Survival Hunter: Midnight Expansion Preview

Welcome to our Midnight expansion guide for Survival Hunter. Ahead of the launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about the Survival Hunter spec in the forthcoming Midnight expansion, including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regular changes expected as updates hit Midnight Beta. This is not meant to be a launch guide for Survival Hunter but instead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta and what you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

When announcing the changes that form the basis of this article, Blizzard offered a Developer's Note, a qualitative look and insight into their vision for Survival Hunter in the next expansion:

Developers’ notes: As we head into Midnight, we’re continuing to refine and focus Survival Hunter’s fantasy, giving clearer playstyle, gameplay, and visual direction. Over the course of Alpha, we’ll be reintroducing one-handers into Survival Hunter’s pool of available weapons, which means we’ll also be looking to distance Survival from its spear-only identity that it’s had since Legion. We’ll be doubling down on Survival’s relationship with its pet with new talents that create an interdependency between the Hunter’s damage and their pet’s damage. Additionally, we’re leaning into the rugged, crafty, and bomb-centric fantasy we explored in The War Within with a new Fire grenade called Flamefang Pitch, a new visual and fantasy identity for Fury of the Eagle called Boomstick, and a host of new Wildfire Bomb talents and synergies. Survival Hunter had a substantial number of abilities that were competing for your attention at any given time. Coordinated Assault and Flanking Strike have been combined into a new burst cooldown called Takedown that strives to take the best parts of both spells and blend them into one moment. We also made the tough decision to redesign Mongoose Bite. We feel confident that simplifying Mongoose Bite will allow us to carve out more interesting design space for Survival both now and in the future. Lastly, in Midnight, we’d like Survival Hunter’s area damage to come from their explosives: Wildfire Bomb, Boomstick, and Flamefang Pitch, and as such we’re removing Butchery and its associated effects. We expect Raptor Swipe (Survival Hunter’s Apex Talent) to provide meaningful and exciting moments of AOE in between your chunky explosive spells.

Lots to unpack here:

• A total revamp of Survival Hunter's class identity/fantasy, transitioning from themes of eagles, spears and "tribal" aesthetics into bombs, fire, and explosions, with some pet synergy mixed in. It is a bold new direction.
• Survival Hunters can use 1-handed melee weapons like Swords, Daggers, and Axes.
• A new "firebomb"-style ability called Flamefang Pitch, a ground-targeted rotational ability.
• Fury of the Eagle has been reflavored to Boomstick. It fires a shotgun. Yes, shotgun blasts.
• Abilities with similar roles and flavors have been merged or removed, like Coordinated Assault/ Flanking Strike.
• They think that removing Mongoose Bite (but baking some of its effects into Raptor Strike) will widen their design scope in the future.

These are the universal Hunter changes for the Midnight expansion. Some are baked-in while others come as a result of altered Class Talents. We are not particularly constrained in terms of the potent Class Talents we can pick, so for simplicity's sake, I will simply list Class Tree-contingent changes as if they are baseline.

