how are pets handling now?

[shahryar]

I was really depressed when they removed the aggressive stance.
I had sort of a weird but effective playstyle with dungeon finder pugs

when I wasn't going for pure dps I tended to play backup tank/interceptor

I sadly had a lot of bad luck with pug tanks most of them were very bossy mean and whiney. if a priest pulled to much aggro I was told repeatedly just let them die.

see I cant let that happen, so what I usually did was hold my turtle back then if a mob breaks away I would concussion shot or some such and sick the turtle after it which would grab aggro from whatever dps or healer pulled to much aggro.

In fact there were multiple instances that a tank would get pissed at the party and I'd switch out my dps pet for a turtle and just have the turtle tank for the party while waiting for another tank to join. And honestly even though i was told no you cant do that it doesn't work....it worked really really well, it got to the point where I never used anything but my turtle for general and then my core hound for bosses.

but when they changed it to, I forgot it's name but "what you're attack" and "what is attacking you"

when that patch came in....pet controls became frustrating, the pet fell less like an ally and more like a boomerang dot


has there been any changes to alleviate the new pet rules or maybe even changed them back to normal

Hunter is the only class i ever really enjoyed playing and this change to pets really ruined them for me.

[Danielfboone]

For most of us the aggressive stance was a huge problem and for the most part unusable. The pet would just attack anything in range completely on it's own. This was not only bad in instances but could also get you quickly killed in soloing. I never used it and every guild I was in prohibited it. I most always would use defensive and in some cases, even passive. Being that I have played almost exclusively as Beast master in my 7+ years in the game, holding my pet back was never an option either. These days, even Survival and Marksman Hunter's pets do at least 20% of the total damage so holding them back makes little sense for any spec. The aggressive stance for pets needed to go.

[shahryar]

true but even defensive changed, when I had defensive on after the change the pet really didn't do anything. it would just come running back to me.

I tended to cycle aggressive and defensive, aggressive to get him in there then defensive once he the fights on, they basically kept him locked on everything that was trying to kill him.
now it doesnt seem to do that.

[Danielfboone]

I use the assist stance now almost all the time. If I shoot something before sending him in first, he will automatically attack that same target and will switch targets when I do as well. He will very rarely stop attacking targets as long as I have used something like Glaive Toss, Explosive trap, or Multi-Shot to hit everything in his area. Since Glaive Toss is used by me every time it's available, my pet always stays in the fight unless called back by switching him to passive.

[peanutbuttercup]

For most of the time now Assist will be the stance you use - the pet will automatically attack whatever you're attacking.

In certain pve situations you'll want to use Passive instead and manually select the target your pet is on. Example would be a raid boss with adds where you're wanting to keep some damage on the boss at all times.

If you're saying the pet doesn't feel like an ally and more like a boomerang, Passive is the way to go because you get complete control over what it's attacking, so it doesn't bounce around between multiple targets.

Defensive really seems pointless for the way I play but maybe there's a pvp application for it, I don't know.

Aggressive was never a good stance in pve. You'd get kicked more often than not for failing to control the pet and wiping the group. The only times I can remember using Aggressive in groups was in the trash room before Sindragosa in ICC and on the last boss in AN, where I knew the pet wasn't going to go anywhere else because it couldn't leave the room.

[Kalliope]

I haven't had real issues with pet tanking since the changes; assist puts my pet on my target and I use passive and a manual pet attack command for more delicate work.

[HunterFTW]

same here asst is good.plus less of a chance for ppl blameing me for my pet.now its mainly the warlocks pets.

[Akyo]

i miss it actually but yeah i have to agree aggressive was a bad thing in dungeons. Specially if the tank dident rush through. The pet might aggro another group before everyone was ready.
However. It was GREAT in bg when defending flags and stuff.
As soon a rogue or druid came close the pet would be on em. Its that pvp safety i miss. Otherwise i never used it.

[HunterFTW]

yep i used it for pvp BG mainly.i would always laugh when seeing players running by and my pet randomly chaseing them like on there feet.that could be a good bring back have it say for PVP only.