Hunters in The Burning Crusade are ranged damage dealers who fight alongside loyal animal companions. You've got tracking abilities, traps, and plenty of utility spells at your disposal, making Hunters one of the strongest solo classes with excellent ranged damage.
If you played Classic, you might remember Hunters being somewhat off-meta. That changes completely in TBC. Hunters are now one of the strongest DPS classes for the entire expansion, regularly topping damage meters with incredible single-target output. The big reason? Pets finally scale with your stats in TBC, letting them deal real damage at max level and actually improve as you get better gear.
Survival isn't the top DPS Hunter spec (Beast Mastery takes that crown), but you're still incredibly useful in raids. Every raid wants exactly one Survival Hunter for Expose Weakness, a debuff that boosts damage for all physical DPS in your group. The debuff gets stronger as you stack more Agility, so your raid contribution actually grows as you gear up.
Your Role in Raids
Survival Hunters fill a unique niche. You're not competing for raw damage numbers against Beast Mastery Hunters. Instead, your value comes from Expose Weakness boosting every physical damage dealer in the raid, including melee DPS, other Hunters, and even Hunter pets.
Because Expose Weakness scales with Agility, the debuff becomes more powerful as you acquire better gear. Critical trinkets like Dragonspine Trophy are particularly valuable since they increase your Expose Weakness uptime, multiplying your raid contribution beyond the trinket's direct damage benefit.
Most raids want exactly one Survival Hunter specifically for this debuff. That might sound limiting, but it actually works in your favor for gearing. You won't compete with Beast Mastery Hunters for all the same pieces since your stat priorities differ slightly.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Solid Damage Throughout the Expansion - You won't match Beast Mastery's raw numbers, but Survival Hunters maintain strong damage output at every stage of TBC.
- Valuable Raid Utility - You bring Misdirection for pulling mobs to the tank and Feign Death for threat management. Traps work in combat now, so your crowd control no longer depends on risky Feign Death trapping.
- Easy to Find Raid Spots - Every raid wants the Expose Weakness debuff, making Survival Hunters one of the most desirable specs for raiding in TBC.
- Unique Raid Contribution - Expose Weakness benefits the entire raid rather than just you or your 5-man group. Having one Survival Hunter is crucial for any raid focused on physical DPS.
- Smooth Early Gearing - Survival Hunters are one of the easiest specs to gear early on. You also won't fight other Hunters for every piece since your gearing priorities differ from Beast Mastery.
- Great Solo Play - Hunters have always been strong solo classes, and TBC makes them even better. You can handle almost all content and farming alone (except elites designed for full 5-man groups). Farming consumables like Dark Runes in Scholomance becomes much easier.
- Lower Personal DPS - You'll deal less damage than Beast Mastery Hunters. That's the trade-off for bringing Expose Weakness.
- Limited Raid Spots - Most raids only want one Survival Hunter, and only for the debuff. There's less demand compared to Beast Mastery.
- Pet Management - You'll need to micro-manage your pet in certain situations since you're still a pet class.
- Rotation Complexity - Survival has a relatively complex rotation compared to other classes. Messing it up will seriously hurt your DPS.
- Weak AoE - Hunters gain nothing new for AoE damage in TBC. You're still stuck with Multi-Shot and Volley, which can't compete with Warlocks and Mages.
- Few Defensive Tools - Survival Hunters lack defensive and self-healing cooldowns compared to other classes.
Key Hunter Changes in TBC
Understanding what changed for Hunters helps explain why the class plays so differently from Classic.
Changes to Existing Abilities
| Ability | Change in TBC |
|---|---|
| Feign Death | No longer drops combat on boss encounters, so trinket swapping mid-fight is gone. |
| Traps | All traps now work in combat. There's a 2-second delay between dropping the trap and the effect activating. |
| Aimed Shot | Now resets your Auto Shot timer. Because of this, it's no longer part of any rotation except on the initial pull if you're the designated raid puller. |
| Mend Pet | Now instant cast instead of channeled. |
New Abilities and Talents
| Ability/Talent | Description |
|---|---|
| Steady Shot | Deals base weapon damage plus 20% of Ranged Attack Power plus 150 damage. Dazed targets take an extra 175 damage. This becomes a core part of your rotation. |
| Kill Command | An instant ability off the Global Cooldown that deals 127 extra damage. Can proc and become ready to cast while still on cooldown. |
| Aspect of the Viper | Your new mana regeneration tool for when you run dry in raids or between pulls in the open world. |
| Misdirection | Directs threat from your first three attacks to your targeted raid member. Huge for helping tanks establish aggro on pulls. |
| Snake Trap | A new trap mostly useful in PvP. |
| Expose Weakness | The defining Survival talent. Provides a large DPS boost to all physical attackers against enemies in the raid. Scales with your Agility and grows stronger as you gear up. |
Rotation Basics
Rotations are the most important mechanic for Hunters in TBC. They're usually described as "X:Y" where X equals Steady Shot and Y equals Auto Shot. The most common rotation is 1:1, where you fire one Steady Shot per Auto Shot.
