Here's mine:
They could easily re-catagorize all beasts within each catagory (cunning, fero, ten) with 3 similar actions - level 1 Bite/Claw/Smack, level 2 beast type attack (firebreath/poison/etc) and a level 3 attack (furious howl type buff) that is purely for beastmasters with 51point talent. This would eliminate the restrictions on non-bm hunters wanting to use currently exotic pets and would normalize the pets abilities closer together, adding to the diversity of pets chosen by each hunter in game.
Lets face it, as long as there is a way to pick one pet as the ultimate for min/maxers, there will be one pet ahead of the pack. With the above idea, it may be easier to bring the other pets in line closer to that top dps pet.
Level 1
Lets say every pet gets a generic special attack and that attack is bite/claw/smack and comes out costing the same focus and providing the same damage (all other things considered equal).
Level 2
Lets say each pet gets a level 2 attack that is specific to the catagory of beast and what type of beast it is.
Ferocity- (6 second cooldown)
Cat - Rake - does 20 damage + 20 bleed damage over 6 seconds
Wolf - Gore - does 40 damage
Devilsaur - Ferocious Bite - does 40 damage
Wasp - Sting - Does 40 poison damage over 6 seconds
Tenacity - (6 second cooldown and increases threat generated)
Rhino - Stampede - does 20 damage
Turtle - Shellshock - does 20 nature damage
Crocolisks - Snap - does 20 bleed damage over 6 seconds
Crab - Pinch - does 10 damage + 10 bleed damage over 6 seconds
Cunning - (6 second cooldown)
Chimaera - Froststorm breath - does 20 damage w/snare
Nether Ray - Nethershock - does 20 nature damage w/ spell interupt
Serpents - Poison spray - does 20 nature damage over 6 seconds w/ snare
Birds of Prey - Snatch - does 20 bleed damage w/ disarm
Level 3 - Beastmaster 51pt
Lets say as a level 3 action, the effect is an amplification of the other effects.
Ferocity - Ferocious Aura - increases damage for hunter and pet for 20 seconds (40s cooldown)
Tenacity - Tenacious Aura - decreases damage that hunter and pet take for 20 seconds (40s cooldown)
Cunning - Cunning Aura - Increases hunter and pets chances of resisting any effect that disables control (fear, sap, etc) and decreases time of status effects on both hunter and pet for 20 seconds (40s cooldown)
Essentially, this keeps each pet true to the nature of the catagory it hails from and adds a significant effect to both pet and master for those willing to go 51pts into beast mastery. This also frees up the current "exotic beasts" for anyone to tame and use and gets rid of the obsurd advantage that Ferocious Howl presents only to wolves. Alternatively, this might also be a way to do away with "spirit beasts" family and each of these just be part of their cat/bear/wolf family.
As for any overpoweredness of the auras (especially cunning) remember that this will be a tuned effect and it won't be the end of the world if out of 100 rogues sapping a hunter than 5-10 of those attempts miss. I'm just sayin. Originally I'd thought Cunning could (instead of the aura) have this skill that the pet can use every 5 minutes that "bites" the player if they should ever become feared or sapped while the pet is not under a status effect. Example - hunter gets sapped, but the pet is fine, so the pet automatically bites its master to "wake" them up. Even if it was only an "on use" ability it would get a lot of controversy from the "we need better saps/fears/iceblocks to survive" crowd.
The truth of the matter is this: if you want to see people taming pets for A) What catagorical use they have and B) Because of how cool they look to them, there has to be some normalization of the abilities across the board.
Now that thats out of the way....
everyone do the /sidehug!
