Spirit Mend

[Kalliope]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

[PorrasouxRex]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

It'd be nice, and something else for the 2nd ability that would make Spirit Beasts alot more worth searching them for. A tiny heal from it is far from worth it. My BANDAGES could heal someone in more time than the "Heal per second" that tiny heal currently gives.

[Kalliope]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

It'd be nice, and something else for the 2nd ability that would make Spirit Beasts alot more worth searching them for. A tiny heal from it is far from worth it. My BANDAGES could heal someone in more time than the "Heal per second" that tiny heal currently gives.

Are you basing the "tiny heal" off of the tooltip or from practical application? Cause I'd imagine it scales with gear, level, etc.

Prowl is still on the table. I'm pretty sure that SBs are not done yet, cause the other prowling pets seem unfinished as well.

[PorrasouxRex]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

It'd be nice, and something else for the 2nd ability that would make Spirit Beasts alot more worth searching them for. A tiny heal from it is far from worth it. My BANDAGES could heal someone in more time than the "Heal per second" that tiny heal currently gives.

Are you basing the "tiny heal" off of the tooltip or from practical application? Cause I'd imagine it scales with gear, level, etc.

Prowl is still on the table. I'm pretty sure that SBs are not done yet, cause the other prowling pets seem unfinished as well.

That's what I'm saying, if it didn't stack with gear and such than of course it would be least used out of all the other "Buffing" pets out there. Which is what Blizzard tried to avoid was another Wolf episode of "What to bring, when I could just bring what I want to because everything damage-wise is balanced."

[PorrasouxRex]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

It'd be nice, and something else for the 2nd ability that would make Spirit Beasts alot more worth searching them for. A tiny heal from it is far from worth it. My BANDAGES could heal someone in more time than the "Heal per second" that tiny heal currently gives.

Are you basing the "tiny heal" off of the tooltip or from practical application? Cause I'd imagine it scales with gear, level, etc.

Prowl is still on the table. I'm pretty sure that SBs are not done yet, cause the other prowling pets seem unfinished as well.

That's what I'm saying, if it didn't stack with gear and such than of course it would be least used out of all the other "Buffing" pets out there. Which is what Blizzard tried to avoid was another Wolf episode of "What to bring, when I could just bring what I want to because everything damage-wise is balanced."

[Slickrock]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

No, no, no.. I don't want enemies in pvp knowing that the SB is healing me..

[Rikaku]

If spirit heal had the same animation as spirit strike, would people be more excited about using it?

"I HEEL U WIF MAH LAZERZ!"

Not me XD I don't like the idea of the pet healing ability for SB period. Got nothing to do with animation X3

[Golden]

Maybe I'm the only one, but I really like how Spirit Mend sounds right now. If nothing else, I could use it to heal myself to stay alive that longer when the tank has gone down and people are dropping fast. Oh how often I've prayed for a second pot when both me and my target are at inches from death. The 2k extra HP could very well give me enough time to wait for Kill Shot to come off cooldown so I can finish my target.

The skill could prove to be particularly useful while soloing. There are encounters that deal damage to both the Hunter and pet, and without a personal pocket healer the Hunter can and will end up dying before the boss. A single health pot and the occasional bandage won't keep you up. The Spirit Heal will provide us with the tiny bit of self-healing we've never had before.

I don't think Rogues complained when they got their Combo Points >> HP skill, even though it "wastes" the Combo Points into something else than damage.

Edit: Also, none of the pets' special abilities are supposed to deal damage anymore - they're all about utility in Cata: stuns, roots, bigger chances to miss, maybe some raid/group buffs. Apart from that all pets will be equal, so the Spirit Beasts don't even lose any dps in order to get this 100% unique family skill. I for one would much rather take a heal than another silence or crit buff.

[Kalliope]

Edit: Also, none of the pets' special abilities are supposed to deal damage anymore - they're all about utility in Cata: stuns, roots, bigger chances to miss, maybe some raid/group buffs. Apart from that all pets will be equal, so the Spirit Beasts don't even lose any dps in order to get this 100% unique family skill. I for one would much rather take a heal than another silence or crit buff.

^
This.

And of all the pets out there, spirit beasts are something special. They're the only pets who can heal us back, due to their knowledge of the great beyond.

[Rikaku]

Edit: Also, none of the pets' special abilities are supposed to deal damage anymore - they're all about utility in Cata: stuns, roots, bigger chances to miss, maybe some raid/group buffs. Apart from that all pets will be equal, so the Spirit Beasts don't even lose any dps in order to get this 100% unique family skill. I for one would much rather take a heal than another silence or crit buff.

I'm personally not asking for SS back, since I understand the reason for this change.I don't mind if the SB buffs or debuffs, I just find healing very oddly placed and I cross my fingers it is either replaced, changed, or SB's get another ability because healing kinda...sucks. I certainly don't care for it. At best it saves me an extra button to Mend Pet but beyond that... it's not gonna be making/breaking any guild attempts on raid bosses XD

I just feel like Unique doesn't make it better. It just feels super out of place and in most scenarios it's not going to be that useful beyond elite questing/soloing/group quests.

[Opreich]

It looks like the exotic families will be getting a standard buff offered by other families, and then a unique buff specific to each exotic family, but offered by other classes as well.

Examples of this two buff aspect include Corehounds with BL and cast speed slow, Silithid with root and stamina buff and Devilsaurs with crit chance and MS. The other exotic unique buffs so far are Spirit Mend and Embrace of the Shale Spider.

