Since we have some downtime on our hands, and we are all being rational, well adjusted human beings about it, lets discuss some topics.
I am happy to see that Ret is getting a talent rework and design re-work. It is was needed. But I want to talk about Survival Hunter.
Since they made Survival melee, it has pretty much been, aside from 1 or 2 seasons, the least played spec in the game. Its rotation and abilities have not meshed together yet, and it consistently feels clunky to play. It has already seen several iterations as a melee spec, and in a way more attention paid to its development as a melee spec, than it did when it was a ranged spec.
But I think its time. Survival as a Melee DPS has run its course in my opinion. I would vote to change it back to a Ranged Spec, and have it be the DoT based proc spec it was. But I realize, that given a triple DPS spec, players normally just gravitate to the current best performing spec. I am ok with hunter being similar to Lock, Rogue and Mage in that regard.
The other option I see, is making it into a tank. Now I know that this wouldnt help the tank population or anything, but it seems to be a decent option. The pet could be an interesting part of the mitigation, where the pet shares some of the damage that the hunter takes. And the hunter can have abilities where through dealing damage they heal the pet and boost healing to it. They can still utilize grenades, traps, and melee abilities. Look clearly I havent thought out the whole design, but I think it could hold potential.
My vote still is this though. Put melee survival out to pasture and bring back ranged survival. I think 4 expansions of Melee Survival being one of the lowest performing and least played specs is enough.
I have recently rolled a survival hunter and am loving the hell out of it. Maybe it’s because of the scaling, but 9.9 times out of 10, I am destroying stuff on runs…bigger the group the better too.
Hell no. Unless it was to make beast mastery into a melee spec. Which really is what they should have always done. Keep it in line with Rexxar, the Beastmaster.
I love survival hunter because it shows people are completely full of crap when they talk about how a spec being strong or not does not relate to whether its fun or not.
People talked and talked about not liking survival because its clunky and the rotation and mechanics don’t feel good, etc
Then along come the SL tier sets and Survival is a high damage meta spec and all the sudden omg everyone loves survival and the spec is just so fun and engaging and I swear we aren’t all suddenly playing it because it pumps damage, its because its just really fun!
Then SL ends and Survival isn’t high damage anymore and oh look, suddenly nobody thinks its fun now.
Legitimately the only thing I’d change is to improve the synergy of some moves a bit, like having Fury of the Eagle extend Mongoose Bite’s timer by its duration or making Flanking Strike count as both a Raptor/Mongoose and Kill Command when interacting with Shrapnel/Pheromone bombs.
I have a bunch of hunters (mostly for RP purposes, some because OH NEET NEW RACE MUST ROLL A HUNTARD), and with two BM exceptions, they’re all survival. I actually love it a lot. That’s not to say, though, that I wouldn’t enjoy improvement of some sort.
I do like the fact it’s melee, actually. That differentiates it. And if I’m doing outdoor content and don’t feel I want to get close to the thing I’m killing (because it has a dot field around it or something), it takes longer but I can kill it from a distance still.
I will admit I don’t do much instanced content on these toons but I’ve seen SV played in raids and mythics and it seemed to do well, probably due to the players’ skill.
