Survival Hunter Guide — Class Guides · WoW Burning Crusade

Agility, traps and survivability, with tools that keep enemies at range and talents that help in melee.

A ranged fighter in leather, and later mail, who fights at a distance with a bow, gun or crossbow, tames beasts as pets and controls enemies with traps and stings. More about the hunter

Class: Hunter
Roles: Damage
Used for: Raids and dungeons, Player versus player
Top talent: Readiness
Popular builds: 2
Version: WoW Burning Crusade

How to play

Survival is the raid support hunter: Expose Weakness gives everyone attack power against the target after your crits, Thrill of the Hunt refunds mana on crits, and Lightning Reflexes and Killer Instinct make Agility and crit count for more.

Stack Agility and crit: each crit refreshes Expose Weakness for the raid. The shots are the same as other hunters': Steady Shot between Auto Shots, with Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot when they fit.

In arenas the deep tree brings Wyvern Sting, Readiness (which resets your cooldowns) and Master Tactician for control-heavy play.

At a glance

Single-target damage
Damage to groups
Survivability
Utility for the group
Solo play and leveling
Ease of play

Rated 1 to 5 against the other specs in WoW Burning Crusade.

Rotation and priorities

1Hunter's Mark; pet attacking.
2Steady Shot between Auto Shots.
3Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot when they fit.
4Rapid Fire with trinkets and Bloodlust; Readiness to use it twice.
5Misdirection on the tank at the pull.
6Aspect of the Viper when mana runs low.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Expose Weakness raises the raid's attack power on the target.
Readiness resets every cooldown.
The best hunter control: Wyvern Sting and traps.

Weaknesses

Less personal damage than Beast Mastery.
Relies on stacking Agility.
A second Survival hunter adds little.

Stats and gear

Stat priority

Most valuable first. Bars compare each stat with the best one; a cap in the note means the stat drops off once you reach it.

1
AgilityExpose Weakness grows with it
2
Hitto 142 rating; Surefooted covers 3%
3
Critical strike
4
Ranged attack power
5
Haste
6
Intellect

What to look for

Agility above everything: it feeds Expose Weakness.
Crit to keep Expose Weakness up.
A ranged weapon with high damage per second.

Items worth chasing

Dragonspine TrophyAttack power and a haste proc in a trinket.
Bloodlust BroochA burst of attack power on use.
Hourglass of the UnravellerHit, and attack power after crits.

Builds

Each bar splits the build's talent points by tree.

Beast Mastery
Marksmanship
Survival

Expose Weakness Tracker
DamagePvE
72034
7/20/34
Raid Survival: Expose Weakness turns your Agility into attack power for the whole raid, Lightning Reflexes and Killer Instinct raise your own damage, and Thrill of the Hunt refunds mana.
- Survival Instincts 2/2
- Killer Instinct 3/3
- Lightning Reflexes 5/5
- Thrill of the Hunt 1/3
- Expose Weakness 3/3
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level
Wyvern Sting Trapper
DamagePvP
2041
0/20/41
Deep Survival for PvP: Wyvern Sting puts a target to sleep, Readiness resets your cooldowns, and Deterrence keeps you alive.
- Thrill of the Hunt 2/3
- Wyvern Sting 1/1
- Expose Weakness 2/3
- Master Tactician 5/5
- Readiness 1/1
Open in the talent calculator Theorycrafting Talent order by level

Key talents

Readiness · top talent, up to 1
When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities.
Trap Mastery · tier 4, up to 2
Decreases the chance enemies will resist trap effects by 10%.
Surefooted · tier 4, up to 3
Increases hit chance by 3% and increases the chance movement impairing effects will be resisted by an additional 15%.
Survival Instincts · tier 5, up to 2
Reduces all damage taken by 4% and increases attack power by 4%.
Killer Instinct · tier 5, up to 3
Increases your critical strike chance with all attacks by 3%.
Lightning Reflexes · tier 6, up to 5
Increases your Agility by 15%.
Thrill of the Hunt · tier 7, up to 3
Gives you a 100% chance to regain 40% of the mana cost of any shot when it critically hits.
Wyvern Sting · tier 7, up to 1
A stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 12 sec. Any damage will cancel the effect. When the target wakes up, the Sting causes 300 Nature damage over 12 sec. Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on the target at a time.
Expose Weakness · tier 7, up to 3
Your ranged criticals have a 100% chance to apply an Expose Weakness effect to the target. Expose Weakness increases the attack power of all attackers against that target by 25% of your Agility for 7 sec.
Master Tactician · tier 8, up to 5
Your successful ranged attacks have a 6% chance to increase your critical strike chance with all attacks by 10% for 8 sec.

Survival abilities by level

When each ability arrives: trained abilities at the level a trainer first teaches them, talent abilities (gold frame) at the first level the talent can be taken.