Isn’t that what you did?
And more people are playing Lone Wolf MM than the alternative. Maybe people just don’t like Markmanship.
The core fantasy of the hunter, what I wager has attracted the vast majority of the class base to main it, is Bow and Pet, together. Beastmaster is now the only spec that represents the core fantasy of hunters, and why it continues to dominate representation through every strata of content no matter its meta viability.
The Survival changes catered to one niche demographic, and its population cratered as a result, never recovering. Even at the height of its tuning in SL M+, it never even achieved plurality representation.
Marks’ descent into a petless turret spec has achieved the same effect, and this change will only drive it further into that chasm.
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It’s not even in the bottom 5 specs now. There are plenty of specs with less players. 
Seems like people just dont like MM
This isn’t based on anything. I was attracted to Hunter to play MM with a bow. The pet has always been a nuisance. I played it because there is literally no other option. I know others like me. New players see the following class descriptions:
BM: A master of the wild who can tame a wide variety of beasts to assist them in combat. Preferred Weapon: Bow, Crossbow, Gun
MM: A master sharpshooter who excels in bringing down enemies from afar. Preferred Weapon: Bow, Crossbow, Gun
SV: An adaptive ranger who favors using explosives, animal venom, and coordinated attacks with their bonded beast. Preferred Weapon: Polearm, Staff
It’s clear Blizzard has designed the main MM fantasy to be about your expertise with a bow, not your ability to control pets. Players deserve at least one spec that is just a guy with a bow, it’s a core fantasy in Warcraft that doesn’t currently exist as an option to play in WoW unless you want to either sacrifice utility or play with a pet.
That being said… I’m ecstatic about the changes, but I don’t immediately see why they couldn’t just modify Lone Wolf to also have “and you gain the powers/abilities of your last summoned pet” attached to it. Maybe they felt that was too powerful and they want to prune the amount of players that will play it, since Hunter is already the most played class.
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Going by DataForAzeroth’s numbers, Hunters are just slightly ahead of Druids when you look at all levels, but they’re at third place if you look at max level only.
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1000000% Agreed
can be a mechanical eagle?
They have stated they plan to add customizations to it but are looking for feedback. You should reply with your ideas to that blue post.
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would be cool to see a graph about classes at 630+ilvl or something like that
The simplest solution would be to make BL baseline and allow pet abilities to be cast through Lone Wolf. Things they’ve already figured out before.
A slightly more complicated solution would be adding a new hero talent track that forgoes the pet for increased self reliance.
A third option would be to just take all these changes and make a new spec out of them.
The nuclear option would be to make a new class, but that’d most likely require waiting until Midnight. And it’s something they should probably do anyway. We currently have three weapon types that are used by just two specs.
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Blizzard wants MM hunter to be a ranger without pet micro management. Too bad. They would have the data on there end to decide on whether or not lone wolf or the play style was preferred. They decided to keep BM and MM different that is it.
If you think blizzard and i are wrong we will see a huge MM hunter decline in participation next raid which i find very unlikely compared to the start of this raid. MM has been super unpopular in the last couple of expansions and i think this will turn it around .
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shadowhunter 
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Yes we do use pets. My MM hunter has used them for 20 years
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Why not just have a mage or shaman do lust and not have to bother with it at all? I have never been asked to have a pet to do lust.
Yeah just go BM and enjoy all the pets you want you can even play with only one pet in 11.1 which will allow you to live your role play dwarf+brear riffle man fantasy to the fullest! Have fun! =)
1000000% agreed we finally have a better identity to MM hunters with interesting talents and ways to keep streamline buff rolling while being able to have 2 target cleave and utility WITHOUT the gimmicks or summoning and dismissing a pet or having to MD every 30 secoonds because pet cant keep proper agro for MM. ITs a better spec identity, a true ranger. Now the hunter class has 3 distinct specs for people to enjoy, a ranger sharpshooter, a master of pets, and a weird melee option for those who for some reason like melee hunter.
Forums are not representative of the playerbase and never have been. I can roll through my alts liking the same posts, or writing negative feedback, to astroturf a movement. People have done this many times, this is essentially the entire basis for melee SV.
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I’m very glad for this change, as I prefer to run with just one pet as opposed to the two. Choice is always a good thing, as it’s personal to each & everyone of us hunters.
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It’s not about being “wrong”. Lone Wolf is absolutely preferred in M+ and raid. It would probably be preferred for PvP now if you weren’t sacrificing essential utility - IIRC it’s already preferred in RBGs.
It’s about the fact that high end competitive play is a fraction of the playerbase, and that gutting MMs ability to solo in service of making them better in group content is a zero-sum solution to a problem that doesn’t require one. “Lone Wolf now grants the Command Pet and Passive abilities associated with your most recently active pet” fixes the major functionality concerns for Raid, M+, and PvP, without removing any core features that are essential in other contexts.
We could even keep all the mechanical changes with the Spotting Eagle, and just have MM get a passive that reduces Aimed Shot damage by 10% if you have a pet out, which would allow MM to keep their pocket tank for soloing without giving any reason to use a pet in group content.
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Your issue is that removing the micro management of pet makes MM hunter difficult to do solo content…
The whole point of a rework is that after they remove the pet they can balance that all out. These changes are not the end changes, with delves being a big part of the game its highly unlikely they leave MM hunters survivability as is without a pet.
Also i wouldnt say “competitive players” number wise normal\heroic raiders or average pvps i wouldnt consider competitive. Also i pvp on my hunter and pet is basically required due to anti heal\freedom\sac\stun which is fixed next patch.
I hope MM is good solo for people like you who like to solo content on MM. It hasnt had a solo gameplay buff as of yet but it should be the next step.
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All I want is to be able to quest/open world with my wolfhawk that I’ve had since legion. This sucks. And no, I don’t want to play BM.
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