You will find links to all of our hunter pages on those two pages.
This page has been updated for Cata 4.3, but will not be updated further. If you have links to this page please update them to the new pages. The builds on this page will be obsolete in M of P.
Everything below this line is out of date. It is left here just for legacy sake.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled guide:
Survival hunters serve a unique role of contributing DPS not only
for themselves, but for all other classes in the entire raid via Hunting
Party. Originally (waaaayyy back when) this tree was intended to be
primarly melee oriented, but was then changed to ranged DPS. These
days the Survival Hunter is tops in DPS, at least until the next nerf...
The Buff/Nerf Situation
One day, Survival Hunter Joe was a god. He and his pet, a giant miniature
space hamster, destroyed everything. The next week the Bliz team uploaded
a patch/hotfix which just happened to target the exploits that Hunter
Joe was using to rack up his awesome numbers. It also happened to tweak
a few talents, made small adjustments to some abilitites, and even
made a subtle color change to Joe's beard.
So Joe ragequit and went back to playing Ultima Online. Other hunters
LoLed and rode with the changes, knowing that in a few days, or a couple
of weeks, more changes would be coming. And they did, and Survival
Hunters were back where they were supposed to be.
Until the next set of fixes...
The point is that the "flavor of the month" sometimes changes
and we're not going to play that game on this page. What you'll find
here are solid Survival builds and info that looks like it will be
solid for more than a few days.
Tradeskills for the Survival Hunter
My recommendation for tradeskills/professions is to pick any two of
skinning, herbalism, or mining, allowing you to make decent amounts of
cash.
If you want to have a crafting profession, then Leatherworking
and Skinning can be a good combo. You'll be able to make some pretty
nice gear and not spend too much gold. Some leatherworking items can
also be sold for nice amounts of change.
Leatherworking - for the gear, and maybe to sell gear for a profit,
but it's expensive to level otherwise.
Skinning - to make money and support your leatherworking skill.
Skinning also adds to your crit rating.
Mining and Herbalism are great cash grinding skills. Mining will
add to your Stamina and Herbalism will give you a small heal and
a haste buff.
Inscription used to be a great skill to make money, but has too
much competition now, on most servers. You can still make some
money with it, but it takes some work. If you just want your glyphs then,
on most servers, it's way cheaper to buy them than to level this profession.
First aid is essential. Keep it maxed at all times.
Cooking is useful as many of the foods you create will have interesting
buffs, as well as allowing you to regain health and mana.
For those who have the cash, and/or want to level a prof while leveling,
each of the professions has at least one interesting item. Leatherworking
is clearly the best for Hunters, and jewelcrafting or inscription might
be next. Note that your Into
the Wilderness ability increases the Agility
from the following skills, making them that much more valuable than enchants
which don't provide Agility.
For the min-maxxers:
Leatherworking provides an improved
bracer enchant for 130 Agility.
This lets you replace an enchant that would otherwise be haste or
crit with pure agility.
Jewelcrafting can provide three
self-only gems that are +67 Agility, as opposed to the +40 that everyone
else gets.
Blacksmithing can provide
self-only gem slots, one each to bracers and gloves, to hold those nice
+67 agility gems that you can make JC
Engineering has a number of engie
toys that are also useful. Synapse Springs provides a nice Ag boost and
stacks with your other glove enchnat.
Alchemy allows you to receive greater benefit from your own potions
than the other guys' potions.
Enchanting provides two 40 Ag enchants to your own rings for
a potential 80 Ag gain.
Inscription: A self-only shoulder enchant for an 80 Agi gain
over anything found from the rep vendors.
Tailoring: swordguard embroidery cloak enchant procs for 400
AP for 15 sec
Herbalism: The lifeblood heal, mentioned above, has a 2 minute
cooldown and gives you 240 haste rating for 20 sec.
The racials aren't all that important, your skill is what's
really important. Use this list if you're undecided, otherwise just go
with the race that you like the best. Let's face it, there's just something about
Undead Hunters, right?
Alliance
Draenei
Gift of the Naaru, while not a big heal it's the only
one you got. Helps to reduce downtime and takes a bit of the load
off youir healers.
+1% hit racial, self-only, doesn't sound like much, but that's about
180 rating points at 85.
The Nelf Shadowmeld racial coming in handy for ambushing
unsuspecting players in both world PvP, Battlegrounds, and Arena. Additionally
it can be used for hiding from higher levels/gank squads while
leveling.
1% dodge chance
increase, another bonus to stack with Aspect of the Monkey when
forced into melee. More often times this’ll happen in PvP,
as opposed to PvE.
Your initial pet is a Nightsaber.
