Warning/Heads Up About Oxen:

[Maizou]

They currently lack a basic attack. (Bite, Smack, etc.)

I am unable to tame mechanicals and have not been able to check Scalehides yet, but it might be worth checking to see if they also lack one.

I made a post in the Bug Reports forum, and surprised no one else noticed it before now, but I thought I'd mention it, since it impacts how much damage the family does quite a bit, and affects the amount of chances survival has to proc Hunting Companion and such, making Oxen a rather... subpar companion until it's fixed.

[SpiritBinder]

Do wolves have any special ability or have pets been just not been touched/looked at?

[Rawr]

No wolves have nothing but Bite. No pet has a buff ability.

[Maizou]

No buff abilities exist, but some pets still have special abilities. Nether Rays retained their heroism, for instance. Pets are -majority- cosmetic now.

But yea, Oxen have absolutely nothing when specced as Ferocity/cunning, no Bite, no Smack, nothing. xD I think the devs forgot to put it in their learn list.

[Magnakilro]

No claw/Bite/Smack on Scalehides either

[SpiritBinder]

No buff abilities exist, but some pets still have special abilities. Nether Rays retained their heroism, for instance. Pets are -majority- cosmetic now. .

This is rather unfortunate and concerning...

Looks like we are heading back into "Get a Crane/etc or GTHO" territory. People will always be draw towards any advantage, and that includes other classes looking at us, so our pet choices will look a lot less optional if they don't address this discrepancy soon.

Might be worth looking into creating a "Best Pets" list.

[Rawr]

You could get a moth

[Maizou]

No buff abilities exist, but some pets still have special abilities. Nether Rays retained their heroism, for instance. Pets are -majority- cosmetic now. .

This is rather unfortunate and concerning...

Looks like we are heading back into "Get a Crane/etc or GTHO" territory. People will always be draw towards any advantage, and that includes other classes looking at us, so our pet choices will look a lot less optional if they don't address this discrepancy soon.

Might be worth looking into creating a "Best Pets" list.

You don't have to use a Crane/Moth/Quilen or Nether Ray/Core Hound, just carry one with you. I never had an issue dismissing/summoning to use the ability before.

And having 2 mandatory pets out of 5 isn't really that bad. Especially since they bring massive raid utility that hunter is lacking.

[Kurasu]

I'm expecting that in the first pass, possibly even before Legion fully comes out (or on the day of), they should hopefully at least give those pets the basic attacks.

Ability balancing, unfortunately, I expect to take another whole patch or so. They are going to need to figure things out. Whether that means removing abilities from all but exotics, or whether that means giving everyone an ability again.

[Helsinki]

Mechanicals do not have a basic attack either.

[Rawr]

Yes they do, I just tamed Nutz last night and it has Bite.

[zedxrgal]

I guess I am just going to give MM a try now. No sense in having all these hunter w/useless pets. Curse you Blizzard. Ruined BM. Ruined pets.
I've ALWAYS been top 5 in LFR even with crappy gear before pre-patch.
After.
Freaking 19 or 20. Now my pets don't even remotely help. Thanks Blizz

I sincerely hope this is fixed.

My subs end on 07/25. At this point. Not resubbing.

[Maizou]

Yes they do, I just tamed Nutz last night and it has Bite.

Doesn't surprise me with how much attention mechanicals got (challenge tames, item to tame them, etc.)

Wheras Oxen and Scalehides were mainly a "Hunters need new pets, what can we throw at them." xD

So Oxen and Scalehides are missing a basic attack, and are a rather massive dps loss to use currently, because they have no way to use focus. This means for Survival, they only have Auto Attacks and Flanking Strike to proc the mastery, and BM... well, a huge chunk of pet damage goes away for that.

[Rawr]

My post was in response to Helsinki

[Lupen202]

I guess I am just going to give MM a try now. No sense in having all these hunter w/useless pets. Curse you Blizzard. Ruined BM. Ruined pets.
I've ALWAYS been top 5 in LFR even with crappy gear before pre-patch.
After.
Freaking 19 or 20. Now my pets don't even remotely help. Thanks Blizz

I sincerely hope this is fixed.

My subs end on 07/25. At this point. Not resubbing.

To be fair, Blizz made all of these class changes balanced around our artifacts. And sadly some specs rely on their artifacts more than others. Seems BM fits in this category and is missing a huge chunk of its damage by not having Hati/their second pet.

Just sucks we have to deal with it for a month... But I did spec MM and it isn't so bad. And while I'm using Lone wolf for raiding as it's still the best I'll be changing to another talent in Legion so I can quest with my pet.

[Lisaara]

BM wont shine until we get the artifact.

[Wain]

Unfortunately BM doesn't shine *with* the artifact. There's widescale agreement on that.

[Equeon]

It's awful because thematically, you're supposed to feel like "Wow! I'm the champion of my class! I can't wait to unlock this amazing artifact and lead my faction to victory over the Legion, against all odds!"

Instead, it's more like "I can't wait to get that artifact so I can sort of feel like a complete class again."

[Snowwalker]

I agree.. Being chopped up yet again is really disillusioning, and the pet problems... Well, hopefully they're fixed soon. I know they're trying to flavor each spec and all, but with everything we've lost, and now the pet issues... I've always been die-hard bm, but they're making it near impossible now. Hopefully hthings are getting fixed soon.

[Maizou]

I just checked, and my tamed Yak now has Smack. ^_^