• Hunter's Mark is now a universal 3% damage increase against a single-target. This essentially guarantees Hunter a raid spot in every raid. It is also a boost to the group in Mythic+, though it is much less potent there.
• Hunters have +2% higher max HP than previous.
• Exhilaration's cooldown is now a 1-minute flat, instead of variable (and often lower).
• Aspect of the Turtle's cooldown is now 2:00, down from 2:30.
• Aspect of the Cheetah's initial "super" speed burst is now twice as long, and gives you 100% dodge chance for its duration. This can be used to cheese and evade several mechanics and is a nice mobility and defensive boost all in one.
• Kill Shot is gone and is a Marksmanship-tree exclusive.
• Successfully kicking with Counter Shot/ Muzzle now grants 30 Focus, up from 10, but soothing/purging with Tranquilizing Shot no longer grants Focus.
• Muzzle now spell-locks the target for 5 seconds, up from 3.
• Aspect of the Turtle is now a 50% damage reduction, up from 30%.
• Survival of the Fittest's duration is now 14 seconds, up from 8.
• The slows from Wing Clip and Concussive Shot are 25% and 10% stronger, respectively.
• Freezing Trap can now slow the target by 70% for 4 sec after the trap breaks.
• Intimidation is now our sole stun/stop. A choice node either reduces its cooldown to 40 sec, or makes it a 1-second AoE stun. Implosive Trap, High Explosive Trap, and Bursting Shot are all gone.
• Horsehair Tether is now a Class Tree node and not attached to the Pack Leader Hero Talent. It is a choice node with Tar-Coated Bindings, which extends Binding Shot's stun by 1 sec.
• Roar of Sacrifice is now an external defensive that can be used on yourself or any friendly target to reduce their damage taken by 15% for 10 sec, but 50% of their damage taken will be taken by your pet. It will end prematurely if your pet drops below 25% health.
• Explosive Shot is gone along with all of its affecting talents.
• Ghillie Suit is gone.
• Scatter Shot is gone.
• Scrappy is gone.
• Binding Shackles is gone.
• Fortitude of the Bear is now 3% passive damage reduction, instead of being an active defensive cooldown.

Overall, we are gaining defensiveness and mobility, while in the utility department, we are losing some things (like the ability to move mobs) but gaining others (stronger Mark, streamlined AoE stun, stronger kick and more Focus return on kicking). I think the changes are broadly positive!

Next up are the specific changes for Survival Hunter. Once again, I will focus on changes that materially affect gameplay and character-building, while skipping Talents and changes I deem to be completely neutral in these departments, since the goal is to cut through the fluff and give you a real picture of how Survival Hunter feels going forward!

• Hatchet Toss replaces Arcane Shot as a sort of weak filler. It may only really be used for pulling things and is more flavor than it is a real rotational button.
• Kill Command is no longer cooldown-limited, it can be used at any time.
• Tip of the Spear is now just a passive, leaving nothing to play around or track.
• Takedown is a new 1:30 (baseline) cooldown that replaces and aims to take the best parts of Coordinated Assault and Flanking Strike in one ability. It deals heavy initial damage, gives you 50 Focus, charges you to the target, and then increases you and your pet's damage done by 20% for 8 sec. There are talents that can make this do increased and AoE damage and improve attack speed for its duration, or reduce its cooldown to 1:15/1:00.
• Flamefang Pitch is a new 30-second cooldown ability that throws down a firebomb of sorts on the ground that deals damage to targets within. Talents can give it an additional charge.
• Fury of the Eagle has been redesigned to Boomstick. Mechanically almost identical, but it fires shotgun blasts instead of hitting very fast with your Spear. It has a 1-minute cooldown. There are talents that significant increase its single-target, dropping off its damage with more targets. It seems that they want this to be your single-target option against Flamefang Pitch for AoE.
• While Mongoose Bite is gone, its Mongoose Fury effect is now baseline.
• Strike As One is a new passive that causes your pet to mirror all of your attacks. It is mostly a passive source of background damage and flavor. Talents exist that make this do AoE damage. There are also talents that cause the Wildfire Bomb DoT to increase damage taken from your pet.
• The new Apex Talent, Raptor Swipe, gives your Raptor Strikes a chance to make your next Raptor refund Focus and deal AoE damage. This also grants a stacking Haste buff, and has a higher chance of occurring during Takedown.
• The abilities Butchery, Flanking Strike, Mongoose Bite, Explosive Shot, Kill Shot, Spearhead, and Coordinated Assault are gone.
• The passive talents Alpha Predator, Bombardier, Born to Kill, Contagious Reagents, Cull the Herd, Sulfur-Lined Pockets, Tactical Advantage, Terms of Engagement, and Viper's Venom are gone.

Overall, Survival is being vastly simplified. The spec plays essentially identically across both single-target and AoE, with the only thing (likely) changing being your choice of Boomstick versus Flamefang Pitch. You have a generator-spender playstyle in Kill Command/ Raptor Strike, an ability to be used on cooldown in Wildfire Bomb, some mini-cooldowns in Flamefang Pitch/ Boomstick, and then your main cooldown in Takedown.

