Nimizar let us know just a bit ago that Ghostcrawler, the Blizzard poster who seems to post a lot about hunters, has posted more details on exotic pets — and especially what happens when you respec the 51-point Beast Mastery talent — over in the WotLK Beta Hunter forum.
The exotic pets will be different from normal pets. Ideally they might even be a little bit better, but we’re very hesitant to make them too good lest we see every hunter stampede over to the BM tree. Pets are supposed to be something important to all kinds of hunters, and the BM tree already offers some amazing pet buffs and synergy. We just don’t want to overdo it with this talent. :)
At the very least, the exotic pets will have a new family ability that will ideally be really useful in some situations. I’m making this one up, but imagine that since normal crabs have Pin, an exotic pet might have a Pin-like ability that did fire damage. Or imagine that you could tame a drake (you can’t, because they aren’t beasts) and that instead of lightning or fire breath, it had frost breath that could freeze an enemy, death knight style. Would this be useful? Probably. Does it make the 51-point talent mandatory? Ideally not. Though those 5 talent points aren’t bad….
As far as what happens if you have an exotic pet and respec, most likely the pet’s talents will just reset. Yeah you get a free pet respec out of the deal, but it’s not as if it’s free since the hunter has to respec. Any exotic pets in the stable won’t be lost, but you wouldn’t be able to get them out of the stable either. If you have an exotic pet at the moment you respec, then it will probably be dismissed (but not abandoned) and you won’t be able to summon it again, forcing you to go swap it into the stable. (Or abandon it if you’re THAT kind of hunter.)
The beta realms are down as I type this in preparation for a new build. I’ll be very interested to see if there’s anything in there about exotic pets.
I am still extremely interested to find out what exactly classifies as an exotic pet, but Mania, so far that picture of the Emerald Skytalon you put up on the new WOTLK pets page in my opinion would definably appear to be an exotic pet lol, I sure hope blizz puts in these exotic pets in the new patch.
I like the idea of the exotic pets. However, it is not like we don’t see a lot of people already going over to Beast Master spec anyway since it is the ‘ideal’ spec for leveling, and some argue for raiding.
I would like to see what they ultimately come up with, though. I like the idea that was sort of hinted at in there that the exotic pets would have pet family abilities that do two types of damage instead of one since a lot of the ‘normal’ pets have just one type of damage. Say have tamable Proto-drakes who can do a breath attack that does shadow and fire damage or fire and frost or frost and earth which would narrow the problematic mobs out there to a smaller few.
Oh, I know! Isn’t that Emerald Skytalon the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen? (And yes, I know I said that about the Dragonbone Condor also. And the saber worgs. And half the other pets in the world. But still.)
“we’re very hesitant to make them too good lest we see every hunter stampede over to the BM tree.”
I won’t leave Survival. I doubt anything could motivate me to change my build. I’m already trying to figure out what talents to pick for when WLK comes out. Exotic pets sound cool and all, but I don’t see a point in getting one. I might sound really negative, but I just don’t care. If there is one that I just have to have, I’ll just make another hunter.
I’m already a BM hunter, and always have been a BM hunter. I was before TBC and it’s large popularity spike. The 51 point talent isn’t that amazing to me for the “exotic” part, but rather the 5 talent point increase.
But if that exotic talent allows me to tame that trippy emerald colored Owl, paint me thrilled with the exotic lol
I wonder, can you abandon your pet when it’s dismissed? If, as he says, your exotic pet would automatically get dismissed when you respec you wouldn’t be able to abandon it. Granted, you can go to the stable and switch to another pet, but what if _all_ your pets are exotic?
I have a thought that they (Bliz) would give BM hunter a “fourth” stable for that exotic pet (and only the exotic pet can fit the stable), and every BM hunter can have only one exotic pet.
I just guess.
Hurm.. good question. They could allow only ONE exotic…. or the Exotic might be in addition to your normals. Clearly they’re still working on it. Such questions come up.
But then if they made pets like the mounts and mini pets (( Which…. are going on the ‘Pet” tab…… HURRRRM! )) it might be simple. They just are spells you can’t use till you respec….
Personally I wouldn’t make ‘exotic’ pets differnt ones you tame. Rather I would impliment it as a augmentation of a current pet. IE. you spec 51pts, all your pets are ‘exotic’ larger, glow, hula dances or what ever. And have special talents for each family that are only usable/unlocked via the 51pt talent. Did that make sense? I can’t tell since it’s 3am and I’m still buzzed from the vanilla java porter I’ve been drinking.
What is this “vanilla java porter”? It sounds good. :>
Regarding abandoning a dismissed pet – the fact that this is currently impossible was mentioned to GC in the thread. It would be pretty trivial to add that functionality though (either on the stable UI or the pet trainer, or by moving the ‘abandon pet’ command from the pet’s portrait to the hunter’s)
Yay! Hula dancing glowing polar bear!lol=) i could open a circus and travel around with the darkmoon guys=)
Unless Blizz makes exotic pets not better than current pets, i.e. pin+fire dmg (in theory, or course) they are most definitely going to see another spike in BMs. HOWEVER, with the changes made to MM/SV…I predict that some dedicated raiding BMs will switch over, as both got some pretty good buffs to help them increase their DPS. BUT, pet’s are getting buff too, so who really knows. All I know, is that I’m a BM whore, always have been, always will.
Good. Respecing should make your “Exotic” pet unavailable. heh
Atwater Vanilla Java Porter
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If you like smooth tasting suds, look for a local shop that can get you Wexford’s Irish Cream. Hollar with what kinds of beer you like and I can usally point you towards others you might like. Part of my weekly raid prep involves buying 2 or 3 six packs of beers from near & afar.
Interesting… I think the exotic(s) will use a regular stable slot. I don’t see there’s a reason for a different slot, or for only a single exotic (although you’ll be in trouble on a respec then).
Having a ‘free’ respec on pets when you swap from BM to something else (and lose 5 points) is mildly annoying, but prolly the easiest to implement…
“but we’re very hesitant to make them too good lest we see every hunter stampede over to the BM tree.”
And yet they’re not hesitant in the slightest to make the tree itself too good so that every PVE Hunter stampedes over to BM anyways?
*sigh*
Still waiting to see if Ancient Core Hounds can be tamed or not. Keep up the good work, Mania. :)