Survival Hunter Melee DPS Guide & Best Runes – Phase 4 Season of Discovery (SoD)

Welcome to our Season of Discovery (SoD) Phase 4 Survival Melee Hunter DPS Guide!

This guide focuses exclusively on the Survival specialization, exploring key components such as Runes, Talent Trees, Stat Priorities, Rotations & Abilities, Best Professions, BiS (Best in Slot) items, and Race Choices. The new Rune System introduced in the Season of Discovery has granted the Hunter Class a large variety of tools that allow it to diversify its playstyles. Thanks to all the new abilities new playstyles such as Survival Melee Hunter came to life, having a fresh and outstanding performance.

Talents

Since the Marksmanship Talent Tree proved to be rather useless for any Survival Melee Build, the devs decided to bless us with some changes to the Efficiency, Lethal Shots, and Mortal Shots talents. The talents will now be a vital part of the Survival Melee Hunter Build as they now also empower all “Strike” abilities!

Runes

• Helm: Rapid Killing
• Cloak: Resourcefulness
• Chest: Lone Wolf/Cobra Slayer
• Wrist: T.N.T/Raptor Fury
• Hands: Carve/Beast Mastery
• Waist: Melee Specialist
• Legs: Kill Shot/Flanking Strike
• Feet: Wyvern Strike
• Ring: Nature Specialization
• Ring: Axe Specialization/Sword Specialization

Stat Priority

1. Hit Chance
2. Agility
3. Attack Power
4. Critical Strike Chance
5. Strength
6. Intellect
7. Stamina

Rotations & Abilities

The rotation section is split into two distinct variations of the Survival Build. The first iteration of the build focuses on Lone Wolf and Kill Shot, utilizing no pets. The second iteration of the build utilizes pets, focusing on Flanking Strike and Cobra Slayer. Since Flanking Strike has been reworked, you will only want to use it if you plan on giving up Lone Wolf. Additionally, the first iteration doesn’t use Mongoose Bite unless the t1 set-bonuses are present and more Hit Chance is required.

Single-Target Rotation Kill Shot/Lone Wolf

1. Maintain Aspect of the Hawk
2. Use Aspect of the Viper if you run low on Mana
3. Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown
4. Cast Immolation Trap on cooldown
5. Cast Raptor Strike on cooldown
   • Cast Raptor Strike on every Melee Specialist proc cooldown reset
6. Cast Wyvern Strike on cooldown
7. Cast Kill Shot on cooldown
   • Spam Kill Shot after your target reaches the 20% HP Threshold and both Wyvern Strike and Raptor Strike are on cooldown
8. Cast Carve while everything else is on cooldown
   • Stop casting Carve when Kill Shot becomes spammable
9. Cast Serpent Sting before reaching your target

Single-Target Rotation Flanking Strike/Cobra Slayer

1. Maintain Aspect of the Hawk
2. Use Aspect of the Viper if you run low on Mana
3. Cast Rapid Fire on cooldown
4. Cast Immolation Trap on cooldown
5. Cast Flanking Strike on cooldown to proc the damage-enhancing buff
   • Cast Flanking Strike on every reset to stack up the damage-enhancing buff & upkeep it
6. Cast Raptor Strike on cooldown
   • Cast Raptor Strike on every Melee Specialist proc cooldown reset
7. Cast Mongoose Bite on cooldown (When Cobra Slayer procs)
   • Cast Mongoose Bite on reset if you the have T1 6-set bonus
8. Cast Wing Clip if everything else is on cooldown to trigger Windfury procs
9. Cast Serpent Sting before reaching your target

AoE Rotation

1. Cast Carve on cooldown
2. Cast Explosive Trap on cooldown
3. Cast Multi-Shot before you reach your target

Best Professions

Engineering

Engineering has always been regarded as one of the most versatile and effective professions in both PvE and PvP. This remains true in the Season of Discovery as Engineering is one of the best professions you can acquire for the Hunter Class due to all the creative gadgets, bombs, and equipment it provides

Leatherworking

Almost all of the newly crafted items in the Season of Discovery which are specifically tailored for Hunters come from Leatherworking, making it one of the best professions that you can acquire.

Skinning

Skinning pairs fantastically well with Leatherworking, allowing you to easily get materials for crafting while also being a good way of generating gold.

Best Races

Alliance doesn’t have one superior race for PvE, however, Night Elf has a slight advantage over Dwarf for the Hunter Class, especially for its overall aesthetic look. The only situation in which Dwarf is superior is the case of using a powerful gun thanks to the Gun Specialization racial, although that is extremely situational as the best weapons are usually bows or crossbows.

Meanwhile, the Horde has strong PvE racial effects, with Troll being the best option thanks to Bow Specialization and Berserking racials, followed up by Orc with the Blood Fury and Command racials.

Dwarf

• Stoneform, Frost Resistance, Gun Specialization, Find Treasure

Night Elf

• Nature Resistance, Quickness, Shadowmeld, Wisp Spirit

Orc

• Blood Fury, Command, Hardiness, Axe Specialization

Tauren

• Nature Resistance, Endurance, Cultivation, War Stomp

Troll

• Berserking, Beast Slaying, Bow Specialization, Throwing Specialization, Regeneration