In this section of the guide, we will go over each stat that a Survival Hunter requires and explain how they function along with any possible stat caps that you will have to consider. Survival Hunters have a similar stat priority to other Agility-based DPS specs.
Stat Priority
- Agility
- Hit Rating
- Haste (Until Soft Cap)
- Critical Strike Chance
- Mastery
- Haste Rating
Agility is a primary stat, acting as the most important stat for Survival Hunters! It increases your Attack Power while also increasing your Critical Strike Chance. Survival Hunters benefit from a special passive that further increases their Agility by a considerable amount, namely Into the Wilderness.
Hit Rating is the most important secondary stat after your primary stat, Agility, as you will require it to land hits on your target. You will need an 8% Hit Chance to ensure that your shots never miss as a Survival Hunter!
Haste Rating is a secondary stat that plays a vital role in all Survival Hunter’s gameplay! This stat is a bit weird, occupying two spots in the Stat Priority list. Firstly, you will want to prioritize it as much as possible to reduce the cast time of your Cobra Shot and Steady Shot. In the current Beta version of Cataclysm Classic, you may only reduce your Cobra Shot and Steady Shot to a 1.8-second cast time as opposed to the far faster cast time in the original version of Cataclysm. Whether this is intended or simply a bug, we will merely discover upon the release of Cataclysm Classic, however until then, you will need a 20.14% Haste to achieve the 1.8-second cast, which translates to a 773 Haste Rating.
Critical Strike Chance is the most valuable stat after you reach the Haste Rating Soft Cap! It increases the chance to deal critical strikes with your Normal Attacks and Abilities. Critical Strike Chance is more valuable than Mastery for Survival Hunters since it synergizes perfectly with multiple effects from their kits such as Toxicology, Go for the Throat, and Sic ‘Em!.
Mastery is a new stat introduced in Cataclysm that enhances a specific effect for each different Specialization/Class in the game. In the case of Survival Hunter, Mastery enhances the Essence of the Viper effect, increasing all Magical Damage dealt by the Survival Hunter by a considerable amount. Each point of Mastery increases all Magical Damage dealt by 1%.
Lastly, Haste Rating is important for Survival Hunters besides the Cobra Shot/Steady Shot cast-time reduction as it increases the speed of attacks and your Focus regeneration. This stat will be prioritized last after reaching the 773 Haste Rating Soft Cap, with both Critical Strike Chance and Mastery offering a better performance if stacked over Haste Rating.
Reforging
Reforging is introduced in Cataclysm as an additional way to adjust your equipment’s secondary stats. Through reforging, we can acquire a plethora of different stats in exchange for a portion of our current gear’s secondary stats. However, we may not replace any of the main stats on a piece of equipment such as Agility or Stamina.
The main stats that Survival Hunter will reforge any non-beneficial stats into are Hit Rating until the 8% Soft Cap, followed by Haste Rating until the Soft Cap, and Critical Strike Chance once both the Hit Rating and Haste Rating Soft Caps have been met.
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