World of Warcraft: Forever Survival Hunter Guide

Hunter is your classic ranger archetype, setting traps and dealing damage from afar while relying on your powerful animal companion to deal unrelenting damage and keep your enemy's focus. However, Survival is the specialization that flips that narrative, turning into a dual-wielding melee menace that attacks fast, weaves in traps, and slashes your targets down. In World of Warcraft Forever, Survival Hunter is a melee specialization that massively enhances Hunter's base melee toolkit to make you a competitive melee powerhouse capable of going toe-to-toe with anyone.

As a melee specialization, Survival Hunters are far and away the most different from how they existed in Classic. Hunters no longer need to worry about weaving both melee and ranged attacks, instead fully specializing into one or the other. For Survival, that means massive baseline buffs along with enhancements to your Mongoose Bite and other new melee abilities to round out your rotation.

Overall Performance Leveling Dungeon Utility Mobility

Easy to Learn, Hard to Master

Hunters have one of the strongest skill floors in the game, but Survival also has the combination of a huge unknown potential and lots of room for mastery. Hunters have the combination of melee and ranged attacks in their arsenal, and Survival Hunters will get to specialize in their melee toolkit while still weaving in their ranged attacks when melee is impractical. Survival Hunters unfortunately have very little AOE or cleave compared to the true DPS powerhouses like Warriors, but still offer exceptional single target damage and a versatile utility package that will scale very well into the end-game.

Top-Tier Leveling

Hunters in general offer the strongest setup for leveling thanks to the combination of your pet and extremely efficient ranged attacks. Survival unfortunately is the weakest choice of the Hunter specializations to level with, but even then it's still a Hunter. Melee is inherently weaker for leveling due to the differences in how dodge and parry chances work for melee attacks, specifically when attacking higher level enemies. Survival also gets all of its melee bonuses towards the deeper half of the tree. If you level as Survival, you will still need to play as a ranged DPS for at least the first 40 levels if not more.

Strong Single-Target, Weak AoE

While Hunters posses the complete package for solo game play, that strength is far less important in a dungeon where you have allies to cover other roles. Survival Hunters early on will suffer heavily trying to melee in dungeons, which means you will still need to play as a range DPS for the early game. Survival also has no AoE damage options with melee other than weaving in Explosive Trap. Survival will deal exceptional single target damage later on, but that sort of scaling will be mediocre for dungeons.

A Versatile Utility Package

While Hunters do not have the strongest crowd control spells possible, they have solid options available that make up a versatile package. Freezing Trap and Frost Trap in particular are extremely useful in dungeons for targeted and AoE control, especially combined with the Survival talent Entrapment for an on-demand root that does not have diminishing returns. Finally, Feign Death is one of the best possible panic buttons for any sort of dangerous content.

Fast, but Delicate

Hunters have their iconic aspects, including Aspect of the Cheetah which is their primary mobility spell. They can move 30% faster, increasing even further with talents. This can be toggled on at any time, even in combat, which makes it extremely valuable and allows Hunters to kite effectively. However, the major downside here is that while Cheetah is active, taking any damage dazes you and removes the aspect. Because of this restriction, Aspect of the Cheetah is especially bad as a melee specialization, which leaves Survival's mobility quite weak if you are even in danger of taking damage.

The biggest warning first; Survival is going to be the weakest leveling specialization for Hunters on the way to 60, especially for the first 40 levels. To play as a melee Hunter you will require most of the later Survival talents. This also means that you may miss out on the early power boosts that Beast Mastery or Marksmanship Hunters get with their early talents since the first 20 points in Survival's tree are extremely weak in comparison.

All of that being said, 80% of a Hunter's core power just from access to a pet, basic attack, and then Aimed Shot at Level 20. For the first few levels until you tame your first pet at Level 10 try to focus on maximizing the number of Auto Shots that you can get off before a target gets in range, then switching over to melee and using Raptor Strike. The more ranged attacks you get in, the faster and safer your kills will be.

