Or maybe just remove melee survival since nobody wanted it and nobody plays it.
12 Likes
The thing is, hardly anybody likes Melee survival. Ranged hunters outnumber melee hunters by 25 to 1 or more, despite Survival being the highest DPS.
8 Likes
It was actually the #1 hunter spec for popularity before they nerfed it into oblivion in 6.2.
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I don’t like MSV one bit. I tried it, I liked my mog for it, I liked the idea of a melee spec using a polearm. But I hated it.
First off, I really liked RSV so the more I thought about it the more MSV left a bad taste in my mouth.
Second, there is an incredible lack of skills that actually utilize the big huge a$$ spear I’m wielding, it was pretty jarring. It seemed like there was one single animation of the spear.
Third, the pet. I get that the pet is the only thing keeping with the Hunter aesthetic. But I just don’t like having the pet next to me when I’m swinging around my spear. I’m kind of worried I’m going to hit it, of course I can’t but it’s weird.
Fourth the crossbow crap, not a fan of crossbow action. Always seemed like the Walmart version of archery. And to the person whining about dynamite on a stick, how is my crossbow reloading it self and rewinding itself while in my invisible pocket. How does that fit with the Hunter narrative?
Fifth, why would I throw a bomb at my feet? Does Blizzard not know how bombs work? I get that I can Rez my pet, but I cannot Rez myself. If I have magical bombs that don’t hurt me while I sit inside the blast radius, what’s wrong with black arrow or explosive shot?
If MM and SV were to similar, why are BM and MSV so similar?
9 Likes
Survival was more than just “uncompetitive”. An uncompetitive spec is maybe 20% below the rest. They removed the core mechanic of the spec and replaced it with nothing, survival did barely more than tank damage at the time, nobody could play it, even if they wanted to.
This was deliberate since they obviously already had plans to remove the spec entirely, they nerfed it beyond repair so very few people would be playing the spec when they removed it in Legion.
At the same time they also massively buffed MM (making aimed shot instant and making it easily the strongest ranged spec in the game). It was obviously deliberate to get people out of survival and into MM so less people would care when they removed SV.
Anyone playing Hunter at the time (and I was one of them) had no option but to be MM during HFC.
11 Likes
Was exactly what I had to do at the time.
I had been Survival from the late stages of WotLK right up until early HFC, I had not switched from it at any point since the start, until we got deeper into the new raid…
Coincidentally, I only went on playing for another month or so after that switch.
Weird right?
6 Likes
Actually, youre right to a point all sarcasm aside.
The melee hybrid ranged class should have been rogues from the beginning, but you do it by converting outlaw, they dont need a 4th spec.
I always thought that made far more sense and would give other folks reasons to use bows/guns.
1 Like
Counter point would be… There is already specs that can do melee and range like a survival hunter. Also there is melee specs that can already use pets.
HOWEVER, there is only 2 ranged Bow specs in the game.
I think they should either put heaps of effort into MM, or make another ranged DOT spec.
9 Likes
The melee/ranged hybrid should have been demon hunters.
- Illidan had many ranged attacks
- DH currently only have 2 specs
- There is only 1 class in the game that can tank and ranged DPS (druid), and the game could desperately use a 2nd class that can do both roles. Since these 2 roles are the most in demand for 5-mans (tank) and raiding (ranged DPS).
8 Likes
I don’t know exactly how much they were influenced by it, but the Hunter class is very similar to the Ranger class from Dungeons and Dragons. Rangers in D&D had an animal companion, could use tracking, and could use bows, but they could also dual-wield melee weapons. Depending on the version of D&D it differs a little, but I know in 3.5 you basically could specialize in archery or melee.
I disagree, but thats fine. To me nothing about a DH suggests that aside from the fact that they are down a spec, but it sust wouldnt make proper sense to me.
Imo Hunter’s need more melee abilities! Not less!
Give BM and MM counterstrike and wingclip.
Hunters should always have been a hybrid dps
3 Likes
I have fun harpooning people with as a melee hunter. Hell, if anything make survival a tank spec with a pet mechanic. Problem solved, hunters get insta queues.
4 Likes
In BRF BM was the most popular spec, but before the T17 set bonus that made BM so good all the way back to the early Highmaul hotfixes SV was indeed the most popular option. Method’s Hunters were actually SV for their world first Blackhand kill, which makes Blackhand the last time SV was ever included on a world frst kill.
Very good outline but I think that person is beyond convincing; they just respond to all these details with “if it was fun it wouldn’t have mattered”.
SV was screwed on many levels in 6.2. Even if they didn’t push the SS change it would have been the weakest spec and very much abandoned. They just set the spec up to fail from the beginning of the expansion (hmm, wonder why). SV was the spec that focused on sustained damage, and as such they took away its execute and cooldown. They were going to make a unique cooldown for SV but didn’t follow through with that before WoD launched (hmm, wonder why). To be fair, that cooldown was slated to be Bear Trap which… kind of sucked, to be honest, but it would have been better than nothing. But in the end they made a spec that could only do good sustained ST damage but sucked for priority add burst and cooldown phases. That’s… OK, given those two things were MM’s specialities (but they were totally the same spec, apparently). Then they released a tier full of bosses with priority add bust and a legendary ring that absurdly favoured cooldown phases. Oh, great.
Honestly, there was no way to fix SV for 6.2 without addressing the bigger problem: the legendary ring. It was a terrible idea in its original PTR form, a slightly-less-terrible idea in the iteration that made it to live, and it turned the whole tier into a joke while completely scrambling any sort of tuning balance between specs. SV wasn’t the only spec screwed by this nonsense but it was the most screwed.
I have fun being able to kill people from far away without them getting near me as a ranged Hunter. If I wanted to charge in I would play a Warrior instead.
New problem: almost no one would actually play the spec, which would at least partially solve the other problem of no one else wanting to play with a Hunter tank that depends on a pet of all things to position the boss.
10 Likes
I think Survival is great.
Regardless of the history, which is a completely separate issue, the spec as it stands is really fun for many people
How many specs allow you to adapt to encounters and situations with both a ranged and melee counterplay? Unholy, a little bit and maybe enhance a little bit but neither have the awesome fluidity of moving in and out of melee and still being able to effectively damage and hinder the enemy, whether that be a player or an npc
There should be a place for that in the game. It’s fairly unique and has its place
I feel for the players who felt that it comes at the expense of a playstyle they enjoyed four years ago but it’s here now and it is a welcome addition
Add a fourth spec if necessary but anyone advocating for the removal of current survival is a straight up hater and should check their hypocrisy
7 Likes
MM and BM are still range hunters…
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Man it sure was nice when there was three ranged hunters.
12 Likes
For me I have grown to love having melee hunter. So i can have a change of style without leaving my hunter whenver i get burned out playing range. Plus meleeing with my pet feel good like we are forming a bond 
Edit: One thing i would love to see though is MSV being able to use 2 hand swords. The Rangers in other DnD novels uses bows and 2hand long swords just like Aragorn in LoTR
4 Likes
Melee is for cretins.
That said it seems popular and I’m for doing things ppl like.
1 Like
Know what else was awesome? when it did both melee and ranged at the same time
why not do that for survival instead of giving it a fake spec identity that it never had? give it a bow and a melee weapon, but just make the melee weapon the stat stick, ranged would be a transmoggable “invisible” slot
1 Like