The worst class in WoW Dragonflight is actually topping the DPS charts

Classes Hunter
1

If you have been enjoying the wonders of World of Warcraft Dragonflight, you must have heard that Survival Hunters are by far the worst class you can bring to your Mythic+ dungeons and raids. But this is far from the truth as Survival Hunters are actually topping the DPS charts in Vault of the Incarnates.

Coming from Shadowlands to Dragonflight, Survival Hunters got significant changes to its talent tree and the core rotation. When compared to the stars of Dragonflight’s release patch and Patch 10.0.5 like Enhancement Shamans and Havoc Demon Hunters, everyone believed Survival Hunters were just lackluster, lacked sustainability and durability, and, most importantly, damage.

In reality, Survival Hunters have been thriving, especially in the damage department in Vault of the Incarnates with a whopping 97,031 damage per second, according to WoW stats site Simulationcraft.

Besides that, the spec has been, week in and week out, in the top-performing classes in Mythic Vault of the Incarnates in single-target encounters.

When we take overall damage into consideration, Survival Hunter’s damage output is not so high since their AoE and cleave builds are far different and the build that’s intended for raiding does not include much AoE damage.

Bearing that in mind, Survival Hunters still might not be the best class for Mythic+ dungeons as the top classes in Mythic+ dungeons have strong AoE and single-target damage.

Dot Esports: The worst class in WoW Dragonflight is actually topping the DPS charts.

//https://dotesports.com/wow/news/the-worst-class-in-wow-dragonflight-is-actually-topping-the-dps-charts//

Written by Izabela Tomakic Mar 13, 2023 6:56 am.

Izabela’s addicted to writing and gaming. So, if you don’t encounter her wandering in World of Warcraft or inting in League of Legends, she’s probably frantically writing her next article.

2 Likes
2

So you copied and pasted a post someone else did, was this a promotion?

1 Like
3

I came back to the game 3 weeks ago and I have completed around 25+ runs 16-19 M+ by now as survival hunter. I can tell that the spec has meta a damage output, finishing 18-19 level keys with an overall damage equally or slightly higher compared to havoc dh, subtley rogue, and always higher than warriors or bm, and many other specs.

Maybe as mm i would do a slightly more dps (or as bm with the bow), but after playing 20+ content in bfa and sl with those specs, the rotation now feels so brain dead compared with survival, which is a frenetic spec where you have ALWAYS 4-5 buttons to activily press

For now, competing hand to hand with the so called meta dps specs and sometimes beating them in 18-19 keys is more than enough for me to enjoy this spec before the incoming buffs to bm.

Also sv transmogs are the dopest because you can wear a katana!!

2 Likes
4

I think your talking about Heroic Vault, where everything is a zerg fest and logs are super skewed now?

I just did a quick check of Mythic logs, there like isn’t a survival hunter in the top 50 on any of the fights for hunter parses.

3 Likes
5

It’s a discussion starting point.

6

If Izabela Tomakic wants to write an article about SV maybe she should do the bare minimum of effort and explore the reasons why SV is unpopular instead of taking the tired-old cop-out path of just painting it as a community full of ignorant rubes who think SV doesn’t do enough damage.

SV did best-in-the-game damage in SL, people rerolled for it, and they all immediately left once its damage fell to the level described in this article. Evidently there are other factors that make people dislike Survival and prefer to avoid it. We all know what those factors are and we all saw them coming. Much of the WoW community would rather live in pride-fueled denial, though.

EDIT: It seems from the hyperlinks in the article that Izabela Tomakic is trying to throw shade at Hayley Andrews, an author of an earlier article that lists Survival Hunters as one of the worst DPS specs in Dragonflight. Andrews claimed that it took more effort to play for ultimately less damage than other classes on top of being squishy. Do note that this was from late January before a round of hotfix buffs to Survival. At the time SV’s AoE was indeed weak and took more effort than other classes. Andrews’s article doesn’t specify whether it’s focused on single target or AoE, while Tomakic’s article fixates on single target and only mentions AoE in passing towards the end.

In summary, just a couple of lazy writers who misunderstand the core issues at hand when it comes to Survival, opting to give lazy takes exclusively about tuning. It’s no wonder these articles don’t have comment sections.

5 Likes
7

I like my survival hunter. but I find his spec label a bit of an irony. He lacks… Survival.

As a monk, I spec brewmaster and just tank the mobs, or mistweaver and heal thru it when ww won’t cut it. WW is squishy.

As a priest, any spec is fine, I can usually do it in all three. Even shadow is relatively tough.

Survival hunter. Just doesn’t have any survival tools.

