Pet Roster and Flow Chart for Cata

[Kalliope]

That is a WONDERFUL chart; will help me plot out the parts of my stable that I'm less certain of. Thanks!

[Malazee]

That is a WONDERFUL chart; will help me plot out the parts of my stable that I'm less certain of. Thanks!

oh well if that's what you're looking for, I made a spreadsheet:



The assumed abilities are what I assume the pets will be changed to based on their current abilities... that's if they're changed at all. Everything else was on MMO.

I'd link you the .xls file if I knew of a place to upload it.

[Kalliope]

That's handy too, but I'm a visual person and like pictures. >_> Totally approve of the color coding!

[Bellatryx]

In these situations you might want to add "made by" because I used to make charts for another game and my color chart is still being used to this day. it helps since some people have tried to steal it.

just a suggestion =}
Wonderful work by the way.

[Brackenhawk]

That star contains the hopes and dreams of every hunter

[Vephriel]

Eee, spreadsheets and flowcharts! <3 I'm a very visual person as well, I just love stuff like this. ^^

[Sarayana]

Yoink! I'm totally going to put that on the wall next to my comp. Thanks Malazee!

[Kiaron]

oh well if that's what you're looking for, I made a spreadsheet:

The assumed abilities are what I assume the pets will be changed to based on their current abilities... that's if they're changed at all. Everything else was on MMO.

I'd link you the .xls file if I knew of a place to upload it.

In case you were wondering... it seems that the Shale Spider is flagged as a Tenacity pet according to the buffs listed at:
http://db.mmo-champion.com/skill/817/shale-spider/

[Bellatryx]

Are beetles in with silithids or do they have a family of their own? I'm so confuzzled.

[Malazee]

oh well if that's what you're looking for, I made a spreadsheet:

The assumed abilities are what I assume the pets will be changed to based on their current abilities... that's if they're changed at all. Everything else was on MMO.

I'd link you the .xls file if I knew of a place to upload it.

In case you were wondering... it seems that the Shale Spider is flagged as a Tenacity pet according to the buffs listed at:
http://db.mmo-champion.com/skill/817/shale-spider/

Oh thankies much! Was wondering about that.

[Altheaus]

I was Working on something similar myself, I'll bin mine as yours flows better

[Slickrock]

Based on the discussion in this thread. Hope it helps...

So, according to the chart, spec (BM) and family preferences.. I need..

Corehound
Shale Spider
Silithid
Raptor
Devilsaur
Boar or Rhino
Worm
Wind Serpent
and some cats and spirit beasts to look pretty.

Wonder which other families that they haven't touched yet will overlap with these...

[Altheaus]

don't forget about the Hyena along with the Rhino or Boar. Its a ferocity pet.

same with the Ravenger and the Worm (its a cunning but probaly does more DPS then a tank pet)

[Nimizar]

A note of caution: since some pet families still have damage abilities, expect more pet changes in the next build or two (the "assumed abilities" kind of covered that, but even the other ability assignments may not be locked in just yet).

As far as Sunder goes, bear tanks also apply that as part of their normal rotation in Cata.

Hunters won't care all that much about the bleed debuff (BM and SV don't care at all, MM cares a little due to Piercing Shots).

For Chimaera, I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the 8% magic damage debuff in addition to their snare (adding that to their Froststorm breath aligns well with the change to the Wind Serpent's lightning breath)

As Ferocity pets with abilities that directly benefit hunter DPS, Wolves and Raptors are going to be very popular. BM hunters will add Corehounds and Devilsaurs to that list.

We also don't know how close Cunning and Ferocity pets are going to end up DPS wise, given the way Owl's Focus will interact with Wild Hunt uptime.

Still, excellent way for Blizzard to make pet choice matter, while still having a variety of pets being used in raids and PvP. When the answer to "Which pet should I use?" always starts with "Well, it depends...", that's a good thing.

[Slickrock]

Still, excellent way for Blizzard to make pet choice matter, while still having a variety of pets being used in raids and PvP. When the answer to "Which pet should I use?" always starts with "Well, it depends...", that's a good thing.

Even if it takes some work to figure out... this. ^^

[Kalliope]

Updating Slickrock's list based on the omissions (bolding the "best choice" from a ferocity>cunning>tenacity perspective) results in:

So, according to the chart, spec (BM) and family preferences.. I need..

Corehound (f)
Shale Spider (t)
Silithid (c)
Raptor (f) or Serpent (c)
Devilsaur (f) or Wolf (f) <--I assume this is for the crit buff, not the mortal strike debuff, since all hunters have widow venom
Boar (t) or Rhino (t) or Hyena (f)
Worm (t) or Ravager (c)
Wind Serpent (c) or Dragonhawk (c)
and some cats and spirit beasts to look pretty.

Wonder which other families that they haven't touched yet will overlap with these...

Looking at things from a non-BM perspective, the buffing pets available are:

Raptor (f) or Serpent (c)
Wolf (f)
Boar (t) or Hyena (f)
Ravager (c)
Wind Serpent (c) or Dragonhawk (c)
and some cats to look pretty.

As a completist, it bothers me to leave off bears/carrion birds for the AoE demoralizing roar/screech, but it's really only helpful if you have two pally tanks or something, so it's not really likely. That being said, my guild ran 25s with two pally tanks for ages, so it's not like it could never happen. Give 'em an honorable mention.

[Malazee]

Updated the visual aides as per some of your suggestions.

Can anyone confirm whether Beetles are their own family or are part of the Silithid family? They are exotic pets and use the Qiraji Fortitude ability (which Silithids have), so I'm just going to assume that they're Silithids.

