Is Melee Hunter going to be removed?

Brodanyo-kelthuzad · January 23, 2022, 10:37am

Imo they should add a new range spec to Hunter

Mindphaser-area-52 · January 23, 2022, 12:20pm

Surv seemz most fun spec for Hunter (PvP wise)… I used to play Survival hunter in BC/Wotlk… one or the other, or both. Until I stumbled upon Kripparian?? He may have even been surv, or MM… BM? I don’t think that was big until Spirit Beasts came about… Idk man. Been so long.
Anywayz… keep surv how it is , if they change it… idk. Maybe… less bombs and more uh… tactical abilties??? Survival… bombs… engineering???, no… an ability called “Call of the Beast” if it doesn’t exist would be cool. Where you do some sort of Hunting call, like a turkey call for example, and against like a Feral druid or any form druid or beast… it charms them to walk to u and u 1 shot cleave?? Just a theory. JK
I quit caring about Hunter’s after wrath. My first toon from 2007 (hunter) literally lvl 80 → lvl squish to what ever lvl 80 squished to in SL. untouched. But I think Survival current state seems really fun, better than BM and MM for sure.

Vishamani-illidan · January 23, 2022, 12:38pm

we thank you kind sir for being a supporter of a spec that myself and countless other hunters have lived and would of died for because it was the most polished spec in the entire game. ranged survival hunter was without question the smoothest and most perfected spec ever created by blizzard so much so that we old school surv hunters feel that there were to many surv hunters and thats the reason for the change to melee.

we have been shouting and screaming since the day the announcement was made for it to be stopped and we will continue to do so everyday until it is brought back.

survival hunter change to melee was easily a top 3 mistake of all the mistakes made by the blizzard team.

Thogar-the-scryers · January 23, 2022, 1:44pm

It’s kind of pathetic seeing so many melee praise Blizzard for taking something others enjoyed away from those people. Melee had enough options before MSV. You know what I did when I wanted to play a melee DPS, I went a played one of the already existing cornucopia of melee DPS specs. When I wanted to play my hunter, I played my hunter. I really hope Blizz brings RSV back and updated for the current game and let’s you MSV players keep your spec which is far better than what happened to RSV players. Though as I have said in my earlier post, sometimes, with the way MSV players act, a small part of me kind of wants Blizz to revert it so you can understand where RSV players are coming from.

Masilmar-ysondre · January 23, 2022, 1:50pm

Yo, Zug Zug brother. This Mindphaser (Demon Hunter) Here. Check my Axe bro. L33t hunter wep.
Old skool hunters unite. I may not be surv now. But I was at one point.
May ur blades never dull.

Kazghani-wyrmrest-accord · January 23, 2022, 1:55pm

So, there is 1 reason why they will 100% keep melee survival a thing and no amount of pretending to have liked ranged survival despite the numbers saying otherwise will bring it back.

Chromie Time Legion.

Grievus-nagrand · January 23, 2022, 2:14pm

I think MSV is one of the best gameplay loops in the game (wildfire infusion build). I also think that it’s not going anywhere (could do with more traps and bombs though).

But if the Devs were smart, they’d re-introduce RSV as a 4th spec and IDK call it “Munitions Expert” or something.

That’d keep the old saltlords happy and the MSV chads happy too.

Bepples-barthilas · January 23, 2022, 3:09pm

Oh, maybe I wasn’t clear enough: I think 100% of your “anecdotes” about the Hunter class are made up. Quitting the class because an already-sidelined handicap was removed is one of the most absurd things I ever heard. Did you also swear off the Rogue class once Stealth stopped making you move slower?

If this really did happen and you don’t touch your Hunter, good riddance. Stick to a melee class if you love melee so much.

It’s been 5 years and 2 major reworks and it’s still the very least played spec in the game. Giving up on it is the answer. It was a bad idea executed badly and no amount of tweaking will change that.

Like SV hasn’t stolen enough from BM already?

And just a post ago you were talking about how ranged SV was too similar to MM, yet here you are wanting it to take everything that makes BM unique. The sheer gall. Give melee players an inch and they will take a mile.

Performance is utterly unrelated to being melee unless it’s PvE and then it’s flatly a handicap. It’s doing well in PvP in spite of being melee, not because of it. In fact, even BM now has more representation in 2v2 and plenty of specs are far beyond both of them such as Arms Warrior so I’m not sure how you figure SV is the “best in the game by far”. The last time Survival was ranged (WoD) its PvP representation was a lot higher. So doing well in rated PvP is a terrible reason to keep Survival melee.

If you love melee so much you should stick to a melee class such as a Warrior, or the melee spec of the class you’re posting from. Hunter is not the class for pure melee specs.

