World of Warcraft: Forever Survival Hunter Leveling Guide

When it comes to Survival Hunters, the specialization starts off as the weakest of the three. However as a Hunter you are still overall one of the most powerful leveling classes. The vast majority of the talents that make Survival strong become available halfway down the talent tree, and until then you level and play the exact same as a Marksmanship or Beast Mastery Hunter would. Even after you unlock your core Survival talents, you are still behind in terms of effective leveling compared to a Beast Mastery Hunter; that does not mean that Survival Hunter is not viable though for leveling. Learning to melee weave effectively with Raptor Strike and Strider Kick will make a significant difference in your kill times. The drawback to this is that it is rather mana intensive and you will need to constantly stop to drink and recover mana, and you will also pull threat off your pet quite easily when your melee abilities land a critical strike.

As a Survival Hunter there are several viable options with regards to your talent order and overall talent tree choices. This guide will provide a strong build that is viable for both playing as a traditional ranged hunter, and it is also good should you choose to play as a melee hunter instead.

While Survival may start off as the weakest of the three specializations, you will still be exceptionally strong at leveling due to your pet doing a lot of the work early on. You will still want to start by picking up Lethal Attacks before moving over to the Survival tree as the additional 5% critical strike chance will be highly beneficial for the entire leveling process. As you progress through the talent tree you will pick up several powerful talents that will increase your personal damage and allow you to either try out a full melee playstyle, or melee weave with ease due to the speed increase granted by Strider Kick.

After picking up Strider Kick you can then work towards Expose Prey which will allow you to more consistenly proc Mongoose Bite. From here you can either pick Lacerating Strikes or start picking talents in the Marksmanship tree.

The initial 10 levels without your pet are a simple rotation of using Auto Shot, Serpent Sting, and Arcane Shot while kiting the mob as long as possible before they reach melee range. From there you will simply rely on Raptor Strike until the target is dead.

The most important thing to learn as a hunter is how to kite efficiently and constantly be pulling mobs. Ideally you will never directly backpedal, but instead strafe at all times as this will allow you to move faster and give you an opportunity to cast more Auto Shot before your target reaches you. You will still need to remain stationary for 0.5 seconds in Forever, similar to Classic to allow Auto Shot go off.

After you complete your Level 10 class quest and unlock the ability to tame a pet, the vast majority of your damage will come from this new addition. Growl will, for the most part, keep the target taunted long enough to kill it, or at least bring the target low enough that a Raptor Strike will finish it off by the time it reaches you.

At Level 12 you unlock Wing Clip, which will allow you to quickly create distance from your target and get back to ranged distance. Further along in the leveling as you reach Level 30 you will learn Feign Death which can be used immediately after pulling threat off your pet, or a tank in dungeons. While your pet may deal a significant portion of your damage, it does not take long with one or two big critical strikes to pull threat off your pet. The same can be said in dungeons, so be prepared to play defensively with Frost Trap, Wing Clip, and Feign Death as necessary and always run a loose target back to your tank.

For single target, the rotation is rather engaging should you choose to weave in both melee and ranged attacks. Depending on your race you will also want to use your racial abilities such as Elune's Light as Night Elf, Blood Fury as Orc, or Berserking as Troll paired with Rapid Fire These abilities can be used every few minutes so make good use of them as often as possible while leveling.

1. Cast Hunter's Mark prior to starting combat.
2. Send in your pet.
3. Cast Serpent Sting.
4. Cast Arcane Shot.
5. Que Raptor Strike and run into melee to hit the target.
6. Cast Mongoose Bite if available.
7. Cast Strider Kick and immediately run to ranged distance.
8. Cast Arcane Shot.

As a Survival Hunter, your AoE ability is quite limited and does not change at all from Classic. There is very little difference in terms of rotation from single target with the exception of adding in Multi-Shot after each Strider Kick when you run back to ranged distance. When you reach Level 34 you unlock Explosive Trap, and with the new damage scaling to traps introduced in Forever, it may actually be a worthwhile ability to use consistently in AoE situation.

1. Cast Hunter's Mark prior to starting combat.
2. Send in yor pet.
3. Cast Serpent Sting.
4. Cast Multi-Shot.
5. Que Raptor Strike and run into melee to hit the target.
6. Cast Mongoose Bite if available.
7. Cast Explosive Trap.
8. Cast Strider Kick and immediately run to ranged distance.
9. Cast Multi-Shot.

Pets will be your biggest advantage in leveling speed. They deal a significant portion of your damage, allow you to solo elite mobs, as well as easily handle multiple targets at once with ease.

