- Author: Nevermore
- Date: January 13, 2025
- Updated: January 13, 2025
- Expansion: WoW Classic
In WoW Classic, Survival Hunters have a very similar stat priority to their brethren, Marksmanship and Beast Mastery, yet they differ from all other classes, being best most similar to other Agility users to a certain extent. We will showcase each stat in order of importance and explain every stat in detail, along with any possible stat caps that may be involved.
Stat Priority
- Hit Chance
- Critical Strike Chance
- Agility
- Attack Power
- Intellect
- Haste (Attack Speed)
- Stamina
- Strength
- Spirit
Hit Chance is the most important stat for almost any character in WoW Classic and that includes Survival Hunters! The cap for Hit Chance in WoW Classic is 9% but Hunters can function with 6% Hit Chance. Survival Hunters have even more of an advantage over other Hunter specializations due to the Surefooted talent, granting them a flat 3% Hit Chance. Furthermore, certain races such as Trolls and Dwarves also have innate Hit Chance when using certain weapons through their Gun Specialization and Bow Specialization racials.
Critical Strike Chance is an extremely important stat for Hunters in general, with Survival Hunters making extraordinary use of it! It increases the overall chance of all your Auto-Attacks and Abilities to deal Critical Strikes! Since Hunters have many talents that improve Critical Strike Chance, with Survival being able to benefit from Killer Instinct and Mortal Shots, players should aim to stack as much of this stat as possible. There is a hard cap for Critical Strike Chance, however, in WoW Classic it is so hard to achieve the cap, that players shouldn’t bother worrying about it.
Agility is one of the primary stats for Survival Hunters, increasing their overall Critical Strike Chance, Attack Power with both Melee and Ranged Weapons, Armor, and Dodge Chance. This is the primary stat that you will want to stack as much as possible besides Intellect, to increase your Attack Power and Critical Strike Chance as much as possible! Since every bit of Attack Power increases all of your damage while Critical Strike Chance simply scales amazingly, you will want to grab as much Agility as possible. Furthermore, every bit of Agility you gain is automatically increased by the Lightning Reflexes talent, meaning u want to get as much as possible.
Attack Power, just as mentioned previously, is a stat that increases the entirety of your Damage Output, boosting both your Auto-Shots and your Abilities. You should never aim to get items that directly grant raw Attack Power unless there is no other better option or if the item itself grants a mix of stats among which you can find both Agility and Attack Power. You should ideally get Attack Power and Ranged Attack Power from special items such as your Quiver or from Enchants only. Some Ranged Weapons in the game also provide raw Attack Power being a great pick until you can get something better (Agility/Critical Strike Chance).
Intellect is a primary stat that increases the overall Mana Pool of Survival Hunters along with the chance to score a Critical Strike Chance with spells. You will want to stack a considerable amount of Intellect to acquire a large Mana Pool but also to empower the abilities which are tagged as spells since you also benefit from Spell Critical Strike Chance. Some examples of Hunter abilities that are considered spells are Arcane Shot, Serpent Sting, and Volley. However, Serpent Sting and Volley can’t crit, so only Arcane Shot truly benefits.
Haste (Attack Speed) is a stat that increases the frequency of your attacks! This stat is somewhat rare, being available only from a few sources such as specific enchants or quivers. Hunters can also gain this stat from the Improved Aspect of the Hawk talent, but a considerable amount of RNG is involved. You should get this stat whenever you have the chance!
Stamina is a stat that increases the overall Health Pool of a Survival Hunter! The stat is mainly found on your core items so you shouldn’t go out of your way to acquire it. You will basically want it to avoid becoming a Glass Cannon and dying to a random Raid mechanic. Furthermore, Survival Hunters benefit more from this stat than any other Hunter specialization due to the Survivalist talent.
Strength is a stat that increases Melee Attack Power for Hunters. Unless you’re playing the Melee Variant of Survival Hunters, which is not portrayed in this guide, you should stay far away from any item that grants Strength!
Spirit is a stat that increases Health and Manar regeneration. Sadly, Survival Hunters have no access to in-combat regeneration, meaning that Spirit will only help while out of combat. Some of your BiS items will have Spirit on them but you should not proactively attempt to get any Spirit!
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