I dont see many survival hunters around

[Nzete]

As a healer, having to look whether the hunter is melee or ranged (for position based heals) is obnoxious. For my hunter alt, well, the only spec I knew how to play has been removed from the game.

[Sencha]

As a healer, having to look whether the hunter is melee or ranged (for position based heals) is obnoxious. For my hunter alt, well, the only spec I knew how to play has been removed from the game.

But you have no problems to look if druids and shamans are melee or ranged?

[Kurve1776]

Survival was very fun to play while levelling in beta, however once I started getting into end-game I immediately realized that it just isn't a very fun spec to play in longer fights. Outdoors, you kill things, harpoon over to the next things, etc. etc. while healing constantly because you're killing constantly so there's 0 downtime between pulls and it's pretty fun.

But once you get into longer fights, the HUGE reliance on RNG for mongoose bite stacks and the over reliance on medium-cd abilities means a pretty stale rotation after a while.

Also Explosive trap, which was admittedly very OP at one point, is now "meh" at best, they nerfed it too many times IMO. Survival used to be the AoE GOD but now it's pretty low on the AoE scale because of the explosive nerfs.

[De Lupe]

Its fairly easy, tough you're kind of forced in some talents because in comparison to other talent sin that tier they're either bad or worse.

Like in the first tier for instance, throwing axes are your best choice.

You're not forced into anything. Pick the talents that benefit your personal playstyle. I went Animal Instincts because the fewer buttons I have to keep up with for a rotation, the happier I am. And I'm already using Flanking Strike, so may as well give it a bonus.

[Deleted]

You're not forced into anything. Pick the talents that benefit your personal playstyle. I went Animal Instincts because the fewer buttons I have to keep up with for a rotation, the happier I am. And I'm already using Flanking Strike, so may as well give it a bonus.

Oh yes, and thats perfectly fine.
I went myself with throwing axes, doesnt cost much, does suprisingly nice damage aswell that isnt rng.
Whilst compared to mok'natal , you have to keep an eye on your buff aswell raptor strike costing alot more focus. I found myself alot of energy starved with that talent, due keeping up lacerate and throwing in flanking strike occasionally. If they'd only made Raptor strike costs lower..

[De Lupe]

Oh yes, and thats perfectly fine.
I went myself with throwing axes, doesnt cost much, does suprisingly nice damage aswell that isnt rng.
Whilst compared to mok'natal , you have to keep an eye on your buff aswell raptor strike costing alot more focus. I found myself alot of energy starved with that talent, due keeping up lacerate and throwing in flanking strike occasionally. If they'd only made Raptor strike costs lower..

I had similar results when I toyed around with Mok. I actually tried Axes out too. And, while I liked them, the extra time I spent on them hurt the rest of my actions. Admittedly, I think I picked one of the hardest ways to play Surv the first time I tried it; I went with every active ability because I liked the sound of all those tools. But I got overwhelmed by the sheer level of things I had to keep up. So I got scared away for a couple weeks. But I built my second Hunter, backstory included, specifically to be Surv, so playing her as anything else hurt the fun for her. So I tried it again, this time going with all the passives, and it works out great for me now.

[Morg]

bla bla bla bla

meh was writing a huge reply, but its apparent that you're so emotionally hurt by this change that we will go in circles for hours and hours. You're not the only one who has played this game since launch and you're definately not only one who can make up stats about 'majority' of the player base.

If you hate it that much, go unsub and stop posting crap
If you are going to play BM/MM anyway, stop complaining

BTW i just spoke to 10 different people and 7/10 said that survival was a great change. So therefor 7/10 wow players approve the changes to survival.

[bloodmoth13]

Its a sollid spec with interesting gameplay, they did a good job with it, i still think they should have turned one of the rogue specs into an archer spec though

[Bladeweaver]

I think SV is interesting and it'll probably be my off spec. The great thing is that I actually enjoy playing all 3 specs and for quite a while, couldn't decide on which to main first. I can't say that for any of the other classes.

[Berndorf]

I love Survival. I am a long time Warrior player and I gave up on that class with the changes made to it(not that I was that into the class in WoD) but Survival is everything I could want in a melee class. It has dots, can fight from range to some degree, good burst and a good variety of skills plus cds. Also have good st and aoe balance with very little down time(less if you choose throwing axes which are great).

[MonsieuRoberts]

Have you tried playing one?

[Deleted]

I've trialled SV on beta and now on live and I really enjoy the playstyle. Simple fact is though that I can't compete with my own MM spec damage, not even close. SV is far from competitive at the moment.

