Hunter spec without pet? (Cataclysm)

[Atty]

Either give us a spec that benefits from dismissing the pet, or fix the damned pet mechanics.

[Upptagen]

Or, introduce a new hero class: Ranger.

In my opinion I want more to do with the pet, it shall be a part of my gameplay, as that's why I rolled Hunter.

[Gaskal]

WARNING

SPOILER ALERT

I have read this post and it really made tons of sense and the OP is extremly smart to point it out. So I decided to use my friendship with GC and told him about this extremly amazing feature they should add to the hunter. He was surprised to death by the OP's intelligence and said he would fill an apply for him to join blizzard and help him in developing the game.
He and his team then Worked on this magnificent project for an Hour and came up With a piece of brilliant addition to the hunter. So here is what they are gonna do with the hunter in cataclysm : BEWARE :

Hunters will have the ability to dismiss their pet now and gain a 10% bonus damage as a result. We Are Working on a feature which would allow hunters to remove ALL their abilities for a 80% damage increase. WE are also planning an in-game spreadshit(this is correct) feature that will calculate hunters damage using mathematics and do the work for them.You just have to Stand still and watch the brilliant art which our designers made and you will be pulling the maximum out of your class that way.
We would like any help you could give us on extending this feature to more and more classes

[letitdie]

pets now days are just a dot that gets 2-3 shoted. MM should definetly be a petless spec just like BM focuses on pets. and if the ranger class is ever released you will see about 80% of hunters rerolling since most only play the class because its the closest thing to an archer.

[KresnikHellfire]

Tbc demonology warlock, you had a bonus for not having a pet so i guess they could do something similar with hunters.

Tbh its not something incredibly amazing it just simplifies gameplay as you dont have to micromanage your pet anymore

And that mechanic was removed because they wanted warlocks to be a pet class, as they do with hunters, so I can't see this happening... ever.

[twilight_terror]

Hunters, as a class, are defined by their pets and so I really don't see them giving us a spec without a pet. Pets are an important part of the hunter as far as Blizzard is concerned. They want hunters to grow with their pets, for them to be loyal companions as opposed to warlock pets which are more like slaves.

That being said, I would support a Ranger type class as hunters are currently the only form of physical ranged dps. Though I think a class that made use of throwing weapons would be far more interesting. So many cool looking throwing weapons that you rarely get to see.

[Valilor]

Ithe ranger class is ever released you will see about 80% of hunters rerolling since most only play the class because its the closest thing to an archer.

This.

[deadman80]

For the pet-haters out there, would adding in something along the lines of the following entirely fictional talents solve your issues?

Avenge Fluffy, BM 45+, requires "The Beast Within", passive
When your pet dies due to an attack that does damage greater than 40% of your pet's maximum HP, you are overcome with the desire for vengeance, causing you to gain 5% damage dealt with all attacks and reducing your global cooldown by .3 seconds. This effect lasts for 2 minutes.
This would compensate for the many pet-unfriendly fights where your pet is in constant danger of getting one/two shotted. I would like the duration and GCD reduction to be higher, but even as is, it could lead to hunters intentionally getting their pets killed during boss encounters XD

Allergic to Wolves, MM 30+, requires "Ranged Weapon Specialization", passive, 3 point talent
When you do not have an active pet, you gain 1%/3%/5% critical strike and haste.
I pulled the numbers out of the air, so I don't know how much of an increase in dps this would actually be. It might be too little, might be too much

The idea here is to give the hunter ~5%-7% dps increase for not having a pet out, which should be less overall dps than using a pet but enough to keep raid members from bitching too much XD The names of course are jokes :P I would be very unhappy if I had to spec into something with names like those lol

Another option would be to buff Mend Pet so pets become far less fragile during raids :3 This would actually be the solution I would personally prefer as it would benefit all specs without messing with the talent trees.

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Also, we should all keep in mind that Cataclysm will be bringing some MASSIVE changes to the hunter class, which will definitely change how we play in general:
* Choosing which talent tree our pets get on taming (Ferocity Bear sounds like fun to me >.> Wonder how high Swipe dmg would be with all the dps talents propping it up <,<)
* Mana changing to Focus (Energy)
* Changes to ammo: Blue posts saying that they still want to make some major changes to ammo that were cut from last patch
* Restructuring of talent trees

Who knows, maybe they actually WILL add some "no pet = benefit" talent just to fill space on the trees X-D
I sincerely doubt they will add anything like a ranger class though, as it would just be a ripoff of hunters. I doubt there is enough room to make another physical ranged class that plays/feels different than hunters anyway... Besides, if they add another class, it should be a healer; There are too many DPS classes already.

[Daginni]

Pets are always going to be at the Hunter's side. That is all.

[Simurg]

I srsly lold at those ppl saying hunter without a pet is not a hunter or u just want an easy life.
U guys have ur brains totally washed by wow, there is ranger class in most mmo's without a pet if it has 1 in wow it means nothing, they can for example make MM build without a pet and make it more complicated to play as ranged to compensate the pet.

Hunter is the only class in wow which takes ranger non mage role in wow so it has to have more possibilities.

Also give us siegemode.

[Herecius]

What's a hunter without a pet?

Oh yeah. A mage in mail armor with less DPS.

[Simurg]

I say again ur brains are washed with wow, seems like it totally wiped ur imagination aswell.
Look at urself u can't imagine any design of ranged class besides already existing and the second thing u think about is dps which laughable, pathetic wow slave.

[B@nj0 P3do]

a specc without a pet, hmm. for some fights i wish i didnt have a pet. aka mimiron. but for the most of times, its fun ^^

[Herecius]

I say again ur brains are washed with wow, seems like it totally wiped ur imagination aswell.
Look at urself u can't imagine any design of ranged class besides already existing and the second thing u think about is dps which laughable, pathetic wow slave.

I can imagine a ranged class that we don't have existing perfectly fine. However, no spec of the Hunter class - a class which, I'm sure you are aware, currently exists - would make any real sense without a pet. Hunter pets buff the hunter and viceversa.

I am all for the idea of a Dark Ranger class, which would be like a combination of warlock and hunter, but without the pets of either.

But the idea of an actual hunter spec sans pet? Kinda silly imo. It's just not what the class is about. It'd be like a totem-less shaman spec.

[Ugrana]

Maybe blizzard will give you a buff depending on which pet you dismiss.

Wait they already took that away from warlocks cause they wanted them to use their pet more...

[Dortinil]

I don't know about specs without a pet, but when I play my hunter I do think of different things they could do with the pet.
Maybe adding a pet that is pure ranged, like stands next to you and does ranged attacks. Like maybe they could add a porcupine-like pet that shoots quills at the boss. And then have different benefits to having a ranged vs melee pet. Or maybe a talent point (or even passive ability) that makes you enrage for 30 seconds if your pet is killed, like you are angry about the loss of your pet and are out for revenge on the thing that killed it.