Survival Hunter DPS Easy Mode — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0.1)

This is our best build for all things single-target.

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

This is our best build for all things Mythic+ related.

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 Focus generation and spendage. That means never overcapping your Focus, always casting Kill Command on cooldown as long as it will not Focus cap you, and spending all this Focus on Raptor Strikes and Wildfire Bombs.

Kill Command also gives us 1-2 Tip of the Spear stacks. These stacks empower other abilities, so you get a natural "weaving" playstyle with Kill Command generating both Focus and Tip stacks, and then you spend that Focus and those Tip stacks on empowered Raptors and Bombs.

On top of this, we have Boomstick, an extremely powerful mini-cooldown that we want to use as many times as possible, and on as many targets as possible, in a fight. We always want to make sure we Tip of the Spear it as well, and that we fully channel it.

Thus, the basic priority list goes something like this:

1. Boomstick on cooldown, and always with Tip of the Spear.
2. Kill Command whenever we have
3. Wildfire Bomb, always with Tip of the Spear. It has 2 charges, so 1 charge can be held a little bit if there is AoE coming up.
4. Raptor Strike, nearly always with Tip of the Spear.

The most common mistake is poor Focus management. It is a marathon, not a sprint; resist the urge to just spam your Raptor Strike for instant damage, think of Kill Command as a limited source of Focus that you want to make the most use of whenever you can, to maximize your Raptor Strike count not right now, but in the long run.

Exhilaration is your primary self-heal with a 1-minute cooldown. 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! It is also a 30-50% damage reduction, though it is not so commonly used for simple damage reduction purposes.

Survival of the Fittest is our most powerful defensive besides Turtle, a 30-40% 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.

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.

Also, Survival's rotation is essentially the same on single-target and AoE!

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.