Survival in WotLK

I thought I'd make a Survival guide for all the new hunters out there.

I have been playing a hunter for over 3 years and I continue to learn information from Elitist Jerks.

Spec

This is my current Survival spec. This is a pretty standard Survival spec... Now if you're a fresh level 80 and you need some hit rating you can always pick up "Focused Aim" instead of "Go for the Throat" and "Careful Aim". Survival is a very good spec to start with if you're new to raiding with a hunter. It's very easy to manage and very easy to put out a decent amount of DPS. Now there is some play in your talents... You can focus more on a replenishment spec or a non-replenishment spec. Here's a quote from Elitist Jerks that is a list of MUST HAVE talents:

Every viable survival spec should have the following talents:

MM Tree:
- 5/5 Lethal Shots
- 5/5 Mortal Shots
- 3/3 Careful Aim (Only if you need hit rating)
- 1/2 Go for the Throat (1 pt is worth considerable dps, a 2nd point is only really useful if you have low crit)

SV Tree:
- 5/5 Improved Tracking (it is not required that your tracking type match the mob anymore, just that it be one of the supported mob types)
- 3/3 Trap Mastery (note this is a fairly low dps talent, so if you have a need for extra range you can choose to move these 3 points to Hawk Eye)
- 2/2 Survival Instincts
- 5/5 Survivalist
- 3/3 T.N.T.
- 3/3 Lock and Load
- 3/3 Hunter vs. Wild
- 3/3 Killer Instinct
- 5/5 Lightning Reflexes
- 1-3/3 Resourcefulness (the 2nd and 3rd points of this talent contribute extra dps, but at a lower rate than the first point, so it's a suitable scavenge point for other talents)
- 1-2/3 Expose Weakness (the 2nd point is recommended unless you have high crit and the 2pc T9 bonus, the 3rd point isn't useful unless your crit is very low)
- 1/1 Wyvern Sting (this contributes no dps but is required to pick up Noxious Stings)
- 1-3/3 Thrill of the Hunt (more points in this talent can be valuable for mana regen, but higher dps builds that don't require replenishment often drop them to free up points for other talents, be sure your raid has good mana regen options if you drop any points in this talent)
- 5/5 Master Tactician
- 3/3 Noxious Stings (this talent is often misread, it provides a damage bonus to all attacks when serpent sting is on your target so it's a high damage talent)
- 1/1 Black Arrow
- 3/3 Sniper Training (if you stand still for 6 seconds it will refresh the benefit from this talent for a full 15 seconds so proper management can keep high uptime even through many movement fights)
- 1/1 Explosive Shot

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Glyphs

Major Glyphs
Glyph of Explosive Shot - This is a MUST!
Glyph of Aimed Shot - Also a MUST have.
Glyph of Steady Shot - Eh you don't really need this but if you can keep an eye on your sting you can crank out some extra damage. If you don't want this glyph, you can use Glyph of Serpent Sting which extends the duration of Serpent Sting.

Minor Glyphs
Minor glyphs are pretty much what you want them to be... I'm currently using these:
Glyph of Scare Beast
Glyph of Mend Pet
Glyph of Feign Death

Rotation

Since all of our cool downs have different timers there is no real "rotation". It's a shot priority. Basically you're going to ALWAYS use your most damaging shot first.

This is the shot priority I use:

1. Kill Shot
2. Explosive Shot
3. Black Arrow
4. Serpent Sting
5. Aimed/Multi-Shot (I only use Multi-Shot if there's multiple targets)
6. Steady Shot

Normally when I enter a boss fight I begin by marking the boss with my Hunter's Mark, then use Misdirection on the tank, Rapid Fire, Call of the Wild (Buff from having a wolf pet) and then open with Explosive Shot, Black Arrow and so on...

Pets

Currently the Wolf is said to be the best pet for Survival hunters. They have solid DPS as well have a buff called Furious Howl that increases you and your pets attack power by 320 for 20 seconds. It is only a 40 second cool down so it's a very useful buff.

Macros

Since you should have the "Improved Tracking" talent, which increases your damage by 5% if you're tracking your target, I use a macro that changes my tracking for me.

