Survival needs to get rid of pet dependency and the resolution is already in the game

Classes Hunter
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We all know that survival has a big problem with spec fantasy, low player base and relatively uninteresting toolkit and talents. Rework in Shadowlands is highly improbable but will surely come the next expansion since survival is slowly becoming a meme.

The most important thing I would like to see in a rework is getting rid of kill command. Right now the focus generation without pet is impossible and the cast time of Revive pet is long. I’d say leave Kill command and pet dependency for BM hunters and let survival be viable on its own. Since the alternative for kill command has to be ranged I would make Chakrams base line and make it generate focus. All talents that improve Kill command could work with Chakrams without too much reworking.

Chakrams. Chakrams is now a baseline. Throw a pair of chakrams at your target, slicing all enemies in the chakrams’ path for [ 40% of Attack Power ] Physical damage. The chakrams will return to you, damaging enemies again. Your primary target takes 100% increased damage.

Has a 25% chance to immediately reset its cooldown.

Generates 15 Focus.

Alpha Predator - Chakrams now has 2 charges, and deals 30% increased damage.
You and your pet gain 10% attack speed for every bleeding enemy within 12 yds.

Bloodseeker - Chakrams causes the target to bleed for [ 40% of Ranged Attack Power ] damage over 8 sec.

Tip of the Spear -Chakrams increases the damage of your next Raptor Strike/Mongoose bite by 25%, stacking up to 3 times.

Wildfire infusion - Lace your Wildfire Bomb with extra reagents, randomly giving it one of the following enhancements each time you throw it:

Pheromone Bomb: Chakrams has a 100% chance to reset against targets coated with Pheromones.

For players who would like to have more synergy with their pet, Kill command could be a talent in the same row with Flanking strike.

Kill command. Replaces Chakrams. Give the command to kill, causing your pet to savagely deal [ 60% of Attack Power ] Physical damage to the enemy.

Has a 25% chance to immediately reset its cooldown.

Generates 15 Focus.

3 Likes
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Or just simply return back to MoP survival. Surv already has steadyshot back. So… and make traps relevant to rotation again.

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inb4 legions of posters going “survival must have pets because fantasy if you dont like it roll other melee”

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I mean, it is a pet class.
But instead of making it chakram, why not replace it with a version of flanking strike.

Flanking strike: You and your pet leap to the target and strike it as one, dealing a total of [ 60% of Attack Power ] Physical damage.
Has 25% chance to Immediately reset it’s cooldown
Generates 10 focus per attack.

Have it so if your pet is dead, you just lunge at the target for 10, if your pet is alive, you both lunge to the target for 10 each.

Maybe add a thing where your flanking strike could reduce the cast time of Revive pet by 1 second a cast.

Chakrams are INCREDIBLY underwhelming as an attack. Throwing hatchets would make more sense than razorblade frisbees.
Plus why would Pheromone bomb, make your CD reset? It makes KC reset because it sends the pet into a frenzy, unless your chakram is alive.

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In my opinion, sv dps rotation should be separate from pet, but whole utility would be by pet

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Pets should be mandatory for all Hunter specs. Why play a Hunter if you don’t want to use pets… Go play Warrior, because pet-less Survival is just warrior-lite.

Survival isn’t unpopular because it has a pet, it’s unpopular because it’s melee on a class that is seen as being archer/sharpshooter. After all, the most iconic shot in WoW’s history is a Dwarf Hunter, gun in hand, with his pet.

Keep SV’s pet. Remove Lone Wolf from MM. Go play Warrior if that’s a problem, leave one of the only pet-driven classes alone.

3 Likes
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There isn’t a single class that hasn’t gotten its entire premise completely changed at one point or another. Fire mage is now an instant-cast machine gun spec, WW monk is a pet class, warrior went from one of the slowest classes to one that charges and leaps all over to infinity and beyond, enhancement shamans went from windfury fishing two-hander guys to dual wielding spastics, demo warlocks turned into garbage, and death knights went from slow, unstoppable juggernauts to glass canons (minus the canon part).

Hunter is a pet class, but thinking that it should always be tied to a pet because “It’s how it has always been” isn’t a line of thinking that even the devs agree with. Specs are changed and remade in this game. Literally nothing is sacred.

Survival has a lot of things about it that are unique that have nothing to do with the pet. It’s the only true range/melee hybrid, able to seamlessly switch between short and long distance fighting, and between mongoose and the bomb charges, as well as their particular method of resource gain, they’ve got a playstyle that you won’t get if you “go play warrior”.

Don’t instantly dismiss an idea just because it wrestles with tradition.

5 Likes
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I agree with what you said but I gotta point out that this switching between melee and ranged isn’t as good as it could be. It’s more of a melee spec that has some decent ranged tools. To be honest I would like a bigger emphasis on it being a melee/ranger hybrid by giving it some more ranged options in the form of talents, like the option to have Explosive Shot in place of Guerrilla Tactics that could become baseline, and then in that row you’s choose between Explosive Shot if you wanted primarily to be a ranged SV, or Butchery if you wanted to be primarily a melee SV. With some other changes in the talent tree following that logic. And also having the weapon swap out of the GCD, so that the playstyle could be viable. You’d just need to have 1 bag slot with the extra weapon and a very simple macro do swap them, or even have Aspect of the Eagle reworked to be the weapon swap ability.

1 Like
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I’d rather see flanking strike returning baseline and this kill command thing going out of the way.

I agree that removing the constraint of having a pet to actually cast flanking strike at the cost of some dps would make sense, but I 100% prefer having resurrect pet cast time reverted and pet survivability restored.

1 Like
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i said it before if you turn off kc /focus regen, the spec loose all the hybrid stuff … why haveto do flanking strike to regen focus if i don’t want to be in melee at “x” moment. That’s why the pet/kc is so important in the gameplay. specialy in pvp situation, the spec is all about windows: " should i stay or should i go " ^^

Like others said before me if you don’t like/want manage a pet (i agree there is some problems with the I.A sometimes) roll an another class/ spec.

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Which is what people are doing tbh. SV is afaik the least played spec in the game.

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