WoW Patch 5.4 Survival Hunter Guide PvE 90 || World of Warcraft Guides

Hello! Post 1 is BM, Post 2 will be SV. You can both video guides on post 1.

Video Versions

I think that I am far better at making videos than at writing articles, so here are my two video guides. Id reccommend watfching somewhere where you can use annotations since they are used for the buttons on the side :)

Beast Mastery - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWCcK_n7Rc4
Survival - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MleM1pCFcTE

Survival
Part 1 - Talents

Tier 1 - Posthaste if you need mobility, for example in Siegecrafter Blackfuse, downdraft in Jikun. Crouching Tiger Hidden Chimera if you need more damage mitigation. Eg on Lei Shen and Jin'Rokh heroic.

Tier 2- No DPS here, whatever works best for you. Raid wise this isnt the most useful of tiers.

Tier 3- Iron Hawk is probably still the go too choice. After chatting with the guilds healers they said they would prefer this, even in spite of the nerf. They are pretty damn good at what they do so im going to follow their advice. Iron Hawk in most cases

Tier 4 - *[I]This is probably the most tentative part of the guide[/I]*Dire Beast and Thrill are close in terms of simulated results with DB having a slight edge. I would recommend DB as thrill has a tendency of messing up your focus, since it will make your next 3 AS's cost 10 focus instead of 30. Unlike previously AS will still cost 10 focus during thrill. It can also lead to GCD bloat where there are things that are more worthy of a cooldown such as ES or Black arrow. [B]This may chage to Thrill if you have the T16 4 piece[/B]

Tier 5 - Murder of Crows is marginally the best for single target. Blink strikes for AoE or target switching heavy fights.

Tier 6 - Glave Toss is the best single target, Barrage is the best AoE.

Part 3 - Glyphs

Glyphs are largely unaffected. There are only a few that are that helpful which I have mentioned here.

Major
Glyph of Animal Bond increases healing taken by 10%
Glyph of Deterrence increases the damage reduction by 20% up to 50%
After this Glyph of Liberation is probably your berst bet. Its a 5% heal when you disengage. Honestly our glpyhs are not that interesting damage wise.

Minor
Glyph of Revive Pet removes push back effects during the cast of Revive 

Part 4 - Gems, Enchants and Reforging
The easiest way to do this is to just plug your character into askmrrobot.com. It will calculate the best reforge to do and display the optimal gems and enchants.

Gems
Once you are ready to raid you shouldnt have to gem into hit or expertise. In my experience reforging can take care of that quite easily which allows for easy gemming choices. If you badly need hit or expertise then you can go for the hit/exp version of a gem.

Meta - Either the Agile Primal Diamond OR, if you have access to it, the Capacitive Primal Diamond
Red - Go for the Delicate Primordial Ruby OR Perfect Delicate Pandarian Garnet. JC's should go for the epic JC agi red gem.
Yellow - Deadly Vermilion Onyx OR Perfect Deadly Tiger Opal 
Blue - Glinting Imperial Amethyst OR Perfect Glinting Roguestone. If you are having issues reaching the hit cap you can use the "Rigid" version of the gem.

Enchants
Shoulder - Greater Tiger Claw OR Secret Tiger Claw if you are a scribe. 
Chest - Glorious Stats
Wrist - Greater Agility OR Fur Lining Agility if you are LW. BS can socket a bracer.
Hands - Superior Expertise if you need exp OR Greater Haste. Synapse Strings if Engi OR Socket is BS
Waist - Living Steel Belt Buckle with a Delicite red gem.
Leg - Shadowleather Leg Armor OR Primal Leg Reinforcements if you are LW as its cheaper.
Feet - Blurred Speed
Weapon -Lord Blastington's Scope of Doom
Ring - Enchant Ring - Greater Agility (Ench only)
Cloak - Superior Critical Strike OR Accuracy if hit is needed.

Stats
1- As much agility as possible
2- Hit and Exp to atleast 7.5, use Askmrrobot to calculate exact reforging.
3- Crit Strike Rating
4- Haste
5- Mastery

Part 5 - Rotation
Opener

Pre Pot>Rapid Fire > Stampede>Explosive Shot>Serpent Sting>Black Arrow>AMOC>Glave Toss>Dire Beasts>Rabid

Normal Abilities

If you do this correctly you will have preformed the opening well and can settle into the regular rotation. Honestly it isnt really a rotation, more a priority system. Use your head and you will be fine.

Keep serpent sting applied using cobra shot

Use ES on cooldown. If you get a LnL proc spam ES since the durations of the dots will add us.

Use black arrow on your primary target on CD to ensure you get plenty of LnL

Use Glave Toss on Cooldown

Arcane shot is a filler ability. Use it when you have excess focus, but be sure it doesnt cause you to delay your next main shot like ES or Black Arrow. Now that Arcane shot is more expensive you need to watch out for this more.

Glave Toss should be used on cooldown. If possible try to line up some mobs between you and the target.

Cooldown Usage

Now that the main abilities are out of the way lets talk about cooldowns.

Our biggest one is Stampede. 5 min CD and can be used 1-2 times a fight in most cases. Use it on the pull along. It benefits from the haste thay Rapid Fire gives.

Rapid fire is the next cooldown. This has a 3 min cooldown. It should be combined with Stampede where possible as the stempede pets benefit from the haste.

Rabid is a pet ability that should be used on CD. If you can stack with BW its nice but dont delay it.

Dire Beast should be used on cooldown.

Use MoC as much as possible.

Part 6 - Macros and Addons
Macros are very helpful. Here is what I use:

If I am not in combat this will use my pot and cast dive/dash on my pet, allowing my pet to get into combat quickly. In combat it will use rapid fire Stampede and Rabid. It definatly helps out having a smooth opener.

/use [nocombat] Virmen's Bite
/cast [nocombat] Dive
/cast [nocombat] Dash
/cast [combat] Rapid Fire
/cast [combat] Stampede
/cast [combat] Rabid
/petassist

This casts BW and Kill Command. This is quality of life and means you will have to use less buttons.

#showtooltip Bestial Wrath
/cast Bestial Wrath
/petattack
/cast Rabid
/cast Kill Command

As for addons I will do a full video eventually, but basically I use bartender, JSHB, Shadowed Unit Frames omni CC and Tell me When. There are a few old mod videos on the channel that you can check out.