So I know SV hunter has increased popularity since last patch, and has received huge drop in popularity after it has been changed to melee. I didn’t play SV hunter before Warlods on draenor except on private servers, so my question is how was survival pre WoD? I head people claim to was most popular hunter specs, but during WoD when I played SV hunter they told me it’s weak spec and required good gear to be viable.
Right now, I was wondering how it was before WoD. I played SV in WoD when it was ranged and it was on the most popular spec. Some people claim it was more popular then MM and BM from WOTLK till WoD
Meh, it was ok. Popularity of spec is almost entirely dependant on it’s level of the dps charts.
Personally I think it was just, ok. Compared to the other two. I mostly just took a bunch from it’s talent tree to make my traps more potent. Other than that the dead zone not being the end of my hunter was pretty nice.
I much prefer this version of SV though. Feels way more unique.
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So i do not remember for sure so i looked at warcraftlogs survival in WoD is the weakest hunter spec in all 3 raid patches.
Pre WoD you had the diehard BM hunters they would play BM no matter what.
You had some diehard MM but hardly any diehard Survival players.
MM and survival was often just played whatever is the best damage, and that depended on many factors.
It is important to note here that mass aoe was not really as important in the past unlike today as raids is how people looked at specs.
I guess the easiest way to help is potentially go to preachgaming on youtube and search for hunter on the channel.
He has hunter guides from cataclysm to shadowlands on there.
If i understand your question correctly and you are looking for insight in how survival was like.
If you are just looking to get opinions from people it was fine the dps was not stellar but you could still top meters if you played well, hunter was often just average middle of the pack class in general not the best but not the worst and because of other factors did a lot of the extra jobs around the raids (the same jobs that moonkin is doing these days in shadowland)
It was the best spec to go for damage wise when you had end game gear. When it changed to melee I just made my peace that hunter only has BM and MM spec to play with.
Just to clarify, the DoT version of SV was a WotLK - WoD thing.
Regarding its PvE popularity it depends if it was FotM or not, like always.
It became very weak during last patch of WoD after they ‘fixed’ the multistrike bug which had ridiculous scaling with the spec for an entire xpac. When they buffed the damage back it was too late and everyone was already running 4p MM.
Otherwise it was a very straightforward spec to play, low variance due to damage profile and full mobility. People tend to enjoy easy specs and SV was the pinnacle of it.
Personally I enjoyed it but found Black Arrow to be a mess thematically, just like I hate throwing bombs at my feet and pulling a tiny crossbow out of my pocket.
I wish they would expand more onto the spear/polearm hunting theme which fits the ‘survivalist’ fantaisy the best imo.
I liked the small niche in Burning Crusade. Master with traps, very different play style, and for raiding? We always had a spot in Raids because the Expose Weakness talent deep in the tree (Every critical hit raised the Attack Power of the entire raid group vs that target in some nice number that I do not recall right now ) Memories. 
I can’t speak for PvE, but I will answer for PvP hunters, as I’m sure everyone feels the same way. SV during WoD, was probably the iteration of any hunter spec we had ever. I personally think it was better than MoP MM.
You had so much control, with good damage, you never had to rely on pet, it was actual heaven. Not to mention as an SV hunter you had the only counter to the most busted ability/talent in game (burst of speed), with exotic munitions slow arrows. Honestly you could 1 v 3 melee back then, SV was so good at kiting it was unreal.
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From my experience, players simply played whatever did most dps.
I was checking on American US forums as well but they are toxic as rotten potato. Americans people are different kind of breed. Forums are full of SV. Soon someone writes word “survival” there i a group of some potato heads bashing people. They remind me of my friend. Dude is annoying with his contradictions.He is my guild member as well and claimed it was the most popular spec in cataclysm, MoP and WoD. I know in WoD you need good gear for it to even be accepted in serious raids. As soon I say it was not mate would explode. I told him he would be perfect fit for American forums.
But thnx for answers it’s just confirms theory that allot of people have. It’s popularity was dependent on performance which was during certain patches only.
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