Agility Buff

[Sesamee]

Right now on Beta our cats have lost their Agi/Strength buff (wolves still have the crit buff). According to Blizz Agility is being incorporated into an Agi/Str/Int buff which will be given out by Druids, Paladins, and Monks. Has anyone read anything about any of our pets potentially getting this buff as well? IMO if they don't it will be a pretty big nerf and a blow to hunter solo'ing and general independence if we are no longer able to buff ourselves with our most important buff. I'm not exactly comfortable with the three most important stats in the game being combined into one and controlled entirely by three classes.

To me, this has potentially the largest impact on hunter solo'ing, much greater than the condensing of the pet talents. Hunters have always (at least as far as I can remember) been known as great levelers and soloers and I hope this doesn't change. I know it's early still and nothing is finalized with pet buffs or anything. Just seeing such an important buff taken out of our hands is a little disconcerting. Not to mention it would make cats, one of the most iconic pets, kind of obsolete. I really hope at least one of our pets ends up with it.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/4574894

[Ana]

ack i would be sorry to see agi goes... i know the buff is mostly covered in raids.. but i liked my cat having it .. hope that the lovely cats will get something else usefull.. and not disarm like birds of pray ><

[Slickrock]

It's not just cats, Spirit Beasts lost that buff as well, and don't have a replacement yet either.

So the question is, what are they going to replace it with?

If cats and Spirit Beasts loose that, and don't get a meaningful replacement for Roar of Courage, then I'll likely be setting some of them free, and will go back to running with a Trex or Corehound instead. Also wondering what buffs the porcupines and cranes will bring. It would be a real shame with all those new pet models that none of them bring a worthwhile soloing buff. We also need to see what buffs they give to boars, rhinos, and ravagers, since their buffs (bleeds) were taken away as well.

On the plus side, you'll always have the attack power buff, even as BM. But yeah, it would be a real shame to be in the land of tigers, cranes and porcupines, and to be running with a ravager, rhino, and trex, since they brought the most useful buffs.

[Lisaara]

This makes me sad.

[Chimera]

This seems like de ja vu.. i swear i read somewhere back in the cata beta a pet was missing a signature ability but it was just a bug and it was fixed so they had it again.. i forget tho >< i really hope they give cats the buff again, i run around as BM with a cat or spirit beast for the buff and a wolf in marksman for their buff, cause they compliment the specc by nature.

Its early yet but if they really are taking away the buff from cats/spirit beasts, it makes me feel like they're tailoring everything for end game rather then the whole game which i do not agree with at all. But beta is beta and they're testing things out to see how it all meshes together, and theres the potential they may instead give the cats (and possibly spirit beasts if they dont want to create a new ability for them) an attack power boost that mimics the agility buff in attack power (minus the crit that agility gives us).

/shrug, i wont get rid of the cats i have, since they're either named after my cat Lucky in memorial of him or cause they fit in my char's RP (same for spirit beasts ^^) but it is a bit annoying. I level up in BM only, i dont get dual specc on a hunter till 85 cause the action bars are different for each specc and i dont want to flip back and forth three dozen times to arrange the bars so they mirror eachother as i level up and BM specc does terrible in dungeons.. i run around in heirloom, i make use of kill command and bestial wrath accordingly to each fight, and i still do terrible dps in a lotta groups.

[Ellaran]

Marksmanship Aura is giving the crit buff as well as the AP buff (as well as becoming a baseline talent for all Hunters), so we won't be losing that one, at least.

Any word on the Silithid and Shale Spider abilities?

[Sesamee]

I don't have a shale spider so am not sure but silithids still give the stamina.

[Kalliope]

I don't think we have much to worry about until every pet family has its buff. We're still pretty early in the beta, so there's lots of time for all that to get sorted out - especially since pets only got to choose between the three trees within the past week or so.

Definitely something to keep an eye on, but we're definitely looking at a work in progress here.

[Kikanu]

My cat and ghost bear are deaf now? I still love em, even if they're not hearing the profane things I spout at them. I will still use em anyway, even if they don't get a replacement buff. Not like we need it, considering every other class can give us a bajillion other buffs anyway.

[Shinryu Masaki]

I'm on beta right now and took out my Shale Spider. I'm still level 85 btw.

Embrace of the Shale Spider
Strength, Agility, Stamina, and
Intellect increased by 5%.
Magical resistance increased by 97.

Web Wrap is still there unchanged.

[Ana]

I don't think we have much to worry about until every pet family has its buff. We're still pretty early in the beta, so there's lots of time for all that to get sorted out - especially since pets only got to choose between the three trees within the past week or so.

Definitely something to keep an eye on, but we're definitely looking at a work in progress here.

