Yes but as other have said replace Hunter with Warlock but be ready to HATE YOUR life. If you hate your guild you will show up as the other classes not listed here.
Also for anyone saying “derp this only applies to the top 1% of guilds” feel free to show me in BFA where Druid are running Feral in raids.
If a spec is dead then it is DEAD and is a burden on a raid. Only reason anyone in here remotely thinks this is a good idea is because it is 40 people and you only need 15 of them to be competent in DPS to clear Vanilla raids.
Classic HEAVILY punishes people with financial penalties for wiping a raid and you do not want to be that guy. So no you will not get invited unless your guild feels pity on you or you threaten to not role holy anymore unless they let you play like a child as Ret in one farm raid.
.0001% of raid groups will not “allow” others than those 4, because they run min/max numbers (pure DPS results, nothing else) and can’t fathom the possibility of having an “inferior” class/spec being involved. The remaining 99%+ will let them be involved. Maybe not at first, because people are easily swayed by false perceptions, but they’ll realize soon enough you don’t HAVE to have every ounce of DPS to complete the raids.
Short version: Top Tier raiders (very, very small portion of Classic players) won’t let the other classes/specs DPS. Everyone else will, just not necessarily right away.
Then Classic will be completely different than pservers. The current vanilla playerbase isn’t using these specs for a reason. If you are suggesting that retail players that come to Classic will…I can’t help but laugh. Current retail players run simulators to find the best classes and specs and worship ilvl.
Here’s the root problem with saying with 100% certainty class/spec x or y will not be in raids - you have zero capability of proving it. Not every guild on every server in BFA is measured on websites. Not even close. Of course Druids run Feral in raids. Just not the hard core raids that min/max everything and/or put progression as their number 1 priority.
So saying no raid group will include non-optimal specs is either naivety, snobbery, or both.
Class balance. Not spec balance. We’re so focused on Spec as Class now that we forget that we play a Class. You play a Druid as an example, not just a Balance or Feral, etc.
Every Class was viable and desired for something in Vanilla for all content. That never meant Blizzard was going to make Ret or Moonkins a viable DPS choice for Raiding.
You’re delusional if you think that every guild is going to put progression above fun. Absolutely there will be guilds that optimize. And absolutely there will be guilds that run them for the experience, and if they progress slower, even much slower, they are still having fun. So lay off your snobbery and realize not everyone plays the same.
Many are going to be awfully disappointed in taking warlock to play classic. It can be a good class to play but it’s certainly not as easy as some of the others and some of the things you need to do can be brutal.
For example, recovery from dying is tough - especially in PVP. You have to rez, buff with demon armor/demon skin, lifetap/eat/drink, spend a lot of time on summon pet, lifetap/eat/drink. With other classes they are up and running much more quickly.
Yes, there are some ways it’s a powerful class but then again so are many others.
You don’t seem to understand that Blizzard made sure that all Classes were viable in all content in Vanilla but that didn’t mean all Specs.
If you were a Paladin Blizz made sure you had a role in Raids but it wasn’t as the main healer and it wasn’t as a DPS. The same held for ALL hybrid Classes.
If you were a Paladin you brought Blessings, Auras, Cleanse and spot healing. The same held for every hybrid. The heavy lifting for the Trinity was done by Warriors, Priests and Mages/Rogues for the most part. Locks can be thrown in there but the Debuff limit meant you couldn’t bring too many.
Hunter can go survival as soon as they hit an agi threshold, which can come before getting your Naxx gear. Also, guilds will only bring 1 SM:Ruin lock for the main tank group, the rest will go DS:Ruin.
LOL they failed if you wanted to DPS on a hybrid or main heal on anything but a Priest or Main Tank on anything but a Warrior and it’s not going to change this time since this is a time capsule. B.lizzard isn’t going to rectify mistakes they made at the time because that’s not the point of Classic
Priests and Warriors were technically hybrids. What’s your point? Shadow was non viable as a DPS in a Raid. Fury was the outlier. They were often referred to as Plate Rogues to much consternation on the forums.
The community back in the day was very very secretive in their own guilds with their strats. They were also the ones who chose who would and would not raid. It is possible on Classic release that a far wider range of guilds will invite a much different composition for their raids.
We have loads of information that people in Classic didn’t, videos to watch, streamers to watch, and sites that talk about the game in depth. Not only that but we have sites that will more than likely go into each and every class in depth as well as our bis. Don’t expect it to be the same experience this time around because it won’t be.