Ghostcrawler’s Arcania: Talents, Exotics & Leveling
My husband think it’s a bad idea to rename the blog for some reason, so I’m going to have to be content with naming theses posts “Ghostcrawler’s Arcania”.
Anyway, our favorite beta crab had a lot to say over the weekend and on Monday. And there’s some interesting quotes for Koraa (a class designer) as well. Here’s a quick round-up:
Pet Talents
I missed this post in a thread of pet talent feedback a few days back. Ghostcrawler posted:
Great thread. Because the pet talents are such a new feature, all of this feedback is really useful.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
The bottom talents in particular need to have some pretty stringent pre-reqs so that hunters can’t just cherry pick all of the active abilities. We can and will iterate on what those pre-req talents are though.
Active pet abilities in general represent some interesting design challenges. On the one hand, if the hunter just programs the pet and puts it on autopilot, then having unique abilities just sort of blends into a generic +dps for the pet. On the other hand, it would be sad if hunters never took the active abilities because the pet has trouble using the expensive ones and the hunter feels like he already has too many of his own abilities to hit.
This is something on which we’ll try to hit a reasonable balance. Warlocks seem to have a pretty decent mix of demon abilities that can be used by the demon AI and some that the warlock specifically needs to use.
The pet talent system is much more ambitious than I expected from Blizzard at this stage of the game, and I personally would not want to be responsible for balancing it. But I am glad that they are doing some serious thinking not just about the straight power of the system but also about how it interacts with different hunter play styles.
Posting about the pet talent Heart of the Phoenix specifically, Ghostcrawler said:
We might try something where the talent still auto-rezzes the pet, but takes a few seconds longer so that hopefully whatever gibbed Fluffy in the first place isn’t going to just do it again. It’s a tricky balance because if the delay is too long, hunters will just use their own rez and the talent is a lot less attractive.
An alternative is a shaman-like self-rez, though it would have to be on the pet bar, not the hunter’s. Even then it is yet one more button you have to find room for, so I think the current implementation still might be cooler with some polish.
Exotic Pets
Talking about the fact that devilsaurs currently don’t require the Beast Mastery talent to tame, Koraa posted:
Bug. Next build there will be a few more Exotic pets… who’s gonna find them first??
Of course since then we’ve also learned about the one chimera that can be tamed right now, but I am very much looking forward to seeing what’s in the next build.
(And the answer to the question is: whoever it is had better e-mail me screenshots! *grin*)
Ghostcrawler also posted regarding the size of devilsaurs:
The mailbox was just an example. It think it’s pretty evident that having pets that are too large might make the game less fun to play in some situations. We’re just going to have to see how the beta goes, but ideally it would be cool if devilsaurs could remain at their current size. We’ll try.
Pet Leveling
Nimizar asked about our chances for getting the pets currently stuck in our stables to auto-level as well as newly tamed pets, and Ghostcrawler responded:
I suspect that it won’t be. We can do some investigation and see how hard it would be to get that fixed. Unless you have a personal attachment to that pet or it’s one of the few that is no longer available, you could just go out and get a new one though.
And that’s our issue of Ghostcrawler’s Arcania for today! By the time I wake up I fully expect there to be several most important posts from Ghostcrawler, but what can you do?
Update
Two other Blizzard posts that got pointed out in the comments:
On the WotLK Beta Warlock forum, Koraa said:
We plan to give all pets the master’s +hit%.
Although it’s not entirely clear, the ‘all pets’ likely also includes hunter pets. (Thanks for the link, Wynri!)
And regarding the auto-leveling of pets in the stable, Ghostcrawler posted:
We haven’t given up hope of fixing up your existing low-level pets.
(Thanks for the link, Nimizar!)
45 Comments
I’m not thrilled about the auto-levelling for pets. There’s a lot of unique skins that are available only on much lower-level beasts, and it’s sort of a mark of pride having levelled your red lynk from a lv6 Eversong beast to the DPS-smashing lv70 you’re using now.
Auto-levelling takes that away. Now, anyone who sees a unique skin can just run out and get it, and with minimal work, have exactly what the next hunter has.
The Wild One: I think that makes the system better… there are too many people who have red lynxes, because that’s the unique skin, but when you’re surrounded by others with the same cat there are too many skins out there going unused. The chances of your pet (of whatever skin) being unique - in terms of the other hunters around you - is increased by making them all easily available.
