Overview
The rotation is a Steady Shot weave much like MM, but your talents reward crit and group synergy over pet damage.
Strengths
- +Expose Weakness gives the physical group a large AP boost
- +Scales up with gear and group crit — strong late-TBC
- +Provides raid utility (traps, Misdirection) alongside DPS
Weaknesses
- −Weaker in early TBC / low gear than BM
- −Benefits most in a stacked physical-DPS group
Stat priority & caps (raid)
Stat caps (raid)
| Stat | Cap | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hit Rating | 142 rating | 9% special-attack (yellow) cap when striking a boss from behind. Dual-wield white swings need ~24% and are not worth chasing. |
| Expertise | 26 expertise | 26 expertise (≈102 rating) removes a boss's 6.5% dodge — each point of expertise cuts dodge/parry by 0.25%. Parry only happens from the front, so staying behind means you only need to beat dodge. |
- Hit Rating: 9% special-attack (yellow) cap when striking a boss from behind. Dual-wield white swings need ~24% and are not worth chasing.
- Expertise: 26 expertise (≈102 rating) removes a boss's 6.5% dodge — each point of expertise cuts dodge/parry by 0.25%. Parry only happens from the front, so staying behind means you only need to beat dodge.
Full gear with usage %, gems and enchants is on the Survival Hunter PvE BiS list.
Recommended talent build
7/20/34 · RaidThe Expose Weakness build: deep Survival converts your agility into attack power for every physical DPS in the raid, with Marksmanship support talents filled for personal damage. The more melee your raid runs, the better this build gets.
Beast Mastery
7While Aspect of the Hawk is active, all normal ranged attacks have a 10% chance of increasing ranged attack speed by 3% for 12 sec.
Increases the Health of your pet by 2% and your total health by 1%.
All damage caused by you is increased by 1% while your pet is active and the critical strike chance of your Kill Command ability is increased by 10%.
Increases the Dodge bonus of your Aspect of the Monkey by 2%.
Increases the armor rating of your pets by 7% and your armor contribution from items by 4%.
Revive Pet's casting time is reduced by 3 sec, mana cost is reduced by 20%, and increases the health your pet returns with by an additional 15%.
Increases the speed bonus of your Aspect of the Cheetah and Aspect of the Pack by 4%.
Increases the outdoor movement speed of your pets by 30%.
Increases the damage done by your pets by 4%.
Reduces the mana cost of your Mend Pet spell by 10% and gives the Mend Pet spell a 25% chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from the pet each tick.
Increases the critical strike chance of your pet by 2%.
While your pet is active, you and your pet will regenerate 1% of total health every 10 sec.
Command your pet to intimidate the target on the next successful melee attack, causing a high amount of threat and stunning the target for 3 sec.
Increases the Focus regeneration of your pets by 50%.
Increases your speed while mounted by 4% and your pet's chance to hit by 2%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.
Gives your pet a 20% chance to gain a 30% attack speed increase for 8 sec after dealing a critical strike.
When your pet scores a critical hit, all party members have all damage increased by 1% for 10 sec.
Send your pet into a rage causing 50% additional damage for 18 sec. While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.
Increases your chance to dodge by 1% and your pet's chance to dodge by an additional 3%.
Increases ranged combat attack speed by 4% and your pet's melee attack speed by 4%.
When your pet is under the effects of Bestial Wrath, you also go into a rage causing 10% additional damage and reducing mana costs of all spells by 20% for 18 sec. While enraged, you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and you cannot be stopped unless killed.
Marksmanship
20Gives your Concussive Shot a 4% chance to stun the target for 3 sec. (Proc chance: 4%)
Increases your critical strike chance with ranged weapons by 1%.
Causes 20% of your Hunter's Mark ability's base attack power to apply to melee attack power as well.
Reduces the Mana cost of your Shots and Stings by 2%.
Your ranged critical hits cause your pet to generate 25 Focus.
Reduces the cooldown of your Arcane Shot by 0.2 sec.
An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 70 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Lasts 10 sec.
Reduces the cooldown of your Rapid Fire ability by 1 min. In addition, after killing an opponent that yields experience or honor, your next Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot or Auto Shot causes 10% additional damage. Lasts 20 sec.
Increases the damage done by your Serpent Sting and Wyvern Sting by 6% and the mana drained by your Viper Sting by 6%. In addition, reduces the chance your Stings will be dispelled by 6%.
Increases your ranged weapon critical strike damage bonus by 6%.
Your successful Auto Shot attacks have a 2% chance to Daze the target for 4 sec. (Proc chance: 2%)
A short-range shot that deals 50% weapon damage and disorients the target for 4 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. Turns off your attack when used.
