Survival Hunters play differently than Beast Mastery or Marksmanship Hunters. While those two specs are a ranged DPS class, Survival Hunters play in melee range. It's a totally different experience for the class and one that is retooled thanks to the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight talent revamp.

While the spec enjoyed success during Sepulcher of the First Ones in Shadowlands, it's not performing too well thus far in Dragonflight content. There's a severe lack of log information for Vault of the Incarnates testing, most likely due to the fact that it's currently the worst-performing spec in pre-patch. Sufficed to say, Survival Hunters in Dragonflight are not the preferred spec like they are in Classic Wrath of the Lich King.

We've got you covered if you want to try the spec, whether it's due to personal play style or the hope that Blizzard gives it some badly needed buffs.

What's New With Talents In Dragonflight?

Gone are the days of a handful of talents you get every ten or fifteen levels. Dragonflight brings back the classic-inspired talent trees to World of Warcraft. Survival Hunters will fill out talent trees for both generic Hunter abilities as well as the spec-specific Survival nodes. As a result, there is a lot more room for choice and customization to fit your preferences.

Important spells, such as Misdirection, interrupts, and personal cooldowns, must now be obtained by choosing their talent.

Class Talents - Survival Hunter Single Target Build

This is a pretty cookie-cutter build for a reason. You'll pick up the talents you need to combine utility, survivability, and damage.

Class Talents - Survival Hunter AOE Build

The AOE build utilizes the strength of Explosive Shot and Steel Trap to their advantages in AOE and multi-target scenarios.

Survival Hunter Talent Explanations

Row 1

Kill Command is given to us by default, which is good since it's a core ability for the Hunter class. Concussive shot offers utility if you're focused on solo play or PVP, but in PVE, it's trivial. We'll pick up Kill Shot as it's a powerful execute that only gets better with talents.

Row 2:

Trailblazer sounds good on paper, but the Hunters in general have good enough mobility. Speaking of mobility, Posthaste is a great utility talent to help players move out of damage. It also took us one row to buff our Kill Shot talent. Increasing its crit by 25% is a no-brainer.

Row 3:

Wilderness Medicine is a good talent if you're soloing content; you'll have plenty of ways to heal your pet during PVE encounters. Counter Shot is an interrupt that should be mandatory for every talent build. Hunters are picked for groups due to their ability to not just pump damage but also provide a ranged interrupt. Natural Mending is a solid personal cooldown to help keep you in the fight and mitigate incoming damage.

Row 4:

This row offers utility across the board. Tar Trap, Misdirection, and Survival of the Fittest are all wildly important talents. You may not always select them, specifically Tar Trap and Misdirect, but they are still an important part of your toolkit.

Row 5:

Tranquilizing shot has its moments, but for right now, there's no real need for it. As I said earlier, this is something that can be flexed in, and would only require Tar Trap to pick up. Without Tar Trap, Entrapment is useless. It's not a bad pick-up for solo content, though. Since you're going to be picking up Steel Trap later in the tree, buff it with Improved Traps. The Lone Survivor/Nature's Endurance node offers a choice. Lone Survivor gets the edge, as you get to use Survival of the Fittest more often. The same can be said in regards to Born To Be Wild. Survival is one of your most important personal cooldowns, and you want to have it available as often as possible.

Row 6:

The biggest row in the entire tree. Scare Beast is pretty much only applicable if you're soloing, and even then, it's not exciting. To be fair, it had some uses in Shadowlands content, but that's few and far between. If you're picking up Tranq Shot, you'll definitely want Improved Tranq Shot for the focus. Intimidation and High Explosive Trap sound good on paper, but in practice, they're just not worth it in PVE. As a Marksmanship Hunter, you won't even have a pet, so Intimidation is useless. For PVP and sololing? These are absolutely fantastic talents. Binding shot is a premiere CC ability that can group up enemies, allowing those with excellent AOE to go wild and crazy. Rejuvenating Winds helps buff your other personal cooldown, Natural Mending. Camoflauge has limited, but viable, uses in PVE scenarios, but truly shines when soloing or doing PVP.

Row 7:

Binding Shackles is a solid buff to certain crowd control abilities. It's not the best in the world, but it lets you open up the bottom left of the tree without having to spend multiple points on Tranq Shot talents. Hunter's Avoidance helps you take less damage. Pathfinding helps your already great mobility become even better by moving faster. Finally, there's the Sentinel Owl improvement I talked about above.

Row 8:

If you're an MM Hunter, the Beast Master talent is completely useless since you won't have pets. Keen Eyesight and Master Marksman are mainline talents that unlock vital capstone nodes while also offering substantial stat bonuses.

Row 9:

Improved Kill Command does exactly what it says: improves Kill Command. Serrated Shots buff the damage from Serpent Sting, as well as your bleeds. Even if you don't get Serpent Sting, being able to buff your bleeds is extremely beneficial. Arctic Bola allows you to literally throw an Arctic Bola at your target. More often than not, you'll just pick this up as a free talent. In single-target scenarios, Serpent Sting is an excellent part of your rotation.

