I keep coming across survival hunters using arcane shot and steady shot with a ranged weapon. Are they just fooling around? Or is this sorta the meta for survival right now?
Its a meme build from what I know but we lose a lot of our abilities to use it. Lose the execute. Lose our silence. Lose our slow. Its a warlock in mail armor basically but I don’t know if said meme build is viable or not.
In the pre-patch, I’ve have been experimenting with playing SV as a true ranged/melee hybrid using weapon swap macros and weak auras for an overlay that changes based on what weapon I have equipped. It has been extremely fun having full access to all SV abilities that require 2H melee, as well as the un-pruned abilities that use a ranged weapon.
The GCD on weapon swapping in combat takes some getting used to, but I’m enjoying this style of play much, much more in both pvp and pve. Being able to go melee or full ranged based on the situation at any given moment feels really good. At this point, I don’t see myself ever going back to a non weapon swap play style for SV.
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Its fun, but its a meme playstyle. You lose out on too much for weapon swapping to be viable in higher tiers of play.
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The good thing about weapon swapping is that you don’t have to lose out on anything. You still prioritize melee because that’s where your biggest damage comes from. But when it comes times to kite, or be at range, you’ll have more firepower.
One thing I like to do in PvP is start kiting with Aspect of the Eagle, then switch to a ranged weapon, continue kiting with arcane shot and bombs. Then depending on the situation, switch back to melee, harpoon in and continue the fight, or just kill shot from range if that will do the trick.
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Interesting, mind sharing your macros?
Curious what your weak aura setup is like too
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Most mindful Survival Hunters use range if something is out of their reach via mobility, terrain, or AOE gunk in the way. Otherwise they still prioritize just going Melee whenever possible.
There is a bunch of people showing off macros where they utilize what weapon they use and it’ll use abilities according to it exactly. Its very neat for sure.
Blizzard changed the Auto Shot interval for Survival back in BFA because this same type of game play started to emerge then. So one thing you’ll lose out on is more white damage switching from melee to range. Considering that precedent I wouldn’t be surprised to see them take other steps in Shadowlands if this starts to get popular.
For swapping between melee and range I use
/equip [noequipped:polearm] Tideguard Pike
/equip [noequipped:bow] Sentinel’s Recurve
Replace the names listed with the names of your weapons. I use a couple of weakauras that flash either a gun or an axe icon above my character’s head that represent whether I have melee or range equipped. They flash whether I’m in or out of combat to help me keep track of generally what’s equipped at any time, and to know when a successful swap has happened in the oft hectic times of combat.
The trigger type is “Status”. In the Status drop-down it’s Item Equipped. Then in the item box the name of your weapon.
The other macro I use is to have Mongoose Bite and Arcane Shot on the same button and have it use the appropriate ability based on the weapon equipped.
#showtooltip
/cast [equipped:Bow] Arcane Shot;[equipped:Polearm]Mongoose Bite
My weakauras action usable icon overlay will change to Mongoose Bite or Arcane Shot based on item equipped. This is done through the Load tab, checking the box Item Type Equipped and selecting Polearms in the drop-down for Mongoose Bite. And similarly, Bows, Guns, Crossbows for Arcane Shot.
A second icon for each with an inverse trigger and desaturated display for when you don’t have enough focus to cast.
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I prefer to just add an equip line above major abilities. If the right weapon is not equipped, it uses up a global cooldown and if the right weapon is equipped, the ability just goes off like normal.
You can also macro the weapon swaps to Harpoon and Disengage, given those are off GCD abilities and Harpoon has travel time before you can use any melee abilities, you don’t lose out on much.
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I use these for Steady Shot and Arcane Shot after the weapon swap macro Tyr mentioned above:
#showtooltip
/cast [equipped:Bow] Steady Shot; [equipped:Crossbow] Steady Shot; [equipped:Gun] Steady Shot; [equipped:Polearm] Carve; [equipped:Staff] Carve; [equipped:Two-Handed Sword] Carve; [equipped:Two-Handed Axe] Carve
#showtooltip
/cast [equipped:Bow] Arcane Shot;[equipped:Crossbow] Arcane Shot;[equipped:Gun] Arcane Shot;[equipped:Polearm] Raptor Strike;[equipped:Staff] Raptor Strike;[equipped:Two-Handed Sword] Raptor Strike;[equipped:Two-Handed Axe] Raptor Strike
It’s basically the same as the above, but future-proofs when changing to new weapon types. Raptor Strike will of course default to Mongoose Bite automatically if you’ve taken that talent.
Cleaner versions:
#showtooltip
/use [equipped:Bows/Crossbows/Guns]Arcane Shot;Raptor Strike
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I… (and I mean this with every piece of my neurotic brain) …love you.
I tried weapon swapping but its a not for me. Arcane shot doesn’t hit very hard and steady shot doesn’t generate any focus. I suppose if you wanted to make it work you’d play tip of the spear, kite until you can get a 3 stack raptor strike then go back out but its still a bit of a no for me.
Maybe a dumb question, but do you have to be out of combat to weapon swap?
No. But weapon swapping in combat will activate a gcd. Out of combat, no gcd.
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I realy don’t understand why
let people at least try to enjoy that which they destroyed
Do you have something that creates your macros automatically? Or do you have to update them every time you get a new weapon? I’d like to know if this is a reasonable set-up for leveling without looms 
Not to be that numbers guy, but is it helpful to dps/pvp? or is it more of a Roll-Playing thing? It sounds fun as hell, but is it efficient?