Dwarves
Gun specialization, increasing
the chance to critically strike with all guns by 1%.
Stone form washes away bleeds and such and also decreases
damage by 10% for its duration.
The other racials are to yawn at.
Your initial pet is a Bear.
Human
Their escpae ability is very handy for PvP and some other times.
Their diplomacy skill is nice for faction grinding.
Your initial pet is a Wolf.
Worgen
1% increased chance
to crit, which is always useful
They can "periodically
move more quickly," which
definitely has it's uses.
Their increased skinning skill and speed
is a nice convenience. Skinning & Leatherworking
is a nice combo for Hunters.
Arcane Torrent, an AoE silence/interruption is great
for Rogues and Warriors, nbot so Hot for Hunters.
Tauren
Big and fuzzy, they can always couinted on for a warm hug.
5%
bonus to health
Warstomp, an AoE stun that
may allow you to gain range from melee classes, unlike Arcane
Torrent this is a stun, which allows youi to get some
distance from the opposition.
Trolls
One of the better races for Hunters.
Berserking is a solid DPS increase
Bow
Specialization is
a 1% increase to critical chance with all bows
+5% damage to beasts is nice while leveling and sometimes in PvE.
Reduced duration from movement
reducing effects has its uses.
Orcs
Orcs, on the other hand gain, are also a contender
for "best
Hunter race."
Blood Fury is
another great DPS increaser
5% more pet damage,
via Command, is more generally useful than the
Troll ability.
15% resistance to all stuns with Hardiness,
useful in PvP situations due to the prevalence of stuns.
Undead
Naturally the Undead start with a giant spider as a pet.
Will of the Forsaken can
wipe off sleeps, charms, etc., a nice abilitiy to have, especially
in PvP.
Goblin (Cataclysm)
Rocket Jump has definite uses at times, much like a
cheap "Blink," especially as a "gain
range" ability in PvP.
An increase to Haste is generaly
useful
increase in Alchemy skill, along with a
greater effect from your own healing potions, is also nice.
Survival Talents
At level 10 you get to pick your spec. After you have spend 31 points
in that spec you will be able to pick points from the other specs, but
not until then. Mastery is trainable at level 80.
The special abilities you receive from Survival are:
Explosive Shot - Your primary "nuke." You will use it
often. It also adds a very short term Damage of Time (DoT) effect.
Into
the Wilderness - Increases your Agility, which increases the value
of all of your Agility items and enchants.
Mastery:
Essence of the Viper - Increases your elemental (EG: Fire)
damage. Increasing Mastery increases this amount of damage done.
While this build is a pretty solid DPS build it will also depend on
your playstyle, your group, etc. Adjust to your particular situation.
Survival (32 Points)
Pathing - Rank 3/3 -
Increases ranged haste by 3%.
Improved Serpent Sting - Rank 2/2 -
Your Serpent Sting also does instant damage equal to 30% of its total
periodic effect.
Also increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Serpent Sting
by 10%.
Survival Tactics - Rank 2/2 -
Reduces the chance that your trap spells will be resisted by 4%,
and reduces the cooldown of your Disengage ability by 4 sec.
Trap Mastery - Rank 3/3
Ice Trap and Freezing Trap - Increases the duration by 30%.
Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow
- Increases the periodic damage done by 30%.
Snake Trap - Increases the number of snakes summoned by 6.
Thrill
of the Hunt - Rank 3/3 -
You have a 15% chance when you use Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot
or Black Arrow to instantly regain 40% of the base focus cost of
the shot.
Lock and Load - Rank 2/2 -
You have a 100% chance when you trap a target with Freezing Trap
or Ice Trap to cause your next 2 Arcane Shot or Explosive Shot
abilities to cost no focus and trigger no cooldown.
Resourcefulness - Rank 3/3 -
Reduces the cooldown of all traps and Black Arrow by 6 sec.
T.N.T. - Rank 2/2 -
When you deal periodic damage with your Immolation Trap, Explosive
Trap or Black Arrow you have a 12% chance to trigger Lock and Load.
Toxicology - Rank 2/2 -
Increases the periodic critical damage of your Serpent Sting and
Black Arrow by 100%.
Wyvern Sting - Rank 1/1 -
A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 30 sec. Any damage
will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes
2736
Nature damage over 6 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active
on the target at a time.
Noxious Stings - Rank 2/2 -
Increases your damage done on targets afflicted by your Serpent
Sting by 10%.
If Wyvern Sting is dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by
Wyvern Sting lasting 50% of the duration remaining.
