Format from The MM hunter in 4.0.1

1.) Talent

This is a good base for talents: 0/9/32
You have 2 other options that could potentially increase your DPS output:
One with Nature
Improved Steady Shot


2.) Glyphs

We now have 3 type of glyphs: Prime, Major, Minor.
From now we have to buy (and learn) a glyph only once, after we learned it we can use them any time we want.

Minor: The recommended one are the same as before:
[Glyph of Feign Death]
[Glyph of Mend Pet]
[Glyph of Revive Pet]

Major: It is very hard to find anything that helps us raiding, here is 4 of them which could be good, but that's the point with the biggest freedom.
[Glyph of the Beast]]: Reduces the focus cost of Trap Launcher by 10. (for AoE situations and/or CC.)
[Glyph of Mending]: Increases the healing done by your Mend Pet ability by an additional 3%. (Helps keep the pet alive.)
[Glyph of Hunter's Mark]: When you use Misdirection to your pet, the cooldown on your Misdirection is reset. (It can be useful to transfer threat to pet, if FD is on CD.)
[Glyph of Disengage]: Faster moving -> win.

Prime: We have several choices, we have no closer theorycraft about them yet, but maybe these are the best:

[Glyph of Kill Shot]: If the damage from your Kill Shot fails to kill a target at or below 20% health, your Kill Shot's cooldown is instantly reset. This effect has a 6 sec cooldown.
[Glyph of Explosive Shot]: Increases the critical strike chance of Explosive Shot by 6%.
[Glyph of Serpent Sting]: Increases the periodic critical strike chance of Serpent Sting by 6%


3.) Shot priority

If Hunter's Mark is not on target or running out the target health doesn't allow for Kill Shot
--> cast Hunter's Mark
If Kill Shot is off CD and target health is at or below 20%
--> cast Kill Shot
If Black Arrow is off CD and you have enough focus
--> cast Black Arrow
If Serpent Sting is not on target and got enough focus
--> cast Serpent Sting
If Explosive Shot is off CD and you have enough focus
--> cast Explosive Shot
If you have enough focus to cast Arcane Shot and still have enough to cast Explosive Shot or Black Arrow whenever it comes off CD
--> cast Arcane Shot
None of the above
--> cast Cobra Shot (also refreshes serpent sting)

4.) Itemization

Our main stats are the following from the most important:

4.1 Hit
Hit capping is highly recommended however hit above the cap gives you no benefit. The hit cap for a hunter is:
Level 85 mob: 5%
Level 87 mob: 6% (Heroic Boss)
Level 88 mob: 8% (Raid Boss)

At level 85 1% hit is roughly 120 hit rating.
961 Hit Rating reaches the 8% hit cap.
841 Hit Rating is needed for Draenei to reach the 8% hit cap.

4.2 Agility
Agility is one of the strongest stats for MM. It is recommended that agility be the primary stat gemmed for SV hunters (After you reached hit cap). Since agility's value isn't hugely above other stats it is often worth gemming agil/crit in yellow sockets as most yellow bonuses are worth picking up.

4.3 Crit
Crit is generally a very solid stat for MM. It is especially valuable in increasing the proc rate of your Piercing Shots, which become extremely powerful at higher gear levels. You don't need to gem for it but as the best of the yellow stats available to MM (once hit capped) you may find it useful to gem agil/crit in yellow sockets to pick up most socket bonuses. Generally you don't need to be concerned about capping out on crit as MM (you need 104.8% crit before you max out on a boss).

4.4 Haste
With 4.0.1 the values of haste rating is a little bit more valuable than before.
The only shots affected by haste are Auto Shot, Steady Shot, and Cobra Shot) plus it increases our focus regeneration directly too.

4.5 Mastery
I do not view mastery as important for SV hunter currently. Elemental damage is about 70-80% of a survival hunters damage. Increase that by 1% per mastery is .07-.08% DPS per 1%. Your best bet is to reforge out of it into hit (if you have not reached the hit cap,) crit, or haste.