[Golden]

it's not gonna be making/breaking any guild attempts on raid bosses XD

Same goes for a vast majority of all the family skills. ^^ Most raid mobs and bosses are immune to roots and stuns anyway.

[Rikaku]

it's not gonna be making/breaking any guild attempts on raid bosses XD

Same goes for a vast majority of all the family skills. ^^ Most raid mobs and bosses are immune to roots and stuns anyway.

Oh yeah totally. Most of these skills (in my experience mind you) would/will be useless in my guild raids unless its a 10m. But what I mean is most of them make sense, HEALING sounds just... awkward for a pet to do, regardless of if he's a "spirit" beast. Because by "spirit" justification, he should also pass through walls, and he doesn't, so I dislike that justification. XD

I just mean that while a handfull of pets got Crit buff, a lot got debuff abilities but ONE got healing? And not even that great of healing numbers? O_o just seems awkward.

[Kalliope]

I just mean that while a handfull of pets got Crit buff, a lot got debuff abilities but ONE got healing? And not even that great of healing numbers? O_o just seems awkward.

Name another pet family that seems at all capable of healing, even by the furthest stretches of the imagination.

[Lisaara]

Maybe I'm the only one, but I really like how Spirit Mend sounds right now. If nothing else, I could use it to heal myself to stay alive that longer when the tank has gone down and people are dropping fast. Oh how often I've prayed for a second pot when both me and my target are at inches from death. The 2k extra HP could very well give me enough time to wait for Kill Shot to come off cooldown so I can finish my target.

The skill could prove to be particularly useful while soloing. There are encounters that deal damage to both the Hunter and pet, and without a personal pocket healer the Hunter can and will end up dying before the boss. A single health pot and the occasional bandage won't keep you up. The Spirit Heal will provide us with the tiny bit of self-healing we've never had before.

I don't think Rogues complained when they got their Combo Points >> HP skill, even though it "wastes" the Combo Points into something else than damage.

Edit: Also, none of the pets' special abilities are supposed to deal damage anymore - they're all about utility in Cata: stuns, roots, bigger chances to miss, maybe some raid/group buffs. Apart from that all pets will be equal, so the Spirit Beasts don't even lose any dps in order to get this 100% unique family skill. I for one would much rather take a heal than another silence or crit buff.

QFT x2!

[Ellaran]

A lot of the pet families are gonna be liked for raids. We have armor-reducing pets, physical damage-increasing pets, magical-damage increasing pets, casting time-increasing pets, spell-interrupting pets, movement speed-slowing pets, a plethora of beasties that can serve many functions.

If you're assigned to stop mobs that run, Crocolisks and Chimaeras can cripple their speed. Moths and Sporebats can wreak hell on caster mobs. And I know both tanks and rogues will like Raptors and Serpents for decreasing enemy armor. Bears and their physical damage reduction could also become popular to lessen the blows of elites and bosses. Bleeders will enjoy our Boars and Rhinos increasing the damage their bleeds do.

Honestly, I don't see any sort of pigeon-holing that plagued Hunters in Wrath. We have such a variety of pet aids to use that we can offer nearly everything. And if everything is covered, then we can just pull out our favorite companion and get down to business.

[FuzzyDolly]

I think they should make it a spirit beast talent option. Where you have to talent into spirit strike OR spirit mend, and let the hunter decide. That way you could have your beast dps or heal. You could have spirit beasts do different things. In my mind, my Gondria would be specced heals, but Loque would be dps. Arcturis would be heals, but Skoll dps. Not sure if I imagine that because of the ghostly look to Gondria and Arcturis, but in my mind it owuld work that way. With all the stable slots this would be a great option. Then you could keep 1 dps and 1 heal spirit beast with you and swap them out depending on what the group or raid needs.

[Bellatryx]

And of all the pets out there, spirit beasts are something special. They're the only pets who can heal us back, due to their knowledge of the great beyond.

I love the "great beyond" idea, makes sense. =}

[Lisaara]

And of all the pets out there, spirit beasts are something special. They're the only pets who can heal us back, due to their knowledge of the great beyond.

I love the "great beyond" idea, makes sense. =}

Thirding this. Totally makes sense.

[Sarayana]

I think they should make it a spirit beast talent option. Where you have to talent into spirit strike OR spirit mend, and let the hunter decide. That way you could have your beast dps or heal. You could have spirit beasts do different things. In my mind, my Gondria would be specced heals, but Loque would be dps. Arcturis would be heals, but Skoll dps. Not sure if I imagine that because of the ghostly look to Gondria and Arcturis, but in my mind it owuld work that way. With all the stable slots this would be a great option. Then you could keep 1 dps and 1 heal spirit beast with you and swap them out depending on what the group or raid needs.

But that's the whole point. They had to remove spirit strike, no pets have a damage dealing family skill anymore. The pet dps is baseline, the family skills buff us/debuff the target/is a utility skill.

It looks like the exotic families will be getting a standard buff offered by other families, and then a unique buff specific to each exotic family, but offered by other classes as well.

Examples of this two buff aspect include Corehounds with BL and cast speed slow, Silithid with root and stamina buff and Devilsaurs with crit chance and MS. The other exotic unique buffs so far are Spirit Mend and Embrace of the Shale Spider.

This is what I figure too, so I'm waiting to hear what they'll be getting as their second family skill.