They Should Not Remove The Ability For Hunters To Be Melee

[thunderdragon2]

I don't think they will, but I honestly wished BM was the melee spec

That way Marksman could have been the physical damage spec and Survival be the magic damage spec

i prefer bm as ranged personally only reasons i play bm is coz its ranged i dont have to deal wiht a cast bar and i enjoy it as a ranged as the rest of my toons are melee i dont enjoy mm and surv is melee

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I agree. Guys like Rexxar fit the aesthetic of a BM hunter well, going into melee combat side by side with your powerful anima companion.

ok no ur as a survival hunter a survivalist like a gather hunter type there's no way some1 like that could tame and train specialised beasts as pets so survival would have fit more than bm

[Gigantique]

Yeah, though while Talonclaw could work as a Beast Master weapon, I don't think Titanstrike could work as a Survival weapon.

Considering both were new additions to Legion with no existing lore that wouldn't have been an issue, they would have changed the artifacts to match spec identity (Talonclaw would be tweaked to gain the wolf companion and idk an ancient troll bow for surv, maybe one Sen'jin used, Vol'jin's father?)

Point being both Titanstrike and Talonclaw are made up in Legion so whatever spec identity BM/Surv would have had would be what their artifact would be changed into.

[Bepples]

Considering both were new additions to Legion with no existing lore that wouldn't have been an issue, they would have changed the artifacts to match spec identity (Talonclaw would be tweaked to gain the wolf companion and idk an ancient troll bow for surv, maybe one Sen'jin used, Vol'jin's father?)

Point being both Titanstrike and Talonclaw are made up in Legion so whatever spec identity BM/Surv would have had would be what their artifact would be changed into.

Fun fact: people forget this but Huln Highmountain had nothing to do with Hunters before Legion. He was a minor side character from the books and had absolutely nothing tying him to the Hunter class. On his wowwiki page from before Legion's announcement he was actually classified as a Warrior. Eche'ro and Talonclaw were contrived just for Legion to make a lore foundation for melee Survival. So when people use them as arguments to make Survival melee it's putting the cart before the horse.

Same goes for Rexxar being classified as Survival: that wasn't a thing until Legion.

Had Survival remained ranged they would have just come up with a different set of lore backing.

[Pauper]

It was more I have seen people saying Survival should go back to how it was before Legion (as a Ranged spec)

I mean people have been asking for SV to go back to ranged since Legion and yet melee SV is still in the game, so I have to imagine that someone at blizzard likes melee SV, that melee SV it not some great disaster, that at least on some level melee SV is working enough that it is still in the game, still receives buffs etc...

Now obviously we don't yet know if blizz is doing any type of great class-rework come next expansion and heck maybe Shadowlands will be the final expansion of melee SV (but I very much doubt it).

My advice OP, I wouldn't worry or bother trying to convince people to like or tolerate melee SV. If X person doesn't like melee SV, no skin of my back, lets just say I am grateful X person is not the one in charge of class design at blizzard.

So melee SV is a thing, enjoy it, enjoy it until/if blizzard decides to go back to ranged SV.