Defensive/Assist - Is this accurate?

[Lazurianis]

Well I have heard a few theories to why we are losing Agressive Stance. That some hunters/warlocks would download a cheat to make their pet(s) see through stealth therefor all they have to do is set their pet to Agressive and the hunter does all the work. Maybe that's why they're removing it? I can't be 100% sure myself. Maybe I cleared a few things up for y'all.

[CrystalKitten]

My guess would be that they probably got tired of the complaints by rogues in general that the pets have a MUCH faster reaction time than most people, which kept them from being able to stunlock hunters, maybe? Maybe blizz considered this unfair, as especially with BM and some pets, you can almost solo some players with pet alone with only the assist of using it's used abilities (bestial wrath, kill command, and intimidation) I've seen a couple of mine take down some people almost on their own.

Another reason could be something I've experienced sometimes... I generally put my pets on aggressive in pvp, and if for some reason my pet doesn't get summoned when I get out, and then I do a dungeon, or something else where more control is needed... Well, let's just say it's bad, heh. And granted, this is purely player error, and something people should learn, (Or I'm sure blizz could find a way around it, afterall, there's some situations where they change your pets stance for you already, like when mounting in bgs), but recently blizzard has seems to sometimes prefer to cater to those that are lazy.

I do still agree though it would have been nice to have had defensive made more like assist, or even have it be a new one, that people could swap out with their needs. The glyph of having your pet attack your marked target is a good one too.

[KutiePi]

The problem with the "Glyph of Greater Attention" is the some hunters LOVE to spam Hunter's Mark while their raid/party waits for everyone to be ready before a boss or even some hard trash and with those twitchy fingers (and I just know someone's going to accidentally pull because they just can't help themselves and they'll "forget" they had the glyph, those same hunter's probably don't use passive stance). Also sometimes it's useful to just put up the mark before a pull to not waste that extra 1.5sec GCD. In PvP it'd make our Hunter's Mark/pet attack macro obsolete, and make it harder to keep a pet on a target while you train another player. But I would like to see another useful/fun glyph in it's place. Maybe make a Pet's Mark? and the icon could be a bouncing ball? =P

If anything they could just give us back our aggressive stance, remove the stay command (as we already have move to and passive which works the same) and the bars wouldn't have to get bigger or have the hunter manually move the skills around, as a less experienced hunter probably wouldn't know you could do that/new baby hunters. Which I kind of understand why they removed aggressive as an accidental pull/PvP stealthies crying out and other exploitable, wonderful things we could do with our pets, but I also miss it very much and wouldn't have mind it so much if they just some how "fixed" the pets seeing through stealth (not sure how) or something.....or...the...other -shrug- -pout- -grumble- I want my everything dead button back. >.>

[Kuraine]

Not happy. Put Aggressive back now before release. Give Defensive that "assist" feature.

Not sure why everyone's complaining about it. It seems like a very useful feature to me. If it changed so that Defensive had this new feature instead, we wouldn't be able to attack something else while your pet attacked another target if you wanted to. So it seems fine to me that Defensive stays as it is. And makes more sense to me that Aggressive is getting the new feature and basically turning into a Defensive with target-changing ability. I mean, who used Aggressive anyway? Who actually wants their pet to randomly turn and run off, attacking and perhaps aggroing a shitload of mobs? I know I never, ever used it and it seemed like a useless feature to me.

And it's not a lazy addition either. It's useful. Especially for dungeons/raiding, if you want your pet to be attacking your target instead of another one you no longer have to tell it to do so. I know I always found that a problem if my pet was attacking the wrong mob.

[CrystalKitten]

Aggressive was actually VERY useful in pvp. I always have my pets in aggresive (right now) for pvp, especially in BGs. Because your pet attacking that split second before you see someone that can 2 shot or stun lock you can be the difference between life and death.

I can also see how it might have some aspect in roleplay, or can be just plain fun to go to some lower level area and let the pet kick butt.

Now, I can see it being removed for balance reasons because of the pvp... but, still sucks, heh.

[Cerele]

pet can no longer agressive.... its like its no longer a seperate being, its now completely bent on my will... damn its not even beast love any more its more of enslavement

[Rawr]

pet can no longer agressive.... its like its no longer a seperate being, its now completely bent on my will... damn its not even beast love any more its more of enslavement

My poor pets will never again run wild and free (killing everything in sight ) like they used to. This is going in the "Why The F*@# Would Blizz Take This Out" file. Eyes of the Beast we all miss you.

[Tudyk]

I am completely confused by this change. Ignoring the loss of the "aggressive" stance completely for the moment, what does the new "assist" actually do?

Assuming I want my pet to do what it has always done (generally attack things I'm shooting at unless I give it a specific target), can I still do that? Or will he now be forced to attack MY target when I switch unless I leave him in defensive and then switch back to "assist" once his target dies?

I'm rather fond of siccing him on players that are dancing out of my range, and shooting things he prob'ly shouldn't be running over to. Will be a sad panda if that's now going to involve focus macros ...

[Kuraine]

Defensive: Same as it is now, only your pet WON'T attack a target if you do unless your target attacks you.

Assist: Basically what defensive is now. That means that your pet WILL attack the target you do, regardless of whether or not it attacks you. And as an addition, if you change targets, so will your pet.

So yes, if your want your pet to stay on a different target to you, you're going to have to do one of two things -

1.) Send the pet off to attack a mob using assist and then change the stance to defensive, and switch mobs to whatever you want to attack, and your pet won't follow you until you turn assist back on.

2.) Switch to defensive, press CTRL+1 (Or whatever you have keybound to your pet's attack.) and it'll run off to attack whatever mob you selected and won't change targets unless told to do so.

It's really not complicated at all, dunno why everyone has problems with it. If you're still confused, wait until today/tomorrow for the patch to come out and go test it out.

[Starzein]

My big problem is just learning what to do now I am so used to the pvp use of agressive stance, i.e defending a node if theres a rogue a pet on agressive means the rogues cant get that free couple of shots in, now it seems theres nothing to stop that unless im quick enough to target the rogue and hope my target stays up and he doesnt disapear then attack using assist. click click click instead of set and wait.

It seems Blizzard have decided Rogues will always get the first shot in now, on Defensive my pet will retaliate but I used to be able to take control of the fight by getting an attack off with an aggressive pet before i could be engaged myself

I can no longer be pro-active againsed a rogue now i have to wait till the rogue is ready and attacks me. I will learn how to use the new stance but to me its not about hunters at all but about rogues being given the opertunity to get first strikes every time now.

[peanutbuttercup]

Never mind, question's been answered on live!