Hunter Talent Trees: Know Your Role

As promised, my treatise on talent specs! (Or at least the start of it.)

Talent trees, for any class, always seem to become a point of contention. Whose build is better? Why is it better? Why is one tree better than another? Check the WoW forums now and then, and you’ll see people squabbling over talent specs left and right. Sometimes it’s thoughtful discourse, sometimes its shouts of “n00b! L2P!”, but folks rarely seem to agree completely. Which is why, rather than tout one hunter tree over another, I’d rather just explain what each tree can do for you, what you can get out of it, what your talent tree says about your character, and what each tree does best (and worst). As by now I’m sure you know, I respec on a semi-regular basis. Not because I can’t decide on a build, but because I like experimenting with different things and seeing what each tree has to offer. I’ve had 41-point builds in each of the hunter trees numerous times, both pre- and post-TBC, in raid, PvE and PvP settings. With that in mind, and because I’ve gotten several emails asking about talent specs, I’ve decided to share some of the insights I’ve acquired throughout my respec adventures.

One thing I will never do is tell you what spec you should be. This is partly because I never stay one spec for too long, and this is partly because I have no idea what your playing style is like, or what you enjoy doing most in the game. As a former raid leader, I never told any of my raiders what spec they should be to raid because I felt it was unethical. This is a standpoint I carry over to my blog. No one should tell you how to enjoy a game you spend $15/mo to play. And I will also never tell someone their build is “wrong”. I may wonder why someone chose certain talents, and make suggestions for something they may find more helpful, but I will never tell someone their spec is just plain “wrong”. With that in mind, I’m going to share with you my thoughts on each of the hunter talent trees: what they do well, what they could do better, what they’re best used for, and what types of gear will help maximize that tree’s potential.

Let’s get started!

Part 1: Survival

This has long been touted as the bastard tree of hunter talent builds. When I first installed WoW and rolled my shiny new hunter, I was Survival speced. Anyone else remember the good old days of the SV tree? It made hunters practically indestructible, both at ranged and melee combat. And then the Nerf Bat reared its ugly head, and all the faithful jumped ship–including me. I moved on to the Marksman tree and didn’t look back; at least, not for a long time. Somewhat recently, Blizzard finally decided to restore some of the former glory to the Survival tree, and it has since become a viable and helpful build once more. As it stands today, the SV tree is now more than just the “melee huntard” tree it was only a short time ago.

What It’s For:
So, what does this tree have to offer? You’ve heard it over and over, any time someone asks about this tree. That word: Utility. But what the heck does that mean? No one ever really seems to know.

u•til•i•ty /yu?t?l?ti/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[yoo-til-i-tee] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation noun, plural -ties, adjective
–noun 1. the state or quality of being useful; usefulness: This chemical has no utility as an agricultural fertilizer.
2. something useful; a useful thing.
4. Often, utilities. a useful or advantageous factor or feature: the relative utilities of a religious or a secular education.
11. having or made for a number of useful or practical purposes rather than a single, specialized one: a utility knife.
12. designed chiefly for use or service rather than beauty, high quality, or the like: a utility vehicle; utility furniture.

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[Origin: 1350–1400; ME utilite < OF utelite < L ?tilit?s, equiv. to ?til(is) useful (see utile) + -it?s -ity]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Above, we have the dictionary definition of “utility” from dictionary.com (with unrelated entries removed). How does this apply to the SV tree?

“the state or quality of being useful; usefulness”

How is the SV tree useful?
Entrapment: gives your Immolation Trap, Frost Trap, Explosive Trap, and Snake Trap a 25% chance to entrap the target, preventing them from moving for 4 seconds. We’ve all had those times where our traps break too soon and our cooldown isn’t up yet to lay another. With Entrapment, you’ve been bought a little extra time for that cooldown.
Improved Wing Clip: gives your Wing Clip ability a 14% chance to immobilize the target for 5 seconds. PvP hunters know the value of Wing Clip. It’s time the rest of us caught up with them. This can also be useful in PvE situations, where you’re forced into melee combat–slap a Wing Clip on the offending target, and make your dash for ranged combat again (but, in groups, be sure the tank isn’t forced to chase you around if the Imp Wing Clip doesn’t proc!)
Clever Traps: increases the duration of Freezing and Frost trap effects by 30%, the damage of Immolation and Explosive trap effects by 30%, and the number of snakes summoned from Snake Trap by 30%. A 30% buff to the effectiveness of all our traps?! Trapping is one of the biggest jobs a hunter does, especially in groups. It would be insane not to want them to be more effective!
Survivalist: increases total health by 10%. “But Lass, hunters aren’t tanks! They should be getting hit at all! They should be managing their aggro appropriately, etc etc” You’re absolutely right. But, how many times have things gone south and a hunter has had to step up and save a squishie, presumably the healer? With this health buff, we can tank that squishie hater just a little bit longer, until either the tank can come to our aid or the mob dies, which means better chances for the entire party to survive.
Trap Mastery: decreases the chance enemies will resist trap effects by 10%. Ever had a mob go trotting over your trap and smash you in the face, meanwhile you’re left sitting there going “aww crap!”? If so, then I’m sure you can see how this talent would be beneficial.
Wyvern Sting: a stinging shot that puts the target to sleep for 12 seconds. 12 seconds may not seem like much, but when your group is working on pulls of 5 or more mobs, any little bit of crowd control helps. This takes the heat off the tank for the time being, while the rest of the party goes about their various tasks. I’ve seen that 12 second reprieve save lives.
Expose Weakness: your ranged criticals have a 100% chance to apply an Expose Weakness effect to the target. Expose Weakness increases the Attack Power of all attackers against that target by 25% of your Agility for 7 seconds. This talent is the SV equivalent of Trueshot Aura or Ferocious Inspiration, basically. As you can see, the benefit of this talent scales with the amount of Agility your toon is stacking.
Master Tactician: your successful ranged attacks have a 6% chance to increase your critical strike chance with all attacks by 10% for 8 seconds. +Hit = more Master Tactician procs. More Master Tactician procs = more crits. More crits = more Expose Weakness procs. More Expose Weakness procs = more overall damage to a target for everyone attacking that target. More damage = good.
Readiness: When activated, this ability immediately finishes the cooldown on your other Hunter abilities. I use this ability a LOT in groups. Stray mob whacking at a clothie, but I just used a trap on my assigned trap mob? No problemo! Pop Readiness, and there’s a trapped mob in front of that healer where Death once stood. And with the other trap-enhancing abilities of this tree, I should have no problems returning to my regular trap cycle on my assigned trap mob.

