pet family abilities

[Wain]

If it were up to me, I'd make it so only BM had access to pet abilities. Survival already has tons of buttons, and pets are optional in MM.

I'd distribute the current abilities (brez, shield, heal, time warp, mortal wounds, ankle crack, prowl (without the slow), thorns, dodge) and a couple of removed cc abilities (ranged web/root, knockdown) among the existing families, with each combat ability being castable by at least one mundane and one exotic family.
I'd have exotic families having an additional utility ability (sometimes non-combat): water walk, slow fall, aoe, focus/health regen.

The one ability that might go against a) would be to change Devilsaur's Feast to also increase the Devilsaur's size by 10% for 65 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.

Other ability ideas, that already exist in other ways: innervate, swim speed, sea floor run, (near?) instant mounting.

I would love this approach. It really would make sense, and allow us to be versatile.

[Kurasu]

I would have more issue with Exotic pets having an extra ability.

Think about it: if only Beast Masters can access the abilities that pets have, what use would Exotic pets be, as opposed to normal pets?

What reason would Beast Masters even *bother* to tame normal pets if exotic pets gave abilities that normal pets wouldn't *as well as* the normal abilities?

I feel like having 'exotic pet abilities available only to Beast Masters' isn't a bad thing (in fact, I feel like it's something I'd love), but if they unlocked that, I would have some issue with them giving us the 'tame exotic' ability. After all, if only Beast Masters can unlock pet abilities, why limit exotic pets to Beast Master only? Right now, they do it so we have extra access to 'exotic abilities'. Well, if we had the only access to *all* abilities....

[13thmaiden]

Personally I like the idea of BMs being the ones to access pets 'abilities' only. Even with exotics, which would have 2 abilities since they're kinda like challenge tames in the first place. We've always been the pet heavy spec, and with only about 3 buttons left for us to hit, having an animal with another move could benefit us greatly.

I'd also replace stampede with something like 'summon dreadstalkers' that demonology warlocks have, where basically for a short period one of your chosen line-up pets appears, and fights for you with your already summoned pet. It would be random choice of course, and I'd also have it add that you can only have one exotic out at a time.

The reason they took abilities away was so that 'you could use any pet you want!' which totally cut the rug under us BMs who not only lost alot of their CC abilities, but now also their buff abilities. Atleast giving back the 'abilities' would either give us another move to use or way to give buffs in raids/dungeons/ect. At the moment, most people are just gonna punt anyone BM because well, we're almost deadweight at this moment with all the CDs on our 3 buttons (4 if you count BW and 5 if you cound DF, which if you're upping your focus-reg abilities, you lose and are back down to 4.)

[Bambu]

If it were up to me, I'd make it so only BM had access to pet abilities. Survival already has tons of buttons, and pets are optional in MM.

I'd distribute the current abilities (brez, shield, heal, time warp, mortal wounds, ankle crack, prowl (without the slow), thorns, dodge) and a couple of removed cc abilities (ranged web/root, knockdown) among the existing families, with each combat ability being castable by at least one mundane and one exotic family.
I'd have exotic families having an additional utility ability (sometimes non-combat): water walk, slow fall, aoe, focus/health regen.

The one ability that might go against a) would be to change Devilsaur's Feast to also increase the Devilsaur's size by 10% for 65 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.

Other ability ideas, that already exist in other ways: innervate, swim speed, sea floor run, (near?) instant mounting.

That all sounds great!

Also, didn't see Feast when I checked my Devilsaur's Spellbook on Beta... Hoping I just glanced over it.

[Xota]

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.
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.

[13thmaiden]

^ Ooh! I got a name for the gorilla move!!

'Harambe's Revenge'

[Lisaara]

That would cause a bit of an uproar if they named it that. >>;

[13thmaiden]

That would cause a bit of an uproar if they named it that. >>;

Maybe, but it would still be appropriate <3

[neddy]

My vote is not to give Exotics an added ability. If anything just give BM pets added abilities. I don't want to be forced to use exotic models just because they areally more powerful. Beast Mastery should have a larger range of pets available to it and not restricted to pets in the exotic groups. And with our artifact allowing dual wield pets, a variety of pet models is even more important.