3 Likes
8

Since the launch of World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, Dragonflight, players have experienced buffs, nerfs, and many changes to the game. When choosing classes and specs, some players choose theirs on a whim, and others choose based on the benefits a class can provide.

However, just because a class was exceptional in a previous expansion doesn’t mean it’s the best class in Dragonflight. So, while there are excellent classes in Dragonflight, there are also some bad ones.

Whether it’s because they’ve been nerfed or just haven’t received a buff to make them viable in Dragonflight, these are currently the six worst classes in WoW Dragonflight.

The worst classes in Dragonflight 1) Survival Hunter

Hunters aren’t among the best class options in Dragonflight, especially the Survival Hunter. Survival Hunters are melee DPS, and they aren’t very durable. In addition, their damage output is relatively low compared to some of the best DPS classes in Dragonflight, like the Havoc Demon Hunter.

They start with Survival then move on to Marksmanship as the next worst.

1 Like
9

In other words, all things are dependently arisen, subject causes and conditions and nothing inherently exists?

Lol. Yah. Pick something you like. It’ll change. Many times.

1 Like
10

It’s because the entire Hunter class is (or was) designed around our primary form of mitigation: kiting. The game has evolved while the Hunter’s survivability has not. Unmitigateable damage is so much fun to deal with. It wouldn’t be so bad if Hunter DPS was off the charts to compensate. Instead, you’re just OK damage and a mana tax on healers.

Somehow, the megaminds in development have only just recently realized that (despite us saying this for literally years) SV needs a disarm. On top of that, it needs either better active mitigation, strong leech, or better heals. It makes little sense to me that they are capable of including that stuff in other spec trees, but somehow they can’t do a 20 minute brainstorming session in Teams to figure out how to work it into the SV tree. To be fair, they have yet to come up with a cohesive spec design since Legion. How could we expect any less?

Frankly, I keep going back to the notion that SV should have been the elemental Hunter, and DH should have gotten another DPS spec. Or even Evoker. It could very easily work as a melee DPS that uses 2 handers, ensorcells it’s weapon to do fire damage. It could work somewhat like a mix between Enh and Ret. That would require actual creativity, though.

6 Likes
11

It is a causality effect in that by doing so and so will get the outcome you want, but to reach that goal requires you to always preform in same way.

A spec is argued to be poor cause it is underperforming; however, another player contradicts that because they topped the rankings it not as they claim.

However, they don’t weight in on what circumstances led to them having better results. This is why players can keep going around and around on one argument as both have had different experiences, and neither will agree with the other.

1 Like
12

You mean your perception of reality might not be accurate? Maybe nobody’s is. My opinion is that you lack survivability, but I’ve been told that it’s fine, too; I just suck. Maybe. Who knows?

But I think I’m pretty average.

1 Like
13

Reality is what you perceive. One see a blue dress other see a gold dress, which is the right choice? More say Survival hunters lack, but could that just be based on that there are more who focus on the negative?

14

Just judging on defensive and self heals I have on other classes, I find sv not very survivable.

This is a pvp, not pve observation tho. In world pve the sv hunter is rarely focused, but in pvp and pve group content, when you shut off threat generation?

If anything notices you, and doesn’t like you, you’re shortly finished.

3 Likes
15

@Ogdenir

Not sure why you’d re-post the contents of an article here which overlooks several key points of why perception is what it is, when it comes to the hunter class, and specifically, survival.

(And no, this isn’t just about the fact of the rework to melee)

3 Likes
16

We read post everyday from typical players, but it’s interesting to read the options from someone who should have thorough knowledge about a class.

We have two separate authors with different ideas that have written articles that will be read by more than just some forums browsers. These posts have the potential to reach more people than just the forums, and it could be were misinformation is spreading from.

Izabela Tomakic claimed that Simulationcraft showed Survival Hunters were able to reach 97,031 damage per second, but looking at another sight Survival is at the bottom with only 74.2k. //https://u.gg/wow/tier-list?encounterType=raid&role=dps//

When people are making these claims were are they getting their information from?

2 Likes
17

They pulled it out of their …um out of the air.

1 Like
18

Stupid question, but disarms are still a thing? Didn’t see one on my warrior and I found myself missing being able to disarm mobs in Halls of Lightning for this timewalking week. That said, on a concept level SV having a disarm does make sense.

I would lean a bit harder on the nature theme by taking a good glance at the DnD ranger. In terms of survivability, the spells Cure Wounds and Goodberry might be a good starting point (the former is a single target heal, the latter works like warlock health stones). I’d probably opt for a talent that turns Mend Pet into a HoT that costs 15 focus, has a 10 sec cooldown, and can be used on both master and pet. Keep the status effect removal as pet-exclusive.

19

Disarms are pvp talents now.

1 Like