I know I’ve left out a lot of other abilities within the SV tree, but these are the ones that I’ve found to be most helpful. They bring the most… Utility. And that’s what the Survival tree is all about. It’s about maximizing a hunter’s usefulness and adaptability, particularly in group/instance situations, to help ensure their party’s survival. (Go figure!)

So, if Survival is so great and nifty, why aren’t more hunters speced this way? Because, Survival will (typically, but not in all cases) not do as much overall dps as the other two talent trees. And for most hunters, that’s a deal-breaker.

Maximizing Survival’s Effectiveness with Gear:
After taking a gander at (what I consider to be) the most helpful SV talents in the tree, what stats do you suppose will maximize the effectiveness of this tree? Well, taking a look at the tooltips and seeing the conditionals that proc each talent is usually a good indication.

The two major talents in this tree that proc off conditionals are Expose Weakness and Master Tactician. Expose Weakness procs off crits; Master Tactician procs off successful ranged hits.

Expose Weakness is applied to a target every time you score a ranged critical hit on that target. So, for more Expose Weakness procs, we want to increase our overall crit percentage. However, there’s a little more to it than that. Yes, more crits will give you more procs. But, what other conditionals are involved in Expose Weakness? Agility. The amount of increase to Attack Power for all attackers on a target with Expose Weakness is derivative of the amount of Agility the hunter has. The increase of Attack Power for all attackers is 25% of the hunter’s Agility. What does Agility do (that’s pertinent to this example)? Increases our Ranged Attack Power and increases our Crit Percentage. Are you seeing where I’m headed with this? For Expose Weakness to be the most effective, the hunter will want to stack two stats: Crit and Agility. One of these two stats covers both, as well as the added advantage of increasing Ranged Attack Power as well, whereas the other only increases one. The lesson: stack Agility first and foremost for more/better Expose Weakness procs, and +Crit second.

Master Tactician has a 6% chance to proc off successful hits, and when Master Tactician procs, it increases your critical strike chance by 10%. By increasing the opportunities for Master Tactician procs, you will subsequently be increasing your chances for Expose Weakness procs. (I love how everything about the Survival tree fits so nicely together, and by gearing to buff one talent, you’re buffing the other talents as well.) So, face value here tells us to start stacking some +hit. Unfortunately, +Hit is a little more complicated than “the higher the better”. Thankfully, someone else has already gone to the trouble of explaining the intricacies of +Hit, so I don’t have to.

In short:
For more Expose Weakness procs, maximize your Agility and +Crit. For more Master Tactician procs (and subsequently even more Expose Weakness procs), max out your +Hit.

The other thing I would also suggest, as SV hunters seem to spend more time than the average hunter of differing build taking hits from mobs, you may also want to stack Stamina in there as well.

Summary:
As we’ve discovered, the Survival tree has a lot of situational usefulness to provide you and your party. Now we finally understand why, whenever the SV tree is mentioned, people utter the word: Utility. Also, we’ve noted that, to be perfectly honest, more often than not, an SV hunter will not do as much dps as a BM or MM hunter. But the trade-off is that SV hunters have a lot more adaptability and survivability, particularly in instances, and they’re better equipped to save lives. And we’ve briefly discussed the types of stats to look for on gear to help maximize your SV awesomeness.

If you pay very close attention to each and every detail of every fight, and like to keep busy managing multiple traps, sleeps, and increase your party’s performance, an SV build might be for you. If you want to top the damage meter each and every time out, blasting things to pieces and earning bragging rights later, SV is probably not the way to go. Your choice of talent build is no one’s but your own, and the build you choose should always reflect the type of playing style you employ, and what gives you the most satisfaction in the game.

Next time, we’ll take a look at the Marksmanship tree.