Please see sections for quick viewing. This isn't a conspiracy theory, just a thoughtful examination of the toolkit given.
-Pre topic / History Statement -
I have been playing a Survival Spec hunter since Vanilla WoW. I have seen all of the changes that have occurred to Hunters over the years. I have dabbled in BM and in MM occasionally but have primarily been a Survival Hunter 90% of the games history. These thoughts came to me as I was playing in a few random heroics of late doing the gear treadmill.
- Main Idea -
The Survival Hunter does not make a good deal of sense from a melee DPS perspective. Having a dps spec based on a good deal of RNG proccing (Just another Mongoose strike, come on come on...) has been something Blizzard has been actively trying to avoid the last few expansions, as they realized this lead to lackluster specs/classes and ended up with lower dungeon/raid representation in progress groups. But if you step back and look at what Hunters (all specs, but particularly BM and Survival) have done over the last few expansions you realize they have always had a niche in tanking mini world bosses for quests and occasionally gimmicking some Raid bosses (hello Lord Marrowgar, Council Member in Gruuls Lair, etc.). If you look at it from an outside perspective you realize this is a strange role for our class. But what if Survival Hunter was an honest to god tank?
- The Toolkit -
Raptor Strike - Before the coming patch this has been a low damage ability. However it does have the potential via artifact to heal us. A very common ability for many Tanking specs and could be part of a standard rotation if we were tanks.
Harpoon - Pretty much your standard gap closers. Would essentally work exactly as a Warriors charge does now.
Mongoose - Could be our major threat builder. They want to make tanks have reasonable dps, so this would work well and maintaining a good set of charges would be very interesting gameplay.
Fury of the Eagle - Works in conjunction with Mongose. You could easily tie a defensive cooldown to the ablity based on the number of mongoose strike stacks used.
Grease Trap - Look at our PvP talent for Grease trap to see how easily you could turn this into a tanking tool.
Ice Trap/Steel Trap - Need to stop a mob on the healer but dealing with other mobs, bamb.
Explosive Trap - Would essentially function exactly as Consecration does for Tankadins.
Dragonsfire Grenade - AoE Threat generation but at a range. No need to change anything.
Lacerate - Bleeding a target for passive threat generation, just like warriors.
Flanking Strike - A rework could be used here, but imagine if all threat generated by the pet was redirected to the Hunter?
Aspect of the Cheetah (rework) - Quick movement tool to get out of a dangeous bosses attack (all tanks are needing to do this of late)
Throwing Axes - A ranged puller for when a charge is a bad idea. Think old style Line of Sight (LOS) pulls from back in Vanillia and in BC.
Way of the Mok'Nathal - Instead of a damage increase this could be threat generation instead. With raptor healing it would be a much more useful talent than it is now.
Murder of Crows - I would either remove this option from Survival if we became a tank or leave it as is so it could be good for secondary mob threat building.
Spitting Cobra - Ask a warrior if they need more rage on demand.
Carve - Standard cleave mechanic, normal on all tanking classes.
Aspect of the Eagle - Quick damage boost or threat boost. You decide. Maybe a AoE Taunt?
Aspect of the Turtle - If reworked to allow you to attack during its function this woud be a great "Oh crap" button.
Exhilaration - Pretty much exactly the same thing that most tank specs have now.
Muzzle - Interrupt. Again, standard for all melee.
Feign Death (lol) - Either just remove or keep as a funny way to pass threat to your secondary tank partner in raids.
Flare - Decent utility spell that can be kept or remove. Maybe have a small damage reduction for all targets "in your sight".
- TLDR -
Survival Hunters currently have almost all of the toolkit RIGHT NOW to function as an honest to god tanking class. A small rework would allow this to work and would give this game (and Hunters) something HONESTLY refreshing and new to do. Would be our first mail class tank in the game as well. (Unless you count Vanilla Shamans).
- Q/A -
I know the last thing Hunters want right now is another change to Survival. This is just a theorizing on how this change could operate. I really do think a change like this would be interesting and actually a useful change for the game. Most people who have rolled a Hunter wouldn't try this, but the same thing could be said for early Paladin tanks too over the years with Vanilla and BC. Any ideas you think could make it better? Do you think my redesign is too simple?
P.S. I used to Tank many of the raids in BC and in WoTLK as a Paladin Tank during those expansions and have a fairly decent understanding of many of the mechanics involved. Hunter was always my first and main class however.