Survival Hunter PvP Rotation and Playstyle (The War Within Pre-Patch)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, damaging them, bursting them down, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilizes your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Survival Hunter, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Survival Hunter PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Survival Hunters
The main role for a Survival Hunter is simple: maintain pressure on the
enemy team and use your mobility and stuns/slows/roots to land
Freezing Traps on the enemy healer when you're in a position to finish
a kill.
You have many damage rotation sequences available, and you can combine your abilities in a number of ways to deal damage to an enemy quickly.
You should try to line up your crowd control combinations with the high
points in your rotation ( Coordinated Assault and
Spearhead)
for maximum effectiveness and coordinate with your teammates so there is always
a stun available for the kill target during those windows.
Before Gates Open
![Track Hidden Icon](http://static.icy-veins.com/images/wow/large_icons/ability_stealth.jpg)
Choose your talents. Talents and PvP Talents are expanded on separately in this guide, but as a baseline, these PvP talents are good in everything:
Survival Tactics
Chimaeral Sting
And then the third PvP talent is based on what you're facing, e.g.
Sticky Tar Bomb (facing melee or Marksman Hunters)
Tranquilizing Darts (facing Restoration Druids)
Diamond Ice (facing a Demon Hunter or Warlock playing Imp for dispel)
Mending Bandage (facing Feral Druid or Assassination Rogue)
Choose your pet. Pets are expanded on separately in this guide, but generally, you want a Cunning pet unless you expect the enemy team to burst you in a stun, in which case you are likely better off with a Tenacity pet.
Cunning pets make you mobile and help you to support your partner if they are the kill target. Tenacity pets make you more difficult to kill when you are the kill target.
How To Open
Before Combat
The opener refers to your team's opening crowd control chain and damage done as soon as you get out of the gates. The main goal in the opener is to force your enemies to use their cooldowns. If the enemy healer uses their trinket in the opener, you will have an advantage over them for the next 90 seconds.
As Survival, you want to be setting the pace of the game as soon as possible with the strongest opener possible.
- Use
Camouflage, then summon your pet
Being in stealth will allow you to reliably get clean openers. While in stealth, you want to position in line of sight of the enemy healer to make it easier to land your Freezing Trap or cast Chimearal Sting.
It is important to use Camouflage before summoning your pet because then you are able to attack enemies with your pet while in stealth before you open (and you can even use Kill Command, Mend Pet, or Revive your pet during Camouflage). Make sure you either attack something with your pet or move it away from yourself so it does not give away your position.
This is particularly important when facing Demon Hunters, who will be able
to see through your Camouflage with Spectral Sight. You can counter
this by attacking the Demon Hunter with your pet during Camouflage.
- Cast
Flare if any member of the enemy team is in stealth
If somebody is in stealth, it is also a good idea to Disengage
towards the area you are expecting them to be in before firing the Flare to
catch them off guard and be able to throw the Flare further than they would
expect.
- Cast
Hunter's Mark on your kill target
This will give you a damage bonus on your opener, although it will also make it obvious the player you are going to open on and they might move to a pillar. If they do move to a pillar, it is fine to open on their partner without the Hunter's Mark.
If the team that you are facing is waiting for you to open, rather than running at your team, and their Healer dispels your Hunter's Mark, you can delay your opener and reapply it.
Opening Rotation
The below rotations are examples of what you can do in an opener, which you should modify based on positioning, what you're facing, and how your opponent reacts.
You should also be aware of what's going on in the game. If it's not safe for you to be in melee range, or if you've already forced defensive cooldowns, or if it's not safe for you to chase a healer for crowd control, it's fine to stay at range until you have a good opportunity.
Chimearal opening rotation (recommended)
- Cast
Kill Command three times on any target while in camouflage to build
Tip of the Spear stacks (if you have time because the other team did not immediately push your team)
- Cast
Chimaeral Sting on the enemy healer
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb (to put the second charge on cooldown)
- Cast
Explosive Shot
- Cast
Harpoon on healer
- Cast
Freezing Trap on Healer (at this point, the Healer should be silenced by Chimearal Sting)
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb
- Use
Coordinated Assault (to get back to the kill target, reset your Bomb cooldowns, buff your damage, and generate three stacks of
Tip of the Spear)
- Cast
Mongoose Bite to dump focus
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb (to put the second charge on cooldown)
- Cast
Flanking Strike to generate another two stacks of
Tip of the Spear
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb
- Cast
Mongoose Bite until you run out of focus
- Cast
Kill Command when you run out of focus
- Cast
Kill Shot at any point when available
Getting your First Trap with Chimearal Sting instead of with
Intimidation is convenient because then you will be able to use
Intimidation to set up your next Trap when the game is generally more chaotic.
