Survival Hunter Leveling Guide from 1 to 80 — The War Within (11.1.7)

Survival Hunter, thanks to being able to use its pet as a tank to some extent, is good for both questing and dungeon leveling. It has the best survivability of the Hunter Specs, though because its pet is not as sturdy as a Beast Mastery Hunter's, it can still not make the same kind of pulls.

Grab a Ferocity pet and Misdirection, and activate it before tagging as many mobs as possible, usually with Wildfire Bomb, and watch the mobs flock to your pet. Then, take out the mobs with Wildfire Bomb. Whenever you kill an enemy, the cooldown of Harpoon is reset and you can fly to a new one!

This is my recommended Talent Build for Leveling your Survival Hunter in The War Within.

This is my recommended Leveling Build for Survival Hunter in The War Within. Be sure to click the "Talents by Level" option in the bottom right.

When leveling up, always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

To keep things simple while leveling and learning the spec, use the slider to select your level, and watch as the leveling rotation grows with each level!

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

1. Use Misdirection on your pet to shift aggro onto it.
2. Use Harpoon to close gaps to enemies quickly.
3. On AoE, Use Fury of the Eagle on cooldown when mobs are gathered up.
4. On AoE, Use Butchery on cooldown. Try to hold it for many targets!
5. Use Explosive Shot on cooldown.
6. Use Kill Shot on cooldown.
7. Use Wildfire Bomb on cooldown.
8. Use Kill Command on cooldown. This generates Tip of the Spear stacks that empower your other abilities, too, so try to use those stacks on Bombs, Explosive Shots, etc.
9. Spam Raptor Strike.
10. Spam Arcane Shot.
11. Use Steady Shot as a filler.

All pets do the same damage, but they vary in their utility and special abilities. For Leveling, the best pet is any Ferocity-type pet, as they heal themselves whenever they do damage, allowing you to make larger pulls.

Ferocity pets also come with Primal Rage which is a Bloodlust effect. This should be used as often as possible when you are fighting for over thirty seconds.

You can find a list of all the Pets and the abilities they bring on our Spell Summary Page.