Fake Pet Skills
Everyone notices the thorns.
I get e-mail pretty regularly from young Draenei hunters who have recently completed the level 10 taming quests. They are alternatively excited and puzzled, but in either case they have noticed that the Barbed Crawler they had to tame for the very first part of the taming quest came with a special ability that doesn’t exist on any other pet: Thorns! And it casts it on itself as well as the hunter! How cool is that?!
Unfortunately, the Barbed Crawler’s Thorns ability is what I call a fake pet skill. These pet skills exist only during the level 10 taming quests. If you go back and tame a Barbed Crawler using the Tame Beast ability after the taming quest is over, the poor crab will not have the Thorns ability. Nor are you able to learn Thorns from the crab during the taming quest — and believe me, I’ve tried!
Although I get the most e-mail about Thorns on the Barbed Cralwer, there are actually a number of fake pet skills that show up during the taming quests. Here’s a complete list of the beasts involved in the level 10 taming quests and what (if any) fake skills they have:
| Race | Creature | Fake Skill |
|---|---|---|
| Orc/Troll | Dire Mottled Boar | Boar Charge Instant, 10 sec cooldown Increases the Physical damage dealt by the caster by 13 and its movement speed by 60% for 4 sec. |
| Surf Crawler | None | |
| Armored Scorpid | None | |
| Tauren | Adult Plainstrider | None |
| Prairie Stalker | None | |
| Swoop | Swoop Next melee, 30 sec cooldown Inflicts normal damage plus 18 to the enemies in a cone in front of the caster, stunning them for 2 sec. |
|
| Blood Elf | Crazed Dragonhawk | None |
| Elder Springpaw | None | |
| Mistbat | None | |
| Dwarf | Large Crag Boar | Rushing Charge (Rank 1) Instant, 5 sec cooldown Increases the caster’s movement speed by 66% for 3 sec. and causes it to inflict an additional 28 damage on its first attack. |
| Snow Leopard | None | |
| Ice Claw Bear | Ice Claw Next melee, 30 sec cooldown Inflicts normal damage plus 4 to an enemy, and increases the time between its attacks by 100% for 6 sec. |
|
| Night Elf | Webwood Lurker | None |
| Nightsaber Stalker | None | |
| Strigid Screecher | None | |
| Draenei | Barbed Crawler | Thorns 30 yd range, Instant Thorns sprout from the friendly target causing 3 to 4 Nature damage to attackers when hit. Lasts 10 min. |
| Greater Timberstrider | None | |
| Nightstalker | None |
What use are these skills? Well, they are a bit of fun to play with during the level 10 taming quests. Other than that, they don’t have much use … but they do give me hope.
See, the two fake charging skills, Boar Charge and Rushing Charge, existed prior to the introduction of the real pet skill Charge. Perhaps these two fake skills provided a template for the introduction of Charge … and perhaps one day the other fake pet skills will similarly provide templates for new and exciting real pet skills.
Because who wouldn’t want a Thorn-y crab!
31 Comments
I’d switch to a crab in an instant if it had a version of Thorns. Mmmmmm, reactive damage on my tank pet…
At least then, we’d know why they’re so crabby *badum tish*
Iceclaw and swoop both’d be fun…. well, here’s to hoping the people at Blizzard wake up and realize they have skills right there waiting to be put in!
And something occured to me. For the skills pets know, why not just do one rank, and have it increase in potential as the pet goes up in level? Give it a happy medium training cost, but have it scale? One current skill, fire breath does this, but used to several others did it as well. Off the top of my head the original charge and poison spit skills, and I think the gorillas stomp ability. And does anyone remember when poison spit did GOOD damage?
I would run out and grab a Ice Claw Bear (On my 70! Horde, at that!)right now if it had that skill! Or a swoop… Easyer to get on my Hordie.
Hehe.. Ty for the post. As a new troll I wondered about Swoop’s Swoop.
=^.^=
Oh wow, very interesting… none of this had ever occurred to me before even though I’ve gotten the Swoop pet many a time on that starter quest…
There’s a named cat in Darkshore. I’ve encountered it near the pile of rocks to the left of the road as you leave Auberdine and turn North. It seemed to have Prowl and also seemed to be able to cast a couple of Priest type debuffs. Had nothing when tamed.
I always try to make the most out of Swoop after I tame it. A two second stun can be really helpful going after those annoying Venture Co guys all over Mulgore which run.
So that’s what it was! I remember Ice Claw on the bear I tamed with my Dwarf Hunter way back when and I’ve been wondering why it had an unlearnable skill ever since.
