Survival Hunter

Ranged DPS / utilityRace: Night ElfBuild 1.60.1.70753

Survival is traps, kiting and toughness. Predator's Edge and Lightning Reflexes are the damage talents, Counterattack and Deterrence handle melee, and Lacerating Strikes is the capstone. Marksmanship points add crit, mana and Careful Aim.

Starter build and talent order Talent calculator Leveling route Spellbook Enchants & consumables

Rotation

Opener: Hunter's Mark, Serpent Sting, Wyvern Sting on a second target, then the auto-shot weave.

Priority: Same ranged weave as Marksmanship, plus Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite when the boss closes; Counterattack after a parry. Traps before the pull.

Cooldowns: Deterrence to survive a melee burst; Wyvern Sting as a 12-second crowd control.

Forever notes: Survival is the PvP and utility tree; in a raid you lose Trueshot Aura, so run it for Lightning Reflexes (now 15% Agility) only if you have a Marksmanship hunter already.

Stats

Agility first (Lightning Reflexes makes it 10% better), Hit to 9%, Crit, then Stamina for the melee moments Counterattack creates.

Traps scale with nothing, so the gear plan is the same as Marksmanship minus the Intellect.

Numbers for every spec and a gear comparer: stat weights.

Where it ranks

See the tier lists for PvE and PvP placement, and Classic vs Forever changes for what Blizzard altered in this class.

Wowhead and Icy Veins keep spec guides of their own: Icy Veins Survival Hunter, Wowhead class guides. Our rotation notes are editorial, written for the Nov 2 tuning.

Editorial, 2026-11-04; sources linked in the text. Wowhead and Icy Veins guides are referenced, not copied. Data from talentsforever.com (CC BY 4.0), read from the WoW Forever beta client, build 1.60.1.70753. Updated 2026-11-04. World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment; this is a fan site.