Hunter Talent Builds: The Survival Spec

A Guide on Getting the Most Out of the Misunderstood Survival Hunter

5/11/55 Survival Build

Survival is one of those Hunter builds that seems to have become labelled over time as that build that is just there to help other builds out.

At least, that’s what the label has been, and labels tend to lag even though there have been changes to make the build much better.

Survival Hunters get some really unique and cool abilities, and a lot of players find the build highly entertaining… not to mention effective.

So if you’re into raiding, PvP, or just leveling, you’ll find this a very flexible build, but one that can be tailored by you should you need to.

Read on and find my detailed explanation and comments on this build — and you can find the talent sheet already done for you if you like it by clicking the image to the right.

The Survival Hunter Build:

Row 1 (Improved Tracking, Hawk Eye, Savage Strikes)

We start off with Improved tracking, not a fancy skill but good for general leveling with a 5% damage bonus to the tracked creature. 5 points out of 5 here.

Hawk Eye is also another taker, 3/3 for 6 yards extra shooting range – the further your opponent has to run towards you, the more damage you can deal – simple. Also good for PvP when you want to slightly out range a caster or another hunter.

Savage Strikes makes your hand to hand worthwhile and actually surprising to your opponent in PvP. At 20% crit chance, and using a big slow 2H weapon you’ll find you get off a lot of big hits. While you’re not exactly aiming to be in hand to hand with your Hunter, it’ll happen plenty (again especially in PvP), and SS is great for a big finishing strike.

Row 2 (Surefooted, Entrapment, Trap Mastery, Survival Instincts)

Surefooted, giving off a 30% reduction in movement impairing effects is a nice skill, but I’m on the fence if you never PvP. Take it or leave it, but I wanted this build to cater to a wide audience, so I’ve got 3/3 points in it – feel free to drop this one!

Entrapment is a bread and butter Survival build talent – snare your opponent whenever they run into a trap for 4 seconds. 3/3 points here.

Another sure thing for this build, and on the same line as Entrapment, is Trap Mastery. Increase the effect of your Frost, Freezing, Immo, Explosive, Black Arrow by 30%, or your snake trap by 9 snakes.

Survival instincts is nice too – while not huge, a 4% reduction in damage is useful, and you increase crit strike chance of your Arcane, Steady and Explosive shots by 4%… which is handy no matter where you play this build.

Row 3 (Survivalist, Scatter Shot, Deflection, Survival Tactics)

Survalist – 5/5 here is an easy choice to get a 10% stamina boost.

Scatter Shot is a staple stun shot and is also and easy choice – 1/1 here.

Deflection is another of those “melee maybe’s” a lot of Hunters wonder about. Again, while you don’t generally intend to be in hand to hand, talents like deflection are great as back up especially in PvP. Combine it with row 5’s Counter attack and you’ve got an awesome escape and shoot opportunity.

Leave out Survival tactics — reducing the Disengage cooldown is nice, and maybe a choice to take for PvP, but outside of PvP the normal cooldown should serve you well. The Trap resistance lowering is also “ok”, but not ok enough. Pass here.

Row 4 (T.N.T., Lock and Load)

Pass on this whole row… PvE levelers using this build might consider swapping out a few melee choices though and replacing it with this for the extra trap damage.

Lock and Load also doesn’t pass water with me on this build. Unless you find yourself constantly low on mana for some reason, I’d pass and invest more wisely elsewhere.

Row 5 (Hunter vs. Wild, Killer Instinct, Counter attack)

One of my favorite lines, row 5 has the awesome counter attack immobilize for you PvP nuts out there, as well as Killer Instint which adds 3% crit chance with all attacks. Hunter vs. Wild is also great when its combined with Improved Hunter’s Mark and you’ll get a decent increase in attack power here which will translate well into DPS.

