The Survival Hunter in WoW Classic is a trapper, poisoner and explosives expert with a little help from its furry friend.
Survival Hunter is without a doubt one of the most feared specializations in PvP, both by casters and by melee. Its ability to dodge and parry a lot of damage while inflicting very heavy damage will strike fear into even the most seasoned Warrior. They're also an excellent assistant to the healers of your team using many and varied traps and their great ability to control adversaries.
In PvE, it is relatively weak (if not one of the weakest) and generally does not belong, especially in raids. Therefore, this guide is primarily oriented PvP.
Talents
The Hybrid Build is designed for most Survival Hunters because of its great flexibility:It's excellent in melee as well as range and has little or no need for its pet to be effective. What's more, you have access to the Scatter Shot which is an excellent tool for kiting or giving you a chance to make up space to an enemy.
The Melee Build is the choice for the most seasoned Hunters since it leaves out all the abilities of the Hybrid build previously presented in favour of damage inflicted by your pet, dodge (always more dodge, we like that) and potential for your different traps. Although harder to play than the first build, it is also potentially more powerful since no specialization can afford to effectively counter the monumental amount of damage you will inflict while dodging and parrying most of the enemy attacks, apart from stopping you and running away.
Stats to prioritize
Dodge> Parry> Agility> Critical Strike> Attack Power> Hit (9% Cap)> Stamina> Intelligence
Rotation and key abilities
The Survival Hunter does not have a proper rotation, on the one hand, because it's a specialization mainly for PvP, but also because its gameplay is largely based on dodging and parry attacks of your opponent's which will give you access to the spell Mongoose Bite. Your goal is simple: be in melee as much as possible, and reduce your opponent's HP before they escape, the two builds presented are made for that!
Nevertheless, we tried to prioritize:
- Serpent Sting when you engage a target from a distance, then move closer to it
- Concussive Shot before reaching melee,
- Raptor Strike,
- Wing Clip,
- Mongoose Bite if available,
- Riposte if available,
- Counterattack if available,
- Raptor Strike,
- Mongoose Bite if available,
- Riposte if available,
- Counterattack if available.
Feign Death
Feign Death at first glance might seem like a pointless ability. But when you use it in PvP when you get low HP and make your opponent think you're dead, only to strike them with a well time ability, then you'll learn to love Feign Death. It also acts as an aggro reset in PvE
Note: Be careful though, it does not work all the time, do not get carried away pulling everything just relying on it to get you out of it.
Traps and Aspects are among the greatest assets of the Hunter. Although traps cannot be used in combat, placing them at strategic locations gives you a serious advantage over your opponents. Regarding aspects, it is the Aspect of the Monkey that will be most often used by Survival because it allows the use of the Mongoose Bite more regularly.
Diterrence
Deterrence is the "Panic Button" of the Hunter, undoubtedly the most powerful defensive CD. Although mainly overpowered against melee players, it is possible to dodge spells so do not hesitate to use it if you have difficulty against a caster.
Once activated, your opponent usually has little chance of surviving.
Pets
General
The Hunter has the unique ability to tame pets with many different appearances and skills. However, we are only interested in the most powerful of them in PvP: Broken Tooth.
This formidable rare tiger can be found east of the Angor Fortress, in the Badlands, in the Eastern Kingdoms. The power is unparalleled in PvP since it has an attack speed of 1.0 which allows Broken Tooth to push casters spell-cast back, making him an excellent caster killer.
Best Race For Survival Hunter
Horde
The Orc is great in PvE as in PVP thanks to its racial Blood Fury. Finally, Hardness gives them a clear advantage over other races in PvP. You'll also have access to Command, which is crucial to hunters.
The Berserker is rather powerful for Survival, but what sets the Troll apart is BowSpecialization the only race to offer such a stand out racial for the Hybrid Build. Special mention racial Beast Slaying that is useful for leveling or farming.
Alliance
In addition to Quickness giving them a slight gain in survival, Survival benefits from being Night Elf especially thanks to its Shadowmeld allowing them to hide and wait for their pray.
The Dwarf's Stoneform is a serious asset in PvP, especially against Rogues. Frost Resistance is also great against your nemesis: the Frost Mage. Gun Specialization deserves a shout out, whilst not as good as the Troll Bow racial, this is a solid option for Alliance.
World of Warcraft: Classic has a number of races to choose from, and making that choice has long-term consequences. You don't want to regret your choice later, so we've broken down the races in our tier list for WoW: Classic.
Professions
If you follow our advice for the choice of trades, Skinning is an excellent choice because if you choose Leatherworking you can be almost self-sufficient. And, even if you do not choose Leatherworking, it allows you to farm components for high-level craftable armour.
The Engineer is the best choice by default as it's great in both PvE and PvP. From Goblin Sapper Charge to the Arcanite Dragonling to the Dense Dynamite, everything about this role will always be useful!
The real interest of Leatherworking is in the craftingof high-level pre-raid armour, including the Devilsaur Armour set.
Discover our guide to the classes in World of Warcraft: Classic. We take a look at each class, including Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior, and look at what you can expect from each and how they match up.