I know some people will say that we are not being forced to use exotic families, but anyone who is in a progression raid group will tell you otherwise.

[Xota]

Some abilities are for pet tanking only. Some abilities are for world navigating utility. If you know someone in a progression raid group who can explain to me why a non-chainable root and .1 second mounting would make a pet superior in hardcore raiding to one that just has a battle rez, I'd like to hear that explanation.
Until then, I'm convinced that second abilities for exotics could be distributed in a manner to make exotics not mandatory.

[neddy]

What I was saying was if they are getting rid of pet abilities such as + critical and not replacing it with anything else, them a pet with hero or battle rez is going to be HEAVILY pushed by the raid group. I would rather see abilities be given through the beast mastery spec than through the exotic classification.

[SpiritBinder]

At this point in time, I just hope to hell they give all pets abilities some kind of look in before Legion hits, else the unbalance between them all with be fascicle considering how finicky they have been in the past, trying to make things even(ish). I'm sure they'll have too, it's just unnerving for them to be doing such a large shuffle/change to our pets so late in the peace. It just which means any feedback will not really have any time to be taken or be implemented.

[Bambu]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I'd rather have no family abilities at all than the current unbalanced state to be honest... Just give all BM hunters' pets Lust and BRez for added spec-utility and have exotic families be a purely cosmetic/"class fantasy" thing.

[Bendak]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I'd rather have no family abilities at all than the current unbalanced state to be honest... Just give all BM hunters' pets Lust and BRez for added spec-utility and have exotic families be a purely cosmetic/"class fantasy" thing.

With how ridiculously squishy pets are now, stuff like Shell Shield is essential to do any half-decent soloing. I'd rather they just copy/paste abilities with new names. There's a couple dozen families with nothing now. So give 3 of them shell shield, 3 of them snare, 3 of them mortal wounds, 3 of them battle rez, etc. It's not ideal but it's the easiest solution if they're intent on practically ignoring this issue.

[Bambu]

With how ridiculously squishy pets are now, stuff like Shell Shield is essential to do any half-decent soloing. I'd rather they just copy/paste abilities with new names. There's a couple dozen families with nothing now. So give 3 of them shell shield, 3 of them snare, 3 of them mortal wounds, 3 of them battle rez, etc. It's not ideal but it's the easiest solution if they're intent on practically ignoring this issue.

Agreed, I guess I was just being pessimistic about them even addressing the issue.

[Bendak]

So uh... patch is in 2-3 weeks less than 2 weeks. Anyone else getting a bit worried about this? Pet abilities are in such a bad state right now

- Exotics are totally inconsistent
- Two dozen families have nothing, including the fancy new mechanicals
- Scalehides and Oxen don't even have a basic attack (!!!!!)

Blizzard? hello?

If anyone w/ beta access feels like bumping this, that'd be swell: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/20745096466#1

[Rawr]

"I've been playing a Hunter sense BC and I really miss the old pet skills. I think some of them could re-implemented in one form or another, making pets useful again not just a generic skill-less bodyguard.

http://web.archive.org/web/201007270942 ... kills.html

For those youngens who are curious as to what old skills I'm talking about."


This is what I put, yay for old Petopia achieves!

[zedxrgal]

I'm with you Rawr. I really really miss the old pet talent trees and desperately wish they'd bring them back. Even if it's along the same as class talent trees we use giving a choice of talents every 15 levels depending on whether the pet is ferocity /cunning /tenacity.
It would never happen because wants hunters, especially BM, to be a newbie ...............dumbed down.............. they made all their damage the same etc.

Just would be really nice to have my pets abilities do more.

[Rawr]

Not all the abilities are DMG, in fact I'd say most are utility or a combo of the two. I miss the Ravager flip/stun and Warp Stalker Blink

[Rhyela]

I miss those abilities. Yes, some were better than others for raiding (I'm looking at you, wolves), but I thought it was neat how each pet had something special. There was some overlap, of course, and we felt more pigeon-holed into exotics, but the flavor aspect of it was fun for me.