Survival Needs to Stay and be Fixed

[Myta]

Fix Melee Survival.

It's a good idea, it's perfect in concept. Hunters were always supposed to use focus back in Vanilla but they couldn't make it work.
Survival was always meant to be melee but they got scared and made it ranged.

The traps, the throwing axes, caltrops, throwing nets. These are some of the coolest things about Survival. A massive AoE called Butchery?
Survival has so many good ideas going for it, that it doesn't need contempt, it needs love.

The three most changed specs, Outlaw Survival and Demonology are all very cool in theory but lack that iteration that a spec like Marksmanship has had since Vanilla.
Hunter desperately needs that Rexxar type hunter fantasy. But Survival should be hearty, they shouldn't be fast and agile like Marks Hunters, they should be frontline fighters, so why is a spec called 'Survival' the squishiest melee in the game?

Hunter forums needs to give Survival the love it needs in BfA, it'll be a damn shame if Blizzard abandons it.

[Rockford]

I really do think that with some changes, the spec could be fantastic! It was just executed poorly in Legion.

Traps: Really needs to either drop from the rotation, or have an option to be placed on target instead of cursor/player, as it can be extremely frustrating to drop an exp trap with it not being triggered by the target. Macro solution via @Target?
Mongoose mechanic: I like the concept, can be extremely frustrating if suddenly tearing away from the boss, or a late money shot. Maybe turn into Combo Points?
Carve: Loved it! I think having an option of Butchery and a dot based AoE via talents is wonderful. While Dragonsfire was a bit meh, it made sense for a base carve option.
Disengage: Just make it baseline, like the other specs.
Raptor Strike: Is it really needed? IMO would just like to see this and Mok'Nathal gone as it just feels like bloat.
Harpoon, Lacerate, Flanking Strike and Pet: Wonderful. These abilities seem to be great as is.

[Lucavian]

You can use @Player macros for the traps.

When holding shift it casts the trap as normal with targeting required. When not holding shift, you just automatically throw the trap at your feet. Hope this helps.
/cast [mod:shift] [@ player] Explosive Trap

(remove the space after the @ sign, space is required to keep forum from changing it)

[Carnagefiend]

I really do think that with some changes, the spec could be fantastic! It was just executed poorly in Legion.

Traps: Really needs to either drop from the rotation, or have an option to be placed on target instead of cursor/player, as it can be extremely frustrating to drop an exp trap with it not being triggered by the target. Macro solution via @Target?
Mongoose mechanic: I like the concept, can be extremely frustrating if suddenly tearing away from the boss, or a late money shot. Maybe turn into Combo Points?
Raptor Strike: Is it really needed? IMO would just like to see this and Mok'Nathal gone as it just feels like bloat.

All of these here I agree with. Traps are extremely awkward and really lack 'oomph' factor.

But worse than traps, to me, is the combination of Mok'Nathal Tactics and Mongoose. It drives me insane...

Raptor>Raptor>Raptor>Raptor>Mongoose>Mongoose>Mongoose>Snake Hunter>Aspect of the Eagle>Mongoose>Raptor>Mongoose>Mongoose>Fury of the Eagl-

Oh, wait, you just got stunned or feared.

All buffs lost.

lol.

[TriHard]

I agree, but they already said they're not doing anything drastic like the survival hunter for this expansion so that pretty much confirms that it's here to stay.

But they need to make it better.

[Rockford]

You can use @Player macros for the traps.

Yeah, that's the modifier I use for Exp and Caltrops, and it mostly works.
It's just frustrating af when you drop Exp in a dungeon/raid and it's sitting there, not going off, taunting you in the reminder of "hey, I'm not going off. I'm lost dps".

[Mirishka]

Fix Melee Survival.

It's a good idea, it's perfect in concept. Hunters were always supposed to use focus back in Vanilla but they couldn't make it work.
Survival was always meant to be melee but they got scared and made it ranged.

The traps, the throwing axes, caltrops, throwing nets. These are some of the coolest things about Survival. A massive AoE called Butchery?
Survival has so many good ideas going for it, that it doesn't need contempt, it needs love.

The three most changed specs, Outlaw Survival and Demonology are all very cool in theory but lack that iteration that a spec like Marksmanship has had since Vanilla.
Hunter desperately needs that Rexxar type hunter fantasy. But Survival should be hearty, they shouldn't be fast and agile like Marks Hunters, they should be frontline fighters, so why is a spec called 'Survival' the squishiest melee in the game?

Hunter forums needs to give Survival the love it needs in BfA, it'll be a damn shame if Blizzard abandons it.

It is staying. They specifically said that there would be no major spec overhauls in BFA.

[Rockford]

It is staying. They specifically said that there would be no major spec overhauls in BFA.

The OP isn't asking for the removal of Surv, but discussing how the spec needs to be fixed through small changes.

[threads]

tbh i hate the spec. it's useless in every situation and will probably always be. the only good thing they could do is revert it to MoP days and make BM melee. atleast that way all the pet collector tards would reroll

[Myta]

tbh i hate the spec. it's useless in every situation and will probably always be. the only good thing they could do is revert it to MoP days and make BM melee. atleast that way all the pet collector tards would reroll

Useless?

