Pre Cata exotic pet survey

[Vaihla]

These are a couple of my thoughts about how to improve BM hunters:

(1) If Kill Command is the "signature shot" of the BM, then give it somewhat of a boost and make it the BM spell instead of intimidation. I have no opinion whether or not it should be a talented spell or available to all specs

(2) Do some work on the pet talent tree to improve pet abilities or add in some new ones that are either exclusively for BM or so far down the talent tree that you need more that 16 pet talent points. From a PvE stand point, I don't need the charge spell for a ferocity pet.

(3) Personally, I don't believe that exotic pets should be available to fresh hunters and they definitely shouldn't be available to MM and SV hunters. As much as I love my Loque, we shouldn't treat the BM tree like it's based around the ability to tame these exotics. What if Beast Mastery and Bestial Wrath/Beast Within changed places on the talent tree? This leads into my 4th idea...

(4) Either increase the damage done by Bestial Wrath/Beast Within or extend the time that the buff is active.

Just some thoughts. I would love to get some feedback.

[Worba]

(1) If Kill Command is the "signature shot" of the BM, then give it somewhat of a boost and make it the BM spell instead of intimidation. I have no opinion whether or not it should be a talented spell or available to all specs

That's why I proposed the following as the new 31 pt talent:

Which is why I think it would be more in keeping with the new BM "feel" if they added a new spell at lvl 31: "Kill Them All", shares cd with kill command, 50% dmg to all in melee range; give BM hunters a reason to change tactics from fight to fight, you know (and also a way of propping up their AOE while BW is on CD... and without being forced to use a worm or chimera!)

[TygerDarkstorm]

All avoided by the simple expedient of using scaling, as they do with everything else in the game.

I don't think Bloodlust/Heroism is something you can really scale without having to change the way it works for shamans too (afaik, their spell doesn't change from the time they learn it 'til when they're max level so it doesn't make sense to change the hunter one). The easiest solution to exotics at low levels and their "special" abilities is to hold them back until later levels.

Enough people are pretty upset that we've become jacks of all trades with buffs/debuffs, especially giving us the ability to bring Bloodlust/Heroism, I'd rather try to avoid more shitstorms as much as possible. I think if we got special exotic abilities like Ancient Hysteria at low levels, scaling or not, it would raise a massive amount of QQ from all kinds of players, regardless if the spell would benefit them.

[Kryte]

I would like to see Beastmastery given an entirely different 31-point talent and exotics made available for all hunters. Something like "dual-wielding" pets or a "Stable Attack" might be interesting. As it is, BM is a rather lackluster talent. The end talent of the Beastmastery tree basically boils down to a cosmetic.

I feel it furthermore doesn't make sense with the feel of the hunter class. We are not archers. We tame and befriend beasts; we do not use them as slaves or tools the way warlocks do. Nor can we point to lore as a justification for exotics, as we see animals like Nether Rays and Sporebats, otherworldly, FUNGAL animals, somehow considered normal while worms are not. A hunter's ability to choose his companion is, I feel, the most important part of the class.

[Murloc Chow]

I think being able to tame Exotics should be lower down in the tree, lvl 40 or 50, most people give up on BM, or don't even bother because the perk of the tree isn't available until so late in your lvl'ing. It's just not enough motivation for most people, I'm certainly not BM just because of the Exotics, I perfer to give my pets the best survivability that I can. Although, I would love to have my Worms as soon as possible, they're my favourite family! That being said though, if it got changed I would have to re-write my wish-list for so many of my toons

[Cozzene]

One of my dearest pets is BM only; my orange worm MsterBubbles. If I want him to tank anything for me, I HAVE to be BM, and that's not my favourite playstyle. I see it less like Blizz rewarding BM hunters and more like "You HAVE to make BM one of your specs or you only get bland generic looking animals". While looks aren't everything, they are a little important.

[Lysah]

One of my dearest pets is BM only; my orange worm MsterBubbles. If I want him to tank anything for me, I HAVE to be BM, and that's not my favourite playstyle. I see it less like Blizz rewarding BM hunters and more like "You HAVE to make BM one of your specs or you only get bland generic looking animals". While looks aren't everything, they are a little important.

I disagree, Cataclysm gives us a lot of sexy non-exotic pets. I for one look forward to Sambas and Terrorpene as non-BM pets. And since they're rare mobs, there's a chance you won't see them everywhere. Blizzard already ruined Humar by adding a quest mob with the black lion skin =(

I guess that's kind off topic though.

[Lisaara]

One of my dearest pets is BM only; my orange worm MsterBubbles. If I want him to tank anything for me, I HAVE to be BM, and that's not my favourite playstyle. I see it less like Blizz rewarding BM hunters and more like "You HAVE to make BM one of your specs or you only get bland generic looking animals". While looks aren't everything, they are a little important.

I disagree, Cataclysm gives us a lot of sexy non-exotic pets. I for one look forward to Sambas and Terrorpene as non-BM pets. And since they're rare mobs, there's a chance you won't see them everywhere. Blizzard already ruined Humar by adding a quest mob with the black lion skin =(

I guess that's kind off topic though.

Not at all! I agree with you. I was pretty peeved to find out there was another black lion. Plus you are absolutely right. There are TONS of non exotics that are gorgeous. As far as exotics go, exotic pets are limited in choices but BM hunters dont have to use them if we dont desire to.

[Worba]

All avoided by the simple expedient of using scaling, as they do with everything else in the game.

I don't think Bloodlust/Heroism is something you can really scale without having to change the way it works for shamans too (afaik, their spell doesn't change from the time they learn it 'til when they're max level so it doesn't make sense to change the hunter one). The easiest solution to exotics at low levels and their "special" abilities is to hold them back until later levels.

Enough people are pretty upset that we've become jacks of all trades with buffs/debuffs, especially giving us the ability to bring Bloodlust/Heroism, I'd rather try to avoid more shitstorms as much as possible. I think if we got special exotic abilities like Ancient Hysteria at low levels, scaling or not, it would raise a massive amount of QQ from all kinds of players, regardless if the spell would benefit them.

There is no reason why the one has to be tied to the other; in the case of ancient hysteria scaling would mean that down at lvl 10 or so it might grant just 1% haste e.g. more along the lines of lifebloom, etc. Second, other than the usual vocal minority sky-is-falling people, no one really cares that much about BL until you start getting close to raid levels - it certainly isn't critical in 5 mans, not even 5 man heroics, and lower level BGs are already unbalanced which Blizzard has largely acknowledged and said it isn't going to be addressing.