The idea adding a new hunter spec is good, but I think survival should stay as it is. It’s a fun spec. If Blizzard changes the survival back to ranged, they’d also need to remove the Talonclaw artifact, appearances, quests, and lore that was added in Legion, which is not going to happen.
Hard disagree. When we had lock n load explosive shot combo, it was the most fun hunter spec by far and was quite popular.
Simply not true.
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Really?
Has it ever been more than 10% or 15% of the Hunter player base? Even now it far exceeds BM yet people remain BM.
I like exotic pets so I stay BM. I have dabbled with Surv but I prefer BM. Much like I have dabbled with MM and prefer BM. If I was a serious raider or mythic runner I would maybe switch.
I have no issue with Surv being melee. I remember trying out melee Hunter options back when we had to have our bags filled with arrows/bullets and train combat skills to our pets.
And what options were those?
Its a fading memory. Was more about control than damage in PVP. Traps, Wing Clips, Thunderstomps.
With party buffs you could do below par DPS in dungeons. I never ran a raid as melee.
shrugs
I just saw you disparaging others for not picking the “better” spec (anything other than Survival) then here you go saying you choose to play a spec that is not the “better” spec.
That doesn’t work for me personally, and others who don’t do high-end content. Our choices have little bearing upon others, we play what we like.
exactly!
We can’t ever speak for the playerbase as a whole because most people play in non-competitive content that isn’t tracked, but from representation in end game content e.g. PvP, raids, challenge mode dungeons it can be seen that Survival was often a widely-played spec in its ranged days. For a couple raids it was even the most represented spec across the entire game. In any case it was certainly a lot more widely enjoyed than melee Survival.
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Surv had a raid/party buff which meant having one was worthwhile. There was never a need for more than one.
Id love to see stats from the time which show otherwise.
And outside of raids there were HUGE numbers of BM Hunters. It has always been the most popular. By a country mile. And then MM.
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That’s only for BC with Expose Weakness. In WotLK, Cata, MoP, and WoD it was an independent DPS spec with its own identity and playstyle and it was routinely very popular.
We don’t know what the space looked like outside of raids because it’s not possible to track what people are playing outside of competitive end game content. For old raid representation data it can be hard to come by nowadays as sources go offline but you can still look to worldofwargraphs, and blog posts that save data from there and worldoflogs.
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As someone who did their fair share of pvp and pve in those days, I can say unequivocally that any hunters playing around with a melee centric “build” (I use the term very loosely in this instance. ) viewed it as a gimmick that almost never got used outside the front gates of orgimmar.
The idea that there was some viable way for a hunter to play as a melee character at endgame is pure myth.
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because it was literally the most popular spec in the game, by a considerable margin
calm down
not everything is about the top end of the game
and i say this as a huge melee survival stan, it’s the only reason i even made a hunter
I was waiting for you to put these pups in place. I had was think if Bepples was here…
You’re also forgetting about explosive shot(old version), black arrow, the better version of lock and load. The fact it was fun to play. It was more than a heal and stupid traps. You aren’t remembering the spec.
Explosive shot talent is garbage. Lock n load is ok I can’t argue that one not as good as the old but still ok. No black arrow or the other little things that made it fun. Now if they added all that to marks and let us spec to be just like old surv I’d love it!
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Rexxar was dual wield, just saying blizz
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Melee hunter is just a bad idea to me anyways.
I understand Survival had an identity crises, but the mele thing to me is completely left field thinking.
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Plus hunters have been dual wielding since forever. They still can just some skills won’t work.
I made a hunter for the pets hence BM, and it was the best choice ever.
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I love MSV. I am glad it is the way it is.
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Which is fine, nobody cares.
But for some reason whenever the topic comes up about this subject, people who like msv for some inexplicable reason have to try and justify the existence of the current spec by constantly reminding us JUST HOW MUCH FUN IT IS while simultaneously dumping on the old version.
There was nothing wrong with it and I’d say the only reason blizzard changed it is they were trying to make as big a splash as possible going into Legion after the terrible reception of WoD.
If some of you like playing msv, just shut up and play it and quit saying a bunch of nonsense about how it used to be because it’s not true.
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Adding RSV abilities and Talents to Marksman without increasing the ROOM in the spec might wouldn’t be fair to either spec.