In Forever several new special abilities have been added to certain pets such as Savage Rend for Raptors. Unfortunately, while leveling these abilities are nothing too crazy or exciting and one of your best pet options will still be either a cat or raptor with Claw of the highest rank learned on autocast.

It is important to note that in Forever you must still learn higher ranks of each pet skill by taming a pet with that specific skill and rank and using it until you see in your chatbox that you have learned that skill. While leveling it is not crucial to go out of your way and learn every single rank as you go. You can skip ranks and go from Rank 2 Claw to Rank 5 for example.

While bears may seem like a great option with the new pet ability Swipe, they're quite frankly not as great as it seems and only marginally tankier than a cat.

While leveling there are a multitude of abilities you can learn every second level, and it is not recommended to learn every single ability and new rank as you level as it can get expensive and your gold will be better saved for your mount. Below will list your key abilities that are worth learning new ranks of as you go.

• Serpent Sting: The first ability you will learn and a great DoT to apply at the start of combat. Your target will be dead long before the full duration expires in most cases and it is not worth reapplying if they are still alive at low health.
• Aimed Shot: Aimed Shot now shares a cooldown with Multi-Shot in Forever, and in almost all cases while leveling will not be used even in single target but it is still worth learning as you go.
• Raptor Strike: Your most important ability as a Survival Hunter. Raptor Strike will account for a large portion of your damage so you will want to learn the newest rank every time you can.
• Multi-Shot: As mentioned above, Multi-Shot and Aimed Shot now share a cooldown. Multi-Shot will actually be used over Aimed Shot in most situations even in single target so learn each new rank when available.

Hunters have always been fairly decent on the utility side of things, and in Forever it gets even better with traps now being usable in combat, you no longer need to use Feign Death to temporarily drop combat to place a trap. You can freely cast Freezing Trap or Frost Trap in combat should an encounter go sideways. You also have the ability to place both one fire trap, and one ice trap at the same time so you don't need to choose between optimizing damage or survivability.

For Survival Hunters you have a few key stats that you will want to prioritize while leveling. Weapon damage and agility are your two primary stats that you will always want more of with strength and intellect being important as well to increase melee damage and provide a larger mana pool.

1. Weapon Damage
   • Weapon damage is extremely important as you will be utilizing both melee and ranged in an ideal rotation. You will want to prioritize a slow bow ranged speed, and a slow 2h weapon option to maximize damage output, or a slow mainhand, and fast offhand if playing dual wield.
2. Agility
   • Increases your attack power and critical strike chance. This is your primary stat where more is always better. Always look for gear upgrades that will increase your agility.
3. Critical Strike
   • Critical strikes deal bonus damage and will be increased by agility. In forever your pet also gains 100% of your critical strike chance making it that much more valuable.
4. Intellect
   • Intellect is straightforward in that it increase your mana pool. As a Hunter you can very quickly burn through all of your mana with your rotation so any chance you have to upgrade gear that has both agility and intellect is a bonus. Near the end of your leveling experience when you pick up Careful Aim you will also benefit from the additional attack power.
5. Spirit
   • Increases your base and out of combat mana and health regeneration rates. While this isn't a totally useless stat for Hunters, there is never a reason to go out of your way to pick up gear upgrades with spirit on it.
6. Stamina
   • Each point of stamina increase your health, and your pet's health by 10. A large majority of gear is itemized with stamina so you will naturally increase this stat as your gear upgrades.

Forever has introduced a healthy amount of new quests to several quest hubs with new gear so it is advised to level through each zone fully. Several new dungeons have been introduced and quest chains often lead to a dungeon quest that will reward you with some great gear options as well as a significant amount of experience. You can check out our Dungeon Hub for quests, quest rewards, and recommended level ranges.

Prior to Level 10, if you can find a Hunting Bow or even trade someone for cheap it is highly advised you do. The damage difference this bow will make up until Level 14 when you could upgrade to a Fine Longbow is more than you would expect.

Be Efficient With Your Time

You will be replacing items frequently, and skipping out on some powerful dungeon drops is totally fine. Traveling around Azeroth takes considerable amounts of time, and it is often not worth spending 30+ minutes to travel to a dungeon, just for a chance at getting an item to drop. However, doing dungeons is worth it for the quest XP alone, so try to plan around at least one trip to each dungeon.

