Hi BLIZZ, This is direct feedback to the developers who are overseeing the Survival hunters in PTR (if there is anyone) so stay a while and listen…
Quick bit about me - I’m a wow player since vanilla and a loyal customer of yours for 15+ years!
I’ve played most specs up to heroic raid level and up to 1600 rating pvp across a number of expansions. I consider myself to be a casual but somewhat experienced player.
Now let’s talk Survival Hunter! The forgotten spec of Shadowlands…
Only recently discovered this spec during BFA and instantly fell in love with it! I decided to main Survival in during BFA. It’s So fun! (really don’t knock it until you have tried it) despite the fact we had the least number of changes going into SL amongst every class and spec in the game. This wouldn’t be an issue if we were performing well, but we were and are currently far from performing well yet received no changes. Disappointing would be an understatement but regardless, I remained hopeful.
Fast forward to now 1 month into SL and the problem I have is that I’m playing a broken (in a underperforming way) spec. I am suffering A HUGE amount due to playing a class that has such a bad stigma attached to it… And for good reason! It’s simply overshadowed by other 2 specs significantly and is underperforming against every other class and spec in the game in PVE.
In PVP we are somewhat viable but with the recent changes to revive pet I’m afraid we are no longer viable at high arena rating (1600+). Kill my time pet and can no longer generate focus.
Below I’m going to split this into 2 segments- PVP & PVE and open up what is wrong and how you Blizzard can fix the most fun yet most underrepresented class in the game (I know It sounds crazy that this is even the case)
PVP
Simple… revert the revive pet nerf or at least give us a 3min instant revive pet like Warlocks have. It feels horrible to play in its current state. Imagine if killing a UH DK pet removed their ability to generate Runes and Runic Power entirely and had a 4 second cast for pet just so their spec can function again. As a ranged spec this might not be so bad but as a melee that’s just really poor spec design in my humble opinion.
Damage boost to single target would be nice too given that we have arguably the lowest single target damage in the game.
PVE
Just look at every dps castle Nathria & M+ tier lists online. Icy Veins just released DPS stats for Castle Nathria and again no surprise to see SV Hunter is bottom. It’s clear to see Survival is in a rough place and has been for a long time even during BFA. As an absolute minimum, if you Blizzard are not prepared to improve the class design due to resources and trying to balance all these borrowed power systems you’ve implemented (I get it) despite so, so, many positive changes that could be made to Survival Hunter, at very least a number tuning buff is absolutely essential to revive this class to a playable spec in PVE.
You can spec AOE with talents and do moderate but not overpowered AOE and you sacrifice all single target damage to achieve this. You can spec single target and still be massively underperforming in both single target and AOE. As a melee / range hybrid spec we suffer from the ‘Melee tax’ so why would you bring a melee Hunter when it brings quiet literally nothing that the other 2 range specs provide including the most important part… Damage! Look at Enh shaman they have WF Totem why cant Survival have a small USP as we have nothing going for us right now…
So we have mid table / below average AOE when talented into it and regardless of how you talent Survival will always have extremely poor single target. We have only negatives that set us apart from the other 2 range specs and no positives.
What does this do to the player experience for a SV player?
My SL experience has started to become a memorable one for all the wrong reasons. I’m struggling to perform and find it hard to be invited into groups as I’m looked at as a noob that has no idea on how to play WoW because I play Survival and not MM or BM. I’ve been invited and removed from groups on numerous occasions because of this before the dungeon has even started! If on arrival to the M+ im not instantly removed for wielding a 2h and not a Bow, im soon looked at as a joke when Tanks do more damage than me in almost every circumstance.
I know this is not how you blizzard intended to make the game but it’s the unfortunate reality of what you have created and is making my SL experience feel worse and worse every time I long into my Survival Hunter (I can’t be the only one!) and experience the general player base looking at SV as the noob/ joke class.
So… How do we fix this Blizzard? Well Surprisingly easy…
- The Quick Fix
Just pump the numbers up!! Very little work needs to go into this. Fury Warriors during PTR got a 10% blanket Damage buff and another 5% is on its way I read. I’m not saying this is the answer for Survival but as a bare minimum make Survival competitive with their damage. This will also compensate for the 2 hour (4 second) cast on revive pet which is a massive damage hinderance to us if the pet dies which they do because you also made them squishy for some reason as if the pet revive wasn’t bad enough… Coupled up with low damage, no group specific utility not to mention the Melee Tax it’s tough for other people to accept a SV Hunter in their M+ or raid groups. I’m a Survival player and I wouldn’t invite Survival Hunter if im trying to push Keys/raid progression! Why would I? When I could simply just invite a MM hunter instead or any other melee class and spec.
- Do a proper job!
As the forgotten class in Shadowlands it’s not too late in my opinion to fix us. The following are some suggestions but really the options are endless it just depends on how committed the developers are when trying to balance the game and a class you designed be relevant to the game.
Some of my personal suggestions;
Gorilla tactics - make baseline.
Absolutely no reason why this cannot happen. If you don’t take GT talent you may as well not have bombs in your tool kit as they do zero damage. There is no choice in this row if it stays as it currently is.
Mongoose bite - make baseline
It is the staple ability for Survival. As soon as haste level increases with gear it will be the mandatory talent to use just like it was through all of BFA. Replace talent with something that further buffs mongoose single target for example increasing the mongoose bite window or make mongoose bite stacks leave a bleed which will synergize well with blood seeker talent. This could also solve the low single target damage that we are suffering from.
Survival specific party utility buff
As a Survival Hunter you bring absolutely nothing to the table in terms of buffing your party that MM & BM have. This would be the perfect opportunity to give Survival a unique selling point when being invited to Raid or M+. Doesn’t have to be game breaking but something! Could be a % increase to max health passive similar to Monks and DH. Could be combat health regeneration similar to what we have with our pet. Could be a damage alternative, but just give us something that gives people a reason to bring a Survival Hunter!
Give Survival the option to go dual wield (my personal fav)
Like Death knights obliterate (2hand) build vs breath spec (duelwield) build for Survival you could have.
2h Birds of Prey Mongoose Bite build vs dual wield Wild Fire Bomb build.
For example- Whilst wielding a 2h your mongoose bite damage is increased by 5% stacking (for example) again this would help our single target damage.
And
Whilst dual wielding your spells and abilities have a chance to reduce the cooldown of your bomb by 1 second.
Obviously, the numbers can be tuned but the play style is what I’m getting at here. You have successfully done this with frost DK and other classes why not Survival Hunter? Not to mention the lore of being DW Hunter like REXXAR! Survival is a true melee hunter spec and dual wield add some class identity and some variation to the spec.
I know many survival hunters have many more positive suggestions to make us viable and exciting to play and if your one of these people reading this and haven’t fallen asleep yet then please provide some additional suggestions for Blizzard to make this forgotten class of SL exciting to play and viable.
I’m no pro but by making these changes I’m confident it would make a massive improvement to a class that is so fun yet massively overlooked as this is the most underrepresented spec in the game and for many understandable reasons as mentioned above.
Thank you again for reading and I hope you Blizzard do take action as it really is needed.
For the Hord
Killer - Aggramar
