I mean I just tried and it is much more fun than mm and bm. Specially bm… which is awful in terms of fun.
Can You guys explain me why is the least played spec?
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Most Hunters don’t want to play a melee spec, despite what certain people on this forum would tell you.
64 Likes
Yes it is fun, but I have a rogue or DK if i wanted to melee.
No new ranged classes in 15 years and had a ranged spec ( Survival Hunter ) taken away. Just far more choices if players wanted to melee so i’d say they play those instead.
33 Likes
I love SV. That said it doesn’t fit in this game at moment. Every other melee option is superior in a raid and M+ environment. It needs work. It also needs something to set it apart from our ranged options. There is literally no reason to play SV over the other two unless you just simply want to play melee.
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Can You explain why other melees are superior?
1 Like
The reason you don’t see it in raids or on warcraftlogs is because they bring nothing utility wise to raids, Mythic+, etc.
They have nothing to offer to groups. Other Melee however, do.
Havoc Demon Hunter brings a Magical Damage Debuff, Darkness, Spectral Sight (for rare sights like Kil’Jaeden) and the very rare AoE Stun. Rogues bring Shroud. Warriors bring Battle Shout and Commanding Shout. Death Knights bring Battle Res and Death Grip. Windwalkers bring a melee damage debuff. Feral brings Battle Res and if specced into Resto affinity can pop emergency heals, Ret brings their seals, bubbles, and emergency heals. Enhancement brings heroism/bloodlust, utility totems, and they can battle res themselves without affecting the battle res count. Every other class offers something significant to groups. We offer nothing that other melee don’t do better.
Even if survival does good damage, most guilds are melee heavy. They look at their survival hunter and go “hey that guy can be a ranged class.” Eventually that hunter gets pressured into playing one of the ranged specs because it’s better for the guild. Feral druid has a very similar problem.
Howevere, MSV does have one shining light and that is it is PvP. Being a fluid hybrid of melee and range MSV has more mobility than most other melee specs. They also bring utility with their traps and pets.
Being able to DoT another melee player up and send in my pet from range and lob bombs from just out of melee reach, and if they get too close you have Disengage then AotE do decent ranged dps for a bit while you heal up.
It about what side of WoW you are playing. If you focus om Raiding and M+ then you may see a lack of MSV, but if you see that there is also PvP then you can see that MSV is not bottom of the barrel.
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Well survival hunter brings heroism as well. Brings traps and stuns for cc
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its good and popular in pvp…
Yes, it’s the same % as Shamans or Mages,but it relies on our pet being alive. Which isn’t always the case, as we need line of sight to heal our pets and there have been times were a boss get in the way and our pet dies. Then we have mechanics that incapacitates or causes our pets to run off and despawn.
We can bring Heroism, but Shamans and Mages can just push a button while we have to rely on another AI controlled mechanic to bring that utility.
1 Like
Correct me if I am wrong but I think hunter in general has very bad utility compared to other dps no matter if the dps is ranged or melee.
For example mage bring food, arcane intelligent, portals. Warlocks bring hs, battle ress, gates and summons. The same case goes to melee survival compared to other melees.
The best utility hunter can bring is an off tank pet which voidwalker does a better in that matter
3 Likes
We have utility in our crowd control, even if it has been lessened, and our pets.
Hunters have traps to slow down or freeze a target. Then our pets can bring buffs depending on the spec we bring.
So, we still have our uses just they are not at the strength they once were. We are no longer the master kitter or able to incapacitate a whole dungeon.
2 Likes
It’s a melee spec within a ranged class.
Most Hunters have little interest in melee combat(when playing as hunters that is).
Second, it replaced a fun ranged spec option which was unlike both BM and MM in theme/aesthetics.
And like others said, it doesn’t really bring anything but damage and an immunity. Some other melee specs can do more so, they get the melee spots.
21 Likes
I love the current survival hunter, and would be maining it if I had an easier time with it. It has some distinct strengths, is solid in raids and m+ from my experience, and fits an archtype that no other class or spec really covers.
The downside is it is harder to do things in both PvE and PvP than other melee classes. Any other melee can run in and AoE (not sure about rogue). Hunter can too, but there’s so much reliance on having misdirect available for your pet.
