It was not same as MM but if you looked at its playstyle it had almost exaxt same style. Kite/trap uses pet/ ranged.
1 uses dots and elemental arrows
2nd one uses less dots and physical arrows.
It was very similar.
As hunter does not have crazy animations it even reused a lot of same animations with different colours.
Now not saying it should have been removed but it needed more Identity
This surface-approach to spec design and to how you judge the level of distinction between specs can be applied in the same way to many specs in the game.
Warlocks:
1 spell-casting spec with demons
1 spell-casting spec with less demons and less dots, more upfront damage
1 spell-casting spec with less demons and more dots, less upfront damage
Mages:
1 spell-casting spec with purple spells, a lot of hard-casting, build charges and get procs
1 spell-casting spec with red spells, more mobility, wait for procs
1 spell-casting spec with blue spells, hard-casting, wait for procs
Rogues:
1 DW melee-spec with comboās n finishers, maintain buffs
1 DW melee-spec with comboās n finishers, maintain bleeds and poisons
1 DW melee-spec with comboās n finishers, stealth attacks and hard-hitters
To make it perfectly clear, I donāt actually think that either of these specs are/were too similar to one another.
The problem here is that this is how you judge hunter specs, but so far, not other classes/specs. And if you do that as well, fair enough, although then you might want to re-check what specs are actually meant to do for classes in this game.
Specs arenāt meant to turn 1 class into 3 different ones(or however many specs a particular class has). Not even today when thereās a lot more focus on individual spec identities.
For what was intended with class and spec design back in the past, no they werenāt. That argument only holds up if you judge the specs based on todayās philosophies in terms of spec design. Something you shouldnāt do because it does not apply since RSV isnāt in the game anymore.
No.
Agreed.
Considering the changes to general philosophies, going into Legion, and what they wanted from specs, it deff needed more. It shouldāve gotten more, like all other specs did.
The problem is that it didnāt. Instead they just removed it.
Bring back old survival. Make Black Arrow, and Explosive Shot our biggest damage dealers, and the spec will instantly be fun. A Ranged dot spec like it used to be.
Lets not beat around the bush here. Out of 36 specs there are now only 2 physical ranged specs. Before Legion there were 3 out of 34 specs.
In FF14 they have 3 whole physical range classes out of 17 (exc. Blue Mage).
Blizard had absolutely NO business removing ranged SV from the game. Especially after WoD, where SV was arguably the best iteration of SV (At least in PvP) we have had since wrath. I am still salty about the change to melee.
Lore has no business in this discussion and is NOT a valid argument, because if lore was so important, it would have been a melee spec from the start, and NO vanilla SV was not melee thank you. It just had the tools to deal with classes in melee range better than the other specs, because back then it actually stayed true to its name āSurvivalā. However you still wanted to get range to do damage.
Give back survival please. It was that one spec I could chill out with playing some good tunes and kiting people to rage quit.
I actually like survival. Itās the saving grace for Hunter for. Yes it has even worse numbers single target if you compare it to MM, but who cares.
Well, tbh survival is the second worst performer in raids, demand ALOT from players in pvp to be viable and the dps spec with BY FAR the worst burst.
Popularity-wise is hard to say, sure. But we can for sure conclude its a āworse specā and in a āworse stateā than ranged survival (from days of lock n load) ever were.
just imagine ppl talking about black arrowā¦
spec was interesting cuz of default DOT, really?
You still have all of abilities on MM except black arrow, chose venthyrs and their bleed will be your black arrow lol
just deal with a fact that current srv is harder and half of you canāt ride it, i swear huge half of pvp players like current srv. In pve, idc, old was ok but was not fun, as i said, i played surv since bc.
There was more to the spec than that, obv.
No, we have name references, thatās all.
Not a single ability found in MM works like it did for RSV, apart from Serpent Sting, although that one lacks the added depth and functionality which RSV used to provide.
The only tell from this, is that itās obvious how you did not care for the playstyle. You donāt have to ofc, but donāt try to assert your opinion and bias as what is/should be when it comes to other players.
dude, everyone doing the same, even if they think that they are not lol
tbh - decent playstyle
keep serpent/arrow on target, es on cd, really great spec, what a shame he is gone
Legion version was SO much more enjoyable, though. This current iteration is just playwise dogpoo
Itās like saying the majority of people like pizza. Itās so obvious that no data is needed
What you enjoy or not is entirely up to you.
Thatās not what Iām arguing against.
My point was that even though you personally did not enjoy RSV all that much, a lot of other players did. And since thereās no way for us to play like we did with RSV, this is the reason as to why we are asking for itās return.
To you, it doesnāt matter as much as you seem to enjoy MSV.
I agree though that we should not repeat the same mistake again in removing a playstyle/spec from the game to make room for something else. Hence why Iām very much in favor of returning RSV as a 4th spec option.
i play Surv because its a mixed spec melee and range and once you get the hang of it its really fun to play if a want to go full out range i can go BM/Marks.
Spec was fun, not interesting. As for Black Arrow being a dot and fun, yes it was fun. Doing damage with dot ticks was extremely fun, and from range gasp
Now itās one of the least played specs in the game, wonder why.
Itās not hard, it feels like a spec thatās stuck in alpha and weāre waiting for updates to make it feel ārightā
Bring back old ranged survival. Anyone with half an ounce of game knowledge knows why the current survival is a pile of tosh.
As for you personally enjoying the current spec - good for you. But not everyone is enjoying it - hence why even when Survival was putting out very good numbers it was still the least played hunter spec. Youāre a minority, the numbers speak for itself.
If itās a common complaint that keeps accuring maybe you should realize itās a problem for a lot of hunters. 
This seem to create a lot of confusion for people. Something doesnāt have to be interesting to be fun. In fact, in many cases they are actually oppositions. For example the GCD change. Blizzard did it to make more interesting gameplay choices, and you can argue that they were right. But did that make the gameplay more fun? No, absolutely not.
I donāt really think that āproblemā is the right word in this context. I remember the reason of playing surv in the past - it was wyvern sting, i also played surv in pve in wotlk and i liked it, i played some fun 3s comps in MoP, played a bit surv in WoD.
Current ES is honestly the same like it was in back old days (yep it was not aoe as i remember and it had less cd) , anyway better than in BFA. Current MM is not like old MM, itās like a hybrid of old surv and mm.
For me (out of sarcasm) here is a theme just for demagogy, i swear current surv is not PROBLEM at all. So the all changes you want is new ranged with steady shot > cobra shot, rapid fire > BA, aimed > ES. I really donāt believe they will do it.
I guess better to make an option to change the weapon if you are playing surv. itās like default changes if u pick bow, raptor strike > cobra shot, add BA in talents. (better to add it for both melee and ranged surv, cuz some talents are garbage as always)
decision of the problem:
https://i.ibb.co/vL5GRPc/surv.png
I donāt understand why are you arguind about this.
Survival went from being the most popular specs in WoD (among hunters) to the least played spec in the game in one night during legion. And it has not recovered since, despite sometimes pulling ahead of its ranged counterparts in terms of damage.
The vast majority of people want it back ranged.
The numbers are very clear. Change it and be done with this abomination.
T. Someone who actually plays the spec on an alt and has fun with it, but recognizes that making one spec of the only ranged weapon using class in the game into a melee one is degenerate game design.
I was survival at release, I was survival up to BC, I wasnāt survival during US closed beta back in 2003 because there were no talents. And I totally enjoy current survival.
You and the 3 other hunters that want a 3rd range spec can sit on my spear.
The majority of hunters want Survival to be ranged. Pretending otherwise is just disingenuous.