Survival Hunter (from WotLK to WoD) was one of the most fun specs ever made

[victr]

The core concept is simple. A hypermobile ranged class that was actually viable in both PvE and PvP. And the only ranged spec that didn't have to deal much with casting bars. The majority reason people probably prefer melee is because they don't have to stand still all the time waiting for cast bars to finish reaching their end. It's boring and unengaging gameplay to many people. Survival (and MM a little too) is the only spec that progressively became more fun from WotLK to WoD. The abilities and CC gave you the ability to strategically control the battlefield and every expansion progressively made the spec more fun.

Imagine playing Warzone, Counterstrike or Rainbow Siege and just standing still for 2,5 seconds in the open every time you aim your shot. It's such a nonsensical class fantasy for characters that use guns. Or just the concept in general, just patiently waiting for the melee to get close to you. I also think all these super elaborate mechanics don't make for fun gameplay. Sometimes it's nice to just unload all your damage abilities into the enemies and see the damage numbers pop up.

PvP was fun because you could mess around. Essentially playing with your food. Despite being a survival hunter, hunters in general have always been one of the weakest PvP specs with the weakest survivability abilities. What they did have was mobility and CC. They had their strength at not being hit in the first place. To be a good you had to strategically adapt to the enemies. Keep the melee slowed and hiding behind walls so the casters can't cast. Even most good players didn't even know how to deal with the chaos a survival hunter causes in PvP. Some would straight up give up and run away.

Everything felt skill based in those times. As a hunter you took your time learning little strategies to deal with situations. Scatter trapping, baiting enemies into traps, explosive trap knockbacking, viper stinging the healers, kiting, climbing on top of things so enemies can't hit you. In retail everything just seems to be about damage burst, some ice traps and the default 5 second stuns, but nothing else matters much.

In retail classes now have multiple abilities that make them hypermobile and glued on top of you 24/7 like mosquitoes in the summer. Melee dominates besides for the few ranged specs that have some extreme burst abilities. Every class has limited cc abilities and they dont last as long and just aren't that important besides every spec's default 5 second stun. Hunters are at their best still glass cannons compared to other classes. Once you've turtled you're dead meat.

In WoD they finally added the ability to just stop playing with Pets and just escape the infamous trash pet AI. No more need to bother with micromanaging and just have fun instead. Finally becoming strong independent hunters that didn't need no pet. But then in legion they just made it melee and hardcoded pets into the survival class... Blizzard just ignoring all the positive feedback and doing exactly what nobody asked for. MM also just became another barely mobile caster spec and complete glass cannon. BM is in a pretty cool state but not really viable in any content rn (low tier pve dps, no pvp burst damage) and the pets make the spec clunky.

So I'm looking forward to WotLK classic, ready to unload some explosive shots and dark arrows into unsuspecting players, and to rain some more chaos on the battlefield

[sunxsera]

I was also in love with mop + wod sv hunter ... ohh man do i miss explosive shot proccs + black arrows.

[Phala]

wotlk to wod time period is widely considered the peak of class design for almost any spec.
i guess they focused more on class gameplay and content where you could put it into good use.

[threads]

was my fav spec to ever be in the game. actually kept up with my classic hunter just to play it again eventually in wrath.

[Vaedan]

The core concept is simple. A hypermobile ranged class that was actually viable in both PvE and PvP. And the only ranged spec that didn't have to deal much with casting bars. The majority reason people probably prefer melee is because they don't have to stand still all the time waiting for cast bars to finish reaching their end. It's boring and unengaging gameplay to many people. Survival (and MM a little too) is the only spec that progressively became more fun from WotLK to WoD. The abilities and CC gave you the ability to strategically control the battlefield and every expansion progressively made the spec more fun.

Imagine playing Warzone, Counterstrike or Rainbow Siege and just standing still for 2,5 seconds in the open every time you aim your shot. It's such a nonsensical class fantasy for characters that use guns. Or just the concept in general, just patiently waiting for the melee to get close to you. I also think all these super elaborate mechanics don't make for fun gameplay. Sometimes it's nice to just unload all your damage abilities into the enemies and see the damage numbers pop up.

PvP was fun because you could mess around. Essentially playing with your food. Despite being a survival hunter, hunters in general have always been one of the weakest PvP specs with the weakest survivability abilities. What they did have was mobility and CC. They had their strength at not being hit in the first place. To be a good you had to strategically adapt to the enemies. Keep the melee slowed and hiding behind walls so the casters can't cast. Even most good players didn't even know how to deal with the chaos a survival hunter causes in PvP. Some would straight up give up and run away.

Everything felt skill based in those times. As a hunter you took your time learning little strategies to deal with situations. Scatter trapping, baiting enemies into traps, explosive trap knockbacking, viper stinging the healers, kiting, climbing on top of things so enemies can't hit you. In retail everything just seems to be about damage burst, some ice traps and the default 5 second stuns, but nothing else matters much.

In retail classes now have multiple abilities that make them hypermobile and glued on top of you 24/7 like mosquitoes in the summer. Melee dominates besides for the few ranged specs that have some extreme burst abilities. Every class has limited cc abilities and they dont last as long and just aren't that important besides every spec's default 5 second stun. Hunters are at their best still glass cannons compared to other classes. Once you've turtled you're dead meat.

In WoD they finally added the ability to just stop playing with Pets and just escape the infamous trash pet AI. No more need to bother with micromanaging and just have fun instead. Finally becoming strong independent hunters that didn't need no pet. But then in legion they just made it melee and hardcoded pets into the survival class... Blizzard just ignoring all the positive feedback and doing exactly what nobody asked for. MM also just became another barely mobile caster spec and complete glass cannon. BM is in a pretty cool state but not really viable in any content rn (low tier pve dps, no pvp burst damage) and the pets make the spec clunky.

So I'm looking forward to WotLK classic, ready to unload some explosive shots and dark arrows into unsuspecting players, and to rain some more chaos on the battlefield

Highly mobile ranged spec with no cast times is BM now. It's also gaining on popularity again now, as you can see more and more BM hunters in arenas.

Also, what's the point of your post? Sure, survival was fun spec, but I would say current version is extremely fun too and it actually care about things you listed above - harpoon traping (replacement of scatter trap), kiting melees, LoSing casts, knockbacking, etc. Current SV is pretty disruptive spec in right hands.

In our RBG group, I'm mostly assigned to defend bases, and man, rogues can't capture the flag I guard.

[Valdhammer]

Not just hunter. I loved my rogue, DK, and warrior during the same period. Really fun classes before they started with all the stupid borrowed power stuff and nonsense system upon system.