Binding Shot can then be used to peel or stun DPS players.
Sustained Damage (outside of cooldowns)
The below priority list shows the ideal ability to use at any moment for maximum damage.
- Use
Kill Command to generate a
Tip of the Spear stack (if you don't have any stacks but do have any damaging ability with a cooldown available).
- Cast
Flanking Strike
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb (if you have close to or at two charges available)
- Cast
Explosive Shot
- Cast
Wildfire Bomb
- Cast
Kill Shot if available
- Cast
Mongoose Bite to dump focus, and it's safe to be in melee range
- Cast
Kill Command if you need focus
Remember that Wildfire Bomb does a large portion of your overall damage but will break crowd control (e.g., Freezing Trap) if used on a nearby target. You should keep Wildfire Bomb on cooldown even if the enemy healer is not in crowd control because you never want to be in a situation where the Healer is in crowd control, but you can't do damage because pressing Wildfire Bomb would break that crowd control.
Most of your rotation can be done at range, but if you are more than 25
yards from your pet, you will lose half of the benefit from
Mastery: Spirit Bond. When you are bursting, you should ensure that you
are within 25 yards of your pet.
When you are at range and need to dump focus, you can use
Aspect of the Eagle to allow you to use Mongoose Bite from up to a 40
yard range. Aspect of the Eagle will also grant you the full bonus from your
Mastery when active, as long as you are within 40 yards of your pet.
Coordinated Assault
Coordinated Assault is your big cooldown and has a lot of
interactions with other Survival talents that you should be aware of.
Coordinated Assault does the following when used:
- Charge to your target (40-yard range)
- Reset both charges of your Wildfire Bomb (through
Bombardier)
- Do a reasonable amount of instant damage
- Generate 3 stacks of
Tip of the Spear (if
Symbiotic Adrenaline)
Then, for 20 seconds, it will:
- Increase your damage done by 20%
- Increase the chance for Kill Command to reset
- Double the chance for Kill Command to give you a charge of Kill Shot(if
Sic 'Em)
- Cause Kill Command to generate 2 stacks of Tip of the Spear (if
Relentless Primal Ferocity)
- Give you 10% Haste (if
Relentless Primal Ferocity)
- Increase the damage bonus from Tip of the Spear from 15% to 22.5% (if
Relentless Primal Ferocity)
- When Coordinated Assault fades, make your next two
Explosive Shots free and incur no cooldown (if
Bombardier)
Relentless Primal Ferocity and Symbiotic Adrenaline
Both Relentless Primal Ferocity and
Symbiotic Adrenaline are
viable choices, but generally, because of all the effects that you're already
getting from Coordinated Assault, it will usually be preferred to take
Symbiotic Adrenaline for higher uptime on the other Coordinated Assault effects.
If you are playing Symbiotic Adrenaline, you should try to use all stacks of Tip of the Spear before activating Coordinated Assault to avoid wasting stacks.
Bombadier
When playing with Bombardier, you should always consume all
Wildfire Bomb charges before using Coordinated Assault to avoid wasting charges.
When Coordinated Assault ends, you should prioritise Explosive Shot above all other damage spells. Be aware that when you fire an Explosive Shot into a target that already has the Explosive Shot debuff, it will immediately "proc" the First Explosive Shot, and the damage will not be wasted.
Spearhead
Spearhead is a short duration increase to your Critical Strike
chance and Critical Strike damage (through
Deadly Duo) that also
applies a decent damage over time effect and causes your pet to charge to the
target.
Because Spearhead only lasts 10 seconds, it is ideal to make sure you have three stacks of Tip of the Spear active before using it, crowd control on the enemy healer, and either Wildfire Bomb/Explosive Shot/Flanking Strike ready, or a full focus bar to dump Mongoose Bites into the target.
How to Trap Healers
Hunter comps rely heavily on landing Freezing Trap on the enemy
healer, and this requires some setup (and a lot of practice).