In PvP, it’s significantly harder to survive against equally geared melee classes if you don’t kite for most of the time. Though it’s great in groups, great in 1 on 1 when you’ve got the right balance of melee/kiting down or attack first. The passive 10% self healing and long heal cooldown (plus bandage, which can’t always be used) just don’t seem to be enough to play like a warrior. Of course, there’s ranged skills…though your dps will drop significantly without Aspect of the Eagle up.
The pet is annoying, constantly walking in slow motion from across a BG in stealth. And though this may be a general hunter issue, it’s the only melee class where I have to deal with it.
When it comes down to it, I can just not deal with any of the extra work, pick up basically any other melee class, and do as much dps. So I stopped playing it. It’s my favorite iteration of SV yet regardless, and I’m hoping Shadowlands further improves it…and keeps it mostly melee.
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You mean a melee spec with DoTs that’s capable of using most of its abilities at range while fighting alongside a pet? We have Unholy DK for exactly that, actually.
I’m hoping Shadowlands further improves it…and keeps it mostly melee.
The spec is so not mostly melee that if they let you equip a bow and rebranded Raptor Strike and Carve to Cobra Shot and Multi-Shot you’d have a completely ranged spec. Kill Command’s ranged, Wildfire Bomb’s ranged, Serpent Sting’s ranged, Steel Trap’s ranged, A Murder of Crows is ranged, Chakrams is ranged, Flanking Strike is technically ranged…
11 Likes
The new melee hunter is actually my favorite spec in the game since it was added in legion. I was waiting for it to be added for years and it’s now my main. Tons of mobility, insane cleave and aoe built in, one of the best melee for m+ and raids thanks to it’s utility, and don’t forget the cool glaives.
oh wait you meant surv.
25 Likes
Not gonna lie, you had me in the first half!
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Survival is bottom barrel PVP and raid …
Your going to be outrun, snared, stunned, ice chained, then smashed by melee because your damage mitigation is possibly the worst in the game.
I have made other characters just to see, my demon hunter and warlock in crap gear hold up better in direct melee attack than my Survival hunter does in 450 gear.
I walk up horde all the time to test it… Warlock approaches horde (My Warlock) Warlock brushes against horde and farts…
Horde attacks Warlock, I just stand to time the survival, I test it on everything from Warlocks to Warriors Pallies, DKs …
That cloth wearer seem to have better armor class at lower level cloth gear ?
3 Likes
Unique archetype, not “uniquely a melee dot class.” And yes, the spec is played mostly in melee range despite the unnecessary clarification that most of the skills are ranged. You remember I play that class, right?
You knit picked at my wording without adding anything…and I can’t help but wonder why. You didn’t make any point of any kind.
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I really don’t need to. All you have to do is look at representation. Survival is at the bottom of mythic raid representation and mythic plus representation. If it brought the same utility and damage as other melee that wouldn’t be the case. People would be playing it.
To be clear I’m not saying it can’t be used in those situations, it just isn’t, that reason is because other melee options are just better. Plain and simple.
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I would argue that sticking a melee spec in with ranged specs is why our utility as a class suffers. Buffs that would help SV would make the ranged specs too powerful and vice versa. Putting in buffs solely for SV would exacerbate the divide between those that advocate ranged over melee. Increasing SV DPS to the point it rivals traditional melee would also exacerbate the divide between those that advocate ranged over melee. This is a problem the devs caused when they, unwisely, forced a melee spec on a player base that did not want it.
But here we are. We have a melee spec that, as a whole, underperforms other melee specs. We have ranged specs that, as a whole, underperform other ranged specs. We have a player base that spends more time arguing about why SV exists as melee or defending its right to exist than banding together and advocating for the Hunter class in general.
Hunters are a mess and we all know it.
I used to come to these boards and find posts where real Hunter focused theory crafting was argued by players much more knowledgeable than me. Now I just happen across the latest “Delete SV” post. We have turned on each other as a community and hunters, as a whole, have suffered.
Try advocating they add a 4th hunter spec and bring back ranged SV next time. At least start a thread that, ultimately, is positive and worthwhile.
10 Likes