Survival Hunter DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

DPS Rotation & Cooldowns

This rotation offers a general priority list for Survival Hunter abilities, along with key cooldowns at the bottom. It's based on a standard build and is here to help while we work on a smarter, build-aware system. If you are very new to the game or this class, we added info on the new assisted rotation features at the bottom of this guide. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: The War Within (11.1.7).

Single Target

Ensure Hunters Mark is active on the target before starting.

Use on cooldown to generate Tip Of The Spear stacks.
Use if it is about to reach 2 charges or during Lunar Storm.
Use on cooldown, ideally after Coordinated Assault.
Use with Tip Of The Spear stacks.
Use on cooldown with Tip Of The Spear.
Use during Mongoose Fury or as a filler.
Use whenever available.
Use as a filler if nothing else is available.

Maintain Kill Command for Tip Of The Spear stacks, use Wildfire Bomb efficiently, and prioritize Spearhead and Coordinated Assault for burst. Fill gaps with Mongoose Bite or Raptor Strike.

AoE

Ensure Hunters Mark is active and build Tip Of The Spear stacks before engaging.

Use all charges at the start and on cooldown.
Use on cooldown for AoE damage.
Use on cooldown after dumping Wildfire Bomb charges.
Use on cooldown, ideally after Coordinated Assault.
Use on cooldown with Tip Of The Spear.
Use with 1-2 Tip Of The Spear stacks.
Use on cooldown.
Use to generate Tip Of The Spear stacks or as a filler.
Use as a filler if nothing else is available.

Focus on Wildfire Bomb and Butchery for AoE, followed by Coordinated Assault and Spearhead for burst. Use Fury Of The Eagle and Flanking Strike with Tip Of The Spear stacks.

Cooldowns

Use on cooldown, ideally after dumping Wildfire Bomb charges.
Use on cooldown, preferably after Coordinated Assault.
Use on cooldown with Tip Of The Spear stacks.

Use Coordinated Assault and Spearhead for burst phases, and Fury Of The Eagle with Tip Of The Spear for high-impact damage.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

Single-Button Assistant
Assisted Highlight
Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.