Another thing I will add is they could have gave it some love cosmetically. The new 2hander animation for Frost DKs and Warriors looks so damn cool. None of the Survival abilities have any ... oomph.
Ugh. Where to start.First of all, with all due respect to author of this post, its ANOTHER bad and negative review in a row from same Author for Survival hunter, always playing "it should be/stay ranged" card and written in a way to simply be brushed off the task list with negative vibe all trough the text.We really need dedicated Survival player writing these guides/updates, not a generic "melee player since TBC."Anyway, back on the topic of Survival.Its fun spec, no denial in that, and as someone who was playing mSurvival since day 1 of Legion beta, it was my main in last two expansions and, honestly, spec that carried me trough them and prevented me to leave the game all together.i would even say - Its SUPER fun, enjoyable and, since you have a pet, you can do really outstanding feats easily, while other melees would have some difficulties tackling same boss/rare in open world or while Soloing. Someone earlies mentioned how comparison with Rogues is not true and that fact brings whole articles credibility in question and i agree with it.Now, let me explain. I must state that i too picked up Survival since it was finally one thing that WoW never had - melee animal pet class.I finally had my FRP/RPG favorite class in my favorite game.As with Rogue comparison, which also requires different set of weapons for different specs, same can be said for Survival. Comparing Rogue CLASS vs Survival SPEC is not correct comparison, while both are melee, comparison is not fair. Comparing class vs class is. or Enhance/WW vs Survival. Not Rogues.And that is where i agree on, as it is expected from Rogue to have set of non-daggers for Outlaw, same is expected of Survival, to at least have ranged weapon.Lets be honest here, while we dont like it, being ranged hunter ease up A LOT on your healer and allows him to focus/spend his mana more on tank and other people in the group. And since Survival doesnt bring anything special compared to other two ranged spec.. well, there is no reason to bring it over ranged, isnt it?And thats where "meme" is - why melee when you can range?Survival was (and still is) "meme" spec and while me, or most of people that are in this comment dont think so, its just how it is, majority vs minority.And that simple "meme" reputation brought me A LOT of issues in BFA outside of guild/friends groups. PUGing anything was a pure nightmare. Its not undoable, it just takes time. It was easier to PUG as any other melee. It was hard enough to find a group as is, but frequently i was either asked to go ranged or simply removed as soon as people see my spec.And that's from experience.It came down to that same class that kept me playing this game for last 4 years started to push me away from the game. I was simply forced to have two sets of gear, one for mSurvival, one for BM if i wanted to enjoy all that this game has to offer while other melee classes didn't have same issue. And quite often i was forced to go ranged simply in order to do weekly stuff if i dont manage to align with my guildies/friends.They never questioned why am i Survival because "Survival meme" was broken for them.Its not that i hate BM or Ranged all together, i didnt mind going ranged.Its just that i knew Survivals potential if played right, but being forced to go ranged simply because of "meme"I was hoping that they will address it in SL, even a little in some way, however Survival had the least changes of all classes and i see same issues plaguing the spec, if not more. Survival is probably only class for which spec legendary is actually go-to legendary at the start of expansion while synergy between Leggos them self as well as conduits is non existent. If you look at other melees, DK, Rogue or even Enhance (as closest example), they all have various synergies between talents, Leggos and conduits that open up several different builds.Enhance alone, as closest example of being only melee spec on ranged class and recently reworked spec, now has 3 different talent builds from the get-go, further boosted by Leggos and conduits but also interacting between each other if we get (and we probably will) 2nd or even 3rd legendary.Anyhow, ill end my rant here... Tho Survival is "fine" in its current state and simple number tuning would be enough, I feel disappointed in global state of Survival. You know, while looking at other melees and what can they do, thinking "oh yea, if i pair that with this and this it can be fun" Survival doesnt have that moment. It simply is - Survival. Feels like a missed opportunity tbh, and while spec it self is fun as is, that fun can bring you to some lengths, while other classes, less fun, have more tools to make them more fun.