Survival Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — The War Within (Season 1)
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Survival Hunter in both single-target and multiple-target situations. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your DPS. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1).
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Survival Hunter rotation.
Survival Hunter Rotation Guide for The War Within
Welcome to our Rotation page for Survival Hunters. On this page, you will find everything you need to know about actually playing the spec in Raiding and Mythic+ scenarios.
Survival Hunter Rotations
Each of the sections below explain the Rotation for Survival Hunter at different target counts. Click the boxes to switch to the desired damage type.
Survival Hunter Rotation
The buttons below can be used to select between curated Single-Target and AoE/Mythic+ loadouts. You can also use the switches below to add or remove individual talents you may also be using:
Talent Selections, etc. | ||
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Single-Target Rotation Goals for Survival Hunter
- Maximizing Focus and Tip of the Spear stacks generated by casting Kill Command on cooldown without ever letting it cap you on either resource.
- Maximizing Focus spent on Mongoose Bite by never Focus capping.
- Ensuring that Tip of the Spear stacks are spent on high-impact abilities and not fillers.
AoE Rotation Goals for Survival Hunter
- All the same goals as the single-target Rotation.
- Maximizing our Wildfire Bomb charge generation and reducing wastage with Butchery, and occasionally Fury of the Eagle.
Single-Target Opener for Survival Hunter in The War Within
- Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
- Cast Harpoon to reach the target.
- Use any on-use Trinkets, as well as your Potion.
- Cast Mongoose Bite to apply Serpent Sting, for Outland Venom.
- Cast Coordinated Assault.
- Cast Kill Command to get yourself 2 Tip stacks, thanks to Relentless Primal Ferocity.
- Cast Spearhead.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb.
- Cast Flanking Strike.
- Cast Explosive Shot.
- Cast Kill Command.
- Proceed with your normal Rotation according to the priority list below.
Single-Target Rotation for Survival Hunter
This priority list describes the optimal single-target Rotation for Survival Hunters. In short, you should press the highest-priority ability for which the conditions are met, every single cast.
A lot of the rotation revolves around Tip of the Spear, a buff generated by Kill Command that buffs the damage of other abilities. I will refer to this as "Tip", or "Tip stacks" throughout the rotation.
- Use Harpoon on cooldown when you are at a Focus deficit. You can Disengage + Harpoon between your rather slow melee swings to facilitate this. If you find yourself losing other globals from trying to do this, do not bother.
- Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks.
- Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown.
- Cast Spearhead on cooldown.
- Cast Mongoose Bite if Serpent Sting is missing from the target, and it has at least 12 seconds left to live to apply it via Viper's Venom.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active, if it is about to hit 2 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
- If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
- If Lunar Storm is able to be activated;
- Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it.
- Cast Explosive Shot with Tip of the Spear. Hold it up to 20 seconds for your next cooldown. Remember that Explosive Shot takes 3 seconds to do damage, so you can cast it ~2 seconds before popping a cooldown, and still have it be affected.
- Cast Kill Shot with Tip of the Spear
- Cast Kill Command to generate Focus if you have less than 77. During Coordinated Assault, use it aggressively whenever you have less than 2 Tip stacks, regardless of Focus.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb on cooldown with Tip of the Spear if it is going to reach 2 charges before Lunar Storm's cooldown is up. Otherwise, hold it.
- Cast Kill Shot.
- Cast Mongoose Bite if there is nothing else to do, as a filler. Do not worry about Mongoose Fury, it does not impact your decision-making and can essentially be ignored.
- Use Harpoon on cooldown when you are at a Focus deficit. You can Disengage + Harpoon between your rather slow melee swings to facilitate this. If you find yourself losing other globals from trying to do this, do not bother.
- Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks.
- Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown.
- Cast Spearhead on cooldown.
- Cast Mongoose Bite if Serpent Sting is missing from the target, and it has at least 12 seconds left to live to apply it via Viper's Venom.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active, if it is about to hit 2 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
- If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
- Cast Kill Shot with Tip of the Spear
- Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it.
- Cast Explosive Shot with Tip of the Spear. Hold it up to 20 seconds for your next cooldown. Remember that Explosive Shot takes 3 seconds to do damage, so you can cast it ~2 seconds before popping a cooldown, and still have it be affected.
- Cast Mongoose Bite with Tip of the Spear when you have a Furious Assault proc to consume or if you have 5 stacks of Mongoose Fury.
- Cast Kill Command on cooldown, regardless of Focus, Tip stacks, or anything else. Welcome to Vicious Hunt.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear on cooldown.
- Cast Mongoose Bite if there is nothing else to do, as a filler.
AoE Opener for Survival Hunter
- Ensure Hunter's Mark is active on the target from you or another Hunter in the group!
- Cast Coordinated Assault, along with your Potion and on-use Trinkets.
- Cast Kill Command.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb.
- Cast Flanking Strike.
- Cast Explosive Shot.
- Cast Fury of the Eagle.
- Cast Kill Command.
- Cast 2x Wildfire Bombs.
- Proceed with the normal rotation, according to the priority list below.
- Cast Explosive Shot.
- Cast Flanking Strike.
- Cast Fury of the Eagle.
- Proceed with the normal rotation, according to the priority list below.