If pets had a skill queueing system they’d not have so much trouble trying to cast certain expensive abilities.
Assume bite is 6 sec, and claw is instant.
Your pet would use bite, claw, claw, then indefinitely claw.
If it were to add each spell to a queue, by priority when each one ends, they’d be able to “save up” energy until they have enough to use it. e.g. stop casting claw until bite casts.
Bite(add claw to queue), claw(add claw to queue), claw (bite off cd, add bite to queue), bite(add claw to queue).
Smarter pet management.
=( i cant retame a ghost wolf, and it will take forever from 45
The Wild One: There’s also no guarantee that your red lynx/pink tallstrider/black lion won’t be the most common mob in all of Northrend, or the next expansion. I think the benefits of a completely free skin choice without days and days of tedious levelling outweigh trophy skins.
Hi Mania, there is an interesting post in the warlock forum that you might want to see.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8557371843&sid=2000#13
It’s regarding pets getting hit rating.
Sorry about my english, i’m spanish ^^U.
The +hit scaling will be a great change - it will also free up the two talent points we currently have to stick into Animal Handler.
On the auto-levelling of existing pets front, GC said also said not to abandon hope just yet:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8557022079&pageNo=1&sid=2000#4
Is it alright if I bop him over the head for the Warlock comment? Most of the minion skills are useless wastes of mana and get turned off. (Sigh. . .someone let me into the Beta so I can harangue these guys. I’ve certainly harangued you guys enough about my feelings over this.)
However, I do understand what he means about the Hunter pet’s abilities. From the sounds of it, many of the active skills are going to need management rather than be on auto-pilot. From the sounds of a lot of these skills, there is going to be need to not only keep an eye on the Hunter’s mana, but the Pet’s focus and to use abilities smartly too. From the sounds of it, Hunters and their Pets are going to be a true unit and not have the pet be an extension of the Hunter.
As for the exotic pets, I’m not so sure it’s a bug to have them tameable right now by everyone. This way they can get the most number of people testing them with the least amount of complaining.
“Unless you have a personal attachment…”
He underestimates hunters and their attachment to pets, methinks.
+hit WOW!
auto lvl the ones I’ve got now? I’ve still got one slot open (kinda waiting on WotLK to fill it and the two others up.) May even drop my cat since as a dwarf hunter prowl does very little.
And personally I think the auto lvling new tames or existing stabled pets will be great. Everyone has the white lion black lion and Shy Rotam look on my server. The white lion and Shy are partly because they are the only “rare” (haha) look you can get without going through more than 10 lvls or so of lvling a pet unless you want the drab plain brownish lynx. Or can convince a ZA group to let you nab one from there (but its also a plain brown cat)
So instead of everyone having the same 3 cat colors, we should see people going back to get a color they like but missed taming until it was too many lvls behind. I mean, who wants to go back and tame a snow leopard from outside of IF to lvl it up to 70? (I know that color is gonna be available in wrath.)
I’m torn when it comes to pet auto-leveling. On one hand, it’s nice to know that if I decide to go tame some low level pet, I won’t have to drag it around on passive forever while getting it leveled. On the other, it’ll mean that some of those unusual low level skins that you rarely see at 70 will become far more common.
I’ve seen maybe a half dozen other hunters above level 50 who have tamed Mazzranache, for example. As far as I know, I was the first hunter on my server to level one to 70 and I had him since I was level 10. With autoleveling, I imagine we’ll see a lot more of them around, either because of the flamingo factor or because people actually want a pet with the new tallstrider skill.
The auto-leveling isn’t a bad idea in terms of active pets. It is a royal pain to decide to change pets mid stream and need level one up. I’m not one to run around gathering unique or unusual skins, though. A while back I decided to change to an owl on one of my hunters and had to spend a grueling time leveling it up from ten to thirty. There are just too many pet families out there that are isolated in their appearence and you either have to wait for the next population (if there is one) or a level them up from a much lower level.
However, this isn’t what Ghostcrawler’s comments were about. He was talking about the idea of having stabled pets stay within five levels of the Hunter. What it means is that a Hunter with a rare or discontinued pet would not have to level their pet up to match their level. It would also mean that a Hunter who wished to tame a pet for PvP or Groups would not have to go through much pain to level it up to match their own. However, it would also mean that a Hunter with three stabled pets might simply release the two stabled ones and retame and relevel at 80.
