diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 0693152628..4f37cbe8bf 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ Merged from 3.11:
  * Update Jackson from 2.9.10 to 2.12.5 (CASSANDRA-16851)
  * Make assassinate more resilient to missing tokens (CASSANDRA-16847)
 Merged from 3.0:
+ * Make -Dtest.methods consistently optional in all Ant test targets (CASSANDRA-17014)
  * Immediately apply stream throughput, considering negative values as unthrottled (CASSANDRA-16959)
  * Do not release new SSTables in offline transactions (CASSANDRA-16975)
  * ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in FunctionResource#fromName (CASSANDRA-16977, CASSANDRA-16995)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index ca404a433f..e16e9361cb 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -947,6 +947,10 @@
         </testmacro>
     </target>
 
+    <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and an optional csv list of methods like this:
+      ant stress-test-some -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.stress.generate.DistributionGaussianTest
+      ant stress-test-some -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.stress.generate.DistributionGaussianTest -Dtest.methods=simpleGaussian
+    -->
     <target name="stress-test-some" depends="stress-build-test, build-test" description="Runs stress tests">
         <testmacro inputdir="${stress.test.src}"
                        timeout="${test.timeout}">
@@ -1512,7 +1516,8 @@
     </antcall>
   </target>
 
-  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and a csv list of methods like this:
+  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and an optional csv list of methods like this:
+    ant testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageServiceServerTest
     ant testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.service.StorageServiceServerTest -Dtest.methods=testRegularMode,testGetAllRangesEmpty
   -->
   <target name="testsome" depends="build-test" description="Execute specific unit tests" >
@@ -1527,8 +1532,9 @@
     </testmacro>
   </target>
 
-  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and a csv list of methods like this:
-    ant long-testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.cql3.ViewLongTest -Dtest.methods=testConflictResolution
+  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and an optional csv list of methods like this:
+    ant long-testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.cql3.ManyRowsTest
+    ant long-testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.cql3.ManyRowsTest -Dtest.methods=testLargeCount
   -->
   <target name="long-testsome" depends="build-test" description="Execute specific long unit tests" >
     <testmacro inputdir="${test.long.src}" timeout="${test.long.timeout}">
@@ -1539,8 +1545,9 @@
     </testmacro>
   </target>
 
-  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and a csv list of methods like this:
-    ant burn-testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.utils.memory.LongBufferPoolTest -Dtest.methods=testAllocate
+  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and an optional csv list of methods like this:
+    ant burn-testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.utils.memory.LongBufferPoolTest
+    ant burn-testsome -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.utils.memory.LongBufferPoolTest -Dtest.methods=testPoolAllocateWithRecyclePartially
   -->
   <target name="burn-testsome" depends="build-test" description="Execute specific burn unit tests" >
     <testmacro inputdir="${test.burn.src}" timeout="${test.burn.timeout}">
@@ -1664,6 +1671,10 @@
     </sequential>
   </target>
 
+  <!-- Use this with an simple class name for test class, and an optional csv list of methods like this:
+    ant cql-test-some -Dtest.name=ListsTest
+    ant cql-test-some -Dtest.name=ListsTest -Dtest.methods=testPrecisionTime_getNext_simple
+  -->
   <target name="cql-test-some" depends="build-test" description="Execute specific CQL tests" >
     <sequential>
       <echo message="running ${test.methods} tests from ${test.name}"/>
@@ -1687,7 +1698,8 @@
             <include name="**/*.jar" />
           </fileset>
         </classpath>
-        <test name="org.apache.cassandra.cql3.${test.name}" methods="${test.methods}" todir="${build.test.dir}/output"/>
+        <test unless:blank="${test.methods}" name="org.apache.cassandra.cql3.${test.name}" methods="${test.methods}" todir="${build.test.dir}/output"/>
+        <test if:blank="${test.methods}" name="org.apache.cassandra.cql3.${test.name}" todir="${build.test.dir}/output"/>
       </junit>
     </sequential>
   </target>
@@ -1866,7 +1878,8 @@
     </testmacro>
   </target>
 
-  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and a csv list of methods like this:
+  <!-- Use this with an FQDN for test class, and an optional csv list of methods like this:
+      ant test-jvm-dtest-some -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.distributed.test.ResourceLeakTest
       ant test-jvm-dtest-some -Dtest.name=org.apache.cassandra.distributed.test.ResourceLeakTest -Dtest.methods=looperTest
     -->
   <target name="test-jvm-dtest-some" depends="build-test" description="Execute some in-jvm dtests">