Survival Hunter Guide for The War Within

Welcome to our War Within expansion guide for Survival Hunter. Ahead of launch, this page will contain everything you need to know about the Survival Hunter spec in the forthcoming The War Within expansion, including changes, Hero Talent Trees, and some light predictions on the state of the spec going into the expansion.

This page is a constantly evolving work in progress, with regular changes expected as updates hit the War Within beta. This is not meant to be a launch guide for Survival Hunter, but instead serves as a resource for you to keep up to date with how the spec is evolving on Beta, and what you can expect from its playstyle and feel on launch.

The Hunter Class Tree has received a substantial rework, with the entirety of the Class Talent Tree as well as all Spec Trees having been redesigned. Below, I have listed some of the most central changes that will affect your gameplay, decision-making, and power in The War Within, with commentary in italics. I have not included every single change, particularly not if it has no impact beyond mere numbers.

• Survival of the Fittest is now a 30% baseline damage reduction. Through other talents, it can get a 1.5-minute cooldown, 2 charges, and an 8-second duration. This is a huge boost to Hunter survivability!
• Counter Shot can now, via talents, get a 22-second cooldown, down from 24.
• Tranquilizing Shot can now, via Talents, either remove an additional Magic effect on cast, or have a 5s shorter cooldown if it only removes one Enrage effect.
• Intimidation can now, via Talents, be cast without a pet.
• Explosive Shot is now placed in the Class Tree in such a way that all Hunter specs will be using it, all the time.
• Feign Death and Aspect of the Turtle can now, via a Talent, remove all Poison and Disease effects from you. This is extremely powerful in some niche scenarios.
• Bursting Shot is now available in the Class Tree.
• Intimidation and Binding Shot can now, via Talents, have their cooldowns reduced significantly via Scrappy.
• Steel Trap and Death Chakram have been removed.
• The new talent, Implosive Trap (choice node with High Explosive Trap) is an AoE knock-up trap that can be used as an AoE stop.
• In additional, several Talents that used to be 2-pointers are now 1-pointers. This means that we can have all of the DPS-related Talents in the Class Tree, and most of the utility without having to choose. There are other changes too, but these are the most important ones.

The Survival Hunter Spec Tree has also been reworked from the ground up. Below, I will list all of the new talents and some interesting interactions and outcomes from the redesigned layout of the Tree.

