Just rolled my first Hunter and just dinged 40, right now im 29/11/0 with Bm and MM, i was thinking about going just BM for BW but then Wyvern sting caught my eye. Is Survival worth respeccing for any Situation? pvp, soloing, group, raid, etc... cane anyone help me out?

Survival is used for boosting CC (crowd control) as a hunter. you get a lot already just being the class that you are, but if you want a little more control over mobs than survival will help out.

Just remember that the way talent points are set up is to give you the ability to make your toon work best for how you play. Beast Mastery is great for lvling and soloing, MM gears you more for DPS, and surv like I said is great for CC. I personally stayed full BM till late 50s and tried out MM for pvp till 60... went back to BM till 70 and now for raids and heroics I stay MM/surv.

Hope this was helpful...

For some reason I thought survival was the funnest, im marksman right know because you dont do much damage in survival. The the point of survival is to do exactlly as it says, to survive. You dont die as quickly. You get really good new skills like readiness, which is a 5 min cooldown, and it completely finishes all the cooldowns on all of you cooling down abilities. You get counter attack which fricken rocks, and you can put stuff to sleep with Wyvern sting (which is a 2 min cooldown). And on top of every thing else your traps take 25 seconds to cooldown instead of 30 and it boosts the damage of traps. Also fiegn death is GARENTEED to work every time. Your mana regains alot faster, and mana cost goes down on every thing. Your dodge and parry is more likely to work. So this whole spec is based on trying to stay alive longer at the sacrafice of do less damage that you would do in Beast Mastery or Marksman....oh yeah and sorry for writing so much stuff.

everyones been right so far, survival does less damage, makes traps and melee more successful

beast mastery makes a hunters pet a better tank, and adds a lot of dps,

marksman focuses on the hunters dps, so not a big deal if pet goes down

survival focuses on effects of the hunter more then dps, so makes better crowd control, and escapability, when combined with good first aid, and engineering it's a great way to help groups from dealing with full wipes

you won't pull aggro often, and dropping it is going to be a breeze.

the biggest problem is that all hunters can already do the cc and aggro tosses pretty effectivly, and other classes can also handle specific cc better, so people prefer to have hunters around for the damage, then just learn how to make the survival aspects work in the lesser way

basically it makes the hard part of being a hunter easiy at the cost of the main purpose of being a dps class....dps

but if it's what you enjoy, by all means do it, just don't be surprised if  a lot of people tell you to switch

OMG-- i cant believe anyone didn't mention Expose Weakness--that skill alone gets u invited to 5 mans, 10 mans and raids.  Every time i crit (30.04% of the time unbuffed) a buff applies to the whole raid (not just the party)that increases attack power of all attackers by 1/4 of your agility.  Im running with 682 agility right now so that is +170.5 AP for everyone for seven seconds every time it procc's.  When u add in raid buffs this goes off the charts and the buff is up 75% of the time.

I agree good advice from everyone. I love survival spec. It is a must in raiding for longer and better traps. In kara if you fail to trap the whole grp could wipe. Wyrven sting is great for arena btw nothing better than putting someone to sleep for 12 sec plus a 1k dot. Expose weakness is the heart of the spec thats the whole point like the poster above me said. I was MM spec and when I switched loss about 230 RAP but well worth it I think for the gains. I still do top damage usually above other hunter specs btw. 1703 RAP 35% crit 732agi. For SV spec you MUST crit. higher agi higher expose weakness buff for party.

nice CC class. ice one, wyvern another and wing clip bonus is awesome. also crit heaps but crits not tht big.
i farm alot so i rolled BM. now im leveling pets so im MM

lol i think lexwheeler just doesnt like anyone's input.  ive seen him bashing on several threads.  its funny.  He/she must be an MM hunter who thinks he/she is almighty.  Yet another closed minded hunter (if he/she is even a hunter).  I would really like to know how many hunters have 800+ agility.  Im pretty sure its a lot less than 5% of the hunters in WOW.  600 agility is still a lot.  Lex, u must also consider that not everyone has access to high end raids for gear upgrades and im sure that having 600 agi without end game gear is pretty dmn good.  But hey what do I know....according to u im a noob and dont know what Im talking about, even tho ive been beating lvl 70s since lvl 59.  peace out and good day to u kind sir

ROFLMFAO!  Nicely done, its good to bash with out actually bashing!

