This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
I honestly preferred Legion Survival, but the current one ain't bad.
I'm still a little on the fence with these changes, having mained this spec in Legion. It might just be some weird kind of Stockholm syndrome, because most people seem to like the changes.It feels more like a mish-mash of so many other classes now, and the other hunter specs are bleeding into it. I'll say it works a little better now than it did in Legion, meaning it's easier to play and to understand properly, but it has kinda lost what little uniqueness it once had. It's now become more of a ranged class than melee, it feels like. The Wildfire Bomb definitely gives you more flow, but I used to love the strategic placement of the Exploding Trap.I very, very rarely use the harpoon anymore, now that there are plenty longer ranged actual attacks, which is a little sad, because zooming up close to your enemy like that was awesome. Also, I don't understand why we couldn't keep Lacerate as our damage over time ability, especially now that we have Kill Command and Wildfire Bomb to take care of range. That little sidearm crossbow is veeery outlaw rogueish, so yet again we borrow from other classes and specs.Anyway, Survival is still a decent spec, but it just doesn't feel as fun anymore. I'll give it a fair chance, but I feel like I might be changing class pretty soon.
Uhmm... Butchery does provide single target benefit for anyone not specced into Mongoose, as it deals roughly 15% more damage than Raptor Strike. Plus since it's actually worth using as opposed to Carve, reduction in Wildfire Bomb on single target is also benefit of taking this talent.
Chakrams is so fun to use I don't give a dang what damage it does I'm using it no matter what. Getting sick of everyone of these articles always complaining this talent is .01% dps less than the others so it must be garbage.
Count me in with the group the preferred the Legion playstyle. While I understand it felt like spinning plates trying to maintain all the buffs/debuffs, the core of the rotation is what felt good, not managing a bunch of piddly dots. Going ham with Mongoose Bite spam was great, especially with the animation ramp-up, which I am VERY sad is gone with the new BfA model, as that was probably the coolest part. I'm also cranky at Kill Command being here, it makes the spec feel like BM Lite. What was wrong with Flanking Strike? Both the hunter and the pet attacking together is way better than pointing in the enemy's face like a doofus while the pet tickles their ankles with a crappy generator.
Hunters should never be melee. It's weird. I will stick with beast mastery or marksmanship.
Are these community opinion pieces deliberately going through all the melee first, or are melee just more passionate about being heard?Idle minds are curious.
I must say I'm one of the three people that actually liked Survival Hunter in Legion, but I was still exited to see how it would play in BFA since the idea of a melee-ranged hybrid is one I love.At first I didn't like the changes and thought they grabbed a pretty unique spec and just turned it into every other spec ever, but that's because I misunderstood the way the new Mongoose Bite works (I thought it still worked on charges) and I have renewed hopes for the spec after reading this post.
Imo, SV hunter is the better enhancement shaman in BfA - much better resource generation, better gameplay, permanent pet, better survival.
I would be happy with this if there was a way to make AOTE a permanent passive. As it stands the current setup is kind of a slap in the face to people who were used to the ranged survival we had for a decade prior to legion. "We're going to give you all these ranged abilities, but you have to stay in melee range anyway."