WotLK: Blizzard Pet Posts
I have two very interesting comments from Blizzard posters about hunter pets in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion to share, and two other non-pet comments that I just wanted to mention in case you haven’t seen them yet.
More on Exotic Pets
Last Friday we started talking about the 51-point Beast Mastery hunter talent and the lure of exotic pets. Today we have a new post on exotic pets by Blizzard poster Wryxian on the EU Hunter forum:
The developers are currently working on the exotic pet talent. Exotic pets are exactly that, exotic and not the average run of the mill pet. But whether this name will stick or not, is uncertain at this point. But these will be a range of new pets with unique abilities, that only those with the talent will be able to tame and train. Where do you get them, well, we’ve not got news on that right now — perhaps somewhere, exotic! ;-)
These pets are different from normal pets, but they’re not necessarily more “uber” than others. However they will have access to unique abilities not available to the normal pets that every Hunter can train. A Hunter with this talent will get extra power, but from the talent’s associated additional pet talent points and not necessarily from the exotic pet.
Thanks to Suzi and Keilden for pointing this out!
Pet Aggro
More mundane, but much more reassuring, was a post by Ghostcrawler on the WotLK Beta Hunter forum about the future of pet aggro:
Think of your pet bar as just shortcuts to your spellbook. It doesn’t really matter if an ability is on the bar or not. It can be cast or autocast directly from the spellbook, and unfortunately all new abilities start with autocast defaulted on. This is something we might be able to fix, but in the meantime, peek at your pet’s spellbook whenever it gains a level to make sure nothing has changed. Cower can surprise you, because it/si something a lot of players passed on before — understandably, because even if effective it’s not a very fun thing to spend points on, which is why we just give it away now. :)
We haven’t done a major pass on threat generation yet for any of the classes. We realize it was very easy in BC for hunters to pull aggro off of their pets. You can probably tell from some of the pet talents (including the ones that just grant more pet dps) that we want pets to be able to hold their own threat against a hunter. This is especially true when it’s just you and Bitey out on your own, but ideally a tanking pet with the proper spec will be an effective offtank for 5-player instances, or even a main tank under some circumstances (say a group quest perhaps).
Let me pull out the most important bits there:
- “We haven’t done a major pass on threat generation yet for any of the classes.”
- “… we want pets to be able to hold their own threat against a hunter.”
- “… ideally a tanking pet with the proper spec will be an effective offtank for 5-player instances, or even a main tank under some circumstances …”
So don’t get too concerned about the current state of pet threat in beta just now. They’re going to fix it, and they’re going to fix well. Now that’s excellent news!
Faster 60-70 Leveling
This item is tangentially pet-related. Blizzard designer Tigole announced on the Beta General Discussion forum that:
Yes, we’re planning on speeding up leveling in the 60-70 range. Keep the feedback coming. We are still adjusting it. Let us know what levels you are in what areas in this bracket.
This is a benefit for level 70 hunters who run right out to tame a level 1 Vale Moth. That Vale Moth will auto-level to 65 when tamed, and since pet experience is a constant fraction of character experience, the final five levels will go a bit quicker.
Non-Combat Pet and Mount Changes
And this final Blizzard post has nothing to do with hunter pets (although it does involve non-combat pets).
Nethaera posted on the WoW Wrath of the Lich King forum about upcoming changes to mount and non-combat pet storage:
We’re pleased to announce a convenient upgrade to the way that mounts and vanity pets are handled in Wrath of the Lich King.
Players will be able to “learn” a mount or non-combat pet much like learning a spell, recipe, or new ability, and these creatures will then show up on a new Pet tab within the Character Info section of the interface. Players will be able to access and preview their learned mounts and vanity pets through this tab.
Once learned, the pet icon or mount icon will no longer appear in bag spaces or bank spaces. This inventory space will be made available once again for other adventuring needs. Pets can still be set to hotkeys by dragging them to the hotkey bar, much like any other spell or ability.
I already mentioned this over on Warcraft Mounts, but I am really looking forward to this change. Note only will I clear up a lot of bag space, but now I can start using a bunch of the mounts that I normally leave home.
