I think I see what you’re getting at: It’s not thematically consistent?
If that’s what you’re saying, I think you’re right. BM honestly made the most thematic sense for MSV. Instead, they gave the Dot/Magic spec the melee spot. I like throwing bombs and poison darting, I really do - it works for me. What is disjointed however, is that my resource production comes from my pet, instead of giving that to BM. SV is actually more synergistic and reliant on pet than BM in many ways (not counting BM Kill Command dmg).
In short, BM made the most sense to make the melee switch, but instead we have a hybrid range/melee that plays like a squishy arms war with ranged abilities. Mongoose bite, harpoon, carve, (barbed shot - to replace Serpent Sting), and even pheromone bombs make the most thematic sense for BM as melee imo.
SV thematically makes the most sense to keep the poisons and bombs, but to bring back explosive shot and black arrow to the mix as well. Or even back lock and lad (old explosive shot proc) into bombs. It should’ve been the mobile instant cast dot ranged hunter spec.
Regardless, I love MSV as it is now, and I hope that it can be viable in all forms of content in SLands as I’m not a player who jumps ship from my class and spec.
I liked legion SV as well - it was pretty complex, but the reward was there if played right. I think Flanking Strike should’ve been in place of Kill Command as it is now. That makes more sense, but then we’d be too mobile with harpoon already in the mix.
Another perspective; that funny mismatch of archetypes is what makes survival feel like the most goblin-appropriate spec to me.
Even my transmog has 3 bombs hanging out on the belt, and throwing grenades at close-range targets is extremely on brand for a goblin.
On the other hand, BM doesn’t feel like a goblin-oriented spec unless you’re playing a zookeeper build or something. A goblin with a spirit beast just isn’t aesthetic, you know?
I think some spec and class themes are inherently awkward on some races and extremely fitting for others, and that’s okay.
I would not consider either of those specs to be remotely as well designed as survival, especially not holy paladin. You’re welcome to hold that belief though.
I totally get that. I don’t mind that some specs fit some races better than others. I think what I’d like is if Blizz picked one or two things about survival and leaned into it more baseline, and then make it so if you want the other themes they could be talent options or even have talents that further emphasize the baseline theme.
So, just as an example, let’s say Blizz decides the baseline focus for the spec is that it is melee, and uses gadgets to survive (gadgets being traps and a variety of explosives / sapper charges). Talents could then offer choices that focus between the melee aspects, the trap / bombs, and maybe the pet.
It feels awkward if say you want to be that goblin bombardier while relying on your pet as your focus generator or not having a valid way to opt out of the pet entirely if that’s not what you want to focus on.
Oh, I’m not saying it makes us immune to a rework without a key extra qualifier; Blizzard themselves seem to be pretty proud of survival’s design, both in terms of not changing it, and how they’ve spoken about it in the past.
We’re the hundred monkeys and a typewriter evidence that not every decision in BFA was bad (just most of them)
What’s lacking in MSV is cohesion between the different parts.
You have Harpoon, Raptor Strike, Goose, Carve, Butchery, that covers the wildman with a spear fantasy.
You have WFB, SrS, Chakrams, traps, that covers the “survive by any means necessary”.
You have KC and FS for the pet components.
Nothing ties any of it together. MSV needs something like Black Arrow (but make it Lacerate, because MSV) - a DoT applied with a weapon attack that gives CDR on one of the tools. They need to have Focus generation removed from the pet (maybe generate X Focus per tick of SrS, up to 3 targets), and let the pet be utility.
Then you have weapon attacks feeding into the WFB, SrS feeding into more weapon attacks, and a collection of other abilities to fill between those two core gameplay loops.
Give me an MSV that plays like RSV from 8yds and I might just play that over my Enhance shaman when I want to do some MDPS.
Legion Beta Surv was the best, you were able to get your 5 stacks of mongoose and keep it, making your rotation more open and rewarding the hunter for doing it right, flanking strike was vastly superior to kill command, I could accept kill command if we got that beta talent back, the one from BFA that let you use kill command like it is now, but the talent would reward you with extra damage if you were in melee range of the target.
Also replace that little bomb with explosive trap and remove that little crossbow for serpent sting and put it back in the raptor strike/carve, would help a lot in PVE AOE…