Minmaxing may involve dumping your Focus before Takedown and your Bombs before Flamefang Pitch/ Boomstick (as both can generate Bomb cooldown reduction/charge refunds), and possibly some minmaxing around Mongoose Fury, like preferring a Raptor Strike over other globals depending on your stack count and whether a Raptor Swipe/ Wallop proc is up.

There are tons of mechanics underlying 1H vs 2H that a lot of players do not think about, including how Weapon DPS translates to Attack Power. This is normally not relevant, because most specs cannot use either 1H or 2H interchangeably. Now, however, this could matter a tremendous amount. Some of these are beneficial to one or the other, and we will just have to see how it shakes out for Survival. That is not the only point to consider, however.

Several mechanics are tied to the frequency of our auto-attacks, such as Lunge and the Pack Leader Talent Lethal Barbs. Without changes, this probably makes Daggers the weapon of choice for all situations. I expect this is a temporary Alpha quirk/oversight and that this will be sorted out in due time, as it seems like Blizzard want Survival to be able to use whatever weapon it wants.

In addition to this, being able to use so many common types of weapons means that our weapon loot pools will be massive. Seasons frequently have special "cantrip" weapons, and it's possible that our BiS weapons will be determined by which slots have these cantrip effects for a given season.

If you already have the weapons you want, then the huge pool of available opinions may dillute your loot pool and make it less likely for you to get that Trinket you want from your Great Vault, making it optimal to swap to Beast Mastery/Marksmanship Loot Spec, at least if your desired Trinket is not melee-specific.

• Full redesign, everything is new.
• Core Mechanic: Raptor Strike has a chance to proc Sentinel's Mark on the target, causing your Wildfire Bomb to deal increased damage to the target. Note the single-target nature of this mechanic.
• Don't Look Back is now a flat 10% absorb shield that you get whenever you get a Sentinel's Mark proc.
• Procs reduce Wildfire Bomb's cooldown by 6 sec.
• Maximum Focus increased to 125.
• The chance of generating Sentinel's Mark procs is 10% higher during Takedown.
• Increases Takedown's duration to 10 sec, up from 8 sec.
• After activating Takedown, the Takedown button becomes Moonlight Chakram which sends a glowy chakram that deals heavy AoE damage as it bounces between enemies. Choice nodes can cause this Chakram to give us a charge of Wildfire Bomb and trigger Sentinel's Mark.

Lots of cool flavor and strong mechanics in here. It is still a fairly passive Hero Talent in terms of gameplay, but instead of just being passive damage in the background, it is passive benefits to existing gameplay like longer cooldowns, a powerful new button to press in cooldowns, and more procs that in turn give more cooldown reduction and so on.

• Increased Focus regen with each auto-attack granting 2 Focus. In its current state, this means we are likely locked in to using Daggers, as mentioned earlier, though I fully expect this is an oversight.
• The Bear has been nerfed by 40%, making it more balanced relative to the other Beasts. In the past, we often had to pay special attention to optimizing around the Bear... It is still by far the strongest, most likely, as another node causes all Bear summons to also summon two Dire Beasts.
• Shell Cover, our woefully weak defensive, has been changed to buff Survival of the Fittest's damage reduction from 30% to 40%.
• Our TWW S3 4PC mechanic, Stampede!, is back, but it only triggers from your first Kill Command after activating Takedown. Which means that every 30 seconds, for around 8 seconds, you best hope that the mobs are not either moving, on a ledge, above you, below you, to the side of you, or behind you.

No major changes here in terms of gameplay, other than degenerate WeakAura-assisted double- Stampede! gameplay being eliminated. Still, we do need to regularly contend with Stampede!'s significant QoL problems related to aiming it in sensible directions and praying that the tank does not move the boss or trash pack when it rolls around, and such. The defensive boost is quite nice now that it actually does something, but it is still weaker than Sentinel's Don't Look Back.