Survival needs a redesign, bad

Classes Hunter
1

The mad bomber playstyle does not match with the stealthy, refined trapper aesthetic.

Survival shines the most in PvP, by far. Yet it’s seeing some glaring issues, just one of which I’m ranting about now.

2 out of 3 Pack Leader beasts break Freezing Trap (and Scatter). Explosive Shot breaks Freezing Trap. Wildfire Bomb breaks Freezing Trap. Fury of the Eagle breaks Freezing Trap.
Explosive Shots fly out every minute at everyone within at least 20-30 yards of your target, prio on players of course.
Even Mongoose Bite (Arctic Bola) used to break Freezing Trap for a good part of Dragonflight. Pathetic.
And don’t even get me started on friendly players’ shenanigans.

Currently ONLY Flanking Strike and Mongoose Bite doesn’t break it. And Flanking needs to be buffed by Tip, aka Kill Command, or it’s just a waste to press.

Your win condition is Freezing Trap, already the hardest CC to land in game. Please Bli$$ard, let us, at the very least be rewarded with a full duration trap when we first land it, among the 10 million ways to negate it.

6 Likes
2

I think Bombs were an off putting choice from Blizz since Legion rework,this has been toned down to only 1 bomb out of 3. That bomb is a nice AoE. This however should be changed to something else, more relateable like a wildfire trap or something, taht stay in place, but then again, it will bring a lot of hate, since tanks will be moving out of this so no dps or bonuses for a hunter who placed it.
I think Mangoose Bite should have diferent animation if OR player use Polearm, since it should be stabbing attack.

Flanking Strike is strong enough, and can also apply same amount of damage as bleed, taht btw is not really dispellable by players.
What I DONT like is Aspect of the Eagle, making your spell ranged is a dumb idea, and the fact that Arcane shot, steady shot are in your spellbook is not weird, what is weird that you cannot use them unless you have ranged weapon, but Explosive Shot dont need ranged weapon?

Survival should have Explosive Shot, as this used to be a Signature ability, HOWEVER if one ranged ability can be casted without ranged weapon while other 2 cannot, then something is wrong lol. Survival Hunter should be either full Melee or full Ranged, I dont think 1 spell that makes this spec semi-range class is a solution here.

What I think should be brought back is a Serpent Sting being a seperate spell, why this had to be merged with Aimed Shot or Raptor Strike/Mangoose Bite? Why Hunter gets spells merged more than any other class? With the NEW one button help for all specs, I think Serpent Sting should be its own ability, and should be part of the rotation, otherwise this basically is a free dot on any target. I understand that game should be a bit easier for newer players, but thats what this ONE BUTTON ROTATION is all about isn’t it?
Agree, Survival should be looked at.

1 Like
3

I agree with most of your points but I have to disagree with your make it either ranged or melee comment. I absolutely love being a hybrid, kiting with bombs and kill commands when theres danger and divibg in eith flanking and mongoose when the time is right.

I do wish there was a talent or sonething to stoo bomb and explosive from brraking trap though. As OP said, it is a problem we face in PvP. Diamod Ice just isnt a good pick to solve this atm.

4 Likes
4

I miss Serpent Sting dearly. Biggest L in TWW. Tagging mobs is so tedious with that slow, garbage pet.

1 Like
5

I think in the case of having hybrid ranged and melee, why dont we make Survival straight up Spear Hunter then? You could have some abilities mainly for ranged purpose, and melee to compensate for close combat.
And its not like we are inventing new stuff here, Troll Spear Hunters exist in Warcraft universe for ages, just the case of designing it right.
I understand why people fell in love of melee Survival in Wotlk as it was unique, same like Tanking Shamans in Vanilla, however if not wanting to redesign it completely for Spear Hunter, make a 4th spec or bring a class that will use spears, could easily have 2 specs, both dps, or having 3rd as support kind of a thing like Evokers.
Nobody wants Bard, its lame, it doesnt exist in Warcraft in any way, and it just doesnt fit at all.

