Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Guide

WoW Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter is a versatile and dynamic class, specializing in single target damage, damage over time effects, traps, and enhanced ranged combat abilities. This guide covers all aspects of gameplay and explains how to level and gear up Survival Hunter. Also, read our Cataclysm Top Addons Guide to upgrade your gaming experience.

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Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Overview

Being one of the oldest classes in the game, Survival Hunter has evolved to use adaptability and control in various combat situations. In Cataclysm, Survival Hunters are famous for their sustained damage through abilities like Explosive Shot and Black Arrow while maintaining crowd control with traps. Moreover, the additional utility is provided by the pets that Hunter can tame in the game.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Class Mechanics

There’s a peculiarity of Survival Hunter compared to other classes in Cataclysm Classic. It is the absence of mana, replaced with Focus instead — our primary source to spend on our abilities. Focus Regen Rate is 6 per second, which is good enough. Although this may be true, you still need to manage your resources properly to provide consistent DPS and avoid downtime.

The similarity to other classes, though, is that SV Hunter now has abilities that generate Focus, and thus are called “generators” (or “builders”), and skills that spend it — “spenders”. The list of spenders is quite massive, while the amount of generating abilities is limited: Steady Shot, Cobra Shot, and passive Aspect of the Fox, which generates Focus when you are attacked.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Changes

The above-mentioned Focus is the new acquirement and the major change that Survival Hunter achieved in Cataclysm Classic. Therefore, some of our abilities were also adjusted to the gaining-spending mechanic of the Focus.

Stat and Attribute Changes

Here’s a list of the essential changes to consider in Cataclysm Classic:

Changes to Existing Abilities & Talents

• Steady Shot: Used as filler shot to generate Focus when needed.
• Noxious Stings: Boosts your ranged damage by 10% on targets with Serpent Sting.
• Hunting Party: Buffs raid’s attack speed by 10%.

New Abilities & Talents

• Sic ‘Em!: Crit with Arcane or Aimed Shot makes your pet’s next Basic Attack free for 12 seconds.
• Pathing: Gives you 3% more ranged haste.
• Toxicology: Doubles the crit damage of your Serpent Sting and Black Arrow.
• Improved Serpent Sting: Adds instant damage equal to 30% of its total effect and boosts crit chance by 10%.
• Serpent Spread: Multi-Shot makes all targets get Serpent Sting for 9 seconds.

Survival Hunter Best Gear in Cataclysm Classic

In Cataclysm Classic SV Hunters are armored in the mail, at this point, Mail Specialization is your best friend. The primary goal in gearing is to reach the Hit cap, ensuring that our attacks land reliably. All of the Survival Hunter BiS Gear pieces improve our haste or hit rating on equip, so there should be no problem reaching the cap.

This WoW Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter guide offers you two BiS Gear options: Pre-Raid Best in Slot, and Overall BiS Gear. If you aim to obtain the gear, skipping raid encounters, we recommend paying attention to the profession choice, as some of the items are only obtainable via Cataclysm Classic Professions.

Pre-Raid BiS Gear

Overall BiS Gear

Survival Hunter Phase 3 Gear Set

For those who love chasing set bonuses, there’s Flamewaker’s Battlegear to add spice to your Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter gameplay, while trying to get all the pieces together. This is generally a satisfactory Tier 12 Raid Set for Survival Hunter due to its bonuses, yet this is not your top priority in Cataclysm Classic.

• 2 pieces: Your Steady Shot and Cobra Shot have a 10% chance to trigger a Flaming Arrow, dealing 80% instant weapon damage as Fire.
• 4 pieces: You have a 10% chance from your autoshots to make your next shot or Kill Command cost no focus.

Survival Hunter Weapons

For Survival Hunter, Cataclysm Classic offers variability in weapon choices. You can engage in melee combat, usually opting for a Two-Hand option rather than a One-Hand weapon. Alternatively, you can be a ranged attacker, shooting enemies from a distance.

Survival Hunter Jewelry

The Variety of Jewelry for Survival Hunters in Cataclysm offers necks and trinkets to any taste. What we should eternally keep in mind, is that we are looking for Agility and Hit Cap, Critical Strike Rating, or Haste Rating in the items’ stats.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Leveling

Leveling a Survival Hunter in Cataclysm Classic is a smooth experience, thanks to the extra functionality from the pet we now get on level 1. The pet is not only a source of DPS increase. The ways of usage of your companion pet are numerous, but it’s most effective to taunt distant mobs, which is helpful to play safe and focus on taking down enemies efficiently.

You will also have two spells from the start — Arcane Shot and Steady Shot, which are basically used as auto attacks. Arcane Shot is our first spender ability, therefore it heavily depends on resource management and generating Focus from Steady Shot.

