Just discovered that on WotLK classic that RSV is back! Black Arrow, Serpent Sting, Explosive shot, the whole shabang. I havent made it to top level yet but im excited to have my fave spec ever back! Until they take classic offline or remove RSV again, retail is dead to me. So excited thank you for doing classic Blizzard!!!
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While we are on this topic, just to remind you that Survival’s AoE thru DoT like DK’s diseases are OP. Spread a DoT like a madman. AoE Damage is compose of DoT AoE (Stings), Explosive Trap and Volley. Add them up and you would be equal on AoE Damage or better than Unholy DK’s (flavor of the month) double disease DoTs. Very useful on Lich King fight itself at the end of IceCrown Citadel. Just become MM for most raid fights due to Armor Pen then switch to Survival against Arthas at the end. Double specs is available on Wrath. There are other 2 fights in ICC where Survival is better than MM other than Arthas fight. I remember it’s the Healer fight while tons of adds are coming to the group. And there is a fight where you constantly switch targets, MM’s DPS suck on it too. MM has to stay on the target for long to get its advantage on Single Target DPS.
Remember, Survival on Wrath is MASTER OF TRAPS. Take advantage of it. Abuse its OP’ness. This is what Survival Hunters didnt do in Wrath. They spent the whole Expansion as Survival without laying a single trap.
I decided that I wont be participating Wrath this time around. I hate the grinds. I did it before and I cant do it again.
Have fun.
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I plan on mostly doing dungeons and pvping, i may do the occasional pug raid but ty for the advice!
Good, now for all the forum babys whining about it not being in retail can finally shut up about it… till Wrath dies and it starts all over again…
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I love hunter with melee weapons AND bow at the same time. All the traps and making kiting matter (going in and out of melee range).
WOTLK was peak hunter. The removal of secondary weapons from wow was a mistake! and all the prunes that happened during the removal of secondary weapons and the talent rework kind of killed hunters.
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True! they made it go from 4% of all dps parses in all raid difficulties to 0.3% truley a wonder that only those of high IQ can understand
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are u talking about serpent spread because thats not until cata
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Looks like I got confused about Serpent Spread. I play very little in Cata but WoTLK was my peak.
I really cant recall how I setup my Survival Hunter back then. She was just my alt. My Main was a DK. I was very geared with 2 toons… my DK and my Hunter thru GDKP’s.
The way I DPS on both of them, I make sure the DoTs are in before I start my rotation. And the DK has 2 DoTs while my Hunter has only one.
I remember my Unholy DK’s AoE disease spread was OP… really leave people behind on damage meters. And no other class/specs could reach that level other than my Survival Hunter. And when I did it with my Survival Hunter, I remember it was just me and no other Hunters can becoz when we talk about DPS back then, it’s all about Raid DPS, about Single Target DPS, all about MM Hunter. I am both MM and Survival switching between the 2 depending on the scenario. When my Hunter Raid in ICC-25 (GDKP), usually there were only 2 of us. The other Hunter was just pure MM. He sucks on AoE like on Trash and on 3 Bosses of ICC where Survival > MM. I asked him to switch like me to Survival on these bosses and he said he cant. He doesnt know about Survival. On Single Targets, it’s clear that it has to be MM. I have never seen top Hunter DPS other than me and him. While my DK do her own dominance when I play her… always top 3 on ICC25 like my Hunter.
When I look at WoTLK Survival Hunter setup right now, I really cant recall how I tweaked it for high AoE DPS. Looks like it has:
- Noxious Stings 3/3 - increases all damage done on targets with Serpent Sting
- Tier 9 Windrunner’s 2 piece set bonus - The damage done by Serpent Sting ability can now be critical strikes.
I cant recall how to spread the Serpent Sting in WoTLK. I completely forgot. I never sting each of my targets one by one. But I remember myself always running on melee for Explosive Traps followed later by Volley. Now, it’s itching me to play a Hunter again in Wrath Classic just to recall how I did Survival back then. ROFL.
Can someone try this for me on Wrath? Just throw Multi-shot and tell me if it provides stings. Maybe Serpent Spread was not documented in Wrath but it’s there. Maybe try Glyph of Serpent Sting too. Please check if it spreads Stings. It has to be something. Wrath is Expansion that solidified me to choose a Hunter. I had Hunter ever since up to now.
I’ve been having fun. Hunter is very squishy compared to retail. I have a feeling I’ll have an all resil pvp set…
In Wrath, you had/have no way to apply Serpent Sting to several targets at once. For AoE, it was all about Explosive Trap + Volley.
I don’t recall every detail from back then, but assuming this guide is accurate, feel free to check it out if you wna know more about SV gameplay in Wrath:
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You find out real quick if your tank understands their tools to maintain AoE threat, that’s for sure. I remember doing a good deal of feigning.
Maybe it was just those. Cant remember. Most Hunters then on ICC-25 were all MM Hunters. They were all just doing Volley during their AoE unlike me, who always run with the tank to throw Explosive Traps and then Volley. I presume Volley works better with Range Attack Power and Survival has better Range Attack Power than MM.
For some reason I think this is a troll post, but I’m glad you found what you like
No troll at all. Im legit excited.
but its not on retail. why would people leave their stacked accounts filled with achievements, mounts, pets, toys, titles, progression and go back to wrath and start over and do it all again? sounds pretty dumb to me. we move forward waiting for new content to be added. we dont go back and play content we already consumed and destroyed on every level. that would be redundant.
ranged survival wasnt good or polished until 5.4 anywa, so in wrath its still a mock spec.
my jaws and stomach are still in pain from laughing at everyone on classic as i watched them on the forums whining about no content on retail, they are bored, its just same old same old. yet they are on classic. makes no sense.
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WotLK SV was pretty fun; it felt far ahead of its time. But yes, it’s nowhere near as good as what came after.
It’s sad because when playing WotLK SV it felt like there was vision for the spec. There were things that don’t make sense (e.g. Sniper Training being part of it) but it felt like they took what SV was in Classic and BC and made a really cool DPS spec out of it. They didn’t have to remake it from the ground up; they just added a few abilities and mechanics to give it a solid identity as a damage dealer and they iterated on that.
It feels resourceful. It feels like a distinct and valuable extension of the Hunter identity fitting of the name “Survival”. Only for some newer developers later on to throw it all way for yet another physical melee spec that just rips off BM as much as possible.
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You are such a silly goose.
RSV still has 3 expansions to go before it kicks the bucket. Heck, its best days are yet to come. WotLK was just the beginning of a defined playstyle for the spec.
Is that playstyle about being an eclectic, largely nonsensical hodgepodge to salvage a spec that was previously just worst-case-scenario-compensation and some support buffs? Yes. But slap a euphemistic label on it like “resourceful” and that, too, can be fun.
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Thats the whole point of classic…like really
I like current survival. I am having fun with it. Im sorry youre not. But slapping a bunch of insults on something you dont personally like doesnt help your case or make you look good. It makes you look like a whiny child. Hope you enjoy classic.