Survival Hunter DPS Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities (Legion 7.2.5)

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Class Overview
  • 2. What Has Changed in 7.2.5?
    • 2.1. Tomb of Sargeras Set Bonus Simulation
  • 3. How Does it Work?
  • 4. Viability of Spec Choices in Patch 7.2.5
    • 4.1. Tier 20 - Tomb of Sargeras Mythic Gear - Single-Target Spec Comparison
    • 4.2. Raiding — Single-Target Focus with AoE as a secondary objective.
    • 4.3. Mythic+ — AoE Focus with single-target as a secondary objective.
  • 5. Strengths
  • 6. Weaknesses
  • 7. Contents
  • 8. ChangeLog
• +Easy Mode
  • 1. The Basics
  • 2. Talent Choice
  • 3. Stat Choice
  • 4. Basic Rotation
    • 4.1. Cooldowns
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Builds and Talents
  • 1. Talent Cheat Sheets
    • 1.1. For Raid Encounters
    • 1.2. For Mythic+ Use
  • 2. Tier 1 (Level 15) Talents
  • 3. Tier 2 (Level 30) Talents
  • 4. Tier 3 (Level 45) Talents
  • 5. Tier 4 (Level 60) Talents
  • 6. Tier 5 (Level 75) Talents
  • 7. Tier 6 (Level 90) Talents
  • 8. Tier 7 (Level 100) Talents
  • 9. Pet Talents
  • 10. ChangeLog
• +Artifact Traits and Relics
  • 1. Artifact Progression
    • 1.1. Early Progression
    • 1.2. Patch 7.2 Progression
  • 2. Artifact Ability
  • 3. Traits versus Item Level
  • 4. Relic Choice
  • 5. ChangeLog
• ×Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities
  • 1. Single Target Rotation
    • 1.1. When Mongoose Fury is not active (Filler Phase)
    • 1.2. When Mongoose Fury is active (Bite Phase)
  • 2. Multiple Target Rotation
  • 3. Legendaries & Rotational Changes
  • 4. Cooldown Usage
  • 5. Opener Sequence
  • 6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Survival Hunter
    • 6.1. Trinket Usage
    • 6.2. Focus
    • 6.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage
      • 6.3.1. Aspect of the Eagle
      • 6.3.2. Fury of the Eagle
      • 6.3.3. Snake Hunter
      • 6.3.4. Tier 1 Talents
      • 6.3.5. Tier 2 Talents
      • 6.3.6. Tier 4 Talents
      • 6.3.7. Tier 6 Talents
      • 6.3.8. Tier 7 Talents
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Stat Priority
  • 1. Basics
  • 2. Getting a Better Understanding
    • 2.1. Choosing Gear
    • 2.2. Stat Softcaps, Distributions & Other Clarifications
    • 2.3. Statistics Explanations
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gems, Enchants, and Consumables
  • 1. Gems
  • 2. Enchants
  • 3. Consumables
  • 4. ChangeLog
• +Macros and Addons
  • 1. Macros
    • 1.1. Generic Macros for Hunters
      • 1.1.1. Aspect of the Turtle Cancelaura Macro
      • 1.1.2. Misdirection Mouseover/Focus Macro for Marksmanship/Beast Mastery
      • 1.1.3. Trap Macros for Survival
      • 1.1.4. Petattack Macros
    • 1.2. Specific Macros for Survival Hunters
  • 2. Addons
    • 2.1. Generic Addons for Hunters
      • 2.1.1. ElvUI
      • 2.1.2. Weak Auras
      • 2.1.3. Boss Mods: Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs
      • 2.1.4. GTFO
      • 2.1.5. JSHB 4
      • 2.1.6. Pawn
    • 2.2. Specific Addons for Survival Hunters
  • 3. ChangeLog
• +Gear, Legendaries, and Best in Slot
  • 1. Best in Slot List
  • 2. Trinket & Legendary DPS Rankings
  • 3. Legion Legendaries
    • 3.1. Survival Legendaries
      • 3.1.1. Survival Legendary Ranking
  • 4. Loot Competition
  • 5. ChangeLog
• +Simulations
  • 1. Disclaimer
  • 2. Racial Bonus Simulation
  • 3. Legendary Simulation
  • 4. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we list your Survival Hunter core abilities and how they should be used together (rotation) in World of Warcraft Legion 7.2.5. We also explain when to use your various cooldowns. Then, we go deeper and present all the subtleties that you will need to know if you want to excel at playing a Survival Hunter.