Row 10:

The capstone talent row. These are supposed to be the best Dragonflight Hunter talents you can pick up.

Killer Instinct and Alpha Predator both buff Kill Command. While Killer Instinct helps you deal more damage to low-health enemies, Alpha Predator giving you two charges and increased damage is generally the preferred option. Steel Trap is a powerful stun that also causes a bleed, which is buffed from the Serrated Shots talent. Stampede is the coolest-sounding talent, but it's just not where it needs to be, so you'll most likely be going with Death Chakram as a superior talent and better for your damage output. Explosive Shot/Barrage are solid talents; Explosive Shot will normally get the call here due to its usefulness in AOE situations. Poison Injection is the preferred option if you're in single-target scenarios.

Survival Hunter Single Target Build

Expect something similar to this to be a default single-target build for Survival Hunters. If you're looking for some more spice...

Survival Hunter Kill Command Build

Survival Hunter talents in Dragonflight open themselves up to Kill Command focused builds like the one below. We'll see if the tuning can help buff the damage to be at least respectable.

Survival Hunter AoE Build

There's a bug with Ruthless Marauder that increases your crit by too much. As it stands now, it's beneficial to go that route, but expect it to be fixed.

Survival Hunter Talent Explanations

Now we can get into the spec-specific builds for Survival Hunters in Dragonflight. Again, let's discuss a row-by-row explanation of every talent choice.

Row 1:

Raptor Strike is a baseline ability and the only choice in this row. You can't progress any further without picking it up.

Row 2:

Wildfire Bomb and Tip of the Spear are also required talents, as both branches below them will feature mainline talents.

Row 3:

Now the choices begin. In the center, Flanker's Advantage buffs your Kill Command while also helping to unlock a line of vital talents. We always pick it up. On the outside, however, are some optional nodes. Ferocity increase your pet damage while Harpoon represents one of the key issues for the spec. While it's an important ability, the fact that you'll have to run out of melee range and throw it is pretty miserable for your rotation.

Row 4:

Energetic Ally doesn't provide enough bonus focus to warrant picking up. Bloodseeker is another buff to Kill Command and will be the way you unlock Guerilla Tactics in the row below. Terms of Engagement helps to buff your Harpoon ability while Aspect of the Eagle doesn't do anything of consequence.

Row 5:

Guerilla Tactics buffs your Wildfire Bomb and helps make it a vital part of your class rotation. Lunge doesn't do enough to warrant picking up; the 3 yard bonus range on your melee attacks isn't worth it most of the time, though it will have its applications. Butchery is a huge part of any AOE build to add in cleave damage to your attacks. Mongoose Bite replaces Raptor Strike as a key part of your Survival Hunter rotation.

Row 6:

Intense Focus is good for Kill Command builds to give you extra Focus. Improved Wildfire Bomb does exactly what it says: improves your Wildfire Bombs. Frenzy Strikes further increases your viability in AOE encounters. Flanking Strike works as a solid leap to head back into melee range if you're ever forced to run out. Spear Focus is a 5% buff to Mongoose Bite damage.

Row 7:

Viper's Venom couples well with any build that utilizes Poison Injection. It also unlocks the incredibly important Wildfire Infusion talent. Sharp Edges is a buff to your Crit Rating. Sweeping Spear is another buff talent, increasing the damage done by Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, Butchery, and Carve damage by 5%. Tactical Advantage will most likely be picked up due to the fact that it buffs your Wildfire Bomb damage, but people seem split on whether the lower right side of the tree is even worth it. Bloody Claws is only worth it if you're running a completely 100% all in Kill Command build.

Row 8:

Wildfire Infusion is an incredible talent that not only buffs your Wildfire Bombs but also other core abilities. Get this every time. Quick Shot and Coordinated Assault, however, are more situational and will depend on your overall talent build and encounter scenarios. Killer Companion should only be used, again, you're all in on Kill Command.

Row 9:

Fury of the Eagle can provide incredible AOE damage if you go for that specific talent build. Ranger is just an all-around solid talent. Coordinated Kill builds will absolutely be a thing in Dragonflight, but the jury is still out on how effective they'll be. Explosives Expert reduces your Wildfire Bomb cooldown, but most likely isn't worth picking up. Spearhead works as a charge, but moving out of melee range is already not fun.

Row 10:

Ruthless Marauder is an incredible way to capstone a Fury of the eagle build. The other capstone talents, though, are nowhere near as exciting. Birds of Prey can add in a cleave to your Kill Shot, while Wildfire Bomb's cooldown can be reset if you go the Bombardier route. The cooldown is conditional, though. Deadly Duo works if you're all-in on Kill Command.

Import Talent Loadout Codes - Survival Hunter

Copy and paste the code below into your Talents with the new Talent Loadout feature in the Talent Menu directly in your game.