Tools you have to help you trap:
Intimidation
Binding Shot (this is a little less reliable/predictable than Intimidation because your target can stand still or do things like use
Phase Shift to leave the Bind or
Grounding Totem, or
Blessing of Sacrifice before leaving the Bind to counter your Trap)
Harpoon
Concussive Shot
Tar Trap +
Entrapment
Disengage (If you are struggling to trap, I highly recommend that you Concussive Shot and then Harpoon or Disengage into the Healer and use the @player Freezing Trap macro instead of aiming your Trap)
Tranquilizing Shot (eg for
Holy Ward or
Nullifying Shroud)
Flanking Strike
Coordinated Assault
High Explosive Trap and
Bursting Shot (if you miss a trap, you can always knock them into it!)
Every healing class has multiple ways to dodge or deny your Trap; below is a non-exhaustive list of what each healing specialization has to avoid traps and some tips specific to that Healer. Having an addon like Omnibar to track important enemy cooldowns and Gladiatorlossa2 to tell you when they are used will make your life a lot easier.
Remember that in all cases, healers can use mobility and erratic movement to make it difficult for you to trap them. Also, remember that when they are spending global cooldowns trying to outplay your Trap and moving instead of casting, you are still applying pressure even though the Healer is not caught in a trap because the Healer is not casting healing spells.
Discipline Priest
When trapping Discipline Priest s you must be aware of:
Shadow Word: Death
Phase Shift
Psychic Scream
Mind Control (cast as you throw the Trap)
Shadowmeld
Ultimate Penitence
Tips when facing Discipline Priests
You may notice that almost all of the Discipline Priest abilities that can be used to avoid your traps are on the Shadow spell school. When you are standing near the Priest in the middle of the game by kicking them on the shadow spell school, they will not be able to use Shadow Word Death or fade to avoid your Trap.
You must always be aware of Psychic Scream, too. If you get too close to a Priest, when it is off cooldown, your plans will backfire, and you will be feared.
Other than that, trapping Discipline Priests is about tracking the cooldown of Shadow Word Death and Fade and throwing the Trap when they are not able to use either.
During Ultimate Penitance, a Discipline Priest is immune to interrupts and crowd control. You can trap the initial cast if you are quick, but if the channel begins, they will be immune to your Trap.
As Survival, as long as the Priest doesn't pre-use Phase Shift, you can rotate between Intimidation to set up your Trap and then Chimearal Sting into Harpoon Trap for every second Trap (use Harpoon and Freezing Trap when the silence activates).
Holy Priest
When trapping Holy Priests you must be aware of:
Shadow Word: Death
Phase Shift
Holy Ward
Spirit of the Redeemer
Divine Ascension
Mind Control (cast as you throw the Trap)
Shadowmeld
Tips when facing Holy Priests
Holy Priest is similar to Discipline with a few changes.
They have Holy Ward, which must be purged with Tranquilizing Shot (if you are unlucky and do not get the dispel, you will need to wait 15 seconds for it to expire unless your partner can take it off).
When a Holy Priest uses Spirit of the Redeemer, you can place a trap underneath the angel to trap them instantly when it ends. Be careful, though - if you do this too soon, their partners may try to eat the Trap, or the Priest may see you throw it and cancel the guardian into a fade to immune the Trap.
As Survival, as long as the Priest doesn't pre-use Phase Shift, you can rotate between Intimidation to set up your Trap and then Chimearal Sting into Harpoon Trap for every second Trap (use Harpoon and Freezing Trap when the silence activates).
Ideally, you would hold Chimaeral Sting into a Priest until they have used Spirit of the Redeemer, because otherwise, they can use this to be immune to your silence.
Holy Paladin
When trapping Holy Paladins you must be aware of:
Blessing of Sacrifice
Blessing of Protection (on the stun before trap)
Hand of Reckoning
Blessing of Freedom +
Divine Steed
Hammer of Justice
Blinding Light
Tips when facing Holy Paladins
The main thing here is to be very aware of when a Holy Paladin uses
sacrifice and not to trap the Paladin during the duration. Remember that Holy
Paladins are relatively squishy, so swapping to the Holy Paladin when they use
Blessing of Sacrifice is always an option. If you are able to force their
Divine Shield doing this, they will gain
Forbearance and will
not be able to use Blessing of Protection to escape the next stun into Freezing
Trap combo.
When you are trapping out of Intimidation into a Holy Paladin, make sure you throw the Trap immediately, as otherwise, they can escape the Trap by removing the stun with Blessing of Protection.
Like with Priests and Psychic Scream, you need to be careful when standing next to a Holy Paladin to avoid Blinding Light.