Sorry for being out of topic, but how’s it going with Kaet?
Been some time since we last heard from her =)
I also recently realized the reason why the Deviate Stalker can’t be taught Prowl-it doesn’t have Prowl, it uses “Sneak” like a rogue does. I think when you tame it, it becomes a normal raptor, and so loses its class or something. I haven’t used the beast inspection ability yet on it.
along side the fake abilities, I tamed a warp stalker in toroker forest while it was mid way fading out I started to tame. when it was finished the warp stalker remained a shadow formed appearence. wich only lasted till I mounted and dismounted. but it was cool none the less. many pets during the initial tame phase will have outrageous stats as well but nothing permenent lasting.
hii
Female tauren Hunter 37 Ranther
hii (again):P
ive been on petopia but i just can find the pet thats me i liked m 1st long term pet a Adult Plainstrider till i knew there was much better pets out there. like most hunters i what a pet thats diffrent from what other people have (as you’ve gusse i’m a female tauren i dont like to be the same as ppl :P) i got the pet Echeyakee named Aura i loved Aura very much but as i noticed more and more ppl haveing it , it got me upset :(:( also Aura started dieding me it was oviouse to me , Cats arent a Solo pet , or are they?? as i had done WC i madge to get one of the serpent pets he was weak but no one i had one it was awsome :D i left him at 21 when i was plsying with Aura more but i like him so i wont abandon him, i got a pet Turtle lvl 33 ijust got it for the skill then i acidenty took him out with me he was owning lvl 38 mobbs!!!!!!! i loved him alot and no onehad one but then i need skills for pets like bite and i have a full stable i dont know what to do.. the more i lvl the more pets i want i like scorpids crabs boars and owls too now :S what shall i do:S its relli getting me down :(:( i dont understan y some of my pets are week and some are strong *sighs* also how do i wirte this like on this websight my email arent working :S but can any one ell me what good pets are and what they are good at (sry if i write this in the wrong bit :S)
I’ve seen some people suggest a Thorns-style effect for turtles. Of course, this would be *in addition* to the class skill they already have, but it would be a nice move for making them more effective as tanks, as their mitigation is great but aggro generation is not so good. There is precedent for such a skill, as the Dragon Turtle units in Frozen Throne had a Spike Shell ability that returned a percentage of damage dealt. (Thanks to WoWWiki for clarification)
I, for one, wish that my trusty Strider Clutchmother still had that “kick” ability that made it such a pain in the butt to tame… But then, I wish tallstriders had more abilities, all around.
Let’s face it, I think we can all agree that pets should have a LOT more skills and unique abilities and Blizz is dropping the ball.
Bears should have Bash, even if on a long cooldown on a hefty focus cost. White Bears should learn Ice Claw too. All Plagued animals (Rottim Agam’gar, the wolves/spiders/bears from EPL, certain carrion birds) should have a static disease aura that deals a small amount of Nature damage like Aboms. Plainstriders should have a Kick knockdown or knockback effect. Turtles should have Spike Shell. Bats should have Blood Drain. Spiders should have Web Spin. And so on…
The room for creativity and possibility without being overpowered is pretty huge.
What about Crocolisks???? Will they ever get some love? :*(
Crocs could get tendon rip, and/or a variation of rend. Tendon rip to slow movement speed, and rend to cause a bleed effect. I think EVERY pet family needs to have three or four unique abilities. Give us a reason to not take growl. Make each pet family unique. Seriously, even if its rips off of other classes slightly. I can think of at least three unique abilities per pet family easily. Heres to hoping Blizzard listens.
Maree: Thanks for asking about Kaet. I’ve been taking a little break from heavy-duty playing — I need to do that now and again. But she’s first on the list when I have a chance to sit down and play.
Just did the taming quests last night on a new BE hunter and I’m pretty sure the Crazed Dragonhawk had a skill named Feather Burst that reduced chance to hit.
