PvE Survival Hunter Talents & Builds

PvE Survival Hunter

Stat Priority

Talents & Builds

Pre-Raid & Best In Slot

Gems, Enchants, & Consumables

Rotation, Cooldowns, & Abilities

In this section, we will be covering the optimal talent build for Survival Hunters and further explain the talents chosen and what they bring to the table for us.

Marksmanship Talent Tree

Lethal Shots – Increasing our Critical Strike Chance is always the best bet when taking Expose Weakness

Efficiency – This should be prioritized IF you are not the Hunter designated to use Improved Hunter’s Mark. If you ARE designated to use it, swap these 5 points into Improved Hunter’s Mark

Go for the Throat – With the Critical Strike Chance we’ll be focusing on achieving, this will help your pet deal the highest damage they can

Aimed Shot – A high-damage ability, and a prerequisite for Mortal Shots

Rapid Killing – Reducing the cooldown on Rapid Fire will increase your overall damage output

Mortal Shots – Similar to Go for the Throat, with the amount of Critical Strike Chance we’ll be focusing on achieving, Mortal Shots will be a great addition to increase your damage further

Survival Talent Tree

Monster Slaying and Humanoid Slaying – Increasing your overall damage against various kinds of targets you are going to see in World of Warcraft is definitely a great idea

Hawk Eye – Allowing yourself a further distance from bosses is key – it helps you avoid their nasty cleave damage

Entrapment – As a means of additional Crowd Control

Survivalist – Improves your overall survivability by increasing your total health

Surefooted – Reduces the amount of Hit Rating required to reach cap

Survival Instincts – While nice to reduce damage taken, this is mainly sought after for the increased attack power bonus

Killer Instinct – The more Critical Strike Chance you have, the more uptime of Expose Weakness

Lightning Reflexes – Increased Agility means more attack power and, you guessed it, Critical Strike Chance

Thrill of the Hunt – Improves your mana efficiency

Expose Weakness – Allows for an increase of attack power to all attackers against your target – the increase is based on your Agility which is a great reason to be sure to stack it!

Master Tactician – With the exception of dodges, as long as you maintain the hit cap, your attacks should always be successful, allowing for you to see this advantage regularly enough. It allows for more potential uptime on Expose Weakness

Readiness – Being able to immediately finish the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities (Unfortunately, this cooldown still has to countdown) is a great addition for your DPS and overall damage output

Talents Missed or Skipped Over

Wyvern Sting – While this ability may see limited use for additional crowd control, it’s generally not enough of a loss to focus on grabbing it

Deterrence – Beneficial in its own right, but in most PvE content, you won’t see much benefit since it’s assumed your group’s tank will be holding aggro

If you find yourself wanting these two talents, you can switch points from Thrill of the Hunt to reach the goal, but keep in mind, this will lower your mana efficiency.