Survival talent fan-fiction

[kuhntasmash]

TL;DR – This is my opinion of ideal changes to survival hunter talent tree. What is your ideal changes for melee survival or what would you have liked to see if it was still ranged going into shadowlands.

As a casual, Survival hunter does not feel like it is in a great place. From what I can tell, survival does well in pvp, but do not know how it is preforming at high-end mythics raids and Mythic plus 15+. However, the numbers do not matter to me. It was my favorite dps specc in Legion, but feels like a shell of it self with the Mongoose bite removal and damn near mandatory talent.

So this is a “Fan-fiction” idea to spice up the talent tree, since a shadow priest/shaman like rework is highly unlikely.

Level 15: Replace Terms of Engagement with A Murder of Crows.
Lower its damage, reduce its focus cost, and add a focus regen on kill w/ dot up.
Adds usefulness outside of levels while staying with the focus generation theme of the talent line.

Level 25: To be honest, I do not know what to do with this line. Guerrilla Tactics and Hydra’s Bite both have some great uses that outshines Butchery, but I personally can not come up with an enticing replacement for Butchery. Maybe bring back Caltrops.

Level 30: Remove/make baseline/ pvp talent Camouflage with Terms of Engagement.
Remove the damage, replace focus regen with 10% hp regen.
Basically, merging the talent with the old Survivalist passive.

Level 35: Replace A Murder of Crows with “Spider Mines”
It is Implosion. Toss down some Spider Mines onto the crowd that take a second to arm, then you can send them to do aoe damage like implosion.

Level 40: Make Binding Shot baseline like the rest of the hunter speccs and replace with “Hook Pull”
Replaces Harpoon with “Death Grip” (or its own ability that doesn’t replace Harpoon)
Legion Survival hunter was data-mined with “death grip” during its alpha phase, which I think fit the theme of the trapper specc. Toss a Freezing trap on the ground and pull a mob to it. Keeping a potentially danger mob cc’d away from the rest, without fear of aoe breaking.

Level 45: Replace Tip of the Spear with Latent poison trait.
Two passives that builds up the damage Raptor Strike, but Latent poison would get more use than Tip of the Spear. Potentially making it a good competitor in certain situations compared to Mongoose Bite.

Flanking Strike: An ability that simplistic and has it uses, but kind of just has a long cooldown. It has damage, gap close and focus generation with makes it a nightmare to balance. It’s either god-tier or unusable. Maybe a 15 second cd with only 10 focus regen or remove the regen? Who knows

Level 50: Just like level 25 Butchery, Chakrams is in an odd spot. Birds of Prey gets stronger with gear and Wildfire Infusion has synergy with Guerrilla Tactics. Maybe the focus cost will be enough.

Unlikely we will receive any changes, but we could dream. Obviously going to get some “range survival” calls, so… what would be your idea of range/melee survival.

[Razion]

I miss Fury of the Eagle, Lacerate, Waylay, and Carve applying Serpent Sting.

I like the idea of Hook Pulling targets into traps.

I think Camo is more necessary for Surv especially as it's practically the spec's icon but also because as melee when you feign you're often close to danger on resets, so Camo is good there as melee for getting out of dodge - it also saves your pet when you tell them to feign, too.

The double charge on Wildfire I find especially nice with Wildfire Infusion as you can throw two without the DoTs overwriting each other, which is usedul when leaving a Mongoose Window and pooling for another.

Butchery I think actually provides a nice choice on burst vs regular Carves and interacts with Wildfire, and Caltrops frankly I never thought were much fun due to lack of synergy.

Crows I don't think has also ever had any fun synergy with the spec. Focus on kill for Mongoose focus seems like a good focus as they're ST focused.

Chakrams as well doesn't feel like it interacts mich with the focus of Wildfire as an AoE ability. With Fury of the Eagle back it may be more relevant early expac during the focus refen window before the next Mongoose setup.

Maybe Chakrams could pick up traps along the way for interplay with Waylay, and maybe a Waylay build with the Hook Pull and Spider Mines could play into that as well - but as Chakrams are now I thinknthey need more decided synergy such as with Wildfire or Mongoose.

[Devilyaki]

The spec being range again ...

[aceperson]

The spec being range again ...

being melee or ranged doesn't change whether the spec works or not. what you mean to say is to get old survival back. which i agree with.

[kuhntasmash]

Caltrops frankly I never thought were much fun due to lack of synergy.

Chakrams as well doesn't feel like it interacts mich with the focus of Wildfire as an AoE ability. With Fury of the Eagle back it may be more relevant early expac during the focus refen window before the next Mongoose setup.

When it comes to caltrops, I just miss the ability, I understand that it was just another dot, but I like more trap themed attacks.

Fury of the eagle, for it to really work again, it would need the exact thing that EVERY Survival hunter agrees on with Mongoose bite being baseline.

Really needs a Shadow priest level of rework. Shadow priest, almost every ability has synergy with another.

[trapmaster]

I'm seriously having a doubt survival melee spec will make a comeback in shadowlands and that will be third expac blizzard continues failing on that spec probably better suit better in pvp which nobody cares. Bring back old survival that worked just fine in the past than trying to bandaid on survival melee and it's still completely disaster, underwhelming, and not welcoming spec.

[Unholyground]

I enjoyed both iterations but like people have been saying it doesn't bring anything wholey unique to the table. I would love to see it stay melee but get a proper rework with some kind of uniqueness that would warrant wanting one or two Survival Hunters in a raid.