Surv new tank spec, games need more tanks!
Well, Ion himself admitted in a question about the abysmal participation numbers of the Survival hunter in legion that âclass popularity isnât the only thing that matters to themâ, which is practically omitting that the spec is incredibly unpopular.
If Blizzard listened to solid feedback, we wouldnât need to do it. All I know is that shadow priests had to kick scream shout and riot until we got a rework at the last second.
If thatâs what it takes to make a change, so be it.
Donât get me wrong, I have an alt survival hunter. I like playing it. It is very nuanced and miles ahead of itâs legion version in terms of performance, but thatâs why it is my alt, and not a main. It is what it is.
But basically if you only play survival hunter for the sake of world questing or indeed leveling up it doesnât deserve a spot as a spec I feel.
Could you fix melee survival to be better? Sure, but itâd not change fundamental problems with the spec.
I, as well as many others, prefer the new SV style. Iâd be gutted as well as embarrassed for Blizz if they reverted a whole class design change just because of a few crying nards on forums.
Survival as a spec/theme is amazing and playing it is a hell of a lot of fun, it just needs a bit of attention in some areas.
In summary, Hunters have 2 ranged specs, use one of them. Surv is melee/range hybrid now and we like it like that.
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Neither of which function/play anywhere close to how RSV did pre-Legion.
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Melee (actually hybrid) SV is one of the best, if not the best and most unique thing they have done in recent years. The hardest but in my opinion the most fun spec in the game. The very theme and fantasy of spec are amazing. I imagine a SV hunter as someone who sets traps, hides in the bushes with his pet, waits patiently, when the target falls into the trap then daze it with a bomb and poison, then fires a harpoon and finishes the target with his pet. The apex predator, which lives and survives in conditions that are impossible for most, has no equal in the jungle and forests, it is its terrain and be careful if you enter its territory. Although you can say this for all hunters, SV is the one 
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If you repeat âuniqueâ ten times before the mirror every night Ion Hazzikostas will appear in the mirror.
Nobody is denying that survival is indeed extremely unique. Like square wheels on a car. Very unique. Very hard/impossible to optimize and design, too.
Function > form. Look at Shadowpriests, Combat rogues or demo locks if you need more proof. Gimmick classes are universally behind compared to their main coubterparts. They need to have stars aligning for them in very specific scenarios for them to be viable.
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Iâm not saying that SV is perfect and that there is no room for improvement, Iâm just saying that RSV would be the dumbest thing they could do. You already have two decent, quite different ranged specs, so choose and enjoy.
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Neither of which fill the niche of ranged survival hunter people loved to play.
You keep saying they are so similar, but why is it then that neither of the specs has been able to offer that survival gameplay feel the spec had pre-legion, if they are so similar?
After all, the reason why Blizzard changes survival was because ,the specs were so similar", yet if this is the case, why are they and you unable to provide us a spec that feels and plays like survival hunter pre-legion?
Itâs kind of a self-defeating statement. Born out of being out of touch with the game, I feel.
Neither BM or MM is capable of dot kiting or pressure. Both have dots but they are suplementary, not the main source of damage. Equally, if you make these parts dominant in either of the specs, you encroach upon their class fantasy, namely MM having strong, heavy hittimg abilities and BMâs damage being pet tied.
As I have said. I do not think survival warrants being a spec in melee, because of several problems:
A) It is really, really underplayed. Pick any end game content. Any. M+, raiding, pvp. Bottom participation numbers through the board.
B) By remaining a melee spec, it is forcing gimmicky/unwarranted designs for both MM and BM which havenât done them any favours over the years either, because they can not fill the niche of âranged survivalâ, because contrary to what people said, they were not similar at all. Else this problem would not exist.
C) It is impossible to balance.
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My opinion is that the current (melee/hybrid) SV hunter is a great spec and thatâs it. It is quite difficult to play and therefore not so popular, because not everyone can play it properly. Todayâs players are only interested in what is easy + op/broken, and SV definitely does not belong to that category. But I see that lately this trend is changing and more and more players are starting to be interested in SV, because I repeat, it is unique, fun, challenging and actually has great potential and people are tired of 3 button braindead classes/specs. This spec finally has its own identity, and the fact that a few of you want it to become plain and boring again is your problem, not the problem of spec itself. See you
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For raiding the problem is that it is melee it is fighting for a spot with Warriors Ret WW DKs DH Rogues Enhancement Feral.
Even if it was the best dps in the game it might not be enough to be taken over those classes there is only so many spots for Melee in mythic raiding and some of those are taken by class buff classes.
It being hard or easy has no real bearing on this and will have no bearing on this.
Personally, i will not play it (only if i become really bored) as it is not ranged, because there are other more fun classes as melee and i play hunter to be at range.
There is also very few people actually playing the spec in raiding in the first place to convince the player base that survival is actually good.
Like take warcraftlogs on this patch 1,085 (this is 2000logs less than the next up arcane mage) is how many logs it finds over 2weeks now let me contrast that to the 2 weeks prior to this patch we are in now 549logs.
This is for all bosses btw.
With so few players the placement on statistics are unreliable at best.
But lets pretend it is harder to play the best Survival hunter is 600(almost 700)dps lower than the best BM hunter right now.