The other pages of our Survival Hunter guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About Our Author

This guide has been written by Azortharion, the main theorycrafter of the spec. He is also an accomplished player who raids in Solaris. You can also watch his stream on Twitch.

1. Single Target Rotation

The single target rotation for a Survival Hunter is based on the following priority system:

1.1. When Mongoose Fury is not active (Filler Phase)

1. Cast Raptor Strike just enough to keep Way of the Mok'Nathal active on 4 stacks, refreshing as late as possible and keeping the global cooldown in mind.
2. Cast Flanking Strike on cooldown.
3. Cast Spitting Cobra on cooldown.
4. Keep up the Lacerate DoT.
5. Use Steel Trap on cooldown // Use Caltrops if it is not active on the target (the cooldown is shorter than the DoT, remember that.
6. Use Explosive Trap on cooldown.
7. Cast Raptor Strike when you can do absolutely nothing else, and if you still do not have 2 Mongoose Bite charges.
8. If you have done all of the above and have at least 2 Mongoose Bite charges, start your Mongoose Fury window by casting Mongoose Bite, then go to the Bite Phase rotation.

1.2. When Mongoose Fury is active (Bite Phase)

1. Cast Raptor Strike just enough to keep Way of the Mok'Nathal active on 4 stacks, refreshing as late as possible and keeping the global cooldown in mind.
2. Cast Snake Hunter with 0 charges of Mongooose Bite left, and more than ~4 seconds remaining on Mongoose Fury so that you can spend all 3 generated charges in this window.
3. Cast Aspect of the Eagle if you got 2-3 charges of Mongoose Bite, and more than ~11 seconds remaining on Mongoose Fury. If you will get Fury of the Eagle before Mongoose Fury ends, you can cast Aspect of the Eagle as late as 7 seconds remaining, as Fury will extend the buff.
4. Cast Lacerate if it is about to drop off, but only if you have the T20 4-piece bonus.
5. Cast Flanking Strike on cooldown, when you have 2 charges of Mongoose Bite or fewer.
6. Cast Mongoose Bite
7. Use Raptor Strike when you can do absolutely nothing else.
8. When Mongoose Fury ends, go back to the Filler phase.

Casting Mongoose Bite at high stacks of Mongoose Fury is essentially always more important than refreshing DoTs or casting other things on cooldown (unless it is Flanking Strike, if only just to cast more Mongoose Bites). Losing a bit of uptime on your many DoTs is way less damage loss than missing out on a 6-stack Mongoose Bite for the most part. Take advantage of down-periods where you are waiting for Mongoose Bite charges to return and refresh your DoTs then. This makes the rotation somewhat cyclical.

2. Multiple Target Rotation

When facing multiple targets, your rotation does not change, save for a few abilities that you will be using differently.

• When you are facing more than 1 target, you should use Butchery on cooldown, if you are using this talent.
• When you are facing 2 or more targets, you should not cast Raptor Strike (except to keep up Way of the Mok'Nathal), but you should instead use Carve in its place as a Focus dump that you only use when you would otherwise cap Focus.
• If you are using the Serpent Sting talent, you should use Carve to refresh the debuff on 1 targets and above.

3. Legendaries & Rotational Changes

Helbrine, Rope of the Mist Marauder increases your damage done by 30% for 10 seconds after using Harpoon — which in most cases is just the opener. To make use of this, do not put up your DoTs on the target in the opener. Instead, go straight into spamming Mongoose Bite and putting up Aspect of the Eagle, trying to frontload as much of your damage as possible into the short duration of this proc. When your first Mongoose Fury window expires, you can refresh your DoTs and proceed as normal.

