I dont see many survival hunters around

[Ald]

I probably won't be playing Hunter this expansion due to the class changes. I absolutely loved Survival during MoP and could never stand BM or MM. I just think they screwed up spec diversity for the sake of making things different.

If any spec had to be melee it should have been BM since that's what they were in every MMO prior to WoW. MM should have been the gun wielding spec and Survival the bow spec. That's class fantasy that actually makes sense to me.Then again, i'm a fan of the petless bow wielding ranger archetype.

[Bepples]

I just think they screwed up spec diversity for the sake of making things different.

This describes pretty much all of their current class design. I've been saying for years that homogenisation was a total non-issue, now look what happens when they throw away everything in order to try to fix it.

If any spec had to be melee it should have been BM since that's what they were in every MMO prior to WoW. MM should have been the gun wielding spec and Survival the bow spec. That's class fantasy that actually makes sense to me.Then again, i'm a fan of the petless bow wielding ranger archetype.

On this topic: consider the fact that the concept of a poisoned arrow no longer exists for hunters (unless you count Black Arrow or Wyvern Sting (lol)). How fucked up is that?

But ultimately none of the specs had to be melee. If Blizzard was so concerned about unique identity, Survival had the identity of a highly-mobile DoT spec. It just needed a more fleshed-out skill set.

[Amsden]

Honestly this expansion has almost turned me off my hunter completely (been my main since BC). BM is boring, Lone Wolf is pretty much mandatory for Marks, and the Survival I loved is gone.

They should have made melee a 4th spec instead of deleting a spec many people enjoyed.

[Snackwiches]

I'd alt one if I ever heard anything good about them. The few mentions I've seen have been severe issues with AoE and Blizzard adding pointless things to the GCD, creating clunk

Honestly this expansion has almost turned me off my hunter completely. BM is boring, Lone Wolf is pretty much mandatory for Marks, and the Survival I loved is gone.

They should have made melee a 4th spec instead of deleting a spec many people enjoyed.

Pointless, there does not need to be 3 specs of the exact same shit with minor variations. That's an issue with this game and it's balancing, a huge one.

[Amsden]

I'd alt one if I ever heard anything good about them. The few mentions I've seen have been severe issues with AoE and Blizzard adding pointless things to the GCD, creating clunk



Pointless, there does not need to be 3 specs of the exact same shit with minor variations. That's an issue with this game and it's balancing, a huge one.

The fact they ruined the entire class is pointless... yeah, ok...

[hawtlol]

Lots of complaining from long time hunters who don't like that one spec is now a melee one. This is the best rotation I've gotten to play since Feral in wrath. If it's too complicated for you, you probably also complain about how you can't do everything through LFR.

[Cryocryp]

The rotation is fun, even with the "hotfix" fote issue. Now that it is permanently on the GCD, it will only take a few dry runs to get used to it. Overall the spec is fine and fun. It just needs to be balanced like every other spec in the game. Also i think the developers need to communicate better. A lot of people are holding their breath to see what is going to happen to survival. Are we going to pass out? We will see....

[threads]

Lots of complaining from long time hunters who don't like that one spec is now a melee one. This is the best rotation I've gotten to play since Feral in wrath. If it's too complicated for you, you probably also complain about how you can't do everything through LFR.

rotation itself is good. converting a class thats been purely ranged for 3 expansions into melee is the problem.

[MonsieuRoberts]

You've played the spec, right? Disjointed and clumsy. Nothing dramatically new or compelling IMO. Play a Rogue, play a Warrior, play a Shaman; They all do what Survival does better in one way or another, whether you're about consistency, interesting mechanics/rotations or just big numbers.

It was a cool idea, making a melee spec, but they shouldn't have just siphoned Rogue & Warrior abilities & styles to make a new spec. Havoc played out fairly well for a fresh spec, Monks did VERY well for a a fresh spec, monks being fairly unique in play style, and Demon Hunters delivering a predictable and polished "builder-spender" experience.

Neither of these can be said for Survival. It's chunks of a lot and not good at much.

In my opinion.

NOTE: I have not touched it wit artifact or since this recent hotfix.

[hawtlol]

rotation itself is good. converting a class thats been purely ranged for 3 expansions into melee is the problem.

Why is it a problem? Because it just isn't what you're used to? Melee hunters like Rexxar avenue always been around. The old survival spec from wrath to WoD didn't really make sense, it was just a different type of MM spec.

[threads]

Why is it a problem? Because it just isn't what you're used to? Melee hunters like Rexxar avenue always been around. The old survival spec from wrath to WoD didn't really make sense, it was just a different type of MM spec.

cause nobody in the last 6 years made a hunter or joined a raid group to play melee? you have to be retarded not to understand that or see how it was completely different compared to MM.

[OcciferGlass]

cause nobody in the last 6 years made a hunter or joined a raid group to play melee? you have to be retarded not to understand that or see how it was completely different compared to MM.

Let's not derail and keep it civil

Simply put the option wasn't available to roll melee as a hunter back then (aside from vanilla). I'm sure if the revamp to Survival was made earlier, we wouldn't be having this discussion because all the quirks of the spec would have had time to be worked on.