Once you can access your pet at Level 10, your leveling strategy should turn towards maximizing your up-time, always killing something in the direction of your next quest. Allow your pet to attack first to generate threat before starting your own auto shots from range. If you ever find yourself pulling threat away from your pet, force yourself to wait a bit more before attacking since swapping over to melee will only reduce your kill speed early on; you want to be permanently ranging as much as possible. Otherwise, use your mana pool on things like Serpent Sting and Aimed Shot as you can. For multiple enemies, you can use Multi-Shot instead.

Finally, maximize your use of Aspect of the Cheetah. While you never want to get hit with this active, it should be up 99% of the time while you exist in the world especially when we will not have access to mounts before Level 40. In combat you will always want Aspect of the Hawk to be up due to Deadly Aspects, as this is your strongest combat buff.

Horde: Tauren – the single strongest choice out of any race across both factions for Hunter, entirely due to Plainsrunning. As a Hunter, you can run continuously to build up 30% movement speed even at Level 1, then stutter step while attacking from range to use Auto Shot. This enables you to kill any target from range while leveling without ever taking melee hits. While this buff does not stack with Aspect of the Cheetah later, it still allows you to keep 30% movement speed if managed well, while also keeping Aspect of the Beast up, which is a major DPS boost. Survival as a melee-spec gets the least benefit out of this, since you are more likely to take damage and lose the buff, but this is still an exceptional buff that is well worth attempting to keep up, especially with a pet to hold aggro. Beyond that, Taurens still get an additional 5% max health and 1% hit chance with Endurance, and an on-use AoE stun with War Stomp.

Alliance: Human – for the Alliance, the choice of racials is far closer so you should feel free to pick whichever one fits your personal preference. However, Humans will offer a slight edge in both PvP and PvE. Will to Survive is an invaluable panic button to break stuns, which in PvP is when you are in the most danger against melee that connect with you. Perception also provides another tool to look for stealthed targets. Finally, the major DPS increase comes from Sword Specialization, which causes you to gain 2% crit chance as long as your melee weapons include at least 1 sword. It is important to note that this globally increases your crit chance, so it will also apply the bonus to your ranged attacks.

Ultimately, your professions are going to be defined by what you want to value most, whether it's Engineering for valuable PvP items, Alchemy to craft consumables for raiding, or even something like Mining just to gather materials to sell for gold. Every profession has value in some way.

That being said, one of the strongest and most natural combinations early on for Hunter will be Skinning and Leatherworking. Hunters can utilize Skinning perfectly while leveling due to how easily you can kill enemies sequentially with no down-time. Moreover, you can command your pet to start to attack the next enemy while you skin the previous target, giving you something to do while your pet builds threat. You can gather plenty of materials while leveling, which can then be used with Leatherworking to craft armour both while leveling and in the end-game, including some of the strongest entry end-game pieces. We also know that there are hundreds of new recipes to learn, which means there will inevitably be valuable new gear to find and craft with Leatherworking.

At Level 30, you should not go Survival if all you care about is damage or leveling quickly. However, if you do want to play Survival, you can start to actually become a decent melee spec at 30. To do this, you will need Savage Strikes, the full 5 points in Predator's Edge, and finally Strider Kick at Level 30. You are starting from a baseline disadvantage just by nature of being melee while leveling, so it's critical that you pick up all the melee talents you can. Luckily, Survival does have some really powerful talents around this level.

To be clear, if your goal is to level quickly or deal the most damage at Level 30, you should look over towards Beast Mastery or Marksmanship instead. They both offer far better damage talents at low levels, such as Deadly Aspects and Lethal Attacks.

At this point, you also could potentially have up to 5 extra talent points if you unlocked every Legacy Point bonus available. At this point at Level 30, these will be incredibly impactful points for Survival. You should absolutely put 4 of these points into Resourcefulness and Expose Prey since they will solve any mana issues and give you the option to regularly use Mongoose Bite more often. The remaining 1 point is not as critical, but the best use would be Survival Tactics for the extra hit chance on traps and Feign Death.