But having like a spear hunter would be fun, and mose of the abilities are already available for survival hunter anyway, Mangoos Bite and Fury odlf the Eagle fits more of Spear use rather than a 2h Mace and swinging it with a tip of it. What could change is that there is a gap closer (forgot the name) and still uave disengage, which is fine for ranged stuff, but this feels empty when you cannot kite with Aspect of the Eagle on CD is it? I know that toggle abilitites are never an option for WoW for some reason, but imagine having similar thing to a DoTA2 character named Huskar, that could auto attack with trowing spears but toggling an ability, would allow him to throw flaming spears, draining his life in the game (which has its purpose), not necessarily this has to drain hp, but could be replacement for Wildfire Bombs for example. Poisoned Spear aka Serpent Stong that could remain under same name, using pet is fine of course, but I think Survival suppose to be a resemblance of Rexxar being melee hunter, however he uses 2x one hande weapons, that would be weird since Shamans Enhancement are using one handed weapons, too big of similarity here.

Many things that could be tweeked, changed or reworked regarding Hunters in general, I think its not Survival that needs attention, but all specs, they feel lackluster, slow and poor when it comes to amount of abilities not even to chose from, but to use in general… And I have noticed that the less button you have to press, more damage you deal, no skill involved.

2 Likes
6

It’s dumb but fun. There’s nothing like it. They should just rename it to Sapper instead or something.

There’s only one way they can change this to make sense.

Make survival range and turn beast mastery melee. But I’m sure there would be a huge uproar. I’d personally love it.

2 Likes
7

They should make it a 15 yard range class throwing spears.

It’s the least played class and changing it to a limited range spec would make it waaay more popular. You’d still keep the gap closers and some melee abilities like flanking strike and coordinated assault but the raptor/mongoose would be changed to range.

8

SV is horrendous in every conceivable way.
I don’t understand WHY this once ranged spec, that only ever used the pet for master’s call and RoS somehow became more pet dependant than BM. I jumped off the spawn cliff at Twin Peaks and was suddenly just locked out of over half my action bar fgs… Why? The pet gets stuck if you enter combat and jump down, leaving it stuck up top and essentially useless. Imagine, something entirely out of my control like my pet buggingout, or even stuck in CC, means I can’t Burst, Freedom, use defensive, use CC, abilities, etc. That is just HORRENDOUS, HORRENDOUS design. All for what? Some role player that wants an authentic companion experience, STOP IT PLS mate.

EDIT: I dont care WHAT they change or how they change it, so long as pet dependency is FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR gone, I am on board.

4 Likes
9

Survival should be a ranged spec with traps, dot and kite like it was in TBC/WotLK, focused on CC. Survival pets should be based around debuffs rather than outright aggressive. But Blizzard doesn’t want us to use CC or tactics any more, they want faceroll Korean style kapow dps.

Beast mastery should always have been melee because it’s supposed to have been based on Rexxar and Rexxar is melee. BM pets should be huge and red and very violent but on a much longer cooldown. It shouldn’t ever have been multi-pet either.

Marksmanship is in an ok place. Not having a pet suits it as it is basically just a physical mage. As soon as you introduce cast times and having to stand still to cast, you’re a mage.

10

For me Bombs and Explosive shot feel out of place with the rest of the abilities that are more animal based. I don’t mind the function of the bombs, its just that it’s bombs and a projectile that goes boom. Maybe something like spores or explosive seeds fits better.

11

Then they need to give 4th spec with ranged multi-pet spec, aka renamed bm since that what many love most about hunter.

12

Didn’t even exist until Legion.

13

Melee existed on hunter since vanilla. Then it was removed in Cataclysm and returned with SV rework in Legion. Raptor Strike, Mongoose Bite, and Flanking Strike for melee, alongside slower abilities like Wing Clip were already part of the hunter class. They also equipped melee weapons.

1 Like
14

Spears for Trolls, Axes for Orcs, Glaives for Night elves.

15

I’d love it if they allowed us to duel wield and add more focus on being a melee fighter and fighting alongside our pet instead of throwing bombs that do all our damage.

16

No thanks, I want SV to stay melee.

2 Likes
17

No thanks, I actually enjoy my SV.

1 Like
18

I genuinely dislike the bombs on SV hunter, it’s goofy and doesn’t fit at all. In terms of vibe and VFX it’s all over the place and messy.

19

I enjoy hybrid as well. I miss the 3 yards range talent from before TWW, but at least we can do decent damage when the floor is full of stuff we can’t stand in.

I do respect people who manage to play full melee, but it seems hard.

20

You’re complaing that AoE breaks your CC? My man, its been like this since vanilla. What are you on about? AoE is meant to break CC. You better start using ur CC better and think about how to use your abilities…