Analysis of new Pet Abilities

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Widow venom is still there.

[Kalliope]

Huh. So I don't get it. Chimera used to take the widow venom and take the heal from that.....so how does that work now?

[Palladiamorsdeus]

...claw is really, REALLY borked. REALLY borked. My level 79 sudden tame cat just criticaled with claw for 8,000.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Double! Chimera shot now just refreshes the duration of serpent sting and heals you for 5% of your health.

Edit: I may also have to eat some crow here. Working with a freshly tamed cat, non borked, pet damage seems to have gone up. As in I just saw a claw hit for an 11,000 critical. The new talent I mentioned before, or rather the reworked Wild Hunt, seems to have a lot to do with this. My previous pet, my devilsaur, was unable to use his bite at all, relegating him to a slightly weakened normal attack. I'll fiddle around some more.

[Daranara]

edit: i can see many guilds will ask hunters to be bm for shaman hound

Funny thing is I don't really see this happening. I mean yes it sounds neat on paper, but really what are the odds these days you're going raiding without either a mage or a shaman? (no seriously, I'm asking. I don't really raid, so I don't know.)

I can see it being useful for five-mans, but... yeah.

[Kalliope]

Double! Chimera shot now just refreshes the duration of serpent sting and heals you for 5% of your health.

Interesting!

Edit: I may also have to eat some crow here. Working with a freshly tamed cat, non borked, pet damage seems to have gone up. As in I just saw a claw hit for an 11,000 critical. The new talent I mentioned before, or rather the reworked Wild Hunt, seems to have a lot to do with this. My previous pet, my devilsaur, was unable to use his bite at all, relegating him to a slightly weakened normal attack. I'll fiddle around some more.

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! Seriously, 11k claw crit? That's disgustingly OP! I'd imagine that if bite and the other focus dump abilities do the same (once they're working properly), it'll be like I speculated before: pets will do the same killer damage as each other, but will bring different buffs depending on which pet you bring. (And no worries, Palla; this is all new stuff and quite a bit seems undocumented, so we're all kinda muddling through here. )

edit: i can see many guilds will ask hunters to be bm for shaman hound

Funny thing is I don't really see this happening. I mean yes it sounds neat on paper, but really what are the odds these days you're going raiding without either a mage or a shaman? (no seriously, I'm asking. I don't really raid, so I don't know.)

I can see it being useful for five-mans, but... yeah.

Ten man raids can be missing buffs pretty easily, depending on who/what is available.

[Fayt]

Calm down everyone , and stop cring that " Blizz took my pet damage away "
you still get the normal pet damage skill , they still auto attack , and they will benefit from a more percentage of the hunter stats . these buffs/debuffs are for testing . That is way it is a BETA !!!!!! if blizzard doesnt like it , they will changes some numbers around .

personally , i find it to be a interesting change and would like to not see every hunter have a wolf during raids . And no .....i raid with a raptor . and i still end up top hunter dps in my guild runs . I am tired of the wolf . And having certain buff and debuffs in a fight that other classes have ,make me pleased . It seems that Blizz wants us to be the best class . Dont have a class in your 10man raids that has a buff you need , ask a hunter if he has a pet that can fill that roll ...

Huntards will be Huntards
We are the easiest class to play , but the hardest to master !!!!

[Ellaran]

My complaints are the removals of element school damage from abilities (Lava Breath doesn't do fire damage anymore? Lightning Breath and Sonic Screech no more nature damage? How does that make sense), and the homogenization of so many buffs and debuffs (though again, it WILL make more pets viable for raiding and PvP).

Hell, the armor-reducing debuffs for the pets right now overshadow the ones that Warriors and Rogues get. They'll probably be happy that they won't have to apply them themselves and leave it up to the group hunter XD And being able to slow the casting rate of a group of casters makes the Sporebat a nice little bastard for PvP and questing/raiding where lots of casters roam.

Also, remember that only Bite, Claw and Smack will be using Focus in Cataclysm. All other pet abilities will work with cooldowns. Definitely a major plus.