Butcher's Bone Apron causes Mongoose Bite to stack a buff that increases the damage done of your next Carve or Butchery (talent) by 10%, stacking up to 10 times. It does not change your general rotation as such. It is excellent for cleave fights where the cleave is not constant, but rather intermittent such as Gul'dan, where your single-target rotation will automatically stack the buff which you can then unleash once the AoE happens. Butchery is of course even better with this Legendary, while Carve is really lackluster.

Frizzo's Fingertrap causes Butchery or Carve to spread Lacerate onto an additional target. This is an excellent sustained Cleave legendary, and paired with the Mortal Wounds talent, it is a single-target DPS increase as well whenever you can have multiple Lacerates ticking.

Other Legendaries have no meaningful effect on your rotation. Their effects are either passive, or they give you extra uses of certain cooldowns which essentially happens automatically, provided you do not sit on your cooldowns for too long.

4. Cooldown Usage

As a Survival Hunter, you have one cooldown in Aspect of the Eagle, with a few more unlocked through talents. More details about them can be found in our detailed cooldown usage section.

5. Opener Sequence

This section describes the recommended way to start the fight as a Survival Hunter. It assumes you are using the recommended talents for the spec.

1. Just before the encounter starts, use your Potion of Prolonged Power.
2. Use Harpoon to close the gap to the boss when it is pulled.
3. Cast Explosive Trap.
4. Cast A Murder of Crows and Spitting Cobra.
5. Cast Lacerate and Steel Trap// Caltrops to put the DoTs up.
6. Cast Raptor Strike 3 times to get Way of the Mok'Nathal rolling on 3 stacks. Refresh it when it is just about to expire throughout the opener (so that it gains 4 stacks for when it matters at the end of Mongoose Fury).
7. Spam Mongoose Bite until you no longer can.
8. Activate Aspect of the Eagle.
9. Cast Flanking Strike.
10. Spam Mongoose Bite until you no longer can.
11. Repeat this general trend. If you run out of Mongoose Bite charges with no ability to cast Flanking Strike, cast Fury of the Eagle if you got 6 stacks of Mongoose Fury. Otherwise refresh the effects of Way of the Mok'Nathal > Lacerate, Lacerate > Caltrops > Explosive Trap in that order of priority.
12. At the very last second of Mongoose Fury, cast Fury of the Eagle if you did not previously.
13. Start your rotation by using the things that must be used on cooldown in the right order of priority, but above all, prioritize keeping up your 4 stacks of Mok'Nathal Tactics with Raptor Strike if you have chosen this talent.

6. Optional Read: Mastering Your Survival Hunter

While the rotations we gave in the previous sections will yield very good results, there are many things you should be aware of, in order to play your Survival Hunter to its full potential. You will need to understand all the subtleties, pertaining to your abilities, rotations, and cooldown usage, that we present below.

6.1. Trinket Usage

The Tomb of Sargeras has introduced a few on-use trinkets, and some of them require more thought than just using them on cooldown. So unless listed here, you should use on-use trinkets on cooldown.

Umbral Moonglaives should be used on adds that will survive for more than 8 seconds, so that you will benefit from the glaive explosion at the end of its duration. The more targets the better for this ability.

Vial of Ceaseless Toxins should be used on large adds that will die after close to, but less than 20 seconds to benefit the most from the proc — and to reduce its cooldown in preparation for another use. This can be a bit finicky, but the intended use of the trinket is to deal lots of damage to big, important adds in a fight. The best case scenario is an add that dies in 19 seconds, but you will probably not get that every time.

Engine of Eradication's proc is powerful on its own, but when it does proc, it spawns 4 orbs around you that can be picked up to extend the duration on the buff. Picking these up is quite important, and it is as simple as running into them when they spawn.

6.2. Focus

Hunters and their pets use a unique resource, called Focus. Focus works in much the same way as other class resources, like Rage and Energy, in the sense that some abilities grant Focus, while others cost Focus to be used.

