Levelling as Survival in cata

[Takemikazuch]

Hey guys, a burning question that i need to get answered. I wish to level my hunter through cataclysm as survival spec (with BM offspec). The only tedious issue I'm having is finding a suitable spec. Currently I am still specc'd as 80 wrath raid spec. Check me out on the armory if you wish, level 80 hunter, mal'ganis

Now my buddy Frostheim has a leveling guide set up with a spec and such, only problem is it's MM, and i kinda have had it out for MM as of late and would like to level surv (but I can switch if I have to).

Does anyone know a good cata survival hunter leveling spec? Or should I go ahead with Frostheim's MM idea and just suck it up?

[Deleted]

In my opinion, you should simpily stick with whichever spec you believe is the most fun, especially as a pure DPS class.
Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about Survival spec, nor Marksmanship spec... Though I am currently leveling a BM Hunter myself, and quite succesfully so far.
Here's a link to the spec, if you're interested... Just in case you, or any other readers, decide to give it a try!

http://wowtal.com/#k=vst0QZUz.a8t.hunter.-8PPKq

[Dracodraco]

While Surv is viable, you will get alot better results with MM, due to the Rapid Recuperation talent (regains 50 focus whenever we deal a killing blow to a mob yielding EXP or honor = pretty much everything youre going to kill).
If you want to go down the route with survivial, the spec will not differ alot from that of a raiding hunter. A few things you might want to note:
Youre not going to be using serpent sting as things die too quickly. So leave out things like improved serpent sting where possible to pick up other utility talents (more stam is better than a talent boosting a spell youre not using for example).
I'd go with this talent spec:

http://wowtal.com/#k=b-zv_NzQ.a8t.hunter.

Picking up spirit bond in BM ASAP is essential to lower downtime due to survivial not having any other ways of regaining health.

Lihonessa, looking at your BM spec, I was wondering...
Why no spirit bond? The improved steady shot talent points are completelly wasted, you wont be firing enough steady shots at mobs in cata to keep the buff up enough to make it worth it.

[Nevermourne]

Spec in whatever you enjoy. If you want survival, then spec for survival. Spec heavily into anything that increases your survivability and your traps' functions, and then use them wisely and accordingly. Survival has some good options. BM and MM have better leveling options for focus replenishment and things proc-ing off of killing blows, but blizzard's whole purpose to the change in talent trees was to make it more interesting to play in the spec that you enjoy. Try it out, if you feel that leveling as Survival is holding you back, then simply re-roll for the time being, or dual spec (only 10g now!) and keep a leveling spec and then a survival spec for when you grind dungeons.

[Acker]

MM has a big advantage with Rapid Recuperation. It's too bad that it's not lower in the tree. MM isn't all that different anyway: you just use Chimera Shot instead of Explosive and steady instead of cobra. If you care about levelling speed (say you want to start raiding ASAP), go MM. If you're not all that fussed and can live with hitting 80 a little bit later, take whatever you want.

If you do go SV, in my opinion you shouldn't worry too much about stamina talents and spirit bond and such. You'll barely get hit if you use MD correctly, and you might want the dps talents for dungeons.

[hunteromg]

Level with spec that suits you the best. IMO RR (http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/58883/rapid-recuperation/) is not so important. Why? Yea 50 focus is a lot and its awsome for sure. But keep in mind that you will need to loot corpses and in that way you will regain some extra focus. And if things are true later on mobs wont die from 2 or 3 shoots so you will anyways will be using steady/cobra.

And as it is said several times. Spec prolly wont make huge difference cus with new MD glyph you wont have any problems with threat and mobs wont touch you.

And if you decide to lvl as SV I would not suggest to take spirit bond but Pathfinding(http://db.mmo-champion.com/s/19560/pathfinding/) instead