They should let MM hunters 'sacrifice' their pets.

[Deleted]

i will say no. Due to hunters is all about the bound with there pet. A hunter is a ranger with a strong bound with nature and so have a animal who is there partner. A warlock is a evil wizard who on a very daliy basisc uses demon magic to gain power. Can you see the different? I can see you do not mean " sacrifice" as in you rip out a dagger and mount your pet, head on your shoulder as a totem, but it would not make sence.
But fine, lets say it would come, then why only MM? why no suv? i know MM is the "sniper" type, stand in the shadow and take out a person with a singel shot, but it does not really, fit, in anyway with the hunter class not to have a pet.

[Kayb]

Gunslinger Class for the win

[Deleted]

How about giving birds of prey (bird pet family) the ability to sit on our shoulders, giving us roughly a 20% dmg buff (that's about the percent of our dmg that the pet does). I could see that working pretty good both lore and functionwise.

[Deleted]

Op already said, that pet should nott be sacrificed.

Blizzard dont have to take pet out of game, thats not what hunters want.. just change mm mechanics, remake class from ground.
Pet could stand right next to mm hunters, raising morale(15%dps) with 90% avoidance - following every step.. just not doing any damage.
It could activate with some cooldowns, like stampade, masters call etc, give raidbuff.. but rest of the time - buff master.

Noone wants to sacriface anything.. just spec, which depends 99% on hunter.

[Stormcall]

Not that it's likely, but I would prefer a new class. Gives another class to use ranged weapons so they aren't exclusively hunter drops. Maybe one of their other specs could use agi daggers(and maybe swords), since currently they are exclusively rogue drops(and monks, in the case of agi swords).

[Mirishka]

Separation Anxiety
Passive
In the absence of your loyal companion, your
anxiety makes you even deadlier, increasing all
damage by <whatever% of Marks/Surv damage the pet contributes>.

/thread

Mind you, I think wanting to play a hunter without playing a pet is silly, but I can understand the desire, given the game's mostly terrible Pet AI.

[Kibu]

The only reason I've never made a hunter (and the reason I never made a warlock until MoP) is because I despise pet classes. I love the idea of physical ranged DPS but I don't like pet classes. My idea is give MM hunters an option to get a buff to ranged damage in lieu of a pet. Say a pet does 5% of your damage (just a random number, I have no idea how much dps mm pets do), you could choose to either have a pet if you like pets or 'sacrifice' it for a 5% buff to ranged damage. It'd be similar to affliction warlocks are now where sacrificing your pet is pretty much the same as having a pet(in most situation) dps wise. Now that there's no minumum range on bows I see no reason not to have this option except you'd get some QQ from people who love pets and think everybody else should too. (You know, because god forbid people have a choice in playstyle) Hell, they could even make the sacrificing option a slight DPS loss in exchange for not having to manage a pet.

EDIT: I DIDN'T ACTUALLY MEAN KILL YOUR PET FOR A BUFF. I used the word sacrifice because that's what the warlock ability is. I meant a passive aura that activates when you don't have a pet out or something.

Please go to the warlock forums and never come back...

[Deleted]

Something i'd like to see that still makes sense, is ranged pets. MM's pets could be transformed into a ranged version of itself, making it into a metaphorical turret rather than a melee pet. Personally, my main problems with hunter pets is the terrible AI/pathing and losing a lot of DPS when you have to switch target but can't leave the pet on your main target (Horridon HC comes to mind). Ranged pets would solve all of these issues to an extent while still keeping true to the idea of Hunters being a pet class.

But a ranged Heroic class would be nice! Gunslinger does sound quite interesting.

[Barael]

You remind me of Postal 2 game, where you could use cats as silencer.

That's amazing! No more transmogging gun to bow just to get rid of the sound! Just grab a critter for 30-minute "Silenced" buff!

[Raqubor]

I would rather make it like this:
Bestial Fusion
You and your pet merge souls to empower you, increasing damage done by 15%.
You retain your pets special ability depending on pet:
Wolf - 5% Crit
Cat - 5% Mastery
etc...