Hunting Party - Rank 1/1 -
Increases your total Agility by an additional 2%, and increases
the Ranged and Melee Attack Speed of all party and raid members
by 10%.
Sniper Training - Rank 3/3 -
Increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Shot ability
by 15%, and after remaining stationary for 6 sec, your Steady Shot
and Cobra Shot deal 6% more damage for 15 sec.
Serpent Spread - Rank 2/2 -
Targets hit by your Multi-Shot are also afflicted by your Serpent
Sting equal to 9 sec of its total duration.
Black Arrow - Rank 1/1 -
Fires a Black Arrow at the target, dealing
2035
Shadow damage over 15 sec. Black Arrow shares a cooldown with other
Fire Trap spells.
Beast Mastery (0 Points)
None
Marksmanship (9 Points)
Go for the Throat - Rank 2/2 -
Your ranged auto-shot critical hits cause your pet to generate 10 Focus.
Efficiency - Rank 3/3 -
Reduces the focus cost of your Arcane Shot by 3, and your Explosive Shot and Chimera
Shot by 6.
Sic 'Em! - Rank 2/2 -
When you critically hit with your Arcane Shot, Aimed Shot or Explosive Shot the
focus cost of your Pet's next basic attack is reduced by 100% for 12 sec.
Careful Aim - Rank 2/2 -
Increases the critical strike chance of your Steady Shot, Cobra Shot and Aimed
Shot by 60% on targets who are above 80% health.
Glyphs
Glyph of Explosive Shot (Prime Glyph) -
Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 6%.
Glyph of Kill Shot (Prime Glyph) -
If the damage from your Kill Shot fails to kill a target at or below
20% health, your Kill Shot's cooldown is instantly reset. This effect
has a 6 sec cooldown.
Glyph of Serpent Sting (Prime Glyph) -
Increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Serpent Sting by 6%.
Glyph of Misdirection (Major Glyph) -
When you use Misdirection on your pet, the cooldown on your Misdirection is
reset.
Glyph of Trap Launcher (Major Glyph) -
Reduces the focus cost of Trap Launcher by 10.
Glyph of Wyvern Sting (Major Glyph) -
Decreases the cooldown of your Wyvern Sting by 6 sec.
Glyph of Feign Death (Minor Glyph) -
Reduces the cooldown of your Feign Death spell by 5 sec.
Glyph of Mend Pet (Minor Glyph) -
Your Mend Pet spell increases your pet's happiness slightly.
Glyph of Revive Pet (Minor Glyph) -
Comments:
Hunter
Vs Wild increases your stamina. If you're pulling aggro or doing
PvP with this build, and getting hurt then this is a good talent
to take. If you have a hot tank and you'e careful not to pull aggro
then the points are better spent elsewhere.
Bestial Discipline provides for faster pet focus regen. and might
be worth a point, depending on your focus management.
Cataclysm Level 85 Survival Hunter PVP Builds
Build #1
Just use the above DPS build as it works quite well for various tasks.
Various talents can, of course, be changed depending on your game. You'll
give up some DPS to do so, but the increased survivability and/or control
might be well worth it.
Notes:
Hunter Vs Wild (survival, tier 1) increases your Stamina
by up to 10%. That's a fair chumk of HP at 85.
Entrapment prevents targets from moving for 4 seconds.
Counterattack - you probably don't want to go toe to toe
with a melee class, so this talent probably isn't worth your time.
The build below takes the first three of the above talents and drops
some DPS: Survival Tactics, Serpent Spread, Careful Aim, and
1 point in Sic 'em.
Level 85 Survival Hunter PVP Build #2
Survival (35 Points)
Hunter vs. Wild - Rank 3/3 - Increases your total Stamina
by 10%.
Pathing - Rank 3/3 - Increases ranged haste by 3%.
Improved Serpent Sting - Rank 2/2 - Your Serpent Sting also
does instant damage equal to 30% of its total periodic effect. Also
increases the periodic critical strike chance of your Serpent Sting
by 10%.
Trap Mastery - Rank 3/3 -
Ice Trap and Freezing Trap - Increases the duration by 30%.
Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap and Black Arrow - Increases
the periodic damage done by 30%.
Snake Trap - Increases the number of snakes summoned by 6.
Entrapment - Rank 2/2 - When your Ice Trap or Snake Trap are
triggered you entrap all afflicted targets, preventing them from moving
for 4 sec.
Thrill of the Hunt - Rank 3/3 - You have a 15% chance when
you use Arcane Shot, Explosive Shot or Black Arrow to instantly regain
40% of the base focus cost of the shot.
