Been leveling as SV and it feels lackluster in its rotation. My problem with the current iteration of SV is that it has no build up, or proc. Every time I think about a fun spec I always end up naming one that has a built-in proc that makes you mix things up and needs you to react to it. I want something like Shadow Priest’s Surrender to Madness or Fury’s Enrage that spices the rotation up. What I would like to have changed is to use Mongoose Bite as a focus builder that once completely filled cause them to go into Mongoose Fury sending you and your pet into a rage and you would spam Flanking Strike or Raptor until the focus bar ran out. You still would have to maintain DoTs that took away focus just have a push and give to the rotation, but I think a variation on this play-style would add some pay off to SV simple rotation.
go with wildfire infusion if you want some flavor to the spec. also if you are looking at building towards a proc. don’t take mongoose bite. get some latent poison traits and that’s how you build your big proc. this is all at max level. are you at max level? if not this convo was pointless lolol
Having to wait until end game and having to wait on the right Azerite traits does not encourage exciting rotation. Why does every player have to wait to have their cake? All that causes is players to stop half way before fully unlocking a spec.I have played SV on my main character but wanted to experience the spec from the start, and it has not been nearly as exciting has I would have hoped. I would like some flavor while leveling and not just feel like I hit three buttons wait for them to come off cool down then hit three buttons again. Legion version had much more bite just need to be cleaned up, not gutted to simplify the rotation for the tablet users.
I’m with Boltaction on the talent focus adjustments except I like Mongoose bite. You don’t always, ‘have’ to hit 5-stacks of Mongoose fury to still dps well as there’s a lot of plates still needing to be spun, but it helps.
Your talents may be the cause of your dissatisfaction. I can’t see your azerite traits because you’re currently showing as BM and have probably changed gear to reflect your current spec, but that may need attention as well.
Ensure that your traits reflect your talents based on your content preference and trait damage rankings on icyveins or wowhead and you gem/enchant for haste and you’ll likely have a bit more fun with the spec. The sites’ talent suggestions are a good thing to review and reflect as well.
Hope this helps!
i was referring to the trait stacking since trying to optimize latent poison traits is tough while leveling. not to mention the leveling process is a joke anymore so stating that having to “wait” till end game is not encouraging doesn’t really make sense. even while enjoying the content you can easily level a character from scratch in a lil over a month playing only an hour or 2 a day. so its not a wait anymore unless you are specifically handicapping yourself to level slower purposefully.
you only need to be 100 to start optimizing towards the big proc and the flavor. you just need to be 100 to open up all the talents.
Ah, I see… Blizzard has always (ALWAYS) balanced and designed around End-Game. Unfortunately, I doubt that will ever change. That said, I’ve played other MMOs that focused on the leveling experience, and they all quickly died out or went free to play once everyone got to max level, e.g. SWTOR. I guess it ends up being a trade-off. If I had to choose, I’d have to chose end-game though. It keeps the game interesting for the most part.
end game keeps people subbed. if you put too much into leveling then players have nothing to do once they cap so they move on. world of warships is this way as well as world of tanks. they are the only 2 games I have seen still grow even though they offer nothing at end game. it actually is a consequence in those games to play your max ships / tanks because they cost you money every battle. I played both for about 3 months then got bored because when there is nothing to do at cap there is actually nothing to look forward to.
When I was levelling my SV Hunter in Legion it was a blast. So many cool abilities were baseline before the prune/changes. It felt like a complete class by level 60.
this is my main so I only leveled him from 110 to 120 as survival so I have no clue how leveling goes as SV. I can tell you at end game its pure joy though! I love this spec! and I was one of the people who at first was a lil turned off by it. I had always wanted to fight beside my pet. I just never did well with the melee specs.
I’ve progressed my hunter to cap every expansion, so I can’t quite relate, but I can certainly understand and appreciate the desire to have an end-game playing experience while leveling. That said and as an analogy proving the point, I’ve often wondered why you can’t boost a toon in anything other than a DPS spec. It would make sense to me that you would want to level and learn the spec that you plan on playing at end game.
Any time I’ve boosted a toon I’ve spent a good amount of time playing that spec via the class trial. I had only leveled my SV Hunter to 65 before boosting it at the start of BFA. I still played a class trial for quite a bit before boosting it to the revised BFA version. I still prefer the Legion version if I’m being honest.
