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Live
PTR
11.0.7
PTR
11.0.5
Survival Hunter Artifact Weapon: Talonclaw – Legion 7.3.5
By celinamuna
Last Updated:
2018/06/28
Changelog
Patch: 11.0.7
Table of Contents
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This section of the Survival Hunter guide explains the best possible choices for the Netherlight Crucible, important traits and relic bonuses, and how to progress through your artifact weapon Talonclaw. This guide was written by
Delirium
from
the Thrill of the Wild
and
the Hunting Party Podcast
. Updated for the latest patch.
Artifacts in Battle for Azeroth
As of June 26th, completing the quest
The Power in Our Hands
will further empower your Artifact Weapon, enabling all traits and at least
Concordance of the Legionfall
level 75, further increasing in power over time until the Battle for Azeroth pre-expansion patch.
Therefore, only the Netherlight Crucible recommendations are relevant on this guide page leading up to BFA, as you already receive all Artifact Traits by default. This makes content easier to complete, especially some
content going away
such as
Ahead of the Curve
and
Mage Tower Challenges
.
In the
BFA pre-patch
, your Artifact Traits will be removed, and relics will simply increase the item level of your artifact weapon. However, many artifact traits are returning as talents or azerite powers in Battle for Azeroth and we have a compiled a
full list you can read here
.
Moving forward in Battle for Azeroth, you will still be able to acquire the Artifact Weapon which will mainly interest transmog collectors for the appearances. Learn how to unlock all appearances in BFA with our
Artifact Appearance Guide
.
Artifact Weapon:
Talonclaw
Active Ability
Equipping Talonclaw grants you the ability
Fury of the Eagle
, which quickly strikes all enemies in front of you.
Mongoose Fury
also increases the damage they take from this ability.
Netherlight Crucible
The
Netherlight Crucible
is a new system added in Patch 7.3. The Crucible allows you further empower your Survival Hunter Artifact Weapon, by specializing and increasing the power from your relics. With it, each relic receives a small talent tree that you can select new traits from, depending how many traits your weapon have. Do not worry, however, because with the changes to
Artifact Knowledge
, unlocking the full power of the Crucible won't take long. Learn everything about this new system in our
Netherlight Crucible Guide
. With the opening of
Antorus, the Burning Throne
, it is now possible to obtain
Insignia of the Grand Army
, which increases the potency of your Tier 2 Crucible traits by 50%. It might be a really strong legendary if you are lucky with Netherlight Crucible rolls! Data courtesy of
HeroDamage
.
Trait
Similar increase to
Infusion of Light
+6 ilevel
Torment the Weak
+6 ilevel
Shadowbind
+5 ilevel
Murderous Intent
+5 ilevel
Secure in the Light
+5 ilevel
Chaotic Darkness
+5 ilevel
Shocklight
+4 ilevel
Light Speed
+4 ilevel
Master of Shadows
+3 ilevel
Dark Sorrows
+2 ilevel
Other Traits
+0 ilevel
Relics
Item level, and consequently Weapon Damage, is definitely the most important aspect of relics for SV hunters. If you have the choice between relics with similar ilvls, the following traits provide the greatest boosts to DPS:
Sharpened Fang
Jaws of the Mongoose
Hellcarver
My Beloved Monster
Lacerating Talons
Fluffy, Go
"BiS Relics"
Because ilvl is the most important aspect of relics for SV, and the later bosses drop the highest ilvl gear, you'll generally be replacing your Survival Hunter Artifact relics as you work your way through Nighthold, rather than getting one best Relic and holding on to it. Of course, if you get lucky with a Warforged or Titanforged piece, that might not be the case. SV hunters have two relics possible from Guldan, which drops the highest ilvl gear available from raiding; however, those pieces obviously won't be available while you're working on kill Guldan, so you should simply choose the highest ilvl relics available to you to aid with progression. Information based on
HeroDamage
.
Slot
Name
Boss
Zone
Storm
Neuroshock Electrode
Varimathras
Antorus, the Burning Throne
Iron
Decimator Crankshaft
Kin'garoth
Antorus, the Burning Throne
Blood
Cruor of the Avenger
- Single Target BiS
Argus the Unmaker
Antorus, the Burning Throne
Blood
Spurting Reaver Heart
- AoE BiS
Garothi Worldbreaker
Antorus, the Burning Throne
Golden Traits:
Aspect of the Skylord
- Adds a huge 30% damage boost to your primary DPS cooldown.
