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Survival Hunter Talents

engine 53f4a3c10,000 iterations12 Octbenchmark on 1 boss · 1 minbeta data: unverified until level 60 opensupdated 12 Oct 2026How this is measured

· 1 boss · 1 min · Pre-raidcommunity build

On a one-minute single-boss fight the build is 5/13/33. Most of it is Survival, down to Lacerating Strikes with Expose Prey and Strider Kick on the way. Marksmanship gets just enough for Lone Wolf, and Beast Mastery five points for Deadly Aspects.

Tuned 5/13/33 · 1 minOpen in the sim
Night Elf on 1 boss · 1 min · 5-005115001-503200230250022151

The search tunes a build for every fight and faction, and all of them share the same 49 points. The last two wander between talents that buy nothing in a boss fight.

Why these talents

Lone Wolf is the reason the build has no pet: 20 % more damage with every attack while none is out. It is worth 16.7 %, one of the two biggest values in the build with Expose Prey. Dismiss your pet before the pull. The ten Marksmanship points above it are not wasted, because Lethal Attacks (4.8 %) is 5 % crit on every attack and Careful Aim (6.1 %) turns all of your Intellect into attack power.

Expose Prey gives each hit you land on a target with Hunter's Mark a 10 % chance to open Mongoose Bite for 10 seconds. Mongoose Bite otherwise needs you to dodge, and in a raid the boss is hitting the tank. Its value is 15.3 %, of which the second point is 4.8 %. Lacerating Strikes hangs on it too: each bite also bleeds the boss for 40 % of its damage over 21 seconds, worth 2.3 %.

Predator's Edge makes your abilities and the bleed crit for 2.3 times their damage instead of 2, and raises the off hand from half damage to three quarters. The game data leaves your white swings out of the crit bonus. It is worth 13.5 %.

Deadly Aspects only works with Aspect of the Beast up. Then every white swing that lands has a 10 % chance to start Quick Strikes, 30 % faster melee attacks for 12 seconds, and the buff covers 72.9 % of the fight. Windfury Totem's extra swings roll it too, Raptor Strike doesn't. The five points are worth 9.6 %.

Strider Kick is a kick for your main hand's full normalized weapon damage on an 8-second cooldown, worth 6.3 %. Its rotation line is worth far more, 17.2 %, because the Wing Clip line waits on Strider Kick's cooldown and stops when the kick isn't cast.

Improved Tracking adds 5 % damage against whatever creature type you have tracked, for 4.8 %. Our simulator assumes the boss's type is always tracked, so switch the right tracking on before the pull.

The rest of the core is Lightning Reflexes (2.9 %), Surefooted (4.5 %) and Survivalist's Discipline (1.5 %). Surefooted's 3 % hit is part of what gets you to the 9 % your abilities need. Survivalist's Discipline cuts the trap cooldown from 30 seconds to 18.

Flexible points

  • The last two points. The search puts them into Efficiency, Resourcefulness, Rapid Killing, Improved Stings or Hawk Eye, depending on the fight, and every one of them is worth nothing. You never run short of mana, and Rapid Killing's shorter Rapid Fire cooldown doesn't fit a second Rapid Fire into a three-minute fight. Spend them on whatever helps you outside the boss.
  • Entrapment. Three points that open the third Survival row. The root they add does nothing to a boss.
  • Survival Tactics. Ten percent more hit on your traps for two points, worth 0.5 %. It is the smallest gain in the build that is still a gain, so it goes before any of the free points above.
  • Clever Traps and Savage Strikes are worth 1.5 % and 1.5 %, more than any free point, so keep them.

What each talent is worth

Every row is a rerun of the build with that talent taken out. Each one measures only its own points, so the column doesn't sum to your damage. To place a spare point, look at "last point" instead.

TalentPointsWorthIts last point
Lone Wolf1+167 DPS · 16.7 %–
Expose Prey2+154 DPS · 15.3 %+49 DPS · 4.8 %
Predator's Edge5+136 DPS · 13.5 %+28 DPS · 2.8 %
Deadly Aspects5+96 DPS · 9.6 %+12 DPS · 1.1 %
Strider Kick1+63 DPS · 6.3 %–
Careful Aim5+62 DPS · 6.1 %+12 DPS · 1.2 %
Lethal Attacks5+48 DPS · 4.8 %+9.7 DPS · 1.0 %
Improved Tracking5+48 DPS · 4.8 %+9.6 DPS · 1.0 %
Surefooted3+46 DPS · 4.5 %+14 DPS · 1.4 %
Lightning Reflexes5+30 DPS · 2.9 %+5.7 DPS · 0.6 %
Lacerating Strikes1+24 DPS · 2.3 %–
Clever Traps2+15 DPS · 1.5 %+7.6 DPS · 0.8 %
each talent’s worth: the build without it, on the same simulated fights · Night Elf

On every fight

The other fights' builds keep the same 49 points and shuffle only the last two among the free talents above. No fight, one boss or three, moves a point that does anything. Below, each fight's build sits beside this one.

