Can we all agree hunter pets are boring?

[The Ogdru Jahad]

Let's be honest, since around... late Wotlk, hunter pets have been really boring, they were hit by the normalizing bat. Where there weren't quirks and exceptions anymore.

Since then the pet system is very refined and for the most about about 95% cosmetic. The only change between any 2 pets really is the single ability they bring to the table. Yes a few pets, mostly BM have an extra ability here or there but that doesn't really make a different considering we have so many pets.

I miss when some random cat in the badlands was known to have 4 more agility than the ones in mulgore when of an equal level. ya know? things like that. I miss the weird exceptions.

There's no reason anymore for me to go tame the named rarespawn with skin X when I can just go to some zone where the same model/skin spawns on mobs in a pack for a quest.

We need that back, who agrees? Pets feel lame now!

[Lucetia]

Personally I think they've been boring since Vanilla Beta, but that's me. Sure while a rarespawn had slightly better stats than that of a regular pet it was still boring sitting there waiting for it to spawn and hope that no one else is nearby.

[Romeothecat]

No, is the current way pets are handled perfect? Certainly not, maybe pets could stand to be a little more interesting. But (using your example) using the cat that I have had since early bc is much better to me than having to release him because there is another cat out there with 4 more agility

[Namarus]

Yeah what great fun camping with 25 other hunters in the Badlands for Brokentooth. With CRZ it would be worse. No, it was bullshit then, and it would be bullshit if it came back. Raiding guilds would require hunters to go camp those rare spawns for the extra dps they would give.

[The Ogdru Jahad]

I think there was more to it than just +4 agility on some like I used as an example. Some actually ran slightly faster or carried certain quirks and abilities with them that they had before taming, if they were a quest mob or something. So I think there would be enough variety to it that no pet would really come out on top to the point that big raiding guilds would really control it like that.

[Sikosis]

I have to agree, I've had my Hunter from Vanilla and I kept the same pet (the blue armoured boar from RFK I think) all the way up to Wotlk. What bugs me now is that some pets are required for certain areas, for example the shale spider in PvP with their web wrap. Shale Spiders are so ugly...

[Perrito]

pets are the worse thing the hunter class have.

they bring nothing to the table to make me want to use them.

extra micro managment. pet position is something that drive me nuts, i dont have to watch my position as range i also gota watch the position of my pet as melee while im standing at range. as BM right now if you want to do good on some cleave fights you gota micro your pet a lot in order to get that extra juice.

arenas and pvp, they just a pain, nothing most retarded than pushing your buttons and get retarded messages of out of range.

blink strikes should go back as it was. it didnt need to be nerfed that bad. pets are an extensión of a bm hunter they supose to be hard to peel watch feral druids cant peel them.

i will be so happy the day they give us a petless spec.

[7seti]

I think there was more to it than just +4 agility on some like I used as an example. Some actually ran slightly faster or carried certain quirks and abilities with them that they had before taming, if they were a quest mob or something. So I think there would be enough variety to it that no pet would really come out on top to the point that big raiding guilds would really control it like that.

If there is any variation, one pet will be declared the best. It did happen back in vanilla: pets were extremely vulnerable to raid boss AoE, so all raiding guilds wanted their hunters to tame Snarler for his naturally high resistances.

[Lochton]

*shrugs* I've found them boring ever since you didn't need to be friends with them *laughs* Feed you pet and make it do more damage, or don't and have it maul your face

[Thelxi]

I like not having to solo things with a turtle or beetle.

[Einsz]

They are not boring,

just pain in the ass to have sometimes with pathing issues

[Daetur]

One of the problems with pets pre-normalization was that they were also pretty boring-- you'd usually see hunters with the same pet when they were doing the same things, because there were some that were objectively "better."

I've played my hunter since Classic, I remember taming Broken Tooth and The Rake because of their high attack speed, and I remember being sad that I couldn't use the pet /I/ wanted because it wasn't optimal. That really hasn't changed, outside of 25m guilds, but it's better. At least I can choose the look I like most among the family I'm locking into running for my 10m.

Personally, I think they should make small talent trees for pets that allow you to customize any pet with a buff, debuff, and "bonus" ability.

[Wildtree]

pets are the worse thing the hunter class have.

they bring nothing to the table to make me want to use them.

extra micro managment. pet position is something that drive me nuts, i dont have to watch my position as range i also gota watch the position of my pet as melee while im standing at range. as BM right now if you want to do good on some cleave fights you gota micro your pet a lot in order to get that extra juice.

arenas and pvp, they just a pain, nothing most retarded than pushing your buttons and get retarded messages of out of range.

blink strikes should go back as it was. it didnt need to be nerfed that bad. pets are an extensión of a bm hunter they supose to be hard to peel watch feral druids cant peel them.

i will be so happy the day they give us a petless spec.

