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Survival Hunter
Mirrors the current rank-1 Sinister Single parse — every slot is what the best Survival Hunter actually wears.
Hero tree: Sentinel
Stat priority: Critical Strike > Mastery > Haste > Versatility
Content: Raid
How it plays
- You press Kill Command more than anything else — about 14 times a minute — but the damage lands on Wildfire Bomb, which is 40% of the total.
- Damage is concentrated — the top three abilities are 70% of it, so protecting those casts matters more than squeezing the filler.
Measured on the reference parse below, not a description of the spec — so it changes when the tuning does.
Stat priority
Critical Strike > Mastery > Haste > Versatility
These are not weights pulled from a spreadsheet — they are the live ratings on the reference character this build is taken from, so the order reflects what the best-performing Survival Hunter is actually stacking right now.
Source: Giftiauwu — the log. Rank 1 Survival Hunter on Sinister Single (Dummy Dome), avg ilvl 336.
Talent build
Laid out exactly as the in-game talent UI draws it, hero tree Sentinel. Lit nodes and gold lines are the path this build takes; everything dimmed was passed over. Hover any node for what it does.
Hunter · 34 points
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Sentinel · 13 points
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Survival · 34 points
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Rotation
Tip of the Spear is the resource.
Kill Command makes stacks, and almost everything worth pressing wants to be spent through one.
Make stacks
Kill Command whenever you are out of Tip of the Spear, and again just before
Takedown comes up.
Spend them
Takedown with a stack up — it is the biggest single hit you have.
Boomstick through a stack.
Wildfire Bomb through a stack, and before it caps charges.
Raptor Strike to spend whatever is left.
Cooldowns
Takedown is the window — trinkets and racials go with it, not on their own cooldown.
Moonlight Chakram and Flamefang Pitch through a stack when they line up.
Priority
Wildfire Bomb first and often — do not let it sit at full charges.
Kill Command to keep stacks coming.
Boomstick through a stack.
Raptor Strike with Raptor Swipe to cleave.
Cooldowns
- Unchanged.
Takedown is still the window and still wants a stack behind it.
- Pressing anything without a Tip of the Spear stack when one was a global away is the whole spec's failure mode.
Openers
Single target
Kill Command for the first stack.
Wildfire Bomb through it.
Takedown with trinkets.
Kill Command and
Raptor Strike into the normal priority.
How much damage, and where
The same best-in-slot profile below, simulated across four fights on our own SimulationCraft build. A spec's number moves with the fight — and each card opens its full report: DPS timeline, buffs, and a Copy-SimC button to reproduce it in Raidbots. Compare every spec →
Where the damage comes from
Measured on the reference log — a 300-second single-target parse. Worth comparing against the rotation above: the button you press most is rarely the one doing the most.
| Ability | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire Bomb | 39.5% | |
| Raptor Strike | 18% | |
| Amethyst | 12.1% | |
| Lunar Storm | 5.9% | |
| Moonlight Chakram | 4.9% | |
| Perfected Guillotine | 4.6% | |
| Kill Command | 4.4% | |
| Melee | 3.8% | |
| Boomstick | 3.5% | |
| Venomfang | 1.5% | |
| Takedown | 0.8% | |
| Halazzi's Claws | 0.3% |
Source: Sinister Single, 300s.
Best in slot
The finished loadout, built by Pathfinder — the strongest item available for every slot, with the item level to chase and where it drops. 336 average item level across 15 slots, gathered from 2 places.
Where to spend bonus rolls as Survival Hunter
A Voidcore pays out an item every time — the question is only whether it is one you wanted. For this build, in order:
Roll Entombed Sentinels — 3 of its 3 drops are on your list
Every roll here lands something on the list — this boss cannot miss. In The Venomous Abyss, it owes you neck, hands and trinket 2.
Then Sszorak — 3 of its 3 drops are on your list
Every roll here lands something on the list — this boss cannot miss. In The Venomous Abyss, it owes you legs, feet and ring 2.
The general principles behind this — knockout protection, why finishing one boss beats spreading rolls, and the crests a roll quietly costs you — are in the bonus roll guide.
Week-by-week route
- Pre-season: the campaign, a world tour of Mythic 0s for a 292 loadout, and the weekly Spark quest. No Myth crests exist yet — bank the Spark.
- Week 1: farm +10 keys to a full Hero 3/6 (311) loadout and fill the vault. You open the week holding two full Sparks, so craft Adherent's Silken Shroud and Aetherlume Bracelets back to back if your Myth crests cover both infusions. Every Hero crest goes into lifting pieces toward 6/6 (321).
- Week 2: first Voidcore — roll Entombed Sentinels, where 3 of 3 drops are on this list. Catalyse the set slots for the 4-set. No new Spark this week — the next whole one banks in Week 3.
- Weeks 3–6: one Voidcore a week down the order above — finish a boss before starting the next. Keep spending Hero crests; every slot should sit at 321 by about Week 6.
- Week 7 onward: two Voidcores a week (the vault and Orin Straylight). Roll Myth-track bases in the set slots, re-catalyse them, and take each to 6/6 for 80 Myth and 20 Hero crests.
- Late season: Zul'jin's Guillotine Technique and Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury come from the last two bosses at Myth 9 (344). Secure the base items early — that is the only place the extra three ranks exist.
The fast variant
Same stat priority, 3 slots moved. Pathfinder builds the list above for raw power and does not care how many bosses that takes; Slate prices the route as well, and takes an equal-strength item from a boss you are already farming over one that sends you somewhere new. It visits 2 places against the strongest list's 2, at 337 average item level against 336.
- Neck — Aqirbane Reliquary instead of Sentinel's Vitriolic Chain
- Chest — Awoken Dreadfang Cuirass instead of Ophidian Fangmail
- Main hand — Abyssal Broodfiend's Bardiche instead of Maze-roa, Warlord's Fury
Load this into a plan
GearPath can load this build straight into a full season plan — the BiS list, the talents, and the route — then price it against the crests, sparks and vault choices you will actually earn, and tell you when the plan is impossible. Free while in open beta.