Average melee SV defender right here. Mains a melee class, doesn’t play Hunter or care about it at all, yet still thinks SV is the best Hunter spec and should remain melee.

And you guys think I exaggerate about this.

Check again throughout this thread and notice the proportion of melee SV defenders are posting from melee mains.

It might not be the best idea to cater Hunter spec design towards people who don’t play the class… just saying.

Are you going to adress the direct proof that your claim was wrong or are you just going to continue to sweep it under the rug?

Those are the real numbers, and they show that ranged Survival was routinely a popular spec before Legion.

If they were smart they would never have made SV melee in the first place, thus not creating any incentive to have a 4th spec whatsoever.

MSV “chads” would probably still complain that their spec hasn’t stolen enough from BM or just generally hasn’t received enough preferential treatment.

Mindphaser-area-52 · January 23, 2022, 3:11pm

Survival hunter needs to be reverted back to ranged with the few melee elements it had. (Raptor strike, wing clip, maybe more?? Forget)…
I would consider hunter again just to play ranged surv. Would be cooler to see than everyone MM or BM anymore.

Mindphaser-area-52 · January 23, 2022, 3:13pm

I literally posted on my hunter, Masilmar… whom I mained in BC and wotlk bud. I literally havent played him srs since wrath either. Lvl 31. Too much nostalgia. Maybe a lvl or 2 in cata. Thx tho. Proof: his axe, only obtainable during wotlk pre patch event in karazhan. Prince boss. Elgoog him my friend. I don’t do BMAH. I have achieves in legacy to prove.
Don’t tell me I play melee only rofl.

Edit: Kriparrian GOAT hunter. Surv or not. Idc. Do you know whom that legend is ??? Once him & guild Exodus server transferred to my current server @ the time… Ysondre… I pretty much copied every spec he played. Every tiny talent point he used I mimicked. I was in 5th grade. Don’t judge bud!!!

Bepples-barthilas · January 23, 2022, 3:15pm

Bruh, if you haven’t touched your Hunter since WotLK i.e. 12 years ago you do not play a Hunter and you are in no place to talk about what Hunters should and shouldn’t have. You’re a melee player, period.

This is the exact problem with melee Survival: greedy and self-entitled melee players are given the green light to dump their awful takes and suggestions on the class. Enough is enough.

Bloodyrare-illidan · January 23, 2022, 3:15pm

what could possibly the 3rd spec be? Throwing chinchompas like this is RS? So Beastmastery part deux.

Bepples-barthilas · January 23, 2022, 3:16pm

Beast Mastery part 2 would actually be melee Survival as it copies several core aspects from Beast Mastery, namely Kill Command, Bestial Wrath (renamed to Coordinated Assault), and Spirit Bond (which BM actually lost entirely to SV).

Even in this thread we have at least one poster saying they should copy even more from BM to SV i.e. exotic pets.

Bloodyrare-illidan · January 23, 2022, 3:17pm

oh dude wait they need to replace Survs wildm bombs with chinchompas. yes pleae blizzard.

Mindphaser-area-52 · January 23, 2022, 3:18pm

I’d rly pref not to play hunter current state. Rather play something else that’s brain dead.
Actually been playing Hpriest.
You do you tho. Kyrian arrow MM or BM ppl in jungle. Gl!

Also, why the hate mang? I dig old surv. I dig all old hunter ways… BM cool once spirit beats came out… slightly overdone tho at the time. And still overdone. MM was cool… before you could uhh, defy physics and shoot through pillars and walls with 1 ability.
Why the hate tho bud? You just come at ppl with your super big bad huntard profile wearing the dunce cap.
I play game 2. I know how this goez

Kazghani-wyrmrest-accord · January 23, 2022, 3:47pm

First and last links doesn’t distinguish which levels these players are at. Second link is 1 raid, which every DPS spec has at least 1 where they’er over represented. The third again is a cherry picked during a specific patch, and even then it remains middle of the road and is outshined by beastmaster. As they say, there are 3 types of lies…Lies, damned Lies, and Statistics…and you’re very clearly cherry picking specific statistics to bolster your weak argument.

Again, it was consistently the least played hunter spec, otherwise they would have given Beastmaster the Melee treatment instead. They chose Survival because it was CONSISTENTLY underrepresented. This is also the same reason they revamped Combat rogue to Outlaw, because it was CONSISTENTLY underrepresented.

And again, they aren’t going to bring back RSV because it’d mean having to redesign the entirety of the hunter quest chain in Legion, which isn’t going to happen now especially with Chromie Time making it arguably the most relevant expac to level new characters through.