• Redesigned Talent: Tip of the Spear — Kill Command increases the damage of your next non-pet spell by 15%, stacking up to 3 times. You now consume one stack of Tip of the Spear at a time and multiple stacks of Tip of the Spear no longer increase its damage bonus. This is basically a new core mechanic of Survival. The goal is to have every non-Kill Command ability be affected by Tip of the Spear.
• Redesigned Talent: Flanking Strike — Now costs 15 Focus, generates 2 stacks of Tip of the Spear, and gets a 15% additional damage bonus from Tip of the Spear.
• Redesigned Talent: Coordinated Assault — It now deals heavy damage on cast, and then increases all the damage of you and your pet by 20% for 20 seconds. Kill Command's reset chance is also increased by 15%. the choice nodes below it can also cause it to either reduce its cooldown to 1 minute and grant 3 stacks of Tip of the Spear instantly on cast, or increase your Haste, Tip of the Spear generation rate,, and improve Tip's damage bonus during it. This means no more pesky Kill Shot and Pet Basic Attack Macros.
• New Talent: Grenade Juggler — Wildfire Bomb deals 5% increased damage and has a 25% chance to fire an Explosive Shot, and Explosive Shot reduces the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 2 seconds.
• New Talent: Exposed Flank — Your Flanking Strike now strikes 2 additional nearby targets at 100% effectiveness, and causes your Kill Command to hit 2 additional nearby enemies for 10 sec.
• New Talent: Merciless Blows — Casting Butchery makes your next Raptor Strike or Mongoose Bite hit up to three nearby targets.
• New Talent: Sic 'Em — Kill Command has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown of Kill Shot and make it usable on any target, and strike up to 2 additional targets. This chance is doubled during Coordinated Assault.
• New Choice Node Talent: Relentless Primal Ferocity — While Coordinated Assault is active, Kill Command generates 2 stacks of Tip of the Spear, you gain 10% Haste, and Tip of the Spear's damage bonus is increased by 50%.
• New Talent: Flanker's Advantage — Kill Command has a 10% increased chance to immediately reset its cooldown, increased by 100% when Kill Command critically strikes a target.
• Wildfire Infusion has been redesigned — Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike have a 15% chance to reset Kill Command's cooldown. Kill Command reduces the cooldown of Wildfire Bomb by 2 seconds. This means no more multi-colored Bombs.
• Redesigned Talent: Spearhead — You and your pet charge your enemy target, applying a heavy bleed that increases your chance to critically strike them by 30% for 10 seconds.
• Redesigned Talent: Deadly Duo — The cooldown of Spearhead is reduced by 30 seconds and increases your critical strike damage against the target by 30% for 10 seconds.
• Mastery: Spirit Bond has been redesigned — You and your pet deal increased damage and take reduced damage, increased by 100% when within 25 yards of each other. There is a 10-second grace period on this effect, which lets it persist even if you leave the range of your pet for a few seconds.
• Mongoose Fury now stacks 3 times, and lasts 10 seconds. It also refreshes its duration when it is reapplied. This turns Mongoose Fury into more of a maintenance buff, and shifts Survival more towards the playstyle of using Kill Command empowers for other abilities as the primary gameplay loop.
• Wildfire Bomb's damage over time effect is now a rolling periodic. Essentially, this means that back-to-back Wildfire Bombs will not cost you any ticks, as existing DoT ticks get rolled into the next debuff. This is crucial now that we no longer have multi-colored Bombs.
• Kill Command and Alpha Predator are now Survival talents (were Class).
• Bombardier has been redesigned — Casting Coordinated Assault grants 2 charges of Wildfire Bomb. When Coordinated Assault ends, you gain 2 free charges of Explosive Shot.
• Ruthless Marauder has been redesigned — Wildfire Bomb cooldown reduction effect is now 1 second by default and no longer is increased by the second talent point.
• Many 2-point talents are now 1 pointers.

Aside from the changes to Survival Hunter's core features, The War Within also has major implications for all specs thanks to the Hero Talent Tree system, new tier sets, and the natural reduction in secondary stats when entering a new expansion.

Survival Hunter gets to choose between the Sentinel and Dark Ranger Hero Talent Trees. In sections below, we will talk more deeply about the implications of these Hero Talent Trees for the spec, and some thoughts on what looks strong and weak ahead of launch.

Below are the Tier Set Bonuses for Survival Hunter in The War Within. After the wording of the bonus, you will find a brief note/commentary that is italicized.

• Hunter Survival Season 1 2pc — Wildfire Bomb damage increased by 5%. It is hard to provide any commentary on this.
• Hunter Survival Season 1 4pc — Mongoose Bite/ Raptor Strike deals 10% increased damage to targets affected by Wildfire Bomb. With Bombs being so plentiful, this will be up for the vast majority of the time.

Both set bonuses are completely passive and are not expected to have any gameplay impact.

How Good is the Survival Hunter Tier Bonus in The War Within?

The 2-piece bonus is numerically very weak. Even in pure, raw AoE scenarios where Wildfire Bomb damage contribution can exceed 40%, we are still only looking at 2%. On single-target, expect half that, or worse.

The 4-piece bonus is similarly very weak, expected to be 2% on single-target at best, and likely worse on AoE.

The total expected value of the Tier Set is around 4%. Overall, this is extremely weak. The damage buffs on offer for some core spells are simply too low.

Strengths

• Significantly more durable thanks to 1-minute, 2-charge Survival of the Fittest.
• Still has excellent single-target in AoE builds and vice versa for flexibility.
• Increased durability from a Mastery granting damage reduction.

Weaknesses

• Poor community perception can make joining groups more difficult than warranted