Non-Beast Hunter Pets and Spells
Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 5:53 pm
This is a weird one, but a friend and I got bored and found out something we both didn't know despite playing Hunter for so long. Undead, Mechanical, and Lesser Dragonkin (other than Cloud Serpents) are treated mechanically like you would expect. Or wouldn't expect. I don't know, I didn't expect this, so maybe I'm dumb or maybe I'm not. I watched a video as background noise on youtube earlier, and someone said that their undead pet was immune to scare beast. This made me think "...no? It's a hunter pet, so it obviously gets affected." This was in the back of my mind all day, and so I finally got a friend to test it out with me just to ease that nagging in the back of my head. Turns out I was dead wrong.
My friend got on his priest. I pulled out a pet that required me to know how to tame undead. He was able to use Shackle Undead on my pet. He then suggested I swap to a mechanical, and so I did. He tried, and failed, to use Mind Control since that doesn't work on mechanical NPCs. Next, he got on his hunter and talented into Scare Beast, and asked me to pull out a dragonkin. At first I picked a cloud serpent, but that still counts as a type of beast. I then swapped to a swoglet, and surprise surprise, it couldn't be scared. This blew our minds because it was so obviously not obvious to us. Like, we SHOULD have expected it, and it makes perfect sense, but because it makes sense, we didn't expect it.
So, this is just a fun reminder for others:
Mechanical pets are not beasts and are unaffected by spells that affect beasts such as Scare Beast.
Undead pets are not beasts, are unaffected by spells that affect beasts, and are affected by spells that affect undead such as Shackle Undead and Wake of Ashes.
Lesser dragonkin pets are not beasts, and are unaffected by spells that affect beasts.
Cloud serpents ARE beasts, so they break the mold. I demand justice for my DRAGON noodles!
Does any of this actually matter in a gameplay sense? Not really, since it's unlikely anyone specs into Scare Beast or thinks to shackle a hunter pet. It just kind of blew our minds and I figured I'd try to blow someone else's mind by posting what we learned.
My friend got on his priest. I pulled out a pet that required me to know how to tame undead. He was able to use Shackle Undead on my pet. He then suggested I swap to a mechanical, and so I did. He tried, and failed, to use Mind Control since that doesn't work on mechanical NPCs. Next, he got on his hunter and talented into Scare Beast, and asked me to pull out a dragonkin. At first I picked a cloud serpent, but that still counts as a type of beast. I then swapped to a swoglet, and surprise surprise, it couldn't be scared. This blew our minds because it was so obviously not obvious to us. Like, we SHOULD have expected it, and it makes perfect sense, but because it makes sense, we didn't expect it.
So, this is just a fun reminder for others:
Mechanical pets are not beasts and are unaffected by spells that affect beasts such as Scare Beast.
Undead pets are not beasts, are unaffected by spells that affect beasts, and are affected by spells that affect undead such as Shackle Undead and Wake of Ashes.
Lesser dragonkin pets are not beasts, and are unaffected by spells that affect beasts.
Cloud serpents ARE beasts, so they break the mold. I demand justice for my DRAGON noodles!
Does any of this actually matter in a gameplay sense? Not really, since it's unlikely anyone specs into Scare Beast or thinks to shackle a hunter pet. It just kind of blew our minds and I figured I'd try to blow someone else's mind by posting what we learned.