A few pet things I think would be fun to see

[Snowwalker]

#1 Choice of talent tree.
I think this would help hunters further be able to use their choice pet in more situations, rather than boxed into dps, tank, pvp

#2 Pet Collars
Nothing cosmetic so they'd have to touch models, but something that would give hunters a way to personalize their pet at least a little, while still not being able to be an over-advantage, as any hunter could do their pet the same way. Maybe it could even have an armor quality to it, mabe there could be different ones, dropped, crafted...

#3 Anyone else miss having to actually work/train your pet? Instead of it feeling like gear or a weapon anymore? I'd love to see an 'option' where you could raise your pet, like is done with a couple of the mounts. A hunter talent/skill that would allow you to go out and locate a baby that you could raise, and what you feed it/do with it affects how it is once grown. So go easy and use cookie cutter pets, or invest time and effort and get a more specialized pet.

#4 A 'real' tame. I'd like to see a 'unique' pet that you can't just tame/kill. Try killing it, and it runs off, despawns for a short while. To tame it, you have to keep coming to it and feed it/ work with it until you 'win it over' like you would a true wild animal.

[Zuilu]

I definitely, definitely do miss having to take care of pets. I've lost pet bonds with many of my old pets because of this..don't need to feed them, gain loyalty, or even level them up anymore :I just spec them and go.

[Sesamee]

I too would like to see a little more involvement with our pets. Right now they're basically like gear that increases our dps. I'd love to be able to feed them again and "take care" of them a little more.

And I LOVE the idea for the "real tame". Instead of just casting a spell on them and bam they're ours, having to work over time for it would be amazing.

[Sukurachi]

As impractical from a programming aspect as it may be, I LOVE your 4th idea.
Somehow, I doubt it's a change they could implement with any sort of ease, but it would be incredible to experience that... it would certainly bring some "life" back into the idea of a pet being part of the hunter "team".

[Feralclaw]

I don't like the collar idea.

No. No. No.

I just can't picture my man-eating crocolisk wearing a pink collar, or even a spiked black collar. These pets are supposed to have a 'wild' look about them; they're not lap dogs or guard dogs.

Sorry, I just can't see me putting a collar on my scorpion or spider or gem cat or lion. That's just my opinion. Others may adore this idea.

[Snowwalker]

But Feral.. No one will sees it! So if you don't tell yer guild about the polka dots, they WON'T KNOW

[Feralclaw]

What would be the point if no one sees it? XD

[Snowwalker]

DuuuUUUHHHHhh- Teh gems! Like armor, you can outfit those babies with gems to boost stats.

[Nightsights]

adding to #1, would like to be able to pick which pet buff to use for each pet that can be switched out by unlearning it at the pet trainer for a few gold.

[Andine]

I definitely, definitely do miss having to take care of pets. I've lost pet bonds with many of my old pets because of this..don't need to feed them, gain loyalty, or even level them up anymore :I just spec them and go.

This is one of the things that should not be part of game mechanics - just like you don't have to eat regularly in the game (or you can do without eating at all, in fact), and you never drink as a non-mana user. It's a thing best left to the "fluff", and not taken care of with the proper rules, because it just hampers and slows down gameplay. Sure, if you want, you still have the "feed pet" skill, you can still roleplay the pet being unhappy with something etc. It's just not something to be part of the rules. And it appears Blizz agrees with me on this.

[peanutbuttercup]

I'd rather have a cosmetic collar that didn't do anything, so it'd be completely optional like a shirt on our toons. But the problem with that is not all pets have noticible necks.

[Lisaara]

I definitely, definitely do miss having to take care of pets. I've lost pet bonds with many of my old pets because of this..don't need to feed them, gain loyalty, or even level them up anymore :I just spec them and go.

This is one of the things that should not be part of game mechanics - just like you don't have to eat regularly in the game (or you can do without eating at all, in fact), and you never drink as a non-mana user. It's a thing best left to the "fluff", and not taken care of with the proper rules, because it just hampers and slows down gameplay. Sure, if you want, you still have the "feed pet" skill, you can still roleplay the pet being unhappy with something etc. It's just not something to be part of the rules. And it appears Blizz agrees with me on this.

I agree with this. Completely. I don't miss the having to feed my pet just by sitting around.

[Sesamee]

As impractical from a programming aspect as it may be, I LOVE your 4th idea.
Somehow, I doubt it's a change they could implement with any sort of ease, but it would be incredible to experience that... it would certainly bring some "life" back into the idea of a pet being part of the hunter "team".

I don't see how much harder than a quest or a rep grind it would be to implement. They could use the rep models and once you reach a certain "rep" with that beast it becomes available to tame.

[Nubhorns]

DuuuUUUHHHHhh- Teh gems! Like armor, you can outfit those babies with gems to boost stats.

As much as I like the collar idea I have enough trouble gemming my hunter, much less all of her pets! D:

What would you gem a pet with, anyway? Agility?

[Feralclaw]

DuuuUUUHHHHhh- Teh gems! Like armor, you can outfit those babies with gems to boost stats.

As much as I like the collar idea I have enough trouble gemming my hunter, much less all of her pets! D:

What would you gem a pet with, anyway? Agility?