Leveling a newly created Survival Hunter has never been faster than with our Power Leveling professionals, so do not hesitate.

Survival Hunter Best Leveling Build

As a true Hunter, you will get access to traps and Trap Mastery in the Survival Tree. It increases the effectiveness of your traps, e.g. Explosive Trap or Freezing Trap,  and makes the leveling process straightforward and fun. Lock and Load works perfectly well with Ice Traps, so, as you see, with the help of Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Talents you are going to catch enemies quite a lot.

Survival Hunter Leveling Build 3/7/31: carefully chosen WoW Cataclysm Survival Hunter Build for the smooth leveling phase.

Survival Hunter Leveling Glyphs

Glyphs should always be considered an essential part of choosing a build. WoW Classic Cataclysm Survival Hunter talents are drastically empowered by them. And so are the pets that we summon.

Tips for Leveling Up

• Survival Hunters are considered deft, but lack healing, especially in fights. The best decision to deal with it is to level up First Aid. Being able to heal yourself during a battle is beneficial.
• Strafe while taking down mobs. Use your pet as a threat generator during farming and change your spot when shooting to travel between mob camps and level up faster.
• Keep your Focus under control. Do not spend it all to avoid downtime, but don’t let it gain 100%, as having a full Focus bar means you do not use it efficiently.
• In case of extremely depressing situations, use defensives. You have Feign Death to fake your death and make enemies lose interest in your dead body, and Disengage, allowing you to flip backward and decrease the threat you were generating. But watch out for other mobs behind your back!

We also offer you to have a look at the Glory of the Cata Hero Achievement. It’s the best way to enter the end-game with a fancy achievement, brand new mount, and all Heroic dungeons completed.

Survival Hunter Best Leveling Rotation

The Leveling Rotation for Survival Hunter relies on equipping Range Weapon and is split into 2 phases: Pre and Post Explosive/Black Arrow. The 1st option is for lower levels, and the 2nd will be available when you reach level 30.

Survival Hunter Best Leveling Gear

You’ll meet progressively better weapon choices as you progress through Cataclysm Classic zones. It’s essential to switch your Survival Hunter’s weapons to perform better and gain XP points faster, so look for the gear that enhances your damage output and overall effectiveness.

Your armor choices depend on the items that provide better primary stats-increasing options. First of all, watch for the gear which increases the Hit rating.

Survival Hunter Best Leveling Professions

Cataclysm Classic Professions for Survival Hunter can make a difference as throughout the game you can loot benefits from crafting items or selling reagents.

The most profitable, in terms of money and usefulness, professions are Engineering and Jewelcrafting. Both of them allow you to craft and further enhance your gear with gems, thus your BiS-obtaining journey can become cheaper and easier. To understand the advantages that Engineering can grant you, read more in our comprehensive Cataclysm Classic Engineering Guide.

If you don’t bother being savvy on crafting, however, consider any of the gathering profs, e.g. Mining, which stacks with Engineering, so you can combine these two. Skinning will work as well, and at some point, it may help you to obtain BiS items by providing resources to the Leatherworker. But generally, you can sell the resources in an Auction House and make a profit.

Survival Hunter Best Leveling Consumables

Providing that as a Survival Hunter you max First Aid and thus are able to heal via bandages, you do not need any special potions or flasks for this purpose. What would be truly helpful is keeping an Agility boost at hand. There are options for Cataclysm Classic elixirs for characters at any level.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Talent Builds

Survival Hunter has more points to spend in Talent Trees than any other Hunter spec. While organizing talent loadout for WoW Classic Cataclysm Survival Hunter Build, we are going to focus mainly on our Survival Tree with only a few additions from Beast Mastery And Marksmanship Trees.

Survival Hunter DPS Build 3/1/32: the best DPS Survival Hunter Build for increased damage.

WoW Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Talents may vary. Sometimes Survival Tactics talent can be skipped, but it’s generally up to you. If you prefer to play around traps and maneuver around enemies using your backflip, you can still spend a point on this talent. The same goes for Point of No Escape, which increases your Critical Strike chance on trapped targets.

Survival Hunter Glyphs

Cataclysm Classic Glyphs for Survival Hunter remain the same since the Leveling phase, as they are adjusted to your most-used abilities, empowering them.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Stats

Stat Priority for Survival Hunter in Cataclysm Classic is as follows:

1. Agility
2. Hit Rating
3. Haste Rating until Soft Cap
4. Critical Strike Rating
5. Haste Rating
6. Mastery

With Agility being at the top of the list as our one and only significant attribute, the primary target in Survival Hunter’s gameplay is choosing gear and weapon options that increase the stats rate. Agility plays a vital role in the viability and general survivability of Survival Hunter, as well as in damage boosting.

