Pet Roster and Flow Chart for Cata

[Worba]

That is a WONDERFUL chart; will help me plot out the parts of my stable that I'm less certain of. Thanks!

oh well if that's what you're looking for, I made a spreadsheet:



The assumed abilities are what I assume the pets will be changed to based on their current abilities... that's if they're changed at all. Everything else was on MMO.

I'd link you the .xls file if I knew of a place to upload it.

Love it. BTW you can just copy and paste it into a new worksheet to get a local copy.

[Malazee]

I wanted to upload the .xls file here, but it's not allowed on Petopia's forums. It'd be nice to give that out instead of just an image, so that people could edit it however best suits their needs. I added the mobs/locations of all the pets I intend to tame, along with the names I intend to give them, on mine. ^_^

Coming up with 20ish pet names is no easy feat, btw, unless you've got a centralized theme that's large enough to provide ample inspiration.

[Kalliope]

I agree that chimeras (among other exotics who are missing "special" buffs/debuffs) won't be getting a "standard" debuff. I don't see them giving us battle res, though. Resist auras are all combined into one for pallies now, and hunters already have nature resist, so I'd say those are off the table as well, unless there was a reason to give half to one pet and half to another. I got the feeling Blizzard was trying to get away from having to swap them, though.

Guardian Spirit might be a possibility. There was a long discussion in another thread about pet sacrifices for their masters - and tenacity pets DO already have intervene, which is sort of the same concept (only to less of an extreme). Course, that might be too powerful; it's a big, big cooldown to use on a tank. Even if it were to kill our pet (meaning it would need to go on a non-ferocity pet, since heart of the phoenix would be an instant counter), that's a major game changer for endgame raiding. It would be an incredibly overpowered soloing ability, and don't even get me started on how it couldn't work in arena. Maybe this is why spirit beasts got a heal instead.

Hey! Don't count Battle Rez out yet... I know it's a long shot, but to be honest I would have considered Bloodlust a longshot before these new abilities came out, too. But yeah... it's hard to come up with pet-appropriate niche abilities that aren't overpowered. I still think Windfury is the most obvious one that's not up yet.

Good point on bloodlust, and agreed on windfury. I just figured only priests and prot pallies have GS/ardent defender.

It's just that battle res is...huge. Even more than bloodlust. I mean, pets are smart, but can they really raise the dead? The ONLY pet I could ever see having this kind of ability is a phoenix.

If we could tame mana wyrms, they could get a mini Hymn of Hope...! Okay, that's a stretch...

*nods to Malazee* Pet naming is getting VERY daunting.

[Worba]

I wanted to upload the .xls file here, but it's not allowed on Petopia's forums. It'd be nice to give that out instead of just an image, so that people could edit it however best suits their needs. I added the mobs/locations of all the pets I intend to tame, along with the names I intend to give them, on mine. ^_^

Coming up with 20ish pet names is no easy feat, btw, unless you've got a centralized theme that's large enough to provide ample inspiration.

Or 8 different hunters...

[Malazee]

I agree that chimeras (among other exotics who are missing "special" buffs/debuffs) won't be getting a "standard" debuff. I don't see them giving us battle res, though. Resist auras are all combined into one for pallies now, and hunters already have nature resist, so I'd say those are off the table as well, unless there was a reason to give half to one pet and half to another. I got the feeling Blizzard was trying to get away from having to swap them, though.

Guardian Spirit might be a possibility. There was a long discussion in another thread about pet sacrifices for their masters - and tenacity pets DO already have intervene, which is sort of the same concept (only to less of an extreme). Course, that might be too powerful; it's a big, big cooldown to use on a tank. Even if it were to kill our pet (meaning it would need to go on a non-ferocity pet, since heart of the phoenix would be an instant counter), that's a major game changer for endgame raiding. It would be an incredibly overpowered soloing ability, and don't even get me started on how it couldn't work in arena. Maybe this is why spirit beasts got a heal instead.

Hey! Don't count Battle Rez out yet... I know it's a long shot, but to be honest I would have considered Bloodlust a longshot before these new abilities came out, too. But yeah... it's hard to come up with pet-appropriate niche abilities that aren't overpowered. I still think Windfury is the most obvious one that's not up yet.

Good point on bloodlust, and agreed on windfury. I just figured only priests and prot pallies have GS/ardent defender.

It's just that battle res is...huge. Even more than bloodlust. I mean, pets are smart, but can they really raise the dead? The ONLY pet I could ever see having this kind of ability is a phoenix.

If we could tame mana wyrms, they could get a mini Hymn of Hope...! Okay, that's a stretch...

*nods to Malazee* Pet naming is getting VERY daunting.

Wait now, you're on to something. Maybe not Hymn of Hope, but I could see Replenishment being a pet ability for the Chimaera or something. Not sure how useful it'd be considering how many classes already have it (spriest, surv hunters, ret pallies, frost mages and destro locks)... but it's exactly the type of niche buff I think they're going for.

[PonTelon]

I usually try for obscure references on all of my pets, be them inside jokes or really obscure-had-to-use-google-to-find-it names. I also love puns.