It’s time to just Let It Go.

Mindphaser-area-52 · January 23, 2022, 3:54pm

If u had an exotic pet wuld it be the felhound?? Plz tell me green version.
H@RDK0R3

I’m kidding.

Ghorak-laughing-skull · January 23, 2022, 3:59pm

Wrong. Utter nonsense.

And then Survival Hunter…

Travis: It was another one that was missing its niche. It’s kind of like Marksman except more traps? Or different arrows? So it was kind of missing that “what is the core fantasy?”

Having it move into the melee space and actually return to its roots that was the vanilla Survival experience. You got your Raptor Strike and all that and having those come back and play a role, moving into melee, giving mobility like the Harpoon to draw you in – it’s like it finally gave them a unique identity. If this is the beast companion guy that you’ve always wanted to play then you’re going to have that role.

Generally those are the ones that probably got the most drastic changes but every single class – I think one of the things that’s fun to see is when you go into a five-man dungeon now and you can actually pretty readily, visually go: “Oh look the Rogue is doing his roll of the dice right now” or “Oh look the Paladin just threw his hammer.”

You get more flavor both visually and also as a player. That feeling of “What is that experience that I wanted?” and it delivers a little bit more for every class now.

https://www.gameaxis.com/interviews/interview-wow-legions-lead-class-designer-senior-producer/

Again, they decided to remove RSV and replace it with MSV because of their misguided notion that any 2 specs cannot both focus on the use of ranged weapons. Which, again, is the same as if one was to say that you cannot have 2 specs both focusing on casting spells, because then they would both be more or less the same.

If anything, it’s blatantly obvious how little they could bother, realising the fantasy behind ranged weaponry.

Ghorak-laughing-skull · January 23, 2022, 4:03pm

4th Hunter spec – Munitions

Core Abilities

[Cobra Shot] - Instant cast
A fast shot that causes X Physical damage.

Generates 7 Focus.

[Explosive Shot] - 20 Focus - Instant cast - 10 sec recharge - 2 charges
Fire an explosive charge into the enemy target, dealing Fire damage. The charge will blast the target every second for an additional 4 sec.

[Black Arrow] - 30 Focus - Instant cast - 30 sec cooldown
Fire a shot infused with dark energy at the target, dealing Shadow damage over 12 sec.

The periodic damage-effect applied by Black Arrow can be stacked up to 3 times on the same enemy.

[Serpent Sting] - 15 Focus - Instant cast
Fire a shot that poisons your target, causing them to take Nature damage over 15 sec.

[Arcane Shot] - 20 Focus - Instant cast
A quick shot that causes X Arcane damage.

[Multi-Shot] - 40 Focus - Instant cast
Fires several missiles, hitting up to 5 targets within 8 yards of your current target for X Physical damage.

Multi-Shot applies Serpent Sting to all targets hit.

[Immolation Trap] - Instant cast - 1 minute cooldown
Hurls a fire trap to the target location that will burn the first enemy to approach for X Fire damage over 20 sec. The trap will exist for 1 min.

Class-wide abilities

[Kill Shot] - 10 Focus - Instant cast - 10 sec recharge - 1 Charge
You attempt to finish off a wounded target, dealing X Physical damage.

Only usable on enemies with less than 20% health.

Major Cooldown

[Munition Tactics] - 20 sec duration - 2 minute cooldown.
Increases your haste by X% and instantly triggers Lock & Load(Passive). When Explosive Shot is used during Munition Tactics, this resets the remaining cooldown of Black Arrow.

Any time Explosive Shot deals damage to a target affected by Black Arrow, during Munition Tactics, this will cause the periodic damage effect applied by Black Arrow to spread to nearby enemies as well.
(This effect is replaced by a different passive effect when engaged in instanced PvP; If your Black Arrow is at any time dispelled or otherwise removed from an enemy target, this instantly resets the remaining cooldown of Black Arrow.)

Mastery

[Mastery Bonus: Toxicology] - Increases all non-physical damage dealt by X%, based on Mastery.

Passive Effects

[Lone Wolf] - Increases your damage by 10% when you do not have an active pet.

[Lock and Load] - Periodic damage dealt by Black Arrow and Immolation Trap have a chance to cause your next Explosive Shot to cost no Focus and trigger no cooldown.

[Trap Mastery] - Tar Trap now slows approaching enemies by an additional X%, and the effect sticks to the enemy for 3 seconds after they have left the tar.

The trigger radius, as well as the radius of the residual tar patch left by your Tar Trap, is increased by 25%.

