PvE Survival Hunter Talents & Builds – WoW Classic

Similar to their brethren, Survival Hunters use a few build variations, two of which are prominent and well-known in the community: Survival/Marksmanship and Survival/Beast Mastery. We will showcase both builds and explain them in-depth, along with any possible further changes that may be used.

PvE Survival Hunter

Stat Priority

Best Professions

Talents & Builds

Rotation & Cooldowns

Pre-Raid & Best in Slot (BiS)

Enchants & Consumables

Standard Build (Survival/Marksmanship)

This build is considered the Standard Build and the most-played version of Survival Hunter! It utilizes 30 points in the Survival Tree, grabbing key talents such as Monster Slaying, Humanoid Slaying, Surefooted, Killer Instinct, and Lightning Reflexes. The other talents are considerably weaker and don’t necessarily impact overall Damage Output other than Clever Traps.

Wyvern Sting will always be avoided since it has only a very few situational uses for certain boss encounters which doesn’t make it worth wasting a talent point for! If you plan on using this build for raiding, the same can be said for Detterence as it will have no real use since you won’t ever want to have mobs directly attacking you in melee. For clearing dungeons, Deterrence can be acquired in exchange for 1 point from Survivalist.

Meanwhile, in the Marksmanship Tree, there are a few key talents most Survival Hunters want to acquire, such as Aimed Shot, Improved Hunter’s Mark, Lethal Shots, and Mortal Shots. Here is where the flexibility comes in since at least one point is always going to be saved for the Improved Aspect of the Hawk from the Beast Mastery Tree. Both Critical Strike Chance and increased Attack Speed are important, but since RNG is such a huge factor for Survival Hunters, the choice remains yours whether you will want to keep 4 points in Mortal Shots or spend more in Improved Aspect of the Hawk.

If you reached your BiS and your Critical Strike Chance is very high, more points in Mortal Shots is definitely the better option! In addition, if you choose to incorporate Melee weaving, you should swap 2 points from Entrapment and add them to Savage Strikes.

Standard Build Variation (Survival/Beast Mastery)

The Survival/Beast Mastery variant of the build focuses more on increasing your pet’s damage output while still gaining the important 30 points in Survival to acquire the important Monster Slaying, Humanoid Slaying, Surefooted, Killer Instinct, and Lightning Reflexes talents. The idea for this variation is to forsake some of your own damage in favor of your pet’s damage output, as you won’t have access to Aimed Shot, Improved Hunter’s Mark, or Mortal Shots.

Instead, you will gain 5/5 in Improved Aspect of the Hawk which will make up for the lost Attack Power and increased Critical Strike Damage Bonus and Unleashed Fury and Ferocity, severely enhancing the overall Damage Output of your pet. However, for this build to work, you will require a strong pet, so pick wisely!