I’m having a hard time choosing between two classes…
I mostly play solo, with the occasional group run with friends. I’ve been a longtime BM Hunter, BUT… the new fantasy behind BM—basically a zookeeper who just sends out pet after pet after pet (kind of like a Demo Lock spamming demons)—just isn’t for me.
A friend told me that the fantasy I was looking for as a Hunter is actually what I’d find in Survival, and he also suggested I try Enhancement Shaman (for whatever reason).
Well, SV does give me the fantasy I was looking for: just me and my companion fighting side by side against the world. BUT then I made the “mistake” of trying out Enhancement Shaman, and man… the utility blew me away. So many things happening, and I can summon wolves too? Awesome.
So now I’m torn between the two classes, and I’d really love to hear your take on the matter.
Just to repeat: I mostly play solo, doing LFR and Delves, with the occasional normal group run with friends.
SV Hunter will have a much easier time at higher level delves when undergeared. I was doing 8’s in fresh lvl 80 greens in S1 and one shot zekvir (??) a few weeks later.
once you have some gear they’re pretty close - they both do good burst and will be blowing up solo content in merely veteran gear. and yet…
I feel like hunter generally gets around faster (trailblazer and pathfinder + pathfinding) because they dont have to shape shift and ramp up the way ghost wolf does, and harpoon / disengage / cheetah is a lot more burst mobility and consistently useful than spirit walk / feral lunge. Survival has a much more flexible time swapping between ranged and melee combat whenever there is area denial, which is fairly common in delves.
Hunter also has stealth, ice trap and feign death for straight up avoiding fights they dont want to be in while questing or exploring, and the ability to track just about any creature in the game on the minimap. Shaman has… a shorter hearthstone?
In a group, I think shamans have a solid edge over what they provide to the party (rock boi, capacitor totem, better kick, wind rush totem, mastery) but hunter has a big advantage in survivability with SotF, Spirit Bond, +12-17% extra stam, and provides some unique party things of its own (shortest sooth cd in the game, brings a real immunity for dungeons that require it, misdirect, feign death skips). But if you’re just doing normal dungeons with homies that’s likely not going to matter.
If looking cool matter, Hunters tend to have pretty bad transmog, I’d argue the end of DF and some of the TWW sets are the best Shamans have ever been given. Any race can be Hunter, not any race can be Shaman.
SV has a much slower rotation and is far less punished for screwing up the rotation if you are not sure what to press than Enhancement.
Enhancement shammy sucks. I don’t like mine. Took away super powers 2 patches ago and now I don’t have a good aoe. If you want to kill 1 mob at a time slowly, do enhancement.
First of all thank you for all the info.
Really liked all, very ingormative and I was able to learn a lot from your post.
Hunter has a plus to me as I will be able to keep playing with my old character and not log off him in a beautyful place (like Winterspring or probably me Garreison) and go to a shammy.
Both races are orc. Hunter is Maghar and Shammy Regular Orcs.
So, if I was able to understsnd properly, SV has more survabikity over enhancement?! Even with big rocky guy, healing and that shield toten I forgor the nane?! (Hunters have the exgilation, turtle, a pet with misdirection tops the rock guy, and two charges of that damae reduction) yeah I guess you are right but no healing.
Wish I could theorycraft better.
I wish I had time to play more, unfortunatelt I dont so I try to stay with one guy as much as possible.
Dont get me wrong I have all classes at 80 but I only have “time to invest” with one.
Its complicated,
I did, and atill could not chose properly so I figure why not read other players opinions.
Survival hunter has a lot of utility and mobility; disengage, harpoon, co-ordinated and flanking all mean you can in and out of fights really fast while the combination of bombs, killshot and kill command mean that you can consistently do damage even when you are in a “dodge phase.”
There is of course one other huge advantage for survival: weapon drops.
Unless during party content you are either running with a tank monk or another survival hunter weapon drops (agility staves and spears) are going to be yours by default.
ENH Shaman is my pick. For me, Hunters get boring after a bit, unless you are obsessed with them and have like 6 of them, one for each spec and one for each faction. Thankfully, I have no hunters anymore.
Health - Hunter has +8-13% stamina depending on pet, shaman has +10% - basically a tie
Immunity - Hunter has access to an immunity, shaman does not - Hunter wins
Damage Resistance - SV Hunter has 2x charges of 30% DR on a 1.5min cd each +6% DR all the time from spirit bond. Shaman has 1x charge of a 40% DR on a 1.5min cd +6% magic only DR all the time. - Hunter wins
Cleansing - Hunter can remove poisons and diseases. Shaman can remove poisons and curses - tie
Sustain - the majority of the damage hunter will take in solo play goes to the pet, which hunter can heal very easily and for no damage loss with mend pet. They can even resurrect it if it dies. Exhilaration is an approximately 40% self heal and full pet heal every minute with the way the cooldown reduction works out if you take aggro or cleave or something. Enhancement can self heal without cooldown, but they take all the damage in combat while soloing unless rock elemental is up, and they give up a lot of damage in the form of maelstrom resource if they choose to cast heals instantly in combat. Out of combat healing isn’t really relevant now that everyone has recuperate. - Hunter wins
Bonus - Feign death and Play dead, Hunter can just leave any fight that isn’t going well.
Shaman isn’t bad at solo survivability, but we’re comparing it to Hunter which is arguably the strongest solo class in the game (at least excluding tanks).
