Survival hunter, how do you survive?

Khromax-argent-dawn · February 3, 2025, 1:00pm

I am a complete noob and play as one, I mostly like leveling and have to say that the survival hunter exceeded any and all expectations in regard to that. It was by far the easiest character for me personally to get to 80, damage wise I was very happy as the survival hunter has quite a few tools with short cooldowns. I didn´t need to stick to any single method, a lot of things work splendidly.

Then came the pain, while I am damage wise doing very well I simply lack the understanding of how to stay alive in f.ex. delves. Anything that is considered “elite” I need to withdraw from and let my pet handling it while keeping my distance and poking when it feels safe to do so. I have 4 self heals of which 3 are small from the talent tree and that just doesn´t keep me alive, abusing feign death and reviving pet when needed while letting Brann take some heat has been my panic mode response.

This is doing lvl 7 delves with Island gear … how do you guys stay alive? I have no problems with the other 8 toons I leveled to 80, they don´t do as much damage but all had better self healing. Or it could be that I just suck and you guys have some advice.

Helved-kazzak · February 12, 2025, 6:48pm

Hunter has some of the best defensives in the game currently, after we got the rework. But it IS something that require a bit of figuring out. So it’s not unusual to see people struggle learning how to survive.

Here are a few tips:

1. SV Hunter is NOT a melee spec!

Yes you have a sword instead of a bow, but 90% of you rotation is ranged. Don’t see SV Hunter as a melee spec. This is the biggest mistake people make, and then they die constantly.

You only have Butchery and Mongoose Bite/Raptor Strike as melee attacks… and even then, you should make sure to use Aspect of the Eagle as much as possible, to use Raptor Strike from a distance.

DON’T fight near the enemy. If you HAVE to move in to use Butchery for AoE, IMMEDIATELY get out again to get distance.

2. Use utility

Hunter is a class that REQUIRE you seeing your traps as part of your “defensive toolkit”. So try to alternate between the traps one by one, and if done so correctly, the first trap should just about be off CD again.

So use freezing trap, tar trap, scattershot, explosive trap, and your 2 stuns in rotation. We have LOT’S of CC.

3. Don’t use SotF too late.

Survival of the Fittest, is an incredible defensive, and you should make sure to use it when you expect damage… and not after you already reached 40% health left… same goes for Aspect of the Turtle, which btw you should also focus on using traps right before it’s effect ends.

4. Use pet ability BEFORE using Exhilaration.

By having a Tenacity pet out, you gain 5% more maximum health. On top of that, your pet ability is Fortitude of the Bear, which not only heal you for 20% health, but also increased your maximum health by that much during its duration.

Why is that important?

Your main healing spell Exhilaration, heals based on “health percentage”, so by increasing your health pool using a Tenacity pet, both 5% passively and 20% using Fortitude of the Bear, you heal for MUCH more if you press Exhilaration after.

Additionally you can use a trinket that increases your maximum health (for example the PvP trinket), before pressing the above mentioned, to heal EVEN MORE with Exhilaration.

You basically have a “mini Paladin Lay On Hands”…

So use pet abilities and trinkets to squeeze out as much healing as possible.

There are more tips, but that’s all I have time for for now hehe. Am on my work break writing this.

Khromax-argent-dawn · February 25, 2025, 12:06am

Thank you for all your tips, being a noob and somewhat restricted on how many buttons I can actually master it´s a bit tricky to get into the trap business, I am a bit ashamed to state that I never used them and according to your post problem number one.

Problem number two lies in my leveling experience where I pretty much got into melee in every fight and hardly ever used the hawk aspect, it is one of the abilities I did learn to use in boss fights but keeping pet healed and spamming dps is the noob´s way.

I did 7th level Delves just fine, not a single problem, moving up to 8 was a brutal wake up call. Those mobs actually hurt … and a lot, my 590 gear wasn´t offering much protection and while never dying I actually kited so much that in two level 8 attempts the boss ended up resetting, I abuse feign death to the maximum.

Judging by your post I have been getting all the wrong habits, sucks, well, I claim to be t he king of noobs … perhaps I am

Helved-kazzak · February 25, 2025, 10:33am

First things first, you are not a noob. It is VERY common for people to struggle with how many spells they can press, unless they spend money on a MMO mouse, or dedicate a stupid amount of time in customizing keybinds AND practicing those keybinds for countless hours.