Row 6 (Lightning Reflexes, Resourcefulness)

For Hunters, agility is very important as it increases ranged attack power, increases armor, increases critical chance, and increases chance to dodge attacks. So with that known, an extra (HUGE) bonus of 15% agility is something you can’t miss, 5 points here.

Resourcefulness is quite a good mana conserver for the heavy trap using Hunter, but I just couldn’t find points for it here. If you’re leveling, again you might try and find points for it by dropping hand to hand talents. For this build, 0/3.

Row 7 (Expose Weakness, Wyvern Sting, Thrill of the Hunt)

A sparse row, the only talent we’re taking here is Wyvern Sting. Wyvern Sting is a difficult topic for Hunters – a lot people seem to (rightly so) suggest Scatter shot is all you need, however Wyvern Sting can be really handy in PvP as an annoyance attack on a lone target, or as an escape button in PvP or anywhere else for that matter.

Thrill of the Hunt with its mana savings is a so-so talent, I don’t recommend it unless all you’re doing is leveling fast… and if you are, you should probably be using my Beast Mastery build anyway. But hey, personal prefernce and enjoyment is important – so fill up Thrill if you’re a leveling Survivalist.

Expose weakness is also ok, but again I just couldn’t find the points for it in this build for the pay off it gives (ranged crits have 100% chance when the talent is full to increase attack power by 25% for 7 sec).

Row 8 (Master Tactician, Noxious Stings)

Master Tactician is an easy one – 10% chance to increase your crit chance 10% after successful ranged attacks will come off regularly for you with the volume of fire Hunters put out. 5/5 here.

Noxious Stings is a PvP only talent for me – leave it unless that’s pretty much all you’re doing. 0/3 points here, or 3/3 for PvP.

Row 9 (Point of No Escape, Black Arrow, Sniper Training)

This is a cool row with some unique effects. My fave is Sniper training, and besides having an interesting mechanic of activating after 6 seconds of remaining still, as soon as you do stay still that long, you’ll increase the damage of your Steady, Aimed, black and Explosive shots by 6% for 15 secs. You also get a very hand +15% crit chance on your Kill Shot ability. Nice… 3/3 here.

Black arrow is a great instant cast spell which hammers your target with huge shadow damage over 15 seconds, and increases all damage you do to the target by 6%, 1/1 here.

Since we’re big trap users in the Survival tree, we’ll also be placing 2 points of 2 into Point of No Escape to gain an increased crit strike of 6% after your opponent runs through your traps.

Row 10 (Hunting Party)

Nothing to see here, move along! Seriously, while the skill would be almost ok for the 3% extra agility, unfortunately you’d still have to spend another 3 points on Thrill of the Hunt to get it, and its just not worth it for the other party based effects.

Row 11 (Explosive Shot)

Another great end move for the Hunter is Explosive Shot, an instant cast ranged spell which blasts your opponent, then again twice more for its 2 second duration. Exp shot also benefits from a variety of talents on this tree so you’ll end up doing lots of DPS and crits with this one.

Rounding off the Survival Tree:

Now that we’ve finished up the Survival tree, we’ve got 16 points left to get what I call helper talents from the other trees which back our Survival talents.

While these are presented after the Survival tree, I’d look at getting Improved Aspect of the Hawk early, around level 20 or earlier, and get 5 points.

Lethal shots is another good talent but can wait until the survival tree is maxed – 5/5 here to get 5% extra critical strike chance.

Finish up by ramping your attack power even higher by getting Careful aim and Improved Hunter’s Mark.

Remember, this build is a flexible one for players who enjoy playing the Survival tree. If you’re leveling, raiding or PvP inclined, this build will work great for you if you want to do all three, and can withstand a few minor modifications if you don’t want to raid, or don’t want to do any PvP, etc.

Have fun and let us know how you go!

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Related posts:

1. Hunter Talent Builds: The Marksmanship Spec
2. Hunter Talent Builds: The Beast Master Spec
3. Mage Talent Builds: The Alternate Fire Spec