The Hunter rotation is incredibly simple early on, almost entirely relying on the strength of Auto Shot to kill enemies. First and foremost, always have Aspect of the Hawk active before engaging with something unless you are actively kiting it away and need the speed bonus of Aspect of the Cheetah. Before Level 10, you should also focus on moving backwards between Auto Shots since you want to maximize the number of times you attack a target from range before it reaches your dead-zone and gets into melee.

1. Put Hunter's Mark up on your target before combat.
2. Command your pet to attack your target first, with its abilities on auto-cast.
3. Once your pet damages and attacks your target, start with Serpent Sting.
4. Aimed Shot on cooldown.
5. Continue to Auto Shot your target.
6. If you ever pull aggro away from your pet, use Disengage.
7. If you have extra mana, use Arcane Shot. Otherwise stick to Auto Shot.

All of the above information is purely for if you are choosing to attack from range. At Level 30, if you are fully built for Survival, melee will just start to surpass ranged damage for single target damage dealing. If you are melee, use the rotation below.

1. Put Hunter's Mark up on your target before combat.
2. Command your pet to attack your target first, with its abilities on auto-cast.
3. Once your pet damages and attacks your target, start with Serpent Sting.
4. Run into melee and start attacking, using Raptor Strike on cooldown.
5. Use Mongoose Bite whenever available.
6. Use Strider Kick on cooldown.
7. If you ever pull aggro away from your pet, use Disengage.

At Level 10 you will have the ability to tame a pet. This is the single greatest leveling tool that any class gets bar none. Hunters have always had the ability to tame a pet, but there are a couple of important distinctions from Classic era realms that are worth noting.

• Pets have one of three classifications: Ferocity, Cunning, or Tenacity.
• Pets do not have an inherent damage buff or reduction based on type.
• Pet happiness and loyalty still exists; remember to feed your pet!
• Pets inherit some of your stats, which means they gain power along with you.
• Every pet family such as cats or turtles has its own unique ability.
• To level up pet abilities, you still need to go out and tame a higher level pet that already knows the skill you are looking for. Your pet will not naturally learn higher level abilities on its own.
• Once you do train higher level pet abilities, you can then teach it to any other pet in the future that is capable of learning that ability.

Early game, Bears are a generally strong choice. They are a defensive pet capable of tanking well, but most importantly have access to a unique Swipe ability. A Bear's Swipe has a 5-second cooldown and deals cleave damage in front of them, which makes it one of the rare pet abilities capable of dealing consistent AoE damage to hold aggro on multiple targets.

Hunters are known for a variety of unique utility tools that are both incredibly useful and flavorful for the class.

• Hunters can track different types of enemies on the mini-map through various tracking skills.
• Hunters can always keep an aspect buff up, which notably includes Aspect of the Cheetah. This is one of the rare movement speed buffs available before you get a mount.
• Feign Death will cause you to play dead, causing any nearby enemies to drop threat on you and reset. However, they will still attack your pet if it is alive and nearby. This is one of the most valuable leveling spells for resetting and leaving combat if things get too dangerous.
• Freezing Trap will freeze an enemy in a block of ice when triggered, providing a reliable way to keep one target locked down.
• Frost Trap leaves a patch of frost on an area, massively slowing down targets inside.
• Concussive Shot is an instant-cast, single-target slow. This is one of the strongest tools a Hunter has in PvP, especially against melee.
• Disengage can be used to lower your threat on a target.

While leveling up to 30, generally you should go for the highest level items that follow the stat priority listed below. Look out for pieces with high amounts of Agility specifically, high level weapons, and rare quality gear wherever you can. The best items available will come from a combination of dungeon quests, dungeon boss drops, crafted pieces, and other quest chain rewards.

At Level 20, some of the best gear comes from the Wailing Caverns dungeon. This includes the Venomstrike bow along with the full Fang set, with pieces such as Leggings of the Fang.