The day hunters are petless is the day when they are no hunter anymore.
All arguments you bring up, I actually don't understand. Because pets today are trivialized.
There are very few situations where you actually really have to worry about them anymore. Ground effects... No problem, pet will live through it, if it takes any damage at all. Hunters are a ranged class.. Yeah sure... Once upon a time. you can get into melee range now just as much as everyone else.
We've used to have a challenge to find a save spot where we could stand and fire our shots. And the longer you stand still, the higher the dmg you do. Now we can jump around like circus clowns with no difference to our output anymore. The pets became a stat stick of some sort. They need very little brain for maintenance anymore.
Most of the time they take the same shortcut we take. I remember when they actually always took the logic safe route. You actually had to pay attention for them not to pull half the instance because they ran a whole different way...
All in all, even though I don't agree with the OP overall, but I even less agree with you.

---------- Post added 2013-06-30 at 11:39 AM ----------

*shrugs* I've found them boring ever since you didn't need to be friends with them *laughs* Feed you pet and make it do more damage, or don't and have it maul your face

I actually liked the feeding mechanics too.
Nothing more fun than knowing how your pet died now a few times in a short period of time, and you are terribly in danger of your pet telling you to fuck yourself, it's going to be outta here.... lol

[Deleted]

They generally are they don't do to much so that's why they're quite boring, they can go nicely with transmogrification though.

I'd like it if they made the cunning spec have some healer properties, so you can spec it for tank/dps/healer

they used to be a little more interesting when they had talent trees which is a shame it's been taken out.

[bendak]

RIP Brokentooth. I'll never forget when my target macro finally caught him. The problem with pets like that is all of the sudden they are the only thing that's "viable" and you're basically a noob if you don't have one, especially in this day and age when even casuals theorycraft. Back then very few people theorycrafted compared to today. There were no sites like icy veins. They really had no choice but to normalize the pets.

Honestly I don't think it'll be long before exotic pets are a thing of the past too. Pet choice is just cosmetic now, or based on your raid's missing buff. I still like hunting for the unique looking ones, so I wouldn't say they're boring. Part of the reason I play Hunter is the pets.

I kinda miss pet talent trees, though I'm not sure how much that actually added to the game since it was usually pretty clear cut.

[Snowbell]

Woudn't one specific pet being the "best" one prove more boring? Now we bring our pets depending on what buff our current raid setup needs instead of every damn hunter using the same pet because some guide told us that "this pet is the best one because this and that"

Having that said I kinda wish they would let us chose which of our pets could have which ability with talents or whatever, I'm bored of running with a wolf because our 10man group doesn't have anyone else who can give us a crit buff.

I miss my tiger q_q

[Skygoneblue]

Giving us a shitload of stable slots and instant leveling is what killed pets (figuratively) for me. I used to love the 4-5 pets that I had, because I had to choose them carefully, and I had to work hard to get them to my level. When you leveled a pet with your hunter, it was a significant investment, and it was hard to let that "first pet" go because of the time you spent leveling, and how hard it was to get a different pet.

Excuse the analogy, but wouldn't having a significant other or spouse be pretty meaningless if you could just break up and have the same connection with someone else the very next day? I think so.

Now all that matters is the raid buff they bring, and the fact that you camped some rare spawn. BFD.

What I would like to see:

1. Make pets have to level again.
2. Give me 5 stable slots, and 1 active pet that can switch specs.
3. Do away with pet raid buffs and give hunters a raid buff that they bring (5% would be my vote).

Just earlier, I read a blue post saying that hunter pets were never intended to be set-and-forget dps bots, but that's ALL they are for Marks and Survival, and they're essentially that for BM with the exception of the fact that they need to be within a short distance for Kill Command (which, let's face it - that's just another nuke).

Pets are pointless now. They don't die. They take no commitment to obtain. They can be rezzed in 3 seconds in the middle of combat. All they do is take damage away from what the hunter could be doing, and piss off LFR pugs when you forget to turn Growl off.

[Ninjeff]

Pets are fine. For pvp just macro pet passive into mend pet and pet attack into kill command. Pet's have abilities that are so useful in fact that the CD's for them had to be nerfed for pvp. They also bring whatever buff you could possibly need and this is very useful. You can also choose between ferocity (best dps and instant rez), cunning (for sac and bull headed), and tenacity if you want to solo shit that does a lot of damage. You want us to lose the ability to bring different buffs? Why? That is part of our utility right now and you want that taken away? This is what's wrong with the hunter community... Hunters bitching about shit that doesnt need to be changed at all and making us lose the little utility we have.

[markdall]

My pet is always super exciting. Especially when he vanishes. "OH GOD WHERE THE HELL IS MY PET AND WTF IS HE DOING THIS TIME".

[Skygoneblue]

This is what's wrong with the hunter community... Hunters bitching about shit that doesnt need to be changed at all and making us lose the little utility we have.

I'd wager that the bigger problem is people who don't even read the first post and then just reply arguing something irrelevant.

The OP said pets were boring. He didn't say they were difficult to control in pvp, that the specs were bad, or that buffs in and of themselves were bad.

He said pets are essentially buff-bots, and he's right. Curb the attitude and try reading a bit more slowly next time.