Mists of Pandaria Classic Survival Hunter Stat Priority

The stat priority for Survival Hunter is as follows:

1. Agility
2. Hit Rating to cap (7.5%)
3. Expertise Rating to cap (7.5%)
4. Critical Strike
5. Haste
6. Mastery

Agility is your primary source of Attack Power which all of your damaging abilities scale off of. This is your Primary stat and should be on every piece of gear. There are other sources of scaling for Agility as well, but ultimately, more Agility is the best and most important way to scale your damage.

Hit Rating is another great way to deal damage and more importantly land our abilities. In Mists of Pandaria it is especially important to hit your Cobra Shot abilities, as missed shots will not generate focus and will not extend your Serpent Sting. In shot, hit cap is extremely important both numerically and for easier game play. As a Survival Hunter we are aiming to achieve 7.5% Hit rating to be hit capped. In terms of rating, this is exactly 2550 hit rating total.

A new change in Mists of Pandaria is that Hunters now require expertise rating, as our shots can now be dodged. This is effectively identical to hit rating in how it functions, just with a different name. The expertise cap is also 7.5%, or 2550 rating.

In Mists of Pandaria, there are not many additional ways that crits will affect your rotation besides just doing more damage. Despite that, crit chance continues to be the best secondary stat for increasing your damage and should be targeted on gear. More crit means bigger numbers.

Haste rating is a solid, mildly important stat for Survival Hunters. In Mists of Pandaria, some classes have specific interactions with haste where certain breakpoints with DoTs can actually result in an additional tick of damage from the DoT. For Hunters, haste just increases our Focus regeneration rate and attack speed. As you progress through the expansion and get more gear haste will become slightly less meaningful due to an abundance of focus, but especially in phase 1 it will still be important.

For Survival Hunters, Mastery increases all of the magic damage you deal, which includes abilities such as Explosive Shot and Serpent Sting. Unfortunately, the rate at which mastery increases your damage is just numerically quite weak, making this our worst stat.