I viewed the latest castle numbers on wowhead. Lowest dps specs were beast hunter and survival. 3rd and 4th lowest nation rogue and subtlety. Kind of pathetic by blizzard to have 2 specs so useless for 2 classes.
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Survival was my Favorite spec back in WoD, absolutely amazing like a Ranged Rogue.
This iteration is quirky has no real strength compared to ALL the other melee, synergizes with a pet which makes it wonky in Dungeons because of poor pathing and AI.
Very few players play Survival its just not fun, even if Survival was made over Powered it would still not be played because it sucks! Most people want the old Survival back.
Only new players like it because they know no better!
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On the other hand it’s kind of hard to distinguish between “People don’t play this spec because they hate it” and “People don’t play this spec because it is objectively weaker than the alternatives” – without buffing the spec first.
I think there definitely is prejudice against SV (both from some hunter players themselves, and from groups considering inviting a hunter) but I’m not sure how much of it is just anti-melee prejudice in general. Any feral or enhance mains want to chime in on how often you get rejected after a question about what spec you are, or asked to swap to your ranged spec?
P.S. Every spec rework ever has its haters and you know what they are gonna do. But going from range to melee specifically seems to have given SV more than its share. Who wouldn’t rather just laugh at e.g. sanguine and spiteful instead of having to actually play around them?
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Commiserates in enhance
I like the “Idea” of the melee hunter, some classic Dungeons and Dragons style ranger dual wielding. (Not that survival can even play dual wield…)
I like the “Idea” of expanding the melee abilities of the hunter class.
But… Hunters don’t roll hunter to play melee…
EDIT - Most hunters dont.
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You have to wonder if they know they’ve got too many melee classes and are trying to push all the hybrids into ranged DPS to even things out. If they make enh, feral, and surv bad then there are basically six ranged and six melee DPS classes.
Melee only: DK, DH, pally, war, rogue, monk
Ranged: mage, lock, priest, hunter, shaman, druid
I’m sure if you buy a carry they won’t care 
Lol… this has to be one of the dumbest things ever posted on these forums and that’s some feat.
(this is just a guess but probably more people played it at it’s worse than playing Melee version now).
*lol people saying it was not played, I played it from LK - WOD and there was NEVER a shortage of them around ever (and I never liked MM personally so I never switched to it, never liked it’s play style myself).
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my main for soo was a survival hunter… I sold CMs in it, to say nobody played it is ridiculous
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melee dps suck, there’s no reason to be melee in pve (maybe just for interrupts, cause melees have lower cooldowns, but that’s not hunter case)
Being range with all those mechanics is just superior role. And if your class can be range then melee should be abandoned.
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When it was still a ranged spec, plenty of people played it. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Just because some of you were like “Go MM” doesn’t mean EVERYONE went MM.
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I think I was in tears when BM was nerfed badly during LK. i almost deleted my main since BC because of it. Then someone suggested SV and I fell in love with the spec.
I don’t know what the current SV is with this hitting things stuff, but I don’t play a hunter to play melee (just my DH).
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So this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion
But I like having survival being melee. However I think a rogue spec needs to be ranged.
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We’re comparing about 8 years of gameplay (the SV most people remember starting in wrath) to MSV’S 5 years. They are not that far apart at this point and it is totally fair to make comparisons. The spec was deeply unpopular in Legion, it went through another immediate rework come BFA, and it is still deeply unpopular. It has also had moments where it was objectively doing well for certain raids and in PVP it has been no slouch either.
The fact is, it is fair to compare the two. Most hunters do not want to be melee. I think a melee spec is fine, but removing the old spec was a massive mistake on Blizz’s part and has caused a lot of problems within the Hunter community.
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I liked ranged sv, especially during late cata-mop, even wod with the ammunitions was fun as hell…but i’m loving this iteration of survival too…idk if they should make a 4th hunter spec for ranged sv back and melee sv separate, or make sv fill old demo locks niche with either fusing or turning into a beast for melee damage like purple metamorphasis changed demo playstyle.
I love when people say “no one played it” when it comes to old surv.
It was my favorite spec in the game honestly.
And if you look back, it wasn’t always trash, it had it’s niches (it did pretty well on heroic rag for example)
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Melee-hunters were a stupid meme and the concept should never have been considered for anything more than that!
*Angrily shakes cane*
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In addition to posting on a literal troll character, this guy is a notorious forum troll… so it’s kinda disturbing that I have to admit he has a point here.
I don’t think players SHOULD be forced to abandon melee specs, but the overall design of encounters and mechanics is more favorable to RDPS over MDPS, and has been as long as I can remember. “We have too many melee” screws you over in several fights, “we have too many ranged” is literally never an issue. I’m not sure if that is something that is even on Blizzard’s radar to fix, let alone whether they would be capable of fixing it if they tried. That’s not an issue specific to SV, of course, but piles on on top of all the spec’s other historical and current problems. “Why would you want the option to be melee?” is a hard question to answer in a game where encounter design is generally hostile to melees.
My personal dream SV changes:
- Remove Kill Command and have a baseline version of Flanking Strike take its place in the rotation. This solidifies the spec identity as fighting alongside your pet, compared to BM which sends in the pet and supports it from range. Either come up with a new talent or make it some kind of Improved Flanking Strike.
- Allow dual wielding of 1H agility weapons, same/similar selection as Outlaw, using similar balancing tech to what Monks got back this expansion. This would solidify the connection to Rexxar, who has been a melee dual wielder since WC3TFT. That shouldn’t be the only way to be a hunter, maybe it will never be the most popular way to be a hunter, but it should be one possible way to be a hunter.
This would make the spec identities:
BM: Send a pet into battle and support it from range. Most pet-centric spec.
MM: Sniper spec. Pets, poison, and explosives are all optional.
SV: Go into battle alongside your pet. Poison and explosive DoTs are baseline parts of the rotation.
P.S. While the idea of having damaging traps in the rotation sounds cool, I think there’s a reason Blizzard moved away from that and introduced grenades as SV’s main explosive mechanic: traps for damage are too reliant on where the mobs are going to be positioned in the future, and as a DPS in group content, you don’t control that. That’s why traps are primarily utility-focused in WoW today, and I don’t think that will or probably even should be reverted for any spec. Just look at the issues with the setting tar trap on fire legendary – people who hate the resulting playstyle (which definitely has issues!) feel pressured into it anyway for sim numbers. Grenades are more reliable because they only depend on where the mobs are now (and then apply a burn that doesn’t depend on whether they move later).
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Mmhm. The responses in this thread are why I don’t pug. My msv hunter does just fine and I like it just the way it is. Would I be happy with buffs? Heck yeah. Who wouldn’t? But I will keep on playing and loving buffs or no. I would be very disappointed if they reverted it back to ranged, but hopefully that wont ever happen.
The future is now old man
disengages 360 wildfire bombs harpoon midair
the style is unmatched