I’ve said this before, I’ll say this again. I think, along with the removal of RSV in Legion, that one of the two BIGGEST mistakes Blizzard has ever made with the Hunters was giving MM that awful Lone Wolf talent in WoD.
It’s opened the door for the anti-pet and anti-ranged people (which… sounds anti-Hunter, doesn’t it?) to come in and take over the direction of the Hunter class.
Look, from Vanilla to MoP, all the Hunters were ranged and relied on their pets to varying degrees.
WoD’s addition of Lone Wolf was the start of this new “era” of, well, the Anti-Hunter.
I’m not joking; Ion literally cited WoD’s Lone Wolf as a “success” (because they overbuffed it) which inspired them to make the extreme Legion changes.
Yeah, I’m a little grumpy right now but that’s what I’ve been thinking ever since Legion.
While I’d be open to having Ranged SV return as a 4th spec, lets not pretend that a game that receives such little updating / tweaking to the current specs would be capable of adding more work in that respect. It’s simply not going to happen. So i think we should just drop that idea altogether.
I would have nothing against a Lone Wolf option(like for MM where the spec does not promote the use of pets in any way, beyond the mere basics).
I’m all for something like this, as long as it does not become a new norm in terms of Hunter class design. Where every spec that isn’t BM must have pets excluded from it’s design.
In todays design paradigm, with the intended philosophy of a focus on identities(to a degree I should say), I believe that perhaps only BM should be the spec where you have a lot of things tied to your pet as baseline elements rather than being optional.
Note that I’m not talking as much about utility and defensives as I’m talking about baseline offensive abilities that deals damage or buffs your pet.
I agree that some of the later expansions have further built on the conception that a Hunter, is not synonymous with pets/companions.
Go back and that is what Hunters were. They were tamers of beasts. They relied on their companions for a lot of things.
It later became: Hunters are tamers of beasts but…sometimes it might be best to just “bench” them for the sake of convenience.
Nowadays, so many players are of the opinion that Hunters, SHOULD…NOT…HAVE…PETS! They should be “petless” rangers/snipers. Any spec that isn’t BM, should have nothing to do with pets beyond the ability to tame them. No talents should have any focus on pets etc. etc.
One big problem with a mindset such as this, is that it severely restricts the ability to add in flavor in terms of design and functions related to gameplay and the class.
In case it isn’t obvious yet, I’m a bit biased towards what option of the three that I would pick^^. I guess that could also be determined by checking my design suggestions for ranged SV…
But yeah, the mindset that “Pets equals BM design” must go away if you ask me.
By the way, I very much agree that there needs to be some improvements to the pet AI and pet’s in general. I just don’t agree that this is cause to pretty much remove them as an element of the Hunter class altogether.
I would say that the reason we’re not getting as much attention to class design in general, isn’t because there isn’t anything that we can do.
But rather…they(devs) just need to put more focus on actually improving classes and their baseline toolkits rather than constantly introducing temporary systems as replacements. Systems that go away with each new expansion anyway.
These exact words we’re spoken for over a decade regarding for example us, once again seeing the original WoW as a playable option. It was flat out unthinkable that this would ever happen again.
Fair enough, but as an arena player it contiunously remains true. If they can’tt/won’t update anything for multiple seasons why would they add more things to balance/tweak? A tad different from re-releasing a version of the game imo.
It not it was introduced the fact was it became mandatory for Hunter in WoD, which led the development team to think anyone playing MM wanted to be pet free.
LW is a great option for players who first do not want to micro-manage their pet with how poorly AI is, and those who like the range theme or lone archer fantasy. Blizzard has made it track record on think they know what is best for a spec through untested hearsay.
The chances of giving a purely DPS class another spec to balance and work-in is very unlikely; however, it is a better around idea than removing one spec for the other, or trying to force a play-style into another spec.
Every improvement has seemed to be one step back.
Removing most of our utility, Scatter Shot, Scare Beast, Tranquilizing Shot, and Wyvern Sting.
Taking away Eyes of the Beast.