That I’m aware of, there’re only two pets that couldn’t be re-tamed to take advantage of the auto-leveling feature - the one buggy quest ravager from the Draenei starting zones and the ghost wolf. I can see the logic of keeping stabled pets five levels under the hunter, but I can also see not doing so. After all, unless Blizz removes more pet skins you technically could always go back and re-tame a pet that fell behind once you hit 80.
That being said, give my poor ghost wolf ~12 more levels plzkkthx. >-> lol… When I get around to leveling that hunter (I have two now, it’s one of my friend’s fault for transferring servers and dragging me along behind) her ghost wolf will probably replace her owl as primary pet. :-P A one-shot level-up deal seems a decent middle-ground, in effect retroactively giving us the benefit of the auto-level deal without magically XP-ing all our pets in perpetuity.
Veyska-
There are pros and cons to both, I guess. I’ve never really understood the whole pet collection thing, and I don’t PvP or Raid with my hunters. I really want a Moth for my Draenei Hunter, and a Wolf for my Orc Hunter, but that’s kind of it.
Here’s my idea for preventing Devilsaurs blocking the mailboxes:
It would be sad for pets to become invisible in cities. What then would be the point of having a rare, retired or otherwise hard-to-get pet if you couldn’t jump around like a maniac with it in Ironforge? What they could implement is a no-pets-allowed zone of some yards’ radius around mailboxes and in/near enclosed buildings. Any pet that was out of combat would not follow their master in towards the mailbox, but would wait at the invisible line as if on “stay” until their master rejoined them. The combat distinction would be important because enemy players in the city should not be able to exploit the visibility restrictions in order to avoid being attacked. But as long as the area is peaceful, the mailbox stays pet-free.
I’m afraid I don’t see the problem in pet’s auto-leveling. Sure, the lower skins will be more common, but that also means something for the high level pets. Now every hunter who wants a new cat doesn’t have to tame (for example) a Blackwind Saber Tiger or a Ravager. Hunters now have far to many the same pets for my tastes. Everyone has a Grovestalker Lynx, Outlands Raptor, or Ravager. Out of my entire server life (which has been almost 4 years now), I’ve seen maybe 4 hunters with pets that aren’t decently high lvl skins, AKA Barren’s golden Lions and Mazzanarche.
I know alot of people like those trophy skins (AKA Red Lynx if you’re an alliance, Snow Leopard if you’re horde, Ghost saber if you’re PvP Horde and Echeyakee if you’re PvP Alliance) but in a way, you’re getting some more unique skins for the higher levels.
Also, this is happening all in Wrath, alot of Hunters won’t be concerned with the old world or BC beasts; They’re going to be after the new Saber Worgs, or the new moths. You’ll see Hunters with Devilsaurs and Chimaeras as far as old world pets go for the lv. 70+ Hunters. I don’t think Mazzanarche or Clutchmother Hunters have anything to fear about their pets losing their “uniqueness”. Many Hunters are truly drooling over the new pets and want those, I know I’m drooling over the new saberworg, and the only old world pet I want to go back and tame is Rak’shiri since I had to let mine go to tame a ghost wolf.
Now, as for the Heart of the Phoenix debacle, I’m glad to see some talk over this. I was wondering just how it’d work in combat such as long battles and raids, but I have no Beta key (*cry*) so I’ll just have to follow the forums.
I like the idea of balancing the Hunter/Pet ability similar to a warlock’s. Considering all the new abilities pets are getting, I’m starting to think someone should make a “Necrosis” addon for Hunters XD I actually might have to use my side-action bars now @_@
Hopefully Devilsaurs retain their larger size. I really like the way they are now, just a tad bigger then the average raptor. However, I know pets grow as they level so I’m wondering something Mania. Is that Devilsaur Kaet tamed getting larger as it levels? or is it staying its same size? I can see how a significantly larger Devilsaur is going to be troublesome. Already my Dire Raven’s wing span gets in the way a bit, (and I fear for the lvl 80 bat users) but then again wings always do that don’t they?
Ok I think thats enough from me ^^; But I really am starting to like this Ghostcrawler dude. They should make a ghost-crab mob after him…make it Exotic Crab.
Rikaku-
I think you hit on something there without fully exploring it. In a lot of ways, what we may see is a huge explosion of different pets given that, right now, everyone agrees that there are only three ‘best’ pets. Pretty soon, there will be a lot of different pets to choose from that will be ‘best’ at something. So, we may not see as many of those trophy skins as we use to.
