Sunday, February 10, 2008

On Survival's "Viability"

In the comments on my post about spec reconciliation, I noticed that WyldKard and one other person talked about how Survival was non-viable for raiding.

This isn't the first time I've basically seen Survival as a spec being written off as a joke. It's always done in a calm, rational, mature tone of voice by someone who claims that they're not out to upset anyone; it's simple theorycrafting. After all, you can't argue with cold, hard mathematics, can you?

I've had to put up with ridicule (not from most people, mind you; only from a minority) both in game and in the forum for my spec for a long time, and I'm very, very tired of it. So today, I'm going to answer these individuals with a refutation that I've also been saving for a long time. I wanted to avoid playing this particular card, because part of me thinks it's gratuitous and in poor taste. However, in this case the lower part of my nature is going to win out.

I'm assuming nearly everyone here has heard of a European guild called Nihilum. On Wowwiki they're described as the number one WoW PvE guild on the planet, and they also represent the first time that economic sponsorship has been given to a World of Warcraft guild. Their world first kills include virtually every major raid boss within The Burning Crusade.

Now I want to mention a specific member of that guild; an individual with an Orc Hunter named Ahoq. Ahoq is the Hunter class officer for this guild. I invite you to take a look at his armory profile. It is here, and it is extremely impressive.

This is an individual who, not merely by association with this guild, but from his individual armory profile, we can see is, without any exaggeration whatsoever, WoW's Hunter class's answer to Michael Jordan.

When you look over his armory profile, you will undoubtedly eventually notice his talent spec, and at last we come to the relevant point.

It isn't Beast Mastery.

It isn't Marksmanship.

It's 0/20/41. He has 41 points in the freaks' tree. The crazies' tree. The fringe tree. The talent tree which, out of the three, before 2.1 you'd get laughed out of the forum for daring to mention so much as the existence of above a whisper.

Survival.

To those who doubt the credibility of Survival as a viable spec for any use, PvE or otherwise, I have but this question to ask.

Do you think it is possible...just merely possible...that given what both he as an individual, and his guild has achieved, that perhaps Ahoq knows something you don't?

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