On the last Mythic+ class distribution graph, besides Pres Evoker (which is extinct at this point), at dead last for pick rate as usual is Aff Lock, Outlaw, Arcane and Survival. I don’t need graphs to tell me because I have seen 0 Survival players in the wild besides myself.
Now Arcane and Outlaw I understand. Arcane has been dumbed down far too much (I know because EVEN I can play it), and Outlaw still feels terrible with its RNG and target cap.
Why Survival and Afflic though? They are both fun, fast and not in a poor state. Survival feels good, as you throw out traps like candy, jumping all over the place with harpoons.
Affliction is a bit more of an acquired taste but all you really do is play like any other caster, except you drop dots first then spam Malefic and Drain Soul. It lacks variety but I think there are far more boring specs that people play for whatever reason… like Beast Mastery… honestly if people just gave them a chance they would probably like them. I am a fan of both and will be sad if they ever get targeted for major reworks by Blizz. Oh, no one plays this spec? Must be terrible, GUT IT! Their damage is pretty much on par with the others, just more effort involved?
Arcane is meta Mage. I dont know where you get that info from.
Because their cousins MM, BM for hunters and Destro/Demo for locks perform better.
You could buff those two specs you mention. But then you would be back here in the forums the next day asking the question “why dosent anyone play BM/MM or Destro/Demo”.
And survival specifically has a “bad fluff” IMO. Hunter is a really popular spec. And being ranged, and have the bonus of a “melee” rotation with no casters, pets, ect… And you put a melee spec to that. Its simply normal that people will not choose it, while simultaniously having better melee alternatives with better “fluff” like Ret Paladins.
Arcane is still more complicated than the times all its offensive cooldowns were off the GCD and you just macroed them all together, and it didn’t have at least 3 different procs to track.
In DF it was just a bit too much. 30 sec cooldown arcane spark that didn’t align with it’s 45 sec cooldowns meant you didn’t really have downtimes between burn and miniburn phases.
It’s what happens when you balance the game around the people that cry that their spec can’t do literally everything, you end up with homogenized specs.
It’s fine if some specs don’t have good burst while others have lower sustain. It’s fine if some specs are worse in aoe and some are worse in ST.
I always do, but I know what you are saying. Most people pick what is mostly played. In the end, I know I won outperform a good MM hunter, but I sure as … play better than a bad or average one . I main resto shaman, play BDK, but I invest most time in this one, since itś a challenge. I actually also love affliction warlock
Because now surv is a weak spot, if you open graphs for season 1 - you will see, that there were plenty ppl playing it, when it was performing well, but now it’s just not a time, and as most ppl told, they chose hunter mostly because they want to play some ranged class, but not a mix of melee/range, the same problem I think with outlaw rogue, this specs seems weird for their classes and fantasies, sometimes I think it would be better to do a separate class for this two specs, maybe more ppl will re-roll them.
but more power to you for sticking to what you like.