FightPointsFrom this fight’s build
5 / 13 / 33this fight
5 / 13 / 33+1 Rapid Killing, −1 Improved Stings
5 / 12 / 34+1 Resourcefulness, −1 Improved Stings
5 / 12 / 34+1 Hawk Eye, +1 Resourcefulness, −1 Improved Stings, −1 Efficiency
5 / 11 / 35+2 Resourcefulness, −1 Improved Stings, −1 Efficiency
5 / 13 / 33+1 Efficiency, −1 Improved Stings
each fight’s talents are searched for it
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Survival Hunter Talents

engine 53f4a3c10,000 iterations12 Octbenchmark on 1 boss · 1 minbeta data: unverified until level 60 opensupdated 12 Oct 2026How this is measured

· 1 boss · 1 min · Pre-raidcommunity build

On a one-minute single-boss fight the build is 5/13/33. Most of it is Survival, down to Lacerating Strikes with Expose Prey and Strider Kick on the way. Marksmanship gets just enough for Lone Wolf, and Beast Mastery five points for Deadly Aspects.

Tuned 5/13/33 · 1 minOpen in the sim
Night Elf on 1 boss · 1 min · 5-005115001-503200230250022151

The search tunes a build for every fight and faction, and all of them share the same 49 points. The last two wander between talents that buy nothing in a boss fight.

Why these talents

Lone Wolf is the reason the build has no pet: 20 % more damage with every attack while none is out. It is worth 16.7 %, one of the two biggest values in the build with Expose Prey. Dismiss your pet before the pull. The ten Marksmanship points above it are not wasted, because Lethal Attacks (4.8 %) is 5 % crit on every attack and Careful Aim (6.1 %) turns all of your Intellect into attack power.

Expose Prey gives each hit you land on a target with Hunter's Mark a 10 % chance to open Mongoose Bite for 10 seconds. Mongoose Bite otherwise needs you to dodge, and in a raid the boss is hitting the tank. Its value is 15.3 %, of which the second point is 4.8 %. Lacerating Strikes hangs on it too: each bite also bleeds the boss for 40 % of its damage over 21 seconds, worth 2.3 %.

Predator's Edge makes your abilities and the bleed crit for 2.3 times their damage instead of 2, and raises the off hand from half damage to three quarters. The game data leaves your white swings out of the crit bonus. It is worth 13.5 %.

Deadly Aspects only works with Aspect of the Beast up. Then every white swing that lands has a 10 % chance to start Quick Strikes, 30 % faster melee attacks for 12 seconds, and the buff covers 72.9 % of the fight. Windfury Totem's extra swings roll it too, Raptor Strike doesn't. The five points are worth 9.6 %.

Strider Kick is a kick for your main hand's full normalized weapon damage on an 8-second cooldown, worth 6.3 %. Its rotation line is worth far more, 17.2 %, because the Wing Clip line waits on Strider Kick's cooldown and stops when the kick isn't cast.

Improved Tracking adds 5 % damage against whatever creature type you have tracked, for 4.8 %. Our simulator assumes the boss's type is always tracked, so switch the right tracking on before the pull.

The rest of the core is Lightning Reflexes (2.9 %), Surefooted (4.5 %) and Survivalist's Discipline (1.5 %). Surefooted's 3 % hit is part of what gets you to the 9 % your abilities need. Survivalist's Discipline cuts the trap cooldown from 30 seconds to 18.

Flexible points

  • The last two points. The search puts them into Efficiency, Resourcefulness, Rapid Killing, Improved Stings or Hawk Eye, depending on the fight, and every one of them is worth nothing. You never run short of mana, and Rapid Killing's shorter Rapid Fire cooldown doesn't fit a second Rapid Fire into a three-minute fight. Spend them on whatever helps you outside the boss.
  • Entrapment. Three points that open the third Survival row. The root they add does nothing to a boss.
  • Survival Tactics. Ten percent more hit on your traps for two points, worth 0.5 %. It is the smallest gain in the build that is still a gain, so it goes before any of the free points above.
  • Clever Traps and Savage Strikes are worth 1.5 % and 1.5 %, more than any free point, so keep them.

What each talent is worth

Every row is a rerun of the build with that talent taken out. Each one measures only its own points, so the column doesn't sum to your damage. To place a spare point, look at "last point" instead.

TalentPointsWorth
Lone Wolf1+167 DPS · 16.7 %
Expose Prey2+154 DPS · 15.3 %
Predator's Edge5+136 DPS · 13.5 %
Deadly Aspects5+96 DPS · 9.6 %
Strider Kick1+63 DPS · 6.3 %
Careful Aim5+62 DPS · 6.1 %
Lethal Attacks5+48 DPS · 4.8 %
Improved Tracking5+48 DPS · 4.8 %
Surefooted3+46 DPS · 4.5 %
Lightning Reflexes5+30 DPS · 2.9 %
Lacerating Strikes1+24 DPS · 2.3 %
Clever Traps2+15 DPS · 1.5 %
each talent’s worth: the build without it, on the same simulated fights · Night Elf

On every fight

The other fights' builds keep the same 49 points and shuffle only the last two among the free talents above. No fight, one boss or three, moves a point that does anything. Below, each fight's build sits beside this one.

FightPointsFrom this fight’s build
5 / 13 / 33this fight
5 / 13 / 33+1 Rapid Killing, −1 Improved Stings
5 / 12 / 34+1 Resourcefulness, −1 Improved Stings
5 / 12 / 34+1 Hawk Eye, +1 Resourcefulness, −1 Improved Stings, −1 Efficiency
5 / 11 / 35+2 Resourcefulness, −1 Improved Stings, −1 Efficiency
5 / 13 / 33+1 Efficiency, −1 Improved Stings
each fight’s talents are searched for it