04-21-2008, 02:41 PM
It's sad and depressing to see how un-updated this section is. So I'm going to talk a bit about Survival Hunters. Bear in mind that this commentary is purely from the standpoint of a PvE player.
Survival is an extremely rewarding spec to play. The tree awards its faithful with a number of unique and creative ways to deal with situations that other types of Hunters don't get to enjoy. We lack the immediate damage spike potential of Marksmen, and the frenetic simplicity of Beast Masters, but I'd like to think we have a certain degree of elegance and tactical potential that substantially makes up for it.
First off, we're extremely difficult to kill. Even when your raid wipes, there's a decent to excellent chance that your repair bill won't even take a hit. Even if Feign Death (and its subsequent best friend, Readiness) fails, you've still got the benefit of high health, extremely high agility, and better armor than most other DPS classes. This translates to a very forgiving class, as far as dumb mistakes go. If you stay alive longer, your damage output is better.
Second, we're good for more than just DPS. Survival Hunters are extremely utilitarian. Trap Spec makes us the most reliable CC in the game, and we can also effectively kite. We have more abilities to impede or redirect enemy movement than any other class: Misdirect, Wing Clip, Concussive Shot, Counterattack, Freezing Trap, and Frost Trap all immediately come to mind.
So now, a breakdown of the Survival Talents, and my thoughts on each:
Hawk Eye: Many players firmly believe that this is a must-have; I'm of the opinion that this is highly overrated. Extended range in PvP is great, but in PvE you can take a few steps forward or back to correct range and avoidance of enemy auras. The few extra seconds of shooting that this talent buys you in select situations really isn't worth the talent points. They are better spent elsewhere.
Humanoid/Monster Slaying: Pretty simple and straightforward. Both of these are a good points dump to open up the next tier, but as passive abilities they really don't require much analysis.
Savage Strikes: I'm told that this one is favored by PvP survivalists. The idea is to startle your opponent when they close in with a big melee crit, then Wing Clip them and haul away. As a PvE Survivalist, I'm not a huge fan: if something comes after me, it's because I've made a mistake. Feign Death FTW.
Deflection: Another passive ability, but also a good place to put points. It increases your overall survivability and ultimately should be taken in order to make Counterattack more effective.
Entrapment: Not a place I've ever put points. If I want a target to stop moving, I have a trap that does that automatically. Putting points into giving rarely-used DPS traps a chance of doing the same isn't valuable to me. I want to direct the battle, not be given a chance of getting lucky on something.
Improved Wing Clip: See Entrapment. One of the best things about Survival is that you can really control the direction of a fight. That hinges, however, on having reliable abilities. Wing Clip is great for slowing targets down, and that's good enough for me.
Clever Traps: A given, as far as I'm concerned. The increased duration of the Freezing Traps means that we can now chain-trap targets, keeping them CCed for as long as necessary.
Survivalist: Again, a given. Extra health means you stay alive longer and survive unlucky situations. This, in turn, increases DPS, because a dead hunter contributes nothing to a raid.
Deterrence: Such a good, good talent. It virtually guarantees a counterattack, and can totally save your bacon.
Trap Mastery: If you take Clever Traps, you might as well grab this one too. It makes you an even more effective CCer, and since you need to grab a mob's aggro to CC it, then you don't want to fail to trap it.
Surefooted: Good because it opens up your gear options. The resist snare ability isn't really all that relevant to a PvEer, but with Surefooted you can choose Agility, Attack Power, and Crit rating over Hit rating gear.
Improved Feign Death: Vital, for reasons that should be self-evident. The tree is called "survival" for a reason.
Killer Instinct: So much of Survival's DPS comes from crits. This is a great talent, and pairs very well with the Marksmanship first-tier talent Lethal Shots.
Counterattack: Fantastic ability. Coupled with Deterrence and Deflection, you can turn a melee attack on its head by rooting the enemy in place.
Resourcefulness: The mana boost is nice, but the improved cooldown on traps can make your CC much more effective, and save you burning the cooldown on your Readiness.
Lightning Reflexes: An absolute must. Agi increases your attack power, crit rating, and armor. Most importantly of all, it increases the bonus from Expose Weakness, which is arguably the best raid DPS debuff in the game.
Thrill of the Hunt: A decent talent, if you have mana issues. You'll be critting a lot, so you'll be getting a lot of mana back.
Wyvern Sting: A silly ability if you don't PvP. It can make a nice backup if your trap fails, but when the Sleep wears off the mob will become extremely hard to CC due to the DoT. Clever players will knock the DoT off with a non-DoT Sting, like Viper or Scorpid.
Expose Weakness: This is the reason that your friends want you to play Survival. Expose Weakness is phenomenal because it applies a debuff to the enemy rather than a buff to the party: EVERYONE in the raid benefits, rather than just your party. This is especially huge in 25-mans. Given the crit rate of most well-geared Survival Hunters, you can more or less count on this Debuff being in place for the duration of the fight.
Master Tactitian: Crits are the backbone of the Survival Class, and anything that increases your Crit chance is super super good.
Readiness: The potential of this ability is only limited by its cooldown. I can't say how many times Readiness has saved my life, either with a second chance at Feign Death, or setting down a new trap. Readiness takes your utilitarian abilities and makes them almost completely reliable.
