Bread’s Game Journal 04/26/22: Survival Hunter’s Hidden Class Fantasy, The Wandering Warrior.

Survival Hunter has a bit of a weird reputation, and it’s hard not to understand why. It’s no secret that Blizzard has never really known what to do with Hunter’s, one of the most played DPS classes in World of Warcraft, third talent tree spec. I always think back to the days when it was largely focused on Hunters in Vanilla through Wrath of The Lich King using Melee weapons and traps, two things most players could easily agreed on being a terrible idea in most situations. It wasn’t even until Legion that Survival Hunter became the fully up close melee class it is now, but to me, it became something way cooler: The Wandering Warrior.

It’s a ridiculous name for me to call it, I know, considering there’s already a whole other class called that. Even that said, there’s a distinct fantasy I get playing Survival Hunter, and it’s the best way I have to describe it. Rather than just the red-headed step child of the Hunter’s would be Talent Tree’s, I tend to view Survival Hunter as it’s distinct own class and experience.

To me, Survival is a Warrior who’s learned not to fight alone, always accompanied by their cadre of animals friends who fight the same way you do: up close and personal. Obviously, their reliance on Pole Arms as a sole form of usable weapon makes them seem less like a traditionally sword or axe wielding Warrior, but that’s where Transmog picks up the slack! Their move set, as well, screams specialized thing, but I always view it as “Warrior who has picked up a few tricks.”. Underhanded crossbow use, synced attacks with your pet tiger, poisons, hell a lot of these skills sound like a Rogue if you want to look at it that way!

All the time I play Survival, I like to view myself as a lone wanderer type. Not just because people probably can’t stand the smell of whatever kind of rotting seaweed my Forsaken reeks of, but because they’ve long since left the idea of the pure warrior behind, and adapted to new types of attack since they met whatever canon animal friend you love on your Hunter characters (For me, always got to be a tiger! Rep to Rosie, the real one.). I always thought it was a fun way to look at a largely ignored class, and class fantasy is always something that it’s important for me to enjoy when I pick out a class to play in RPG’s.

I know Survival isn’t a very popular class in general, but maybe this can help people feel a bit cooler when giving it a try! I think it should be way more popular than it tends to be! Plus, none of y'all have lived until you’ve gotten good at using that reverse Scorpion spear throw charge move. That thing’s worth the playtime by itself.