Seriously, they have barely touched the spec all expansion. It’s at the bottom of the charts. I can put in 50% of the effort it takes to play survival as MM and do much more damage.
I don’t think it needs to become ranged either. Melee is fun and unique, but they definitely need to commit to it fully instead of using a single damage ability, interrupt, and snare as melee with nothing else. I feel like I spend all my time shouting at my pet to kill and shooting the one-size-fits-all crossbow. It barely seems like I’m doing melee at all. Have a rogue spec go ranged like a shadowy archer or something instead of trying to make survival ranged again.
Make serpent sting melee and ditch the silly crossbow. Call it serpent bite or something. Kill shot should be melee and become kill strike. Make aspect of the eagle affect serpent bite and kill strike.
Ditch the BM borrowed stuff, and replace kill command with flanking strike baseline. Steel trap should be baseline instead of intimidation, with a short initial stun. And finally, change coordinated assault, right now it just feels like bestial wrath that lasts a little bit longer and does a little less damage. Maybe have it reset flanking strike when using raptor strike/mongoose bite and increase versatility (since they are survival and all).
In other words, the theme is really cool and I want to play it. Just make it fully melee and separate it further from BM. Also, make the numbers competitive.
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I’ve seen it floated a few times that they intentionally under-tune survival because they don’t want hunters to feel “forced” to play melee. Obviously, I don’t know if that is true but I can understand the sentiment behind it. It is a shame, because mechanically survival is a fun spec IMO.
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It’s very fun indeed! I’ve been playing it lately and think it hasn’t been done justice. I love getting up to 5 mongoose bite stacks, the animation changes and your toon starts shouting (my gnome jumps up in the air and goes “Wahoo!”).
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I still think they are leaving survival undertuned for a possible massive rework just like they did in WoD going into legion. Who knows maybe they can make it unique like it used to be before legion without just being a weird BM hunter.
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I hope so. It kinda feels like shadow priest pre-rework, where it just got left hanging forever. So maybe something like that is in the pipes. I’d like to see a rework in a patch though, not wait till 10.0.
Survival melee is fun. If they rework it I hope it becomes a tank spec. 
Otherwise, keep it melee dps.
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Agreed! Tank spec would be very interesting too. I could see them juggling a boss between them and their pet. Massive strike incoming? Quickly pet taunt and have it soak the big damage. Then back to holding aggro yourself.
I can defintley survival melee is fun, it would be nice if they can Duel Wield just like Rexxar.
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Don’t exaggerate…
You don’t have to put that much effort into playing MM to outperform Surv.
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I think it needs to be changed and possibly made at tank spec, where you and your pet sure tank aggro some how or something.
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So why even have it exist , then?
You might well be right — WoW clearly intentionally under tunes some specs, like Sub Rogue — but if a spec is never going to be a strong choice for PVE content, that spec shouldn’t exist in its current form.
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If that’s their reasoning, that’s pretty dumb. Even at the highest level, people will only play it if the utility it brings is worth it, and/or their damage is so overwhelming that they feel like they have no choice. Even now, there’s still tons of Hunters that play BM because they like it, even though MM leaps ahead right now.
Even if it were middle of the pack at best, it wouldn’t hurt anyone, and near nothing would change - the people who enjoy the spec wouldn’t feel pressed to switch.
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I kinda like the whole melee with ranged options thing survival has going. It’s unique and fun especially in PvP.
I just wish they were like… better. If not in dps then in ease to play.
Its not a great situation if its true. And I certainly can’t say that it is true as I’m not privy to actual designer thoughts.
But I could see it playing out as a class design team making something cool (i really do think survival is a cool spec) and then someone further up the chain of command realizing that in the big picture people are going to play whatever the guides/sims say is the best and that would result in people who have a very set idea about what their class role is being unhappy.
But again, just all spitballing. None of that could be true, or some, or all.
“We’d rather you didn’t play Demonology.”
You’re preaching to the choir here, trust me.
I think wildfire bomb fills the ranged need nicely, and that ability doesn’t need to be changed at all. It’s probably the best part of the whole spec. Plus, they have aspect of the eagle to go ranged when they need to dodge stuff.
I just don’t like how raptor strike (or mongoose bite with talent) and carve are the only two abilities we are regularly using in melee. Sure there is the melee interrupt muzzle and the snare wing clip, but those aren’t damage abilities.
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Sorry that you find your spec fun. The Nerf Team is en route now to correct this error.
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They’ve already arrived lol.
I love the theme, but it needs a rework on the level of shadow priests. Not a total overhaul, but tweaking a few abilities, ability interactions, and boosting the numbers.
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Indeed, I hope SV gets the love it deserves!
-BM sister
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I like survival I hope it becomes good eventually I just don’t know if I believe in Blizzard to invest their time into anything but their designers pet projects.
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