This is my SV hunter, as I stated SV at end level is fun, but level from 20 to 120 lack synergy. He is my example, I stated playing a Fury warrior in Legion only at the start to learn all the plate transmogs I was saving up; however, I found the flow of the rotation so exciting I stopped playing my Hunter main. The excitement of charging into an enemy smashing it over and over until you finally enrage then slamming execute had synergy and felt rewarding for all the build up. On the other, SV at low levels just feels like playing the wait game. Then there the lack of synergy with it abilities, Serpent, Wild Fire, and Raport feel fine, but Contaminated Assult and KC feel tacked on from BM. Azerite traits should complement a spec, not be mandatory for it to be playable or engaging. Old SV had synergy, it was about dotting your target up then waiting for lock n load to proc. Then there was Legion SV with its engaging play style, you always had a key to hit. Blizzard keeps on dumming down the specs and this version of SV feels to be a poor version of other iterations.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Lock_and_Load&oldid=3750962
Its been awhile and just remembering how seeing Lock n Load proc felt exciting. Like to have that back in SV rotation once more.
Lock n Load just let you fire an explosive shot, maybe 2, without it costing mana. If you want that feeling on a survival rotation just take the talent Viper’s Venom. When it procs you can cast a free Serpent Sting that does instant damage and a damage over time just like explosive shot. It’s pretty much the same thing.
- Explosive Shot felt more impactful
- Explosive Shot literally was more impactful in terms of damage
- Lock and Load was baseline while Viper’s Venom is talented
Ignore everything about melee v.s. ranged for a moment. This is a very worrying trend in class design; over-reliance on certain talents to complete a spec as well as having to talent into things that used to be baseline. Another Survival example: Hydra’s Bite. It’s literally just a flat-out worse version of Serpent Spread (the pre-Legion passive that made Multi-Shot apply Serpent Sting to all targets hit) and the latter was baseline i.e. it came with the spec. You could also argue that Wildfire Bomb lacks purpose in the rotation if you don’t take Wildfire Infusion.
It’s a problem with just about every spec right now. In the other Hunter specs, you have examples like:
- Careful Aim: this is a double-whammy as it’s both something that used to be baseline and something that completes MM as a spec
- Chimera Shot: BM plays noticeably more terribly without this ability. It really needs an extra ability in its rotation and Chimera Shot fulfils this purpose. This should be baseline and a new talent should be created.
They need to pivot back towards classes being mostly complete in the baseline, with talents adding on top rather than depending on talents to make-or-break the spec.
Not happy that many of the passive abilities or active abilities became talents. It stripped hunters and some made the game more fun. Now we are forced to choose utility over I would like to use, its all about picking the same talents or suffering in dps. If everyone is using the same talents ehy not just give them back as base line and give us some fun abilities that we can play with?
The first point is subjective, the second point is completely wrong since viper’s venom causes the proc’d ability to do 2.5 extra damage which lock and load did not, and the third point depends on when you’re talking about because back in like Cata onward it’s been a talent.
Sure, it is subjective. But I think it’s highly likely that most people find an explosion more impactful than a poison.
The second point is absolutely correct because Explosive Shot was a much larger proportion of Survival’s total damage than Serpent Sting is now, so getting 2 free Explosive Shots was a huge deal in comparison.
Your response to the third point is very misleading because you are comparing two entirely different talent systems. When there were talent trees it was part of that, i.e. WotLK and Cataclysm, although no build of Survival did not include it (they put core, spec-building mechanics on trees all the time). It was baseline in MoP and WoD. Now, Viper’s Venom is a talent in a system that is built for changing talents often even if it doesn’t always work out that way. It’s far from a core mechanic of the spec and there are even builds that don’t take it.
Subjective is still subjective and adding conjecture to it doesn’t make it less so.
Second point still stands because impact of getting free and more powerful damage from an ability is more immediately noticeable than 2 free shots because you only notice the mana/focus cost later on.
Third point again still stands because the talent tree was still a friggen talent tree regardless of whether you consider the old trees ‘talent trees’ or not, it was still a talent that you had to select and could choose not to select.