What changes would you like to SV tree PvP?-Hunter PvP Discussion-Hunter Forums-HuntsmansLodge.com

I'm curious, I've been playing around with these ideas for the past week in my head.

Basically, the general consensus is that SV is all but dead in a PvP setting now because of the nerfs and the tree-related bugs that have not been ironed out (such as abilities not scaling properly with RAP despite being designed to be stat-based, among other things). To think that back in Wrath this was my spec of choice, and back in Vanilla this was the go-to PvP spec…except for that, y'know, melee thing.

So it got me thinking. What kind of changes would I like made to the Survival tree? This is just more of a “toss ideas around” thread from us, the customers, on how we think a certain Hunter spec could be improved and why, rather than a “QQ WE NEEDS MOAR LUV” thread.

I'll start the ball rolling:

1) People have been complaining about Counterattack for a long time now, rightly identifying it as a relic from the past. The Hunter's intrinsically pitiful chance of parrying makes this ability nigh useless, and given that Deterrence no longer parries incoming attacks (it makes them miss instead), it makes the ability completely pointless in Cataclysm. So it got me thinking. What could possibly replace Counterattack as a viable emergency melee? A number of people suggested attacks that reduce healing done to the target, baking Counterattack with Raptor Strike so that taking the talent now causes your RS to stun the opponent while the ability is active, and several others.

My personal suggestion would be: make Counterattack similar to that Rifle Smash attack you get while doing the Mor'shan Caravan vehicle escort quest in the Barrens. Hit your enemy with it and they go flying backwards about 15 yards, giving you an effective gap in case your Disengage is on cooldown, as well as a viable interrupt.

There are two ways to do this: when popped, the ability would stay active for around 5 seconds, and the first melee attack you receive in that 5-second window will be automatically parried and countered with a nasty knockback blow, while also cancelling your Counterattack aura. Another would simply be a straightforward melee attack like Mongoose Bite, which would also make it useful against casters. A 30 second cooldown on this ability will suffice.

My only fear is that, if this were implemented, they would make it share a cooldown with Disengage. If it were implemented and the Disengage cooldown sharing does happen, I'd like to see a Silence, Stun or Snare baked into Counterattack–especially if it's a straight-on melee move instead of a procced ability.

2) Explosive Trap. Quite near-useless in PvP, except back when Entrapment also affected it. The AoE only ever stayed in one area, which would make it useful in a PvE setting but not in PvP. Given Hunters' long-standing need of more gap openers and interrupts to choose from in the face of ever-increasing efficiency that other ranged classes seem to enjoy, what would make it more useful?

Initially my idea was this: give Explosive Trap an AoE knockback ability that procs when it is first triggered, sending all enemies within its radius flying away for 5 yards. I mean, it IS an explosive trap, after all. If the land mines in Aszhara could do that to me, why not this?

This essentially kills three PvP birds with one stone:

a) It makes the trap a decent interrupt against casters.

b) It gives the Hunter more breathing room against melee.

c) It messes up enemy positioning and disrupts player concentration.

Now, the very probable retort would be that this would make the trap dangerous in a PvE setting, making enemies fly where they aren't supposed to–like another group of mobs. So how to address this?

Simple. Put it back into Entrapment where it rightfully belongs. Just as the talent would give your Ice and Snake traps a Root component for 2/3/4 seconds per talent point, make it so that it also gives Explosive Trap that initial AoE knockback for 2/4/6 yards per talent point.

3) Give Survival a better stealth detection ability. While I am feeling that a form of increased passive stealth detection should be more at home in the BM tree, SV could also benefit from it. One way of doing this would be changing the now-nearly irrelevant trap resistance reduction aspect of Survival Tactics to that of shortening the cooldown on Flare, or increasing its effective radius.

I have some more ideas, but they aren't as fleshed out as the above. How about you guys? Feel free to post your suggestions here!

EDIT: Darn, I realized I should have posted this in the PvP forums. >_< My bad. Is there any way for me to move this post myself, or must it be done by a moderator?