Survival Hunter DPS Mythic+ Guide — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.2

1. Unique Challenges of Mythic+

Mythic+ Dungeons, especially high ones, are arguably the highest level of competitive PvE content that WoW has to offer aside from Mythic raiding.

In Mythic Dungeons as a Hunter, you will be responsible for a large part of the group's total damage output, while in a Mythic Raiding group, you may only be responsible for maybe 7% of it. The skill and execution from the individual players in the group is much more important.

Aside from just doing damage, in Mythic+ you will be responsible for many things to make the group's run faster and easier. Interrupting, offensively dispelling enemy targets, soaking mechanics, using your traps and stuns are all much more common in Mythic+ than your usual Mythic raid.

In this guide, we will talk about getting the most out of your Hunter in Mythic+ dungeons, including the best way to set up your character, how your rotation may change, and tips and tricks for using your abilities in the most optimal way.

2. The Patch 8.2 Beguiling Affix

The new Beguiling Affix adds unique mobs to mob packs throughout dungeons. These mobs, called "Emissaries", impose special limitations on the packs you are fighting.

• Enchanted Emissary — Causes mobs nearby to reflect up to 200% of damage done to them. When you attack this Emissary, it is knocked back, making it easier to separate from the rest of the pack. It has too much health to be killed, but it has an Energy bar that will deplete over 30 seconds, after which the Emissary will despawn.
• Void-Touched Emissary — This mob detects Stealth and Invisibility effects, and casts Queen's Decree: Hide which deals damage to everyone within Line of Sight, in a 60-yard radius. It also applies a debuff that increases everyone's Shadow damage taken by 50%. These mobs have a modest amount of health, and when they reach 1 health they will teleport out of the dungeon.
• Emissary of the Tides — This causes all nearby mobs to be immune to all Crowd Control effects. This includes interrupts, snares, slows, and roots, as well as everything else. These mobs have a modest amount of health, and when they reach 1 health they will teleport out of the dungeon.

The layout of Emissaries in dungeons changes every week.

3. Survival Mythic+ Build

For Mythic+ Dungeons as a Survival, your focus will be on a mix of single-target and AoE damage.

These are our recommended talents for Survival Hunter in Mythic+

Level	Choices
15	✓ Viper's Venom	✗ Terms of Engagement	✓ Alpha Predator
30	✓ Guerrilla Tactics	? Hydra's Bite	✗ Butchery
45	? Trailblazer	? Natural Mending	? Camouflage
60	✓ Bloodseeker	✗ Steel Trap	✗ A Murder of Crows
75	? Born To Be Wild	? Posthaste	? Binding Shot
90	? Tip of the Spear	✓ Mongoose Bite	? Flanking Strike
100	✓ Birds of Prey	✓ Wildfire Infusion	✗ Chakrams

3.1. Level 15 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

✔ Viper's Venom

✘ Terms of Engagement

✔ Alpha Predator

Generally speaking, we recommend Viper's Venom for multi-target heavy dungeons.

For single-target heavy dungeons, Alpha Predator along with Mongoose Bite can be a good combination. Generally speaking, Viper's Venom and Alpha Predator are interchangeable, but Viper's Venom is much easier to play, and therefore the default choice.

3.2. Level 30 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

✔ Guerrilla Tactics

? Hydra's Bite

✘ Butchery

For low-level dungeons and single-target heavy ones, we recommend Guerrilla Tactics as it has the highest single-target potential, on top of being more bursty.

For anything that is heavy on multi-target trash that will live for a long time, we recommend Hydra's Bite.

3.3. Level 45 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

? Trailblazer

? Natural Mending

? Camouflage

Generally speaking, we recommend using Natural Mending. It will allow you to use your Exhilaration self-heal much more often, which can save your life if you have made a mistake, or a very powerful spell has hit you.

3.4. Level 60 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

✔ Bloodseeker

✘ Steel Trap

✘ A Murder of Crows

Bloodseeker is the only viable choice in this row, as the other options do not really scale with gear and do not do enough damage to warrant their use.

3.5. Level 75 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

? Born To Be Wild

? Posthaste

? Binding Shot

This tier is mostly a question about mobility, survivability, or utility.

Generally, we recommend using Posthaste for the helpful movement speed boost, but if you are doing a very high-level Mythic+ Dungeon, then you might find Born To Be Wild more valuable, as it is more likely to save your life than Posthaste.

Binding Shot is much more situational, and there would need to be specific requirements in the dungeon for you to use it. Remember that it is a root and not a stun, so its primary benefit is to help keep mobs stacked.

