u ppl ruin this forums
Okay then, if you think the only valid way to know if a spec is popular then tell me what the participation rates for survival hunter is in mplus or raid right now, because i havent check because im playing SOD and i havent touch Dragonflight because its a bad expac.
Im assuming its below 1% like every other expansion
The least played spec in the game right now for raid is Affliction
The least played spec in the game right now for M+ is…also Affliction
Neither of which are Survival 
Survival (and MM) both make up 2nd and 3rd place respectively with a difference of around 1% in raid, and Sub is the 2nd least played spec in M+
What a very bad take lol. DF is probably one of the best expansions the game has had unless you’re a contrarian.
Best expansion based on what? the smallest amount of players playing it? Bias much?
So survival is one of the least played specs above afllication and sub rogue. Right and historically it has also been the least played spec UNLIKE affliction and sub rogue.
So my point stands that it is unpopular and you are smoking some real copium thinking its popular at all
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well it has reportedly the highest retention, which I think is a pretty big factor in objective quality
it has the least amount of chores, which based on feedback since legion came out, is also a good thing
what’s your favorite expansion?
yes, and your statement was it was the least played spec, which is why I corrected you, and you chose to argue about it
actually historically sub and affli are also very low played. kind of nuts each of the pure dps classes has a spec that’s always the least played among the class (arcane, affliction, sub, survival)
My statement being the least played\popular spec wasnt just talking about a single patch. Im talking about since its release. Like i said you cant use a single patch to figure out how popular a spec is. Sure it might not be last right now but its been in the bottom of the barrel for 10 years now.
I mean last i played a ton in shadowlands affliction was very very popular one of the most popular specs.
I think you are reaching hard trying to compare Survival hunter to sub rogue or affliction warlock in terms of popularity. Even sub was popular in 10.0
Survival has been bottom of the barrel unless it does stupid OP damage which forces it to come out. its unpopular stop reaching
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right, and thats still not the case, because going on the last 2 years it hasn’t been the least popular spec lol
I think you didn’t read what I was saying at all? I’m saying that among the pure DPS classes in the game, each has a spec that is consistently the least popular spec that class has.
yes, welcome to playing a dps spec lol
I mean that just isnt true, like i just said sub rogue was the most popular spec in the first patch of DF then it swapped to outlaw now assasination. Same applies to warlock.
Survival hunter is always the least played spec by a LARGE margin. And by large i mean its always 1% or less.
No other spec in the game consistently has 1% or less participation every single patch for nearly 10 years worth of expansions. Just because affliction is unpopular right now does not mean its consistently less than 1% or even close to that.
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yes, when a dps class has a stupid OP spec people play it, that’s just how the game works friend
except for right now? and the last patch? and 9.2.5? and 9.2?
Sorry does it have more than a 1% participation rate now? or is it still less than 1% which has been the case for 8 years? because to me that means its the least popular spec.
You are trying your best but the fact remains that its super unpopular and i wouldnt be surprised if it gets reworked.
Not going back and forth with you because there is no point if you cant admit to yourself that less than 1% participation for 8 years makes a spec unpopular and that its the most unpopular spec.
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sorry did you say “it’s always the least played spec by a large margin” or did you say “does it have a sub 1% participation”?
you keep saying 1 thing and then when you’re proven wrong you say “well no I meant XYZ”
…Tbf, the most fun build of each Hunter spec in Shadowlands was honestly more fun to me than the most fun build of each Hunter spec in Dragonflight. The difference isn’t huge, but it does feel like a small downgrade, with some changes biting more than others.
Could say the same for quite a few classes/specs. Some got a bit better. A greater number did not.
And then if we’re talking setting/story… part of the reason Dragonflight has such high retention is just that it had such little initial buy-in, and I think the setting and lack of story investment had a lot to do with that. The polish is there; it’s certainly got some of the best improvements we’ve ever had systems-wise. The basics, though… arguably less so.
which is pretty interesting to me since hunter barely received changes moving from SL → DF, the only real ones being that BM got an actual damage cooldown. what do you miss from SL if I may?
We’re missing old Serpent Sting, old Volatile Bomb, old Viper’s, actually being able to choose whether to use MB and Surging Shots, Bolstering(?) Shots bug leading to some fun range-play on Rapid Fire, TotS being decently impactful (though that’s more a PvE thing), the Covenant Skills (NF adjusting priority somewhat, Flayed Shot in general), certain of the Covenant passives, having a versatile Survival CD (more dull to some, but given how dull modern CA and SH are, too… ehh… I liked what could be held briefly for that more general amplifier more than just what ought not be used before CA or the nearly unrewarded Focus/cycle planning of SH), etc.
Again, I’m not contrasting solely meta builds then to now. Just the builds that were at least competitive and I found most fun in each expansion.
And, again, to me, they’re close. Dragonflight Hunter gameplay is still quite good. I find even most of the MM complaints a bit baffling if/when they conclude the spec is a mess. I’m just pointing out, especially with the added throughput cost to take class flavor in Dragonflight, why some might not be a fan.
super fair enough, but I feel like CA is just as versatile of a CD now as it was then, with the added bonus of it actually impacting your gameplay now instead of SL when it was just a flat damage amp. typically the latter is seen as dull, which is why a lot of them were reworked moving into DF
I guess that one just catches a disproportionate amount of pet peeve for me, mostly because of how unimpactful it was until the added primary target damage on WFB and without Deadly Duo. Just honestly felt like (with the exception of my liking how the first and second points in DD stack up) it should have done more to interact with the pet if going that direction, or else at least swap the more gameplay-affecting DD effects and the baseline CA effects. /shrug
What complaint about MM in dragonflight do you think is baffling?
Lack of survivability? Needing to summon\dismiss your pet for basic utility like lust\ Hunters mark being frustrating to use
do you mean coordinated kill? it was extremely impactful in 10.0 with the cleaving kill shots. but yes, if you don’t take the enhancement talent’s it’s a weak cooldown, like other specs with CD enhancers in the talent tree
Again, not the complaints, but just concluding from them that the whole spec is a mess.
It’s not. There are just some really dumb class feature decisions weighing it down.
Sorry, yes; Coordinated Kill. Not sure how I got CA’s and SH’s enhancement talent’s names swapped in my head. Maybe the pet-procced effects part; idk.
Right, but at least those put the function and/or gameplay first. CA on its own is just a far weaker version of the old CA — still basically flat damage, just… affecting only two attacks instead of all.
FotE, on the other hand, at least has had some impact on its own, ever since its damage was tuned to something less wet-noodle.
not really at all, especially once you have the current tier set
it’s reactive gameplay instead of “you do more damage for 20 seconds” which is what I said blizzard wanted to move away from with cooldowns