[Irie]

Spirit Beast - Spirit Mend - heals for 2.5k hp then 1.3k hp over 10 seconds.

Raptor -Tear Armor - reduces armour for 4% stacks 5 times. Lasts 30 seconds.

[SpiritBinder]

Calm down everyone , and stop cring that " Blizz took my pet damage away "
you still get the normal pet damage skill , they still auto attack , and they will benefit from a more percentage of the hunter stats . these buffs/debuffs are for testing . That is way it is a BETA !!!!!! if blizzard doesnt like it , they will changes some numbers around .

Well I for one tank with a Croc, which now slows one target, which is just a hyena swap. tendon rip/ankle crack is kind of lame for a tanking pet, compared to it's aoe capabilities atm. I dont care about the damage being leveled out with all pets, it's the random "utility buff/debuffs" they are now giving pets that dont really make sence. I'm not going "freaking out!" "omg the sky is falling!", I'm just a little disapointed. I know that there will be another 20 pets I can go out and tame, but that does not mean that I will like the ones I currently have any less, nor be happy that I will have to use a different that does what mine is effectively doing now.

[Kalliope]

Well I for one tank with a Croc, which now slows one target, which is just a hyena swap. tendon rip/ankle crack is kind of lame for a tanking pet, compared to it's aoe capabilities atm. I dont care about the damage being leveled out with all pets, it's the random "utility buff/debuffs" they are now giving pets that dont really make sence. I'm not going "freaking out!" "omg the sky is falling!", I'm just a little disapointed. I know that there will be another 20 pets I can go out and tame, but that does not mean that I will like the ones I currently have any less, nor be happy that I will have to use a different that does what mine is effectively doing now.

I do have another theory!

If dps pets are being evened out to be similar at their core, then tanking and utility pets should theoretically undergo the same transformation. Palla mentioned a pet talent tree change; it's possible that in the tenacity tree, there are additional talents to thunderstomp that will make ANY tenacity pet an all around practical tank. So say that the AoE stuff is covered by talents - the new hamstring for crocs will be handy for runners on top of everything else. So depending on the implementation, this could overall be an upgrade.

[SpiritBinder]

I do have another theory!

If dps pets are being evened out to be similar at their core, then tanking and utility pets should theoretically undergo the same transformation. Palla mentioned a pet talent tree change; it's possible that in the tenacity tree, there are additional talents to thunderstomp that will make ANY tenacity pet an all around practical tank. So say that the AoE stuff is covered by talents - the new hamstring for crocs will be handy for runners on top of everything else. So depending on the implementation, this could overall be an upgrade.

I know that it is beta, I know that everything could still chance, but that still does not make me worry about my pets which I cherish...
But you know, I'm a petoholic...

[Galahandra]

But...but...my poor, poor sporebat :c

[Teigan]

I dont have pets for their ability to buff or debuff. My job is to hand out damage, and my pets job is to keep the baddies off of me while I do it.

Those of us who do, have worked at getting the best possible pets for the job.

But, what about your wolf's Furious Howl?

Now, hon, I don't like what they did to our worms either...but...

At least, if it's "you gotta bring x pet to y encounter" it's not always a wolf. Instead of "pet du jour" coming in only wolf-flavored (yech! ) more like Baskin-Robbins 31 (ok, 32 +) Flavors?

And, it's not done yet. We haven't seen it in action. Don't get me wrong. I'm totally underwhelmed by this, but, maybe it won't suck?

/comforts her poor wormie

[Aylfric]

I can't believe some of you folks are complaining about these changes, to be perfectly honest.

All the pets are going to do balanced damage. If pet damage is too low, then presumably Blizz will do something to bring it to the correct level.

Corehounds getting nerfed? If you have a Corehound, then you're BM, and you are used to having Bestial Wrath. Let me tell you, if you haven't experienced it because you solo, Bestial Wrath + Heroism/Bloodlust is INCREDIBLE.

