Survival Hunter PvP Talents and Builds — The War Within (11.1.0)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as a Survival Hunter and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Survival Hunter PvP Guide.
Best The War Within Talent Builds for Survival Hunters
Note that builds here are generic recommendations for arena. There are tweaks that are effective in certain matchups. A description of suggested alterations or options is included with each build.
If you are looking for advice on which pets to use, there is a separate page on this guide answering that question in detail. Generally, you want a Cunning pet unless you expect the enemy team to burst you in a stun, in which case you are likely better off with a Tenacity pet.
The War Within PvP Talent Builds for Survival Hunters in Arena
Best Fury of the Eagle Survival Arena Build (
Sentinel)
This build uses the Sentinel Hero Talent Tree, which provides a
powerful area of effect when you use
Wildfire Bomb through
Lunar Storm, additional damage through
Sentinel procs, a
small cooldown reduction to
Coordinated Assault through
Sentinel Watch and a small amount of crowd control from
Catch Out, which gives a root that crucially does not break on damage.
This build takes Fury of the Eagle, which provides an area of effect
burst (and lingering Haste buff from
Ruthless Marauder) to finish kills.
There are several talents in the Hunter tree that you will want to change regularly based on matchups, which are:
Scrappy and
Territorial Instincts are both decent talent but can be moved around if you need a free talent point, with
Scrappy probably being the less important talent to have
Keen Eyesight is a good talent for your throughput, but if there is another talent that would be very valuable in a matchup, you can drop points in this talent if needed.
Hunter's Avoidance is worth taking when the enemy team has heavy area of effect damage.
Concussive Shot occasionally, you will have games where you can drop this because whoever you need to slow is always in melee. You will still have
Wing Clip, which is actually a longer duration slow anyway
Kodo Tranquilizer is good in almost all 3v3 scenarios but is interchangeable in 2v2 or certain matchups where you do not expect the enemy team to stack at all
Scout's Instincts if you need mobility, this can help. A target slowed by
Concussive Shot cannot catch you with this talent. It can also be combined with
Hunting Pack and
Born To Be Wild to gain the benefit more often
Bursting Shot is occasionally good if you really don't need
Scatter Shot, but these scenarios are rare
Binding Shackles is an optional "nice to have" talent, which you can replace if there's something better for a situation
Serrated Tips can be good if you have a decent amount of Crit rating on your gear
Emergency Salve is very good (into Assassination Rogues), decent into Shadow Priests to remove Devouring Plague and makes Subtlety and Outlaw Rogues easier to kite.
Misdirection is required to play
Interlope, which is a powerful PvP talent into casters, although you should be aware of the 20 yard range requirement, and if you are casting
Interlope on your pet, make sure you do it while within that range
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly your game!
Best Fury of the Eagle Survival Arena Build (
Pack Leader)
This build takes Pack Leader and may perform slightly better than
the
Sentinel equivalent in games where you expect to have low uptime
or spend a lot of time kiting, particularly because of the mobility talent
Slicked Shoes.
There are several talents in the Hunter tree that you will want to change regularly based on matchups, which are:
Scrappy and
Territorial Instincts are both decent talent but can be moved around if you need a free talent point, with
Scrappy probably being the less important talent to have
Keen Eyesight is a good talent for your throughput, but if there is another talent that would be very valuable in a matchup, you can drop points in this talent if needed.
Hunter's Avoidance is worth taking when the enemy team has heavy area of effect damage.
Concussive Shot occasionally, you will have games where you can drop this because whoever you need to slow is always in melee. You will still have
Wing Clip, which is actually a longer duration slow anyway
Kodo Tranquilizer is good in almost all 3v3 scenarios but is interchangeable in 2v2 or certain matchups where you do not expect the enemy team to stack at all
Scout's Instincts if you need mobility, this can help. A target slowed by
Concussive Shot cannot catch you with this talent. It can also be combined with
Hunting Pack and
Born To Be Wild to gain the benefit more often
Bursting Shot is occasionally good if you really don't need
Scatter Shot, but these scenarios are rare
Binding Shackles is an optional "nice to have" talent, which you can replace if there's something better for a situation
Serrated Tips can be good if you have a decent amount of Crit rating on your gear
Emergency Salve is very good (into Assassination Rogues), decent into Shadow Priests to remove Devouring Plague and makes Subtlety and Outlaw Rogues easier to kite.
Misdirection is required to play
Interlope, which is a powerful PvP talent into casters, although you should be aware of the 20 yard range requirement, and if you are casting
Interlope on your pet, make sure you do it while within that range
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly your game!
PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has its uses, but some are better for certain strategies and matchups than others.
Mandatory PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
Survival Tactics
Survival Tactics is the best overall PvP Talent. It turns
Feign Death into your best defensive ability by negating damage for
two seconds. This talent is very powerful into burst specializations when
timed correctly.
When facing matchups where you are guaranteed not to be attacked, there are occasionally better options, but it is safer just always to play this talent.
