Respec(t) Survival Hunter build

Well, this is an experiment. I’m not sure if it will suit my playstyle or cause problems with finishing my Outland quests (although I have a Shaman I team up with) but I’m trying a Survival Hunter build as seen below:

I’ll give this a go for at least a week and see how I feel before switching to a Marksmanship build and then perhaps some sort of hybrid. Variety being the spice of life and plus it also helps you learn your class a bit more.

Level 19 PvP Hunter Talent Spec

At level 19, a PvP player will have 10 talent points to invest in their Hunter talents. So what’s a PvP Hunter to do?

I’ve respecced twice already with minor variations (indecisions) but am currently running with 5/5 Endurance Training, 3/3 Thick Hide and 2/2 Focused Fire in the Beast Mastery (BM) talent tree. It’s hard to ignore the health and armor increases you and your pet get but my observations on the Warsong Gulch battlefield suggest that nobody really hits your pet if it’s a choice between that and a player character. Does that make the first two talents a waste? Especially if you’ve got a whole bunch of stamina enchants?

It depends.

The point of a twink is to be the best at something. Theoretically at least, it doesn’t matter what your DPS output is if you can’t be killed. If you want to be immortal, then this BM talent spec is probably of interest. Five points in Endurance Training gives your pet +10% health and you +5%—that’s not to be sniffed at, especially combined with stamina enchants. I’ve seen hunters with 1700ish HP. Three points in Thick Hide increases your pet’s armor by +20% and yours by 10%. If you can’t get the enchants or don’t care too much about it at this level (as I feel), then this is your only source of extra health and armor outside of temporary buffs from food, drink, potions and other players. That leaves us with two talent points. After a brief dip in the Survival tree for 2 points in Humanoid Slaying for a +2% damage increase (including critical hits) I settled back into Beast Mastery with Focused Fire—essentially the same thing at level 19?

Does anyone even use Survival talents in low-level PvP? I’ve seen two points in Hawk Eye for the increased range in someone’s spec before (as with Humanoid Slaying) but a battleground is fluid and I don’t see the advantage being leveraged often enough to warrant it. Great for shooting into the graveyard from the bottom of the cliff perhaps but unless your target is away from their keyboard, it’s a simple matter for them to move back a few steps.

If you have the T-shirt with the logo “Peace through Superior Firepower” then the Marksmanship Mastery tree will draw your eyes like a moth to Vegas. Maxing Lethal Shots (+5% ranged critical strike chance) sounds like a no-brainer to me and increasing the likelihood of stunning (for 3 seconds) a player character by 20% sounds desirable when you’re either kiting your target or crippling the enemy flag carrier in Warsong Gulch so that’ll be your last five points into Improved Concussive Shot.