Talents.

Over the years, Survival has had a very negative perspective. It has too long been the “Worse” spec, and has too long been treated as such. If you know me, you know I constantly support the survival spec and help anyone who asks about how to play with it.
Back when WoW was new, survival WAS the crappy spec. It was that way for so long, people got used to it being the “crappy” spec. It is no longer, and it is up to us to show fledging survivalists their path.

I will be going over Survival aspects only. If you want a full hunter guide, I’m WAAYY too lazy.

Notice how I refer to Arena PvP and PvP as different things, you will see why later.

1. Talents

Ah yes, what to choose, what to choose? Before deciding what talent spec you want to go with, let us first go over each talent so we can have a better understanding of Survivalism.


Monster/Humanoid slaying
Increases damage and critical strike damage versus said target types.
First off, it is confirmed that humanoid slaying DOES indeed work in PvP.
Monster slaying is obviously purely PvE talent; Humanoid slaying is good for both. I would not recommend humanoid slaying for Arenas. (See arena PvP for explanation)

Hawk Eye
Increases range by 2/4/6 yards.
This obviously has its uses in PvE, however it is not required. It can give you that extra bit of range to avoid crucial AoE effects. PvP it gives you the ability to out range any other class, by a few yards. It is debatable whether it has merit in arenas.

Savage Strikes
Increases Critical strike chance of Mongoose & Raptor strike by 20/40%
It isn’t recommended for PvE, unless you are that “half hand” dwarf hunter.. But you aren’t a melee hunter, are you? This talent received a large indirect buff in 2.3. Due to the removal of the deadzone, other classes would rather take smacks in the face from our overpowered arena axes, rather than our bows. Having this talent can make all the difference versus a mage. I mainly just use it for kicks.

Entrapment
Gives your traps a chance to immobilize the target.
In arena PvP, a lot of MM hunters go into survival for getting this specific talent. This talent is one of the best things we have for arenas, seeing as how useful the frost trap is in an arena setting. This talent, however, is not as useful in world/bg pvp as it is in arena (See world PvP for details)

Deflection
Increases parry chance
Not really worth it for the amount of points required.

Improved wing clip
Gives your wing clip a chance to immobilize the target
This obviously is invaluable in all PvP.

Deterrence
Increases your dodge/parry chance by 25%
This has uses in PvE, but is mostly PvP. In PvE, when your feign inevitabally fails, you pop this and it may save your life. Evasion tank FTW!!!
In PvP, this can be helpful versus melee classes. In arenas it can keep you from getting MS on you, which your healer will love, and it keeps hamstring off of you. It also works quite well versus rogues, but a smart rogue will use a well placed kidney shot to ruin your day.

Clever Traps
Increases duration of your traps/Damage of your traps
Clever traps + Frost trap + pillar = lol
You can also get the longest PvP CC effect in the game with this.

Survivalist
Increases hit points
Obviously very useful in PvP.
In PvE, it isn’t as useful and the talent points can be better spent elsewhere.

Trap Mastery
Decreases chance of trap resist
It is decent for PvE. The one time the raid lead actually wants you to trap something, it would be nice for it to not fail, right? It can also be used in PvP, but trap resists are far less often than in PvE.

Surefooted
Increases hit chance/Increases chance to resist movement impairing effects
If you are going survival, this is a talent you can not pass up. In PvE, it gives you that extra hit %, so you can have more damage gear, and in PvP you can resist the ever hateful Spamstring, Poisons, and frost nova.

Improved feign death
Decreases chance to resist feign death
Lol? No. Points are better spent elsewhere.

Survival Instincts
Increases attack power/reduces damage taken
Very good talent for PvE and PvP, but not as much for arena. (see arena PvP for details)

Killer instinct
Increases critical strike chance
This is another talent you will not pass up.

Counterattack
Can immobilize the target after a successful parry
Pretty much useless in PvE. Can get you out of a sticky situation in PvP. A low % of it happening though, but when you pop deterrence you will get it off.

Resourcefulness
Not very useful for PvE. Decent for PvP if you want that. In arenas it is very useful, having a frost trap on each side of the pillar makes for good dancing.

Lightning reflexes
Increases agility
This is the key talent of survival, and why we need certain gear for it to work. It also was the source of much complaint when they nerfed agility’s AP bonus.
You will get this talent.

Thrill of the Hunt
Gives a % of shot’s mana back on critical
A decent PvE talent, it is debateable whether it is needed, and you may want to put points elsewhere, but it is an open option. You can use it in PvP, but it is not really recommended, nor is it very useful.

Wyvern Sting
Sleeps the target
This is useful in every aspect. It is basically an instant GTFO me button. Has uses for a think fast CC in PvE, and can save a life in PvP

Expose Weakness
Gives a debuff to the target that increases attack power versus it on critical.
This is the main point of PvE viability for a Survival hunter. It gives a raid wide buff, and everyone wants a survival hunter. But they only want ONE, because it doesn’t stack. If you want to be your guilds SV hunter, better stack that agility. In PvP it is debateable whether it is good or not, because most of the time it is just you, and you might want to put those points somewhere else.

Master Tactician and Readiness
Gives a proc to increase critical strike %, and clears all cooldowns
MT is for the most part a useless talent at 5 point requirement. Readiness is good, but no where near the value of Scatter Shot. If you were a PvE only hunter, you MIGHT want it, but I doubt it. Not enough bang for your buck.

Now, where to spend the other points not in survival? MM.
But what about B- no.
Put the points in MM. SV/BM has never been good and probably never will. Plus you get mortal shots, which is a huge boost in damage since survival DPS is based on criticals.
We will go over specific talent specs in later sections.