[Update] And more!
MMO Chamion posted a round-up of Blizzard comments this morning that included some hunter comments I missed.
33 Comments
This sounds interesting. I was wondering what the Beast Mastery talent was for but this info just makes my head run with ideas. Though sadly we hunters only get 3 stables so choosing which new pets to have might be hard.
Oh jeez, I think my mount/vanity pet collection is about to triple in size… o_O
Also, yay for pet aggro being fixed! =D
PS- on exotic pets: i want a damn pet hydra, and i want it now! XD
Sweet! I can buy all the horde faction mounts again! lol I am exalted with every horde city, plus have a talbuk and a Brewfest Ram, but had to get rid of some because of limited space. Same with non-combat pets. Now that won’t be issue.
Mania’s Arcania » WotLK: Beta Hunter Talents - July 23rd, 2008 @ 5:34 pm UTC
[...] Mania’s Arcania » WotLK: Blizzard Pet Posts – July 23rd, 2008 @ 4:52 pm EDT [...]
And now, with no theoretical limit to the number of mounts/pets I can have, I’m probably going to end up either hunting down or trying my hand at making a mod to display my pet/mount choices as a menu.
I think that if pets will be able to tank the crocolisk is going to be the new pet tank. Move over bear Bad Attitude is the perfect tanking move. You deal damage every time you take damage! How cool is that? And we no longer have to lose a stabl;e slot since pets autolearn skills! No running across the world for rank 9 yay!
Anyone else thing the Cunning tree pets have got stiffed? I don’t PvP, but it’d be a shame if some of my favourite families never saw the light of day because of that. OK the talent tree doesn’t immediately lend itself to anything much, but the actual pet skills available to Cunning pets seem of dubious use: Bats, ravagers and spiders all have skills that last only seconds, have a long cooldown and cost the earth in focus, meaning that the odds of your pet being able to stun/web that exact moment that you need it are fairly small. Aside from the surprisingly good-looking sporebat, few of the others look worth having, and the Cunning spec promises massive aggro problems, having no bonus damage and no bonus threat.
More bag space ftw!
I can’t wait to see what Blizzard will unveil in the coming months as “exotic pets” … I’ve got my eye on a rare hippogryph that spawns in Azshara, just in case :-)
Wolverine Bite (reactive attack that cannot be dodged, blocked or parried if the target dodges) and Owl’s Focus (10% chance on each special attack that the next pet special attack will have no focus cost) currently look to be the key abilities for the Cunning pets. So long as the pet uses the highest focus cost ability it can to consume the Owl’s Focus buff, they should actually get more out of their specials than either Ferocious or Tenacious pets.
That said, I expect to see changes to the pet talent trees between now and release (e.g. we already saw a change in Cornered between what was displayed at WWI and what was implemented for the first beta build – it’s a much better PvP talent now)
That’s great news from Ghostcrawler! Hopefully it will answer some aggro concerns some of us have had.
I adore the pet talent trees, pet skills and new hunter talents – I feel like a kid in a candy shop! I hope it doesn’t get nerfed too much before it happens…
It’s difficult to know what I’m more excited about between all this new hunter stuff, and the mount / vanity pet changes. Burning Crusade was fantastic in my opinion, but Wrath sounds like it will blow it out of the water!
I’m not so sure that Wryxian actually said anything new that Koraa didn’t already say:
- ‘exotic’ is a working name, may not go live that way
- ‘exotic’ pets will have unique abilities that are different from those of normal pets, but probably not more powerful
- the real benefit of the 51-point talent is meant to come from the 5 extra talent points (which is actually a problem with the current pet trees, since you can get the best raiding talents with the base 16 pet talent points everyone gets)
I always thought the last talent for BM was a big let-down compared to others and this post confirms it(at least for me). So technically with the last point all you are getting is a few more talent points for the pet and a “unique” skinned pet that probably every BM hunter will have. It doesn’t sound like there are going to be that many ‘exotic’ pets to me.
