Survival Hunter Playstyle and Rotation Guide

Patch 11.0.5 Last Updated: 28th Nov, 2024
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Symex

Playstyle & Rotation

Opener

    1. Cast Hunter's Mark before combat
    2. Cast Wildfire Bomb and Harpoon together
    3. Cast Raptor Strike / Mongoose Bite to apply Serpent Sting
    4. Cast Butchery
    5. Cast Wildfire Bomb
    6. Cast Coordinated Assault

    Proceed with the general rotation.

    General Rotation

    1. Cast Wildfire Bomb if you have 2 charges of Wildfire Bomb, regardless of Tip of the Spear
    2. Cast Coordinated Assault
    3. Cast Spearhead
    4. Cast Raptor Strike / Mongoose Bite to apply Serpent String
    5. Cast Butchery
    6. Cast Flanking Strike with 1 or 2 Tip of the Spear stacks
    7. Use Tip of the Spear stacks on abilities based on this priority list:
      1. Flanking Strike if you have 1 or less Tip of the Spear stacks
      2. Wildfire Bomb if you are about to cap 2 charges
      3. Kill Shot
      4. Explosive Shot
    8. Cast Kill Command if you will not cap focus
    9. Cast Wildfire Bomb if you have a Tip of the Spear stack to spend
    10. Cast Fury of the Eagle if you have a Tip of the Spear stack to spend, and you won't need Fury of the Eagle for AoE in the near future
    11. Cast Raptor Strike / Mongoose Bite

    Multi Target

    General Rotation

    1. Cast Wildfire Bomb if you have 2 charges of Wildfire Bomb, or if you are about to use Coordinated Assault, regardless of Tip of the Spear stacks
    2. Cast Coordinated Assault if you have no remaining Wildfire Bomb charges
    3. Cast Butchery
    4. Use Tip of the Spear stacks on abilities based on this priority list:
      1. Flanking Strike if you have 1 or less Tip of the Spear stacks
      2. Wildfire Bomb if you are about to cap 2 charges
      3. Fury of the Eagle
      4. Explosive Shot
    5. Cast Flanking Strike if at 1 or 2 stacks of tip of the spear
    6. Cast Kill Command if you will not cap focus or Tip of the Spear stacks
    7. Cast Wildfire Bomb if you have Tip of the Spear stacks
    8. Cast Raptor Strike / Mongoose Bite to use Merciless Blows if talented
    9. Cast Kill Shot
    10. Cast Raptor Strike / Mongoose Bite

    General Playstyle

    Your Focus management, Tip of the spear usage and cooldowns are the 3 main things to juggle with survival hunters.

    Capping on focus or tip of the spear stacks is a big mistake and will cost you a lot of damage over time. Likewise, using tip of the spear on your highest damage abilities is very important, while also simultaneously juggling your general ability cooldowns to make sure your abilities are not off cooldown for too long.

    Cooldown Usage

    Survival hunter cooldowns got reworked and are now pretty straight forward.

    However, for Coordinated Assault there are some things you want to be aware off:

    • When specced into bombardier you want to make sure to use all your wildfire bomb stacks before casting coordinated assault.
    • While specced into Relentless Primal Ferocity, kill command will also cause kill command to stack an additional stack of tip of the spear, which will let you be more aggressive with your hard hitting abilities.

    Defensives

    Hunter defensives are generally abilities you want to use before you take heavy damage instead of after. Make sure to know which mechanics and fight abilities are dangerous to you and use Aspect of the turtle and survival of the fittest before the damage will come in.