Let’s break it down a bit more, now that I got home and I can freely write.
SV could almost be called a hybrid spec, but there are several features of the spec that simply do not match with a hybrid, and in fact prove it is melee.
One of the things is the obvious clash between Kill Shot and the auto-attacks. How? Well, Kill Shot can only be used if we have a melee weapon equipped, but if you are not in melee range you can not auto-attack, if you swap to, let’s say, a bow you can now auto-attack outside melee range but you can’t use Kill Shot, so just this simple fact that you can’t do both these things from outside melee range, you either do one or the other, is proof enough that it is a melee spec and not a hybrid or even a ranged spec like someone else said above.
Further things that clash with a true hybrid playstyle, besides the autos being melee:
- Weapon swap in combat goes on the GCD which is a major issue;
- Our slow can only be used in melee;
- Our silence can only be used in melee;
- Harpoon requieres a melee weapon in order to be used (wouldn’t be an issue if weapon swap was off the GCD).
Now we may ask the question, how would SV be a true hybrid?
Basicly by fixing the things I mentioned above:
- Give SV a passive in which it can swap weapon in combat without going on the GCD, or, rework Aspect of the Eagle into being an ability that swaps weapon between 2 pre-destined slots, one for a melee weapon and another for a ranged weapon;
- Make Kill Shot also usable with a ranged weapon equipped;
- Make our silence and slow usable from range if we have a ranged weapon equipped, or, gives us also both the ranged versions of those spells (Counter Shot and Concussive Shot), or, even better just replace Muzzle and Wing Clip by Counter Shot and Concussive Shot, either of these options would solve;
- Make Arcane Shot interact with all other spells and talents that Raptor Strike does. For example, the Mongoose Bite talent would replace Arcane Shot by Mongoose Shot which would work just the same way, except from range (same for other talents);
- Replace Steady Shot (which we don’t really need) with something like Multi Shot or something similar, in order to replace Carve in the ranged rotation and make it also interact with the same stuff as Carve does. Example, Butchery would turn Multi Shot into Butcher Spin, shooting 360, as a ranged version of current Carve.
After all those changes then yes, we could finally call Survival a true hybrid.
However, now you ask “But Fuyutsuki, why would we even play it melee? If we would have the exact same stuff but from outside melee range which is safer, so we would simply just play it as a ranged spec”.
Well, gives us a movement speed debuff (or a damage debuff, or some sort of other hindrance) when we are using the ranged weapon, just bad enough so that we want to primarily be melee, but not too bad that it’s not viable to go ranged, makes have to choose “in this situation is it worth to go ranged despite the debuff?” in most situations the answer should be no, but there should also be plenty where the answer would be yes, like when fighting bosses that have strong melee AoE for example.
In conclusion, SV is definitly a melee spec in it’s current state, it simply is unique in the sense that it can fight decently from outside the melee range without major drawbacks like most of the other melees in the game.
