Survival Hunter PvP Talents and Builds (Shadowlands / Patch 9.0.2)
Choosing the right PvP and PvE talents is a prerequisite to proper performance in PvP. This guide goes through the various talent choices available to you as a Survival Hunter and gives you the best combinations you can take.
This page is part of our Survival Hunter PvP Guide.
Talent Choices for Survival Hunters
Level | Choices | ||
---|---|---|---|
15 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
25 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
30 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
35 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
40 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
45 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
50 |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
While the above table provides a generally accurate overview of the viability of talents, some finer points are discussed in the sections that follow, and we recommend you read those for a deeper understanding.
Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
Alpha Predator is the best choice in this tier. This will simply
increase your overall damage output.
Tier 2 (Level 25) Talents
Guerrilla Tactics is the best choice in this tier. This gives your
Wildfire Bomb 2 charges and increases its initial damage. This talent
increases your already strong sustained and burst damage.
Tier 3 (Level 30) Talents
Natural Mending is the best choice in this tier. Because this talent
helps reduce the cooldown of one of your primary defensives,
Exhilaration,
this is crucial to increase your survivability.
Camouflage is the best choice in this tier if your team wants a
strong opener or if you are playing 2v2 arena. This gives Survival
Hunters and their team more control in the opener and prevents teams from
focusing you at the beginning of the game.
Tier 4 (Level 35) Talents
Bloodseeker is the best choice in this tier. This talent works
well with the
Alpha Predator talent, as you can use
Kill Command much more often when it has 2 charges. The Bloodseeker
talent is an increase to your overall damage output.
Tier 5 (Level 40) Talents
Born To Be Wild is the best choice in this tier. This reduces the
cooldown of
Aspect of the Turtle and
Aspect of the Cheetah and is useful for increasing your survivability. If
you think you will be the primary target for the enemy team and want to kite,
Posthaste is a great talent to help you do this.
Tier 6 (Level 45) Talents
Mongoose Bite is the best choice in this tier. This is a very large
increase to your overall damage output. The buff you get from this spell stacks
up to 5 times. You can also use
Aspect of the Eagle to allow you to use
Mongoose Bite from range.
Note that Mongoose Fury cannot be refreshed. It is crucial
to have as many stacks, 3-5, as you can during your burst rotation.
Tier 7 (Level 50) Talents
Wildfire Infusion is the best choice in this tier. This gives you
a variety of choices, depending on the situation.
Shrapnel Bomb causes
Mongoose Bite and
Carve to apply a bleed that stacks up to
3 times.
Pheromone Bomb makes
Kill Command have a 100% chance to
reset against targets hit by this bomb.
Volatile Bomb deals
damage and refreshes your
Serpent Stings. All of the options
are a significant increase to your overall damage output.
PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has their uses, but some are better for certain strategies than others. The top three choices are the most useful, but can be replaced with other PvP talents, depending on your team's goal.
Mandatory PvP Talents
Roar of Sacrifice instructs your pet to protect a friendly target
from critical strikes, making attacks against that target unable to be critical
strikes, but 20% of all damage taken by that target is also taken by the pet.
It lasts 12 seconds and this is a powerful defensive cooldown that is helpful
for you and your teammates. With a cooldown of only 1 minute, this is an
ability that your healer can call-out to use if they are stuck in crowd
control. This is a mandatory PvP talent.
Tracker's Net allows you to hurl a net at your enemy, rooting them for 6 sec.
While within the net, the targets chance to hit is reduced by 80%. Any damage
will break the net. This is a great defensive talent with a very short cooldown.
You should use this when the enemy team is using their burst cooldowns and you
want to avoid incoming damage. This is a mandatory PvP talent.
Situational PvP Talents
Mending Bandage instantly clears all bleeds, poisons and diseases
from your target, and heals for 30% damage over 6 sec. Being attacked will stop
you from using
Mending Bandage. You should take this PvP talent when
playing against specializations like Feral Druid or Assassination Rogues.
Survival Tactics causes
Feign Death to remove all harmful
magical effects, and reduces damage taken by 99% for 1.5 seconds. This is a
mandatory talent when playing against classes with multiple DoTs (Affliction
Warlock, Shadow Priest, Balance Druid). This reduces the enemies' overall
damage and helps your healer with dispelling harmful effects. You can also use
this to stop incoming spells that are being cast on you. This is a mandatory
talent when playing against a DoT class.
Spider Sting stings the target with potent spider venom for 4
seconds, causing their next offensive spell cast to silence the target for 4
seconds. When playing against classes that cast most of their spells (Mages,
Warlocks, Elemental Shamans), this talent can be helpful. You can use it to
interrupt their burst damage or crowd control.
Pet Talents
Pets do not have talent trees, and instead have their own types of specialization (Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity).
Each specialization gives your pet a few abilities. Cunning
provides the Master's Call ability, by far the best pet ability to have.
To get the
Mortal Wounds debuff from your pets, you will need one of
the following pets:
- Devilsaur
- Ravager
- Scorpid
- Wasp
Changelog
- 16 Oct. 2020: Updated Talent Table.
- Updated Tiers 3 and 4 Regular Talents.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 09 Sep. 2020: Updated Pet Talents.
- 20 Feb. 2020: Updated PvP Talents.
- 28 Jan. 2020: Page added.
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
- Spec Tier List for Mythic+ in Shadowlands
- Fan Concept of Nightborne Customization Options
- Vicarious Visions Studio Being Merged Into Blizzard by Activision
- Patch 9.0.2 Hotfixes: January 22nd
- Upcoming PvP Class Tuning: January 26th
- Official Overview of All Shadowlands Mounts, Pets and Toys Part 1
- Castle Nathria Tank and Healer Log Rankings and Analysis
- 21 Billion Gold Moves Through WoW Each Day