As Survival, as long as the Paladin when Blessing of Sacrifice is on cooldown, you should be able to be able to reliably trap them with just Grapple into Trap, but if Blessing of Sacrifice is ready, you should either Intimidation into Trap or Chimearal Sting into Trap when they get silenced.
Mistweaver Monk
When trapping Mistweaver Monks you must be aware of:
Eminence
Revival with
Peaceweaver
Paralysis
Leg Sweep
Ring of Peace
Roll/
Chi Torpedo
Tips when facing Mistweaver Monks
Mistweaver Monks are difficult to trap when they know it is coming because of their high mobility. As another complication, they are able to teleport away when stunned using Eminence.
Fortunately, to be able to do high-output healing, Mistweaver Monks need to stand still. Either throw the Trap when you see them casting and do not think they will move, or follow them until they have no movement abilities left, and then throw your Trap.
Avoid trapping out of stuns and roots into Mistweaver Monks unless you know
they are out of range of their Transcendence: Transfer (40 yards) and
have already used Revival (which can be used while stunned to immune your Trap).
A good strategy into Mistweaver Monks as Survival is to Harpoon to them, which will make them instantly use their teleport, and then 10 seconds later, when it is on cooldown, either Intimidation into Trap or just throw it at their feet.
If you are facing a "Fistweaver" (melee) Mistweaver Monk, it is easy to trap them when they chase you using the @player Freezing Trap macro and between your traps, it is a good idea to swap onto the Fistweaver, as they are likely the easiest kill target on their team.
Preservation Evoker
When trapping Preservation Evokers you must be aware of:
Nullifying Shroud
Hover
Deep Breath
Dream Flight
Stasis to dispel themself
Dream Projection by hitting themself with it as trap lands
Tips when facing Preservation Evokers
Nullifying Shroud is a big counter to Hunters. Unless somebody on your team is able to remove the Shroud, a lot of the time, it is easier to do your opener without using crowd control on the Healer just to build momentum. Remember, you can still kick the Evoker during Nullifying Shroud.
A way to counter Nullifying Shroud is to take Tranquilizing Darts,
and then, each time you interrupt or cast Tranquilizing Shot on the Evoker
you will remove four seconds of the duration of Nullfying Shroud.
Avoid using Intimidation on an Evoker the moment that Nullifying Shroud ends because they will see the buff wearing off and use either Deep Breath or Dream Flight at that moment to immune your stun.
If an Evoker is casting Dream Projection, use Muzzle before
throwing your Freezing Trap if available, as they can otherwise use the
Projection to dispel themself.
As Survival, you should usually be able to trap Evokers with Harpoon or Intimidation without issues.
Restoration Druid
When trapping Restoration Druid you must be aware of:
Wild Charge
Dash
Mighty Bash/
Rake/
Maim into
Cyclone
Tranquility with
Keeper of the Grove
Grove Guardians (spawning tree NPCs that may "eat" your traps)
Growl on your pet
Shadowmeld
Tips when facing Restoration Druids
Restoration Druids are one of the hardest targets to trap. They do not cast as much as other healers and, therefore, have no reason to stand still when you chase them.
With practice, you get used to their movement, and it gets easier to trap them, but do not allow the Druid to bait you into bad positions when chasing them.
Be careful of Grove Guardians. Restoration Druids will deliberately spawn these non player characters when you push for a trap to make it more difficult for you to aim. Take your time and be precise when you can see the trees spawn next to the Druid.
When facing Druids, remember to take Tranquilizing Darts. This will
greatly reduce the Druid's healing efficiency, and you can then win by
maintaining pressure and surviving rather than relying on big crowd control
setups.
If you are fast, you should be able to reliably Harpoon into Trap Restoration Druids as long as they do not use Shadowmeld. If there are treants nearby, it is best to take your time and make sure you aim it correctly at the Druid.
Restoration Shaman
When trapping Restoration Shamans you must be aware of:
Grounding Totem
Thunderstorm
Lightning Lasso
Earthen Wall Totem (does not stop the Trap but will stop you from being able to kill their teammates)
Spirit Link Totem
Tips when facing Restoration Shamans
The main thing to watch for here is Grounding Totem. Good Shamans will be very quick with using it, stand near them, apply slows and roots, and wait it out. When the Shaman uses Grounding Totem, quickly kill it and throw your Trap. Mouseover macros will help with this a lot.