Increases the damage done by your Multi-Shot and Volley spells by 4%.
Increases your total Agility by 1% and your total Intellect by 3%.
Increases the damage you deal with ranged weapons by 1%.
Increases your ranged attack power by an amount equal to 15% of your total Intellect.
Increases the attack power of party members within 45 yards by 50. Lasts until cancelled.
Increases the critical strike chance of your Multi-Shot ability by 4% and gives you a 33% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while channeling Volley.
Increases your ranged attack power by 2%.
A shot that deals 50% weapon damage and Silences the target for 3 sec.
Survival
34Increases all damage caused against Beasts, Giants and Dragonkin targets by 1% and increases critical damage caused against Beasts, Giants and Dragonkin targets by an additional 1%.
Increases all damage caused against Humanoid targets by 1% and increases critical damage caused against Humanoid targets by an additional 1%.
Increases the range of your ranged weapons by 2 yards.
Increases the critical strike chance of Raptor Strike and Mongoose Bite by 10%.
Gives your Immolation Trap, Frost Trap, Explosive Trap, and Snake Trap a 8% chance to entrap the target, preventing them from moving for 4 sec. (Proc chance: 8%)
Increases your Parry chance by 1%.
Gives your Wing Clip ability a 7% chance to immobilize the target for 5 sec. (Proc chance: 7%)
Increases the duration of Freezing and Frost Trap effects by 15%, the damage of Immolation and Explosive Trap effects by 15%, and the number of snakes summoned from Snake Traps by 15%.
Increases total health by 2%.
When activated, increases your Dodge and Parry chance by 25% for 10 sec.
Decreases the chance enemies will resist trap effects by 5%.
Increases hit chance by 1% and increases the chance movement impairing effects will be resisted by an additional 5%.
Reduces the chance your Feign Death ability will be resisted by 2%.
Reduces all damage taken by 2% and increases attack power by 2%.
Increases your critical strike chance with all attacks by 1%.
A strike that becomes active after parrying an opponent's attack. This attack deals 40 damage and immobilizes the target for 5 sec. Counterattack cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried.
Reduces the mana cost of all traps and melee abilities by 20% and reduces the cooldown of all traps by 2 sec.
Increases your Agility by 3%.
Gives you a 33% chance to regain 40% of the mana cost of any shot when it critically hits. (Proc chance: 33%)
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.
Your ranged criticals have a 33% 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. (Proc chance: 33%)
Your successful ranged attacks have a 6% chance to increase your critical strike chance with all attacks by 2% for 8 sec. (Proc chance: 6%)
When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities.
Points are filled on each tree above — hover a talent for its tooltip; highlighted talents are the build's key picks.
Shot priority
- 1Hunter's Mark + Serpent Sting up; keep the pet on the boss.
- 2Steady Shot weaved between auto-shots without clipping; Arcane Shot as filler.
- 3Maintain uptime so Expose Weakness stays procced for the group.
- 4Cap ranged hit (9%, less with talents/Draenei), then stack Agility for Expose Weakness.
- 5Misdirection on pull; align Rapid Fire + trinkets with Bloodlust.
Survival rewards consistency and Agility: keep your shot weave clean so Expose Weakness stays up for the melee group, and stack Agility hard once hit-capped. Place it in a physical-DPS group to maximize the Expose Weakness value. Same no-clip discipline as MM.
Hunter macros
Focus macros
Focus Scatter Shot
Scatter a focus target to set up a Freezing Trap or peel without swapping.
#showtooltip Scatter Shot /cast [target=focus] Scatter Shot
Focus Silencing Shot
Silence a focus caster mid-cast while keeping your damage on your target.
#showtooltip Silencing Shot /cast [target=focus] Silencing Shot
Arena target macros
Pet on arena1
Send your pet at the first arena enemy — quick-swap your pet's target in 2s/3s.
/petattack [target=arena1]
PvE addons
Full list on the Hunter addons page.
Best race (PvE)
Berserking is the best DPS racial for a hunter and Bow specialization adds crit — top Horde PvE.
Heroic Presence's +1% party hit and your own hit make Draenei the best raid-utility Alliance hunter.
More on the best race for Hunter page.
Best professions (PvE)
Common mistakes
- ✕Playing Survival at low gear where BM would out-parse it.
- ✕Clipping auto-shots and dropping Expose Weakness uptime.
- ✕Stacking the wrong stats — Agility is king for Survival.
FAQ
When should I go Survival over BM?
As your gear improves and in a stacked physical-DPS group — Expose Weakness and Survival's crit scaling overtake BM later in TBC.
What stat matters most for Survival?
Agility, after the hit cap — it drives both your crit and the Expose Weakness AP the whole group gets. See the stat caps below.