^ Totally agree with you, Nub. . . I don't even gem my hunter so collars would be pointless!

[Zuilu]

I definitely, definitely do miss having to take care of pets. I've lost pet bonds with many of my old pets because of this..don't need to feed them, gain loyalty, or even level them up anymore :I just spec them and go.

This is one of the things that should not be part of game mechanics - just like you don't have to eat regularly in the game (or you can do without eating at all, in fact), and you never drink as a non-mana user. It's a thing best left to the "fluff", and not taken care of with the proper rules, because it just hampers and slows down gameplay. Sure, if you want, you still have the "feed pet" skill, you can still roleplay the pet being unhappy with something etc. It's just not something to be part of the rules. And it appears Blizz agrees with me on this.

To each their own, but to me it's just one more thing making the game less in-depth and easier. No consequences to anything. Like taking away the warlock soul stone item ._.

[Feralclaw]

If they're gonna bring feeding pets back, at least don't make it a necessity. I went halfway broke in vanilla because I had to buy high level food for my pets. [And let me tell you, I wasn't a gold-maker in WoW back then.]

[Zuilu]

If they're gonna bring feeding pets back, at least don't make it a necessity. I went halfway broke in vanilla because I had to buy high level food for my pets. [And let me tell you, I wasn't a gold-maker in WoW back then.]

Or make it a little less frequent, the pets did need to be fed -a lot-

[Cerele]

I've long hated blizzard's changes to the hunter, i loved feeding my pet i loved raising loyalty levels, i loved actually having a pet.
You had to take care of it, and love it, not like a damn demon. Now pets are litterally just buffs, and thats what they will be. Now you see everyone running around with Deth, or Skarr, or the most recent rare, and acting like its nothing. Its an animal that you have to bond with, a mutual relationship of staying alive and having something to be with when you were out in the wilds questing. I absolutely hate what they did to the pets, i want it to be vanilla, you get one of your first pets, you work with it leveling you bond you care, not just "LOL I JUST TAMED DETH NOW ABANDON MY STARTER PET CAUSE I CAN GET THE SKIN AGAIN" its just terrible what they became.

I liked the idea of buffs at first, but the more i thought of it it kills the hunter pet love bond, now you have 5 pets, not 1 5 at all times, ohh cant have your croc out cause hes tenacity and no buff? run with a new cat Skarr cause your group wants his buff, thats one of the only reasons i liked the old system of abilities, you could have almost any pet, cause they werent just buffs to people.

[Worba]

At a very gut level, I sympathize. But I'm not sure if these ideas would work in practice.

#1 Choice of talent tree.
I think this would help hunters further be able to use their choice pet in more situations, rather than boxed into dps, tank, pvp

I would sign on to this with two addendums - 1) tenacity pets are the only ones who can learn thunderstomp, and 2) ferocity / cunning are the only ones who can learn dash/dive (overrides talent tree). This way, large / "tanky" pets have a bit of an edge with tanking, but you won't see them zooming around like the lighter / more nimble families.

#2 Pet Collars
Nothing cosmetic so they'd have to touch models, but something that would give hunters a way to personalize their pet at least a little, while still not being able to be an over-advantage, as any hunter could do their pet the same way. Maybe it could even have an armor quality to it, mabe there could be different ones, dropped, crafted...

This is like pet barding lite - and even though it's a good deal less involved than making all kinds of different armor models, it's still going to run into the basic issue that some pets (cats, wolves, raptors) look appropriate with this, whilst others (spiders, crabs, scorpids) do not. I think pet leashes are about as far as they're going to go with this.

#3 Anyone else miss having to actually work/train your pet? Instead of it feeling like gear or a weapon anymore? I'd love to see an 'option' where you could raise your pet, like is done with a couple of the mounts. A hunter talent/skill that would allow you to go out and locate a baby that you could raise, and what you feed it/do with it affects how it is once grown. So go easy and use cookie cutter pets, or invest time and effort and get a more specialized pet.

The problem here is that you've got a 0.50 cent gain in exchange for a 2.00 cost; yes there was a certain element of bonding / investment with the old training system, but it also meant that most of your stable was lagging behind and not getting used. So I don't think this sort of thing should affect combat.

That said, I would be open to perhaps a gradually accumulating EXP gain-boosting buff, where time spent playing the pet applied a slowly increasing EXP buff. Which would reset back to 0 as soon as you switched to a new pet. Still not meaningful for cap lvl hunters, but a start perhaps.

EDIT: I see what you're saying now - same overall power level either way, just going the "special feed & care" route gets you different abilities you otherwise wouldn't be able to unlock - that might work. Especially if the special abilities were largely or entirely aesthetic (short growth burst, special energy visual on crit, etc etc).

#4 A 'real' tame. I'd like to see a 'unique' pet that you can't just tame/kill. Try killing it, and it runs off, despawns for a short while. To tame it, you have to keep coming to it and feed it/ work with it until you 'win it over' like you would a true wild animal.

Hmm. Might work as the basis for a new "challenging tame", where perhaps you acquire some hard-to-obtain, unique (non-stackable) food, feed it to the creature, and then have a limited amount of time to go get more, and each time you receive a "Befriending XYZ..." buff, which stacks up to 5 times and once it reaches 5, you can then cast tame beast on it?