Powerful PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
Chimaeral Sting
Chimaeral Sting is a versatile ability that can be used in many
ways, for example:
- To silence an enemy healer while bursting their partner (note that it does
damage on application, and the silence only applies after 3 seconds, so you
cannot
Chimaeral Sting during or immediately after a trap)
- To silence a healer before swapping to them (particularly good against
priests as they cannot use
Pain Suppression when silenced, when they would been able to if you swapped with
Intimidation)
- To peel a DPS on their go (for example, use
Chimaeral Sting on a Mage when they cast
Dragon's Breath; they will still be able to
Polymorph your healer, but will be silenced immediately afterward and not be able to capitalize on the Polymorph, or cancel a Shaman's
Lightning Lasso when you know it is coming)
- To cancel a Restoration Druid's
Tranquility by casting
Chimaeral Sting before they use it
- To deny a healer's trinket by casting
Chimaeral Sting when they are stunned (when they trinket the stun, they are instantly silenced)
- To apply a powerful slow to a melee DPS when you have no other options
Sticky Tar Bomb
Sticky Tar Bomb is another powerful crowd control for melee DPS but
is more versatile than
Tracker's Net. Use this into any melee that
requires a weapon (or Marksmanship/Beast Mastery Hunters) to counter their
burst abilities.You can also use this ability to stop an Arms Warrior from
being able to parry attacks during
Die by the Sword or to stop a
Windwalker monk from being able to use
Fists of Fury during
Serenity.
Mending Bandage
Mending Bandage is a powerful talent specifically into Feral Druids
and Assassination Rogues. Use this to dispel bleeds and poisons from your
party when they are stunned, or use it on yourself when you have high bleeds
on yourself and are not stunned. Particular effects you will want to remove
are
Deathmark and
Feral Frenzy.
Diamond Ice
Diamond Ice makes your
Freezing Trap undispellable but
reduces the duration and makes the target immune to all spells while active.
This is useful not only because Survival has a lot of cleave built into the
rotation that can make trapping awkward, but also:
- Against Shadow Priests, Demon Hunters, and Affliction/Destruction Warlocks
that are otherwise able to dispel your
Freezing Trap
- To crowd control DPS players without the healer being able to dispel the trap
- To keep a target at low health (you can trap a target at low health and swap to another enemy, and their healer will not be able to recover the target's health during the trap). This is a strategy that is particularly effective in 2v2 arena
Diamond Ice also reduces the duration of
Freezing Trap by
two seconds, which makes it difficult to justify taking. In Patch 11.1
Freezing Trap was adjusted to have a small damage threshold before
breaking, so you can avoid taking
Diamond Ice unless you know that your
traps will definitely break instantly otherwise.
Interlope
Interlope is powerful into casters and hunters. You can
Interlope your healer when they are stunned, to eat an enemy Hunter's
Freezing Trap or use it on yourself/your team to absorb spell casts.
The pet positioning requirement of this spell can make it awkward to use, but
when used properly, it is a very powerful defensive talent. (Remember that you
need to talent into
Misdirection to use this!)
Hunting Pack
Hunting Pack is a mobility talent that vastly reduces the cooldown
of
Aspect of the Cheetah and applies its buff to your teammates but
requires your teammates to be within 15 yards. There are better talents
available to you in most cases, but this is occasionally worth taking if none
of the above talents feel useful.
Niche or rarely used PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
Tracker's Net
Tracker's Net is a situationally powerful crowd control on melee DPS.
Use this when there is a melee on the other team that you do not intend to kill
(as any damage over time effect will break the root) that doesn't have many
root-breaking abilities available.
Wild Kingdom
Wild Kingdom will help you keep your pet alive. With proper
positioning of your pet and using
Mend Pet and
Exhilaration
properly, your pet should not die often. Remember that if your team already
has a
Mortal Strike effect, you can use a Mechanical family pet,
which will be significantly more tanky than a regular pet anyway.
Explosive Powder
This is an interesting kiting tool but requires you to not take
Scatter Shot which makes it difficult to justify in most matchups. It
is particularly effective against melee specialisations that are not able to
remove slows, as the self-knockback does not push you very far.
Changelog
- 12 Mar. 2025: Updated talent builds following hotixes.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for patch 11.1.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Reviewed for patch 11.0.7.
- 31 Oct. 2024: Updated talent builds as Deathblow fixed.
- 24 Oct. 2024: Updated talent builds as Deathblow bugged.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Updated for 11.0.5 rework.
- 11 Oct. 2024: Rearranged PvP talent priority.
- 08 Oct. 2024: Updated talent builds.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Launch.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within pre-patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Added Season 4 meta talent builds.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 23 Mar. 2024: Guide re-written.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 11 Jul. 2023: Updated the Talent Build.
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Updated the recommended talent build.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 29 Jul. 2022: Reviewed and updated for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 22 Feb. 2022: Updated the recommended talents.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Updated Tier 6 Regular Talent.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 03 Jul. 2021: Updated PvP Talents.
- 30 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 16 Oct. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- Updated Tiers 3 and 4 Regular Talents.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 09 Sep. 2020: Updated Pet Talents.
- 20 Feb. 2020: Updated PvP Talents.
- 28 Jan. 2020: Page added.
Other PvP Guides
This guide is written and maintained by Slo, a Multi-Gladiator and Multi-Rank 1 Solo Shuffle Hunter. You can find Slo on YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit
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