Let’s clarify what I think about SV:
I’ve always posted on the assumption that a 4th spec is as unlikely as it gets, mainly due to the prospect of having a pure DPS class with 4 specs, but if they could do it while ensuring each spec has a unique identity and they can actually give each spec the time and attention they need then it could be the ideal choice.
The problems with this though is that so far they’ve demonstrated that they can’t do much of either of those things. Survival still doesn’t have much of an identity but rather 2 or 3 different smaller identities competing for prominence, one of which is flatly just BM’s identity copy-pasted. In both the Legion and BFA testing phases Survival got the lion’s share of developer attention and the other two specs suffered for it. While BM had issues like Spitting Cobra not working at >20 yards (still an issue on Shadowlands alpha, by the way) and MM was blatantly a non-functional spec, SV was getting multiple talent revisions and tuning passes, including adding an entirely new talent, Arctic Bola, only to remove it and replace it with another entirely new talent, Wildfire Infusion.
This is why I’ve said the ideal thing to do is to build a melee Hunter option into BM and make Survival focus on its old ranged identity. BM is the spec that always focused the least on the ranged weapon and the melee Hunter identity has always centred around pets; most prominently with Rexxar himself. Many of the people who like SV like it for reasons other than being melee which can be perfectly well achieved with ranged Survival (many of them were) and this would provide an option for those who specifically want the fantasy of being a melee Hunter. It would allow them to focus on delivering a coherent melee Hunter without ill-fitting utilitarian aspects (Serpent Sting and Wildfire Bomb) which, while cool abilities, never fit a melee pet-focused Hunter to begin with. Most importantly, it wouldn’t be forcing melee on anyone who doesn’t want to play melee.
It should be something chosen via talents and not an in-combat toggle like many suggest because if it were something so non-committal you would either be forcing melee-seeking players to be ranged all the time or vice versa. All it would need to do is replace our attacks that use a ranged weapon with melee equivalents.
- Kill Command can remain the same (or become Legion’s Flanking Strike), as could Bestial Wrath, Aspect of the Wild, and the Frenzy mechanic.
- Barbed Shot could become Lacerate.
- Cobra Shot could become Raptor Strike.
- Multi-Shot could become Carve.
- Barrage could become Butchery.
- Counter Shot could become Muzzle.
There are problems with this. I don’t know how Mongoose Bite could fit in here as it exists today; perhaps as a talented replacement for Chimera Shot given I also don’t know what that would be replaced with. There’s also the matter of Aspect of the Eagle. It’s a hell of a lot of functionality packed into a single talent, but so was Gladiator back in WoD. There’s still the matter of Binding Shot, Kill Shot, and Tranquilising Shot; I guess the sidearm crossbow will now be forever ingrained into any melee Hunter they make. They would also have to tune it so it would be worth picking for people who like melee but not so worth it that all the people playing the spec who want a ranged spec don’t feel pressured to go melee.
The specific melee playstyle of Survival right now wouldn’t exist, that’s true. But I think a lot of the appealing aspects can still be represented in ranged Survival. Many of Survival’s most prominent and unique aspects, such as Wildfire Bomb and Serpent Sting and all the talents that interact with them, would fit perfectly well with a ranged Survival. I think most Survival players would still be able to find something for them in the class. It’s not perfect, but hey: it’s a hell of a lot more outreach they offered to us ranged Survival players when they got rid of the spec in the first place.
