Blizzard should use Spirit Beasts differently.

[Lisaara]

Personally, what I want to see more than anyhting for the Spirit Beast family is one beast, just one, with a unique skin - and a spawn timer that is 5 minutes or less. Seriously, we have to camp rarespawns in order to get a decent self-heal?

Alot of the WotLK spirit beasts are pretty easy to find these days, as is Ghostcrawler.

Floating Shark would be awesome! I mean, it's a "Spirit" beast right? Their spirit walk ability talks about how it moves in between dimensions, so why not? I don't think they'd have to elaborate on too much when it comes to the animation department. Most mobs have their own unique combat and idle animations.

Define 'easy'. They're still being camped on a regular basis on my main realm, Cenarion Circle, and not at all easy to find. I've only been able to find one Spirit Beast since Cataclysm, and that was at a ridiculously late hour, server time. In fact, I spotted King Krush once - and he was dead in less than a minute later because I wasn't the only one to spot him. There still are people leveling through Northrend, and rares are still dropping like flies once they spawn. So, they may be easier, but don't confuse that with easy.

^ This

Moon Guard.....not easy....people grief you all the time.

[AdamSavage]

The only thing I don't like about the spirit beast is they all use the same spells and do the same dmg. There is no variety at all. It would be nice to have them keep there pet class ability's.

[Tsiya]

I still miss moonfire...was nice for killing flying stuff, pet could pull it's own targets. I'd take that over spirit walk any day.

[ServÅntos]

I'd like to see a Spirit Shark. It would(hopefully) satisfy all of us who want a shark pet.
Go Floating Shark!!

Will it have a Devilsaur and a lazer cannon on it?

[Tsiya]

Will it have a Devilsaur and a lazer cannon on it?

I'll take PEWPEWLAZORS!

[Arcanimus]

Will it have a Devilsaur and a lazer cannon on it?

I'll take PEWPEWLAZORS!

You gave me an amazing idea. Spirit Moonkin.

[Makoes]

I am not sure if they should really do something differently with them, more that they should figure out WHAT they are doing with them.
Initially the first spiritbeast was something very different. It was a new model/skin, looked very cool. But then after that they just started throwing out old model/new skin. 2 cats, 2 wolves, a bear, a crab. Only one unique model/skin. There doesnt seem to be much in the way of pattern or reasoning behind what they are making spirit beasts now. Atm its just an open family they can toss stuff into.
Although I do like the idea of giving the spiritbeast thier own family ability, as well as having each one have thier appearance family ability.

What I'd like to know is what exactly is Blizzards plan for the spirit beasts. Will there be anymore unique model/skins added to the family or will Loque remain the only one given that much attention?

Dont get me wrong, I like the unique skins that are added, although I am not a huge fan of most of the models choosen for the skins, and some of the transparent skins look choppy.

[Dizzy]

i'll always want to tame a kodo or talbuk. ;C
a spectral kodo...

a flying spectral kodo.
/swoon

[Sukurachi]

I still miss moonfire...was nice for killing flying stuff, pet could pull it's own targets. I'd take that over spirit walk any day.

TOTALLY!

I loved that it was a nice range extension on the hunter's own range.
I could send my pet in, and have him pull a mob out of a group quite far away.

[Lisaara]

I am not sure if they should really do something differently with them, more that they should figure out WHAT they are doing with them.
Initially the first spiritbeast was something very different. It was a new model/skin, looked very cool. But then after that they just started throwing out old model/new skin. 2 cats, 2 wolves, a bear, a crab. Only one unique model/skin. There doesnt seem to be much in the way of pattern or reasoning behind what they are making spirit beasts now. Atm its just an open family they can toss stuff into.
Although I do like the idea of giving the spiritbeast thier own family ability, as well as having each one have thier appearance family ability.

What I'd like to know is what exactly is Blizzards plan for the spirit beasts. Will there be anymore unique model/skins added to the family or will Loque remain the only one given that much attention?

Dont get me wrong, I like the unique skins that are added, although I am not a huge fan of most of the models choosen for the skins, and some of the transparent skins look choppy.

Hey now, Skoll is unique too! There's no worg like him!

[Nubhorns]

Hey now, Skoll is unique too! There's no worg like him! :D

I think Makoes means 'unique' as in not a recolored skin + lightning, although you're quite right about Skoll. Loque is hardly 'unique' compared to that considering his mate is a giant clone of himself sitting in Zul'drak. :P

I like to believe there aren't any limitations on what constitutes a 'spirit beast' - but at the same time, I like what they're doing now. They're playing it safe - anything you can get as a spirit beast: cats, wolves, crabs, you can all get as a non BM hunter, just a non-shiny version. If you're going to put in things like talbuks and hippogryphs and kodos, you're going to have the non-BM crowd, many of which all love talbuks and hippogryphs and kodos as much as you do, feeling pushed into playing this spec for the shiny pets.