5.) Pet

We place for 20 pets in our table, and we can keep 4 pets in out "bags", from where we can summon them with Call Pet. (Only one at a time.)
Pets do not give buffs, but inherit the following stats from the hunter:
- 100% hit (rounded down to the nearest integer)
- 100% crit
- 100% melee haste (Not Rapid fire and Pathing, for example.)
- 42.5% of hunter attack power
- 0% from hunter strength

Ferocity pets appear to scale at:
- 67% of hunter stamina
- 50% of hunter armor

Cunning pets appear to scale at:
- 72.5% of hunter stamina
- 60% of hunter armor

Tenacity pets appear to scale at:
- 78% of hunter stamina
- 70% of hunter armor

With the pet-revamp we can give almost any raid buffs with the right pet:
(Thanks for Malazee @ Petopia for the pictures)

Pet Abilities
Raid Buffs
Pet Flow Chart


Pet-damage is normalized, so every pet from the same type (Feroicity, Cunning, Tenacity) is doing the same damage. (Except the Exotic pets which are doing a little higher, but they are avaible only with BM 31pt talent.)

The base Feriocity talent will be likely this: (Currently wowhead pet calculator is broken, will update when fixed)

6.) Professions

Note that since agility is stronger for SV than other stats, the professions which allow you to choose the stat of your choice give you the best benefit.

Highest DPS:
• Jewelcrafting: 3 improved gems for a potential 171 Agi gain
• Blacksmithing: 2 additional gem sockets for a potential 80 Agi gain
• Engineering: Engineering enchants are stacking with normal enchants, so you could get a Hyperspeed Accelerators (240 haste with 1 min CD) on gloves, a Nitro boost on boots, Flexweave Underlay (23 Agility rating) on cloak, Mind Amplification Dish (45 Stamina) on helmet over your standard enchants.

Good DPS:
• Alchemy: 80 AP bonus to flasks
• Enchanting: 2 40 AP enchants to ring for a potential 80 AP gain
• Inscription: improved shoulder enchant for an 80 AP gain
• Leatherworking: improved bracer enchant for an 80 AP gain
• Skinning: 40 Crit rating
• Tailoring: swordguard embroidery cloak enchant procs for 400 AP for 15 sec
• Herbalism: 240 haste for 20 seconds every 2 minutes.

Low DPS:
• Mining: 60 Stamina (no dps gain)

7.) Enchants


• Helm: [Arcanum of the Ramkahen] (Ramkahen rep)
• Shoulder: [Greater Inscription of Shattered Crystal] (Therazane rep)
• Cloak: Greater Critical Strike
• Chest: Peerless Stats (20 Stats from enchanters)
• Bracers: Greater Assault (50 AP)
• Gloves: Haste (50 haste)
• Belt: [Eternal Belt Buckle] (add an extra socket created by BS, engineers can also use a frag belt enchant to throw bombs)
• Pants: Scorched Leg Armor (110 AP/45 crit created by LW)
• Boots: Major Agility (35 Agil) or
• 2H Weapon:Mighty Agility (130 Agility)
• 1H Weapon:Accuracy (25 Hit/Crit)
• Ranged Weapon:Gnomish X-Ray Scope (sometimes increases ranged attack power by 800 for 10 sec when dealing damage with ranged attacks., crafted by engineers)
OR - R19 Threatfinder (increases hit by 88)

8.) Gems

• Meta: Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond (currently more blues than red, but blizzard said they are reverting it back to the old requirement)
• Red Sockets: Delicate Inferno Ruby (40 agi) if hit capped, Glinting Demonseye (20 Agi/Hit) if not. Delicate Chimera's Eye if jewelcrafter.
• Yellow Sockets: Deadly Ember Topaz (20 Agi/Crit) orDeft Ember Topaz (20 Agi/haste) unless the socket bonus is not worth getting in which case use Delicate Inferno Ruby
• Blue Sockets: Use a Rigid Ocean Sapphire (40 hit) or Glinting Demonseye (20 Agi/Hit), if not hitcapped. If you are hitcapped, use Delicate Inferno Ruby.

9.) Consumables

• With the remove of our mana Flask of the Winds (300 Agi) is the very best choice to us.
• Skewered Eel (90 Agil/Stam) is usually a noticable dps gain although on less challenging content using a fish feast will still be good and cheaper
• Potion of Speed (500 Haste for 15 sec) is preferred for maximum dps.
• Scroll of Strength VIII is usable on our pet, since it doesn't get any buffs directly.



Will be updating this post when new information comes in. Everything is up to discussion, if I am wrong, let me know and I will fix it!