The problem with discussing present-day Surv is that there is so much bad blood among a lot of the hunter community over losing a ranged spec, or having their preferred spec changed out from under them. I get that.
But none of that has any bearing over whether current Surv is good or not, or fun or not. I don’t know how “good” it’s going to be at end game, because I haven’t gotten there yet, but I’ve got one up to about 170-180 ilvl right now and if fun is the measurement, then it’s a winner to me because it’s fun. From reports just in this thread, it sounds like it will prove to be a good M+ spec once I get that far.
As for the great change that got us here, I didn’t like to see it at the time because the game has too much melee as is. On the other hand, there has been a lot of spec overlap in hunters at times over the years, or at least it felt that way (hunter alt here since TBC), so I understand the change even if I didn’t agree with it. Thematically, it fits because humanity has had pet-assisted spear hunters as part of their culture for thousands of years.
I think if Blizzard had it do over again, they would (or should) have considered a fourth spec. Ultimately, I think we needed a Commando spec that sort of combined current Surv huinter with Outlaw rogue, but where do you put it?
The thing is, there was no overlap between MM and RSV in WoD. The argument they used to justify changing it to melee was based on the general class fantasy of both specs focusing on the use of ranged weapons, despite how as soon as you looked at specific abilities and effects, or general themes altogether, they weren’t all that similar after all.
Here’s an example of what RSV could’ve looked like if brought forward into Legion, or brought back to present day WoW. Would that amount to a core playstyle that is the same as, or even similar to current MM? I’d say far from it…
Whoever dares to play the non-meta specs at higher content is usually really good at what they are doing, often times much better than those playing the meta specs who are barely average due to FOTM fever.
I don’t pity them, instead I respect those people who refuse to join the meta-meme.
Then you can accept that it will be a largely-avoided pariah spec forever. All discussion about bailing Survival out is a waste of time if Blizzard isn’t prepared to drop the melee part for whatever reason. Seriously; can anyone tell me why this spec is still melee? It’s evident at this point that it’s just holding the spec back and it’s not like the spec is even emphasising its melee weapon very much.
No, that wouldn’t work because ranged Survival had a real specialisation philosophy in that it meaningfully built from the base class. It emphasised the utilitarian side of the Hunter class and it specialised in things that were part of the class including explosives, poisons, and traps. It would not fit in another class.
Great! Making it ranged again shouldn’t be a problem, then. After all, BM and MM also have the option of going into melee if they need to. In fact, they are more versatile as they can do full damage from 0-40 yards while SV cannot beyond 5 yards.
This is because PvP talents didn’t exist before Legion.
The problem with this logic is when the Hunter class in WoW is built around ranged weapons making one of the specs lack a ranged weapon is effectively making it unique via handicap rather than strength.
Nice wall fo text arguing about useless stuff.
Nobody cares if you don’t enjoy it my dude, the spec is there, some hate, some love, thats all it will ever be. It can do any content atm.
Its not like combat rogues are getting their spec back either btw.
People do care, by the way, that they replaced a very popular ranged spec with a melee spec that’s consistently one of the least popular options in the game.
About this. Out of all of the things that they would change throughout the years due to lack of popularity among the players, you’d think that by now, the third expansion after the revamp that they’d change survival back or at least make a fourth spec based on what the old survival was because of how unpopular it is among the players.
I like and have played all 3 of the hunter specs since vanilla but survival is by far my favorite one, its fast and engaging combat is a nice change of pace from ranged dps and I always enjoy the goofy responses I get from people when they see you playing it especially from other surv hunters