It's an extremely high dps spec, with great utility, movement and CC effects. The only issue it has is how squishy and clunky it is.

A good Survival hunter will stomp meters but it's almost impossible to play it perfectly in a raid setting.

[ozusteapot]

Yes, I’m sure that with a bit of tuning Survival will no longer be among the least played specs in the game.
Not because almost no hunter wants to play melee, nor that most of the people who rolled survival are melee players that used to main other melee classes.

[Geran]

Fix Melee Survival.

It's a good idea, it's perfect in concept. Hunters were always supposed to use focus back in Vanilla but they couldn't make it work.
Survival was always meant to be melee but they got scared and made it ranged.

The traps, the throwing axes, caltrops, throwing nets. These are some of the coolest things about Survival. A massive AoE called Butchery?
Survival has so many good ideas going for it, that it doesn't need contempt, it needs love.

The three most changed specs, Outlaw Survival and Demonology are all very cool in theory but lack that iteration that a spec like Marksmanship has had since Vanilla.
Hunter desperately needs that Rexxar type hunter fantasy. But Survival should be hearty, they shouldn't be fast and agile like Marks Hunters, they should be frontline fighters, so why is a spec called 'Survival' the squishiest melee in the game?

Hunter forums needs to give Survival the love it needs in BfA, it'll be a damn shame if Blizzard abandons it.

Make survival ranged again.

That is your fix.

Problem solved.

[Razorice]

Even if they fix and make Survival flavor of the expansion, being ahead 600k dps compared to other Hunter specs I still wouldn't play it.
Why? I rolled a Huntard to be Ranged.

[Lightbull]

Even if they fix and make Survival flavor of the expansion, being ahead 600k dps compared to other Hunter specs I still wouldn't play it.
Why? I rolled a Huntard to be Ranged.

Melee hunter was in Vanilla, but it slowly faded out of existence. People wanted melee hunter back, and wanted specs to feel unique, so they brought back melee hunter. Melee hunter is even in the lore, it makes no sense to simply take it away now.

Let the melee hunter fans play melee hunter. You have 2 other ranged specs to choose from.

[Deleted]

They need to fix the trap mechanic and also make it more cool to use it, add more traps, more options, etc...so if they do a good work on that, maybe it's going to be my main hunter for BFA. Now it's my main but because i am bored with marksmanship and beast master.

[Deleted]

Useless?

It's an extremely high dps spec, with great utility, movement and CC effects. The only issue it has is how squishy and clunky it is.

A good Survival hunter will stomp meters but it's almost impossible to play it perfectly in a raid setting.

MM + BM still shiit on SV so i dont see reason to go SV , all you have to do is look up logs and you will find your facts there.

Ofc it will stomp the meters if the other players are poor.

[Evangeliste]

I think it's excellent that they bought it back to melee really, Hunter was similar to Rogue where you had 3 specs that really the identity within them and making it wildly obvious was lost to Blizzard until they just made one Rogue spec a badass pirate, removing an otherwise samey spec.

Hunter having its original melee spec was good and to be fair MM and Surv before although had different specs and some life changing differences, on the whole you really either played them based on how you felt comfortable or what was better on meters... BM was simply like I LIKE PETZ for a long time before they made it hit harder and serious quality life changes.

I agree they should make it hit harder or make traps and such a little more intelligent like they have done with friendly spells like heals. But give them time.


I think Surv has suffered some backlash simply because Blizzard are still guessing with the spec as much as others before, a prime example is Balance/Moonkin spec with it's different carnations it had over the years. Give it some time and I reckon it will be nailed than currently it is. I mean this is the first time it's been melee in over a decade so Blizzard handling it will be a bit shitty until they get to grips with it.

[Myta]

MM + BM still shiit on SV so i dont see reason to go SV , all you have to do is look up logs and you will find your facts there.

Ofc it will stomp the meters if the other players are poor.

Logs mean nothing when the main reason most Hunters go ranged is due to the tight ranged requirement and a bulk of specs already being melee. Every time Survival has shown up in a raid on a competitive world first stage (Like Gul'dan) it has dominated.

Survival is theoretically the highest dps spec for Hunters but the mechanics in Tomb, like Sasszine are so punishing to melee, and Survival is so handicapped by it's own design it prevents them from shining.

Again, this needs fixes. People refuse to see reality and instead worship Noxxic like it's their god.

[Segus1992]

Make survival ranged again.

That is your fix.

Problem solved.

When the autism is so strong that you can't even handle change that happened years ago.

[Gasparde]

They need to make the spec way less convoluted.

Like, do we really need 2 ~30s CDs, a 15s DoT, a 10s 4-stacks buff, a 14s awesome-damage debuff window and a 6s CD focus dump + an additional spam button to dump more focus while also having 2-4 1min+ CDs?

It's like they didn't know what to do with the spec so they just threw everything at it.
You could easily cut half of SVs buttons and still be left with a solid spec that doesn't feel like it has to juggle 20 balls once you open the MB window.