lol i agree we all have to start from somewhere and you have to be a noob before your good, but some questions like how do i get a pet?
jeez

i also hate teh nooblets who don't know how to get a pet i hade to explain it to a complete noob(first character in WoW) for a few minutes so now i just hide my pet until i need it

i also find a 2H axe (bearded axe) on my lvl 17 hunter

umm lex what are u talking about with this macro stuff, i just want to know what it does and if it does anything how do i do it

well it castes ur steady shot, arcane shot and kill command when thair ability is ready for use....all u have to do is make the macro and set it to a button and just spam it and u will up ur dps

another good macro i made up last night that i found to be VERY good for a MM hunter!!!!

#showtooltip aimed shot
/castsequence steady shot, arcane shot
/castrandom[target=pettarget,exists] kill command
/castrandom aimed shot, serpent sting

this macro is for those who like to use aimed shot ALL the time...mostly MM hunters would use this macro but not limmited to

Great someone finaly put up a good macro! I'm done now shit about em so its great that someone would help with it...

*dont know

yes those r the 2 macros i use..one w/ BM and the other w/ MM...w/ haven both rdy for use whenever i switch spec is nice...b/c i dont have to think "did i f it up?..is it working right??" i alrdy know it is b/c i spent the time be4 hand.

when you reach 70 u can use macros cos face it pve is easy unless u aggro everyone. pvp i wouldnt use macros maybe in the BGs. if its easy then why not but if ur a noob maybe a little practice in knowing what to skills to use when is ideal.

I know this section got off onto macros....and i love the comments about how you are like autobotin, but blizzard makes this a very important part of the game, I use macros all the time and yes it makes it alot simplar the having to press a button to send my pet in, and then press a button again to get hunters mark, and then another for my autoshot to start, and u have to do this on every mob you come across in the game of wow, I must say that if you are complaining about macros(nanny's) then you probably have never used one...or may not even know how to make one, funny how we attack the things that make us look stupid. macros ....for all of you out there who have never used or built one....go to your web browser and type in..."Hunter's Macros"...and you will get a fountain of infomation

I would like to comment also how using macros will make pvp in the battlegrounds a blast and very helpful for targeting them rogues after they vanish...but serpent sting procs, and you got him back on your display, or you come up on a group fight and people are moving around and you cant get your mouse to click on anyone, but after a few trys, with a macro you can target the closest enemy in front of you, apply hunters mark, send in pet, and your autoshot is up and firing.......1 click......or would you prefer to do it the old fashion way...1 click at a time for each process....btw there are a bunch of macros out there, I prefer the macro i just mentioned because it leaves me with the choice on shot rotation...if there is a mana dependent player then viper sting may be in my shot rotation...if it is a rogue..then serpent sting would be my first choice...so I make my macros generic....(hunters mark, petattack, autoshot)....these are always going to happen to my enemy..so this is turned into a one click process and the rest is up to you

?

i have used macros and really dont care for them.  like i mentioned before (for some reason parts of my arguements always get lost), i dont like to use macros b/c things dont always go the way u plan.  ppl screw up in runs and u have to change things.  maybe u have to throw in a distract shot to save a healer, or go around and serpent sting more than one mob, or maybe u are in charge of grabbing adds.  one thing i argue about the post above is about using hunters mark on everything.  first off it uses mana that might be needed elsewhere in the fight, and secondly it takes up time to put up (whether macroed or not).  for each mark u put up thats one shot lost.  now how many times have we all been in a fight where there was 1% left of enemy but we died?  now think back, did u waste time to mark mid fight? if so u wasted one shot that could have kill em instead of u.  now if u put it up before engaging then thats a different story. but i dont understand marking every person in mob when they usually go down so fast, or when u are in a BG and every shot counts.  but im getting off topic of the off topic...the point is that this is a video game. how difficult is it to click a few extra buttons, especially when situations always change and u cant use a macro for every fight.  different groups and instances demand different things from hunter at different times.  personally i feel that macros trully show a lack of skill of a player.  If i ever duel or pvp against a player that uses macros, i gaurantee that i will beat them b/c i never do  the same thing over and over.  My randomness and ability to adapt is what has made me so successful in BGs and duels.  i will also out dps u in an instance b/c of my ability to adapt quickly to changes/mistakes, instead of fumbling around wondering where that non-macro button is.  again this is my personal opinion, if u want to use macros then go ahead.  im just trying to point out some of the faults and state that its not the way to go in every situation.

