On one hand, I can imagine a ton of die-hard Survival Hunters are freaking out right now. Survival is getting a profound revamp in Legion, with a change that will make Hunters the third class, and the only pure DPS class, to have both melee and ranged specs.
From a bird's eye view, that's super cool. But I can also imagine a ton of people getting very, very upset right now. Survival is (or at least has been) a very popular spec. Explosive Shot is one of the most satisfying attacks in the game, and the fact that Survival will be a melee spec casts some serious doubts on its future.
Clearly, Blizzard should have made one of the Hunter specs a melee spec in vanilla - something they kind of half-assedly hinted at, but to which they are now committing. Marksmanship clearly was always going to be ranged, but you could make an argument for Beast Mastery as the clearer choice for a melee class, especially given that Rexxar is the iconic Beast Master, and he's never used a gun, bow, or crossbow.
Still, Beast Mastery has a clear identity of its own, and the distinction between Survival and Marksmanship has always been a bit muddier. So I think this is a logical choice, even though I want to reach out to any Survival Hunters who are freaking out right now and quote Bill Clinton by saying "I feel your pain." I'm worried a lot about losing 2H Frost, and I had to watch my Warrior's Arms spec turn into horrible mush during the Warlords Beta (and despite all our cries of agony, they wouldn't revert the changes!)
What's interesting is that this actually throws the balance of ranged and melee specs out of... balance.
Melee will now have thirteen DPS specs (fourteen if you count Gladiator's Resolve - wonder if that's staying:)
Assassination, Subtlety, Combat, Feral, Windwalker, Havoc, Survival, Enhancement, Frost, Unholy, Arms, Fury, Retribution
Ranged, however, will be reduced to eleven:
Arcane, Fire, Frost, Affliction, Demonology, Destruction, Shadow, Balance, Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, Elemental
And that brings up a really, really interesting question: To balance Survival, is one of the melee specs going to have to change to ranged?
There are a couple options out there. Unholy, for example, feels like it could be redesigned as a ranged spec, but given that it looks like they might be eliminating 2H Frost (judging solely from the announced Frost DK Artifacts) they will probably want to keep Unholy as the two-hander DPS spec for Death Knights.
So I think that the spotlight clearly falls on Rogues (which is terrible, as Rogues hate being seen.)
It makes tons of sense to make one of the Rogue specs ranged. In many games, Rogues are a bow-wielding class, rather than a melee one. The idea of a shadowy assassin shooting an arrow or crossbow bolt out of the... shadows is arguably just as iconic as one creeping toward an enemy with a poisoned dagger.
On top of that, Rogues are one of the classes that has struggled the most (perhaps as much as Hunters) to make its specs feel truly distinct.
So if this winds up being the case, who winds up Ranged?
I think we can eliminate Combat right off the bat. Combat is already the most distinct of the Rogue specs, given that they're the only ones who don't use Daggers. Subtlety can technically get by without them, but only in theory - they lose Backstab unless they have at least one equipped.
Assassination could theoretically work, but I think it has always had a much stronger theme based on its poisons, its daggers, and the fact that its most commonly used combo-builder is a two-fisted dagger strike.
Subtlety really seems the strongest choice as a ranged spec. Their theme is all about staying hidden and striking from the shadows (like, more) and this would work fine with a bow or crossbow (probably not Gun. I think that's going to be for Beast Mastery Hunters.)
In recent expansions, Subtlety has focused around finishers, but that's not... really all that different from the other specs. Being the ranged Rogue option would make a ton of sense for Subtlety as a spec, and you could adapt basically all of its existing mechanics to work while ranged, or come up with more interesting ones.
Rogues, Mages, Warlocks and Hunters are already forced to perform only one group role, so it seems odd to me that while Shamans and Druids are already hybrids (Druids being the most hybrid of hybrids,) they get to choose between melee and ranged while the Pure DPS don't.
And while that's just as much of an argument for melee Mages or Warlocks, I think they've historically been better at distinguishing the specs for those two classes (especially after the Mists-era redesign for Warlocks.)
We haven't heard anything about ranged Rogues, but given the news about Survival, I pretty much expect it.
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