I understand that this has been brought up alot, but I do think it could be an interesting rework. Besides being a Tank wouldn’t necessarily “hurt the lore” of survival and also balance out the current class/spec ratio.
•Don’t think alot will need to be changed, just convert the abilities that increase damage done in some way to reduce damages taken in some way. (Could be flat reductions, giving shields, leech, heals, etc)
•Make Mending Bandage baseline and remove the penalty for being damaged.
• (and Id personally) Change Mastery: Spirit Bond to give a different sustainment bonus depending on pet type instead of the flat “increase damage on focus abilities” with:
- Ferocity: Giving additional leech (like 20-25%) on top of what the pet would already give
- Cunning: Giving a damage reduction (like 15-20%) in addition to the movement speed boost the pet already gives
- Tenacity: Giving additional max health (like 25-30%) in addition to health increase the pet already gives
(the health regen would stay, probably be buffed a bit as well)
In terms of playstyle I think utilitizing the pet would be what makes it stand out from other tanking specs. Both the Hunter and the Pet could have the abilty to taunt an enemy. If the enemy is currently targeting the hunter 30% of the damage is redirected to the pet and vice-versa. That way it is also like a little introduction to Tank swapping before you get into a raid environment. Using Mend Pet and Mending Banage interchangeably to keep you both topped off and in the fight. Other then that it should be able to stay the same, melee focused with heavy use of traps, gadgets, bombs, various utilities abilities.
19 Likes
I think if any Hunter spec would to have a tank variant, it would be BM.
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It wouldn’t be the worst thing by far. It could actually be of SOME USE to the community.
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Actually this would be an extremely bad idea. It would take a ton of work (you’re heavily downplaying the amount of work required) only to produce a spec that most Hunters wouldn’t want to play and one that very poorly fits the theme of the class. Basically all the reasons melee SV was a bad idea, only worse.
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If MSoft, should they succeed, will not stand for the status quo, I believe they can get people with a mind to work and make SV a tank spec possible.
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It would take a spec that is already low in representation and drag it down even further. Hunters have weak defensive abilities and were designed around this. We are realistically geared for range combat. They are not able to take a huge amount of frontal damage and use their pet to have a space between us and what we are fighting. Even melee has this design just a smaller area.
Then there also the pet that requires micro management with poor AI. They get stuck on assets, loose lost of sight, and react slowly. BM fits as a tank only cause of its Mastery and being range means if the per has issues there is enough distance to fix it before you are attacked.
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A solid idea, OP. While I feel that Survival shouldn’t become a dedicated primary tank specialization, it could reincorporate many of its original off-tank properties (such as Mongoose Bite originally having a high threat coefficient), and how the original tree boasted over 60% utility and defensive talents.
Agility Tanks trend towards evasive stats over flat HP and damage reduction.
Mongoose Fury could increase mitigation stats such as Versatility, and or the Dodge stat rather than the flat damage modifier it has currently. This variance could present itself as a selectable talent option.
A Survival off-tank could provide aoe mitigation for the group (such as a lingering -25% Hit Chance Bomb effect in the targeted area – AoE Scorpid Sting), Pet taunt peels, Group-wide Spirit Bond Aura that soaks damage into the pet, etc.
Unfortunately, it seems Blizzard created the new Augmentation Dracthyr archetype with these ideas in mind so it’s highly unlikely to become reality.
4 Likes
They have kept all tanks from having lust/hero I doubt they would change that now.
I personally don’t see SV as a tank being worse than SV as melee dps. Melee dps is so different than ranged dps that I really don’t see the tank vs melee dps being such a big thing. But I completely agree that it’s not in line with the class identity in either scenario.
2 Likes
The BM Monk comes to mind. Speaking of that, aren’t they still struggling? Things do get crowded like that.
Historically, spearmen were line infantry. Whether that’s the phalanx or the pike and shot formations. Though it’s a bit farfetched for just one person doing that as opposed to a plurality lol.
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Yep. The Brew Master is but one of several Survival off-shoots. The original SV archetype was instead sewn into other classes because it was replaced by a spec that fires different colored ammo at select targets.
An expansion of, in my opinion, the original direction of the specialization would have included more reactive-mitigation effects with a focus on disrupting and debuffing enemy groups. AoE Hit Chance reduction, with a conditional set of abilities that proc on enemy miss.
Parry into Counterattack, Dodge into Mongoose Bite, Enemy Miss into ‘x’ i.e An expanded reactionary toolkit instead of the singular CA or MB, consisting of several situational on-dodge/parry/miss abilities that could be utilized to further disrupt and destabilize the enemy group for utility, or further augment the next melee strike or ranged shot for damage.
The spec was never about either ranged or melee damage, but reactive and conditional Utility and Mitigation first and foremost, with a secondary focus on raw damage.
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didn’t even read after the title, hard no
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Can I interest you in a nice soft yes in this trying time though? It will go a LONG way in making SV more…survivable. And think of the synergy you’d get from the awesomo Versatility stat. And who says you have to TANK for a raid or M+? You can just be that in open-world.
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BM if anything should be the tank spec since its braindead to play and mostly tanks anyways. MM can be the all desired ranged and melee be a hybrid. Just tank with whatever pet you want, and people will try it out.
Love this idea, especially making tank swapping a much better known skill. Blizz could also do good for the community to update and bring class role trials out in the open, like make it a bigger feature with achievements and role mogs
No. And i really doubt it will. Just because something can survive doesn’t mean its a tank. Often times ret pallies and envokers are the last one standing in my raid groups because of the absurd amount of self healing they have, and they can do this in dps specs, so survival could just have more healing and cc while still being a dps. There is no reason to make it a tank.
Can we all agree that a 5 sec duration, AoE Taunt for Pets with a temporary 75% Damage Reduction effect for the pet is a fair compromise?
I would also push for this taunt effect to affect players for 0.5 seconds, functioning as a secondary interrupt… but thats a stretch.
Though the idea would be “cool” in effect, hunter’s base tree in general is not in a great spot and hunter does not have the defensive tools to become a tank currently. We should probably fix what we have first.
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The dedicated damage-dealer SV did not “replace” classic SV. It organically grew into that via additive design.
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O_O
To think that the only things I’ve seen survive are only tanks or healers…
Damage mitigation and utility or sort of a Tank’s MO. I’ve been playing Survival as an off main to my BM Monk, that’s sort of why I started think about this. Like Survival feels like it play has a rrally fun Tank if it was just alter focus more on those two aspect (mitigation and utility) instead of the kinda clumsy damage it feels like right now.
Additionally, Survival having a different then Damage would give it a solid hold on it’s identity instead of having to compete with the other two specs that I clearly more designed to work with the Hunter’s damaging options. (At least if the neutral Talents are any indication).
1 Like