anyways peace out....oh yeah in case ppl are lost now....Survival is mainly for CC (crowd control), ice trap and wryven sting.  it also increases a hunter's survivability (health, armor, dodge, parry) so that its harder for u to get killed.  It also give u Exposed weakness as a group buff.  Increases agi.  and with the right gear (with tons of agi) this spec can be just as good at dps as the other 2 specs if used correctly.  another good point of SV is the improved traps.  and last but not least is prolly one of the coolest parts of SV:  its a spell called Readiness.  it automatically finishes the cool downs of everything u have.  this can be very useful in sticky situations.  hope this helps get back on topic.

lol don't disrespect other classes, all of the SV hunter's i've met were quite well good actually, it's an underestimated class i give it that, and since we all know if you can use your class to the best of it's abilities, reguardless of it's specialty, then go for it. Thanks

One thing, how many of you actually use Serpent Sting last in a cast sequence?  I don't use macros but I know I wouldn't use Serpent Sting last.  Serpent Sting is  DOT, I pop it first so it's doing damage while I hit Aimed, steady, or arcane shots. 




[quote]well it castes ur steady shot, arcane shot and kill command when thair ability is ready for use....all u have to do is make the macro and set it to a button and just spam it and u will up ur dps

another good macro i made up last night that i found to be VERY good for a MM hunter!!!!

#showtooltip aimed shot
/castsequence steady shot, arcane shot
/castrandom[target=pettarget,exists] kill command
/castrandom serpent sting

this macro is for those who like to use aimed shot ALL the time...mostly MM hunters would use this macro but not limmited to

[/quote]

i dont know if u were referto me stell but i love SV. If played corsserctly it can do the same dps as the others plus have ultimate CC which it at the higher lvls.

the only reason u use it last is b/c when u make a macro u have to use a templet or it wont work right.

u would use SS 1st but u would be casting it every sec that ur not able to cast anythin else which would just make u go oom...u have it on "/castrandom" so u only cast it about every 10-15 sec. but its random so u dont realy know when it will go off, but it's usely about 10-15 sec

So lex you are saying start out with 800 agi? Lmao wow I have about 600 agility on my sv hunter and i top bg charts and stay pretty high on dmg charts. Listen you get like an extra 150 - 200 agility when you go sv. I only had like 350 when i was bm then i got boosted to like 550. 800 agi is ridiculous to say you HAVE to start with that, it is nice to have, but it is not needed right away. You have to know how to play sv, why? Because it is a difficult class to play, but it pays off. I've tried all other specs and sv suits me. So instead of TELLING everyone how to play lex why don't you just give helpful information because telling people they NEED 800 agility is just bein a jack ass.

one more thing lex.....u said in a previous post that u know ppl that have 800 agi from gear from kara.  well i just looked up the gear drops from kara (including the token rewards) for hunters and im not too sure if it is possible with the gear from kara.  I went thru and added all of the agi from all of the items drops in kara, and then assuming that these ppl u know have the top agi chants, i also add all of those to the agi from kara gear.  the total came to 351 agi (im positive i had a couple of the same items together, like 2 pairs of gloves, so its prolly a lil less).  now i know kara gear is better than what i have for other stats but i have the same amount of agi as the items from kara with the agi chants....i currently get 350 agi from the gear i have with only the agi chant to cloak.  im just trying to point out that even if u have the top gear from certain raids and dungeons, its still tough to get 800 agi.  also just throwing out a few actual facts to help ppl see what im talking about.

i also forgot to link my toon in the last toon so here u go:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blade%27s+Edge&n=Nannys

600, 800 agi?  these are tough numbers to reach...at least to the cast majority of hunters out there that dont have access to the perks of engineer to get the helm or LW to get the better gear or access to get into raids.  trying to even get 500 agi can be tough for some that are just starting out in the game or cant get a hold of gear drops.  i would like for u to give us a list of items that will get a hunter 800 agi unbuffed.  im just curious as to what i have to do to get to 800.  I have just under 500 agi with my toon and i have several greens but no agi chants.  yeah, yeah im a noob for talking about anything for still using greens as a lvl 70, but right now those items help me the best for what im doing and b/c i dont have access to high end raids or heroics.  imo trying to get 800 agi is a very tough task for about 95% of the hunters out there.  u make it sound like anyone could get it with no prob.  u can tell people where to get gear but that doesnt mean that they can get in those places or that the item will even drop.

im also curious to see ur toon.  lex, if u dont mind, i would like to see u toon. so link ur armory when u get a chance.  my link is below.  i know it needs some work but i don't have access to many heroics or raids, b/c i am in a newer guild that is working on getting to bigger and better things.  thnx for ur time.  laters all and happing hunting.

