Do you prefer Wod or Legion Hunter overall?

[rpdrichard]

In spite of the ability pruning, I think Legion brought positive changes for most of the classes and specs. But hunters got the short end of the stick.

MM is awful to play, Survival is a complete and absolute disaster and Blizz should feel bad about it, the spec is unnecesarily complicated and rewards subpar dps for a perfect rotation.

BM with the second pet doesn´t convince me, I think I'm not alone on that.

[Aggrophobic]

WoD, of course.
Hunter is in a terribel state right now.

[Jagaen]

WoD was by far the worst iteration of MM. Playing since vanilla, and it's the only Xpac that I swapped to BM for more than 5 minutes. Legion started off rough with the SW/Barrage build, but they have improved it greatly. Doesn't have the flow MoP and earlier build had, but I'm enjoying it. If they add a couple more abilities baseline, it could compete with the Cata/MoP versions.

I'd rather go back to full on shot-weaving, stutter-stepping, dead-zone hunter than WoD. How people didn't fall asleep playing it, I'll never know.

[last1214]

Where is the MOP option? BM and survival both felt good to play in MOP

[Deleted]

As someone who picked up hunter for the first time this expansion, I enjoy BM aswell as MM.
I am a BM main and i really like the fact that I am able to perform full DPS while on the move. But I like MM too and the planning of my shots, so that i am not caught of guard casting double Aimed Shots while i have to play a mechanic.
Am i bored of all the freedom and want to have an extra challenge? I play MM.
Am i sick of casting Aimed Shots? I play BM.

I never specced Surv because of melee.

[zox2]

I like the legion surv, but I also miss the old one, with all the stings, black arrow, lock and load, expose weekness, and very much miss the exotic ammos. For BM I enjoy the dire frenzy spec, I never liked the wild animal thing, and bm is a nice, relaxing spec to play. Can't say anything about MM, because I rarely play/played it, and I don't like a hunter with no pet. I also miss weaving shots between auto shots, but probably I'm fairly alone with that.

[the boar]

WotLK Hunter. Every spec seemed to have a raid they excelled at.

wasn't armour penetration stacked marksmanship the best spec for 3 out of the 4 raids* of that expansion ._. that stupid trinket from ulduar10 just made it ridiculously good.

(*i am excluding onyxia, but even mm was best for that so..)


anyway i'll throw my list out there~

tbc: i really liked survival, but only really because it actually felt like i was helping by buffing a group. bm was just boring, and i wasn't no auto-shot macro jockey.

wotlk: i really liked survival here too actually, bm was less boring too. but i spent most of the expansion as marksmanship just due to the ridiculous damage.

cataclysm: mm. even when it was sit there hard-casting aimed shot. even on heroic ragnaros. i just enjoyed mm the most. couldn't get on with bm, survival.. idk, can't even remember what changed here.

mop: i feel like this was the only expansion where hunter didn't get a complete overhaul? bm remained something i couldn't get on with, idk if mm changed. but i enjoyed survival a lot in this expansion, probably due to tier set bonuses -- oh yeah and being able to move with steady shot again ha.

wod: ...survival had so much potential. i wanted to enjoy it. i couldn't. felt way too clunky to me. bm still something i couldn't get on with. mm was just the least worst to play - hfc tier bonus made it even less worse.

legion: bm fun but boring. mm... i don't even know. i don't like it at all. survival, awesome, but way too many buttons and way too little synergy between abilities. feels like it could be great with some reworking. demon hunter, much more fun than the three other specs, lots of cool new zooming about abilities, while also retaining the old classics like disengage, deterrence, barrage (though that got made redundant). also added bonus of being able to tank!


i am really glad demon hunters came about, because plain hunter is just not an enjoyable class for me this expansion. i have high hopes for survival, a melee/trap spec has been something i wanted since tbc, so seeing it become real was awesome. but good grief it needs a lot of love!

[Eapoe]

wasn't armour penetration stacked marksmanship the best spec for 3 out of the 4 raids* of that expansion ._. that stupid trinket from ulduar10 just made it ridiculously good.

(*i am excluding onyxia, but even mm was best for that so..)


anyway i'll throw my list out there~

tbc: i really liked survival, but only really because it actually felt like i was helping by buffing a group. bm was just boring, and i wasn't no auto-shot macro jockey.

wotlk: i really liked survival here too actually, bm was less boring too. but i spent most of the expansion as marksmanship just due to the ridiculous damage.

cataclysm: mm. even when it was sit there hard-casting aimed shot. even on heroic ragnaros. i just enjoyed mm the most. couldn't get on with bm, survival.. idk, can't even remember what changed here.

mop: i feel like this was the only expansion where hunter didn't get a complete overhaul? bm remained something i couldn't get on with, idk if mm changed. but i enjoyed survival a lot in this expansion, probably due to tier set bonuses -- oh yeah and being able to move with steady shot again ha.

wod: ...survival had so much potential. i wanted to enjoy it. i couldn't. felt way too clunky to me. bm still something i couldn't get on with. mm was just the least worst to play - hfc tier bonus made it even less worse.

legion: bm fun but boring. mm... i don't even know. i don't like it at all. survival, awesome, but way too many buttons and way too little synergy between abilities. feels like it could be great with some reworking. demon hunter, much more fun than the three other specs, lots of cool new zooming about abilities, while also retaining the old classics like disengage, deterrence, barrage (though that got made redundant). also added bonus of being able to tank!


i am really glad demon hunters came about, because plain hunter is just not an enjoyable class for me this expansion. i have high hopes for survival, a melee/trap spec has been something i wanted since tbc, so seeing it become real was awesome. but good grief it needs a lot of love!