It would not let you keep pet cc, just buffs.

They could put it in place of Lynx Rush as that became pretty useless after the great nerf.

[Deleted]

Talent: Predatory Hunter

'You embrace the predator within you, sacrificing your currently summoned pet. - Ranged attacks do X% more damage for 1h.'

Why not? Lore doesn't matter, why cant hunters be a little darker? Wouldn't hurt anyone. If you don't like it, don't take it. As has been said before, make it a slight dps loss like GoSac for Locks.

[Jeremypwnz]

Why can't people just allow other people to dream of one day playing a physical ranged dps that doesn't require a pet. It seems like the very idea of it is taboo.

I never rolled a Hunter because of anything pet related. I rolled a Hunter to pew pew people with a gun or a bow, and the pet was excess baggage.

And people who say pets are a Hunter's bond with nature or some sappy related ideas... There are ways of being in touch with nature without resorting to capturing an animal against it's will and forcing it to be a shield. All I see in tame beast is Mind Control. Pets don't even have happiness levels, or the option to run away anymore. After Wotlk came out, you cannot expect your "loyal companion" to actually be anything that you think it is. Might as well be a Water Elemental or an Imp or a Voidwalker. I've literally Rez spammed my pet and sent it in to raid bosses to die before, proving they are more "minion" than "companion".

Now the thing with ranged pets. Weren't Wind Serpents attacks, Lightning Breath, back in previous expansions a ranged attack? I'm sure there were others but that's all that come to mind at the moment.

And from what I've seen over the years of playing a Hunter, the only synergy between Hunter and Pet as MM/Survival is Go for the Throat, aka, more DPS. The Hunter's RNG dps gain increases pet dps, but never the other way around. I don't see much working together (I think Blink Strike post 5.3 would count as well). Hardly synergy imo.

Now, people who disagree with these opinions, try to have an open mind and see things from a different point of view before blasting me with "lore says this", and "blizzard says that". Just as there are people who use their pets as minions, there are people who have their pets as a companion who would never trade away what they have.

[Deleted]

the only solution i could live with is giving the pet a "guardian" mode. it'll sit by his hunter, having his back, fending off sneaky attackers. it shouldn't do any of the damage but bring buffs (our pet buff system is a great advantage that shouldn't go away for any spec) and help peeling melees and controlling casters.

[3clipse]

Clearly the correct name for the buff would be Lone Hunter and it would be a talent choice

Replaces Stampede with...something else. And prevents you from summoning pets while active.

[Kutartwo]

Something silly I'd always wanted to see was to be able to ride the pet you called out. It may sound like a stupid idea, but at least the pet is still there, work out some buffs to add to the spec that can do it, and I'd be content.
And I mean able to ride the pet in battle (without major speed increases like regular mounts).

[tejpis]

A damage buff for going petless could be themed as "not worrying about hitting your companion" or simply Lone Hunter (no explanation) as stated above.

[Raldazzar]

I have seen this crop up alot. and I fully support the idea.

I personally dislike using my pet and would rather just be.. an archer.

I don't see why anyone would say no to this, it would be nothing more then an OPTION. having more options is never a bad thing, its not like you'd be forced into it.

so long as the tradeoff was fair. (+dmg increases... but other nerfs (although losing the pet's ability etc in pvp is quite a big nerf already!) would be great.

[Deleted]

the thing with options in wow is... that there's only one max dps option.

[Namarus]

Pets in their current iteration for hunters are just a glorified dot for the two non-BM specs. They took any sort of point behind having a pet when they removed stuff like Call of the Wild from hunter pets. Right now hunters (non-BM) wouldn't even notice if pets were removed and a damage buff was applied to abilities.

If they want pets to actually be intergral to the class, well pet should actually be integral to the class which they are not.

[ripponesan]

you hate pet classes? Dont roll one and you are fine.

Everyone can solve this for his own, no need to create a masterplan.