Survival=PvP/utility in PvE(yes, diferent spec)
MM=PvP, mainly arena I heard, is dead in PvE though, maybe there stil a fiew who think MM is good in PvE, wel, not going to bother to proof them wrong.
BM=pure DPS spec for raids(41/20/00)

just some nice macros for a BM or really any hunter


#showtooltip kill command
/stopcasting
/cast kill command

basically it stops ur casting so KC can be used, better for a BM hunter, as MM or SV hunter's pets dont do much more dmg

#showtooltip feign death
/stopcasting
/cast feign death

basically a "o crao im aimed shotting and were gonan wipe" macro, very nice for everything

/cast Hunter's mark
/petattack
/startattack

the start attack is a diff comamnd, and i use a target macro (which i also forgot) to target a...well....thing.

#show Adamantite Stinger
/use Adamantite arrow maker

well this shows you ur ammo, just change the projectile name around if u use diff ammo, and if u dont use eng boxes then u kan get rid of the /use ....i hate running OoA!

a nice Misdirection Macro:
Note: set ur tank as the focus by selecting him/her and typing /focus

/s I am now Misdirecting to %f, so stay the @$*% away from it!!!
/cast misdirection [target=%f]

basic. also if ur an eng this works with the chickening ray

If u go SV u will need some agilty gear and enchants because thats what makes a sv hunter deadly agility between 550-800 unbuffed to be exact. The crit rating on SV hunters are amazing with right gear . I perfer SV/MM build . it depends on where u put the points in the SV tree . Do u go for better traps or for better melee damage.But its all about how u play ur toon

the key for survival is HP,if you have a lot of them,you get to live longer

the key for survival is AGILITY, just like every other hunter spec.  the extra health u get from SV is just an extra perk.

just wanted to make a quick point as someone who's tried both BM and SV. as far as the agility 600 - 800 is a pretty hih bar to set. i'm full BM at this point, got my gladiator set, Terok's Quill which has +50 agility, plus the +35 agility enchant to my weapon, and i just broke 700 agility. sure, once i get a few more enchants, maybe i can approach 750 or so, but thats just too high of a bar to set. i was SV for a good amount of time as a 70 hunter doing a lot of BG's and PVP. i switchedback to BM because nomatter what, as far as CC is concenred, people in instances are just not siwft enough to allow you to do your job. Wyvern sting, frost traps, ya, they work great for CC, but not when every dam person hits the enemy right afterwards and wakes them back up. i prefer BM/MM, but it all depends on your preference. i duel a buddy of mine with a 70 SV hunter all the time, and we bascially split 50/50 on our duel all the time. dependson the player, depends on your preference, some people are better at using certain specs than others, that's all.

Bottom line.... HUNTERS RULE!!!!

as to 600-800 agil being "hih bar" no....once u get all epics u should have atleast more than 600 agil..just gem right and just get gear that has agil on it and u should be fine

ok im going to close this out for once and for all...kara gear and getting to 700-800 agil w/ ench and gems!

helm: demon stalker greathelm 35 agil 1 socket 1 meta
neck: saberclaw talisman 21 agil
shoulder: beastmaw pauldrons 24 agil
chest: chestguard of the conniver 37 agil
back: drape of the dark reavers 24 agil
wrist: stalker's war bands 21 agil
hands: gloves of the dexterous manipulation 25 agil
waist: girdle of treachery 18 agil 2 sockets
legs: skalker's greaves 32 agil 3 sockets
boots: friend slayer boots 26 agil 2 sockets
ring: garona's signet 20 agil
1H wep: blade of the unrequited 3 sockets
1H wep: emerald ripper 19 agil

agil from gear w/out gems or ench: 331
agil from gems: 122
agil from ench: 97
total agil from gear/gems/ench: 550
hunters base agil: 156

total agil w/ spec(15% more agil) and gear:812

WAIT thats more then 700-800 and w/ only 1 ring??? i must have did something wrong b/c Nannys09 said

"one more thing lex.....u said in a previous post that u know ppl that have 800 agi from gear from kara." well i just looked up the gear drops from kara (including the token rewards) for hunters and im not too sure if it is possible with the gear from kara."

