So, seems like melee survival isn’t the most popular for Hunters, at least as far as the forums are concerned. So I’m curious, how would you rework it? Ranged dot spec? Perhaps double down on bombs, traps and so forth while maintaining range?
What are your thoughts.
The main thing is that I don’t want to do to melee survival enjoyers what Blizz did to RSV enjoyers. So I would not rework the spec. However I would give it some survivability buffs (to all hunter specs really - marksmanship especially) because the spec called survival should actually be decent at doing that. And I would make camouflage baseline for SV hunters and replace the current talent with one that removes its cooldown.
Well, for a start I would make it so the focus of the spec wasn’t tossing bombs at your own feet.
I’d turn it into a tank spec. Survival. Makes sense to me. Need a mail tank anyway.
I view a survival hunter as a person able to move fast, hit statistically then fade into the back ground within seconds allowing a dot to finish the victim off while trap and snares hold the prey.
put it back to the way it was in mop. just copy paste ranged survival from 5.4 and then also add back exotic munitions from wod. it is that simple. best spec ever to be put in game peroid
Tank spec thats gimmick is they share damage with their pet. Seems pretty cut and dry, honestly.
Just let it dual wield as well.
If you want to be a ranged hunter, you literally have 2 specs that are ranged, let some people (though it is a minority), have the fantasy of being a melee hunter with a spear. My suggestion though, let survival be able to dual wield.
I do like the spear but dual-wielding would be awesome. Kind of wish beast mastery was the melee spec, dual-wield, mimicking the beasts. Go full Rexxar.
Strange choice but this is a hypothetical discussion after all.
AoE dot spec, close to mid ranged that can go without a pet like MM. It should be the best AoE spec in the game with mid level single target.
Double down on the bombs and traps with minimal direct weapon damage. Bombs being direct mob targeted attacks and traps floor targeted. You could even make it a second support spec with healing and stat/damage boosting/debuffing bombs. Go hard into the engineering flavor of the spec, make it themed around what the Gnomes and Goblins bring to the Hunter class.
Direct weapon damage abilities should be mostly filler and it shoud be ranged agnostic. Meaning every skill should be usable with a melee or ranged weapon. Could even add a damage modifier that the closer you are to the target you get a slight buff to auto attack damage.
Maybe even reinstate the old mechanic where the hunter swaps between melee and ranged weapons depending on what range the enemy is at. They could make it so that the hunter only equips one weapon and all damage is calculated from it, just that the appearance changes. Put an extra slot in the transmog panel for the alternate appearance.
I mean, realistically – It makes sense for Survival to have a deeper connection to spirit beasts and their pets more than Beast Mastery hunters do, because Survival hunters are actually fighting side by side their companions and not shouting out orders from afar.
Many enjoyed them in their alpha phase back in WoD, when they were shrecking anything they looked at with an evil grin – Maybe pop that ordeal again, I’m sure many would be keen to play them once more. 
See this is kind of why I’d want Beast Mastery reworked to melee. I mean it’s in the name, Master the beast, both outside and within. And emulate Rexxar “WHO IS A BEAST MASTER”
Of all the classes survival should have the best weather elemental resistance this would give it a great advantage than other classes.
survival hunter main for a few years now. one thing I would like to see would be for steady shot to regen focus for survival the same way it does for marksman
I’d like to see more of a melee/ranged hybrid focus on the spec. It sort of plays that way already (in pvp at least idk about pve) but it just feels kind of weird, it feels like a bunch of random things hobbled together to make a spec, and as much time as you spend at range/kiting it feels pretty scuffed even if the actual numbers are good. I actually really enjoyed bgs leveling as survival because it was kind of viable to swap to bow and use arcane/steady shot at range.
Weapon swapping like that feels pretty “classicy” to me and is not something I think many would appreciate, but something along those lines of making steady shot useable with your melee weapon and regen focus. Or just make the ranged aspect something besides a cd/spamming bombs
I could see turning it into a “throwing weapon” spec. Despite hunters being able to use thrown back in the day they never could use ranged abilities with them so any sort of spear thrower or axe thrower fantasy has always kind of just been missing. Could do something with that that lets it still do some melee but also have more interesting ranged abilities
That spec was a nightmare.
For me, melee survival drew me back to the class. It’s great charging to the frontlines with your pet. The only thing I wish would be less bomb focus. Keep the bombs, but the build shouldn’t be built around it. Melee survival is a blast. I wouldn’t do a melee range hybrid, that is what led outlaw rogue to what it has become today.
You mean like a boomerang like weapon?
I mean that could be cool too. I was just thinking throwing the weapons, we already pull arrows and bullets and all out of our asses why not axes or spears, hell warriors do it already