BM as a melee spec

[Bitehattori]

Like Rexxar, what if BM spec was changed to melee? The weapons could be like 1H Axes/swords/fist/daggers(?) and they could still have their use of exotic pets, Imagine fighting along side your Devilsaur, Direhorn or even something as a Dwarf fighting with his bear.

It's abilties would obviously have the standard hack-n slash and hunter-traps and disengage but what if some abilties changed on the type of pet it had out or even buff the pet/player.

I would have suggested Dire Beast if it wasn't already in-game it could fit so well for BM-melee only.

[Deleted]

I love the idea of a melee hunter spec ('ranger' as it were). Not sure if Survival or Beast Master would be the way to go- or just a 4th spec entirely. One of the problems is that it would play a lot like a rogue, but with a pet- unless you deliberately approached it not to.

Hm, what might work is to make the melee hunter an agility tank spec- with the pet being used for buffs, pulling, AoEs and CCs.

[THoyt]

Been there and done that. Survival was a melee spec at one point in time, it didn't work out so well so Blizzard made it what it is now.

Thats not saying it couldnt be reintroduced and improved (vastly, I'm sure) but it is a Hunter and not a Ranger.

[Rakshata]

An idea that I've always been a fan of. It is also true for a lot of the pure damage classes; having three different specs yet each of them being almost no different from any other... Mages at least have different elements for their attacks, and different rotations for each; same with some of the warlock specs. Hunters and rogues however... Not much is different between them, and choices between them often come down to "what is the spec of the month?"
A tanking spec for Hunter would probably be pretty cool. I've actually always imagined the hunter riding their pet to tank; the hunter and pet attacking in unison. I also consider the hunter method of tanking would be more stun-locky, since they can't dodge as well as a monk or rogue (lore-wise at least), don't have a shield to block attacks, aren't very tough like a bear, and aren't undead knights. If an enemy can't attack, one does not need to dodge, block, or heal. That or have the attacks focus on the pet and make them basically the same as a druid's bear form.

It is a wish of mine, especially since I used to main hunter... I stopped when I realized healing and tanking are actually less stressful than DPS. Whack-a-mole and surviving are a whole lot easier than trying to do a whole lot of damage. That and I like BM. The numbers on dps charts however do not like BM... At least, not at the tiem I tried dungeons. :P

[NotLuto]

Surv was the melee hunter spec and I say that very lightly. It originally had talents for the melee hunter attacks.

[bionics]

Like Rexxar, what if BM spec was changed to melee? The weapons could be like 1H Axes/swords/fist/daggers(?) and they could still have their use of exotic pets, Imagine fighting along side your Devilsaur, Direhorn or even something as a Dwarf fighting with his bear.

It's abilties would obviously have the standard hack-n slash and hunter-traps and disengage but what if some abilties changed on the type of pet it had out or even buff the pet/player.

I would have suggested Dire Beast if it wasn't already in-game it could fit so well for BM-melee only.

If they made Survival spec like that I'd dust my hunter out of obscurity and play the hell out of him once more. Just imagining my orc Dragon Punching elites as my bear's razor sharp claws maul their very flesh has me silently fist pumping in approval here at my computer chair.

[MOEEEE]

That would be awesome! =)

[Deleted]

I'd rather see MM pet less. Just like destro is for warlocks, MM could be the pet less spec for hunters.

[CasualNoob]

Hunter already melee class, just with 30yard range on abilities in diff with other melee.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Survival spec would be better as melee, a trapper with melee and a pet? epic i say!

[Tehterokkar]

To all people saying SV was a melee spec, you are right and wrong.

It had melee abilities but this was in Vanilla, where barely 1 spec(eg. Druids were only brought for innervates on Priests who were the healers always and Paladins were 100% buff bots) for each class was even worth using in anything. Everything was horribly unbalanced and broken.

[Deleted]

BM should transfer the character control to the pet and have your toon as the passive sitting in the background, shooting arrows on autoattack (or something.)

And ye, SV used to be able to have something mad like a 60% crit rating on melee attacks and owned at punching people, weird as hell to play against.

[Canderous1]

calling survival a melee spec is really stretching it... there were some talents that were for melee attacks but melee hunters i think is where the term 'huntards' came from.

[Auxis]

calling survival a melee spec is really stretching it... there were some talents that were for melee attacks but melee hunters i think is where the term 'huntards' came from.

Beeeeeeeeeeecause Survival was a melee spec back in the Vanilla beta, and the Raptor Strike and Wing Clip were what was left.

[Northem]

Relative to the hunters there are two things that people has been asking for a long:

• A melee hunter with his pet
• A hunter without pet, only with ranged attack

I do not know if these two concepts can be inserted into the hunter class as new specializations or replacing any current specialization.
Personally, I would do that the hunter would have 4 specializations, as following:

1. - Marksmanship (DPS; Ranged; No pet; AKA Ranger)
2. - Survival (Support; Melee and ranged; Recurring pets; AKA Scout)
3. - Beast Mastery (Tank; Melee; With pet; AKA Beastmaster)
4. - Tracking (DPS; Ranged; With pet; AKA Hunter)

[Mirishka]

No offense intended to the discussion, but kindly stay the hell away from my beloved BM spec with your melee ideas. If you want to play an AGI-based melee character, roll a shaman/monk/rogue.

:P

[Jaded5542]

To all people saying SV was a melee spec, you are right and wrong.

It had melee abilities but this was in Vanilla, where barely 1 spec(eg. Druids were only brought for innervates on Priests who were the healers always and Paladins were 100% buff bots) for each class was even worth using in anything. Everything was horribly unbalanced and broken.

Wrong, "Melee" hunters were right up untill WoTLK, i remember one hunter PvPing in SMV.
And yes Melee hunters sucked.
And if you want a melee hunter roll a rogue, think about it focus = energy

[Northem]

No offense intended to the discussion, but kindly stay the hell away from my beloved BM spec with your melee ideas. If you want to play an AGI-based melee character, roll a shaman/monk/rogue.

:P

No need to argue or get angry: all ideas are perfectly compatible. According to my specializations previously mentioned, your hunter would a hunter type 4, ie a hunter as there is now.

[Merite]

During Vanilla, like before pre-BWL, you could, in full PvP gear be somewhat "decent" with melee, but you were better off in range. I mean in full R14 gear I could 1v1 an R14 warrior without ever leaving melee range depending fully on RNG. That's about the closest you'll ever get. In those days to be honest, your pet hardly mattered. I had a cat with prowl on 90% of the time, it did nothing but interrupted flags.

I don't think any of the 3 specs really match up with melee by any means, Survival, even since start of vanilla, was more about utility (entrapment, improved wing clip) than any real melee ability. Either another spec or another class would be the only way I could see them being a true melee + range hybrid.

[Deleted]

Perhaps it would work as a fourth spec, if it ever comes.