The current Survival that we’ve had is loosely based on the fantasy of a Wilderness Stalker yes. For anyone who might not know what that is, think Rexxar. And I say loosely due to SV not utilizing the Dual Wield-option as opposed to currently where it uses a 2h weapon.
Also, current SV has a few other abilities which aren’t necessarily tied to that of a Wilderness Stalker. But hey…the devs have to put some additional flavor into it.^^
Anyway, I was basing my reply(the quote in your post there) on what you said about SV was always meant to be the melee aspect of the hunter.
Which in itself has only really been true for the last 2 expansions(Legion + BfA).
I expanded on that due to what you said about the “roots” of that spec, and losing them over time. Those “roots” being the design we had back in Vanilla.
The thing is, I would actually argue that not a single version of the SV spec we’ve had since Vanilla(and TBC sort of) was actually theme-accurate.
Because no version of SV, since the end of TBC, have actually focused on survivability. Simply due to the change in spec design philosophies on the dev side. The versions of the spec that we’ve had since, including the current ones where it’s now a melee spec, are not actually about Survival(survivability). At least not in the way it was originally intended.
It could. But that would also bring a lot of new problems.
What would the basic core of a Ranger class be?
Ranged weapons? Okay, we now have two classes that mostly focus on ranged weapons.
What specs should it have? What roles should they fill?
And also, what distinguishes the new class from that of the Hunter class?
Not using a pet? Okay, fair enough.
Not using traps? Okay.
Then what?
You could technically make this class fill the long sought after Dark Ranger-fantasy that players have been asking for.
This class could focus on more magical-oriented attacks/abilities.
As opposed to the Hunter class which is mostly about physical attacks and pets + using animal venom/poison and explosives.
But apart from this, what else could you give that class?
You can’t really give the new class the same utility/defensives or offensives as the Hunter class.
Anyway…
There are a few issues with current MSV which prevents us from “merging” it with that of the old ranged SV spec.
The new SV is meant to focus on melee-combat.
Serpent Sting for current SV is not like it used to be(or like Serpent Sting for current MM). For SV it’s more of a niche-ability with no actual ties to the core theme/fantasy of the spec.
Wildfire Bomb is nowhere near what Explosive Shot was for the old SV. Not by it’s animation, nor by it’s mechanical design. I would argue that the only similarity, is the Fire damage.
Having said all that, I very much get that suggestions towards a 4th spec option for the class are ofc a stretch in terms of class development. Simply due to past mindsets and statements made by developers that they don’t really want classes to have too many spec options.
But what makes it a justified thing to do for the Hunter class, part from the fact that this class, have the most diverse plethora of fantasies/fighting styles etc. to pick from, out of all classes.
Also, the old SV we had between WotLK and WoD, it was just that, a previous fantasy with a strong connection to the overall fantasy of the Hunter class.
You focusing on enhancing arrows/ammunition by applying self-created poison or applying extracted animal venom, or attaching explosives to your ammo. This made sense!
It also happened to be a fantasy that was unique amongst the other hunter specs/fantasies. Not to mention the mechanical aspects of the spec, and how they differed from other hunter specs.
Anyway, enough ranting.
If you check my suggestions for a 4th spec ranged SV option, you can see that it would also happen to provide the class with additional strengths in combat(those being the capability to multi-dot, or to deal with spread out targets).
Strengths that the current hunter specs aren’t so good at.
And the upside? No additional ranger class needed for this to happen. Nor would it hurt the existing Hunter specs and their core designs.