hey all this is pretty much going to be a copy a paste of my forum post since i respect this community a lot more than the wow forums and want to know what your thoughts are.

Hi anyone willing to read my massive amount of text on my favorite class in the game and how i feel we as a community need to go forward. I preface with that because everyone has an opinion and we all pay to play this game for fun. I am a 14/14 mythic raider (prepatch by a while) and know that there will always be people better than me and people not as good so please don't be rude to others on this post.

Hunters as a whole have not been changed as greatly as people have been making out, one button press at the beginning of a fight (serpent sting), stampede is now a talent on the same line as Amoc (1 less button click possible 2 every few mins that is just click forget)

MM got changed a few ways (i like them personally) but other topics on this forum have them covered

BM is pretty much the same core spec (again just ss removed which was click and forget and loss of rapid fire)

Sv rotationally is pretty close to the same (rapid fire removed, kill shot removed)

Now to get to the nitty gritty of the post, hunters we are mostly FINE. The specs all are at least at an okay place rotationally to the point that if you liked the spec in mop you should like it in WoD (mm doesnt follow this but still its different). Remember folks damage can be tuned

Now you say well why make a post if you think hunters are fine, well im a guy that wants more than fine and want hunters to be a glorious spec. So now I am going to show what could make survival a better spec (without a cd since thats what blizz wants)

So whats the identity of survival right now as it stands blizzard wants them to be the sustained damage class for hunters. What is the real identity as MoP and WoD stands is the king of spread aoe for hunter specs (serpent spread and being able to dot and forgot a target) and decent st damage . Now that identiy isn't the greatest for a SV hunter to have because of multiple reasons

1- most fights that are spread aoe can be turned into cleave fights with solid groups (I.E protectors)
2-fights with hectic adds typically die quicker thus our dots don't get full duration (IE norushen type fights)

So I don't think the identity we have right now is a great one and i would like it to be closer to what blizzard envisioned of the sustained dps class and what that means to me.

A good example of sustained dps one with less burst (pve not pvp) is Windwalker monks, they have a dps increase for a few seconds like SV have (tigers brew vs LnL) but what they had in Mop was high sustained damage, and thats where my fear lies in SV. Survival when number tuned will be medium sustained damage, medium aoe sustained damage, very low burst aoe damage, 0 extra execute damage and smaller than most burst damage thats uncontrollable to predict (tier 17 helps you predict when your going to get those LnL since it activates it as soon as you black arrow).

What i would do to improve SV and make sure we are capable of being wanted progression raiders are as followed

1-make explosive shot deal Aoe damage

2-work how LnL procs to increase per multistrike (ie how the new brainfreeze for frost mages work) also let it stack more than 2 if reprocs

3-tune Sv's damage to be higher sustained thanBM and 85 percent uptime on sniper training MM on multiple target fights

blasphemy you say, why would anyone ever do that! Well here is the reasons i believe on each point

1-Explosive shot fixes are burst aoe situation that has been going on since SS takes time to get rolling (even if its just a % of the original ES) and keeps our signature shot useful in that situation (i mean its a freaking explosion :P)

2-Giving LnL a scaling component means with gear it becomes more active, all other classes that have procs, have procs work more with gear (Ie crit with fire gives more hot streak, MS with frostbolt gives more Brainfreeze procs, BM hunters with haste get more pet attacks in which gives more frenzy stacks) the only proc in this game that i can think of that is never changing from 0 gear to ilvls over 9000 is LnL letting it stack more than 2 is just if you get unlucky doing your gcds and get 2 LnL back to back

3- i left this one as 3 cause this is the one i will probably get most flak for, and before you get the pitchforks listen to the reasoning. Would you in a progression guild if you had room for a spot would you bring in the class that gets on demand burst every minute, good sustained damage and great cleave or would you bring in the class that has good sustained damage and decent cleave. The answer for that is obvious and i know its an extreme but if i had a choice during our heroic garry (now mythic) progression i would choose the burst to get through... Now i say that but if i had a choice between a ret pally and a wind walker monk on the same progression fight i would chosen the wind walker and the reason why is they had High sustained damage and burst periods were not as noticeable , making phase 1 transition a joke for them. So my point is being that high sustained damage will have a place even if burst is always useful.

My last piece I would change with hunters (it might be too late till 6.2 i know) would be removing focusing shot from 100 talents and replacing it for dire beast for MM, and SV. All while making a new active talent for the roll.

my arguments i know im going to hear exotic ammo fire is a lot like explosive shot damage aoe, my rebuttal is going to be it still feels less homogenized than that talent and its our key shot (you dont see mages complaining arcane explosion is a lot like supernova :P probably a poor argument but w/e)

also to the people that like maintaining Serpent sting on all classes, my rebuttal will be explosive trap keeps being buffed, it acts as a dot you can watch on your target and will be useful for other 2 specs (my hope is this, because i know a lot of people like seeing something on their target)

To the people that actually got through my post i thank you, and i just want to get survivals identity in check.