As a completist, it bothers me to leave off bears/carrion birds for the AoE demoralizing roar/screech, but it's really only helpful if you have two pally tanks or something, so it's not really likely. That being said, my guild ran 25s with two pally tanks for ages, so it's not like it could never happen. Give 'em an honorable mention.

I agree that the physical damage reduction ability would be a bad one to miss in a raid, but I left it off of the chart because all four tanking classes will have a demoralizing-roar-like ability after 4.0, and I can't imagine a situation in a raid where you would be without at least one tank, haha. But yes, the demoralizing roar is super useful for soloing packs of mobs, so you might want to get a bear anyway. ^_^

For Chimaera, I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the 8% magic damage debuff in addition to their snare (adding that to their Froststorm breath aligns well with the change to the Wind Serpent's lightning breath)

The chimaera family probably will get a caster-related ability as it's special, but I doubt it will be the 8% magic debuff. All of the exotic pets are picking up one "standard" buff, as I'll call it, and one "exotic" buff/ability that no other pet has. I don't think it's likely that chimaeras will recieve two standard buffs in lieu of an exotic one.

Which begs the question... what are the missing three exotic abilities? Good candidates in my opinion would be things like: Windfury, Battle Rez, Resistance Auras and other niche abilities.

[Kalliope]

Updated the visual aides as per some of your suggestions.

Can anyone confirm whether Beetles are their own family or are part of the Silithid family? They are exotic pets and use the Qiraji Fortitude ability (which Silithids have), so I'm just going to assume that they're Silithids.

According to Z's vid on hunter pets, they're silithids.

As a completist, it bothers me to leave off bears/carrion birds for the AoE demoralizing roar/screech, but it's really only helpful if you have two pally tanks or something, so it's not really likely. That being said, my guild ran 25s with two pally tanks for ages, so it's not like it could never happen. Give 'em an honorable mention.

I agree that the physical damage reduction ability would be a bad one to miss in a raid, but I left it off of the chart because all four tanking classes will have a demoralizing-roar-like ability after 4.0, and I can't imagine a situation in a raid where you would be without at least one tank, haha. But yes, the demoralizing roar is super useful for soloing packs of mobs, so you might want to get a bear anyway. ^_^

Oh definitely. I agree with the omission, since it doesn't fit neatly into the chart. One of those pets would only be *marginally* useful in a raid with a lot of AoE trash (unlikely in Cata) and two paladin tanks, or some other such combination where the debuff wouldn't spread to the entire group immediately.

(It's mostly so I can assure my bear that he DOES in fact have a raid buff of some sort, so he feels important. )

For Chimaera, I wouldn't be surprised if they picked up the 8% magic damage debuff in addition to their snare (adding that to their Froststorm breath aligns well with the change to the Wind Serpent's lightning breath)

The chimaera family probably will get a caster-related ability as it's special, but I doubt it will be the 8% magic debuff. All of the exotic pets are picking up one "standard" buff, as I'll call it, and one "exotic" buff/ability that no other pet has. I don't think it's likely that chimaeras will recieve two standard buffs in lieu of an exotic one.

Which begs the question... what are the missing three exotic abilities? Good candidates in my opinion would be things like: Windfury, Battle Rez, Resistance Auras and other niche abilities.

I agree that chimeras (among other exotics who are missing "special" buffs/debuffs) won't be getting a "standard" debuff. I don't see them giving us battle res, though. Resist auras are all combined into one for pallies now, and hunters already have nature resist, so I'd say those are off the table as well, unless there was a reason to give half to one pet and half to another. I got the feeling Blizzard was trying to get away from having to swap them, though.

Guardian Spirit might be a possibility. There was a long discussion in another thread about pet sacrifices for their masters - and tenacity pets DO already have intervene, which is sort of the same concept (only to less of an extreme). Course, that might be too powerful; it's a big, big cooldown to use on a tank. Even if it were to kill our pet (meaning it would need to go on a non-ferocity pet, since heart of the phoenix would be an instant counter), that's a major game changer for endgame raiding. It would be an incredibly overpowered soloing ability, and don't even get me started on how it couldn't work in arena. Maybe this is why spirit beasts got a heal instead.

[Teigan]

Really good idea. This means I'm going to have to think instead of just blast things with my shiny gun, doesn't it?

EDIT: This thread should be sticky-ed, cause my printer is out of ink.

[Malazee]

I agree that chimeras (among other exotics who are missing "special" buffs/debuffs) won't be getting a "standard" debuff. I don't see them giving us battle res, though. Resist auras are all combined into one for pallies now, and hunters already have nature resist, so I'd say those are off the table as well, unless there was a reason to give half to one pet and half to another. I got the feeling Blizzard was trying to get away from having to swap them, though.

Guardian Spirit might be a possibility. There was a long discussion in another thread about pet sacrifices for their masters - and tenacity pets DO already have intervene, which is sort of the same concept (only to less of an extreme). Course, that might be too powerful; it's a big, big cooldown to use on a tank. Even if it were to kill our pet (meaning it would need to go on a non-ferocity pet, since heart of the phoenix would be an instant counter), that's a major game changer for endgame raiding. It would be an incredibly overpowered soloing ability, and don't even get me started on how it couldn't work in arena. Maybe this is why spirit beasts got a heal instead.

Hey! Don't count Battle Rez out yet... I know it's a long shot, but to be honest I would have considered Bloodlust a longshot before these new abilities came out, too. But yeah... it's hard to come up with pet-appropriate niche abilities that aren't overpowered. I still think Windfury is the most obvious one that's not up yet.