Dear fellow hunters,
after almost one year playing this spec on a regular basis as an alt character, I have to say I do not understand some design decision that went into this spec and that could very easily be improved. Please don't flame about the spec, this topics does not have this purpose, but feel free to discuss any of my suggestion. Please also note that not all suggestion are about increasing SV effectivness or prune/change the spec the right way, but mostly in term of design logic.
Thorwing Axes
Why this talent does not replace Hatchet Toss ? This would not make it better but this is bugging me as it would make so much sense. Hatchet Toss is pointless when you take Throwing Axes (even more than without it). Upon selecting this talent it would also be logic that Serpent Sting would get updated to also get applied by the axes.
Mortal Wounds
Here I would recommend a strict buff to it, similar to how Hand of Guldan interraction with talents would work for Warlock. Make it so that every 12 seconds it generates a charge of Mongoose Bite. This would make the talent more competitive with the others while not being overpowered as it could still proc when you already have 3 charges (due to other procs).
Sticky Bomb
Give it a stun effect instead of a knock back, CD could be increased to 30-45s as needed. Currently SV is the only melee spec without any stun.
Butchery
Similar to Sidewinders for MM, instead of just replacing Carve make it also replace Raptor Strike, it would then interract with both Way of the Mok'nathal and the data-mined T21 bonus. Damage/CD could be altered here for balance purpose.
Dragonsfire Grenade
Taking this talent would replace Explosive Trap, the grenade would of course benefit from any other trap talents.
Spitting Cobra
Remove the active ability and cooldown to make it behave as All Will Serve (unholy DK), to have a permanent ranged guardian. Focus generation could of course be changed for tuning purpose.
Mastery: Hunting Companion
We all know the official description of SV right ? Traps, poison blablabla ? So in addition to the current mechanic tied to the mastery and mongoose charge, I would also suggest to add an interaction with our dots to boost all dots damage (basline dot as well as talent and artifact ones). To keep it interesting we could imagine that instead of a flat % increase, the mastery could still be trigered; for instance let's make it interactive with our pet to keep the naming flavor, whenever he uses is attack (bite, claw,...) it would inflinct part of all the dots damage instantly. It would then still keep the stat attractive even once we reach a certain amount that would overflow the mongoose procs.
Fury Of The Eagle
This one make me really sad every time I use it... The poorman Fist Of Fury that can completely screw your DPS while doing boss mechanics, that can bring you to top 1 when used on AOE or to trash when you realised your Mongoose window was 1.2s after reaching 6 stacks (meaning you probably get it off with 0 stack once the server register your input after the GCD...). This one needs the big rework in my opinion. First of all, where is the Eagle here ? It is fury of the Eagle, right ? Let's get it actually invoke a bird! Well guess what the devs are lucky here, because all assets are there, in game already. Remember when you drop below 40% health during your world quest ? So my big suggestion here is to change this spell, instead of being a channeled ability cast by the hunter, summon an Eagle for X seconds that would stun the target upon arrival and deal the damage to all nearby enemy. Keep the CD, keep the damage and keep the interaction with Mongoose Fury, but instead of having to use it during the window, just activate the spell once 6 stacks have been reached until Mongoose Bite is used again.
I think that would cover all my suggestions to move forward with this spec, I believe most changes I suggested could be implemented really easily and have a good impact on the spec. It would also keep it in line with the standard design expectation for a melee class. But I don't believe it would dumb it down so that it becomes another easy whack-a-mole roller coster class.
What do you think ?