Survival Hunter PvP Talents and Builds (The War Within Pre-Patch)
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.
Best The War Within Talent Builds for Survival Hunters
Note that builds here are generic recommendations for arena. There are tweaks that are effective in certain matchups. A description of suggested alterations or options is included with each build.
The War Within PvP Talent Builds for Survival Hunters in Arena
Best Arena Build for Survival Hunters
Currently, the Survival talent tree does not leave a lot of choice for an arena player. Linked below is the general build that you will start with on Survival.
The most impactful choice you have in the Survival tree is between
Symbiotic Adrenaline and
Relentless Primal Ferocity. Either
of them works, although playing Symbiotic is probably the safer choice
where you get more access to burst damage as well as mobility.
The preferred choice between Sulfur-Lined Pockets,
Bloodseeker and putting a point in
Explosives Expert
will mostly be decided by whichever does the most overall damage.
The actual choices a Survival Hunter makes with talents are in the Hunter tree.
Talents you may want to move around based on matchup are:
Hunter's Avoidance for when the enemy team has heavy aoe
Concussive Shot occasionally, you will have games where you can drop this because whoever you need to slow is always in melee. You will still have
Wing Clip, which is actually a longer duration slow anyway
Kodo Tranquilizer good in almost all 3v3 scenarios but is interchangeable when there are better options
Scout's Instincts if you need mobility, this can help. A target slowed by Concussive Shot cannot catch you with this talent. It can also be combined with
Hunting Pack,
Moment of Opportunity and
Born To Be Wild
Bursting Shot is occasionally good if you really don't need Scatter Shot, but these scenarios are rare
Binding Shackles is an optional "nice to have" talent, which you can replace if there's something better for a situation
Serrated Tips can be good if you have a decent amount of Crit rating on your gear
Emergency Salve is very good (into Assassination Rogues), decent into Shadow Priests to remove Devouring Plague and makes Subtlety and Outlaw Rogues easier to kite.
Be sure to make use of the 'Copy Export String' button to import the best build directly into your game!
PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
You can choose 3 of the following PvP talents. Each of them has its uses, but some are better for certain strategies and matchups than others.
Mandatory PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
Survival Tactics
Survival Tactics is the best overall PvP Talent. It turns
Feign Death into your best defensive ability by negating damage for
three seconds. This talent is very powerful into burst specializations when
timed correctly.
When facing matchups where you are guaranteed to not be attacked, there are occasionally better options, but it is safer to just always play this talent.
Powerful PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
Chimaeral Sting
Chimaeral Sting is a versatile ability that can be used in many ways,
for example:
- To silence an enemy healer while bursting their partner (note that it does damage on application and the silence only applies after 3 seconds, so you cannot chimaeral sting during or immediately after a trap)
- To silence a healer before swapping to them (particularly good against
priests as they cannot use
Pain Suppression when silenced, when they would been able to if you swapped with
Intimidation)
- To peel a DPS on their go (for example, use Chimaeral Sting on a Mage when
they cast
Dragon's Breath; they will still be able to
Polymorph your healer, but will be silenced immediately afterward and not be able to capitalize on the Polymorph, or cancel a Shaman's
Lightning Lasso when you know it is coming)
- To cancel a Restoration Druid's
Tranquility by casting Chimaeral Sting before they use it
- To deny a healer's trinket by casting Chimaeral Sting when they are stunned (when they trinket the stun, they are instantly silenced)
- To apply a powerful slow to a melee DPS when you have no other options
Mending Bandage
Mending Bandage is a powerful talent specifically into Feral Druids
and Assassination Rogues. Use this to dispel bleeds and poisons from your
party when they are stunned, or use it on yourself when you have high bleeds
on yourself and are not stunned. Particular effects you will want to remove
are
Deathmark and
Feral Frenzy.
Tracker's Net
Tracker's Net is a situationally powerful crowd control on melee DPS.
Use this when there is a melee on the other team that you do not intend to kill
(as any damage over time effect will break the root) that doesn't have many
root-breaking abilities available.
Sticky Tar Bomb
Sticky Tar Bomb is another powerful crowd control for melee DPS but
is more versatile than Tracker's Net. Use this into any melee that requires a
weapon (or Marksmanship/Beast Mastery Hunters) to counter their burst abilities.
You can also use this ability to stop an Arms Warrior from being able to parry
attacks during
Die by the Sword or to stop a Windwalker monk from being
able to use
Fists of Fury during
Serenity.
Tranquilizing Darts
Tranquilizing Darts is a very powerful talent into Restoration Druids
specifically (especially if they are playing with caster DPS or Demon Hunters
who you can interrupt
Counter Shot for the maximum benefit) but has
little value in other specializations. You should press
Tranquilizing Shot after Restoration Druids press
Overgrowth
or
Swiftmend when using this talent.
Diamond Ice
Diamond Ice makes your
Freezing Trap undispellable but
reduces the duration and makes the target immune to all spells while active.
This is useful:
- Against Shadow Priests, Demon Hunters, and Affliction/Destruction Warlocks
that are otherwise able to dispel your
Freezing Trap
- To crowd control DPS players without the healer being able to dispel the trap
- To keep a target at low health (you can trap a target at low health and swap to another enemy, and their healer will not be able to recover the target's health during the trap). This is a strategy that is particularly effective in 2v2 arena
Interlope
Interlope is powerful into casters and hunters. You can
Interlope your healer when they are stunned, to eat an enemy Hunter's
Freezing Trap or use it on yourself/your team to absorb spell casts.
The pet positioning requirement of this spell can make it awkward to use, but
when used properly, it is a very powerful defensive talent. (Remember that you
need to talent into
Misdirection to use this!)
Niche or rarely used PvP Talents for Survival Hunters
Hunting Pack
Hunting Pack is a mobility talent that vastly reduces the cooldown of
Aspect of the Cheetah and applies its buff to your teammates but requires
your teammates to be within 15 yards. There are better talents available to
you in most cases, but this is occasionally worth taking.
Wild Kingdom
Wild Kingdom will help you keep your pet alive. With proper
positioning of your pet and using
Mend Pet and
Exhilaration
properly, your pet should not die often. Remember that if your team already
has a
Mortal Strike effect, you can use a Mechanical family pet,
which will be significantly more tanky than a regular pet anyway.
Changelog
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Added Season 4 meta talent builds.
- 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
- 11 Jul. 2023: Updated the Talent Build.
- 09 May 2023: Updated for Dragonflight Patch 10.1.
- 30 Jan. 2023: Updated the recommended talent build.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight Season 1.
- 22 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
- 29 Jul. 2022: Reviewed and updated for Shadowlands Season 4.
- 31 May 2022: Reviewed for Patch 9.2.5.
- 22 Feb. 2022: Updated the recommended talents.
- 10 Nov. 2021: Updated Tier 6 Regular Talent.
- Updated PvP Talents.
- 03 Jul. 2021: Updated PvP Talents.
- 30 Mar. 2021: No updates needed for Patch 9.0.5.
- 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.
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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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