This post is a followup of my previous one (link SoD Hunter pets: more families, looks and abilities) on Hunter pets feedback.
First of all, I am thankful for the addition of the new tameable wyvern. I like the fact that we can get rods or new ways of getting previously unobtainable beasts. In fact, I think Hunters should have an extra discovery objective in SoD: finding ways of taming new beasts, both entire families and special ones with unique looks such as the unused white vulture skin.
That said, I don’t think the implementation of the new tameable has been correct in terms of its family. Wyverns should not be wind serpents. They have never breathed lightning and they don’t really fit into any of the existing families. Bat or owl would make more “sense” because of their abilities but it would still be weird. Ironically, they’d be more suited in the scorpid family due to their access to claw and poison.
Not every beast can be included in existing families, some may need their own. For instance, darkhounds could easily fit into wolves (add them and give us the white and gray skins from TBC!) but wyverns should either be their own family or combined with gryphons and hippogryphs into a new one. Ideally, they’d be their own or in a family with access to thematic abilities like poison. Perhaps sub-families within families could be created in which some members have one different ability between them? For instance, poison for wyverns and something else for gryphons and hippogryphs while still having claw and dive shared by all three.
Another problem I see with the new tameable is that we can only get a very specific one: young pridewings. This means that we will not be able to get the other possible colors that these beasts have and makes it quite limiting, in my opinion. Please, when implementing a rod to tame a new beast family, let us tame all of their members (unless it’s an item meant for a specific, special animal).
Can new families not be created because SoD is connected to Classic Era (link https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxiEc3kWQ6btvIA6V7T_0JhJXEnNHKBHoQ) and changes may leak from one to the other? Because it’d be very sad if this was the reason why things have to be so limited. I’m still hoping for faerie dragons, whelps and drakes to become a dragonkin family.
Additionally, getting just one new tameable is not enough. I hope that we can get way more variety added now or in future phases.
On another note, most families are still in need of help because they serve no purpose besides looks. Crabs, spiders, crocolisks, tallstriders, hyenas, etc… they all need some love. They mainly have a single ability, and several of them don’t have dash/dive. I’m not even considering how their family stats affect their usage because they get none at all.
At least others like boars or carrion birds are good for leveling and the Bloodseeker bats can be annoying in PvP (there’s the issue of bats being useful mostly in that context though).
Unless something is done, the pets used for damage will always be the same: wind serpents, cats, raptors and maybe owls.
I will assume that the removal of pet scaling and the changes to scorpids and Aspect of the Lion are temporary until a better fix is found, so I won’t comment much on that. Pets should scale to be relevant.
However, I personally think that the TBC version of Kill Command is kind of boring, even if it could be a bit interesting when combined with other runes (mostly Cobra Strikes). I would like for Hunters and BM in particular to have a meaningful rotation that interacts with our pets in some way. We’re still missing many runes so I am hopeful in that sense, but I wanted to provide feedback on that regardless.
Finally, give us at least 5 stable slots. 1 + 2 pets is simply not enough, less so with the level caps, because one slot must always be left to learn new abilities.
TL; DR. Please, try to find a way to implement new tameables and families in a more coherent way and tie it to discoveries just like with runes. Include beasts into existing families if it fits and make new families if not. Let us tame all members of the beast type and not just a single one. Give us more tameables than just one. Balance pets and families better. Keep an eye on pet scaling per family and ability but allow them to scale. Make Hunter and BM rotations a bit more meaningful.