"im just trying to point out that even if u have the top gear from certain raids and dungeons, its still tough to get 800 agi."

but wait..i just got to 812 agil from just kara gear, now how can that be?

i think u should do some more homework Nannys09

oh and nanny heres ur post u asked for :-)

don't do much dps?
l2p.
i'm running 41/20 surv marks, consistently hitting 1k dps on boss fights.
granted, the bm hunters should be out dps'ing me, but 1k dps plus the raid buff from ew can't be beat.

ya i used to be a BM/MM 41/20 hunter and put out 750-950 dps in 5-mans and 950-1200 dps in 25-mans but i wanted to try the SV spec out and i found a balance that works nice for me 750 agil, 2300 rap and 35% crit and i use the darkmoon card: wrath to help me crit more :-)

[quote]well it castes ur steady shot, arcane shot and kill command when thair ability is ready for use....all u have to do is make the macro and set it to a button and just spam it and u will up ur dps

another good macro i made up last night that i found to be VERY good for a MM hunter!!!!

#showtooltip aimed shot
/castsequence steady shot, arcane shot
/castrandom[target=pettarget,exists] kill command
/castrandom serpent sting

this macro is for those who like to use aimed shot ALL the time...mostly MM hunters would use this macro but not limmited to

[/quote]





That macro doesn't actually contain aimed shot...it merely shows the tooltip for it:p



The reason I use macro's is not to create elaborate castsequences, which as nanny says will limit your options sometimes, or to create a button to spam on which lex apparently guarantees will up your dps(lol), but because macro's provide the most efficient way both to act, and to organise your UI. Being able to target, send in your pet and hunter's mark in a single click, when you catch a glimpse of a stealthed rogue or druid near you is just an all round good idea;)

#showtooltip
/targetnearestenemy
/petattack
/cast Hunter's Mark

Also having several abilities all bound to the same button but separated by different modifiers gives you more space on your toolbars and less toolbar spots that require keys bound to them so that all your abilities are instantly available rather than having to mouse click them. For example, I have some of my aspects bound together like this:

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1,nomodifier] Aspect of the Hawk
/cast [modifier:alt] Aspect of the Monkey
/cast [modifier:shift] Aspect of the Cheetah

This works well with stings and traps too:

#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast [button:1,nomodifier] Serpent Sting
/cast [modifier:alt] Viper Sting
/cast [modifier:shift] Wyvern Sting

#showtooltip
/cast [button:1,nomodifier] Immolation Trap
/cast [modifier:alt] Explosive Trap
/cast [modifier:shift] Snake Trap

And here's an excellent one for keeping most pet functions together:

#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:alt] revive pet; [modifier:ctrl] Dismiss Pet;[target=pet,dead] Revive Pet; [nopet] Call Pet; Mend Pet;


And finally, here's a nice one that uses aimed shot out of combat and steady shot when in combat(hold down alt to use aimed shot if you find an opportunity to use it mid combat)

#showtooltip
/targetnearestenemy
/cast [modifier:alt] Aimed Shot
/cast [nocombat] Aimed Shot
/cast [combat] Steady Shot
/cast Kill Command

In my opinion, survival is the most STAT AND TRAP RELATED!  Myself being a surv hunter, during raids I don't focus on DPS, I focus on my traps and sleepy sting so everyone doesn't die.  Also, expose weakness helps abunch and so does the 15% increase of agility. 

In my opinion, survival is the most STAT AND TRAP RELATED!  Myself being a surv hunter, during raids I don't focus on DPS, I focus on my traps and sleepy sting so everyone doesn't die.  Also, expose weakness helps abunch and so does the 15% increase of agility. 

In my opinion, survival is the most STAT AND TRAP RELATED!  Myself being a surv hunter, during raids I don't focus on DPS, I focus on my traps and sleepy sting so everyone doesn't die.  Also, expose weakness helps abunch and so does the 15% increase of agility. 

Why did that post 3 times?

arg

Why did that post 3 times?

arg