A Survival Hunter's Focus has a maximum capacity of 100, and regenerates at an innate rate of 10 Focus per second. This rate is increased by Haste. In addition to this, certain abilities such as Arcane Shot (Marksmanship-only) also grant Focus.

Most of the abilities in the hunter rotation cost Focus to use, and some talents decrease the Focus costs, or offer other ways to gain additional Focus.

Hunter pet Focus works similarly, and is of no concern to you as you cannot do anything to modify it, nor will you be casting pet abilities manually.

As a general rule, you should always have enough Focus to cast your abilities as soon as they come off cooldown, but also to never have 100 Focus (as any extra Focus you generate would then go to waste).

6.3. Detailed Cooldown Usage

6.3.1. Aspect of the Eagle

Aspect of the Eagle should be used as many times as possible during the encounter. Leading up to Aspect of the Eagle, you should ensure that you have no Mongoose Fury stacks currently active. Ideally, it should expire right before you plan to use Aspect of the Eagle. Then, you should cast Mongoose Bite once, pop Aspect of the Eagle, and proceed to use the rest of your available Mongoose Bites. From here, you should proceed with your normal rotation, while trying to get as many Mongoose Bites in as possible. Finally, you should try to end the Aspect of the Eagle phase with as close to 0 Focus as possible.

6.3.2. Fury of the Eagle

Fury of the Eagle is the active ability of the Survival Artifact. Like most other cooldowns, it should be used as often as possible. However, it also does extremely high, linearly scaling AoE damage, so it is important to save it for when you can use it on 2 or more targets during the encounter. Its damage scales with Mongoose Fury stacks in the same way that Mongoose Bite's damage does. This means that you should always use it when you have 6 stacks of Mongoose Fury whenever possible, but using it on multiple targets generally takes priority. Keep in mind that when you use Fury of the Eagle, the remaining duration on Mongoose Fury is extended by about 4 seconds. This means that in order to get the most out of Mongoose Fury, you should cast Fury of the Eagle as it is about to expire so that you do not waste any potential Mongoose Bites that you could have spent in the Fury window. This is the reason we recommend doing the rotation as described above, where you bank your Mongoose Bite charges and then unleash them at the same time. With that said, if you are starting your Mongoose Fury window with Aspect of the Eagle active, you should cast Fury of the Eagle as soon as you hit 6 stacks rather than waiting till the very end, this is in order for Fury of the Eagle to benefit from Aspect of the Eagle as much as possible.

6.3.3. Snake Hunter

The goal of Snake Hunter is to get as much leverage out of the additional 3 charges as possible, and you ideally want them all to contribute to a 6-stack Mongoose Fury window, either by getting you there faster, or giving you additional casts of them. Therefore, you do generally not want to use Snake Hunter in the opener because you are already generating more charges than you can cast in a reasonable amount of time. Instead, delay Snake Hunter till your second Mongoose Fury window, using it whenever you have 0 stacks and more than 4 seconds remaining in that window. From there, use it on cooldown, but only ever at 0 charges, ideally just after spending the final charge, minimizing the chance of capping them out.

6.3.4. Tier 1 Talents

Animal Instincts has no direct effect on how you play, although you should be aware of what cooldown is being reduced so that you may plan ahead your rotation more efficiently.

Throwing Axes usage is very simple. It should be used on cooldown.

Way of the Mok'Nathal should be maintained at 4 stacks by using Raptor Strike. You should only use Raptor Strike exactly enough to refresh the Mok'Nathal Tactics buff as late as possible, ideally maintaining 4 stacks for the entire fight. You should be clever and very conservative about your Flanking Strike usage, since overusing it may cause you not to have enough Focus to cast Raptor Strike when you need to refresh Mok'Nathal Tactics.

6.3.5. Tier 2 Talents

A Murder of Crows should be used as many times as possible during the fight. The cooldown of this ability will reset if its target dies before the debuff expires (15 seconds). You should try and take advantage of this effect as much as possible (but without delaying A Murder of Crows needlessly much). Remember that it is not worth it to benefit from this effect by casting A Murder of Crows on targets that will die in a second or two.

