MM Losing their Pets??

[Rikaku]

Well, I wasn't sure to put this in Legion or Blizzcon; since it stemmed from the Blizzcon discussion about Legion... but if moderators feel a need to move it, go for it

Most Marksmanship hunters are taking the Lone Wolf talent on live, so the team decided to go ahead and remove the pet in Legion. You can still be ranged with a pet as Beast Mastery.

From the Legion Class & System Discussion, recapped here at MMO-Champion: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/526 ... Discussion

I don't really play MM, I'm BM all the way. But this surprised me a lot and I feel like it may be a really dramatic change to a lot of Hunters. I know many MM Hunters who still used their pets they've had for years, only really turning on Lone Wolf if necessary in raids. And now their spec... is losing their pet? o_O

Heck, even I was considering playing MM as an alt spec in Legion, simply because I loathe the BM "artifact gun" (don't get me started on that one, lol). But now...

I can't imagine playing full time without a pet D: But I know there are some Hunters who've been wanting a ranged no-pet spec for awhile. Though, I guess its just surprising to me that its no longer an "optional" part of MM spec.

IDK, what are your thoughts?

[Equeon]

Personally, I'm all for it. It differentiates specs enough to actually make them unique - something not always felt in past expansions.

BM will be ranged with pet, MM ranged with no pet, survival melee with pet.

With tri-spec incoming, you won't have to make the difficult choice of which two to pick anymore.

The loss of a pet means that MM can get more marksman and ranger-related abilities, while BM as the pet spec gets more "Beastmaster" abilities.
As I heard, Focus Fire is getting removed and more abilities focusing on the pet will be added for BM, only further differentiating the different specs. I like this approach.

[Mousecandy]

I feel like the reason there doing it is really stupid though, like if they came straight out and said 'cus we want to' it would be one thing, but cus they are saying its because most mm hunters don't use their pets I'm super annoyed. when you can't get as much DPS doing mythic raiding if you choose another talent or spec, its not considered viable, sure for low end raiding it was fine but the majority went for the highest possible dps because many players follow guides and setups based on mythic raiders, leading to many hunter players as mm without a pet. This is not the choice of the player, but the fault of the game, if BM was highest dps, then people would play that, if SV with a pet was, it would be that. It seems foolish and rather cheap to claim that its cus people were choosing not to have a pet in MM when that choice was most often made by the game they played.


also I really hate the BM gun *sighs* I love bows, I love pets, its why I made a hunter

[Lisaara]

Personally, I'm all for it. It differentiates specs enough to actually make them unique - something not always felt in past expansions.

BM will be ranged with pet, MM ranged with no pet, survival melee with pet.

With tri-spec incoming, you won't have to make the difficult choice of which two to pick anymore.

The loss of a pet means that MM can get more marksman and ranger-related abilities, while BM as the pet spec gets more "Beastmaster" abilities.
As I heard, Focus Fire is getting removed and more abilities focusing on the pet will be added for BM, only further differentiating the different specs. I like this approach.

Pretty much this for me.

[cowmuflage]

Welp I anit playing a hunter anymore then.

[Wain]

There are going to be strong feelings about this change, here. This is a pet forum after all, so chances are most of us are going to want to keep our pets. Personally I'm all for it too. I love that they're being brave with these changes. But having said that I intend to play BM.

[Nimrod]

Sad part about being "stuck" as BM is not being able to use the fancy new bow models (at least, AFAIK).

Also not super stoked about how they're going to balance the 3 specs. They're going to be vastly different from each other.

[Shinryu Masaki]

Also not super stoked about how they're going to balance the 3 specs. They're going to be vastly different from each other.

That's the main reason that they're doing an overhaul of the hunter specs. Right now they basically feel mostly the same, just with different names on the skills.

[Castile]

Yeah I'm not happy at all about this. I changed to MM this expansion mainly for the dps boost and found I really liked it but I still quest and daily with my pet only using lone wolf for instance/raids. I would prefer if we could keep our pets but they did little/no damage if they want to balance it that way. I'll be keeping BM as my offspec so it's not like I'll "loose" them but I play a hunter for the companion next to me - not to be a ranger :/ I'll probably stay MM and tough it out mainly because the BM gun is god awful and I really like the spec but questing without my mate beside me won't be too fun.

[Quiv]

One of their main reasons for changing MM to be petless was because people were taking the lone wolf talent.

I have a feeling people were taking that for convenience/dps reasons and not so much fantasy...

[Pewmew]

Well, I wasn't sure to put this in Legion or Blizzcon; since it stemmed from the Blizzcon discussion about Legion... but if moderators feel a need to move it, go for it

Most Marksmanship hunters are taking the Lone Wolf talent on live, so the team decided to go ahead and remove the pet in Legion. You can still be ranged with a pet as Beast Mastery.