Your rotation will change based on your current haste values, and you'll need to adjust throughout boss fights to maintain peak DPS.
Managing Your Mana
Running out of mana completely stops your rotation. You'll need Aspect of the Viper or consumables like Demonic Rune, Dark Rune, and Super Mana Potion to get back into the fight.
Best Races for Survival Hunters
Horde Races
Orc is the clear winner for both PvE and PvP. Command and Blood Fury together give you significant advantages.
- Command: Your pet deals 5% more damage. With pets being much stronger in TBC than Classic, this directly boosts your overall DPS.
- Blood Fury: A 2-minute cooldown that adds 282 Attack Power at Level 70 for 15 seconds, but reduces healing on you by 50% during that time. The healing reduction doesn't matter much since you should stay below the tank's threat anyway. If you do pull aggro, you've got Feign Death, Frost Trap, or Misdirection to recover. Blood Fury now works with ranged attacks in TBC, making it a great DPS cooldown.
- Axe Specialization: Adds 5 Expertise with Axes and Two-Handed Axes.
- Hardiness: 15% chance to resist Stun effects. Incredibly powerful in PvP, especially against Rogues.
Trolls come in second and can situationally match Orcs.
- Berserking: A 3-minute cooldown that boosts attack and casting speed by 10-30% based on your health. Lower health means bigger boost. In raids, healers usually keep you near full, so you'll typically only see the 10% benefit. To outperform Orc's racials, you need the full 30% haste, which is hard to achieve consistently.
- Bow Specialization: 1% extra crit chance with Bows. You'll use bows for most of TBC.
- Beast Slaying: 5% more damage against Beasts. Great while leveling but only useful against a handful of raid and dungeon bosses.
- Regeneration: 10% faster health regeneration, with 10% continuing during combat.
- Throwing Specialization: 1% extra crit chance with Throwing Weapons.
Tauren
Tauren Hunters don't get anything that helps in PvE dungeons or raids.
- Endurance: 5% more total health. Extra health doesn't matter in raid scenarios.
- War Stomp: Stuns up to 5 mobs within 8 yards for 2 seconds, with a 0.5-second cast time. Gives you time to retreat or lets the tank pick up adds. Situationally useful in PvP, but requires you to be close to your target.
- Cultivation: 15 extra Herbalism skill.
- Nature Resistance: 10 extra Nature Resistance.
Hitboxes are normalized in TBC, so Taurens can no longer hit through pillars in arenas.
Blood Elf
Blood Elves don't offer anything useful for Hunter PvE. They have the highest base Agility for Horde (tied with Trolls), but their racials don't help in raids.
- Arcane Torrent: Silences nearby enemies for 2 seconds and gives mana based on your Mana Tap stacks (up to 3). Can help bring casters into tank range. Has some PvP arena use when securing kills.
- Mana Tap: Drains target's mana. Useful against caster mobs.
- Arcane Affinity: 10 extra Enchanting skill.
- Magic Resistance: 5 extra to all resistances.
Alliance Races
Best PvE Choice: Personal Preference (Draenei or Night Elf)
Both races work well for Alliance PvE, and the choice comes down to what you value more.
Draenei work best early in the expansion because of Heroic Presence.
- Heroic Presence: Everyone in your party within 30 yards gets 1% extra hit chance. This is incredibly useful for hitting the cap early and gives you more flexibility with gear choices when you're short on hit rating between phases.
This doesn't stack, so only one Draenei per group matters. Since all Alliance Shamans are Draenei, most groups already have this covered.
- Gift of the Naaru: A scaling heal over 15 seconds with a short cast time. Hunters lack in-combat self-healing, so this helps, especially in PvP.
- Gemcutting: 5 extra Jewelcrafting skill.
- Shadow Resistance: 10 extra Shadow Resistance.
Night Elves have the highest base Agility, which results in slightly higher DPS.
- Shadowmeld: Become stealthed while standing still, on a 10-second cooldown. Can't be used in combat. Useful for going AFK safely or in PvP with good positioning. You can macro it with food and water to eat and drink while stealthed during leveling.
- Quickness: 1% extra Dodge Chance. Combined with Aspect of the Monkey, you get 9% dodge instead of 8%. Helps in PvP against melee and if tanks lose aggro.
- Nature Resistance: 10 extra Nature Resistance.
- Wisp Spirit: Move 50% faster while dead.
Dwarf is the clear PvP winner because of Stoneform.
- Stoneform: Immune to all bleed, poison, and disease effects, plus extra armor for 8 seconds, on a 3-minute cooldown. Incredibly valuable in arenas against Rogues and Warriors.
- Gun Specialization: 1% extra crit chance with Guns. Unfortunately, Hunters rarely use guns in TBC. The best weapons throughout the expansion are almost all bows and crossbows.