3.6. Level 90 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

? Tip of the Spear

✔ Mongoose Bite

? Flanking Strike

We recommend Mongoose Bite for essentially all situations.

3.7. Level 100 Talents for Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter

✔ Birds of Prey

✔ Wildfire Infusion

✘ Chakrams

For Mythic+, Wildfire Infusion is generally the strongest choice, although Birds of Prey still combines well with Blur of Talons for single-target especially.

4. Rotational Considerations for Survival in Mythic+

For the most part, your rotation will remain the same as normal in Mythic+ dungeons. Because of the nature of dungeons, however, with mobs dying constantly and there sometimes being downtime in between packs, we recommend taking the following extra considerations.

4.1. Volatile Bomb

The next bomb that Wildfire Infusion will offer to you is random, but if you happen to get the green Volatile Bomb and you are coming up to a new mob pack, it is your best chance of extremely high burst AoE. It is easier to maximize it with Hydra's Bite, but regardless of the talent you have chosen, you should try to apply Serpent Sting to as many targets as possible before using the bomb. Remember to position the bomb correctly so that all targets are hit.

4.2. Carve

It is extremely important to be casting Carve on cooldown on multiple targets. To do this, you must not spend too much Focus on Raptor Strike unless you are able to consume 9-10 Latent Poison stacks with it.

4.3. Kill Command

In many ways, having a high Focus pool is even more important in multi-target than it is in single-target situations. While you have additional, important buttons to press, it is still extremely important to cast Kill Command on cooldown. You need the focus for Carve and Raptor Strike.

5. Key Abilities for Survival Hunter in Mythic+

Intimidation is a 5-second stun. It can be used to interrupt otherwise uninterruptible effects on dangerous mobs, and in high Mythic+ situations, it should be used almost on cooldown to try and negate such casts.

Freezing Trap plays the same role as Intimidation for the most part, allowing you to interrupt dangerous casts that cannot be interrupted normally. It can also allow you to remove dangerous caster mobs from the equation. If there are caster mobs out of position hitting your group, those are ideal targets to be trapped until they can be pulled into the remaining group.

Muzzle is your main interrupt and will be used often in any Mythic+. As you get to know the dungeons, you should know which spells are worth spending your interrupt on.

Feign Death is an extremely powerful spell in Mythic+. It can be used to effectively nullify a lot of targeted effects that mobs and bosses channel on you. It can also be used to nullify targeted spells where you can see that it will land on you before the cast finishes. Using Feign Death can cause the boss to pick another target, or completely stop casting the ability.

6. Azerite Traits for Survival Hunter in Mythic+

The best Survival Hunter traits for Mythic+ are usually ones that proc stats with a long duration, and ideally ones that are not reliant on mobs being alive for a long time.

6.1. The Best Traits

• Blur of Talons remains one of the strongest single-target choices, especially combined with Birds of Prey for single-target heavy dungeons.
• Wildfire Cluster is the most powerful cleave Trait for Survival Hunters, combining especially well with Guerrilla Tactics.
• A single point of Wilderness Survival is extremely useful for all situations as well. It is a single-target oriented trait, but it is also useful for multi-target. Having any more than 1 point is generally not advisable, as the cooldown reduction does not stack.
• For Tier 2 traits, we recommend Overwhelming Power and Heed My Call.

6.2. Traits to Avoid

• Dagger in the Back is a powerful pure single-target trait, but it loses value on multi-target scenarios. It also does less damage if you are attacking from the front. Finally, because its damage comes in the form of a stacking DoT, it is very undesirable when fighting big packs where mobs can often die before the DoT gets to do any damage, thereby wasting it.
• Azerite Globules is a Tier 2 trait with the same problem as Dagger in the Back. It applies a stacking debuff to a target, and it only does damage when that debuff hits 3 stacks. Because mobs die constantly in Mythic+ packs, you will waste a lot of Azerite Globules procs as mobs die with only a few stacks of the debuff.

To summarize Survival Hunter Azerite Traits for Mythic+, try and stick to the following guidelines:

• Avoid traits and effects that stack debuffs on targets.
• Avoid purely single-target traits. Generally speaking, you want traits that give you more stats, as those will help both single-target and AoE damage.

Finally, and perhaps above all, sim yourself.

7. Trinket Considerations for Survival Hunter in Mythic+

When choosing your trinkets, we recommend simulating yourself using the "Dungeon Slice" option on Raidbots. Usually, we recommend using trinkets that proc stats, rather than single-target damage dealers.

8. Changelog