AoE Rotation for Survival Hunter
This priority list describes the optimal AoE Rotation for Survival Hunters. In short, you should press the highest-priority ability for which the conditions are met, every single cast.
A lot of the rotation revolves around Tip of the Spear, a buff generated by Kill Command that buffs the damage of other abilities. I will refer to this as "Tip", or "Tip stacks" throughout the rotation.
- Use Harpoon on cooldown when you are at a Focus deficit. You can Disengage + Harpoon between your rather slow melee swings to facilitate this. If you find yourself losing other globals from trying to do this, do not bother.
- Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown.
- Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active, if it is about to hit 2 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
- If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
- If Lunar Storm is able to be activated;
- Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it.
- Cast Explosive Shot with Tip of the Spear.
- Cast Kill Command to generate Focus if you have less than 77.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear on cooldown.
- Cast Mongoose Bite when Merciless Blows is active.
- Cast Butchery.
- Cast Kill Shot.
- Cast Raptor Strike as a filler.
- Use Harpoon on cooldown when you are at a Focus deficit. You can Disengage + Harpoon between your rather slow melee swings to facilitate this. If you find yourself losing other globals from trying to do this, do not bother.
- Use Coordinated Assault on cooldown.
- Cast Kill Command during Coordinated Assault if you have no Tip of the Spear stacks.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear active, if it is about to hit 2 charges. You only ignore Tip for Bombs under the following circumstances:
- If Bomb is already on 2 charges;
- Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks. Not 0 or 3, as we both want Flanking Strike to benefit from Tip, while also generating 2 stacks of it.
- Cast Explosive Shot with Tip of the Spear.
- Cast Kill Command to generate Focus if you have less than 77.
- Cast Wildfire Bomb with Tip of the Spear on cooldown.
- Cast Butchery if it is about to reach 3 charges, or if Wildfire Bomb has fewer than ~1.5 charges.
- Cast Mongoose Bite when Merciless Blows is active.
- Cast Kill Shot.
- Cast Raptor Strike as a filler.
Addons for Survival Hunter Rotation
Check out our Addons page below for some recommended Addons to get the most out of your Survival Hunter!
Macros for Survival Hunter Rotation
Check out our Macros page below for some recommended Macros to get the most out of your Survival Hunter!
Mythic+ Tips and Tricks for Survival Hunter
For information about Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter, please refer to our Mythic+ page.
WeakAuras for Survival Hunters in The War Within
WeakAuras can have a tremendously positive effect on your performance. Since this is a broad topic, we made a page dedicated to it.
Questions for the Author
Thanks for reading my Rotation Guide for Survival Hunter. If you have any questions about it that you would like to ask me directly, feel free to drop into my Discord Server and drop me (Azortharion) a ping at any time.
Changelog
- 02 Oct. 2024: Added more specific Trinket usage information.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Preliminary update for The War Within Season 1.
- 26 Aug. 2024: Small, various fixes, mainly to pure ST build opener.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 30 Jul. 2024: Updated the rotations and openers with small optimizations, primarily to do with holding Explosive Shot for Spearhead/Coordinated Assault.
- 29 Jul. 2024: Updated the single-target opener to apply Serpent Sting early on, for Outland Venom.
- 28 Jul. 2024: Implemented rotational DPS optimizations from the Survival Hunter Discord.
- 25 Jul. 2024: Updated and simplified the rotation.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 19 Mar. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.6.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Updated for Patch 10.2.5.
- 12 Nov. 2023: Added missing Wildfire Bomb line to the ST rotation.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Fixed an issue where Wildfire Bomb would not appear in the ST rotation with the AoE build.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 17 Jul. 2023: Updated the AoE rotation and opener significantly in light of recent APL updates, and added on-use Trinkets to the rotation.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.1.5.
- 29 Jun. 2023: Updated the Death Chakram line in the single-target rotation.
- 16 Jun. 2023: Significant rotational overhaul with new checkboxes, a new feature that lets you select checkbox presets, and a variety of changes to both the single-target and AoE rotations.
- 15 Jun. 2023: Removed the top line of the AoE Rotation, thereby reducing the priority of maintaining the 4PC Debuff on AoE.
- 13 Jun. 2023: Removed the FoTE Bloodseeker Macro as the bug was fixed and it is no longer needed.
- 03 Jun. 2023: Updated the AoE opener slightly.
- 26 May 2023: Updated the AoE opener significantly to better reflect the AoE rotation change.
- 25 May 2023: Important AoE Rotation Update, and updated the default checkboxes, and added information about an important Fury of the Eagle Macro.
- 13 May 2023: Small wording change in the 4PC Rotation Line.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Small rotational fixes.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated Harpoon's role in the rotation.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Rotational update for the Set Bonus.
- 30 Nov. 2022: Updated mentions of Kill Command having 2 charges in the priority to "cap charges" to encompass both situations with and without Alpha Predator.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 24 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
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This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Guidewriter, Theorycrafter, and top player since 2014, who is widely considered one of the best PvE Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with hundreds of top parses across all Hunter specs. He is the Head Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the official Hunter Class Discord. You can find him on his stream on Twitch and his channel on YouTube. He also has his own, personal Discord server where you can freely ask him any Hunter questions you may have!
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