But some "buffs" are less...usefull then others.. I love birds and pray but since i rarely pvp the disarm is sooo useless in a boss figth Same with the crab and dog ability .. in boss figths anyway

[CrystalKitten]

But some "buffs" are less...usefull then others.. I love birds and pray but since i rarely pvp the disarm is sooo useless in a boss figth Same with the crab and dog ability .. in boss figths anyway

If you look at it that way, almost every buff is "useless" to be on pets, as MOST of the time, group members bring anything that would be considered usefull. Sure, there's a few, like the raptor's rend, or the dino's bite, which are sometimes left out, but for the most part, I've found I can use whatever pet I feel like just because there's not generally any buffs that are needed.

I get what you're saying though. But just because it's useless in pve, doesn't mean it's no good at all. That would be like saying "let's just get rid of ability x because it ONLY has pvp usefullness". There's some ability's that are clearly more designed for pvp than pve (and vice versa) so I see no problem with pets being designed the same way.

[Kalliope]

But some "buffs" are less...usefull then others.. I love birds and pray but since i rarely pvp the disarm is sooo useless in a boss figth Same with the crab and dog ability .. in boss figths anyway

If you look at it that way, almost every buff is "useless" to be on pets, as MOST of the time, group members bring anything that would be considered usefull. Sure, there's a few, like the raptor's rend, or the dino's bite, which are sometimes left out, but for the most part, I've found I can use whatever pet I feel like just because there's not generally any buffs that are needed.

I get what you're saying though. But just because it's useless in pve, doesn't mean it's no good at all. That would be like saying "let's just get rid of ability x because it ONLY has pvp usefullness". There's some ability's that are clearly more designed for pvp than pve (and vice versa) so I see no problem with pets being designed the same way.

Crystal put it perfectly.

Snatch doesn't work on bosses usually, but you could disarm a hard-hitting melee trash mob on occasion. That can be a huge help in some instances. Sure, it's a utility move and you lose a potential extra perk the rest of the time, but it's not completely useless in PvE. Just ask a rogue or warrior who PvEs a lot when they use their disarms.

[Nachtwulf]

The disarm actually works on a surprising number of bosses and almost any weapon-using trash. I use a scorpid for solo-running old instances and I've found that some bosses (like Jedoga Shadowseeker, off the top of my head) can actually be disarmed as well. Disarming mobs while solo is often extremely useful because it means your pet takes that much less damage.

To be fair, I don't use birds of prey because they're Cunning and thus squishy and lacking thunderstomp, but with the ability to change their family in MoP, I have every expectation of adding them to my active stable rotations.

[Ellaran]

And speaking on the Rend/Monstrous Bite/etc, they're still quite useful in raids and instances. A raptor putting the armor debuff on the boss frees up the tank to do other abilities, same with the magic debuff for Wind Serpents/Dragonhawks and warlocks. They can also help refresh those abilities if the tank/dps is busy or doesn't have enough to reapply the debuff. The passive abilities are also really helpful, since the ones that are always on means people who are battle-rezzed immediately have it again, and ones that are active can be easily reapplied by having the pet use it.

Pets are wonderful backup utilities

[Kalliope]

And speaking on the Rend/Monstrous Bite/etc, they're still quite useful in raids and instances. A raptor putting the armor debuff on the boss frees up the tank to do other abilities

Actually, that's not really accurate, since a tank should be sundering if they have the ability to because they generate threat. There was a time when not all tanks could do that, though, and it was useful. (I'm not crazy, right? Pallies and DKs got equivalent abilities at some point, correct? I'm very rusty. Well, even if I'm remembering wrong, the tanks who CAN debuff armor should still be doing so for threat.)

Your other points are good, though. ^_^ It's always nice having a backup buffer/debuffer in case someone dies and can't be revived.

[Nachtwulf]

Pallies don't have an armor debuff, at least not currently. It's possible it may get added, but I think they want to keep tanks -a little- different. Druids do in faerie fire, but I don't know offhand if it's equivalent to sunder, and it isn't a major threat generator like it is with warriors.

[Kalliope]

Pallies don't have an armor debuff, at least not currently. It's possible it may get added, but I think they want to keep tanks -a little- different. Druids do in faerie fire, but I don't know offhand if it's equivalent to sunder, and it isn't a major threat generator like it is with warriors.

Nod, that's the equivalent to sunder. It does some threat, but not as much as sunder.

All right, so pallies and as I recall dks don't have it. See above post!

[Ana]

If you look at it that way, almost every buff is "useless" to be on pets, as MOST of the time, group members bring anything that would be considered usefull. Sure, there's a few, like the raptor's rend, or the dino's bite, which are sometimes left out, but for the most part, I've found I can use whatever pet I feel like just because there's not generally any buffs that are needed.

I get what you're saying though. But just because it's useless in pve, doesn't mean it's no good at all. That would be like saying "let's just get rid of ability x because it ONLY has pvp usefullness". There's some ability's that are clearly more designed for pvp than pve (and vice versa) so I see no problem with pets being designed the same way.

Heh i know its usefull to some and i wasnt saying to take it away .. i just find my self using the birds of pray less then a lets say wolf/cat in a dungeon grp