Bringing Pet Talents back in a... weird way?

[Maizou]

Something that's been bothering me lately, that I was curious about other hunter's stance on it.

Ghostcrawler's comments about Stable Slots say we don't need more because it should be a choice on what to tame.

For some people like me, that choice involves every spirit beast, because they're all made specifically to look unique. This leaves us with an incredible 10 stable slots + 5 active slots.

Take into account what they WANT us to use pets for, which is buffs/debuffs, and you have no stable slots left for your personal choices. A few of them will obviously match, as some of the buffs/debuffs happen to coincide with a pet you want.

I for one ignore this. If a group wants a buff, tough cookies. I tame what I think looks good. I tame the pets that stand out to me, that call to me to tame them. If the pet I happen to have with me at the time has a buff the group doesn't, then it's just an extra thing. I for one will not be told what pet I can or cannot use.

So, a thought occurred to me. I still want more stable slots, because of all the unique looks they've been adding to this game, but a simple change to fix some of the "necessary" taming:

Re-introduce pet talent trees. Only, instead of every species bringing a different buff/debuff, give every pet a "vanity"/"fun" buff, like Surface Trot, Fox's Dance, Bird's Flips, etc.

Make a talent tree that allows you to pick 1 buff, and/or 1 debuff for your pet. For exotic pets, allow them to have another tier for "Exotic Talents", allowing you to choose between things like Ancient Hysteria or Battle Res.

Say for instance, you have a Crane. Your group is currently lacking the expose armor debuff and the spell haste buff. With a simple respec, your crane now has the talents "Sporebat Spores" and/or "Tallstrider Dust", granting them the ability to grant spell haste your party, and/or the armor debuff to your enemy. If this Crane was instead a Water Strider, they would also be able to choose between "Corehound Hysteria" or "Chimaera Breath", which would grand them Ancient Hysteria or Froststorm Breath. (names are just quickly made up, so don't mind them).

So, instead of "Bring the Species" it becomes "bring the pet you actually wanted to tame." I would still love more slots, for people like me who want every spirit beast, but this would solve a lot of issues with the more hardcore raiding hunters having to always have every buff/debuff available in their stables, even if they don't like a species, for when someone isn't able to make it to raid night, etc.

TLDR; Make a talent system for pets where they can choose one buff/debuff, with exotic pets being able to choose an additonal skill like Burrow Attack, Ancient Hysteria, etc. If a hunter can take on an aspect of an animal, why can't our pets take on the aspects of a different species if we're meant to be in an unbreakable "in tune" bond with them?

Any thoughts on something like this?

[Zhinru]

I think specific families need their own unique skills. I don't think it would be good game design if the pet families became just a general model type and name just after taming (or their name forever, like I see in an increasing number of cases).

[Chimera]

Unfortunately combining other family abilities into families that make no sense (your example of cranes using sporebat spores) would open up complaints for players to receive the same treatment (well, most likely anyways) since its pretty much the exact same thing. If pets get to use abilities their family was never meant to use like a beetle using ancient hysteria or a bird using burrow attack, then players will want tier trees that let them take abilities from other classes.

We have the symbiosis item which lets us have a druid ability, and then druids themselves have an actual symbiosis spell which does give each player they use it on a unique and unheard of spell from the druid and the druid gains an equally unique and unheard of spell, but the spell has a limited duration and both players need to be grouped together and in the same zone for it to last.

While its an interesting idea, it opens a very large gateway for people to demand they get the same sort of tier tree set up as the pets but with player abilities. With the item and spell that does this sort of thing, being limited duration and one being a spell limited to druids specifically, theres a very tiny gateway which i think is still tight shut (i dont go on the warcraft forums or MMO so not sure if people have been complaining about the druids symbiosis).

[GormanGhaste]

I like this idea. I'd love to be able to give crabs and basilisks different abilities I do have to take issue with your one statement though:

Ghostcrawler's comments about Stable Slots say we don't need more because it should be a choice on what to tame.
For some people like me, that choice involves every spirit beast. This leaves us with an incredible 10 stable slots + 5 active slots.
Take into account what they WANT us to use pets for, which is buffs/debuffs, and you have no stable slots left for your personal choices.

You *do* have stable slots left for your personal choices. You've just filled them up with spirit beasts.

[Danielfboone]

I wouldn't like to see the talents used that way. All my pets are specced Ferocity and they're staying that way. I also don't concern myself with taming anything to get a specific buff.

I agree that we should have more slots. I did the unthinkable and abandoned one of my Spirit Beasts, actually the first one I ever got but also the one I liked the least, Gondria. I also have Magria and I greatly prefer his look to that of Gondria so I don't feel like I've lost that much.

[Torachi]

I would love this; to me, it would add an extra dynamic to pets. I would also love to see more stable slots added, with the choice of having them if you want them, and if you don't, then you don't have to have them.

Out of all the new pets released in 5.1, I have 2. There are several more that I'd love to have, but I refuse to release any more of my beloved pets. The only two I released for the new ones were pets that I did have a bond with... but they didn't seem to have a bond with me. ...If that makes any sense. One was Ghostcrawler, and the other was the ghostly demon hound out of Kara.

[7seti]

You need 12 pets to cover every raid buff and debuff. That leaves 13 slots for taming whatever you want.

[Kalliope]

You need 12 pets to cover every raid buff and debuff. That leaves 13 slots for taming whatever you want.

Actually, depending on your spec choice, it's either 11 (BM) or 13 (can also go non-BM and cover the non-exotic abilities).

[Lisaara]

I agree for more slots but I'm not fond of this idea at all.