Analysis of new Pet Abilities

[Gelannerai]

Ok, granted I haven't read the whole thread, but who's being insulting? It's perfectly ok if you personally don't like the change due to your choice of playstyle. It is a game after all, and you should be able to play it the way you want to play it. The buff/debuff thing strikes me as something interesting that I want to try, particularly since I can do it as a Beast Mastery Hunter.

[Rikaku]

Ok sorry, I had to ask. My computer is dead, so I can't test for myself. Sorry if this was answered before, but a lot of the posts on other pages were argumentative, so I just skipped over.

Spirit Beasts: Did they lose Spirit Strike?

I kind of like the idea of a pet being useful in debuff/buff sense, but... part of me *dies* at the thought of SB's getting that crap skill "Spirit Mend"; sorry, I am one hunter who does not care to "heal" and admittedly my SB is my main pet, I prefer him to be more offensive.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

There have been plenty of people who have talked down at whoever doesn't like the change. I can easily see how some one might be insulted by the reaction, and some have even gone so far as to refer to them as whiners, which IS an insult. If you disagree then disagree, but as I said, that doesn't make the people who don't like it wrong. It's just a different opinion.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Let me reassure you that our pet's basic attacks, claw/bite/smack, were all buffed to make up for the lack of other attacks. The ability now does a ton more damage, and it criticals for some fairly insane damage. Ferocity, at level 83 with quest gear, criticals for about 8,000 when not under wild hunt, and for upwards of 11,000 UNDER wild hunt. Their normal auto-attack seems to scale worse now, though, which is a downside. Basic Attacks now have a cooldown, though it's not more then five seconds. It's three with longevity. We'll see if that stays the way it is, though.

[Kalliope]

You're entitled to the opinion that the new buffs aren't fun. That's personal preference. But yes, agreed, BOTH SIDES need to take that tone out of their posts.

Worrying that hunter dps is going to be in trouble because our damage has been moved off of pet abilities and more onto the hunter is a valid concern, but I don't think you'll have to worry. Blizzard surely has considered this.

The buffs to warlock pets is so they have choices to make, instead of just having one pet for PvP and one for PvE. They don't depend on their pets in the same way we do, and the changes to hunter pets have only solidified this. They use their pets as tools.

The buff to unholy dk pets is probably just to keep dk pets in line with the other pet classes, which saw buffs. On the other hand, none of the elemental pets saw buffs, so who knows? I haven't been eyeing the dk changes as well, but they may have seen nerfs that justify their pets seeing a buff - ie. they need the damage/utility. It doesn't seem like the sort of change that would be made lightly, considering that dks already wear plate. The PvP benefits are obvious; maybe it's a PvE change, since unholy had fallen behind the other specs.

[Protego]

I too wonder what Exotic abilities rhinos and worms are gonna get.

Edit: Whatever to the people that don't agree with what Blizzard's done. Take it up with them. I don't really care. I don't like their... "opinions".

[Aylfric]

Alright, flat out, the people insulting the people who don't like the changes need to stop, and I mean right now. Even disapproving, knock it off. Not everyone is going to like what Blizzard does. Doesn't make them wrong, doesn't make you right.

Yeah, that's quite fair.

I wrote I was surprised that some people don't like the changes, and - that's honest. I was thinking "wow, this is COOL" and then came here and read some people giving them the thumbs down, and my reaction was like Craig Ferguson saying "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?"

The thing is, DK and warlock and hunter pets are in different spaces. We have something like 32 pet families now, plus many different skins for each, and they mostly will all be bringing the same pet, given a particular spec at least for warlocks, with no player choice in customization.

So, to begin with, that's a lot easier for Blizzard to design for. There's one felguard, so they can maybe spend a little bit more time giving it a cool ability.

If you wanted cooler abilities for hunter pets than what we're getting, logically - given Blizzard's current goal of not having One Best Pet for hunters - they'd all have to get it. Which would probably mean people would complain that all the pets are the same.

The route of buffs is really nifty (in my opinion) in that ... say we've got a 10 player group with no shaman. Ok, you bring your core hound for Ancient Hysteria. Now, I could bring my Core Hound too, but there's no bonus to having two of those in the raid. If I can bring my devilsaur and contribute an additional buff, the whole group benefits.

I know, that doesn't fulfill the role of damage, which as a BM hunter is something I also want to provide, between me and my pet. But, I've also wanted to not always bring my wolf, or my devilsaur. It would be cool to bring my core hound, or for my windserpent. Now, I'm not going to be pigeonholed into always bringing the same pet. Based on who else is my guild's raid, I could be bringing a different pet, all of which I love.

P.S. It does seem pretty weird for a warlock pet to get stampede after they removed that from rhinos for... I don't remember what reason?

[Kalliope]

P.S. It does seem pretty weird for a warlock pet to get stampede after they removed that from rhinos for... I don't remember what reason?

They changed how a bunch of the knockbacks work; they're now knockdowns instead. Rhinos used to have a knockback. Which version did warlocks get?