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Loch Modan/Darkshore
  • The Barrens
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Ragefire Chasm

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Westfall/Darkshore
  • Silverpine Forest
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Ragefire Chasm and Ruins of Lordaeron

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Westfall/Redridge Mountains
  • The Barrens/Stonetalon Mountains
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Wailing Caverns

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Redridge Mountains/Duskwood
  • Hillsbrad Foothills/Stonetalon Mountains
• Available Dungeons:
  • The Stockade
  • Shadowfang Keep and Wailing Caverns

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Ashenvale/Duskwood
  • Ashenvale/Duskwood
• Available Dungeons:
  • Blackfathom Deeps and The Stockade
  • Blackfathom Deeps and Shadowfang Keep

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Wetlands/Ashenvale
  • Hillsbrad Foothills/Wetlands
• Available Dungeons:
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Blackfathom Deeps
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Blackfathom Deeps

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Wetlands/Ashenvale
  • Wetlands/Thousand Needles
• Available Dungeons:
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Gnomeregan
  • Excavation Site: Wetlands and Razorfen Kraul

Listed below are a few important items we recommend picking up during your journey, as they offer not just a small upgrade compared to many of the other items that are available, but stand out as guaranteed rewards or particularly powerful options for you to grab.

• Ranged Weapons
  • Hunting Bow can be equipped at Level 6 and if you can find one for sale, or if you get one as a drop you will be off to a very good start for leveling.
  • Fine Longbow can be equipped at Level 14 and similar to the Hunting Bow if you can find one for sale at a cheap price I highly recommend you buy one.
  • Venomstrike is a potential drop from Lord Serpentis in Wailing Caverns. If you happen to get this drop, you will be set with a very strong bow that can last you several levels, even past level 30 if you are unlucky with other drops.
  • At Level 30 you can technically complete the quest chain and Big Game Hunter in Stranglethorn Vale to obtain Master Hunter's Rifle. This is a powerful weapon for Level 30 and can last quite some time.
• Helmet
  • Brawler's Leather Hood is a new leatherworking crafted item, and should you choose to level skinning and leatherworking from the start you should have enough materials to craft this helmet yourself by level 20. The stats on this helmet are very good for this level so it is suggested that you do keep up with your professions as you level.
• Shoulders
  • Dark Leather Shoulders can be equipped at Level 23 and either crafted yourself with Leatherworking assuming you have leveled it to 115, or they can be purchased as they are BoE.

We can't offer gear or leveling suggestions beyond the WoW Forever beta level cap of 30. Check back after launch for updated guidance!

Keep Pulling Targets: As a Hunter you can, and should be pulling multiple targets at a time right from the start at level 1. You can Auto Shot one target and kite it for a bit, then que up Raptor Strike for the first target while you begin to cast Auto Shot on a second target. As your reach level 10 and tame a pet pulling multiple targets becomes much easier as your pet can tank for you while you dps the target down, and you can send your pet to the next target while you finish off the first.

Always Strafe Kite: Learning to master your movement during the leveling process will make you a much better player by the time you have hit level 60 and are ready to start raiding and/or PvPing. Get into the habit of always strafing instead of backpedaling when you want to either move in to melee swing with Raptor Strike, or when you want to quickly run out to ranged distance after a Strider Kick.

Take Advantage of Rested Experience: In Forever there are several ways to increase your experience gain in addition to the standard rested experience gained by sitting at an inn or logging out in one. New food crafted with Cooking such as Brilliant Smallfish will grant you 5% increased experience from kills. Campfires can also provide you with rested experience to 5% of a level as long as a Camp Tent is setup.

Do Dungeon Quests: Dungeon experience has been changed quite significantly for Forever and dungeon spamming is no longer the most efficient way to level to 60. Instead dungeon quests now provide the bulk of gained experience so it is better off to run each dungeon once, only after you have all relevant quests to complete.

Grab the Sleeping Bag: At Level 14 you will get a quest that rewards a Cozy Sleeping Bag, which gives you a stacking experience buff. This is absolutely worth getting as soon as possible. You can find a full guide to obtaining the Sleeping Bag here.

Level	Important Ability/Class Quest
10	Class quest to unlock Pets
20	Aspect of the Cheetah
30	Feign Death

Professions will vary based on what you value most as you level, whether it be casually on PvE, or if you want to engage in PvP all the way to 60. On the PvE front, Skinning and Leatherworking will be your best two options as you will be able to craft yourself several great pieces of gear along the way.

On the PvP side of things, Engineering would be a much more appropriate profession you could craft several important items such as grenades to stun your target.

Finally you could even go Herbalism and Alchemy if you wanted to provide yourself with several stat increasing potions and elixirs while you level.

More WoW Forever Hunter Guides

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