Survival is an extremely rewarding spec to play. The tree awards its faithful with a number of unique and creative ways to deal with situations that other types of Hunters don't get to enjoy. We lack the immediate damage spike potential of Marksmen, and the frenetic simplicity of Beast Masters, but I'd like to think we have a certain degree of elegance and tactical potential that substantially makes up for it.
First off, we're extremely difficult to kill. Even when your raid wipes, there's a decent to excellent chance that your repair bill won't even take a hit. Even if Feign Death (and its subsequent best friend, Readiness) fails, you've still got the benefit of high health, extremely high agility, and better armor than most other DPS classes. This translates to a very forgiving class, as far as dumb mistakes go. If you stay alive longer, your damage output is better.
Second, we're good for more than just DPS. Survival Hunters are extremely utilitarian. Trap Spec makes us the most reliable CC in the game, and we can also effectively kite. We have more abilities to impede or redirect enemy movement than any other class: Misdirect, Wing Clip, Concussive Shot, Counterattack, Freezing Trap, and Frost Trap all immediately come to mind.
So now, a breakdown of the Survival Talents, and my thoughts on each:
Hawk Eye: Many players firmly believe that this is a must-have; I'm of the opinion that this is highly overrated. Extended range in PvP is great, but in PvE you can take a few steps forward or back to correct range and avoidance of enemy auras. The few extra seconds of shooting that this talent buys you in select situations really isn't worth the talent points. They are better spent elsewhere.
Humanoid/Monster Slaying: Pretty simple and straightforward. Both of these are a good points dump to open up the next tier, but as passive abilities they really don't require much analysis.
Savage Strikes: I'm told that this one is favored by PvP survivalists. The idea is to startle your opponent when they close in with a big melee crit, then Wing Clip them and haul away. As a PvE Survivalist, I'm not a huge fan: if something comes after me, it's because I've made a mistake. Feign Death FTW.
Deflection: Another passive ability, but also a good place to put points. It increases your overall survivability and ultimately should be taken in order to make Counterattack more effective.
Entrapment: Not a place I've ever put points. If I want a target to stop moving, I have a trap that does that automatically. Putting points into giving rarely-used DPS traps a chance of doing the same isn't valuable to me. I want to direct the battle, not be given a chance of getting lucky on something.
Improved Wing Clip: See Entrapment. One of the best things about Survival is that you can really control the direction of a fight. That hinges, however, on having reliable abilities. Wing Clip is great for slowing targets down, and that's good enough for me.
Clever Traps: A given, as far as I'm concerned. The increased duration of the Freezing Traps means that we can now chain-trap targets, keeping them CCed for as long as necessary.
Survivalist: Again, a given. Extra health means you stay alive longer and survive unlucky situations. This, in turn, increases DPS, because a dead hunter contributes nothing to a raid.
Deterrence: Such a good, good talent. It virtually guarantees a counterattack, and can totally save your bacon.
Trap Mastery: If you take Clever Traps, you might as well grab this one too. It makes you an even more effective CCer, and since you need to grab a mob's aggro to CC it, then you don't want to fail to trap it.
Surefooted: Good because it opens up your gear options. The resist snare ability isn't really all that relevant to a PvEer, but with Surefooted you can choose Agility, Attack Power, and Crit rating over Hit rating gear.
Improved Feign Death: Vital, for reasons that should be self-evident. The tree is called "survival" for a reason.
Killer Instinct: So much of Survival's DPS comes from crits. This is a great talent, and pairs very well with the Marksmanship first-tier talent Lethal Shots.
Counterattack: Fantastic ability. Coupled with Deterrence and Deflection, you can turn a melee attack on its head by rooting the enemy in place.
Resourcefulness: The mana boost is nice, but the improved cooldown on traps can make your CC much more effective, and save you burning the cooldown on your Readiness.
Lightning Reflexes: An absolute must. Agi increases your attack power, crit rating, and armor. Most importantly of all, it increases the bonus from Expose Weakness, which is arguably the best raid DPS debuff in the game.
Thrill of the Hunt: A decent talent, if you have mana issues. You'll be critting a lot, so you'll be getting a lot of mana back.
Wyvern Sting: A silly ability if you don't PvP. It can make a nice backup if your trap fails, but when the Sleep wears off the mob will become extremely hard to CC due to the DoT. Clever players will knock the DoT off with a non-DoT Sting, like Viper or Scorpid.
Expose Weakness: This is the reason that your friends want you to play Survival. Expose Weakness is phenomenal because it applies a debuff to the enemy rather than a buff to the party: EVERYONE in the raid benefits, rather than just your party. This is especially huge in 25-mans. Given the crit rate of most well-geared Survival Hunters, you can more or less count on this Debuff being in place for the duration of the fight.
Master Tactitian: Crits are the backbone of the Survival Class, and anything that increases your Crit chance is super super good.
Readiness: The potential of this ability is only limited by its cooldown. I can't say how many times Readiness has saved my life, either with a second chance at Feign Death, or setting down a new trap. Readiness takes your utilitarian abilities and makes them almost completely reliable.