Btw, you did great in that podcast!
it is a shame the fake skills do not get through the taming , just looking at the spiders in the wild you can see poisons and traps of various types , i guess the changing of codes needed to keep them after taming would be harder to do but i am guessing not impossible , but that requires the code masters wanting to do something interesting
and how about level 13 shadowclaw in auberdine has rogues stealth before being tamed which cannot be learned until much higher levels , but i can see why it is not kept as all the horde races would want it for pvp fun or be shouting that it is not fair that ally races can get it easily
or how about the mist howler wolf in ashenvale i tried to tame him and never managed as that fear thing he has got me every time then someone killed him , that was a real pain as i had stalked him for almost the whole day logging my alt every half hour and doing a quick check for him
there are several others through the game that make taming very interesting with fears , various stun/bash types and of course those that can resist traps like gutripper , hehe i managed it but only just , i had to use every trick and buff i could to tame him , now if some of the resists/stuns/bashes were added to some pets that would see some different pets being used in instances
I spent over 3-4 hours last night trying to tame the blue Deviate Dreadfang in Wailing Caverns, and two of the four attempts it took, it “Terror’ed” me, same as a Fear effect. While it having that after taming could be over powering, not if it was like 3 seconds. I think it lasted 5 seconds or so.
I think spiders should be able to learn that web stun ability, as its what makes them special, and they have nothing-people would pick them WAY more, as there are so many cool models for them. Letting them stealth (as there are one or two types of spiders that can) might be too much, but would be GREAT! Hyenas should have an aoe laugh that makes attackers miss a little bit more too. I also think basilisks should be made tameable, and there should be a subclass of dragonkin that can be tamed, just not the big ones. Especially the whelps and such.
@Orxata: I think the reason whelps should never be tameable (outside of being dragonkin) is the fact they are intelligent beings and do not think as a beast would.
I’m keeping a bear stabled in hopes that Blizz give em something cool. :cough: Cleave :cough:
listen up i realy think gettin new skills would be great problem is hunters r already over powered i mean geeze we do crazy dmg alone in PvP then u add our pets and we pwn i realy wish they would add more tankin abilitys for 1 pet i mean there needs 2 be something 2 keep the aggro on ur pet when theres more than 1 i think spike sheild for turtles would be great and wolfs should have a howl like ive seen where it makes them run around and make it low otherwise it would be a big change in the power of a hunter with that pet peace if ur play in mok nathal u should give me guy a wisp same name as in fourms
This would add a whole new level to not only Endgame for 70s+, but also twinks.
It sounds very good and there is no limit to what can be done, but at a certain point I think that it can either become to OP or Abused in PVP for any level.
I do think that any pet without major abilities should get new ones (IE. Bleed from Crocs), but we can only hope Blizz will do something about it. We saw a lot of changes in TBC and the patches that came around that time so hopefully we will see Crabs being used.
~Zuty
I want some cool new pet abilities like errrrr Tallstriders could kick….. idk atm sorry
I got my dads troll hunter a cockateel for christmas after he gets it in the mail and uses it he calls me in I’m confused and he asks “____(my private nickname in the blank) whats wrong with the bird you sent me?” I looked at him funny asnd he said “It’s not doing anything.” I giggled and said “It doesn’t do anything…” and when he was grinding mobs I heard him shouting “Peck at there eyes!” and “Poop on there heads!!!”
I just started a new Night Elf Hunter just for the reason to try and use the ghosttravel to get a Lynx(beautiful creatures) but thats not the point. The point is that when I just dinged 10 earlier and got my quest to tame a Webwood Lurker, I noticed it kept the poison ability after I had “tamed” it. It doesn’t show up on the petbar, but when I sent it against monsters it poisoned them.
So … if you were to keep your level 10 whatever pet that has a “fake” ability, does it keep it forever as you level up? Does anyone know if said fake ability scales with the level of the pet?
Vashra: Unfortunately, rod-tamed pets from the taming quest only last 15 minutes (or is it 10? but anyway, not long) no matter what you do. And you lose them if you logout or (I believe) zone.
Angelakane: Interesting. I’ll have to check that out.
I’ve made a number of suggestions over the last two years for new pet skills. Some of these are based on these prelim (fake) skills.
For Crabs, a thorns buff would be great.
Carrion Birds having a Swoop ability to replace Dive in the same way that Charge replaces Dash for Boars would be great.
Crocs could have a Lunge ability. Lunge would be a shock hit which slows attack speed for a short period of time, but has a long cool down.
Hyenae having a DoT ability similar to the ones that many have in the ‘wild’ would be nice.
Spiders having a venom would also be great. Spiders are a great pet, but lacking any special skills make them kind of rare.
For Tallstiders, a Leaping Kick would be a nice boost to damage.
And so many more. Some are based on the in game in game skills we see within specific families, and some based upon real world skills in the same families.
Sporebats should come with some sort of “spore” ability or at least dive
[...] ‘fake’ pet skills that I posted about here a bit ago have been added to the Big List of Pet Skills on Petopia. [...]
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