It’s weird, because I supported the change to Survival when it happened primarily because it and BM played EXACTLY the same. Like, plug in the spec specific abilities in the same slots on your actionbar and hit the same buttons as you always would and nothing changes other than some slight visuals.
But BM changed at the same time, so…
Don’t make assumptions.
Except I do play the class so…there goes that I guess!
Also, it’s unlikely that I’m influencing the direction of this class with my posts here, but then again, neither are you. The devs are unlikely to see either of our posts and even if they do, they have their own ideas on how to address things they see as problems.
I’ll agree that not all of their decisions are good, but there’s also the other side of the coin, as not every decision they make is bad. Account-wide collections, for example, was a fantastic decision, as was the LFG tool.
Ooh, okay. So you’re just bitter and want to lash out because new survival isn’t exactly what you want, and you feel entitled to have it made your way. Got it. 
So, basically, my assumption was right.
I don’t accept the argument “if you ignore everything that was different, these things were the same”.
You are ignoring crucial differences between specs that make them valid specs to begin with and you’re trying to justify that by saying that overgeneralising is not only fine but preferrable when talking about specs… in the context of an upcoming expansion explicitly aimed at remedying some of the damage caused by trying to make specs too separate, no less.
Being in favour of such revisionist, disruptive changes to existing specs that people enjoy is an incredibly selfish and careless attitude.
Class design is something they are hammered on all the time in Legion and BFA so I think it’s safe to call it one of their failures.
Most Hunters preferred the old Survival, as evidenced by the multitudes more Hunters who actually played it. So actually wanting Survival to be ranged is the less selfish stance.
Let’s appreciate two things here:
Yes, with Aspect of the Hawk being the sole tuning knob for balancing the Class’s damage, talents going entire expansions costing the wrong resource because nobody bothered to look at it besides players, ignoring bug reports from an expansion’s alpha until the prepatch goes live and even then a youtuber with a following was what got it addressed. Then we can get into the minimum range left for years because of Flavor (now called Class Fantasy) and many others. You really should just stop acting like I don’t know what I’m talking about because you disagree with me on anything.
BM was and always will be more popular and the largest draw to the Class. It was only ever popular because it was the top performing spec for the content.
Really Whim?
Thought you took a break btw?
Sorry, can’t agree with this.
Or I mean, sure, if you feel something, then you do…
But RSV played very differently from that of BM(or MM for that matter).
It’s more than this ofc but, specs that are based mostly on instant damage and, like MM, having a cast time, aren’t really comparable to specs that are based on DoT.
Sure, they were all based on using ranged weapons but, that alone does not justify such a change.
The problem here is that players hold pure dmg classes to the same standards in terms of spec diversity, as they do with hybrid classes.
And changing every pure dmg class into having a spec diversity on level with that of hybrids(as near as a pure dmg class can get without actually making it a hybrid), this will only serve to dilute the very core fantasy of each respective class, rather than improving it.
Having said that, is there no room for a melee spec for hunters? Yes there is.
But that does NOT justify diminishing the very core aspects/fantasies ‘‘just to make room for that new stuff’’.
‘‘Most popular’’ and ‘‘popular’’ are two different things Whim.
A spec can be popular even if it isn’t beating every other spec out there.
For me, each has their own pros and cons.
BfA is more streamlined than Legion, but Legion has a more solid melee feel than BfA.
Traps is a sore point. It was great as utility, but as part of dps rotation it is terrible.
Wildfire Bomb is indeed better for QoL, but i dislike it being core. And the cone effect is… might as well rename it as Wildfire Claymore since that might actually fit better than ‘bomb’. Front Toward Enemy™
Venoms and Bleeds are nice and well, but explosives should have been optional. Feels much more fluid (and logical) when my Carve/Butchery spreads dots/bleeds around targets than having my polearm somehow manage to allow me to throw bombs more rapidly - because my polearm is assembling a new bomb while i’m hitting targets with it?
Yes really. I’ve made the case in other threads. Basically what you had was overly homogenized specs that got little attention because Blizzard’s Development Team did not feel the need to give it. A change was needed to end that and like BM, there really was no place for them to go with SV other than fall back into buffing melee.
Until after Blizzcon. I left the Hunter Forums because all of you turned it into an echo chamber where you can feed that constipated anger you have over RSV going away. It’s horrible, foul, and people asking for help often go unanswered because you all are too busy feeding that rage instead of being something of worth.
Popular and cult following are two different things as well. The movie the Room has a cult following but it’s not popular. RSV is like that. When you saw more people playing it, it was because of the fact that it performed better than the other two. MM wasn’t popular for a long time because it was poor in AoE.
Survival is a decent enough spec, but just feels incredibly weird.
May be too late at this point, but only having one class using guns and bows is really stupid in my opinion, and adding a mele option for hunters was a terrible idea.
Rogues should get a range spec if hunters have a mele spec.
it was unfair they took ranged survival away from us to begin with. they changed it because “all 3 hunter specs were ranged dps that had a pet” and yet that is literally what the Warlocks are but they didn’t have one of their specs forced into melee or another role like tank/healer just so they could get changed up.
you can try and defend it that the warlocks had 3 unique specs, one multi-dotter, one focus on pets, and one focused on heavier spells to deal damage upfront…but that’s exactly what the hunter class was as well, survival was a multi-dotter, Beast Master was a pet focus, and Marksman was an upfront damage dealer