ensuring that Tip of the Spear stacks are spent on high-impact abilities and not fillers.

• All the same goals as the single-target Rotation.
• Maximizing our Wildfire Bomb charge generation and reducing wastage with Butchery, and occasionally Fury of the Eagle.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. Cast Harpoon to reach the target.
3. Use any on-use Trinkets, as well as your Potion.
4. Cast 2x Wildfire Bombs.
5. Cast Raptor Strike Mongoose Bite to apply Serpent Sting, for Outland Venom.
6. Cast Butchery.
7. Cast Wildfire Bomb.
8. Cast Explosive Shot.
9. Cast Coordinated Assault.
10. Cast Kill Command to get yourself 3 Tip stacks, thanks to Relentless Primal Ferocity.
11. Cast Spearhead.
12. Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.

This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Survival Hunters. In short, you should press the highest-priority ability for which the conditions are met, every single cast.

A lot of the rotation revolves around Tip of the Spear, a buff generated by Kill Command that buffs the damage of other abilities. I will refer to this as "Tip", or "Tip stacks" throughout the rotation.

1. Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg's perfect distribution is 20/10, favoring your secondary stat, which is activated by moving. Suspend it in this state on your cooldowns, or when you think you will struggle to maintain this balance naturally. Do not get too distracted trying to perfect this; you are honestly 99% of the way there if you can just keep it from reaching 20 stacks of either buff.
2. Cast Wildfire Bomb if Lunar Storm is able to be triggered. Track it using this WeakAura.
3. Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks. Thanks to Relentless Primal Ferocity, it will generate 3 Tip stacks to be used on other abilities.
4. Cast Spearhead on cooldown, if Coordinated Assault is on cooldown. Try to generate some Tip of the Spear stacks in reserve when it is about to come off cooldown — we want to really make the most out of our 10-second Spearhead window.
5. Cast Mongoose Bite if Serpent Sting is missing from the target, and it has at least 12 seconds left to live. We want to apply it because of Venom's Bite + Outland Venom.
6. Cast Raptor Strike if Serpent Sting is missing from the target, and it has at least 12 seconds left to live. We want to apply it because of Venom's Bite + Outland Venom.
7. Cast Butchery on cooldown. It is worth casting on single-target thanks to Merciless Blows.
8. Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it.
9. Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active if it is about to hit 2 charges, and if you will get another charge of it back in time for Lunar Storm to be available. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
   1. If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
   2. If Lunar Storm is able to be activated;
   3. If Coordinated Assault is off cooldown, you should dump all of your Bombs regardless of Tip stacks due to Bombardier.
10. Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown. Make sure to dump all of your Bombs first to not waste the ones you get via Bombardier.
11. Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. If Tip of the Spear is up, great, but we do not go out of our way to Tip these.
12. Cast Fury of the Eagle on cooldown with Tip of the Spear.
13. Cast Kill Shot whenever possible.
14. Cast Kill Command to generate Focus if you have less than 77. You should also cast it if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks right before Flanking Strike.During Coordinated Assault, use it aggressively whenever you have less than 2 Tip stacks, regardless of Focus.
15. Cast Wildfire Bomb on cooldown with Tip of the Spear if it is going to reach 2 charges before Lunar Storm's cooldown is up. Otherwise, hold it.
16. Cast Mongoose Bite if there is nothing else to do, as a filler. Do not worry about Mongoose Fury, it does not impact your decision-making and can essentially be ignored.
17. Cast Raptor Strike if there is nothing else to do, as a filler.

1. Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg's perfect distribution is 20/10, favoring your secondary stat, which is activated by moving. Suspend it in this state on your cooldowns, or when you think you will struggle to maintain this balance naturally. Do not get too distracted trying to perfect this; you are honestly 99% of the way there if you can just keep it from reaching 20 stacks of either buff.
2. Use Raptor Strike to refresh Howl of the Pack when it is about to expire, if Pack Coordination is up.
3. Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks. Thanks to Relentless Primal Ferocity, it will generate 3 Tip stacks to be used on other abilities.
4. Use Butchery if your Scattered Prey buff is about to expire. This is basically a non-concern if you are generally pressing Butchery on cooldown, as you should.
5. Cast Mongoose Bite if Serpent Sting is missing from the target, and it has at least 12 seconds left to live. We want to apply it because of Venom's Bite + Outland Venom.
6. Cast Raptor Strike if Serpent Sting is missing from the target, and it has at least 12 seconds left to live. We want to apply it because of Venom's Bite + Outland Venom.
7. Cast Butchery on cooldown. It is worth casting on single-target thanks to Merciless Blows.
8. Cast Spearhead on cooldown, if Coordinated Assault is on cooldown. Try to generate some Tip of the Spear stacks in reserve when it is about to come off cooldown — we want to really make the most out of our 10-second Spearhead window.
9. Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it.
10. Cast Kill Shot with Tip of the Spear.
11. Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active if you have more than 1.4 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
    • If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
    • If Coordinated Assault is off cooldown, you should dump all of your Bombs regardless of Tip stacks due to Bombardier.
12. Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. If Tip of the Spear is up, great, but we do not go out of our way to Tip these.
13. Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown. Make sure to dump all of your Bombs first to not waste the ones you get via Bombardier.
14. Cast Fury of the Eagle with Tip of the Spear.
15. Cast Mongoose Bite when you have a Furious Assault proc to consume.
16. Cast Raptor Strike when you have a Furious Assault proc to consume. These procced Raptors will be free and deal extra damage.
17. Cast Wildfire Bomb on cooldown, with Tip of the Spear up.
18. Cast Kill Command under the following conditions:
    • You have less than 77 Focus, and Coordinated Assault is down.
    • You have less than 77 Focus, and Coordinated Assault is up, and you have 0 Tip of the Spear stacks.
    • You have less than 30 Focus.
19. Cast Mongoose Bite if there is nothing else to do, as a filler.
20. Cast Raptor Strike if there is nothing else to do, as a filler.

1. Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
2. While the pull is being gathered and you are not comfortable doing a lot of damage left, you should pick a target and spam Kill Command to build a few Tip of the Spear stacks ahead of time.
3. Cast all your Wildfire Bombs. These are generally the only Bombs we will send on a fight that are not Tip-affected.
4. Cast Butchery. You may wish to skip this until all mobs are stacked up.
5. Cast Explosive Shot.
6. Cast any remaining Wildfire Bombs before entering Coordinated Assault.
7. Cast Coordinated Assault, along with your Potion and on-use Trinkets.
8. Cast Spearhead.
9. Cast Kill Command if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks.
10. Cast Wildfire Bomb.
11. Cast Fury of the Eagle.
12. Cast Flanking Strike.
13. Proceed with the normal rotation, according to the priority list below.
14. Cast Flanking Strike.
15. Cast Fury of the Eagle.
16. Proceed with the normal rotation, according to the priority list below.

This priority list describes the optimal AoE Rotation for Survival Hunters. In short, you should press the highest-priority ability for which the conditions are met, every single cast.

A lot of the rotation revolves around Tip of the Spear, a buff generated by Kill Command that buffs the damage of other abilities. I will refer to this as "Tip", or "Tip stacks" throughout the rotation.

1. Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg's perfect distribution is 20/10, favoring your secondary stat, which is activated by moving. Suspend it in this state on your cooldowns, or when you think you will struggle to maintain this balance naturally.
2. Cast Spearhead on cooldown, if Coordinated Assault is on cooldown.
3. Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks. Thanks to Relentless Primal Ferocity, it will generate 3 Tip stacks to be used on other abilities.
4. Cast your free Explosive Shot, granted at the end of Coordinated Assault via Bombardier. You should try to Tip of the Spear these, as they hit 3 targets!
5. Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active, if it is about to hit 2 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
   1. If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
   2. If Coordinated Assault is off cooldown, you should dump all of your Bombs regardless of Tip stacks due to Bombardier.
   3. If Lunar Storm is able to be activated. Trackable with this WeakAura.
6. Cast Butchery on cooldown. Send all of your Wildfire Bombs before using it so that you do not overcap due to Frenzy Strikes.
7. Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. If we have Tip of the Spear available for it, great, but we do not explicitly go out of our way to Tip Explosives for the most part. The exception is the Bombardier proc you get at the end of Coordinated Assault, which you always want to Tip. We should also look for other opportunities to Tip Explosive Shot that will not delay its casting by more than 1 GCD, and will not unduly delay or cap other high-priority abilities. We usually want to prioritize this above Bombs because we want to maximize value from Grenade Juggler resets. At the same time, we do not want to cap on our Wildfire Bomb charges.
8. Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown. Make sure to dump all of your Bombs first to not waste the ones you get via Bombardier.
9. Cast Fury of the Eagle with Tip of the Spear on cooldown. When running Ruthless Marauder, try not to be on 3 stacks of Tip when casting it, as this increases the chance that you will overcap on the Tip of the Spear stacks generated.
10. Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it. Its AoE damage is not fantastic, but it is a more powerful Tip-generator than Kill Command, and does hefty single- and priority-target damage.
11. Cast Kill Shot if you have a Deathblow proc.
12. Cast Kill Command to generate Focus if you have less than 77.
13. Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear on cooldown.
14. Cast Kill Command on cooldown, as a filler.
15. Cast Mongoose Bite as a filler. Cycle it on different targets, especially on low-target cleave, to spread Serpent Sting.
16. Cast Raptor Strike as a filler. Cycle it on different targets, especially on low-target cleave, to spread Serpent Sting.

1. Ovi'nax's Mercurial Egg's perfect distribution is 20/10, favoring your secondary stat, which is activated by moving. Suspend it in this state on your cooldowns, or when you think you will struggle to maintain this balance naturally.
2. Cast Spearhead on cooldown, if Coordinated Assault is on cooldown.
3. Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks. Thanks to Relentless Primal Ferocity, it will generate 3 Tip stacks to be used on other abilities.
4. Cast your free Explosive Shot, granted at the end of Coordinated Assault via Bombardier. We do not care about Tip for these.
5. Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active, if it is about to hit 2 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
   1. If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
   2. If Coordinated Assault is off cooldown, you should dump all of your Bombs regardless of Tip stacks due to Bombardier.
   3. Dump all of your Wildfire Bombs right before Butchery comes off cooldown.
6. Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it. Its AoE damage is not fantastic, but it is a more powerful Tip-generator than Kill Command, and does hefty single- and priority-target damage.
7. Cast Butchery on cooldown.
8. Cast Explosive Shot on cooldown. If Tip of the Spear is up, great, but we do not go out of our way to Tip these.
9. Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown. Make sure to dump all of your Bombs first to not waste the ones you get via Bombardier.
10. Cast Fury of the Eagle with Tip of the Spear on cooldown.
11. Cast Kill Shot if you have a Deathblow proc.
12. Cast Kill Command to generate Focus if you have less than 77.
13. Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear on cooldown.
14. Cast Kill Shot.
15. Cast Kill Command as a filler.
16. Cast Mongoose Bite as a filler.
17. Cast Raptor Strike as a filler.