Wow…I have always been disappointed in the last talent since I read about it. I was hoping at least maybe ‘exotic’ pets would retain their elite status or something. But it seems they will be just normal pets with normal abilities. I can’t help but feel this is a really BAD/Useless last talent intended to nerf the BM tree unless some changes are made to the pet talent trees.
Sorry to be a negative Sally…but in comparison a lot of other 51st talent points…this is just really lack-luster.
Well the thing is, none of us know what the exotic IS going to be… so getting all worked up for it and feeling let down, you could just chill and wait. Sure you might be dissapointed later (( Which seems better to me than being prematurely dissapointed)) OR, you might be pleasently surprised.
While exotics sound cool, and I personally am excited about them, unless they’re something ungoodly cooler than what I already like, they’re not going to be a “MUST TAME” for me.
I like my “Keeper” pet I have now and will be keeping them. I’ll probably get one LK pet for each of my hunters, (( Still PRAYING for Wolverines)) but with the advent of that “bump to your lvl -5″ thing for pets. I think you’ll see ALOT more of the lower lvl pets used vs just the elite tops. I also think with some pets not being as restricted any more you’ll see more use of the previously “useless” pets. People have been dieing to play them but it hurt their overall game. The change in the pet system with the talent trees will open up pets, like turtles, or gorilla’s or crocs or what not will not be shelved and you’ll see more of them.
Ok, that clears up 9 bag spaces on my warlock, and I don’t even want to think about how many bank slots on all my characters. I’m not sure I like the autocast from spellbook thing, some of the new talent things take 100 focus, and I don’t want to have to open my spellbook in the middle of a fight to save up the focus. But we shall see. I’m keeping an open mind about the new changes, although I am afraid I won’t get my skunk pet as an exotic…
Er, Circie I promise I am not trying to be mean, but have you thought about this? At eighty, a hunters pet will have 16 talent points. A beast master with this talent, by way of contrast, will have 21. Thats nearly a fourth more. 25% more talents points. A non-BM hunter will have to carefully plan their talents in order to get the fifth tier talents they want. A beast master will be able to pick and choose what they want, and overall have a more effective pet. Where a non-beast master will have a pet that is very good at one thing, a beast master pet will be much, MUCH more effective overall, and in several roles at that. The beast master tree is always, and will always be about the PETS. This talent makes the PETS a good deal more effective at what they do. The ability to tame a different line of pets that only beast masters have access too? Is icing on the cake.
Something else that I think has people confused, I think most people are stilling thinking in terms of skill points. Five skill points is nothing. But what if you suddenly had, as a character? Five more talent points? Or in this case, as a direct comparison, fifteen more skill points? 25%, after all. Maybe it will help to look at it that way, instead, to realize just what this talent is giving our pets.
fifteen more talent points* BAH, went and got tongue tied.
*groans* Don’t ever do math when your tired. 33% more talent poiints, not 25%. So 18 or so more talent points on your hunter or other character. Yes, its pets, and yes, that means it won’t be as effective overall, but still, thats large number of points, all things considered.
The reason the talent is currently underwhelming from a raw numbers point of viewis that you can get the best Ferocity raiding talents with only 16 points, meaning that the extra 5 points from the BM talent aren’t particularly effective for end-game PvE. For levelling and PvP as BM spec, I think the talent will be useful, for end-game raiding with the current pet talent trees, not so much (I’ll get it anyway because I like the talent, but unless the pet trees change, the mathematics won’t back that approach).
For example, a 14 point Ferocity build will get everything you need aside from Rabid and Call of the Wild. The last 2 spare talent points get those two tier 5 talents (I would include them in the linked build, but Wowhead is obeying the tooltips rather than matching what the beta actually does).
The extra 5 points help a bit more with the current state of the Cunning tree since you’re currently forced to spend an extra three points on defensive talents in order to pick up Wolverine Bite. With 5 more points, you could get both that and Feeding Frenzy instead of being forced to choose between them.
Tenacious pets with BM owners will be undeniably better, as they will be able to pick up some DPS talents in addition to go with the defensive talents.
Mania, I just wanted to say, thank you for all your hard work in getting the WotLK news to us =)
Thanks, Pike. It is, quite literally, my pleasure. :>
So hows the adventure in Northrend going?
