Is survival hunter the worst class revamp ever made?

[Thrif]

Since I doubt Blizzard will ever acknowledge their mistake and make survival ranged again, I only see one option to give it some more popularity:
Change SV to be a tanking spec!
It's in the name already, no renaming needed.
Use the aspects as tanking CDs, get some interaction with the pet - have it fetch adds, a CD to transfer aggro to/from it, stuff like that - and I'm sure it would be played significantly more than today.

I genuinely love this idea tbh. Having a melee dps spec adds literally nothing to the class when range dps is more desired, but having a tank spec could be very useful and the spec lends itself to the idea very well as mentioned.

I think it'd be hard to balance against the other tanks if you let the pet fetch aggro though, but it could definitely be good to fetch adds, or to interrupt enemies, and maybe have a damage debuff so you need to anticipate which enemy will be the most dangerous... yeah there's a lot of fun stuff that could be done with it.

Darnit, now I really want this. :Z

[Nork]

Since I doubt Blizzard will ever acknowledge their mistake and make survival ranged again, I only see one option to give it some more popularity:
Change SV to be a tanking spec!
It's in the name already, no renaming needed.
Use the aspects as tanking CDs, get some interaction with the pet - have it fetch adds, a CD to transfer aggro to/from it, stuff like that - and I'm sure it would be played significantly more than today.

I love this idea.

I do encourage you to post it on the official forums.

[Rootsbum]

Not really. I really like it.

But, the fantasy feels weak, they should have gone further with it.
More traps, gadgets, more snares and less pet

[Syegfryed]

why be survival hunter when BM does the same thing from range with easier and better results?

i think this is the main problem here.

i always wanted to play ranger melee, cause is something i do in D&D, but there is something missing on the survival in wow that didn't catch my attention yet, and i think its the gameplay still, how the abilities play out.

And, i would like to use one hand weapons too, for a change a bit

[Sondrelk]

Not really. I really like it.

But, the fantasy feels weak, they should have gone further with it.
More traps, gadgets, more snares and less pet

I occasionally like it. Specifically when it is a fast paced murder machine that jumps from one enemy to the next, gaining more and more speed until you have left a trail of bodies in your wake.

I think what really annoys me about Survival is that it isnt really clear on what type of hunter you even are.
Am I a clever survivalist who has lots of utility like traps, movement speed and self heals?
Am I a gadgeteeer genius who uses a wide variety of weapons?
Am I a hunter who simply uses underhanded tactics?
Or maybe I am a spastic lunatic who flais his weapon at anything in front of me.

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i think this is the main problem here.

i always wanted to play ranger melee, cause is something i do in D&D, but there is something missing on the survival in wow that didn't catch my attention yet, and i think its the gameplay still, how the abilities play out.

And, i would like to use one hand weapons too, for a change a bit

Yeah I think what Survival really lacks is that certain something that you can latch onto. As I just mentioned the fantasy of the spec is a bit confused.
Personally I would love it of Survival was just a hunter who used a spear and had all the utility ever. Stealth, healing, movement speed, CC.
Not to the level where they are unbeatable in PvP, but to the level where you feel like a survivalist in that there is no situation the game can throw at you where you feel you are going to die just because.

[McNeil]

I leveled a highmountain tauren survival hunter for the heritage armor as it was one of the specs I hadn't tried out yet for a long time. I like the flexibility with the harpoon, being able to do both ranged and melee damage while also controlling your pet. Yet the spec feels undercooked when compared to other specs that do the same job better. They need to do more with it like more traps and to give them more of an identity.

[Bisque]

I leveled a highmountain tauren survival hunter for the heritage armor as it was one of the specs I hadn't tried out yet for a long time. I like the flexibility with the harpoon, being able to do both ranged and melee damage while also controlling your pet. Yet the spec feels undercooked when compared to other specs that do the same job better. They need to do more with it like more traps and to give them more of an identity.

If I remember I believe in Legion blizzard really tried to go hard on the whole SV as "Trap master" (waylay, guerilla tactics etc...) when compared to other hunter specs. But then you run into the problems of players not wanting traps to be an essential part of the dps rotation, tanks not running the mobs over your traps etc... For whatever reason SV went from trap master to one extra trap than MM and BM and that is IF, if they talent into steel trap.

[gd8]

Not really. I really like it.

But, the fantasy feels weak, they should have gone further with it.
More traps, gadgets, more snares and less pet

I would actually say less "gadgets" would be better thematically, as a survivalist hunter living in the woods or whatever doesnt exactly bring to mind bombs and other high tech contraptions. I think they kinda missed the mark by using that out of place imagery

If I remember I believe in Legion blizzard really tried to go hard on the whole SV as "Trap master" (waylay, guerilla tactics etc...) when compared to other hunter specs. But then you run into the problems of players not wanting traps to be an essential part of the dps rotation, tanks not running the mobs over your traps etc... For whatever reason SV went from trap master to one extra trap than MM and BM and that is IF, if they talent into steel trap.

they should have just made non-aoe dps traps that you throw directly at a target and don't have to place on the ground

[Perkunas]

I understand that people say this because of Rexxar but having in mind how popular is BM vs classic survival, it wont happen.

