Confessions: I actually enjoy Survival

  • I like that it’s a fairly easy-to-understand spec that isn’t built around burst windows (and thus is a good foil for MM).

  • I like that, in the event that you mess up the rotation, it punishes you with nothing to press/reduced DPS (it feels very oldschool to me in that way - like arms warriors).

  • I like that it’s built around the combination of a DOT and spike damage from mongoose bite. I also like that it has the flexibility of being able to drop aspect of the eagle into the mix, making it one of the few true ranged/melee hybrids (I think the only other one is enhancement shaman?).

  • I like that it has strong mobility and several different snare options.

  • I like that I can actually use my pet, whereas, with MM, I feel very committed to lone wolf.

Could the spec use big (huge) improvements? Absolutely. There isn’t any question about it. But I like the basic idea of where survival is right now.

6 Likes

In before Bepples tries to ruin your enjoyment lol

Im having fun with it too. not sure how viable it will be in any real game play but its incredibly fun and I look forward to incorporating weapon swapping into my gameplay fully with it

8 Likes

theres no doubt that survival is actually really fun. i mean most people just don’t pick it up because of utility or a bad rap of a melee spec in what some thought hunter was only suppose to be ranged.

Enjoy! have fun and do some pvp super fun in all types of PvP!

3 Likes

It feels like Enhancement shaman to me, which was my main for a long time. The core rotation and ‘feel’ of the spec didn’t change much with the Shadowlands rework they did, but they removed a lot of the things that got in the way of the spec really succeeding at the level it felt like it could. Surivival needs the same thing. It can feel rewarding, no doubt, but the numbers it brings are not competitive. That can be fixed.

3 Likes

MM Hunters that give up their pet should be committed.
I actually use my pet, and I always play MM.
Lone Wolf has a place, but I much prefer rolling with my Pet.
Grats on your enjoyment of the Surv. spec.

It feels alot like an Unholy DK before Blizz added the zit popping and screwed it. I like Survival alot, BM is still my favorite ranged but I could see Survival becoming my new melee spec in SL.

Yeah I was about to say this

Feels like the same damage profile that unholy DKs used to have

But we can move around better

2 Likes

Problem is pets die too easily now, which provides a hard counter against sv

1 Like

I play Surv now and then and I have so much fun when I do. I’ve been thinking of running it again.

1 Like

Probably why I like it so much too. I loved unholy before necrotic strike became a thing, WoTLK unholy was so much fun mechanically.

They do need to do something about the pets. my pet literally died to every rare yesterday in ICC. something is going on with their profile. they arent supposed to be taking AOE damage in the way that they are

1 Like

It really seems like unless you are hitting the pet HOT the moment it’s off cool down, your pet is doomed.

Mm, I do miss that. Not as much as I miss 2-rune, CD-based Howling Blast hitting like a truck, but still.

It honestly kind of makes me wish the HoT was a secondary component of Mend Pet, and a mobile-cast channel the primary, so it’d be more costly, true, but also far more potent.