P.S. It still makes no sense for rhinos to have an increased bleed debuff when BM hunters don't get bleeds. Please report this on the beta!

[Feath3r]

P.S. It does seem pretty weird for a warlock pet to get stampede after they removed that from rhinos for... I don't remember what reason?

They changed how a bunch of the knockbacks work; they're now knockdowns instead. Rhinos used to have a knockback. Which version did warlocks get?

P.S. It still makes no sense for rhinos to have an increased bleed debuff when BM hunters don't get bleeds. Please report this on the beta!

If they're trying to make Hunters the "buff the raid" class then the increased Bleed Debuff makes sense.

[Valashe]

Attack Speed Reduction

# Tailspin - Your fox twirls its tail around, kicking up an obscuring cloud of dust, causing all enemies within 10 yards to have their melee and ranged attack speed reduced by 20% for 8 sec. / 5 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown


Stat Boost (BoK)

* Embrace of the Shale Spider - Fills all friendly party and raid members with the Shale Spider's embrace, increasing Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Intellect by %. / Instant

(the % value on Embrace of the Shale Spider is obviously a bug).


THE FOLLOWING ARE ALL RUMORED AND FOUND ON THE MMO-CHAMPION CLASS DISCUSSION THREAD

From what I have gathered elsewhere:
Birds of Prey - effect is the same
Nether Ray - damage removed, effect is the same
Carrion Bird - damage removed, effect is the same
Cats - ??? no word yet, still had Rake but likely to change
Foxes (they are their own family) - Tailspin (on front page)
Crabs - ??? no word yet, still had Pin but damage is likely to be removed
Gorilla - same as live (Pummel)
Monkey (separate family from Gorilla) - "Bad Manner", basically blind your target with flung poop for 4sec XD This is not a joke, btw lol.. This is supposedly confirmed info
Turtle - same as live (Shell Shield)

[Aleu]

I need to log onto Beta... On the bright side, the Foxes Play ability seems to be reference to Fox and the Hound. If you mouse over the buff, it says "When you're the best of friends..."

Quite cute. However, I'm not really impressed with the Spirit Beasts new ability. I much better prefer the Moonfire then a heal.

[Makoes]

most of the damage from pet abilities is being removed because to many people where being forced to use the same pets as everyone else for optimal damage. The goal with these new abilities to to add a greater diversity of pets for raids and such. They are doing a great amount to change hunters and blizzard has said before that hunters really arent at what they wanted for them, they're now getting in grear and completely re-doing hunters/pets to get them more in line with what they really want hunters to be.
I can't say I am really happy with ALL the changes they are doing, but to be honest I am going to wait until all the tweaks are done and take a look at what hunters are for what they are, not really what they were.

[Victorelle]

what about Spirit Beast?

[Valashe]

what about Spirit Beast?

* Spirit Mend (Spirit Beast - E) - The Spirit Beast heals the currently friendly target for {1237.75+((RAP*0.35)*0.5)} plus an additional {475.97+((RAP*0.35)*0.335)} over 10 sec. / 25 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown

It's unknown whether or not they will keep Spirit Strike at all. Someone in the beta that can access the latest build needs to confirm.

[Knobhead]

what about Spirit Beast?

* Spirit Mend (Spirit Beast - E) - The Spirit Beast heals the currently friendly target for {1237.75+((RAP*0.35)*0.5)} plus an additional {475.97+((RAP*0.35)*0.335)} over 10 sec. / 25 yd range, Instant, 40 sec cooldown

It's unknown whether or not they will keep Spirit Strike at all. Someone in the beta that can access the latest build needs to confirm.

Spirit Strike is gone. There's even a blue confirmation here that it is not a bug: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 2&sid=2000

[Valashe]

Spirit Strike is gone. There's even a blue confirmation here that it is not a bug: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 2&sid=2000

Ok that makes me a sad panda. With this revelation, it seems that my Spirit Beasts may be relegated to being my solo leveling pet and completely takes away allot of my drive to "catch them all".

[Teigan]

Well, there goes critter ganking! I'll miss the mini-moonfires.

[Nymrohd]

It is unlikely that Spirit Beasts will just have Spirit Mend. All exotics have been given two abilities right? The pets are anything but ready anyhow. I'd expect them to get at least one raid debuff.

[Kalliope]

P.S. It does seem pretty weird for a warlock pet to get stampede after they removed that from rhinos for... I don't remember what reason?

They changed how a bunch of the knockbacks work; they're now knockdowns instead. Rhinos used to have a knockback. Which version did warlocks get?

P.S. It still makes no sense for rhinos to have an increased bleed debuff when BM hunters don't get bleeds. Please report this on the beta!

If they're trying to make Hunters the "buff the raid" class then the increased Bleed Debuff makes sense.

Sorta-kinda. The thing is, hyenas also have it, and they're ferocity pets. They would be the pet to bring for that debuff in a raid rather than a rhino.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Sorry about not responding earlier Kalli, but Succubus ability is an AoE Knockback, knocks back about eight yards if I remember right.