SV probably my favorite melee spec 
1 Like
Survival is confusing if you look at it as either melee or ranged since it is gimped at a pure role, but this fundamentally misses the massive strengths of the class.
First off, having ranged attacks as part of the kit means that you can reliably cause damage as you reposition during dodge phases when a pure melee would be reduced to nothing.
Second, you have incredible mobility for getting in and out of melee (where you want to be for best damage); harpoon will let you close while disengage will get you out and also break roots/slows.
Taken together, you have a very mobile skirmishing class that can churn out steady damage and dodge stuff ranged or melee would have to either eat or sacrifice damage output for.
7 Likes
This is honestly the best explanation I’ve ever heard for this spec, thank you. Might go back and dust mine off with this perspective in mind.
1 Like
Reason for survival hunter existence:
So you can roll a bald male Kul Tiran named Minsc with a bear named Boo.
5 Likes
The problem is that strengh mostly shine in pvp as there is not much reason to play like this in pve or isn’t a big reason to justify bringing you. Survival would need to bring something to the team that ranged specs that just always have the advantage of being out of melee don’t have. There is just no reason to play survival when bm can just do what they want and move around.
The main thing to remember is that you won’t top the meters or carry a raid or whatever, but what you will have is an incredibly unique spec that excels at being able to persistently push damage during all but the most hectic phases.
And I’m saying this as someone who AOTC’d with a Highmountain survival hunter and only switched to BM (which I loathe) because we were pushing into Mythic where the DPS was simply inadequate. 
Blizzard took a generally-liked playstyle and made it a Melee spec they completely forgot about about three months before they actually went live.
It is a spec that exists, and if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s bad because Blizzard hasn’t even tried to make it good it would be a complete and utter waste of development time if Blizzard tried to make it good without fixing its laundry list of fundamental problems, many of which stem from Mongoose Bite and many other talents somehow not being baseline despite literally always being mandatory for all forms of content since day one.
1 Like
Says rogue.
Maybe, but it’s really solid in PvP currently.
SV hunters should be able to dual wield just like our man Rexxar.
7 Likes
They are relics of the past, abandoned just like Archaeology. The 5 people that still plays Survival are just like the minority that comes to the forums asking for High Elf AR, delusional and out of their minds.
Who keeps letting you out of yer cage?!?!
How are we going to sacrifice you too ephie now?!?!
Survival hunter is one of my favorite specs in both legion and bfa. Since I put warrior down I chose shaman as my main but survival Hunter was a close 2nd.
It suffers from being a strange hybrid but it’s very very good. 2 of its talents should be baseline and it needs a slight numbers buff, just a drop for pve to be a contender for a melee raid spot in even hard core groups
1 Like
This man gets it. Survival has been the best its ever been
Domt take it away from me daddy Bliz
2 Likes
I am no longer hunter and efie and his party of 5 can no longer solo me.
1 Like
Great for PvP, not great for pve. In SL it looks to be more of the same.
1 Like
Survival as melee is a failed experiment that aliened a vast majority of the people who once played the spec when it was ranged. When it was routinely one of the most popular specs in the game and was easily the most popular hunter spec.
Survival is a jack of all trades, but master of none. And it shows. As is, it’s literally a melee version of BM with bombs. A lot of people don’t enjoy it, so Blizzard gave it more options for ranged damage. Lots of people still don’t enjoy it. A tiny niche group of players likes it, which is fine. But Hunter’s were always about ranged damage with pets. And Blizzard has put themselves between a rock and a hard place by deleting the most popular spec and replacing it with this. As such, I’m pretty sure they have no clue what to do now. Which again, shows.
Yes, I’m still salty about the spec I mained for over a decade being deleted.
3 Likes
That’s for me to not know and for you to Google. Let me know how it goes.
I try not to say any more on the subject and thank you for your post.
Still really good and fun in PvP.
Edit : In before Bepples and his whining.
2 Likes