Hunter in Shadowlands

[Kissthebaby]

Correct, however iirc MM wasn't better than Surv until you had over 50% raw ArP and a Grim Toll from Naxx for proc'd ArP cap, as top logs for TogC included SV hunters. Explosive shot was all about raw AP, I fondly remember duel wielding with +65 AP enchants for this very reason.
I think his previous post was more along the lines of "During wrath we had cooler stats" which I concur with.
At least we don't have Expertise anymore, that expansion is when my Hunter gathered the most dust.

Hunters didn’t need expertise in wrath. Mop was the only expansion hunters needed expertise. So made up

[DazManianDevil]

Hunters didn’t need expertise in wrath. Mop was the only expansion hunters needed expertise. So made up

This is correct, my grammar was off and I forgot to specify my shift of view from Wrath specifically into MoP which had expertise, and was the time I let my hunter collect a lot of dust as in my earlier post.

[ydraw]

Melee survival is trash and ruined the hunter class.

BFA MM is equally trash leaving hunters with only 1 really viable spec for the entire expansion. All because Blizzard will never ever admit they were wrong about anything.

[F Rm]

i have a feeling that survival will stay melee, but that could certainly change.

one thing im more sure of - nobody is getting 4th specs.

How can one be certain of anything in this game?

If anything, the changes made to SV going into Legion are the very definition of how uncertain things can be.
Those changes came out of the blue. They weren't a natural path of development for the spec.
No one was asking for those changes to the spec to occur.

Ofc it's not justified to add in a 4th spec to every single class just for the sake of it. There are certain criteria that needs to be met for additional spec options to be warranted.

RSV happens to meet those criteria. With the additional bonus of actually being a former spec/playstyle which we've had access to in the past. A playstyle which a lot of players liked. And, it's for the very reason of why/how we lost that spec which makes it justified to add in a 4th spec for the class.

Which is a big mistake imo, this would have been a very good time to spice up things after everyone kept complaining about specs in BFA. Who wants garbage like Hunter's Mark, really? As functional abilities? Give them tomes or glyphs or whatever to play with it but make the specs fun to play again. And a 4th spec definitely would not have hurt.

I would agree with this.

And about Hunter's Mark. On the list of potential abilities we might see return to be a part of the baseline toolkit for the class, Hunter's Mark wasn't even on that list.
In PvP, it has it's use ofc. Beyond being a type of damage amp.

But for PvE, it will only really serve as just that, a GCD spent on nothing but a passive damage boost. As if we don't have enough of those things already. Especially BM.

Granted we don't yet know the exact nature of the design of said ability, and how we will use it in SL. But I doubt it will be changed all that much from how it currently works as a talent for MM.

[sonoshee]

Also, ranged DK (renamed to Necromancer spec, replacing Unholy) and ranged rogue (replacing Sub). I wonder how would the community receive that...

you were doing well but then you went full baka

[Bombademar]

And I am sure we will never get pre-legion survival again. But I would like to see steady shot go back to BM and possibly arcane shot. I also would love to see serpent sting return to the core toolkit of the class. After playing classic I was reminded of how great it felt to have serpent sting as something to keep up and work with. marksmanship could see the talented version removed for serpent spread which was in the old survival toolkit. What are your thoughts? is there anything else you would like to see come back to the class or specs?

I don´t think that they would ever make SV ranged again. I also dont think they would give it to us as a fourth specc.
What I am hoping for however is that they give Marksman hunters talent options that give us the Ranged-Dot hunter playstyle back.
I have made a forum posts with some suggestions about this and I hope blizzard sees this and takes some inspiration from it.
Here are a few of my ideas:

-Add MOP-Style Explosive Shot as a talent option that REPLACES Aimed shot when you choose this talent. (2 charges, 6 sec cd fire dot etc as it was in mop)
Make Lock&Load baseline, add interaction with Explosive Shot talent choice (procc 2 free explosives as it was back then)

-Add Black Arrow (as it was in MOP) and give it´s ticks extra chances to procc lock&load

-Change Serpent Sting Talent to a passive that causes Arcane Shot and Multishot to also apply Serpent Sting to all targets hit (I think this was mop or wod where you basically didn´t have to use serpent sting manually anymore)
OR
-Make Serpent Sting a baseline ability to Marksman AND add a talent option “Serpent Spread” that causes Multishot to also apply Serpent Sting to all targets hit
(You would still have to use Serpent Sting manually on ST like it was in Cata and this option might be easier to balance, just put Serpent Spread in the AOE talent row)

Here is my full forum post about it if you are interested. ( Cant post links, go to blizz forums and put this behind the .com)

/en/wow/t/suggestion-for-hunter-changes-in-9-0/103890/10

I really hope blizz gives us the old survival playstyle back in one form or another. It was the most fun specc ever for me.

[MHGA]

What I would like to see for Shadowlands, is a rework of SV, where the spec has something more akin to how UH DK works, in that with DK you festering strike to create stacks on target, and then you spend those stacks with an ability, and depending on the ability, you either do additional damage with your primary attack, or you do something like apocalypse.. a special ability only available when you stack those resources.

A mechanic like this for SV, with both ranged and melee abilities, is something I would love to see, personally.. where you start the fight out ranged, work toward stacking your target with those debuffs, and then the dynamics of the fight change depending on how/where you want to take the fight, or who you're fighting..

That's exactly what I'd like to see SV too, hybrid ranged-melee where you stack buffs/defuffs atacking ranged, using traps and then you jump on them to finish them at melee range.

And about MM, I hope it gets fixed somehow, it sucks since legion.