Secondary Stats for Survival Hunter

• Hit Rating: the hit cap is 8% (961 Hit Rating), this it’s the desired destination we want to reach by gearing up. This stat is important due to the spells used as our auto-attack-like skills:  Auto Shot, Arcane Shot, and Steady Shot.
• Haste Rating: with a soft cap at 757 Haste Rating, it’s beneficial to our rotation. Thanks to this, we can cast 3 Cobra Shots between Explosive Shots. It’s also for the regen of our primary resource, as the Focus Cost rises on upper levels. Reforging the excess is equally important.
• Critical Strike Rating: each 180 Crit Strike Rating equals to 1% Critical Strike. It mostly affects our pet companion, yet we also want to increase the amounts of damage we deal.
• Mastery: finally, it is our lowest priority due to the insignificant amount of benefits requiring a high Mastery rate.

Gearing Advice for Survival Hunter

As was already mentioned in our Guide for WoW Classic Cataclysm Survival Hunter, while gearing you should stick to the idea of getting items that provide the biggest Agility bonus, to provide the coveted bonus damage.

What else you can to do gear up effectively and fruitfully?

• Always accept only Mail armor. Even if an NPC insists on other options as a quest reward, prioritize Mail from the very start of the game. It boosts our Agility rates and, what’s more, helps melee Survival Hunter to withstand fights better.
• Reforge the stats on your items for better performance. And again, watch for the Haste Rating to reforge the excess into other stats.
• Get on board with other players and start Raiding to obtain BiS Gear. The Best in Slot (BiS) gear list is packed with items primarily found in raids, so you definitely should participate in this type of Cataclysm Classic content.
• Statistically, you have more chances to obtain desired items from Blackwing Descent Raid.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Best Race

Optimal race choice really matters in Cataclysm Classic, as it can alter your gaming experience by adding utility to the chosen character. Survival Hunters, in particular, can benefit from the races listed below.

Alliance

• Worgen — First appeared in Cataclysm, this Race is considered versatile and adaptable. It makes a good Alliance Survival Hunter due to Viciousness bonus and extra mobility from Darkflight.
• Draenei — Provide a generally good bonus by their Heroic Presence ability. The Hit Rating provided by Draenei helps to reach the cap a bit faster, and the excess can be reforged into another useful stat.
• Night Elf — There’s a belief that the first Hunters were precisely Night Elves. This lore fact and their racial abilities Shadowmeld and Quickness make Survival Hunters in Cataclysm Classic very evasive, adding to your defensive and utility spells like Feign Death. And Wisp Spirit is just convenient if you want to cut on release time upon death.

Horde

• Troll — In the Cataclysm Classic expansion, Horde players have an advantageous option to pick a Troll character, as this race has an exclusive weapon choice. Additionally, Bow Specialization makes Troll almost imbalanced opponents for the enemies, as the BiS list is full of suitable weapons. Paired with  Berserking, it becomes a weapon of mass destruction in Azeroth. Beast Slaying racial can be useful when farming or in dungeons.
• Orc — Our 2nd best option, which stacks perfectly with the pets. Command helps to provide bonus damage, and Blood Fury empowers the Hunter itself.
• Goblin — This can be a good choice for sV Hunter as the attack speed can be increased by Time is Money, which is just what Survival Hunter needs. Rocket Jump makes you even more mobile. Try to combine it with the backflip to see what happens.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Gems & Enchants

Gems and enchants play a pivotal role in fine-tuning Survival Hunter Cata Classic performance. Well-chosen gems can boost our stats and abilities, and this is crucial for mastering the end-game challenges.

Enchanting can not be overestimated; the best you can do is level this profession to the max and enjoy all the benefits of being a master in this craft.

Best Gems for Survival Hunter

• Meta Gem: Agile Shadowspirit Diamond provides agility and a 3% boost to critical damage, which is highly desired for SV Hunters in Cataclysm, with no alternatives that come close in effectiveness.
• Red: If you opted for Jewelcrafting as one of your professions, you’ll have access to 3x Delicate Chimera’s Eye, which is preferable. However, if you did not, Delicate Inferno Ruby is the go-to gem for most slots, except where noted otherwise.
• Yellow: Orange gems are rarely used, mostly when Deadly Ember Topaz unlocks a socket bonus of +10 agility or higher. If the bonus falls short, a red gem is the preferred choice.
• Blue: Glinting Demonseye finds its place at the bottom of the prioritized gems basket and is only suitable when the Blue socket offers +10 agility or more.