What if i told you people thought Ranged survival was a great spec.
What if i told you people find this version of survival boring.
Just because you think it was boring does not make it so.
You are doing the exact thing you think they are doing.
Just to make it damn clear i do not have a preference in this what so ever, i prefer MM though this version of MM is far far away from the best version.
There have always been classes/specs that are better for some content at a given time and that will always change. Nothing new.
Well donât. No one is forcing you to play. Not everything is for everyone. You like ranged hunter, I like melee, you have two options and I have one. I who have one option do not complain and you who have two are not satisfied. You people really fascinate me sometimes. Like I said, you have two very decent ranged specs, choose and enjoy.
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Well, depends what you use to measure greatness. If you just like it because it âfeelsâ good, then thats obviously fine. I have said I enjoy it too. I get it. But just because some people enjoy a spec =/= it should stay. Especially thereâs a market for larger playerbase, I feel.
I donât think it is that hard to play. Granted, I only levelcapped 4 weeks ago and am closing in on 1600 cr now with 202 item level, but it isnât that terribly hard I feel.
Disagree, people always play FotM specs since the start of this game but many also stay loyal. I think people play MM and BM for their own reasons, but what I do know for sure that nobody plays survival because they killed the spec in legion. As I said, square wheels are unique and you can literally do any content in this game with any spec, but the numbers speak for themselves. Survivalâs been the top damage spec several times out of the three and still nobody plays it.
I havenât seen any trend, and you can indeed check the trend from Rio and Arena websites to see that survival hunters still are one of the least popular specs to play. Alongside demonology and outlaw. Nothingâs changed the past 4 months. Where have you seen the trend?
Sure, it has more buttons, but very few of them have any real interaction between them so they are there literally just âfor the sake of itâ. Survivalâs whole talent tree feels like they just took a box and threw ideas into it.
Ranged survival had itâs identity too. It was the DoT range spec, while MM was the hard hitting burst range spec and BM the pet range spec. Now itâs just this abomination that doesnât know whether it wants to be melee or ranged. Survivalâs whole kit was interacting with itself when it was ranged, in melee thereâs no interaction.
Also we got Shadow priest changed by just spamming the forums and twitter etc, we will get survival changed too, eventually. Just got to keep shouting loud enough.
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Itâs just your opinion, actually the opinion of a few of you. And yeah, survival will remain melee hybrid, there will be no change in that regard. Check Bicmex videos/streams, itâs the art of playing 
Raider IO numbers and class popularity are not opinions. Theyâre facts.
Survival was 37% of hunter class representation in WoD. Now itâs, what, 4? 5%?
Thatâs what they said about shadow priests. Yet here we are. You just got to believe and kick and scream loud enough, all is possible.
I watch Jellybeans, heâs the best hunter in the world in pvp if one were to make a humble guess. The way he plays survival is pure art. As is his BM and MM playing, but I digress.
I donât disagree that survival is unique and viable. Thatâs not the issue. It just doesnât warrant being a gimmick because a few thousand people like it, thatâs all.
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Removing ranged SV was one of the worst decisions blizzard has ever made.
Was by far my fav spec from wotlk and onwards.
Removing it to create a melee spec that they give no attention now for 3 expansions and that like only 1% of all Hunters even play, is mindblowing to say the least.
They could have made a 4th spec if they wanted to joke around with a melee Hunter, but removing old ranged SV was a gigantic brainfart.
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Because we currently have too many op braindead 3 button classes/specs and too many elitists. Also everyone plays sub rogue in pvp so that means sin is horrible? Of course not. I started playing sin again a week or two ago and the spec is great, but guess what, you canât kill someone with two buttons in 2 gcds and thatâs why for most sin is terribly bad thatâs it, the end. The typical mentality of todayâs players.
They changed the mechanics of spec but did not turn it into a melee warrior you know. He still more or less has all the same abilities. They did a similar thing with enh shaman, changed the mechanics but the class is still played in a similar way. Your statement is really stupid, but keep screaming out loud 
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Neither of which fill the niche of ranged survival hunter YOU loved to play.
No disrespect dude, but thereâs a lot of hunters out there with different views. Personally, I thought the old SV was trash and didnât fit the Survival theme well a all. The new melee/range hybrid is amazingly fun, and in the right hands very powerful. People just donât pick it up because itâs actually a hard spec to play well, they run out of keybinds and just canât deal.
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i can tell you that Range SV from previous expansions was not only OP and fun to play but it suited the theme more than melee
we had more dots and poisons back then than we do now
if you read the description of survival " a hunter that favours poisons and traps "
the current spec has 1 poison and the same amount of traps as other specs
previous SV when it was range had the following
- Ammunition Dot ( incendiary , poison, frost )
- black arrow ( dot)
- explosive shot ( Dot that exploded each tick )
- roots with Freeze trap ( improved version of tar trap )
- steel trap ( yes we had steel back in the day too )
- barrage
- volley
- serpent sting ( same as the one we have now but it actually did more damage )
- Wyern sting
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before people moan about Lore
Rexar is a Beastmaster hunter with dual axes. if anything needs to be melee its BM NOT Survival spec
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Dual wield BM could be fun, I wouldnât complain 