Mortal Wounds has no effect on how you play, and you will passively benefit from the increased chance to generate Mongoose Bite charges whenever your Lacerate ability deals damage.

Snake Hunter should be used together with your Aspect of the Eagle ability. We explained its usage in details in the detailed cooldown usage section.

6.3.6. Tier 4 Talents

Caltrops should be cast just often enough to maintain the DoT it applies, similarly to Lacerate.

Guerrilla Tactics has no effect on how you play, and you will passively benefit from most of the effects to your traps, especially Explosive Trap's damage increase.

Steel Trap usage is very simple. It should be used on cooldown. The DoT lasts for a very long time, however, so you should not use it on targets that are only a few seconds away from dying.

6.3.7. Tier 6 Talents

Butchery should be used on cooldown when you are facing more than 1 target.

Dragonsfire Grenade usage is very simple. It should be used on cooldown.

Serpent Sting should be refreshed using Raptor Strike, similarly to Way of the Mok'Nathal. If you are using Way of the Mok'Nathal, and maintaining it correctly, Serpent Sting will automatically be maintained as well. On 3 targets and above, you should use Carve to refresh the Serpent Sting debuff. (2 if you are using the Frizzo's Fingertrap legendary).

6.3.8. Tier 7 Talents

Spitting Cobra usage is very simple. It should be used on cooldown.

Expert Trapper has no effect on how you play, and you will passively benefit from the damage increase to Explosive Trap in particular.

Aspect of the Beast has no effect on how you play, and you will passively benefit from the additional DoT damage after using Flanking Strike. You should ensure that your pet is specced Ferocity to benefit from this talent.

7. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 01 Jul. 2017: Updated small things in the rotation.
• 30 Jun. 2017: Split the rotation into 2 phases and generally made it much easier to read. Added trinket usage section.
• 13 Jun. 2017: Added note about prioritizing Explosive Trap if you are using the new Legendary cloak.
• 26 May 2017: Added detailed usage of Snake Hunter.
• 25 May 2017: Cleaned up the rotation and added pointers that makes Fury of the Eagle usage more clear.
• 17 Apr. 2017: Checked today and deemed updated.
• 27 Mar. 2017: Added paragraphs about how certain Legendaries affect the rotation.
• 18 Feb. 2017: Added another clarifying paragraph to the rotation.
• 08 Feb. 2017: Rewrote rotation. Updated opener slightly.
• 07 Feb. 2017: Update Survival opener. So. Many. Buttons.
• 28 Jan. 2017: Updated Survival opener.
• 26 Jan. 2017: Added set bonus talk.
• 14 Jan. 2017: Add Caltrops to opener.
• 12 Jan. 2017: Put Caltrops in the rotation, removed note about Lacerate cooldown, updated best usage of Caltrops and Lacerate as a result.
• 09 Jan. 2017: Updated for Patch 7.1.5.
• 08 Nov. 2016: Opener update.
• 06 Nov. 2016: Added Throwing Axes back to the rotation since it is still worth using in some situations.
• 29 Oct. 2016: Patch 7.1 update with ability buffs and Way of the Mok'Nathal being the recommended talent.
• 25 Oct. 2016: Updated the paragraph about Animal Instincts, following its change in Patch 7.1.
• 11 Oct. 2016: Slight opener change.
• 13 Sep. 2016: Added Raptor Strike as a Focus dump in the rotation.
• 08 Sep. 2016: Put Fury of the Eagle in the Survival opener.
• 06 Sep. 2016: Updated Survival Hunter opener to get the most out of the buff to Mongoose Fury (12s > 14s duration).
• 05 Sep. 2016: Updated Fury of the Eagle guide.
• 29 Aug. 2016: Updated for Legion's launch.
• 29 Jul. 2016: Better rotation.
• 27 Jul. 2016: Updated opener slightly.
• 23 Jul. 2016: Removed talents from rotation to simplify it, added notes about handling Mongoose Bite stacks that should be easier to understand and put into practice.
• 19 Jul. 2016: Added opener.
• 18 Jul. 2016: Updated for the Legion pre-patch.