Survival Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.1
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 — Dragonflight 10.1.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Survival Hunter rotation.
Survival Hunter Rotation for Dragonflight
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.
Easy Mode
If the rotations below seem overwhelming to you, you might benefit from visiting our Easy Mode page which outlines a close-to-optimal rotation in simpler terms.
PvP
The content on this page is purely PvE-related. If you are looking for PvP Rotation Tips, please visit our PvP page below.
Important Abilities, Procs and The General Rotation of Survival Hunter
To play Survival Hunter, there are a few basic mechanics you must understand to fully unlock the potential of the spec.
The spec is mostly about maximizing the benefit of Mongoose Bite and
generating Focus for its use with
Kill Command. On top of
this, you have to react to Survival's extremely powerful
Kill Shot procs, while keeping
Wildfire Bomb off two
charges.
Talent Switch
Use the buttons below to select your talents to see how that changes the rotation. This affects both the single-target and multi-target rotation.
Note that some talents are pre-selected, based on our recommended builds from the Talents page linked below. We recommend that you de-select talents you are not using in your current situation to make the rotation easier to read.
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4pc Tier Set Bonus |
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Pre-Combat Checklist for Maximum DPS
- Ensure that you have eaten appropriate Food, according to our Consumables page.
- Ensure your correct pet is summoned and awake. Use this WeakAura to keep you alerted.
- Ensure you have your appropriate Flask buff (see our Consumables page).
- Activate your
Draconic Augment Rune.
Best Survival Hunter Single-Target Rotation in Dragonflight
- Cast
Death Chakram on cooldown.
- Use
Kill Shot to spend
Coordinated Assault procs during
Coordinated Assault. Check the Macros Page for some important, relevant macros for this.
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb while
Shredded Armor is up, if it is close to reaching 2 charges
- Use
Kill Command at less than 60 Focus, if you have more than 1 stack of the
Deadly Duo Talent Buff.
- Cast
Mongoose Bite if there is only 1 GCD of
Mongoose Fury left, to make sure you maximize use of the buff.
- Use
Kill Shot on cooldown.
- Use
Flanking Strike on cooldown if you are below 60 Focus.
- Activate
Coordinated Assault on cooldown.
- Cast
Kill Command if you are below 70 Focus or if the 4PC buff
Shredded Armor is not active.
- Spam
Mongoose Bite when
Shrapnel Bomb is active, to stack the bleed.
- Use
Wildfire Bomb if it is about to reach 2 charges.
- Spam
Mongoose Bite during
Mongoose Fury.
- Use
Mongoose Bite if you are above 60 Focus
Best Single-Target Opener for Survival Hunter
This Opener assumes that you are using the recommended Raid Talents for Survival Hunter, which you can find on our Talents page.
- Use
Death Chakram.
-
Use
Harpoon to reach the target, and to activate
Terms of Engagement.
- Cast
Kill Command to activate the 4PC Buff.
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb to get it off cooldown.
- Start your
Mongoose Fury window with a
Mongoose Bite.
- Continue your normal rotation, according to the priority list above.
Best AoE Rotation for Survival Hunter
The AoE rotation is all about maximizing your Wildfire Bombs, and
reducing their cooldown with
Butchery which also does heavy damage in
its own right. Underneath this, you still want to maintain a strong
single-target rotation, especially since your
Kill Shots are
going to cleave for heavy damage, making them a high priority.
The AoE rotation for a Survival Hunter is based on the following priority system.
- Cast
Kill Command if the 4PC debuff
Shredded Armor is down.
- Use
Death Chakram on cooldown.
- Activate
Coordinated Assault on cooldown
- Use
Kill Shot during
Coordinated Assault. Check the Macros Page for some important, relevant macros for this.
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb if it is about to reach 2 charges or if
Coordinated Assault is off cooldown, meaning you want to dump all of your charges before entering
Coordinated Assault. You also want to cast Bombs on cooldown while
Coordinated Assault is up.
- Use
Wildfire Bomb on cooldown.
- Use
Fury of the Eagle on cooldown. Check the Macros Page for an important macro for this ability.
- Use
Flanking Strike on cooldown if you are below 60 Focus.
- Spam
Mongoose Bite. Use it strategically on targets with over 8 stacks of
Latent Poison to spend the stacks generated.
- Cast
Kill Command if you are below 70 Focus.
- Use
Mongoose Bite when there is nothing else to do, which is pretty rare!
Best Dragonflight AoE Opener for Survival Hunter
This Opener assumes that you are using the recommended Mythic+/AoE Talents for Survival Hunter, which you can find on our Talents page.
- Cast
Kill Command to activate the 4PC Buff.
- Use
Death Chakram.
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb.
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb.
- Cast
Butchery
- Cast
Kill Command to refresh the 4PC Buff.
- Cast
Butchery
- Cast
Coordinated Assault.
- Cast
Kill Shot
- Continue your normal rotation, as defined by the priority above.
Survival Hunter Tips and Tricks for Mythic+
For information about Mythic+ as a Survival Hunter, please refer to our Mythic+ page.
Best WeakAuras for Survival Hunters in Dragonflight
WeakAuras can have a tremendously positive effect on your performance. Since this is a broad topic, we made a page dedicated to it.
Rotation Help for Survival Hunter
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
- 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.
More Hunter Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Theorycrafter and Guidewriter since 2014, and considered one of the best Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with dozen of top parses for all specs throughout the game's history. He is also the Founder/Owner/Head Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the 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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