1. #1

    Pets. Should they be companions or buffs?

    Which is more important? That they retain their current state where some pets are completely unviable and we are forced to used specific pets depending on raid composition rather than being assigned raid utility elsewhere. Or should something be done to make our pet more of a choice?

    Now, I don't exactly know what could be done that blizzard and the playerbase would agree with. But I honestly don't understand what would be wrong with pets simply having a talent tree where they can choose from 1 of 3 different buffs. This way pets can still be able to provide a various number of buffs (perhaps mastery, crit and attack speed) while still allowing the hunter to choose which pet they would like.

    However, concerning this issue so far I have met apathy from most hunters, responses like "We have bigger issues than that" and what not. Most don't seem to care about hauling raptors and sporebats everywhere. I myself would like to raid with a pet I choose, not a specific type of pet just because of its buff/debuff, a pet that has served me through countless battles. The argument could be made that if all buffs/debuffs are present that the hunter could take what pet they want, but even so multiple pets would provide faster debuff applications like raptors with armor reduction, and especially BM as spirit beasts have a heal.

    Does anyone agree with me, that pets should be revamped a tiny bit so that we can take our trusted boon companions rather than just our obligatory vessels for buffs? Or do all the other issues with the class make this seem like a non-issue?

  2. #2
    Warchief Duravian's Avatar
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    Hmm... pretty good idea. I use the pet I like regardless of what people may request of me cause I'm not trying to be the best, but this isn't the case for everyone I guess.
    It's pronounced "Dur-av-ian."

  3. #3
    Deleted
    Sounds like this is basically equivalent to "Let us transmog pets". Keep some kind of buff functionality but allow us to change how the pet looks to another available model independent of the buff.

    Cute little cosmetic change perhaps but an important class defining issue? Not really.

  4. #4
    Deleted
    I think hunter pets should have stayed as "companions" that you need to feed etc, not really sure what i think about pets bringing buffs.Hunter pets should be treated different than warlock pets. I guess it has to do more with bring the player not the class and not how fun it is for hunters to change pets depending on missing buffs/debuffs..

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by spinner981 View Post

    Does anyone agree with me, that pets should be revamped a tiny bit so that we can take our trusted boon companions rather than just our obligatory vessels for buffs? Or do all the other issues with the class make this seem like a non-issue?
    Completely agree. I had even posted similar suggestions in previous threads.

    The idea is to give some flexibility with buffs / utility to all pets.

    For eg.
    Raptor could have sunder armor, intervene and critical strike (one choice)

    Spider could have web, spell damage debuff and spell haste (one choice)

    Essentially its a choice between buff, debuff and utility

    BM pets get 2 choices.

    The major criticism against this system is that it would confuse many players considering the whole interplay between ferocity/cunning/tenacity specs

  6. #6
    Its a decent idea. Tbh i'd rather see Pet Pathing be fixed completely in each tier. It'd be nice for me in my 10man where i was forced to only use one pet! But we recruited a mage finally now i can use a spirit beast or Flamingo.

    I think the only thing i'd enjoy seeing something like this happen is with spirit beasts. It'd be semi cool if you tamed a spirit wolf and got crit.... If each one followed it's pet family buffs.

  7. #7
    I'd like to see a system where we could assign a pet a certain buff or debuff, I think that would make pets infinitely more fun (but create a bunch more work for programmers and designers). I like pets as a hunter, but I definitely wish there was a petless spec ala Warlocks pet sac.

    I don't like having to collect pets of each buff/debuff type, but i guess that's Blizzard's way of justifying what they pay their designers and making sure that the "time" is put into this timesink game. Hopefully 6.0 brings some changes.

  8. #8
    There r 8 buffs to cover, true most often u need to fill up only one buff like attack speed or spell haste. So, off ur 3 choices, if spell haste aint there, u still get to use that spore bat.

    Not to mention, this proposed system will make pets more generic, they r already too much generic anyway, even exotics has no advantage anymore except special abilities. So no thanks, i like all my pets, so who ever is fight alongside me, is completely ok.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by anjan011 View Post
    There r 8 buffs to cover, true most often u need to fill up only one buff like attack speed or spell haste. So, off ur 3 choices, if spell haste aint there, u still get to use that spore bat.

    Not to mention, this proposed system will make pets more generic, they r already too much generic anyway, even exotics has no advantage anymore except special abilities. So no thanks, i like all my pets, so who ever is fight alongside me, is completely ok.
    The problem is that blizzard has defined pets as multiple things. Back in wrath pets were very different, but everyone took a wolf because it was 'optimal'. Imo it should have stayed like that, but with a few changes to balance abilities.

    It is extremely difficult to maintain a balance between "Being able to choose which pet to take" and "Keeping pet families unique". I have made some propositions in the past before, however they would be difficult to implement and would still technically provide an optimal choice. If every pet family was given 1 (maybe 2?) attack abilities that functioned in various different ways but ended up doing virtually the same dps in PvE then pets would be unique without forcing players to take an obvious choice, for example:

    Cat
    Rend
    Deals 20k damage and then 10k additional damage over 6 seconds. 10 seconds cooldown.

    Boar
    Tusk
    Deals 30k damage to the enemy. 10 second cooldown.

    Spider
    Web shot - 20 yard range
    Fires a cluster of webbing at the target, dealing 15k damage. 5.5 second cooldown

    Dog
    Huge bite
    Deals 60k damage to the enemy. 20 second cooldown

    Serpent
    Serpent strikes
    Deals 3k damage to the enemy. 1 second cooldown.

    Warp stalker
    Warp strike - 15 yard range
    Warps behind the target and deals 30k damage. 11 second cooldown.

    The abilities wouldn't have GCDs so that the cooldowns wouldn't have such a large impact on dps. Are these abilities perfect? No. Would there be an optimal choice? Yes. While the spider and warp stalker would deal less dps they would also be able to use it from a range, or as a small charge ability. The goal is that the difference are small enough so that the average hunter that isn't min-maxing at every corner could take whatever pet they want and have their choice result in a miniscule dps loss at most, instead of now where bringing the right pet or not can have huge impacts on raid dps. I don't think it would be possible to make pets simultaneously unique to each family while also allowing a hunter to take whichever pet they want. This would add variety to pet families without giving hunters such an obvious optimal choice, and I think that is the closest place to meet in the middle. Otherwise pets are either not a choice at all or have no family variety.

    It's obviously not perfect, but I think if blizzard took a bit of time to tweak it and work with it, that they could make it work out for the better in the end. These abilities would go along with a pet talent tree type thing that allows us to make our pets bring one of three buffs, or something along those lines. However that is also a problem, because blizzard just wouldn't want to spend the time necessary to implement such a system, which is yet another reason why pets are in their current state. They have been lazily designed and have served as targets for class fixes (such as providing 'utility' with buffs) rather than as the boon companions they're supposed to be.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by aHeeRo View Post
    Its a decent idea. Tbh i'd rather see Pet Pathing be fixed completely in each tier.
    The problem with pet pathing, as blizzard has stated it, is that the best they can do to fix it right now is to fix individual issues. Like having to tweak certain specific parts of terrain for pets to be able to move over it and what not.
    Last edited by spinner981; 2013-11-01 at 08:57 PM.

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