Survival Hunter DPS Spec, Builds, Talents, and Pet Talents — 12.1

Survival plays Sentinel for all content. Pack Leader has marginally more priority-target damage, but Sentinel does more overall damage on big pulls while also being tankier and easier to play. We think that trade is worth it for almost everyone, and we provide Pack Leader builds below for those who prefer the playstyle. One of the spec's great boons is that it loses very little single-target to deal great AoE/cleave.

As a result, with the exception of literally pure single-target fights, Survival runs variants of its AoE build for all scenarios.

If you're on a raid fight where Lethal Calibration's Boomstick cooldown reduction is not doing anything for you, then run Razor Edge instead.

Quick Start Import Codes:

The builds listed above are popular recommendations, covering various different loadouts suited to each style of endgame content. Each Talent Build will have its own rotation, and can also be manipulated further for specific types of content and to better benefit your group.

Combat Information

Rotations and Mythic+

Want to dive deeper? These guides will teach you how to utilize our Talent Builds in endgame content!

RotationMythic+

The Omnium Folio is the "borrowed power" system introduced in Midnight's Patch 12.0.7, and offers some moderately strong customization options after a short questline. Some of these bonuses affect your damage output, but there are also defensive and mobility options to choose from.

Your Folio progress carries over into Season 2. Take these bonuses:

• Rune of Unleashed Fire
• Rune of Self-Mending
• Rune of Lingering
• Rune of Masterful Cunning. This one is the most flexible and may change as your gear's stat demands do, just like your Flask or Weapon Enchant. Mastery is a safe "never bad" pick.
• Rune of Overload

Midnight introduces new Apex Talents, unlocked between Level 80 and 90. Survival gets:

1. Raptor Swipe
2. Raptor Swipe
3. Raptor Swipe

They cause every second Raptor Strike to turn itself into Raptor Swipe, dealing increased damage, and causing it to hit multiple targets as well. Very simple and passive, yet very powerful.

Available at level 71, Hero talents are mutually exclusive trees you can choose to slightly alter gameplay and visuals. Survival Hunter can choose between Sentinel and Pack Leader.

Sentinel is our simplest Hero Talent, and it barely changes how the spec plays. It regularly gives you Sentinel's Mark procs when you spend Tip of the Spear, significantly buffing the damage of your next Wildfire Bomb. In addition, when you activate Takedown, the Takedown button itself will turn into Moonlight Chakram, a filler ability that does heavy damage on use. We try to use this as a filler, since we only get one use of it during Takedown.

Defensively, Sentinel gives us Don't Look Back, which procs nearly constantly and offers a great deal of passive tankiness.

Pack Leader has marginally more priority target damage than Sentinel, at the cost of overall damage on big pulls. Occasionally, your Kill Command will trigger a Beast via Howl of the Pack Leader. These Beasts simply do damage, or increase your damage done. In addition, your first Kill Command after Takedown will summon a Stampede, a line of pets that do heavy AoE damage to all targets caught within. We detail its usage more on our Rotation page.

Defensively, Pack Leader gives us Shell Cover, which buffs the effectiveness of our Survival of the Fittest. Not great.

These picks are for open world PvE content with War Mode enabled, not for actual PvP.

War Mode offers several benefits for you in the open world.

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• At least 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for leveling and PvE content, it is recommended to enable the feature to maximize your leveling and rewards at maximum level. However, you will be flagged for open-world PvP, and the possibility of being "ganked" while leveling or doing World Quests exists.

• Hunting Pack is a valuable speed increase for leveling and open world content.
• Mending Bandage is a potent out-of-combat heal that also clears lingering debuffs.
• Survival Tactics is useful for negating powerful casts from mobs and other players that you cannot otherwise stop.

Azortharion

Guide Author

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This guide has been written by Azortharion, a full-timer Hunter Guidewriter, Theorycrafter, Content Creator, 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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