In Legion MSV was the only spec to have traps, but after realizing that it took CC away from two specs that required them to kite then re-added them.
Indirectly made LW the only option for MM then called it such a success they forced it on MM.
Leaving only Two trap options.
Blizzard takes away options they do not give them. They never tell us they made a mistake either, it just did not go the way they had intended then they go make another revamp. Even with all our feed back they make choices they think is best for the health of the classes.
However, Aspect of the Eagle
100 yd range
Increases the range of your
Raptor Strike to 40 yds for 15 sec.
See the pattern here? You have majority of attacks that do not require MSV to be in melee except two, but those can become rang by a CD. It is a range spec with melee abilities, not the other way around.
Well then why pick MSV when there even more melee options? Can not just substitute one spec for another “cause they are both range”, otherwise why even have other specs?
AGAIN Survival is made to be melee. Not a Ranged melee mix get over it or play a different class-spec. Your complaining because blizz actually did something they said they were which was make Survival as a melee spec.
I had said this many times and I will say it again…
Survival Hunters are like middle weight boxers who think that by gaining a few pounds all the sudden they can strive through the Heavy Weight division. They might had meet the requirements to belong/competed in that category, but their damage abilities comes from that of a middle weight. In other words; Survival Hunters do not have the power/damage to compete with true melee classes
Blizzard did just that in LEGION, which had more melee abilities; however, that version was such failure the development had to remake MSV again. BFA ended up loosing all of its unique attacks infavor of more range abilities and pet synergy.
What Blizzard gave us was mixture of BM, some old RSV, and a melee attack. Blizzard wants MSV to be more than just another melee spec, and to accomplish that they gave it more range abilities.
Its is a cohersion of three diffrent play-styles. Do not know why it is so important that has to be a melee spec? Think calling it just melee undermines it potential.
Not complaining with what became of SV, upset that Blizzard took a form of gameplay that many loved. This is Blizzard’s creation so we can not stop them from what is removed or changed, but we can voice our regrets of what was lost.
I would not call most of those “improvements”. I’ll settle for calling them…“changes”, and nothing more/less.
Well, here’s to “time for a change” then…
And in reference to my above quote, a “change” for the better!
What we have seen regarding the last 2 expansions and changes made to MSV…yeah, it needs to stop. Stop revamping it and start building on the actual intended melee-concept.
This is the perception, and to a degree, the reality indeed.
Having said that. When I stop caring about providing suggestions for how to improve the Hunter class. It would be because of one out of two reasons.
Enough of the suggestions that I, or others, have provided have become a reality.
I have given up and that probably means that I will not continue with the game.
I don’t like being a healer/caster. I’m no fan of melee combat. Tanking is okay, though I very much preferred it in the old days.
This leaves me with the Hunter class as my only option. And I will make damn sure that I’ve given my feedback towards the things I’d like to change. If I don’t, then I don’t feel justified complaining about anything really.
If I want things to change, I have to provide enough background along with detailed suggestions for anyone to know what it is that I’m after…
If there’s a way for the old ranged SV spec to return while at the same time allowing current SV(or BM, or MM) to stay as a playable option, what would be wrong with suggesting that?
Likely just one of the other posters alt who does not agree with some statment, and thus thinks I am being rude. If you notice the emojis at the end it not hard to figure out the poster.
I’m not trying to though. I’m completely fine with things as is.
I replied directly to the comment I was talking about.
You can see peoples alts by their achievements points. A abundance of people just don’t like nor care for what you’ve been saying or how you’ve said it
Clearly you missed the point. It’s not about trying to change anything in game. It’s about coming into threads like these and attacking others for the tone they are using. It doesn’t work, it’s patronising, and it’s purely intended to derail the thread as you have done here. Not really any surprise coming from a proud representative of Tichondrius of all servers.
Frankly you aren’t going to find pleasantry in this debate because it isn’t a pleasant matter. The idea that everything will just work out if people are nice to each other is fantasy. Sometimes playing the “kind and compromising” card just makes it easier for people to ignore/use you. In any case, he responded pretty appropriately to someone who made a one-liner response without even reading the OP.
