First Impressions of the Survival Hunter Changes in Patch 11.0.5 - Guide Writer Feedback

To help smooth out some of the rougher edges from their War Within launch, Mistweaver Monks are receiving some significant changes in the upcoming 11.0.5 Patch. Our Survival Hunter Writer, DoolB, breaks down the changes in Patch 11.0.5 including talent changes, AoE GCD economy, and more.

Survival Hunter Guide

Our Class Writers share their expert opinions based on rigorous testing and theorycrafting in hopes of contextualizing the changes coming in future patches of the War Within. Check out all of our released editorials in our new Editorial Section.

Wowhead Editorials

Patch 11.0.5 (happy 20 years WoW!!) brings some moderate changes to Hunter, some nice buffs to the Pack Leader Hero Tree, and a pretty substantial revamp of Survival's AoE kit. Most of these changes address a very prominent point of feedback for Survival —many players feel that our AoE GCD economy is very busy and feels almost too full. Before this patch much of our AoE loop involved properly managing your Kill Command (and thus Tip of the Spear) on top of optimizing your Wildfire Bomb which relies on proper Butchery usage with Frenzy Strikes, as well as other a few powerful abilities with short cooldowns. This leads to a very, very full rotation where it entirely eclipses other potential appealing talents or builds.

Down below, we'll discuss how the 11.0.5 changes impact the gameplay and overall feel of the spec.

Deathblow

Starting off with a deceptively simple addition to the Hunter class tree for 11.0.5 is the brand new talent: Deathblow. This talent standardizes a Kill Shot reset mechanic across the class instead of each specialization having its own version of a reset, which in our case has been Sic 'Em. This change is interesting as it can open up interesting design spaces across spec trees, hero trees, and forms of borrowed power such as tier-sets or cantrips. Kill Command is already a staple in our rotation, so an effectively baseline proc built off of that can feel nice.

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