Respectfully, the reason many people aren’t tanking (or healing) is because those roles have a disproportionate amount of responsibility for failure and people are abusive to them. I don’t think that more tank specs would increase the amount of tanks much (if at all) until the pug community and encounter/dungeon design change significantly.
I could be tanking right now. I have every tank class at max level. And I do tank, for friends. I won’t tank for pugs and that’s because of the people, not that the tanks aren’t well-designed or that there aren’t enough options for tanking styles.
There’s a joke. A paladin, monk, and druid walk into a bar. What do they say? LFM Tank and healer.
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No, just no. Enhanc is one of the most unique melee specs, and getting hid of it is an awful idea.
If they were so hell bent on making survival melee, it should have at least been a tank so hunters had a non-dps option.
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Lol ya the most uniquely bad melee spec I’ll give you that
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I agree. The whole purpose of Hunters is that they are a ranged spec. Back in Vanilla the only reason they got given an axe when you created them was because it took time to learn the use of bow or gun and to tame a pet to help your hunter stay at range. You couldn’t even shoot inside of a certain distance, and it stayed that way up to Cataclysm as I recall. They were designed to be played at their best at 40 yards.
Turning one of the specs into melee meant that for me, my available choices were lowered to two, because I will never play a melee hunter. Not only do I hate the change in this iconic class, I just dislike the playstyle of it.
And as for making it a tank…seriously? I guess there is room for bad ideas for just about anything here. They really need to give us the 
option back
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I think the mammoths would have a word with you:
Spear hunting is the most basic form of hunting in the world. You just need a sharp stick. It’s even making a comeback today.
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Ah ok, then Warriors should also fight with spears because basically those primitive peoples fought everything (including other people) with sharp sticks.
After projectile weapons were invented, they would happily have swapped to those. I doubt your English Longbowmen of the middle ages would have tossed away their range advantage for stabbing things with a spear…
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Let me just put this where it belongs…
You know they didn’t base the class off of prehistoric hunters, right?
You also know hunters didn’t run up to things and poke them with a stick, right? Especially things that could easily trample and gore them to death with little effort. They came up with a nifty little device to help them throw their spears from a safe distance.
Back on topic, I think an earthwarder type of shaman tank would be cooler than a hunter one.
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Earthwarden shaman would use 2hand weapon and a Magical earth shield. And would use totem to protect him.
Not sure why people want to turn a spec about pet control, heavy, deadly melee weapons, traps and basically devoted to staying alive using any means necessary into the spec that runs into dungeons first ahead of everyone, pulling 3 different groups going “Yayayayayayayayayayayayayayaa!”
Meh. They changed it initially because they felt it was too similar to the other two. Can’t really see them changing that if they went back.
They ought to just leave survival alone at this point. Tweak and tune it like everything else but nothing more.
Guess you’ve never heard of the Swiss Pikemen, then. They have a long tradition of using pikes as weapons, even after guns were invented.
There’s a keyword you’re missing: Eventually. Hunting parties used to consist of a huge group of men that would surround prey that they would stick with long spears to kill. That came waaaaay before the Atlatl.
That’s not even mentioning the Native Americans that used spears for hunting and warfare, even when they had rifles to use. Also, people actually use spears today to go hunting. They’re generally a broad-head spear.
This is a Grizzly spear:
Hey! We have those in WoW!
Then, there’s spear fishing spears/frog gigs:
Which brings us to one of the signature moves of a Survival Hunter, Harpoon!
Harpoons come in all shapes and sizes! Such as:
A whaling harpoon, still used today, and a halibut harpoon you can get off Amazon:
Just because it’s technology that’s outdated, doesn’t mean it’s not useful. A pike/spear/harpoon whatever you want to call it, is a useful tool even today. If you get lost in the woods with nothing else but a small knife, a spear is your best bet for food and protection.
Survival Hunters embody this side of hunting: Masters of primitive technology, with a splash of gunpowder. I really enjoy playing mine the way it is now. It sucked before. It sucked until they changed it to a melee spec, then it sucked less. Now, it’s a great spec! Probably one of my favorite melee specs in game.
They also have guns in WoW. This is also a hunter. Your view of one seems pretty myopic. Show me again where they said they were basing the class and spec on one type of hunter in particular.
Survival hunters also have this in WoW:
Where is your picture of prehistoric cavemen hunting mammoths with explosive ordinance?
It was great before. It sucks now. It’s been such a flop within the hunter community they’ve basically had to walk it back to mostly being ranged to try and make it more appealing but you still need to equip a melee weapon for some reason. It’s basically a less good version of bm. Nothing reminds me more of being a spear hunter than spamming kill command and having a spirit bond with my pet (that was stolen from bm) and don’t forget coordinated assault which is basically bestial wrath with another name. It’s actually less unique now than it was before.
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Hasn’t really happened with all the new tank specs added.
The issue with queues is nobody wants to tank for pugs.
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Well that’s very useful now.
I actually go the other way. Every class should have at least accessible roles available to them and I think hunter can serve the tank role well…but not SV.
BM should be the tank spec and it should be a petless spec where you instead channel the inner beast to take on the pet family and spec abilities. This gives us a mail tank (though I also have thoughts on a 4th shaman spec using the elemental force of Earth to tank), a tank capable of bringing heroism, and a tank that can swap out different forms of defensives/utility. All are niches that no existing tank can do.
MM would still be the range hunter spec and SV would be the melee DPS spec.
This kind of design philosophy also allows for easier balancing since instead of having competing specs for a role in a class, every class would just have 1 option that Blizzard could focus on.
This I don’t agree with. I get where you’re going with it, but I don’t like the idea, personally. I’d rather see them leave BM and MM alone, make SV tank and add a ranged DoT spec back. So four specs.
Sure is useful when they add new ones, yes. 
The problem of people not tanking is a player made issue, not a game issue.