[Deleted]

Without the artifact you have the same issue as BM, there are huge gaps in your rotation when everything is on cooldown, we are talking 10-20 seconds of having no rotation, and that's terrible for raids.

If you have more than 2,3 seconds with no rotation then you clearly are not playing the spec well at all. So 10-20 seconds is complete non sense, you are probably spamming things with no rotation actually

Its just like BM hunters complaining about "downtime", you don't have downtime if you don't spam cobra shot like a moron, its not supposed to be spammed, just like arcane shot, you need to manage focus for the main attack: kill command. And if you take chimera shot its so easy to maintain the rotation

[MrTharne]

Its just like BM hunters complaining about "downtime", you don't have downtime if you don't spam cobra shot like a moron, its not supposed to be spammed, just like arcane shot, you need to manage focus for the main attack: kill command. And if you take chimera shot its so easy to maintain the rotation

If you spam cobra shot you lack focus = downtime.
If you don't spam cobra shot you have gcd where you use nothing = downtime.

You can't win this one. Why are hunters the only ranged with downtime now ? Thanks #CelestalonFantasy

Edit : The optimal AoE for BM in Legion is using Dire Beast and Multi Shot (Kill Command is a dps loss) and you have 40-45% of "doing nothing". Great engaging gameplay here !

[Okacz]

I've finally realised what irks me about new SV. I like the theme, fighting alongide pet, flavourful abilities like Throwing Axes or Dragonsfire Grenade, but one aspect of current SV makes all those things pointless. The RNG.

While RNG is present everywhere now, SV has an especially annoying kind of RNG tied to it. For instance, Enh Shaman has Stormbringer proc, which while totally random, adds some fun and even skill to the spec. You need to think ahead, saving up some Maelstrom for the proc, trying to line it up with Ascendance or Crash Lightning. Same thing with even the "king of RNG" - Arms Warrior. While your entire rotation is reliant on Tactician proc, you need try and keep a good balance of rage - you don't want to spend it all to be able to use some with the proc, but you need to be spending it regardless trying to get the proc to happen.

My problem with SV is that you have 0 control, 0 interaction with the RNG aspect. You start your Moongoose Bite phase - the meat of the spec - with 3 stacks, and only then can you start praying for some procs to keep the MB going. There will be times when you will have 0 procs, making the MB damage pitful, and there will be times when you are swimming in those, dealing insane damage every GCD, but you have 0 control over it - it either happens or not. Aspect only increases your RNG - and might deal pretty much nothing if your just unlucky - and Snake Hunter just makes the MB phase smoother, but still makes it reliant on random procs.

The way to fix it would be to rebuild the spec. Replace mastery with something else, move the proc to, for example, Flanking Strike. For example, the proc could make your next FS extend the duration of Mongoose Fury by x seconds, or just leave a stack of Mongoose Bite on the target. This way you would be in control of your RNG to some degree - you could wait with MB phase till you get a proc, and then start rolling it out, weaving the improved Flanking Strike into the mix. Such a change could also make Flanking Strike a bit more interesting than just being a "okay dmg" thing that has, again, an uncontrollable RNG component to it.

[Deleted]

If you spam cobra shot you lack focus = downtime.
If you don't spam cobra shot you have gcd where you use nothing = downtime.

You can't win this one. Why are hunters the only ranged with downtime now ? Thanks #CelestalonFantasy

Edit : The optimal AoE for BM in Legion is using Dire Beast and Multi Shot (Kill Command is a dps loss) and you have 40-45% of "doing nothing". Great engaging gameplay here !

If you really want to have zero downtime and spam things for the sake of spamming just go MM without sidewinders.
And by the way, casting stuff is no any way more fun than having a small downtime

[MrTharne]

If you really want to have zero downtime and spam things for the sake of spamming just go MM without sidewinders.
And by the way, casting stuff is no any way more fun than having a small downtime

MM without sidewinders is suboptimal by a good margin. Edit : Other ranged classes don't need a specific talent build to not have downtime.
Fun is subjective.

[Noocta]

I kinda wish Axes only threw one big axe instead of 3 little ones. Make it look awkward during rotation somehow to me

[Gemeril]

So just wondering, most people say to like at least two of the specs a class offers... so what will people who hate ranged dps offspec with surv as their main? That seems kind of silly.

[Deleted]

As a hunter who played the infamous Melee Thunderfury Hunter in Vanilla, the only thing i can say now is that i'm very pleased !

That being said, some artifact trait and a passive you have in the spec need you to kill an enemy to have a boon (Terms of Engagement, Hunter's Bounty, Survivalism) and i don't know if it mean last hiting or just being part of the killing of said mob and i don't even know if it will work in PVE ecounter, that's kinda annoying to say the least...