- Find Treasure: Nearby chests appear on your minimap.
- Frost Resistance: 10 extra Frost Resistance.
For battlegrounds and open-world PvP, Night Elf is also excellent because of Shadowmeld.
Best Professions
Primary Recommendation: Leatherworking
Leatherworking is the best profession for Hunters in TBC, and it's not close. The main draw is Drums of Battle and Greater Drums of Battle, plus strong crafted gear early on.
- Drums of Battle: You can be your group's designated drums user.
- Crafted Gear Sets: The Primalstrike leather set gives you 3 pre-raid BiS pieces early on, plus several other near-BiS options. You can also craft Netherscale Armor and Primal Intent in Phase 1.
- Later Phase Crafts: Starting in Phase 3 and Phase 5, you can make Swiftstrike Shoulders, Carapace of Sun and Shadow, and more.
Blizzard changed drums to give players a 2-minute Tinnitus debuff, which weakened the profession somewhat. Still, Leatherworking remains the absolute best choice.
If someone else in your party handles drums and you don't want to craft Primalstrike, skip Leatherworking and grab Engineering instead.
Secondary Recommendation: Engineering
Engineering is your second-best option. It offers useful items for both PvE and PvP.
- Battle Chicken: Provides Battle Squawk, giving 5% haste to melee attacks. Benefits your pets and melee weaving.
- Sapper Charges: Super Sapper Charge and Goblin Sapper Charge add small DPS boosts during speedruns and boss fights. They're expensive but worthwhile.
- Ammunition Crafting: Adamantite Arrow Maker and Adamantite Shell Machine are cheap to craft and give you the best ammo early on.
- Engineering Goggles: Starting in Phase 2, you can craft Deathblow X11 Goggles or Surestrike Goggles v2.0. Phase 5 brings upgrades: Quad Deathblow X44 Goggles and Surestrike Goggles v3.0.
Engineering lets you craft bullets but not arrows until a later phase. You can trade Thorium Shells for Thorium Headed Arrows in Ironforge or Orgrimmar.
Gathering Profession Pairing: Skinning
If you skip Engineering, grab Skinning as your second profession. It's extremely valuable early on for leveling Leatherworking and crafting your level 70 gear. Pairing Leatherworking with Skinning keeps you self-sufficient on materials.
Other Profession Options
| Profession | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Blacksmithing | A niche pick for Mooncleaver. Melee weaving is more impactful and easier in TBC than Classic, so if you do it correctly, you'll see a noticeable DPS boost. Blacksmithing also lets you craft keys for unlocking chests. If you're not willing to level Blacksmithing for one weapon, pick any other profession early on. |
| Enchanting | Two benefits: you can enchant your rings with Enchant Ring - Stats (only available to high-level enchanters), and you can disenchant unwanted items. In Phase 3, pick up Enchanting as your second profession for the ring enchants. |
| Jewelcrafting | Lets you craft self-only gems (like Crimson Sun or Stone of Blades) and trinkets like Figurine - Felsteel Boar in Phase 1 and Figurine - Khorium Boar in Phase 5. In Phase 4, when you get Design: Hard Khorium Choker, drop Enchanting and level Jewelcrafting for Hard Khorium Choker. |
| Alchemy | The main benefit is making your own consumables throughout each phase, saving gold as you progress through raiding and heroics. In Phase 5, you can craft Assassin's Alchemist Stone. |
| Tailoring | Does nothing for Hunters except letting you craft bags. Leatherworking already covers Quivers and Pouches for ammunition. |
| Mining/Herbalism | Neither provides any benefit beyond gold making. |
Additional Information
The Deadzone Change
TBC significantly reduced the deadzone between ranged and melee attacks. You can stand much closer to enemies than in Classic, making melee-weaving much more viable and easier to execute.
Melee Weaving
With the smaller deadzone and certain items like Mooncleaver (from Blacksmithing), melee weaving has become more impactful in TBC. Done correctly, it provides a noticeable DPS boost.
Pet Scaling
Pets now scale with a percentage of your stats in TBC, dramatically increasing their DPS compared to Classic. Pets account for roughly 30% of overall Hunter damage thanks to this scaling and new abilities. This applies to all Hunter specs, including Survival.
Summary
Survival Hunter is a specialized raid role in TBC. You won't top damage meters like Beast Mastery Hunters, but your Expose Weakness debuff makes you invaluable to any raid focused on physical DPS. Every raid should have exactly one Survival Hunter, which makes finding a spot relatively straightforward.
For Horde, Orc is the clear best choice for both PvE and PvP. For Alliance, Draenei offers early gearing benefits through Heroic Presence, while Night Elf provides slightly higher base Agility. Dwarf dominates PvP thanks to Stoneform.
For professions, Leatherworking is the top pick for drums and early crafted gear. Engineering works great as a secondary profession, or pair Leatherworking with Skinning to supply your own materials.