Basically armor pen became king at TotC if I remember. Definitely stacked the ever loving shit out of it for ICC.
If I remember right, BM was the go to for Naxx, BM/SV in Ulduar, and then MM took over as king for all the armor pen that was available. Again, I could be mixing this up, Wrath was a long time ago and it's when I started playing, so that's when I discovered things like icy veins and mmo-c and didn't know the difference between good advice and talking out your ass in forums.

[Blackspiral]

I have no issue with Survival as a Melee spec, even though I rarely play it.
That said though, any iteration of Hunter before Legion was better. Granted Legion neutered A LOT of classes down.

[Flaim]

vulerability and single target pressure are the only things wrong with legion MM.

[Ergunk]

Cata MM and MoP BM was my favourite.

[MabusGaming]

I've always enjoyed BM, but I loved how survival played prior to being melee. Especially in prior expansions. I loved lock n load explosive shot.

[Kavorka]

MoP SV, good times.

[nidosarg]

Survival in Legion is awesome!

you just want to see the world burn..

[Crimewave]

Cata MM and MoP surv.
But yeah, WoD MM with classtrinket was fine gameplay-wise too.

[Dadwen]

both suck but between the two WOD (a stubbed toe is still better than both.) but MOP or just about any WOTLK-MOP beats the hell out of the crap now IMO.

[Delaios]

HFC MM>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>MoP Surv>>>>>>any iteration of BM
any other answer is wrong

SV was alright with the Dragon Soul 4 piece bonus during Cata. But yeah, HFC MM was the most fun I've had with any of the spec iterations. Couldn't give a shit about complexity, I just want to enjoy actually playing the character.

[SL1200]

Can I answer Cataclysm Survival hunter?

[Kayagurcu]

"MoP BM"

Hard-Hitting : Kill Command
DoT : Serpent Sting
Execute : Kill Shot
CD : B.Wrath + Rapid Fire + Focus Fire + Rabid
Focus Reg. : Cast time Cobra Shot
Focus Dump : Arcane Shot
AOE : Multi Shot + Beast Cleave

Additional -> Stampede + Lynx Rush (pre 5.2) + Blink Strikes (pre 5.2) + AMOC or Barrage.

There was also Dire Beast but dont remember was it in rotation or optional talent choice.

"LEGION BM"

Hard-Hitting : Kill Command
CD : B.Wrath + AOTW
*DoT(Bleed) : *If talented AOTB
Focus Reg. : Dire Beast + AOTW
Focus Dump : Cobra Shot
AOE : Multi Shot + Beast Cleave + Stomp (If talented)

Additional -> AMOC or Volley

MoP BM versus LEGION BM -> "LOL"

[Bepples]

WoD, hands down. Yes, it was a downgrade over MoP, but not nearly as severe as the Legion downgrade.

Nah, not any iteration. WoD Survival was absolute dogshit guttered crap.

Maybe in HFC, but playstyle-wise WoD Survival was MoP Survival with a couple things missing. We lost Kill Shot and Rapid Fire, but the base gameplay was still there. I'm not saying it wasn't a downgrade: it was, and Blizzard's efforts were shameful (seriously, you cannot remove abilities from a spec and add NOTHING and act like you're innovating), but it was still very fun in WoD and was quite popular until the 6.2 axe-murdering of the spec.

- - - Updated - - -

"MoP BM"

Hard-Hitting : Kill Command
DoT : Serpent Sting
Execute : Kill Shot
CD : B.Wrath + Rapid Fire + Focus Fire + Rabid
Focus Reg. : Cast time Cobra Shot
Focus Dump : Arcane Shot
AOE : Multi Shot + Beast Cleave

Additional -> Stampede + Lynx Rush (pre 5.2) + Blink Strikes (pre 5.2) + AMOC or Barrage.

There was also Dire Beast but dont remember was it in rotation or optional talent choice.

"LEGION BM"

Hard-Hitting : Kill Command
CD : B.Wrath + AOTW
*DoT(Bleed) : *If talented AOTB
Focus Reg. : Dire Beast + AOTW
Focus Dump : Cobra Shot
AOE : Multi Shot + Beast Cleave + Stomp (If talented)

Additional -> AMOC or Volley

MoP BM versus LEGION BM -> "LOL"

Dire beast was an optional talent.

And this is a good summary. Legion BM is largely WoD BM with stuff removed. Again, Blizzard believes in "addition by subtraction" and believes that removing stuff from an already simple spec somehow makes it better. Seriously, BM at launch could have up to 30% downtime. BM hasn't had downtime since BC and the nonsense steady/auto-shot weaving of that expansion. They argued it was intentional but in reality it's probably because they wanted to remove mechanics and couldn't be assed coming up with any good replacements. Not to mention the GCD being upped to 1.5 secs and the ton of removed utility (why the fuck do I no longer have access to Camouflage? Why did Blizzard actually think not having traps was a good idea at any point?).

MM has a lot of new mechanics and, although surprisingly and certainly a minority opinion, some people do actually prefer the Legion playstyle. Survival players in Legion make good company with tumbleweeds and the spec might as well not exist for the majority of Hunters, but if you really like melee you might consider it an upgrade. But BM? WoD BM was better than Legion BM in just about every single way. Unless people REALLY hate casted focus generators, I fail to see how anyone can consider Legion BM an improvement. However, it's the closest to prior iterations of the class out of the three specs and this is probably why it's by-and-large the most popular Hunter spec despite being the lowest-performing.