Underused pets, and what should be done to help them

[Worba]

Oh and the hunch cats! They stare at the ground 24/7 and look hunched over in pain! The only hunch cat I have is Skarr and even his stance is starting to annoy me. I just can't stand the constant staring at the ground, same with the Worgs. Fix please, Blizz!

Yes. I never really understood the attraction - if they straightened his posture I'd probably go after Skarr but as-is... no ty.

[Gayia]

I haven't seen anyone with Silithid, and I'm doing loads of Battlegrounds.
Since I've started playing in August, haven't seen a single hunter with this lovely pet.
Not only I love the looks (e.g. pink Ainamiss) but their ability is much better than spiders'.

5 sec venom-web, + damage done to the enemy makes them the best pvp pet as for me.
I tried a lot of pets in battlegrounds, but I've clicked with Silithid straight away, and haven't changed it for last 2 months.

[Kalliope]

I think the pets with the "increased bleed damage" debuffs need some changing, because it's not an attractive debuff to a hunter aside from marks, who are still going to favor the buffs like agi, crit, or armor reduction. It seems to me that if you have a class that could benefit from it, they already bring the debuff themselves. Especially Rhinos being exotic when BM doesn't bring a bleed at all (plus they're tenacity so they won't be brought for dps, and if a pet is tanking in groups, it's probably a turtle).

In general, I get the idea of having pets bring some buffs that the raid may be missing, but aside from some of the exotic abilities like fort, most classes that need a buff/debuff are going to bring it themselves. Even in a 10 man raid, you can cover most anything you need now that buffs/debuffs are shared by 2-3 classes/specs.

So the hunters are most likely to bring pets that a) do the best dps, b) give the buffs the hunter wants for him/herself, or c) they've had the longest. Cats and wolves cover a and b pretty well, and spirit beasts can fall into that category now too although bm isn't a top raid spec. And because cats/wolves have been top pets a number of times in the past, they're more likely to fall into category c.

At least that's how I see it for pve grouping. .

You must get into really well balanced raids all the time, because for the most part, I raid with a ravager, raptor, hyena or dragonhawk because they're rarely every covered, ravager and/or hyena always being the most requested. I could understand a 25 man raid allowing the hunter to just bring whatever, but in 10s, that increased bleed effect is often crucial.

Moot point in MoP; that's one of the buffs that's going away, should all stay as tentatively announced.

[Worba]

As long as I can spec my silithid as ferocity or tenacity in 5.0, I'll be happy.

Is there a list of "replacement" pet abilities for 5.0 somewhere?

[GormanGhaste]

Is there a list of "replacement" pet abilities for 5.0 somewhere?

I think it's too early to know at this point.

[Ket Shi]

Part of the problem, pets being stuck in only the Tenacity tree, looks like it's getting fixed for the expansion. I'd suggest all pet families getting to choose from two abilities: one more PvP oriented, such as stuns, disarms, and snares, and one more PvE oriented, such as +crit, +str/agil, and so on.

I hope that tallstriders and foxes are going to get something new. Not only are they ferocity pets with a defensive ability, but it's also one that I believe every tank spec has access to.