Lock and Load - Rank 2/2 - You have a 100% chance when you
trap a target with Freezing Trap or Ice Trap to cause your next 2 Arcane
Shot or Explosive Shot abilities to cost no focus and trigger no cooldown.
Resourcefulness - Rank 3/3 - Reduces the cooldown of all
traps and Black Arrow by 6 sec.
Mirrored Blades - Rank 2/2 - When attacked by a spell while
in Deterrence, you have a 100% chance to reflect it back at the attacker.
T.N.T. - Rank 2/2 - When you deal periodic damage with your
Immolation Trap, Explosive Trap or Black Arrow you have a 12% chance
to trigger Lock and Load.
Toxicology - Rank 2/2 - Increases the periodic critical damage
of your Serpent Sting and Black Arrow by 100%.
Wyvern Sting - Rank 1/1 - A stinging shot that puts the target
to sleep for 30 sec. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target
wakes up, the Sting causes
2736
Nature damage over 6 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target
at a time.
Noxious Stings - Rank 2/2 - Increases your damage done on
targets afflicted by your Serpent Sting by 10%. If Wyvern Sting is
dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by Wyvern Sting lasting
50% of the duration remaining
Hunting Party - Rank 1/1 - Increases your total Agility by
an additional 2%, and increases the Ranged and Melee Attack Speed of
all party and raid members by 10%.
Sniper Training - Rank 3/3 - Increases the critical strike
chance of your Kill Shot ability by 15%, and after remaining stationary
for 6 sec, your Steady Shot and Cobra Shot deal 6% more damage for
15 sec.
Black Arrow - Rank 1/1 - Fires a Black Arrow at the target,
dealing
2395
Shadow damage over 15 sec. Black Arrow shares a cooldown with other Fire Trap
spells.
Beast Mastery (0 Points)
None
Marksmanship (6 Points)
Go for the Throat - Rank 2/2 - Your ranged auto-shot critical
hits cause your pet to generate 10 Focus.
Efficiency - Rank 3/3 - Reduces the focus cost of your Arcane
Shot by 3, and your Explosive Shot and Chimera Shot by 6.
Sic 'Em! - Rank 1/2 - When you critically hit with your Arcane
Shot, Aimed Shot or Explosive Shot the focus cost of your Pet's next
basic attack is reduced by 50% for 12 sec.
Glyphs - same as above, except for the majors.
Glyph of Serpent Sting (Prime Glyph) - Increases the periodic
critical strike chance of your Serpent Sting by 6%.
Glyph of Kill Shot (Prime Glyph) - If the damage from your
Kill Shot fails to kill a target at or below 20% health, your Kill
Shot's cooldown is instantly reset. This effect has a 6 sec cooldown.
Glyph of Explosive Shot (Prime Glyph) - Increases the critical
strike chance of Explosive Shot by 6%.
Glyph of Snake Trap (Major Glyph) - Snakes from your Snake
Trap take 90% reduced damage from area of effect spells.
Glyph of Mending (Major Glyph) - Increases the total amount
of healing done by your Mend Pet ability by 60%.
Glyph of Raptor Strike (Major Glyph) - Reduces damage taken
by 20% for 5 sec after using Raptor Strike.
Glyph of Revive Pet (Minor Glyph) - Reduces the pushback
suffered from damaging attacks while casting Revive Pet by 100%.
Glyph of Mend Pet (Minor Glyph) - Your Mend Pet spell increases
your pet's happiness slightly.
Glyph of Feign Death (Minor Glyph) - Reduces the cooldown
of your Feign Death spell by 5 sec.
Pets
Pets are devided into three classes (Ferocity, Tenacity and Cunning)
and each class has a number of pet families. Each family has severa members,
all with common abilities and special attacks. Click the links below
for a list of available pet families, their food requirements, and their
specials.
Ferocity is
for DPS pets. Cats and dogs and raptors and wolves, and so on. They
can tank a couple of mobs just fine, but their main job is damage.
Generally, in raids, your pet will be Ferocity. Past level
60 or so they don't hold aggro as well as they do at earlier levels.
Tenacity is
the build that your tanking pets (bears, rhinos, turtles, etc.) will
have. These pets will keep the attentions of several mobs, and survive,
while you burn them down. Some Hunters even tank dungeons with these
pets and then make the boss into a pet, such as with King
Dred. Generally, the Tenacity pets don't bring enough in damage
or buffs to make them interesting for raids, but that depends on your
exact group and duffs/debuffs that will be available.
If you do use your Tenacity pet in a dungeon or raid, and you're not the tank,
make sure you have all of its threat generating abilities turned off.
Cunningpets
have certain special abilities that are useful in particular situations,
such as the Monkey's Bad
Manners ability for PvP. Some cunning pets may have specials
that are particularly useful in certain raids or encounters.