[MeTaL GuArD]

I wish they'd revert the change to Dire Beast they did in BfA. In Legion, Barbed Shot(Dire Frenzy at the time) was a talent instead, so I could just run Dire Beast(affected by the cooldown reset) and feel like an actual Beast Master, throwing a pile of wild animals at the boss and being able to focus on other things than maintaining a bunch of buffs that are designed to never be fully maintainable unless you have tons of crit.

[F Rm]

I wish they'd revert the change to Dire Beast they did in BfA. In Legion, Barbed Shot(Dire Frenzy at the time) was a talent instead, so I could just run Dire Beast(affected by the cooldown reset) and feel like an actual Beast Master, throwing a pile of wild animals at the boss and being able to focus on other things than maintaining a bunch of buffs that are designed to never be fully maintainable unless you have tons of crit.

I would agree yes. Very much.

Have argued this for a long time.

Why take that choice away from us? Who asked for that choice to be taken away?

[trapmaster]

Frankly, I miss the WOTLK survival hunter, with black arrow, explosive shot, armor pen, etc. those were the best of times for me as a hunter.

I was very salty how they had to rework survival into melee spec.. I mean... It could gone to bm as melee spec with pets meleeing it makes sense.. i mean.. LOOK AT REXXAR. Oh well.. that's blizzard

[Gurg]

Quivers, something that was hinted waaay back before WOD Artcraft - Cosmetic Class Accessories
Pet respecing.
Return of old survival so people would leave current survival alone --- tho they said there will be no major reworks
Give current survival DW option and renaming it to "tracker" or "warden" --- also well aware that its not going to happen
Restoring Explosive Trap to Survival, not to be cone attack bomb, rather trap as all others ---- also well aware that its not going to happen

Dont get me wrong. I enjoy melee survival as an Alt, it was my main during Legion but new changes put me off of it because i found AoE lacking in M+ runs.
The thing is that my self, as well as large pool of people provided a feedback saying that reworking old/ranged survival to melee was a bad idea since it would effectively remove ranged spec option out of ranged class. It should have been added as 4th spec.

It would also be cool if they added something like Gladiator stance to survival, giving them ability to go ranged with some small drawback (for instance cant use pets or a bit less effective ST while giving it slight boost to AOE)

[OBM]

I stopped playing at the start of the last raid. I'd come back for the new expansion if they returned Survival from MoP days.

[Gurg]

I stopped playing at the start of the last raid. I'd come back for the new expansion if they returned Survival from MoP days.

Unfortunately is specifically said during Blizzcon that they wont do Legion size reworks on classes.
This means that Surv stays as it is.
Tho i would like to see Ranged Survival back in a form of a 4th spec or simply as "Gladiator Stance" type of talent.

[Nefarious Tea]

I wouldn ‘t be so certain of Survival not being reverted to ranged. It goes completely in line with this whole “fixing” or getting back to class fantasy over spec fantasy.

Notice how they didn’t get into details on class changes and overhauls, because of how polemic that is and has always been.

Acknowledging for 2 expansions in a row the utter failure of melee survival, how hunters are locked between only 2 real specs and how badly the game needs popular changes, I really wouldn’t be surprised with this great news: ranged Survival back to its glory!

Also, ranged DK (renamed to Necromancer spec, replacing Unholy) and ranged rogue (replacing Sub). I wonder how would the community receive that...

Not happening. Blizzard already said there’s going to be no spec overhauls at even BFA’s level, and certainly not at Legion’s.

[Angelpunk18]

I wish hunters had a fast, instant ranged spec... something like a ranged fury warrior

[trapmaster]

If blizzard could honestly use their brain for fucking once that BM should gone dual wield melee spec along with pet as melee spec, Not just survival... How could they not recognize rexxar's role or NE sentinel? They choose to fucked up survival reworks 2 xpacs in a row, Third time is a charm? I think not.... They could revert it survival as ranged, BM as dual wield melee spec with pet but guess what, it's not happening.

[Vees]

Ranged SV is the only important thing. I don't care about getting Kill shot for BM, I don't care about getting Serpent Sting or some shit for MM, both of these specs are relatively fine. Ranged SV was the most fun I've ever had with the class and without it, it's just whatever. Give me my third spec back and get rid of that fucking abomination nobody's ever asked for.

If you wanna keep Raptor Strike and Mongoose bite for whatever fucking reason just give Hunters melee weapons back. Melee SV is a failure, nobody's playing it, it doesn't have a role in a raid and nobody fucking wanted it to begin with. Give me fucking ranged SV back, it's the only thing I care about.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is all that matters to me too. So fucking frustrated. Dumbest thing they ever did. I have no idea how they thought removing it, or any spec in the game, would be okay.

[sunxsera]

I wouldn ‘t be so certain of Survival not being reverted to ranged. It goes completely in line with this whole “fixing” or getting back to class fantasy over spec fantasy.

Notice how they didn’t get into details on class changes and overhauls, because of how polemic that is and has always been.

Acknowledging for 2 expansions in a row the utter failure of melee survival, how hunters are locked between only 2 real specs and how badly the game needs popular changes, I really wouldn’t be surprised with this great news: ranged Survival back to its glory!

Also, ranged DK (renamed to Necromancer spec, replacing Unholy) and ranged rogue (replacing Sub). I wonder how would the community receive that...

Sooo .. you want the range survival back - and at the same time you want the same shit that happened to SV happen to DKs and rogues ?

[Vees]

Sooo .. you want the range survival back - and at the same time you want the same shit that happened to SV happen to DKs and rogues ?

No he doesn't. He is using an example so people would get the point. It seems pretty obvious that he is NOT suggesting Blizzard remove another spec/class. Personally, I would hate to have anybody else lose their favorite spec or class. It sucks! I hope Blizzard NEVER AGAIN does this to any of its players.

[Rehija]

I want Dire Frenzy back together with the original Stampede and the glyphable version of Deterrence. May i dream just a little bit ?