BM is popular because it's idiot-proof and does solid damage.

[FrostyButt]

BM is popular because it's idiot-proof and does solid damage.

BM is not "idiot-proof" Is it an easy spec? Sure. If it was idiot-proof, everyone that plays the spec would score 99% on their Warcraft log ranks. Idiot-proof to me means that making a rotation mistake won't hurt your DPS at all, which is not the case with BM.

[schwank05]

I love the Spec I remember playing in Vanilla and totally playing Melee for the most part until I actually figured out they weren't a Melee class and wanted to feel how I felt running Ravager back in SM on my Hunter. Then I figured out they were Melee and Fell in love with the one button Win macro BM playstyle in BC. Then that got killed and I didn't tough my hunter again until Survival went Melee where I fell in love with them all over again. I love the kind of Hybrid of Melee/ Range feels like a more Physical Enhancement Shammy.

[shise]

Yes, by far. They literally toke a cool spec with potential and, instead of fixing it up using its potential, they completely destroyed it to be bring in one more redundant and useless melee spec into the game.

[Delano]

Many people like it, so no.

[Perkunas]

BM is not "idiot-proof" Is it an easy spec? Sure. If it was idiot-proof, everyone that plays the spec would score 99% on their Warcraft log ranks. Idiot-proof to me means that making a rotation mistake won't hurt your DPS at all, which is not the case with BM.

It's a ranged class that has extreme mobility which is like the primary weakness of ranged.

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Many people like it, so no.

Many more do not.

[Exkrementor]

Nobody asked for that and there is no room for a sv hunter in raiding because there are like 45 melee specs that are just better.

I miss explosive shot.

[Maxilian]

BM is popular because it's idiot-proof and does solid damage.

It is an easy spec, not sure if i would call it an idiot spec (I leave that for Frost mage on classic), but it does give the spec the option to do a lot of stuff in dungeons and raids (because of your mobility and stuff), though you can also do most of that stuff as MM.

Also even though you do have a point, that the spec being easy and good make it popular, the most important part are the pets :P

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Nobody asked for that and there is no room for a sv hunter in raiding because there are like 45 melee specs that are just better.

I'm not sure if they are all better (i think that's an exaggeration), the main problem i think is that, when you bring a hunter, you expect it to do certain things that a melee hunter struggle with (The hunter bring a lot of utility, and the ability to move around without losing DPS is one of the things that allow that utility)

Sadly it is not as good as it used to be for PVE as in Legion (start / mid legion) with the huge single and AOE DPS with the Artifact ability (i miss it -excluding the time they added it to the GCD-), it was way too complicated for some people in Legion though, forcing people to play a spec they didn't feel comfortable with cause of the huge DPS (even more certain builds that you spend more time watching the corner of your screen to make sure you have all the buffed topped, dots, and not lose any of your MB stack -I loved that-)

Note: Regardless, i do think that is fair to say that the removal of the base survival may have been a mistake having in mind how many people whine about that, so they should, at least bring it back as a 4th spec (though i can see why Blizzard wouldn't want that -that's literally a new subclass to balance-)

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It's a ranged class that has extreme mobility which is like the primary weakness of ranged.

But that's the main theme of the class since forever for the 3 classic specs (mobility)

Note: That's something that MM has being pushing itself out of slowly but surely -i hate that-

[Gestopft]

What are your thoughts on this spec? Why do you think nobody plays it?

I quite enjoy playing it, and imo Wildfire Infusion is one of the coolest talents in the game.

I think it's underplayed (I don't play it in M+ or raids myself) because a) it doesn't have anything that the ranged specs lack (other than a shorter interrupt), b) the other specs (BM in particular) are easier to play well, and c) there is already plenty of competition for melee in raids, and they are outclassed by other melee in M+.

[Vees]

I don't give a rat's ass about that spec. When they created that spec, they deleted my main spec of 10+ years. What kind of idiot thinks it's okay to flat-out delete a spec in this game? F Ion!

[FrostyButt]

Many people like it, so no.

I would say around 5% of the Hunter base likes melee Survival. While the rest of the Hunter population would much rather have ranged Survival back. Obviously I'm pulling numbers out of my ass... But it's clear only a small percentage of the player base for Hunters even play the damn spec. It might be the least played spec in the game.

[Delano]

I would say around 5% of the Hunter base likes melee Survival. While the rest of the Hunter population would much rather have ranged Survival back. Obviously I'm pulling numbers out of my ass... But it's clear only a small percentage of the player base for Hunters even play the damn spec. It might be the least played spec in the game.

Neither here nor there tbh. It's a spec that a lot of people like conceptually but that could use some more polish and quality of life changes. There's a recurring vicious cycle in WoW where the specs that are a bit clunky don't get played as much, so Blizzard pays less attention to them. Three expansions of neglect later...