Best Enchants for Survival Hunter

Most of the Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter’s enchants prioritize Agility, and are easily obtainable. Some of them, however, are specifically crafted. In any case, make sure to enchant every piece of gear to ensure that your DPS is at max level.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Consumables & Buffs

When crafting or buying potions and elixirs at the Auction House, always prioritize those that provide Agility buffs. Although the variety of consumables is somewhat limited, this makes it easier to remember our must-haves. For a Survival Hunter in Cataclysm Classic, the right pack of consumables translates to additional damage potential.

Best Consumables for Survival Hunter

Flasks and Elixirs

• Flask of the Winds — +300 Agility

Food

• Skewered Eel — +90 Agility, +90 Stamina
• Seafood Magnifique Feast — +90 Stamina, +90 Useful stat
• Fortune Cookie — +90 Stamina, +90 Useful stat

Potions

• Potion of the Tol’vir — +1200 Agility for 25 sec

The food options are numerous, and the buffs that you gain after eating are a must-have. Learn the Cooking Profession and provide yourself with an endless food supply.

Raid Buffs

What we are looking for when getting buffed in Raid Encounters, is our personal damage increase. Simulations and player’s experience show, that Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter is amongst the top DPS dealers, and what partially makes them stand out of the crowd is the right choice of Raid buffs, and allies, of course.

Enemy Debuffs

Debuffing Cataclysm Classic enemies is just as useful, as boosting yourself. Whether it’s weakening Boss abilities or Armor reduction, everything will do.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Best Professions

The tier list of professions in the Cataclysm Classic expansion consists of the same best options, which are beneficial for any class. The same goes with the Survival Hunter.

• Engineering — remains one of the top professions in Cataclysm Classic, offering numerous benefits for Survival Hunters. One of the standout items is the Deadly Bio-Optic Killshades, a powerful pre-raid BiS helmet. Another perk is for our Agility levels — Synapse Springs, an on-use glove enchant that boosts your Agility by 480 for 12 seconds.
• Jewelcrafting — continues to be the best secondary profession throughout the Cataclysm for now. Our interest in training Jewelcrafting is the ability to use 3x Delicate Dragon’s Eye gems, allowing to increase the Agility of the character.
• Blacksmithing — retains its value by offering extra sockets for your bracers and gloves through the Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves enhancements. Additional sockets are a must-have in Cataclysm Classic, as we want to add as many powerful gems as possible. Pair this prof with Mining to be able to grind resources effectively!

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Rotation

In WoW Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunters are excellent damage dealers, and to maintain substantial single target or AoE damage you have to understand and memorize the rotation. In this Survival Hunter Rotation Guide, you will get all the necessary information and be ready to participate in any encounter.

We are going to use 2 Aspects to support our Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter rotation: Aspect of the Hawk and Aspect of the Fox which slightly affect your ability priority. The first one is excellent to shoot from the distance with a Sniper Training buff on, which means we shouldn’t move. The second one is better when you move, as it doesn’t interrupt your Cobra Shot while strafing and running.

Survival Hunter Cooldowns

Survival Hunters in Cataclysm Classic have a versatile toolkit, featuring both damage cooldowns and utility abilities. We unquestionably want to survive a fight and face no downtime, therefore our cooldowns matter a lot.

Abilities for Survival Hunter in Cataclysm

The Survival Hunter Abilities are basically all the essentials mentioned in the rotation.

• Kill Shot: the execute ability for targets below 20% HP, but Explosive Shot remains the priority.
• Serpent Sting: is essential to maintain, though it’s passively prolonged via Cobra Shot.
• Explosive Shot: is the core of your damage, always the highest priority ability except in large multi-target encounters.
• Cobra Shot: a new filler ability that regenerates Focus and refreshes Serpent Sting duration.
• Black Arrow: deals massive Single Target damage and is mostly used in single-target rotations.
• Explosive Trap: is valuable in multi-target encounters with a 60-second duration.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter PvP

Crowd control via traps, utilities like Flare, and the closest-to-the-top DPS of Survival Hunter in Cataclysm Classic build the groundwork for PvP participation. The burst damage spells and Kill Shot make your character an excellent fighter.

The viability of the Survival Hunter is questioned, though. Hence, you need to pair it with another burst DPS to end the enemy in seconds, or a Tank with controlling capabilities to keep the target away from you, allowing you to do your shooting job from afar.

Cataclysm Classic Survival Hunter Macros

Survival Hunters have an impressive variety of macros, used for any situation. You may find most of them useful because you must control your pet and play around your rotation. Using macros can make your playing experience more convenient and pleasant after all. Make sure to check what suits you best from the mentioned variants.

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Summing up, in this Survival Hunter Guide for Cataclysm Classic expansion, we took a closer look at all the aspects of SV Hunter gameplay to set you up for success. Stat priorities and gearing, abilities and macros — it all will come in handy when you begin your Cata Adventures. Now, it’s time to start your long-awaited adventure and master the Survival Hunter in Cataclysm Classic.