From the Legion Class & System Discussion, recapped here at MMO-Champion: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/526 ... Discussion

I don't really play MM, I'm BM all the way. But this surprised me a lot and I feel like it may be a really dramatic change to a lot of Hunters. I know many MM Hunters who still used their pets they've had for years, only really turning on Lone Wolf if necessary in raids. And now their spec... is losing their pet? o_O

Heck, even I was considering playing MM as an alt spec in Legion, simply because I loathe the BM "artifact gun" (don't get me started on that one, lol). But now...

I can't imagine playing full time without a pet D: But I know there are some Hunters who've been wanting a ranged no-pet spec for awhile. Though, I guess its just surprising to me that its no longer an "optional" part of MM spec.

IDK, what are your thoughts?

This change was announced at Gamescon. If you are just finding out about it then you don't really pay attention to what's happening to the class.

[Castile]

This change was announced at Gamescon. If you are just finding out about it then you don't really pay attention to what's happening to the class.

We knew this was "announced" but you don't take anything as gospel until Blizzcon or even Beta (this has been discussed on this forum previously as well). I think people are more surprised at the reasons why rather than the information itself.

[Niabi]

Have they mentioned what will happen to your pets if you are spec'd MM when this goes live? Will MM hunters still have access to their stables just in case they decide to switch over to BM or SV later?

I'm down with the concept of diversifying the hunter role, however, doing so by taking away the one element that attracted a majority of us to the class to begin with may not be the best solution. As much as I love playing MM hunters, I'm simply not prepared to give up their "families" just yet. If this change is implemented, I'll have to commit to playing ALL of my hunters as BMs (don't care much for SV personally).

[Ickabob]

I'll say this, I'm a tad bit disappointed with the forced Lone Wolf for MM. Some people might enjoy the MM play style, but don't want to ditch their beloved pets after all these years.

Hopefully they take this into consideration and at least consider giving us the option to "spec into" using our pets as MM, should we desire to do so.

[Kayb]

I think it blows that they can't make it optional.

And are we not allowed to transmog artifact weapons or something? Cause if I have to switch spec to keep my pet, I'd be going BM, and I don't want to have to use a gun

[Lupen202]

I think it blows that they can't make it optional.

And are we not allowed to transmog artifact weapons or something? Cause if I have to switch spec to keep my pet, I'd be going BM, and I don't want to have to use a gun

You can transmog your artifact, thankfully. So if you go Bm you won't be stuck with the gun.

[Jurz]

Ok, so I'm almost always in my BM spec and I used to switch my os between MM and SV but then I made my os permanently SV so I haven't played MM in a LONG time and I've never used the Lone Wolf talent but can't you still have your pet out and just not receive the extra DPS? I know that still sucks but in reading the talent it sounds like you could still have your pet out, your DPS would just suffer (kind of, I mean your pet fights, I just don't think it would be as much DPS as Lone Wolf offers, but that's when you start prioritizing things in WoW)

[Castile]

Ok, so I'm almost always in my BM spec and I used to switch my os between MM and SV but then I made my os permanently SV so I haven't played MM in a LONG time and I've never used the Lone Wolf talent but can't you still have your pet out and just not receive the extra DPS? I know that still sucks but in reading the talent it sounds like you could still have your pet out, your DPS would just suffer (kind of, I mean your pet fights, I just don't think it would be as much DPS as Lone Wolf offers, but that's when you start prioritizing things in WoW)

Currently yes but when Legion hits it seems we won't have that option at all. They seem to have made this decision purely on people taking the talent which probably doesn't take into account the times people call a pet or change for different situations (ie from questing to raiding) which for me is most of the time - I only really dismiss my pet for raids and have him out 90% of my playtime as MM.

I think it's mainly that the choice is being taken from us alot in this expansion that annoys people the most. I would like the choice to use my pet or not, bow or gun etc etc.

[Slickrock]

Sad part about being "stuck" as BM is not being able to use the fancy new bow models (at least, AFAIK).

Also not super stoked about how they're going to balance the 3 specs. They're going to be vastly different from each other.

Why are you "stuck" with BM? If you want a pet, BM or SV are options.

I don't get why people hate BM so much, or love MM... you do realize the talents are rotations are going in a blender right? So being loyal to any spec based on talents is a lost cause right now.. look at SV...

[Castile]

I don't get why people hate BM so much, or love MM... you do realize the talents are rotations are going in a blender right? So being loyal to any spec based on talents is a lost cause right now.. look at SV...

Do they need a reason to love one spec over another? Some people have played the same spec since vanilla (and they have drastically changed since then) because they feel it fits them best - i don't think it has anything to do with being "loyal" to talents. People are just upset at how drastic these changes are and if you play a hunter for the ranged aspect and a pet well really you only have one option for that playstyle realistically now....