First of all, this is not another post to complain about hunter pets but to point out a few issues that exist currently within SoD.
with the 80% focus of the Beast Mastery rune on gloves. pets that do not have access to a focus-dumping abillity like claw/screech/lightning breath lose out on dps because they can not effectively use all their focus. this puts them on the sideline for any hunter picking up this rune.
In order to promote diversity between pets it would be nice to see all pets having access to a focus dump. in the later expansions with more focus regeneration, bite doesnāt have a cooldown. with the current strength of bite that might be an issue.
the second issue that makes pet not ideal is the lack of a movement speed increase, this will start to be obvious when in phase 2 raptors will lose value over cats for this reason. It would be nice to ādiscoverā the ability to teach dash/dive/charge to different pets.
The last one, and probably the most tricky to get right, is the absence of scaling on Furious Howl. I posted a substantial thread on Reddit about this, and it is probably tricky to get right, so that it becomes viable in some situations, but not the only realistic option because it is too strong. but I think this pet ability deserves some attention from the developers.
In a more extreme way the developers could opt to let us explore new pet-family abilities through discovery/taming. Which is probably something that would be very welcomed by most people enjoying the discovery journey.
Again, not asking for buffs to hunters overall, just looking to promote diversity in pet options/choices.
Great post with which I agree. Thereās still tuning to be done in regards to hunter pets as well as the viability of families.
One way of balancing bite would be to perhaps reduce its cooldown or allow it to consume extra focus to deal more damage, similar to ferocious bite. Other abilities such as screech donāt seem to scale too well either, thus reducing the viability of pets like bats.
Furious Howl, as a 60 focus ability with a 10 second cooldown, should definitely scale. Theyād have to tune and crunch the numbers but it has to be a thing so that wolves are competitive, even if only in niche scenarios with a full melee party. The bug that has the buff be consumed by anything but only apply damage to white attacks should be fixed as well.
Scorpid Poisonās change made the ability completely useless. The dev commentary alluded to the fact that it would deal more damage with 5 stacks but right now the damage isnāt even a fraction of what it used to be. It was too strong and now itās too weak. I liked the fact that a pet never seen as DPS could be competitive due to its special ability and Iād like that back without it being broken for PvP or PvE. It has to be bugged, so Iād like the devs to tune it so that scorpids are a valid option.
Pets families overall need love when it comes to abilities. As you say, we need them all to learn dash and dive and some kind of focus dump. They could create new abilities for this purpose and even new families. It makes no sense that raptors cannot dash, and itās weird that spiders, a DPS family, is an awful option besides looks due to only having access to bite. Whereās the web or poison for them? I see these as signs of rushed development and no time to finalize pets properly years ago.
We also need way more new tameables, both in recolors of existing families and new ones. We should be able to tame ALL wyverns and not just the young pridewings. Otherwise, we lose access to higher level beasts as well as the two recolors that exist for them. Wyverns should also ābeā scorpids, unless a new family can be created for them. It fits them way more than being a wind serpent (all wyverns use poison, never lightning), which by the way would have been a fitting family for chimeras. Darkhounds would also be perfect for wolves. I feel like gryphons and hippogryphs should be their own family, but they could easily be owls as well.
Faerie dragons, whelps and drakes as a dragonkin family to befriend would be awesome, too.
I would also like the BM rotation (and hunter in general) to not be so passive. Current retail has a lot of interaction between master and pet and I think we should get runes to reflect a similar idea. Iād prefer if they made new abilities for SoD and not copy future versions though. However, I dislike the current Kill Command. Its changes make it obvious that itās lacking and that it should be reworked altogether. Something like the WotlK/Retail version or something entirely new. Someone on Reddit suggested different versions of ācommandā that would make the pet do different things such as stun, bleed, slow, etc. which I believe would be a good idea.
Bringing the āzooā build with Dire Beast is something I would like as well but itās not something that can be done right now due to the early power hunters have. Iād be fine without it anyway. What I would like though is having a 2nd pet that can only use dash/dive and benefit from specific talents/abilities. But again, Iād rather have a meaningful and active rotation than a 2nd pet.
Iāve been giving them feedback on the matter in some of my previous posts both in the forums and on Reddit, so feel free to check them out below if you see anything interesting and want to discuss what other additions or changes pets could have! Thank you for your posts on Reddit, too <3
Hopefully thisāll make them act on the matter ASAP and not too late!
I would love if SoD ābrokeā the metas from classic. For example, if the pets had different roles and were still all useful.
Currently, the pets are so tanky that taking a more tanky pet type like a bear or the talents into additional armor and health just doesnāt make much sense. I would make certain pets very squishy (owl, cat) so you can still have your top dps but have to watch over it or it dies quickly. Bear or a crab will be still less dps capable but can be used as offtanks.
Weekly reminder that hunter pets are still in need of love and tweaking (see messages above for more information):
Make Furious Howl scale and fix the bugs associated with it
Improve scaling on Screech so that bats are competitive DPS-wise
Fix Scorpid Poison. Itās barely scaling if at all
Give all pets dash/dive
Make bite better in comparison to focus dumps: use all focus for higher damage a la Ferocius Bite or reduce its CD in some way
Give families with little to nothing more love: spiders, hyenas, tallstriders, crabs, crocolisks, etc.
Make wyverns scorpids or give them their own family with poison/claw/bite/dive/anything else you might consider. Let us tame any wyvern with the rod so that we can get recolors and higher level ones
Give us more tameables and make them their own discoveries: chimeras and thunder lizard for wind serpents/own family, darkhounds for wolves, gryphons and hippogryphs for owls/own family, threshers and sharks!, devilsaurs, hydras (poison, triple biteā¦), etc (see more examples in my previous posts above)
Let us befriend dragonkin as a new family: faerie dragons, whelps, drakes
Give us 5-10 more stable slots
Give us cool runes but not passives. Itās fine to have an extra passive or two but hunter and BM in particular should have a rotation. We want to enhance and interact with the pet(s), not auto shoot passively. For instance, if we get a 2nd pet or dire beast, make them engaging
Rework the KC rune. It should be an active ability in the rotation and not a cooldown that barely makes any sense anymore
Review Cobra Strikes. It seems to be a bit buggy in the way it provides stacks. Additionally, make it proc from any crit (reduce charges gained per crit to 1 if needed) so that melee hunters can benefit, or at least from melee/ranged auto as well. Can also rework it to be more interesting than just another passive
New runes/passives/abilities should not all come from retail/future expansions. Create new things for SoD
Iām probably forgetting things but do check my previous posts on the matter. Make it happen Blizz! Make discovering new tameables (either families or special individual pets - recolors or otherwise) a core aspect of the class.
Players, are there any other ideas youād like implemented in regards to hunter pets?
Still waiting on the feedback on hunter pets to be realized: P2 gave us one new tameable and no other change for pets. No P1 rune fixes, no P2 runes that interact with our pets. Nothing.