Manco se nace » Blog Archive » Pets exóticas - July 24th, 2008 @ 5:56 am UTC
[...] Post azul que mencionan en Nihilum y en Mania’s Arcania [...]
Faster leveling 60-70? My main shaman hit 70 in Nagrand, and my hunter and rogue hit 70 in Terrokar–all without grinding mobs for XP.
all the “official” hunter notes, collected at mmo-champion.com
When your pet gains a level, it will automatically gain a new rank of Growl if one is available at that level. The only thing you really need to manage is which talents to choose… and keeping your spore bat fed and happy. You don’t learn skills from (disposable) beasts any longer, and the only thing to do at the Pet Trainer is untalent your pet.
We didn’t want hunters to have spend a big chunk of talent points just to get pet resistance up to where it is in Burning Crusade. So pets will have some amount of inherent resistance. We’re not sure how much that will be yet, but it should be enough that your pet doesn’t feel fragile. If you want a truly magic-resistant pet, you can top it off with talents. For now at least the lower ranks of the old resistance skills are just free like Growl and Cower.
There are talents in all 3 pet trees that you can invest in if maintaining happiness is a problem (or just annoying) for you. We’re also trying to give you a few more options to keep your pet alive, such as more Avoidance and reduced spell damage, and even more ways to heal your pet. Of course you can always choose to focus directly on more damage and hope your pet survives long enough to make good use of it.
Think of your pet bar as just shortcuts to your spellbook. It doesn’t really matter if an ability is on the bar or not. It can be cast or autocast directly from the spellbook, and unfortunately all new abilities start with autocast defaulted on. This is something we might be able to fix, but in the meantime, peek at your pet’s spellbook whenever it gains a level to make sure nothing has changed. Cower can surprise you, because it/si something a lot of players passed on before — understandably, because even if effective it’s not a very fun thing to spend points on, which is why we just give it away now.
We haven’t done a major pass on threat generation yet for any of the classes. We realize it was very easy in BC for hunters to pull aggro off of their pets. You can probably tell from some of the pet talents (including the ones that just grant more pet dps) that we want pets to be able to hold their own threat against a hunter. This is especially true when it’s just you and Bitey out on your own, but ideally a tanking pet with the proper spec will be an effective offtank for 5-player instances, or even a main tank under some circumstances (say a group quest perhaps).
The exotic pets if they have new skins are they new families? and if they are do they have new pet family skills? o_O
I’m seriously wondering if maybe the tooltips are correct here; consider the implications. The ‘tier 5′ talents – only *one* could be taken, and only by BM hunters with the 51pt talent. Now, that *would* put some power into taking it…
After all, our talent trees have always imposed choices; the 21/31/41 (and now 51) point talents generally had something pretty cool/useful to offer…and choosing one meant you couldn’t take another from a different tree. I’m thinking they’re not changing design philosophy that much.
Given that reports are it’s not working that way in beta… I suspect it’s a lot easier to put the number you want to use in a tooltip than it is to program the implementation. We’ll have to wait and see, of course.
Wolf68: Thanks! I’m going to add a link to that MMO Champion post since they’ve already done the work of gathering up that stuff. :>
BanditKingJimmie: We don’t know yet. Hopefully we’ll find out soon. :>
Indy: However, there are also some lower tier pet talents that have tooltips that don’t match their actual requirements in the beta, namely Charge and Intervene in tier 3. Both say that they require 10 points spent in the tree, whereas the other tier 3 talents all say 6 points.
BanditkingJimmmie, as far as we know they’ll be unique families with unique family skills, but considering that its not even fully implimented yet, we’re not sure. We’re all just sort of cruisin’ along waitin’ for news.
Thx for replying to my question :)
GC later clarified that this comment applied to the developer’s internal build of Wrath, not to the build currently on the beta servers. So we should see updated pet trees in a new beta patch “soon”.
Mania’s Arcania » A Lot of Ghostcrawler Quotes - July 30th, 2008 @ 12:07 pm UTC
[...] has posted before about pets holding aggro and while he didn’t add much to that today he did reiterate his [...]
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