I welcome the changes for Survival, it beings more variety to the class. I don't understand the frustration behind this, hunters now have three interesting themes to choose from (which is awesome):

1) Ranged sharpshooter
2) Heavy pet-based
3) Melee with traps, grenades, poisons, etc.

Obviously Survival as a whole still needs a little bit more work, but I like the theme of the spec and the direction of where the class is heading. Who doesn't like variety?

[hawtlol]

cause nobody in the last 6 years made a hunter or joined a raid group to play melee? you have to be retarded not to understand that or see how it was completely different compared to MM.

Nobody? What if I told you I wanted to play a hunter but I don't really like ranged classes? I enjoyed the uniqueness of survival being a primarily melee class in Vanilla until they reworked it into a 2nd MM spec. Also do you have any information to bring to the discussion on how survival wasn't just another MM spec other than resorting to calling me retarded?

[zsecmmo]

I love my alt survival Hunter, it's only on level 100 1/2 but I still play it ever once in a while.

[Aimbot1]

As it is right now, you will see SV hunters in semi-casual and casual guilds. Because..

A.) Any decent guild already has enough melee. Even more so now with demon hunter rerolls.
B.) MM is so strong in a raid environment right now.
C.) SV dmg isn't as good as any of the othe melee classes atm if they aren't mental.

And that's why you don't see many SV hunters.

[Deleted]

it's alwasy nice to have a change over the MM spec but i wouldn't use it for anything competitive just yet!

[Okacz]

There is a potential buff mentioned on front page for 7.1. Almost doubling the damage of FotE.

While I think that must be an overkill, it would be nice if this particular ability was buffed. The spec and its burst kind of centers around it, and lining up everything perfectly with Fury... still results in way less DPS than some other AE burst specs.

Fingers crossed that 7.1 will put SV on the map. Not like it's useless right now, but it could be better to stand on par with some other specs.

[Deleted]

Well guys, after getting really damn bored first with MM and then with BM, finally I switched to SV.

My sub runs out in 2 weeks and I don't feel like going through all the grind on my alts, so what the hell I said.

I have to say I wish I did it earlier. SV is a blast to play and miles ahead of BM/MM in the fun department.

The "bad dps" turned out to be a complete myth. The only weakness of the spec is that outside of the artifact ability, it lacks a good sustained AoE. I think a buff to Carve can fix this neatly enough though and I don't see a reason for it not to be fixed.

The good part comes on boss fights where SV is a complete monster. Now keep in mind that right now I'm geared for BM, I had only 3-4 pieces with Vers/Crit, I even had to put in some low lvl blues from heroics to switch out the haste/mastery items which brought my iLevel under 850.

I'm not well geared for SV AT ALL. However I am doing far more damage than BM on bosses and possibly even MM, if I can get enough uptime.

Without any flasks/pots/enchants/food buff I can burst about 500k+ dps and even on sustain with crap gear 250k is completely doable.

If all the gear is optimized for SV, with all the possible buffs and high enough iLevel I can see this bursting over 1kk dps and sustaining upwards of 300k. Especially if I can get the legendary which reduces the cooldown of my aspects and get the artifact trait too.

The spec has monstrous potential for single target damage and I think will scale better than MM with ilevel and the AoE issues it has right now are very fixable.

There are general downsides to the spec though. Being melee is one of them so having low uptime on a boss in a raid will absolutely gut your whole output.

The other big thing is that the rotation doesn't really have much margin for error. A misstep with MM will not really ruin your attempt, but if you botch your rotation on SV your whole attempt is fucked. This becomes really apparent on a raid boss when you Fury of the Eagle is coming off cooldown and every time it does you need to have a decent mongoose fury stacked and ready, and not slack off on your dots as they are a decent chunk off your damage in a long fight.

It's challenging to play and I'm even considering renewing my subscription now that I am actually having fun with a spec.

Honestly fuck both BM and MM, both specs just aren't fun and are dead to me until they get a proper overhaul.

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

Melee gets 4-6 raid spots in Mythic Raids, there are 13 specs that can be melee from 11 classes.
Ranged gets 9-12 raid spots in Mythic raiding, there are 11 specs that can be ranged from 6 classes.

Put simply: if a melee spec isn't extremely strong and versatile it will struggle to raid in competetive guilds. Where a ranged can pick anything (more or less) and still raid.

[Mekh]

For a long time, starting in late Vanilla, my mains were always Rogues and Hunters. Raided quite seriously on my Hunter until the transition from Mana to Focus, which was a reasonable change but also got me out of touch with the class. Moved back to Rogues and Monks for a bit then. My first class to 110 in Legion was my Gnome BM though and while the spec is fine to slog through world content semi-afk while watching movies, it doesn't feel too brilliant. Tried marksman and found it alright, albeit a bit weird. Finally gave survival a shot and am loving it. Actually leveled a second hunter to play as SV, because it looks ridiculous on a Gnome.

But now, playing casually and mainly world content, I could not be happier, especially with the artifact trait that resets Harpoon's CD on kills, allowing me to swing from enemy to enemy like some angry mirror universe Tarzan.