Yes, but… every marksmanship hunter could use every ranged weapon. The “theme” of being a marksman didnt translate well with the mechanics. Maybe aimed shot? Thats kind of it. SV likewise had better traps at one time, and there was, for a time a kind of focus on some specialized ammo, but so much of that was kind of lost in the noise.
It wasnt beyond repair. Im not arguing (in this instance) for MSV. I just feel like sometimes we ignore that in the course of a couple expansions iconic parts of the hunter class were axed (for better or worse) prior to the SV change. SVs switch to melee and the shoe-horning of SV stuff into MM was just the last big one. In the years leading up to that, mana was removed from hunters, ammo was removed from hunters, pet management/care was removed from hunters, melee/ranged weapons as a separate equip slot was removed from hunters and the talent tree system was removed from hunters. The hunter class, IMO, just wasnt set up for the spec system. It doesnt matter how good each spec was. The hunter class was never designed to be 3 distinct specs.
MM had multiple talents and passives that fed into the fantasy, not just Aimed Shot.
SV had special ammunition as their thematic thing from 3.0 all the way through 6.2.
The removal of melee weapons as a separate item made zero practical difference beyond the loss of Improved Wing Clip in PvP. By the time it was removed, the ranged weapon minimum range had been eliminated, and the melee weapon was literally nothing more than a stat stick you had to roll against Bear/Cat Druids for (or Rogues/Enhance if you went for dual wield). Meanwhile, Hunters had to compete with Rogues (and to a lesser extent Warriors) wanting our bows and guns to be their stat sticks.
Pet “care” removal was a welcome quality of life change - having your pet start dealing 25% less damage on a long boss fight with literally no recourse wasn’t compelling gameplay, not was having your pet lose loyalty and training points if you AFK’D for too long. I’d be happy to see that come back in some fashion, but without anything that ties directly to damage output.
Ammo removal happened at the same time that all classes consumable spell reagents were removed - i for one was happy to shed the upkeep costs of ammo, though I would have preferred ammo stay in as a separate (non-consumable) item that modified shot damage or added new effects.
Mana removal was a wonderful change. Focus is a unique resource and more befitting of a Hunter, who can fire off a quick shot or take their time, as opposed to mana, which implies a limited quantity of shots available before downtime is required.
The talent system was removed from everyone.
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and people can call me a tin foil hat until the end of days i dont care. because i was there. on my 6 accounts and my 52 hunters. all ranged survival.
i am telling you all right now and i dont care. i said it back in 2014>15 that blizzard is only making this change from ranged to melee to get people out of the hunter class and more importantly survival spec. we knew and they knew that mm and bm was vastly unpopular when compared to ranged survival. if you played in mid to end mop and even right up until blackrock foundry 99 out of 100 hunters you inspect were survival. only in hellfire when bm’s 4 set took off did “some” make the switch to bm.
hunters in general were always the most overplayed class. always. and i can guarantee you that every single person that has been playing for at least a year has a hunter in their character slots. some people like myself got 52 of them. oh and i just purchased DF on 6 of my accounts and got 6 free level 60s and guess what? i am about to have 58 hunters.
blizzard made this decision simply because it was the only way to get players out of the spec. because seriously why would they break the most polished and smoothest and identifiable spec ever created? why? if it was not overpopulated and they needed to do something about it.
because i will ask you this! why not bm??? why did they not choose bm to be the melee spec??? melee bm is already in lore with Rexxar. and then also again with Darmac the trainer of beasts with the Thunderlord clan. there is no melee survival hunters so why was survival chosen even though they broke every lore rule???
melee hunters in general should of never been a thing or put in lore at all least of all in game as a playable spec at the cost of the deletion of the best most favored spec by many players. but they did. there are 2 melee beastmaster characters in lore but yet still choose survival for the melee spec. it dont make sense.
you see i am a business owner of multiple companies and i gave this alot of thought from a business perspective because wow is my life. i run my companies and i play wow thats it. and i dont care what anybody says but ranged survival as far as i am concerned was made the melee spec because it was the most popular spec and something needed to be done to get players out of it. it was overpopulated and everything was huntard this and huntard that. and the easiest way to accomplish this was to break the best spec rather than trying to make the 33 other specs equally as fun / polished / smooth / satisfying.
and until someone from blizzard that was involved with this decision can come out and explain why survival was chosen over bm as the melee spec i will stick to everything i said above because it is the only words that make sense in this decision.
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My brother in Christ, why would you need or want 58 hunters? No judgement, just confusion.
well i have around 5-30 of every class. (class depending) i refered myself 5 times for all the mounts and made used of the old school 300% exp gains. i needed as many toons as possible for world boss mounts etc… and so on.
you should see my warriors and paladins that i made for all my legendary ICC runs to get the toys and mounts to sell lol…
leveling to this day is still my favorite part of the game. its the constant dinging and gear upgrades, although unimportant as they may be still feels rewarding.
and you funny fine sir.
mm was mostly physical. and the basis of its rotation was aimed shot, chimera shot, multi shot, arcane shot (focus dump) and steady shot (focus builder) and kill shot. mm was a turret class with little to no mobility. high burst and no sustained or aoe.
ranged survival was serpent sting, black arrow, explosive shot, serpent spread multi shot, and cobra shot (focus builder) and kill shot. ranged survival had good burst, best sustained in game and best aoe in game in its time not to mention #1 mobile class in game.
you sir are silly if you think they were to similar. you made me lmao. ranged survival was in its own lane. it was so far ahead of its time that every other spec in game was trash compared to it. it had its own identity no matter what the haters say.
and you wanna know whats funny? the icing on the cake?
melee survival right now is closer to bm than what ranged survival was to either mm or bm back in its hayday. just proving that bm should of been the melee spec once again and that they cant even give melee survival its own identity without stealing from bm and about to give melee survival exotic beasts. again stealing more from bm and proven YET AGAIN that bm should of been the melee spec. so theres that. pick that apart lol.
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Fair enough, I wouldn’t mind an army of druids/monks/dhs for mount runs lol.
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I could make up a bunch of hyperbole as well. Grats I guess?