Superb video guide from kripparrian
Kripp's Survival Hunter Guide
Now that we have gotten our self to 85 and starting to get decent gear its time to start look at how we can get the most benefit out of it.
Spec:
1/9/31 Is the highest single target spec. the 2 points in Entrapment will help u in slowing adds, but you can also put these 2 points in Point of no Escape for abit more aoe dmg when dpsing slowed adds.
3/7/31 Gives you abit more aoe dmg, so this is the spec most hunters use after the 4.0.6 patch as they use there surv spec in aoe heavy fights and mm in single target friendly fights. With this spec you also want to change your pet spec abit as he will have less focus for Wind hunt
Glyphs:
Prime:
Glyph of Explosive Shot
Glyph of Serpent Sting
Glyph of Kill Shot
Major:
Glyph of Disengage
Glyph of Raptor Strike
Glyph of Trap Launcher
None of the major glyphs increases your dps, but I find these 3 the most beneficial, but again its up to you
Minor:
Glyph of Feign Death
Glyph of Revive Pet
Glyph of Mend Pet
Same as allways
Stats:
Agility is the best stat by far, its even better than hit now. After agi and hit rating, crit is the best stat, but after that it becomes tricky and the spreadsheets cant help you anymore. But the case seems to be that we should stack haste up to a haste plateau (see rotations) and after that stack mastery, so to sum it up from best to worst:
Agility
Hit rating (up to 8%)
Crit
Haste (up to XXX, see rotations)
Mastery
Attack power is up there with crit but we dont see this on lots of gear these days, but its something to keep in mind
Rotation:
The survival rotation is pretty easy; Start the fight by putting up Hunter's Mark and Serpent Sting, your shot priority then becomes:
Explosive Shot
Kill Shot (if rdy)
Black Arrow
Arcane Shot
Cobra Shot
You wont be shooting a lot of arcane shots unless you are under some major haste buffs like heroism, but u will fire some to dump your focus but remember to keep enough for the upcoming explosive shot and back arrow.
For aoe situations (4 or more mobs) u want to use explosive trap instead of black arrow and fire multishot to dump focus and cobra shot to regen focus.
Haste Plateaus:
3 Cobra Shots and 1 Explosive Shot. (1.66 sec cast time on Cobra Shot)
Without T11 4pc: 758 haste (5.914%)
With T11 4pc: Nothing
4 Cobra Shots and 1 Explosive Shot. (1.25 sec cast time on Cobra Shot)
Without T11 4pc: 5279 haste (41.218%)
With T11 4pc: 3470 haste (27.096%)
ofc if you are close to reaching the 2nd haste plateau you want to push back explosive shot abit to fit in a 4th Cobra Shot.
Lock and Load procs:
There is just 1 thing tricky about the survival rotation and that is the lock and load proc. In cataclysm hunters have a 1 sec gcd, so we definitely just dont want to wait for the first explosive shot DoT to fall off before we fire the next, so what we want to do is weave in cobra shots in between of our explosive shots unless you are at 100% focus then you want to use kill command. So to recap:
Explosive Shot
Cobra Shot (or Kill Command if you are full on focus)
Explosive Shot
Cobra Shot (or Arcane Shot if you are nearly full on focus)
Explosive Shot
