Survival Hunter DPS Easy Mode — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, we explain how to easily play Survival Hunter in World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2, using the simplest rotation, talent tree, stat priority, gear setup, etc., without sacrificing performance.
Foreword
This section is intended for players who are new to the game or class, have no intentions of raiding Mythic difficulty, or simply want a more straightforward way to play their specialization without being overwhelmed by the numerous priorities and active abilities that need to be taken into consideration for optimal play.
The Basics of Survival
Survival is a versatile melee spec capable of quite powerful single-target and sometimes very powerful AoE. It also has great crowd control capabilities for a melee.
For a detailed explanation of all the abilities that Survival Hunter has, check out our Spell Summary page.
Talent Choice
The talents listed below are selected either for ease of use, or for more a more simple to understand gameplay style. Whilst in a number of cases there are alternatives on the tree that will provide more if played well, they create much more room to play incorrectly and reduce your performance. Due to this, treat this as a starting point and a primer.
You can find a more detailed guide on Talent choices that are designed for optimal DPS on our Talents page below.
- Level 15:
Alpha Predator
- Level 25:
Guerrilla Tactics
- Level 30:
Natural Mending
- Level 35:
Bloodseeker
- Level 40:
Posthaste
- Level 45:
Tip of the Spear
- Level 50:
Wildfire Infusion
Stat Choices of Survival Hunter
The general single-target stat priority for a Survival Hunter is:
- Haste;
- Versatility;
- Critical Strike;
- Mastery.
Haste is the best stat for Survival by a significant margin, and you should be looking out for it on your pieces of gear. Item level should still be the primary concern, but a Haste piece might be better than a higher item level piece without Haste.
For more information, please visit our dedicated page.
Basic Single-Target Rotation
Remember to read and treat this rotation as a priority list. If the top option is not available), move on to the next and so on.
- Cast
Kill Command on cooldown. Try not to be at high Focus when using it.
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb on cooldown.
- Cast
Kill Shot on cooldown when your target is below 20% health.
- Maintain the
Serpent Sting DoT by refreshing it whenever there is less than 5 seconds remaining on it.
- Cast
Raptor Strike to spend Focus when there is nothing else to do. Try to never let your Focus reach maximum by using this ability aggressively when you are close to the Focus cap.
Multi-Target Rotation
On 3 targets and above, you should use Carve on cooldown.
You should still focus on casting
Kill Command and
Wildfire Bomb on cooldown.
Cooldowns
Use Aspect of the Eagle when you will be out of range for
a sustained period of time, allowing you to DPS from range.
Use Coordinated Assault as many times as possible during
the fight. Try and stack it with
Bloodlust/
Heroism.
Visit our dedicated rotation page below for more details on how to master the Survival Hunter rotation.
Changelog
- 23 Nov. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Azortharion, a theorycrafter of all things Hunter-related for many years. He is an accomplished player with dozen of top parses for all specs throughout the game's history. He is also the Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the Hunter Class Discord, and you can watch his stream on Twitch. He even has his own personal Discord channel where you can get notifications about when the guides get updated and have direct communications with him.
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