Survival Hunter DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.3

At this stage in the game, there are so many variables and so many layers of optimization that you can apply to your character, that there is no way for a guide or anything else to tell you exactly what gear you should wear. This is why we always recommend simulating your own character using Raidbots. The website can help you choose set bonuses, Azerite traits, trinkets and combinations thereof in a way that is tailored completely to your specific character. Learning to use this tool is essential to maximizing your potential, as there is simply no other way to take all the variables into account.

When identifying what gear you should be aiming after, we recommend using RaidBots' Droptimizer feature. It requires the SimulationCraft Addon. Once you have the addon installed, write "/simc" into the chat in-game, and copy-pasting the contents into the RaidBots Droptimizer.

Simply select the raid and difficulty you are interested in, and RaidBots will take a while to figure out where you should spend your bonus rolls, and more.

Mechagon offers two unique types of gear. The first is the Pocket-Sized Computation Device Trinket, which has 3 sockets that can be filled with punchcards. Yellow Punchcards offer stats, Red Punchcards offer damaging effects, and Blue Punchcards offer unique utility.

The whole Trinket's item level scales with the item level of the punchcards in it, as an average of the Red and Yellow punchcards. The item level of the trinket affects the power of the punchcards in it.

Yellow Punchcards can be looted from Rares in Mechagon, or from bosses inside the Operation: Mechagon dungeon. They offer a large amount of one secondary stat, and a small amount of another. The best Yellow Punchcard for Survival Hunters is any high Haste punchcard, with a high item level.

There are two noteworthy Red Punchcards: Cyclotronic Blast and Subroutine: Recalibration, the former being more interesting at lower gear levels and the latter being more interesting at higher gear levels.

The other type of gear are the set rings from Operation: Mechagon. By combining a "Logic Loop" ring like Logic Loop of Division with a "Bit Band" ring like Shorting Bit Band, you can combine the two effects to create a unique effect with a unique trigger. The Division and Shorting combo is the most potent for Hunters.

You should be completing at least one keystone at a high item level each week to make use of the weekly chest. Each week you will receive one piece of loot, and a fixed amount of Titan Residuum. The highest keystone you complete (up to a maximum of 15) will determine the final reward.

Mythic+ Level	Loot iLvl - End of Dungeon	Loot iLvl - Weekly Chest	# of Loot - End of Dungeon	Titan Residuum in Weekly Chest
Mythic+10	455	465	3	1700
Mythic+11	455	465	3	1790
Mythic+12	460	470	3	1880
Mythic+13	460	470	3	1970
Mythic+14	460	470	3	2060
Mythic+15	465	475	3	2150
Mythic+16	465	475	3 (40% chance of 4th piece)	2240
Mythic+17	465	475	3 (80% chance of 4th piece)	2330
Mythic+18	465	475	4 (20% chance of 5th piece)	2420

Corruption is a new Patch 8.3 feature (see our guide on Corrupted Items). It replaces Warforging and Titanforging for all gear in the patch. It gives items a type of affix, as well as an amount of Corruption. Corruption is a stat that negatively impacts your character the more of it that you have, but the more Corruption you have, the more powerful the affixes will be. Some Affixes are a lot more powerful than others, and you can see a guideline ranking for them below.

We have provided simulations below for all the different Corruptions, but we still feel the need to explain why some Corruptions are good and so on, as simulations rarely tell the full story.

• Infinite Stars has incredibly high single-target potential, but it is possible for its stacks to be wasted in AoE scenarios, as they can go randomly out on AoE targets that may die quickly. Despite this, it is still the cookie cutter single-target/raiding Corruption.
• Expedient is a significant buff to your Haste. It works well in all situations.
• Gushing Wound is a single-target randomly procced DoT, but highly efficient and a solid choice.
• Racing Pulse is a huge Haste buff with a short duration. Good for all situations, although not quite at the level of the 3 above.

• An'zig Vra is a staff that gives your auto-attacks a 25% chance to deal 2% of your health in damage, and healing you for that same amount. This is a fairly weak Corruption effect. This effect is called Devour Vitality.
• Qwor N'lyeth is a polearm that provides Echoing Void, a stacking buff that has a chance to collapse, dealing damage for every stack, split between all enemies. This is a decent Corruption effect, making this the stronger of the two Corruption weapons in most situations.

Neither Corruption weapon is particularly strong, and they are prime candidates for being cleansed of Corruption, in favour of getting better effects on other items.

The top chart is more generally useful. Corruption is a resource that we want to minimize wherever we can, and the top chart provides you an idea of which Corruption affixes provide the most DPS for the Corruption they add to your gear. The bottom chart is more of a showcase of the DPS potential of the Corruptions.

We do not recommend making choices based off of this chart. We recommend using the "DPS per Corruption Point" chart instead.

• Disengage with the Posthaste talent will negate the effects of Grasping Tendrils slow.
• Wing Clip and Tar Trap can be used to slow down the Thing From Beyond, which is spawned by Grand Delusions. Tar Trap is easier to do, as it does not require you to change target. You can also use Feign Death to completely negate it.

Thanks to Bloodmallet.com, a comprehensive list of available trinkets for Survvial are listed against each other below. Keep in mind that this is only a guideline, and that you should be simming your own character if you care about optimizing it.

Many people have a tendency to overthink the distribution of their secondary stats. An important thing to remember is that a higher quantity of stats is nearly always better than a better quality of stats. Because of this, wearing higher item level gear with worse stats tends to be better than lower item level gear with great stats. Keep this in mind when considering gear.

This does not include trinkets as they are covered in the above chart.

This list is based on Birds of Prey, as it is more popular for raiding.

Note that this is not a guide on which bosses to bonus roll. Refer to the Droptimizer guide above to plan out your bonus rolls!

Slot	Item	Source
Helm	Hood of Lightless Depths	Blackwater Behemoth in The Eternal Palace
Shoulder	Shoulderguards of Crushing Depths	Lady Ashvane in The Eternal Palace
Cloak	Drape of the Hatcher	Orgozoa in The Eternal Palace
Chest	Corrupted Hexxer's Vestments	Purchased from Azerite vendor for Titan Residuum
Wrists	Ori's Tidal Bracers	Benthic Gear Tokens for Prismatic Manapearls
Gloves	Poen's Deepsea Handgrips	Benthic Gear Tokens for Prismatic Manapearls
Belt	Vim's Scalecrusher Chain	Benthic Gear Tokens for Prismatic Manapearls
Legs	Banded Cragscale Greaves	Crafted. Requires Leatherworking. 215 Haste and 86 Versatility is ideal.
Boots	Akana's Reefstrider Treads	Benthic Gear Tokens for Prismatic Manapearls
Ring #1	Ascended Leviathan's Eye Loop	Crafted. Requires Jewelcrafting. 378 Haste and 151 Versatility is ideal.
Ring #2	Cursed Lover's Ring	Queen Azshara in The Eternal Palace
Weapon	Shiver Venom Lance	Abyssal Commander Sivara in The Eternal Palace