Some pet abilities that may need to change

[Oswen]

I already said this two times in some other threads like one week ago but i think opening a topic for the matter may actually be better.
While the devs are doing a great job regarding pet abilities in beta some families still look quite obsolete because of "non optimal" abilities, virtually making those pets less useful than others.
I'm mostly speaking of three families in particular: Dogs, Crabs and Devilsaurs.

Dogs and Crabs: Their ability as of now is a root, a dispellable, channeled root.
This ability is pretty bad since the pet needs to be in melee range and can't attack while channeling (that hurts mostly BM hunter but is pretty annoying for any spec aswell).
Considering we have spiders/silithids which do exactly the same root but with a 20y range and istantly without the needing to channel or stop attacking...that makes dogs/crabs pretty useless.

Any other ability may work for dogs, even a slow like what crocolisks have and as for crabs may i suggest them to be the Disarming pets getting Clench instead of Scorpids?
Crabs are known for their strong pincers and they like ALOT to "steal" things and not let them go for any reason, would make much more sense for them to have Clench, this bring me to my next point.

Scorpids - Scorpids as of live have nothing wrong in term of utility since disarm is always nice...why are you even putting them here then you may ask? Well here is the answer:
Scorpions (and WoW scorpids follow the same trend) are known and feared for their venoumous tail, when someone thinks on a scorpion the tail and its poison are the main selling points, their pincers are just there to keep their prey in order to inject poison in them.

I suggest, as i already said, to give the ability to disarm to crabs and give scorpids something related to their poison which may be anything from Crippling(movement slow), Paralyzing (Stun) or Mind Numbing (casting slow).

Devilsaur - Devilsaurs, the Kings of exotic pets back then they were introduced, are in a odd shape as of now.
They bring the 5% crit like many other pets (wolves, Quilen, waterstrider) but their exotic ability (mortal strike effect) just doesn't match those of the other exotic pets.
Quilen bring a battle ress (extremely handy) and water striders bring the Intellect buff (nice to have if missing), the mortal strike debuff Devisaurs bring is pretty bad considering that even we, the hunters, can provide it with Widow Venom.
Devilsaurs, still, aren't broken or obnoxious on the level of dogs/crabs but i think that something could be done to make them shine a bit (and they need to since they are awesome).

I already posted this some days ago on the EU forum here http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4551469200 but sadly it went unnoticed and dropped page quite fast.
If any change is to be done regarding "odd" pet abilities i guess now it's the right time to suggest something better and hopefully someone may notice it.
You are more than welcome to post this or even expand the subject on the US forum aswell (which gets more views).
Crossing fingers for some changes!

[GormanGhaste]

I've always been disappointed with the channeled root, especially as I'm so fond of crabs.

[Meggers]

Goes to show I don't use them much, didn't realize it was a -channeled- root. That's awful! :/

[Worba]

Devilsaurs never should have lost the size growth component of monstrous bite - and it's not a matter of incompatible mechanics either, it could simply appear as a bonus skill since it's cosmetic.

And now that (so far anyways), it's once more "OK" for some pets to have direct dmg spells whilst others don't, I think many if not most pets should be revisited.

Among others dragonhawks should regain their aoe fire cone that they inexplicably lost back in 3.0...

[Tahlian]

I have learned to love Jaxo's dog Poppet and his crab Sapphire specifically for those channeled roots...as a Survival hunter, those abilities help keep the enemies at a distance, even if I do pull aggro from the pet. It keeps me from having to kite *quite* as often, and Poppet's bouncy hellhound animations amuse me greatly. Jax calls her his "naked mole rat" due to her coloring. Perhaps in MoP they could just make the root an instant instead to bring them in line with other rooting pets...

[Kurasu]

Perhaps in MoP they could just make the root an instant instead to bring them in line with other rooting pets...

This would be plenty for me, yes. No need to change the ability 100%. Just make it so the pet only has to 'bite' to root, rather than channel it. I would be more interested in using it at that point. It would still not be *as* useful as the spider's web-root, but definitely would bring it far more into use for PvE for me.

[pop]

My devilsaur idea;

Special ability; ferocious bite= physical damage debuff

Exotic ability; ferocious roar= FEAR> FREAKING FEAR> YOU GET SHITZZ YOUR PANTS WHEN A FREAKIN DEVILSAUAR ROAAR AT YOU! YOU KNOW IT@

[pop]

I have learned to love Jaxo's dog Poppet and his crab Sapphire specifically for those channeled roots...as a Survival hunter, those abilities help keep the enemies at a distance, even if I do pull aggro from the pet. It keeps me from having to kite *quite* as often, and Poppet's bouncy hellhound animations amuse me greatly. Jax calls her his "naked mole rat" due to her coloring. Perhaps in MoP they could just make the root an instant instead to bring them in line with other rooting pets...

spiders and silithids not just can do that, but actually better at it.

[Oswen]

I have learned to love Jaxo's dog Poppet and his crab Sapphire specifically for those channeled roots...as a Survival hunter, those abilities help keep the enemies at a distance, even if I do pull aggro from the pet. It keeps me from having to kite *quite* as often, and Poppet's bouncy hellhound animations amuse me greatly. Jax calls her his "naked mole rat" due to her coloring. Perhaps in MoP they could just make the root an instant instead to bring them in line with other rooting pets...