Talon Strike
- Grants the
Hunter
's auto attacks a small chance to trigger two additional auto attacks. Very underwhelming for a golden trait.
Eagle's Bite
is a moderately high ticking damage over time effect that's applied by
Harpoon
, limited to one target. You can keep this debuff up on a single target for an indefinite duration.
Echoes of Ohn'ara
- While this is a fairly cool trait (Survival Hunters should be familiar with the eagle Ohn'ara from questing), the damage component of this trait is a bit lacking. Unfortunately, at its current tuning,
Echoes of Ohn'ara
is not powerful enough to change our rotation, and does not bring up the average damage of
enough to boost the value of
Animal Instincts
.
Concordance of the Legionfall
- A significant Agility buff that should occur on average every 44 seconds. At rank 1, this provides 2000 agility for 10 seconds, and gains an additional 200 agility per rank, up to a purposefully unobtainable 11800 agility at rank 50/50.
Normal Traits:
Fury of the Eagle
- Channeled cone attack that benefits from
Mongoose Fury
. Great against multiple enemies.
Iron Talons
- Simple DPS increase.
Hellcarver
- Increases your damage output against multiple enemies.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Sharpened Fang
- Buffs the damage of your most important ability.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Raptor's Cry
-
Raptor Strike
has been buffed, making this a better trait, but still one of the least sought of the DPS increasing traits.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
My Beloved Monster
- A single-target DPS increase.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Terms of Engagement
- Resets
Harpoon
's long 20-second cooldown whenever you kill an enemy. Don't listen to anyone who says not to get this trait until close to last. It's amazing for leveling, good for dungeons, and even though it isn't a direct damage increase, it will help you be one of the first melee to switch to priority adds in raids, and one of the first to get back on the boss after that add dies, making you a much more valuable melee raider.
Explosive Force
- This trait further increases Explosive Traps' already high damage. Great for both single- and multi-target situations.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Bird of Prey
- A small amount of self-healing, this is only useful for topping yourself off while leveling.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Hunter's Guile
- Decrease trap cooldowns. Traps are great for damage and utility.
Embrace of the Aspects
- Decrease aspects cooldowns. Aspects are also great for damage and utility.
Hunter's Bounty
- Decreasing the cooldown of
Improved Exhilaration
. Good for leveling, less useful in raids and dungeons.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Lacerating Talons
- Good damage increase for one of your damage over time effects.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Fluffy, Go
- This trait not only increases your pet's damage output, but it also benefits Mastery:
Hunting Companion
, granting you extra charges of
Mongoose Bite
.
Increased to 4 ranks when empowered.
Ferocity of the Unseen Path
- Increases damage and stamina by 10%. This trait is a flat damage increase..
Jaws of the Mongoose
- Increases the damage of Mongoose Bite crits by 20%. This is a fairly good damage trait, but its damage contribution relies on having a reasonable amount of crit already on our gear (and depending on your gear level, crit may be our 3rd or even 4th most important stat).
Talon Bond
- When your melee attacks proc
Talon Strike
, your pet will also attack twice. This is a fairly mundane trait, based on our worst golden trait.
Recommended build paths
Empowered Artifact Trait Paths
After completing your 35th trait, you can do a quest which will open up 5 new traits, and the ability to upgrade all of the 3 level traits to a 4th level. Survival Hunters will generally want to work their way up to the new Golden Trait before moving on to upgrading any of the old traits which are now able to upgrade to 4 ranks.
Next focus on upgrading your DPS traits to 4/4. Prioritizing buffing your highest DPS abilities (like
Sharpened Fang
for single target and
Hellcarver
for multi-target)) while saving the traits that buff your lowest damage abilities for later (like
Raptor's Cry
).
Finally, fill in your Defensive and Utility traits, until you can unlock
Concordance of the Legionfall
, and prepare for the unobtainable grind of leveling up Concordance.
Share your comments about this guide in our Hunter forum!
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