Freezing Trap can now be triggered manually by the hunter once placed, causing it to form a fragile Ice Block that you can stand behind to protect yourself from frontal attacks until shattered. The ice block shatters after 8 seconds or once it has sustained enough damage.
Manually triggering it requires you to stand in close vicinity to the trap.

[Serpent’s Focus] - Using Cobra Shot several times in a row will increase the amount of Focus generated by each shot by 4. Stacking up to 3 times.

[Serpent Spread] - Targets hit by Multi-Shot are also afflicted by Serpent Sting equal to 9 sec of it’s duration.

[Exotic Munitions] - Your Auto Attacks have a chance to increase the remaining duration of either Serpent Sting, Black Arrow or Immolation Trap by 5 seconds, on an enemy affected by either of these periodic damage effects.

Utility/defensives

Includes all other abilities, such as [Tar Trap][Frost Trap][Aspect of the Turtle][Concussive Shot][Counter Shot][Tranquilizing Shot][Misdirection][Pet Utility][Exhilaration][Disengage][Feign Death], and more.

Note that I would prefer if(on a class-wide basis)

[Posthaste] - becomes a baseline effect.
[Master’s Call] - becomes a baseline ability again.
[Pet Specializations] - Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning, if they were changeable again.
[Revive Pet] - Cast time brought down to 2 seconds again.
[Camouflage] - becomes a baseline ability again.

Talents

– Level 15 –

[Ever Burning] - If you fire Explosive Shot into an enemy already affected by a previous charge, the remaining duration of the previous charge is refreshed as well as increased by an additional 3 seconds.

An active charge can only have a max duration of 9 seconds.

Exotic Munition-procs now also increases the remaining duration of any active Explosive Shot charges you have on the current target by 3 seconds.

[Noxious Stings] - Increases the periodic critical damage of your Explosive Shot, Serpent Sting, and Black Arrow by 25%, and Serpent Sting now deals increased damage against targets below 30% health.

[Fusion Shot] - (Replaces Cobra Shot) - 1.5s cast time(castable while moving) - 6 sec recharge - 2 Charges
Fire a charged shot into the target, dealing Physical damage.

When your next ability that deals periodic damage hits the target, this triggers a volatile fusion immediately causing it to erupt dealing additional instant damage equal to 40% of it’s total duration. The target will take additional damage of the same type as the ability used to trigger the fusion for the next 12 sec.

Generates 25 Focus.

– Level 25 –

[Death Adder] - Serpent Sting also does instant damage equal to 30% of it’s total periodic effect. Also applies to Serpent Spread(Passive).

Every time Serpent Sting deals damage, you have a chance to gain 3 Focus.

If the passive effect “Exotic Munitions” procs while your Serpent Sting is active on the target, this also triggers the Death Adder-effect.

[Predator] - Casting Explosive Shot, Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, or Multi-Shot reduces the Focus cost and increases the damage of your next Arcane Shot by 30%. This effect stacks.

[Viper Venom] - Whenever Serpent Sting deals damage, there’s a chance that this can cause any other periodic damage effects you have applied to the target to instantly deal damage equal to one tick of their total effect.

If this proc occurs when the target is affected by Black Arrow, this will instantly refresh it’s remaining duration and restore 8 Focus back to you.

– Level 30 –

[Trailblazer] - [Natural Mending]

[Bestial Dicipline] - (Replaces Camouflage as a talent choice) - While your pet is active, you and your pet(s) regenerate X% of total health every 3 sec. Healing done to you and your pet(s) is increased by X%.

Damage taken by your pet(s) is reduced by 15%.

When Lone Wolf(Passive) is active, you continue to heal for the same amount of health.

– Level 35 –

[Cluster Shot] - 25 Focus - Instant cast - 15 sec cooldown.
Fire a shot which explodes on impact, instantly dealing Physical damage to the primary target and all other nearby enemies, and causing them to bleed for an additional X Physical damage over 3 sec.

Explosive Shot-charges which are still active on any target(s) hit by Cluster Shot will instantly erupt, dealing all remaining damage to the affected target(s) at once.

[Wildfire] - 8 sec duration
The periodic damage effect applied by Immolation Trap will now spread to any enemy standing in close range to an already burning target. As long as an enemy is within range of another enemy affected by Wildfire or Immolation Trap, the Wildfire will continue to spread.

[T.N.T.] - Explosive Shot now deals damage to all enemies near the affected target.

– Level 40 –

[Born to be Wild] - [Binding Shot]

[Adaption] - (Replaces Posthaste as a talent choice) Getting hit with an incapacitating effect(Stun/Fear), reduces the remaining cooldown of your Aspect of the Turtle by 30%. This effect has an internal cooldown of X sec.

Aspect of the Turtle is now usable when incapacitated.