For PvP - Interesting specials are the webs that
Spiders cast, the Monkey's "Bad Manners," the Owl's "Disarm," and so
on. Crowd control abilities have more PvP utility than straight up
damage.
Pet notes:
Pets inherit 100% of the your hit, haste, and crit, and scale
up from your Attack Power. All three pet types inherit the same AP
scaling, so differences in DPS come from the pet's basic abilities
and their talents.
Pets inherit nothing from your Strength
Pet consumables are no longer available.
If you're Draenei your pet will inherit your hit racial
and it will also inherit the appropriat abilities from the other races.
Survival Hunter Video
<><>
Skills and Stats
Agility is tops and Hit (to 8%) is second, but the relative value of
the other stats will depend on you exact gear level and a few other factors.
Agility - Your best stat, by far, with the possible exception
of hit. One agility provides two AP and a small amount of critical strike
percent, before scaling. Various abilities make Ag even more valuable:
Your Into the Wilderness boosts Ag by 15%, then you get another
5% from wearing all mail, perhaps another 5% from raid buffs, and 2%
from Hunting Party. Hit - Gearing for the hit cap is generally a good idea, for
any class. Ranged attacks have a 8% chance to miss against boss level
mobs. Crit - Almost all abilities crit for 200% damage, but exceptions
include Explosive Trap which uses spell crit damage (and crit chance)
- 150%, or immolation trap which cannot crit. Haste - Haste affects both the speed of your shots (cobra and auto) and
your rate of focus regeneration. Mastery - All of your "spell" (non-physical) damage is affected by this
stat. This is almost all of our abilities except for auto shot and multi shot.
Resilience - Essential for PvP, useless outside of
PvP. Stamina - If your tank is doing his job and you're
staying out of the fire then you don't need much stam.
At level 85:
Agility gives 2 Attack Power per point. You will need about
325 Ag to get 1% crit
About 120 points of Hit Rating gives you 1% hit, so you
need 961 hit to reach the 8% hit cap (or 841 for Draenei.)
About 179 Crit rating gives 1% crit. Most of your abilities get 200%
effect from crits, so this is a fairly valuable stat.
You need about 128 haste rating to get 1% haste
At level 85, 179.28 mastery (same as crit) gives 1% damage.
Gems and enchants
As a Survival Hunter you get more effective Agility from any
of the Agility enchants or gems listed below, which make Ag just that
much more interesting to you.
Enchant
Boots - Assassin's Step 25 Agi and slight movement speed
increase. Note that this increase does not stack with other
enchants or gems that increase speed
If the gems requirements are actually changed in the 4.06 patch
then the first two of these will be the best choices.
Chaotic
Shadowspirit Diamond - +54 Crit and 3% Increased Crit Damage.
Currently requires more blue than red gems. This requirement
may be broken and so may be fixed, or not, at some point in
time.
Relentless
Earthsiege Diamond - +21 Agility and 3% Increased
Crit Damage, Requires more Blue gems than Red gems and at least
1 Yellow gem. This requirement may also be fixed, or not, at
some point in time.
Potion
of Tol’Vir (1200 agi for 25s) - save it for those bursts where
you just have to have that extra 1200 Ag.
1-85 Hunter Leveling Guide
For years Joana's Horde Guide and Brian's Alliance
guide were the standards for Hunter leveling, simply
because Hunters were the class of choice for both those guides.
Other classes had to make due as best they could.
Once upon a time you had to look up quest details on site
such as Thottbot. Now you have a guide like Zygor's which sits in-game, in a small window, and shows you step-by-step
where to go, what to do, and a number of details to make it
even easier. Not to mention an arrow which allways shows youi
just where to go next. WoW's in-game quest helper is great
for showing where the quests are, but it doesn't show you
the best order in which to do them and it doesn't show you
which ones are best and which should be skipped. Zygor's does.
Want to get a level, or several levels, in the dungeons or
in PvP? No problem. Zygor's will remember where you left off
and then its Smart Injection System will figure ouit
where you should be at your new leveland pick up from
there.
You don't even have to level as Beast Mastery. Zygor's
Guide has a nice Talent Advisor which will let you level
as Survival or Marksman, or even Beast Master, if you want.
Heck, it'll even spend the points for you, if you
don't want to bother.
100% Cataclysm ready Zygor's is ready to get you
leveled quickly and easily. Check it out and grab
a copy now.
This page and all the pages on GotWarcraft generate income for the site owners based on affiliate relationships with
various partners, including Amazon.com, Clickbank, and possibly others.