Well Survival look strong, how is it compared to BM?

[TeemoTeemo 0]

Hey hunters! 

I used to play hunter back in the old days (Max level 80), and now starting with the game again. Therefore starting to gather some research before making my character (Yea thats my thing). First of all im a raider, love doing that, therefore want to master a spec there can give me a spot on the raid teams. I passionated in the spec BM for a while, but have a hard time to chose, as my research came across Survival. Survival look pretty strong at the moment, when i look at characters as Nnoggah. So i want the hear some of the more experience guys in here, how is BM doing compared to Survival, is it lacking behind or is it doing better if played right? 

Hope to hear some opinions. PS i know typical question here, but as a person i just like to get all facts gather before starting something.
Kind regards - TeemoTeemo

[Luthixx 138]

SV is consistent if you can master it, but it's by far the most complex and demanding spec. BM is very laid back and simple but requires good legendaries to get much out of it. 

Both specs have their strengths and weaknesses but ultimately it's better to find what one you enjoy the most. Usually SV hunters are few and far between and they scale well with gear, but as is the case with raiding this expac, guilds usually prefer ranged dps. 

Pretty much all hunter specs ATM are middle of the pack unless you're a complete standout from your guild. 

[Khallid 110]

Do you already have a raiding guild? Many guilds will already have a "full" roster of melee (warriors, demon hunters, rogues, death knights, paladins) and will prefer a ranged hunter instead of a melee hunter simply to have more people with good mobility to deal with ranged mechanics.

I have little to no experience with Survival, but I can assure you that Beast Master gets good dps. Super hardcore mythic raiders might disagree, but I have had no complaints with my dps throughout Legion (except that first week when 7.1.5 came out but we got buffed right away). Sure, it needs good legendaries to get high dps, but so does any spec in the game right now, so it's hardly the big issue people claim it to be. Although I might be a bit biasied since I already have all 10 BM legendaries so I don't care about them anymore.

In terms of playstyle, BM is currently the only ranged spec that has full mobility, since all of the attacks are instant casts, meaning that a BM hunter is great with boss mechanics. You won't lose dps by moving around so you can soak and dodge stuff, being super useful to the group while doing so and generally be happy :D

BM is also the easiest hunter spec to play because we have few attacks to cast and a simple priority algorithm (also called rotation). It's one of the most powerful solo specs in the game (in case you solo a lot like I do) because the BM tenacity pet is a very decent tank. For example, I soloed mythic HoV to tame Fenryr and being able to solo content that is intended for groups always feels nice.

[Luthixx 138]

On 4/28/2017 at 4:06 AM, Khallid said:

Do you already have a raiding guild? Many guilds will already have a "full" roster of melee (warriors, demon hunters, rogues, death knights, paladins) and will prefer a ranged hunter instead of a melee hunter simply to have more people with good mobility to deal with ranged mechanics.

In terms of playstyle, BM is currently the only ranged spec that has full mobility, since all of the attacks are instant casts, meaning that a BM hunter is great with boss mechanics. You won't lose dps by moving around so you can soak and dodge stuff, being super useful to the group while doing so and generally be happy :D

These are both really good points; for pretty much every boss in NH, and even in EN, ranged do a lot better for dps and survivability and it's the opposite for melee in M+ (usually). Most guilds will look for a BM/MM hunter and unless they're actually short on melee will probably prefer not to take SV hunters. They're exceptional DPS but it's a lot harder to find a guild at the moment that is short on melee.

As for the mobility, that's honestly something you just can't ignore; now that BM is pretty much on par or above MM on every fight most guilds will want BM since they handle mechanics a LOT easier; especially fights like Elisande where melee are practically useless and can't deal with the mechanics half as well as the ranged can.