Earthern Wall Totem is mentioned above because even though it does not deny
your Trap, it will stop you from being able to kill somebody with your burst.
Whenever you see a Shaman drop Earthern Wall Totem, you should be looking to
knock their partner out of it using Bursting Shot. If you cannot get
their partner out of the Earthern Wall Totem (or cannot kite them out of the
totem), do not trap them until they are outside of it.
As Survival, you should be careful using a Harpoon into a Trap versus Restoration Shamans because they will use Thunderstorm or Lasso as soon as you get close. Either trap out of Intimidation/Chimearal Sting or be patient until you know that they can't stop you.
Cross Crowd Control
Even if there is a stun on the Healer before you aim your Trap, there are
other complications. For example, you could be facing a shaman who will press
Grounding Totem to deny your Trap, a warrior using
War Banner, or a Retribution Paladin using
Blessing of Sanctuary
to cancel your
Intimidation.
You always want to cross crowd control on the off-target when you are trapping (usually Scatter Shot into Psychic Scream if you are playing with a Priest). Whether you Scatter before or after the Trap depends on the matchup.
Defensives
Survival of the Fittest is an extremely powerful defensive
ability. Use this when you expect to be stunned (for example, instantly use
this if a rogue uses
Blind on your Healer) or when you are taking
heavy damage during your own offensive cooldowns and want to stay aggressive.
Fortitude of the Bear is available to you when you have a tenacity
pet summoned. This not only increases your maximum health, as it says, but it
also heals you for this same amount so that you are left with increased current
HP after using it. Be aware that you can use this whilst you are in crowd
control and stuns, but not when your pet is crowd-controlled. If an area
of effect crowd control is coming (
Ring of Frost,
Leg Sweep,
Blinding Sleet) you will want to move your pet away beforehand so that
you can still use this self-heal.
Feign Death is your main defensive tool due to its short cooldown and
the
Survival Tactics PvP Talent. Use it whenever you are about to take
damage to reduce the burst damage you take and to force the enemy to re-target
you.
Aspect of the Turtle is our immunity cooldown. Use this when the
enemy team is focusing you down, and your Healer can not heal you through the
damage or is stuck in crowd control. Although you can not attack with this
cooldown active, you still have the ability to use Traps, Flare, and other
non-offensive spells. You will usually want to combine Aspect of the Turtle
with your 2-minute cooldown PvP trinket when stunned for maximum value.
It is worth communicating with your Healer and deciding what enemy cooldown you will use your trinket and Aspect of the Turtle to counter.
Exhilaration is a strong instant heal. Try to use this early as the
cooldown resets quickly via
Natural Mending.
Roar of Sacrifice is a vital utility ability for you or your
teammates. This makes the teammate you use this on immune to being Critical
Strikes by spells but causes your pet to take 10% of the damage that your
teammate takes. Use this immediately when the enemy team uses their cooldowns
on a teammate or yourself.
Do not rely on Roar of Sacrifice alone to save you from cooldowns. It will make the damage predictable because there are no critical strikes, but it is not a damage reduction cooldown and most classes will be able to kill you with their cooldowns if you use Roar of Sacrifice and nothing else.
Master's Call is a utility cooldown to help you or your teammate kite
or push for damage. Versus Balance Druids, it becomes an absolutely essential
defensive cooldown. You must cast Master's Call on your Healer immediately
when your Healer is rooted in a
Solar Beam.
Interlope is a defensive cooldown that you may choose to use. It
will allow you to either redirect damage off yourself or teammates or
redirect crowd control off your Healer. An easy way to get value from this
talent is to play it into Hunter teams and Interlope your Healer when they are
stunned to redirect the Freezing Trap.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Removed Fury of the Eagle from rotations.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Reviewed for Dragonflight Season 4.
- 23 Mar. 2024: Guide re-written.
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 06 Nov. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 28 Feb. 2022: Updated the burst and general rotation.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Updated all Damage rotations.
- 03 Jul. 2021: Updated Burst and Sustained damage rotations.
- 30 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 05 Dec. 2020: Updated Rotations to include Covenant Abilities.
- 29 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
- 16 Oct. 2020: Added How to Crowd Control section.
- Updated all Damage Rotation section.
- Updated Defensive section.
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This guide is written and maintained by Slo, a Multi-Gladiator and Multi-Rank 1 Solo Shuffle Hunter. You can find Slo on YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit
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