/stopmacro [noexists]
/run for i=1,GetNumTrackingTypes() do local n, t, a, c = GetTrackingInfo(i); if string.find(n, UnitCreatureType("target")) then if t~=GetTrackingTexture(i) then SetTracking(i); end end end
/cast Hunter's Mark

While my most damaging attacks are on cool down and I'm using steady shot I use this macro that will use your pets Kill Command.

#showtooltip Steady Shot
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot
/cast Kill Command
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

Add Ons

Well I use a lot of add ons. If you've ever seen my UI you'll know that it's very custom and meant to keep things clean. But here's some useful add ons that can help you manage your cool downs and so on...

Omen - A threat meter to make sure you don't pull a mob off the tank
OmniCC - A cool down add on that will display large numbers over your buttons
Satrina Buff Frame - A fully customizable buff frame
Skada Damage Meter - A damage meter, very much like Recount.
Deadly Boss Mods - A must for raiding! It will let you know whats happening and what's going to happen in a boss fight.

Uhh I can't think of any other add ons that are useful. Most of the add ons I'm using are for looks.

Instead of using the macro you can try using ZUG ZUG Huntar. This addon is lite and will change tracking types automatically. The benefit to the macro though would be hunters mark.

I actually use an addon called Autotrack, it does the same thing

Only reason I use the macro and not an add on is because it also uses my mark. And I only really care to mark bosses lol.

When Lock and Load procs do you just do 2 explosive shots in quick succession or do you use something in between?

Azami said:

When Lock and Load procs do you just do 2 explosive shots in quick succession or do you use something in between?

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I usually just spam Explosive Shot as many times as I can before it goes on cool down again. There is a techinical way to handle it but it's usually too hard to remember to do this when you're in a boss fight. Here's a direct quote from Elitist Jerks...

When you get a lock and load proc there are two ways to handle it:
1.Don't intersperse other shots between each explosive shot, wait .5 sec after the GCD expires (or just watch till the debuff is close to wearing off), then use the next one until all your bonus explosive shots have been used up.
2.Intersperse an instant shot between each explosive shot (i.e. aimed shot, black arrow or serpent sting if it's close to expiring). If an instant is not up then wait appropriately for the next explosive shot as described above.

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I would edit my above posting and add this to it but for some reason I can't. So I just wanted to post this... It's something to keep in mind.

4.9 Ranged Weapon DPS

Explosive shot does not scale with weapon dps, which means that although SV does value the dps on a weapon, it doesn't play as large a factor in your damage as it will with an MM spec. When comparing ranged weapons with different damage be sure to consult a spreadsheet as the stats on the item may sometimes outweigh the damage gap. Weapon speed is generally not significant.

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Since Explosive Shot is your most damaging shot for SV you'll eventually get to a point where your gear is being limited by your spec. In which case you'll need to switch to MM to reach your full potential.

From what is quoted, do you need to be currently trackng ur current target type to gain the bonus? The quote makes it sound like if you CAN track it, you get the bonus even if you're not currently tracking that type

Yeah you have to be tracking your target. But if you use the Hunter's Mark macro it will just change it for you. Are you leveling a hunter?

leveled* just hit 80 like 2 days ago. waiting on money to faction change him :\

I use autotrack2 right now and have already made some of my own macros. He's MM for both pvp/pve. Name is Beastmockery.

Again, the only reason I asked is because the quote from EJ states, "it is not required that your tracking type match the mob anymore, just that it be one of the supported mob types"

Hmm... My understanding has always been that it's tracking your current target. But I guess it isn't... I just reread the tooltip.

While tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids and Undead, all damage done to those types by the Hunter is increased by 1%.

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So as long as you're tracking Beasts, Demons, Dragonkin, Elementals, Giants, Humanoids, or Undead you're good. I have to change mine anyway since I'm usually tracking minerals or fish.

They changed it recently so you didnt have to have an addon to auto swap for it...Rather nice of them
Also a great addon is power auras i had it as surv (and use it for pvp mostly now) and you could make it show up with something on your screen when LnL was up. Now as MM i use it to show when i am in viper so i won't forget.