My wasp is named Aristophanes, because he wrote a play called "Wasp" and was a strange and off-putting Greek satirist.
Thunder(the Wonder) was the name of my Wind Serpant for Chuj Ladybane(He was an orc who thought himself a player).
Jafar for my Serpent(not crazy obscure)
Slick is my oil-covered worg. Armored Wolf from Ramps is "Rocky" after my mother's little ninja-dog.
Etc.

I'm sure I'm going to have a large portion of my stables filled with redundant pets(like my two wolves right now), but catching and naming them is pretty much my favorite part about playing a hunter. XD

[Kalliope]

If we could tame mana wyrms, they could get a mini Hymn of Hope...! Okay, that's a stretch...

Wait now, you're on to something. Maybe not Hymn of Hope, but I could see Replenishment being a pet ability for the Chimaera or something. Not sure how useful it'd be considering how many classes already have it (spriest, surv hunters, ret pallies, frost mages and destro locks)... but it's exactly the type of niche buff I think they're going for.

Well, I was thinking that cunning pets already get Roar of Recovery, which used to be a mana restore for the hunter (and now it's focus). A Hymn of Hope ability would be more unique (since only priests have a group mana restoring ability) and help the raid, rather than just a hunter. Since survival hunters already have replenishment, I'd consider this a duplicate buff within the same class, which is something Blizzard's avoided doing. Either all specs have an ability or one does - it's not usually two out of three unless you can spec into it in your "lesser tree."

Although, you know what? I should have taken the spirit beasts' spirit heal as an example and stuck with a single player mana restore - more like a small innervate. Except have it work with focus/rage/runic power/AND mana, depending on who it's used on. Should probably go on a non-cunning pet, by that reasoning.

[Malazee]

Well, I was thinking that cunning pets already get Roar of Recovery, which used to be a mana restore for the hunter (and now it's focus). A Hymn of Hope ability would be more unique (since only priests have a group mana restoring ability) and help the raid, rather than just a hunter. Since survival hunters already have replenishment, I'd consider this a duplicate buff within the same class, which is something Blizzard's avoided doing. Either all specs have an ability or one does - it's not usually two out of three unless you can spec into it in your "lesser tree."

Although, you know what? I should have taken the spirit beasts' spirit heal as an example and stuck with a single player mana restore - more like a small innervate. Except have it work with focus/rage/runic power/AND mana, depending on who it's used on. Should probably go on a non-cunning pet, by that reasoning.

Resto shaman have a group mana restore as well (mana tide), but I see your point. And I agree about innervate: also a very good possibility for exotic pets. Either an exact copy of innervate, or similar but with all types of energy. Or it could be just an instant "restores x amount of [energytype]" -- but that would be very similar to the Fervor talent that BM hunters get.

So for our list of good/likely exotic pet abilities not yet seen, we have:
-Windfury
-Innervate

Keep em coming!

[PonTelon]

Agility and Strength death knight, shaman, warrior
Armor shaman, paladin
Mana Pool mage, warlock
Mana Regen paladin, shaman, warlock
20% Melee Attack Speed shaman, frost death knight, retribution paladin, survival hunter
5% Spell Haste shaman, balance druid, shadow priest, destro warlock
6% Spell Power mage, shaman
10% Spell Power elemental shaman, demonology warlock, fire mage
5% Spell Crit Chance Taken fire mage, warlock, frost mage

Removing all the current Pets and Hunter buffs, these are the "raid buffs" we are left with.

Agi/Str, Armor, Melee attack speed all make sense for pets I think. Maybe Mana Pool/regen for "caster" pets(but we don't have any exotic ones that need abilities still).

[Malazee]

Maybe Mana Pool/regen for "caster" pets(but we don't have any exotic ones that need abilities still).

Chimaeras are casters, aren't they?

[PonTelon]

Maybe Mana Pool/regen for "caster" pets(but we don't have any exotic ones that need abilities still).

Chimaeras are casters, aren't they?

True! They'd be a good match.

[Kalliope]

Resto shaman have a group mana restore as well (mana tide), but I see your point. And I agree about innervate: also a very good possibility for exotic pets. Either an exact copy of innervate, or similar but with all types of energy. Or it could be just an instant "restores x amount of [energytype]" -- but that would be very similar to the Fervor talent that BM hunters get.

So for our list of good/likely exotic pet abilities not yet seen, we have:
-Windfury
-Innervate

Keep em coming!

Deedeedee, it's not like I have a resto shaman or anything. *facepalm* I was thinking more of a "smart buffing" ability like HoH rather than mana tide - but it is still basically the same thing and I shouldn't've left it out.

I think the "over time" mechanic is more likely to get approval than the instant restore, so let's stick with that! But yeah, definitely not on a cunning pet, since that's a potential double buff for a hunter.

Spell crit is covered by the devilsaur/wolf crit buff, isn't it? It's just straight crit, not physical or spell. Trying not to be greedy, I'd go for the armor buff, but ideally, the agi/str buff would be nice. Still, I'm going to think about the specific class abilities (like innervate) some more to see if there's anything else we may have missed. We can't bring TOO many raid buffs, y'know?