Legion Pet Families - Ability Suggestions

[SpiritBinder]

Hey Gang, well as you know there hasn't been a pass on pet abilities just yet in Legion, I just thought it might be neat to start a thread dedicated ability suggestions for our 4 new families coming in Legion. This threads concept comes from another thread, but thought it would be better have a thread dedicated to brainstorming up creative ideas, you never know who may end up reading them

I'll bring begin with the ones from the prior thread, but what else to you think would be neat for Mana Sabres, Mechanicals, Oxen and Scalehides?


Mana Sabres

Have something along the same lines as Spirit mend, but instead of health, something like a small Innervate?
However as we use focus, maybe have the ability restore a certain amount of appropriate resource rather than just Mana

• so it's useful for everyone.
  
  Mana -> Mana Users
  Focus -> Hunters
  Energy -> Rouges
  Etc, etc.?

For a second ability if they are still doing that for exotics, they could potentially have something like Devour Mana?

• *Drains an enemy of mana and heals the caster for the mana stolen.

The heal would only effect the pet, but would potentially give the pet some PVP utility also?

[Bambu]

I like the Mana Saber idea! Gonna brainstorm some for the other three.

Mechanicals: Maybe since they're machines, Engineers could craft "Ability Modification" items that can customize a out-of-combat utility (Delivery Service-mail, Automated Teller-bank, or Scrap Heap-repair/forge/anvil) and a combat/levelling ability (Defibrillate-brez, Overdrive-Bloodlust, Oil Slick-Ranged Slow, Jets-Waterwalking and Slowfall)
Scalehides: Molten Hide but Physical damage?
Oxen: Not sure beyond another damage reduction ability like Turtles and Crabs have.

[Quiv]

Ooh I like this thread. I'll have to think of some. Oxen are known to be stinky, maybe some kind of debuff or AoE thing caused by their odor.

That being said, do we have a full list of the families that still have pet abilities in Legion? I know Spirit Beast still has the heal and Turtles have the Shell Shield for example. All the stat buffs are gone but did they remove any of the utility abilities?

[Bendak]

There's also about 20 old families that lost their buffs and need new abilities, and Exotics as a whole need to be evened out. I made a post about this on the feedback forums a few days ago: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20745096466#1 Only because it seems like they're cutting it real close with this.

I'd be surprised if we got brand new pet abilities other than reskins of existing ones, but it would be neat! I like the idea of Mana Sabers restoring Focus or resources in some way.

Mana Sabers:

• Mana Barrier
  Protects the mana saber with a barrier for 12 sec that reduces damage taken by 40%. Direct attacks absorbed by the barrier restore 5 Focus to Hunter and pet. Can only occur once per second. 1.5 min cd.
  
  Arcane Steps
  Kills that grant experience or honor (killing blow by Hunter or pet) magically charge the steps of Hunter and pet, granting 30% movement speed for 10 sec. (with purple footsteps!)

Oxen:

• Heart of an Ox
  Reduces damage taken by 20% for 30 seconds. 1 min cd.
  
  (longer duration, but less damage reduction than shell shield)

Scalehides:

• Maybe something like the Direhorn ability, but reflect physical damage instead of spells?

Mechanical:

• Oil Slick
  Leaks some oil on the ground, reducing movement speed and attack speed of enemies within 15 yards by xx% for xx seconds.
  
  Self-Repair
  Enters self-repair mode for the next 5 seconds. Regenerates 10% of max health per second but is unable to attack. 1 min cd.

[Rhyela]

I like all of yours, Bendak!

[Bambu]

I like all of yours, Bendak!

Agreed!

[Xota]

quoting myself from another thread. this topic matches better anyways. All the abilities would be 'reskins' of each other, because having range/duration/cd/autocast differences rubs me the wrong way when it ends up with some being strictly better than others.