And second, nearly every player who picks up SV Hunter, play it as a “melee spec” until some random player (like me), tell them it is NOT a melee spec hehe. So you didn’t “miss the obvious”.

And why would you?

SV Hunter uses a melee weapon, and back before the talent system rework in TWW, the spec tooltip even SAID “it is a melee spec”… So the natural thing to do is to play it melee. I did too the first year I played the spec.

Traps are also something you will need to “tell yourself ACTIVELY to use” before they become natural to use, since they take a lot of getting used to. Especially practicing to throw them in the right place.

But once you know how, it is A LOT of fun. Especially since Hunter traps are the only CC in the game, that you can “place” on the ground while you “wait for your prey to spring them” hehe.

A small tip in regards to traps in PvE, is to throw it right below your character, as you kite away from mobs. And not “at your enemy’s feet”.

Because the goal isn’t to CC mobs, it’s to create a barrier between you and the mobs. So as long as you make sure that you, the trap, and the enemies are in a straight line, then they will automatically trigger the trap if they move towards you.

Once you get comfortable throwing traps accurately, then you can start playing around with getting those satisfying throws, that hits right on the enemy.

I used to be a PURELY melee class type person, all the way up until Shadowlands. It wasn’t until then I started experimenting with ranged classes, and OH BOY was it hard to get used to…

And especially because SV Hunter looks like a melee spec, your brain subconsciously makes you go into melee.

But it’s a habit.

I don’t know if you are using the rotation correctly, since it is often also a mistake that makes people “think SV Hunter is a melee spec”, so I’ll just write it below:

What you need to keep in mind while fighting:

Stay ranged as much as possible!!! Use traps, stuns and Aspect of the Eagle to help with this.
DON’T constantly use Raptor Strike! It is actually one of your lowest priority spells. You ONLY use Raptor Strike to apply the Viper’s Venom DoT (a SV Hunter talent).
Use Kill Command to get the Tip of the Spear buff (stacks 3 times), which increases direct damage of your next spell by 15%. HOWEVER!!! A big mistake players make, is to constantly weave back and forth between Kill Command, and (other spell), to get that 15% dmg buff… but because of the global you spend every time pressing Kill Command, you actually loose DPS. So ONLY prioritize Kill Command for the buff IF you are running out of focus or spells to press.

Priority rotation spells are in this order:

Explosive Shot
Kill Shot (if it procs)
Wildfire Bomb
(if talented) use Flanking Strike WITH atleast 1 stack of Tip of the Spear, because it will deal A LOT more damage with the buff.
(if talented) use Butchery together with the Merciless Blow talent, for AoE DoT damage, but make sure you get “in and out” IMMIDEATELY to get back in ranged distance.
Use ONE Raptor Strike (for the DoT). If you are not already in melee range, use Aspect of the Eagle to do this to stay ranged.
Kill Command

You do also have the Coordinated Assault spell, which buffs your attack by 20% (among other things), AND also gives you 3 stacks of Tip of the Spear… So in the above rotation, if you use Coordinated Assault right after the first Explosive Shot, then you will have Tip of the Spear for Flanking Strike.

Hope this helps.

Lorae-tarren-mill · February 25, 2025, 11:02am

Nice tips, I was doubting between Survival and Enhancement. As much as I like enhancement, they need to be in melee range.

I am not the best at melee, but I get lost in nameplates fast. I might go Survival, and it seems more playable. I hope that Packleader is fun now, since it really wasn’t.

I do miss the old 3 range talent sometimes But Eagle is now baseline!

Helved-kazzak · February 25, 2025, 11:54am

Pack Leader is going to be extremely bad for “self-healing” next patch unfortunitaly.

It’s probably more impactful in PvP, but with the rework we are losing a lot of healing when we use defensives, and instead we receive a minor 10% dmg reduction… And we already have plenty of dmg reduction defensives…

But yeah it seems to be more “fun” atleast.

Yeah survival isn’t at all a melee spec, besides the Butchery spell if talented. Everything else is ranged.

Which is also why some people complain about “wanting SV Hunter to use ranged weapons again”, but I think the melee tmog is my favorite part about SV Hunter.