Survival Hunter DPS Easy Mode — The War Within (11.1.7)

This is the strongest build we have for pure single-target scenarios, which includes most Raiding.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

This build offers around 6% more AoE, but 9% less single-target and 14% less priority-target damage than my baseline Flanking Strike recommendation. This trade-off is generally not considered worth it, but I list this build for those of you who prefer the biggest AoE numbers possible.

We cannot have everything we could possibly want for every single dungeon in a single build, unfortunately. Here are the recommended utility talents to swap to for different, specific Mythic+ dungeons in The War Within Season 2.

• For Cinderbrew Meadery, Darkflame Cleft, Theater of Pain, and The MOTHERLODE!!, swap Kodo Tranquilizer over to Devilsaur Tranquilizer.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

The goal of Survival is chiefly to maximize your Tip of the Spear coverage on all of your abilities. Ensure that the buff is up whenever you cast a Flanking Strike, Wildfire Bomb, Explosive Shot, Kill Shot.

Beyond this, use Raptor Strike/ Mongoose Bite as a filler and Focus spender, with Kill Command being your Focus and Tip generator.

On AoE, we focus far more on Wildfire Bombs, which deal amazing AoE damage. We reduce their cooldown by using Butchery on cooldown. If single-target is about maximizing Mongoose Bites, AoE is all about throwing as many Bombs as possible!

It is still extremely important to ensure that Tip of the Spear is active for all of your special abilities.

Exhilaration is your primary self-heal and it has a rather short cooldown thanks to the Natural Mending Talent. Use this when you drop below 50% HP to help out your Healer!

Aspect of the Turtle is your immunity. It can be used to completely negate the damage and effects of most spells targeted on you. Use it if you are assigned to, or in a pinch if you worry that an upcoming mechanic will kill you!

Survival of the Fittest is our most powerful defensive besides Turtle, a 30% damage reduction with 2 charges on a 1.5-minute cooldown each. Use it to reduce damage taken from hard-hitting mechanics. Optimal use of this ability entails using it proactively, before heavy incoming damage.

Fortitude of the Bear is an extra defensive that comes from using a Tenacity Pet (more on that in the Pets section!). It increases max health by 20% and heals you for that amount too. This defensive can be used after heavy damage, or to survive things that might one-shot you.

Feign Death is a very unique Hunter ability. It can be used to drop aggro and combat, and it can also be used to stop casts on you — mobs will usually stop casting mid-cast if you appear to be dead! It will also dispel all Poison and Disease effects from you.

This is just some of the key utility of Survival Hunter. We highly recommend checking out the fully detailed Spell Glossary page below to see everything explained in detail.

The most important thing to say about Pets is that they all deal the same DPS. The only difference is in utility and defensive capabilities!

First of all, you need to find out if you need to be using Bloodlust/ Heroism in your group. Only Hunters, Mages, Evokers, and Shamans can use Bloodlust, so if there is no one else of those classes in your group, then it is on you!

If you do need to Bloodlust, you need to use any Ferocity Pet, since these come with the Primal Rage Bloodlust Ability. Use this website to find a cool Ferocity Pet for Lusting purposes!

If you do not need to Bloodlust, then the best Pet is a personal choice Tenacity Pet or the aforementioned Ferocity Pet. Tenacity Pets come with the Fortitude of the Bear defensive and 5% Max Health, but you lose out on the 4% Leech which is better for prolonged self-sustain!

The game offers the option of an in-game "Combat Assistant", which has two modes; A Rotation Helper that will suggest spells to cast next, and a "One-Button Mode", that automatically performs this rotation for you if you simply press one button repeatedly.

These tools can be worthwhile for beginners, as they provide a reasonable "minimum" level of performance. For Survival Hunter, using just the Rotation Helper is a ~5-11% DPS loss compared to playing perfectly (which almost nobody does), the lower bound being AoE, and the higher one being single-target. Using the one-button mode adds another ~9-17% to this DPS loss, the lower bound being AoE and the higher one being single-target.

Obviously, peak performance cannot be obtained using these tools, but it is something worth considering if you are happy to take the DPS losses above for the sake of ease of play. Do not let anyone in-game or on a forum or Discord tell you that there is something inherently wrong with using these tools! Blizzard created them for a reason, and the game is about having fun, whatever that means for you.