I'm a bit sad that Wasps won't be bringing a PVE buff, but on the other hand, from playing around with FemaleDwarf I saw that the 5% armour debuff did not affect our damage very much. With Longevity factored in, this will give wasps a 2s stun every 35 seconds. Plus we have Intimidate, plus BM is getting Scatter Shot. That will give a BM/Wasp hunter quite a bit of control in PVP. And if you don't PVP, at least it's another 2s when the enemy isn't doing any damage to your wasp, which is free damage.

[Vephriel]

I'm really quite a fan of these new Ability features. I love the idea of individualistic buffs that can benefit a group as a whole or soloing, and so far from what we've seen I'm really pleased. I think it's a great direction to move in, giving each pet a niche of viability, and I'm looking forward to seeing the final implementations.

[Rottingham]

I love them all except what they did to the wasps... I liked the armor decrease :/ oh well, beggers can't be choosers. But still, YAY! THEY FIXED WEB!

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Eh, there's reason to complain. Go have a look at what both Unholy death knights and Warlocks got this patch, and then come back and say there isn't. We got buffs. I know they said that was going to happen, but I was hoping it wouldn't be at the cost of family attacks. Basic attack damage ((Claw, bite, smack)) has all been buffed ((And given a three second cooldown)) to compensate, but so far for me it's just making every pet feel exactly the same. Except with a buff! ...it's not doing anything for me.

Let me put this in context. Unholy death knights got an ability that let's them buff their ghouls damage by 10% every time they use death coil. Keep in mind that there is an ability deep in Unholy that let's them do that for free from time to time. It stacks up to 50%. That means that death knights can literally put up and KEEP up a form of beastial wrath on their ghouls PERMANENTLY if they so wish. Except that at five stacks, they can transform their ghoul into a form of abomination that hits REALLY HARD, and changes all of it's old abilities to new, better ones.

Demonology warlocks' felguards got Felstorm ((Bladestorm)), Legion strike ((Spreading AoE damage, does good single target damage, or spreads it out over several targets AND applies mortal strike)) and I forgot what else at the moment.

Functionally, BM pet's can still perform. It's just that in comparison to the other two pet classes, I feel like we got the shaft as far as creative and fun ideas go. Instead, we get to fill in the buff spots.

[Anansi]

All pets lost their damage-dealing abilities. Now they bring buffs or debuffs. Instead of bringing a pet because they can dish out more damage, you bring one because of the buff/debuff. It's a change in focus from pure damage to utility. I'm sure min-maxers will figure out which pet(s) are the most beneficial for the hunter alone, but I'm sure that in raids, the "best pet" to bring will depend heavily on raid composition.

Exactly. This was the announced goal for pets from the beginning so I'm not sure why people are suddenly so surprised.

Personally, I think the changes are pretty neat and it will be a Hunter with an intelligently stocked stable which will be an asset to their raid. From the current looks of things I'd probably run with a Raptor as my main raid pet (Armour debuff for a Marksman Hunter is great), and Dogs/Wolves will be a good choice still with the Crit buff. But our ability to fill in the gaps will be incredibly useful, especially as 10 man raiding will be the dominant raid form rather than 25s, which means those raids will not be able to supply every buff by class alone, so the Hunter will become very important in a raid. And I have no problem with that at all.

The abilities themselves are obviously transitory but it's nice to see the general direction being taken. For the first time in a while I'm actually impressed with some Hunter changes!

[Aylfric]

Let me put this in context. Unholy death knights got an ability that let's them buff their ghouls damage by 10% every time they use death coil. Keep in mind that there is an ability deep in Unholy that let's them do that for free from time to time. It stacks up to 50%. That means that death knights can literally put up and KEEP up a form of beastial wrath on their ghouls PERMANENTLY if they so wish. Except that at five stacks, they can transform their ghoul into a form of abomination that hits REALLY HARD, and changes all of it's old abilities to new, better ones.

Well, it kind of depends on how much damage the ghoul does to begin with, doesn't it? 10% of the DK? 20%?

The warlock and DK abilities sound awesome. But it's a lot easier for Blizzard to give ONE pet for each class those abilities. They have to give us 20-30 different abilities, and they specifically didn't want to have damage-dealing hunter pet abilities any more.