At Level 30, the difference in most slots is relatively minor as well. However, there are a few notable outliers for what is available. Truthseeker's Bow is an incredible low level bow that you can pick up as a quest reward. Leatherworking has some strong pieces available from crafting, including the chest Dusky Leather Armor. Triprunner Dungarees are a quest reward from one of the Gnomeregan dungeon quests. Finally, Armor Piercer gives more Agility than any other weapon combination and is a common boss drop from Razorfen Kraul.

More information will be provided here once we have had a chance to test out the new dungeons at Level 30.

The stat priority boils down to two things: get the highest damage weapons possible and get as much Agility as possible. Beyond that, you generally will just want the highest level gear possible while leveling. Below is a more detailed explanation of the various stats for Survival Hunter and the benefits they provide.

1. Weapon Damage
   • Far and away your most important stat. Keep in mind, weapons have both a DPS value and a damage value; slower weapons will hit harder, but less often. While you usually will just prefer the higher level weapon, slower weapons are better overall since you want a weapon that deals more damage per individual hit. This is because your abilities such as Aimed Shot calculate their base damage from your weapon's damage, meaning your abilities do more damage with a higher damage weapon.
2. Hit
   • You have a baseline chance to miss attacks, which increases as you face higher level enemies. Getting hit chance makes you less likely to miss. This stat is strong, but is also generally not ever found on low level gear.
3. Agility
   • Increases both your attack power and crit chance per point. In general, Hunters gain the majority of their scaling from Agility, which makes this your most important primary stat. You should be looking to have this on every piece of gear.
4. Critical Strike
   • Critical strikes deal bonus damage and provide bonus effects through certain talents, such as your Predator's Edge talent, which further increases the bonus damage your crits deal. While Survival deals more frequent hits overall than a spec like Marksmanship, its extra Agility and crit scaling from talents does make crit a highly valuable stat.
5. Strength
   • As a melee specialization, Survival benefits from Strength since it does provide 1 melee attack power per point of strength. However, this is still less valuable than Agility for getting attack power point for point.
6. Intellect
   • Each point provides one Attack Power through Careful Aim, while also increasing your maximum mana. With Careful Aim talented this is your next most important stat after Agility. Having a higher mana pool is also incredibly important generally just to ensure you can cast more spells without stopping in a single fight.
7. Spirit
   • Increases your base mana regeneration and your out of combat health regeneration rates. This is a valuable leveling stat since it will cause you to recover more mana faster. However, this is only for leveling; Stamina and Intellect are far more valuable for both survivability and actual combat capacity.
8. Stamina
   • Each point increases your maximum health. Having a large health pool is important for just being more durable, but as a Hunter you generally should not be tanking or taking damage. This is your least important stat while leveling.

While leveling, the most important consumables are going to be the highest level food you can eat for health regeneration, water for mana regeneration, and health potions as an emergency defensive button. While you can look into elixirs and other buff foods, you do not need to focus on them too much while leveling unless you are trying to optimize significantly.

That being said, there are some easy elixirs you can get to help with your base power while leveling. Elixir of Agility along with other variations of the straight Agility elixirs are going to be the most noticeable damage increase, and quite cost efficient while leveling once you have some gold to spare. Since you are leveling with a pet, you do not need to worry too much about survivability; any buffs should primarily focus on damage.

Another important consumable will be bandages from First Aid. First Aid gives you something to use your cloth on while leveling, and provides an incredibly strong way of healing yourself both in and out of combat. It is highly recommended to keep your First Aid skill current while leveling.

One of the incredible new additions in World of Wacraft Forever is campsites. You can set up Campsites yourself, or look for them out in the world to sit by a campfire for the campfire buffs. Different professions can offer buffs, all of which generally correspond to the possible class buffs. These are incredibly strong while leveling, so if you ever seen players sitting around a campfire out in the world, make sure to stop by to sit and get some buffs.

Veramos

Guide Author

Follow Veramos

Veramos is a long time MMO player who has been playing a Hunter in World of Warcraft since 2004. He returned to play Hunter in Classic through Classic WoTLK in world top speedrun guilds, notably SPACEFORCE and Overclock. Veramos can be found either through his Twitch, his YouTube, or through the Ranger Discord, providing advice for all players who seek it.

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