I guess what I'm saying is that it seems 'fair' now, since I can go get a wolf as Survival, I just can't get a ghost wolf unless I'm BM. If they add these things to the tameable pet roster as regular pets, I don't think I'd mind spirit beast versions popping up. But just alone...BM hunters get enough niceties as is, and we already have pets that no other spec can look at, much less tame.

EDIT: While we're at it, a BM hunter is a beast mastery hunter. If you couldn't wrangle a normal talbuk on your own, what makes you think you can subdue some scary talbuk god of the Twisting Nether? :P

[felren]

Spirit Thunder lizard anyone?

[Mychelle]

I would absolutely -adore- a Spirit Stag. Can you imagine how pretty that'd be? And having a Spirit "Fish" type that would swim through the air around your hunter, leaving bubbles and stuff...such a pretty thought. =P

[Fafnir]

I appreciate that they use Spirit Beasts as a way for some hunters to use tenacity skins as a dps spec (e.g. Arcturis and Ghostcrawler).in addition to the unique skins like Loque/Skoll and discontinued skins like Karoma. It'd be cool if they had their family specials instead of just Roar of Courage, but if they ever release a spirit beast beetle/turtle like that (shell shield and spirit mend? gg) that'd be a bit badass.

If they dropped a spirit sporebat on us I wouldn't complain a bit though.

[WildcatTM]

No, I don't think that's what he meant. In the case of wolf spirit beasts, they would get Furious Howl (5% crit) instead of Roar of Courage (+x agi&str). I imagine that all Spirit Beasts would still get Spirit Walk and Spirit Mend, though.

This is what I think he was suggesting, mind you - I could easily be very wrong.

Bingo.

[WildcatTM]

In terms of guessing who the next spirit beast would be, no one guessed that it would be a crab. Let's stick to the theme. Though, if I indeed had a choice, I'm going with Marlone -- a spirit stag (NO MORE CATS and WOLVES!). If it had to be from an existing family, I'm tossing my favor for a pet from the cunning tree. There isn't a pet borrowed from the cunning tree. A dragonhawk seems reasonable.

[Shirubia]

I was thinking the other day that spirit beasts should have the ''Spirit Strike'' attack again as a basic attack instead Claw >< Give it a CD, so it cant be spammed with the DoT, but heck, would be amazing.

Personally, I would like to see a spirit dragonhawk, fox or winged serpent from the tameable families... And I want a SHARK as a spirit beast. (Yes, a Shark, it flies above the ground, it's ghostly, sneaky and you are going to ignore him until he swims up and bites your ass)

[Cialbi]

I was thinking the other day that spirit beasts should have the ''Spirit Strike'' attack again as a basic attack instead Claw >< Give it a CD, so it cant be spammed with the DoT, but heck, would be amazing.

This is a great idea, actually; I never thought of that. It would open up the pet family to beasts that Claw doesn't really fit.

But, there is the practical issue of balancing Spirit Strike with Claw, Bite, and Smack. The latter three abilities are the exact same in every regard save name and icon; Spirit Strike would need to be the same. However, Spirit Strike doesn't deal physical damage, and as such would ignore armor. The fact is that you can't make identical abilities, make one deal physical damage but not the other, and still have both abilities be equally potent.

So, I'm pretty sure that Spirit Strike would have to be little more than Claw with a fancy animation; it would have to deal physical damage, no longer have a DoT (otherwise it would really do a number on rogues using Cloak of Shadows and Vanish), and no longer have that extended range.

[Slickrock]

You do realize that with that plan, Loque'Nahak and Skoll become completely unobtainable. Arcturis too, for that matter - that spirit beast is based off the following skin: http://wow-petopia.com/look/bearskinspectral.html

So, let's say that Blizzard does go ahead and announce that next pact will be removing spirit beasts from the wild. Where do all the hunters who want a soon-to-be-discontinued pet, and all the &%$#ing griefers, flock to? The only winner would be Algalon, venturing out to feed upon your tears one last time.

Loq could be another cat model (still rare, but a cat model), Skoll could be the 'spirit' form of a wolf. And so on. No model need go away at all.

[Azunara]

I agree with the annoying to find rare spawn thing. I'm on the same server as Cialbi and spent a few days looking for any of the Northrend spirit beasts because I wanted some company while Moonlight was retiring. I found Arcturis day one and gave him away to a grateful hunter, and didn't find Gondria days after, who I kept.

I was looking 'round 4 EST, so most people would still be at work, as well.