When rooted or slowed, the remaining cooldown of Aspect of the Cheetah is reduced by 15 seconds. Aspect of the Cheetah frees you from movement impairing effects and you cannot be slowed below 100% movement speed while it’s active.

– Level 45 –

[Spitting Cobra] - Cobra Shot now deals an additional X% damage as Nature damage and extends the remaining duration of Serpent Sting on the enemy target by X sec.

Cobra Shot now has a high chance of generating double Focus when fired.

[Exothermia] (Requires talent: Fusion Shot)
Increases your critical strike chance against any enemy you hit with Fusion Shot by X% for 12 sec. Dealing Fire damage to the target extends this effect even further.
Fusion Shot generates an additonal 10 Focus over 5 sec.

[Pre-Heat] - The cooldown of Immolation Trap is reduced by 5 seconds every time Immolation Trap deals critical damage to the enemy target. In addition, if an enemy target dies while affected by Immolation Trap, it’s cooldown is reset.

[Intoxication] - Your ranged Auto Attacks have a chance to grant you 2 stacks of Intoxication. When Black Arrow is refreshed or when it expires from an enemy, you gain this effect as well.

Intoxication
When you use an ability that deals instant damage, it has a 100% chance to be a critical strike.
When you use an ability that deals periodic damage, damage caused by this ability is increased by an additional X%.

– Level 50 –

[Rapid Recuperation] - Damage caused by Explosive Shot have a chance to reduce the remaining cooldown of Munition Tactics by 1 sec.

Whenever Lock & Load procs, this causes the next Explosive Shot fired to have a 100% chance for each of it’s ticks to reduce the remaining cooldown of Munition Tactics by 1 sec.

Catalysis - Duration 10 sec.
Black Arrow increases any Fire-damage you deal to an enemy by X%.

In addition, Explosive Shot-charges granted by Lock & Load extend the remaining duration of Black Arrow by 1 second every time they deal damage to the affected target.

[Resourcefulness] - Reduces the cooldown of all traps and Black Arrow by 20%. Your Freezing Trap and Tar Trap both have a 100% chance to proc Lock & Load when triggered.

Freezing Trap when triggered manually can now withstand 100% more damage before shattering.

When an enemy breaks free from your Freezing Trap, they will take an additional 10% damage from all sources for the next X seconds.

Critical damage dealt by Immolation Trap is increased by X%.

Bonus effects/Bonus Traits

Got no good names for these traits/bonuses yet but…just wanted to add in some potential fun bonus effects that are spec specific. They can be tied to things such as Set Bonuses or something similar to Artifact Traits/Azerite Traits of the past.

(1) Lock and Load now grants 2 charges of Explosive Shot when it procs, instead of 1.

(2) When you get a Exotic Munitions-proc. It will grant you an additional bonus effect depending on which periodic damage-effect it benefits.

Serpent Sting - Until the current Serpent Sting debuff expires or is refreshed, every time it deals damage to the target, you instantly gain 3 Focus.

Black Arrow - The remaining cooldown of Black Arrow is instantly reset.

Immolation Trap - Your next Immolation Trap will deal an extra X% damage and will also have an increased X% chance to critically hit the affected target.

(3) Arcane Shot now triggers the passive effect “Exotic Munitions” when it hits an enemy target.

Kazghani-wyrmrest-accord · January 23, 2022, 4:05pm

Protip: Missing it’s niche is code for “underrepresented”.

https://www.google.com/search?q=niche+definition&source=hp&ei=9XvtYcn3A4W_kPIPidihkAk&iflsig=ALs-wAMAAAAAYe2KBYo8etaC4CTuAy7Rv3lr5zIZ9V6j&ved=0ahUKEwiJxsDFn8j1AhWFH0QIHQlsCJIQ4dUDCAk&uact=5&oq=niche+definition&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyCAgAEIAEELEDMggIABCABBCxAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEOgsILhCABBCxAxCDAToLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6CAgAELEDEIMBOg4ILhCABBCxAxDHARDRAzoOCC4QgAQQsQMQxwEQowI6BwgAELEDEEM6BAgAEEM6BwguELEDEEM6DQguELEDEMcBEKMCEEM6CAguELEDEIMBOgsILhCxAxCDARCRAjoFCC4QkQI6BAguEEM6BQgAEJECOgUILhCABDoICC4QgAQQsQM6DQguELEDEMcBENEDEENQAFjRIWCCJGgAcAB4AIABowWIAc4okgELMC4yLjIuMy4yLjSYAQCgAQE&sclient=gws-wiz

adjective

denoting products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.

“other companies in this space had to adapt to being niche players”