Survival Hunter Class Guide - MoP Classic

Welcome to our Mists of Pandaria Classic (MoP Classic) Survival Hunter Class Guide for Phase 1, it focuses on getting you up to speed with the Spec for PvE content, Dungeons and Raiding. The guide includes key information for what has changed going into MoP, the best Talent builds, Major Glyphs, your Rotation, Gearing and Consumables for Survival Hunter (SV Hunter).

Table of Content:

• Changes from Cataclysm to MoP
• Talents
• Rotation & Abilities
• Gearing & Consumables

What’s New for Survival Hunters in Mists of Pandaria Classic

Hunters are receiving a lot of class changes coming into Mists of Pandaria, but for the most part these aren’t game breaking changes. Most of them are buffs or Quality of Life changes, making hunter way smoother to play. Here are the biggest changes:

• No more melee weapons.
• Wing clip, Parry, Raptor Strike and Aspect of the wild are deleted.
• No more range limitation. You can use your ranged attacks even in melee.
• Ranged attacks can be dodged, so you need a bit of Expertise.
• Rapid Fire, Bestial Wrath now have a reduced cooldown.
• Kill command has a 25-yard range.
• Revive pet is way faster.
• Beast cleave is a new passive, allowing your pet auto-attacks to cleave after Multishot.
• Trueshot Aura is now unlocked for every spec.
• Stampede is a new offensive cooldown, calling all your pets to attack your target.
• No more talent trees for pets.

Is Survival Hunter Good?

Yes, Survival Hunter is very good. Hunters have two very good specializations in Beast Mastery and Survival. Survival will have a better DPS early on but gets out scaled by Beast Mastery. Luckily, these two have a pretty similar play style and you can swap from one to the other easily. With good DPS options, a simple play style, and interesting utility in Hunter’s Mark, Survival Hunters are a very safe pick in Mists of Pandaria Classic.

Best Talents & Glyphs for Survival Hunter in MoP Classic

As for a lot of classes with the new revamped talent system, you can pretty easily set up 2 talent builds: one for Single Target, usually more for Raids, and AoE, more for Dungeons and Challenge mode.

Survival Hunter Raiding Talent Build

This is the default SV Hunter talent build for raiding. For Survival hunters, the choices are pretty easy, here is how you should consider each potential change:

• If you need more instant mobility, like a quick burst of speed, replace Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera with Posthaste.
• Binding Shot can be swapped around depending on the kind of crowd control you need.
• Regarding the damage options, Thrill of the Hunt is better in heavy AoE. The same goes for Barrage vs Glaive Toss. The first one is better in AoE and the last one in Single Target.

Best Survival Hunter Raid Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Deterrence, Glyph of Animal Bond and Glyph of Disengage. Other options are Glyph of Ice trap, Glyph of Liberation.

There are very few good Minor Glyphs, the ones worth noting are Glyph of Direction, Glyph of Fetch, Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah, Glyph of Aspect of the Pack.

Survival Hunter Dungeons & Challenge Mode Build

The SV Hunter dungeon talent build is very similar to the raid talent build and follows the same logic, so as expected: Barrage and Thrill of the Hunt for more AoE potential and exploding packs. The utility options follow the same reasoning, change them depending on the dungeon.

Best Survival Hunter Dungeon Glyphs

Regarding Major Glyphs, you will want to obtain Glyph of Deterrence, Glyph of Animal Bond and Glyph of Disengage. Other options are Glyph of Ice trap, Glyph of Liberation.

There are very few good Minor Glyphs, the ones worth noting are Glyph of Direction, Glyph of Fetch, Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah, Glyph of Aspect of the Pack.

Rotation for Survival Hunter in MoP Classic

Single Target Rotation & Priority

1. Maintain Hunter’s Mark.
2. Maintain Serpent Sting.
3. Use Stampede on Cooldown.
4. Use Rapid Fire on Cooldown.
5. Use A Murder of Crows on Cooldown.
6. Use Rabid (Ferocity Pet Spell) on Cooldown.
7. Use Glaive Toss on Cooldown.
8. Use Explosive Shot on Cooldown. Don’t forget Lock and Load procs.
9. Use Black Arrow on Cooldown.
10. Use Kill shot whenever you can.
11. Use Focus Fire with 5 Frenzy stacks.
12. Spend focus on Arcane shot if you have 70+ Focus.
13. Cast Cobra shot.

Survival Hunter Opener

Regarding the opener, it’s pretty easy. Cast Hunter’s Mark, place one Explosive Trap and a Snake Trap, Pre-cast Cobra Shot, then use Glaive Toss, Rabid and Stampede, apply Serpent Sting, use Explosive Shot and Black Arrow on cooldown, use Fervor, Murder of Crows, and continue with the normal rotation.

AoE Rotation & Priority

1. Maintain Serpent Sting.
2. Use Barrage on Cooldown.
3. Use Explosive Trap on Cooldown.
4. If there are more than 4 enemies, spam Multi-shot. If not, just continue with the single target rotation, replacing Arcane Shot with Multi-Shot.

Best Gear & Stats for Survival Hunter in MoP Classic

Best in Slot (BiS Gear) aren’t as big in Mists of Pandaria Classic. Reforging is the new hype, so you can tailor your gear better than before.

The gear you should aim for are: Trinkets, Tier Sets and Weapons.

The best weapons you can find pre-raid in the first phase are:

• Klalith, Fangs of the Swarm, Raigonn, Gate of the Setting Sun.
• Amber Sprayer of Klaxxi’vess, The Klaxxi, Exalted.
• Tempestuous Longbow, Siege of Niuzao Temple, General Pa’valak.

The best pre-raid trinkets are:

• Relic of Xuen if you have Inscription.
• Searing Words, Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance.
• Windswept Pages, from Temple of the Jade Serpent.

MoP Classic Survival Hunter Stat Priority

Reach your Hit and Expertise cap, so around 7.5% for both. Then, Agility is your best stat. As soon as a gear piece gives you more Agility, it’s a good idea to equip it.

After that, it goes: Critical Strike, Mastery and then Haste.

Best Consumables, Enchants & Gems for Survival Hunter in MoP Classic

The following tables outline the recommended Consumables, Enchants and Gems for Survival Hunter in Raiding and Dungeon content.

Consumables

Enchants

Gems

We hope this guide helped you improve your Survival Hunter Gameplay and better understand the spec. To check out all of our MoP Classic content, such as Class Guides, Tier Lists and more, you can browse our full library of MoP Classic Guides.