This is a sample of how the abilities could be distributed. The two abilities for exotics are hopefully set up so that they won't be overpowering, more usable in different circumstances. So if a player likes a non-exotic better, they won't feel penalized for taking the non-exotic instead of the exotic.
I tried to match abilities with current or former abilities, or at least the names. I can see how time consuming assigning pet abilities would be, I didn't even have to do the hard part (coding).
* indicates exotic.

normal combat abilities:
dodge 30% for 10 sec, 1 min cd
bat (sonic focus), fox (agile reflexes), monkey (primal agility), water strider* (skitter), tallstrider (dust cloud), mana saber* (displacement)

shield (-50% damage taken, 12 sec, 1 min cd):
beetle (harden carapace), clefthoof* (thick hide), shale spider* (solid shell), turtle (shell shield), quilen* (stone armor), bear (thick hide)

Mortal wound:
carrion bird (infected slash), devilsaur* (monstrous bite), hyena infected bite, raptor savage rend, riverbeast gruesome bite, scorpid deadly sting

timewarp
corehound* ancient hysteria, nether ray nether winds, rylak* savage vigor, wolf call of the pack

battle rez:
crane gift of chi-ji, moth dust of life, quilen* eternal guardian

heal
spirit beast* spirit mend, sporebat energizing spores, Ox fortitude, gorilla some gorilladin pun (word of gorilla, lay on paws, ...)
cc:
hamstring, melee range, high uptime:
Basilisk petrifying gaze, Chimaera* frost breath, crocolisk ankle crack,
dog lock jaw, ravager ravage

knockdown, brief stun
clefthoof* horn slam, goat headbutt, mechanical taze, wasp sting, direhorn Trihorn charge

root (ranged root, low uptime):
silithid* web spray, spider web spray, shale spider* earth grasp (warrior's charge root visual), serpent poison spit, worm* acid spit

aoe:
breath cone:
chimaera* froststorm breath, dragonhawk fire breath

invulnerable stationary aoe
worm* burrowing attack, wind serpent lightning cyclone

thorns (reflects X damage to melee attacks, 10 sec, 1 min CD)
corehound* molten hide, porcupine defensive quills, boar razor back

non-combat:
prowl:
cat prowl, spirit beast* spirit walk, warp stalker stalk

sea floor running (like silversnap swim tonic):
Crab crab walk, hydra lurker in the deep

focus/health regen (1 min CD, requires corpse. increases size 10% for 65 sec, stacking to 5)
devilsaur* feast, scalehide devour

slowfall (30 sec)
rylak* updraft, bird of prey birds of a feather

(near) instant mount -
stag fight or flight response, silithid* hive mind

water walk
water strider* - surface trot

innervate - out of combat, gives X% main resource to target.
Mana saber - innervate

Also, at 7.1 or whenever, there could be engineering recipes, to make modules to replace mechanicals' ability with another pet ability from the list. Like "high-strung springs" for dodge, or "net shooter" for the root.

[Bambu]

quoting myself from another thread. this topic matches better anyways. All the abilities would be 'reskins' of each other, because having range/duration/cd/autocast differences rubs me the wrong way when it ends up with some being strictly better than others.

This is perfect. The imbalanced pet abilities always bugged me. If Blizz did exactly this, I'd be super happy.

[Rhyela]

I think the only thing I'd prefer is for the innervate to be usable in-combat, too. But maybe give it a once-per-fight restriction like pots? Maybe that'd make it too sought-after in raids and such, though. Other than that, I like your list.

[Xota]

I think the only thing I'd prefer is for the innervate to be usable in-combat, too. But maybe give it a once-per-fight restriction like pots? Maybe that'd make it too sought-after in raids and such, though. Other than that, I like your list.

Ya, I wasn't sure what kind of design would be needed to make it not mandatory. I thought making pulls in dungeons quicker would be helpful, but not necessary. Once per fight would also work, probably better. But at that point I was thinking, "what would I most like to code if I were on a deadline?"

[Madeline]

I didn't see bird of prey with a combat ability...

how about Screech - 2 second stun/interrupt

(they used to have that in BC - along with bats and carrion birds.)
Great for pvp

Great List - that was a lot of work and I hope that does get implemented. It makes sense.