While this is true and the channeled root can still be "quite" useful it's just silly to not use a spider/silithid in this case and do it way better, especially as BM because the pet can still attack while rooting the target.
I threw some suggestion which made sense while thinking of the generic nature of those animals (like crabs disarming etc) but yes, even slightly reworking those abilities and making them istant (with a shorter cd to make up for the melee range maybe?) would be a great thing and give us some options to spiders/silithids.

Oh and a Devilsaur with Fear would be awesome (and actually make sense since that's what they do in the wild when you fight them)

Another build just went through without any change to those abilities (i'm looking especially at you channeled roots), i wonder if the devs think they are fine as it is or if it's just a big general oversight

[Worba]

Devilsaur - fear with cosmetic effect of growth = double your pleasure

[Nachtwulf]

I made a post to this effect on the beta forums but it quickly got lost in the usual forum spam.

Also, the new Basilisk ability is bad too, since it's a short-duration banish. Making your target immune to damage just isn't very useful... which makes me upset, because I WANT to use basilisks.

Petrify either needs to be made into a stun (which I'd steal from Shale Spiders, as it's already in place...), i.e. a couple of seconds of immobility, or else if you HAVE to leave it as a banish, make it at least long enough to be good for CC in emergency situations (mob heading for the healer).

Right now it's just neither one nor t'other, and isn't good for either purpose.

Also just as a quick edit, it DOES appear that they've changed Jaw Lock (dogs) so that while it's still channeled, triggering Kill Command will no longer break the channel. (I'd like someone else to confirm this, but I THINK it isn't anymore). Which helps, at least.

[Slickrock]

I made a post to this effect on the beta forums but it quickly got lost in the usual forum spam.

Also, the new Basilisk ability is bad too, since it's a short-duration banish. Making your target immune to damage just isn't very useful... which makes me upset, because I WANT to use basilisks.

Petrify either needs to be made into a stun (which I'd steal from Shale Spiders, as it's already in place...), i.e. a couple of seconds of immobility, or else if you HAVE to leave it as a banish, make it at least long enough to be good for CC in emergency situations (mob heading for the healer).

Fair point. It's still not bad for a leveling/soloing ability, but, it's not terribly useful.

I'd really like to see all these PVP abilities be optional on pets, and have PVE options as well, so we could use some of these families for raiding and dungeons.

[swimgremlin]

I agree with the basalisk thing. If they're gonna make it a target immune ability, at least bring it in line with cyclone and last 5sec at least. As it stands, it lasts shorter duration then Bad Manner and Lulaby, and can't be damaged thru.

[Oswen]

Devilsaur - fear with cosmetic effect of growth = double your pleasure

This would indeed look epic, a Devilsaur becoming gigantic for a second fearing everything around it, i'd so love it

[Ziarre]

Am I the only one not thrilled by the idea of a fear? >.> Too many flashbacks to bad warlocks fearing mobs into half the instance...but as long as it's separate from the crit buff and able to be toggled off, I guess I'd be fine with it.

[Kalliope]

I'm not overly thrilled by it because it's too much like stealing from priests and warlocks. I love it in concept, but not that aspect of it.

[Crotalus Horridus]

I like the Scorpid family. . . however, I think they need to be LARGER, about the size of a Bear, and need a new ability. Here, is my idea!


Scorpid's Neurotoxin
- Instant
- 2 Minute Cooldown
Your Scorpid stings the target, injected them with a neurotoxic venom. For 1 minute, the target starts to gradually slow down. After that minute, the target freezes for 20 seconds.

[Tahlian]

I'm another person not thrilled with the idea of a devilsaur having a fear. Talk about a way to guarantee you're told to "put that pet up" in addition to its size.

And I don't think scorpids need to be bigger. There are some players who don't like OMGHUGE pets, and it's perfectly okay that some families and models are smaller. Because, especially in MoP, that "glyph of smaller size" might end up being less preferable to other glyphs, even if they're minor ones.

[Crotalus Horridus]

I'm another person not thrilled with the idea of a devilsaur having a fear. Talk about a way to guarantee you're told to "put that pet up" in addition to its size.

And I don't think scorpids need to be bigger. There are some players who don't like OMGHUGE pets, and it's perfectly okay that some families and models are smaller. Because, especially in MoP, that "glyph of smaller size" might end up being less preferable to other glyphs, even if they're minor ones.

A pet the size of a Bear is not an ''OMGHUGE'' pet, an ''OMGHUGE'' pet is what the Silithid Boss Models use to be. But, something the size of a bear? No.
Also, with the current size of Scorpids, they look silly (Especially the Horde Scorpid Model). They aren't the scary looking monster that you would get the impression from a giant scorpion. Sure, some can be tiny, but most of them (Like the Horde Scorpid Model) should be SOMEWHAT large.

[Ziarre]

Samira would like a word with you about whether she's considered scary.

Samira: *clacks pincers threateningly*