Zhunter mod is close to that. Saves a ton of space with extra bars for pet stuff, traps and aspects. Dont use the tracking one anymore since the minimap change ofc :)
[edited by Mania to fix blockquote]
darn… trying to quote Rikaku. Guess I suck at coding :D
the +hit% to pet is great. cant w8 to see more exotic pets. hope they make hydra in their list. ^^
I’m all for the auto lvling and I think that it WILL bring alot more veriety into the pets you see around. I love the red lynx skin but have never been able to hold onto a pet from lvl 7-70. Heck I’m having a hard time keeping the ravager I tamed at 16 (( And that was hard. I play horde)). There are just so many skins and fun looks. I think the extra stable slots will help this. (( Salivating just thinking about those)) But I think it’ll be a good thing to see more low lvl pet skins at higher lvls. As somone else said, above about lvl 66 or so you see the same 5 or so pets over and over. Outlands ravagers, outlands raptors, or the drab brown lynx.
I’m looking forward to seeing a zoo out there. If anything I think you’ll be seeing alot of exotics when LK comes out. Though so far I won’t be one of those.
I’m dieing to get the cheetah colored riding mount skin cat.
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/images/skin_pix/ridingtigerskinyellownosaddle.jpg
and maybe a saber worg… but I’m also holding out. It’s still in beta and.. other than moths and saberworgs we haven’t seen anything “New” and the moths only half count as they’ve been in game for a while (( just not tameable)) I’m hoping to see NEW Pet familys (( as well as the exotics)) and I’m still praying for a wolverine
We all know what leveling pets is like. The window for taming a ghostwolf was long ago enough that I’m out of empathetic nods for those who are hoping for a shortcut in November.
Auto-leveling new tames is nice, it lets you “return” from the grind to the game faster. (Don’t comment that the grind is the game >.<) But grinding your stable slots really doesn’t change anything. Yes, it would be nice and it feels a little unfair compared the auto-level, but it also feels more authentic and nostalgic.
I’m torn about the autolevelling as well. My fiancee, who tends to play rogue characters, doesn’t feel the same attachment to hunter pets, so we’ve had some lively debate about the matter.
Unfortunately I don’t think Blizzard is going to give us a choice in the matter. It’s going to become just one more thing they make too easy for its own good, in my opinion. I value the companionships we make with our pets, digital or not, as our toons ascend into higher levels. My Earthen Ring hunter still has the gray deviate raptor she snuck into the Wailing Caverns for at 15, and I don’t have the heart or inclination to get rid of him. Kilij is my stalwart high-dps raiding pet, and has become known almost as well as the Hunter character herself in the guild.
I wish the company would understand that the time and patience of training a low-level pet do not directly equate into a chore! Many of us play hunters because we become attached to the creatures around us in-game, and so we value that training time. This seems to be an unnecessary, and somewhat insulting, change which hopefully Blizz will consider at length before making their final decision.
We shall see!
-Otu
I gotta go with Oturiel on this… word for word, really.
Not every hunter feels this way, however. Perhaps, instead of making auto-leveling something that just happens, it could be a paid service?
Really hope they try hard to keep the Devil saurs Epic size
Regarding the size of pets…
I have to say although some of the pets are nice. No one will want them in say a instance run or raid cause of their over all size. As is pets like birds, bats and such get complained about alot as is cause they can block a tanks view of whats going on.
I tried taking my new birb along to be leveled on a sinple speed run though Bog.. and most the time she had to stay by my side cause the tank complained about having flaping wings in her face.
Now the devilsaurs curent size, as well as the chimera’s will do a lot more then that, and just become another pet that although looks cool, will be unlucky enough to be kept in the stable when their master is out having fun cause they will just get in others ways.
So we may think the size looks cool… but… I’m sure most wont find them cool for very long. >.>
I also have to say in response to Oturiel
Blizz said that pets tamed if they are 5 levels or lower then your toon when tamed they will become 5 levels lower then your toon. So although you have a level 15 pet right now. You could just as easy drop it, go back to where you got it, retame it and have it’s level bosted to 5 below your own.
The actual debate is not about whether or not a pet is going to jump to five levels below the Hunter. The debate is whether or not pets kept in their stables are going to remain within five levels of the Hunter.
Blizzard has decided, and isn’t likely to remove, the fact that any pet tamed below five levels of the Hunter will automatically raise to a level five below the Hunter. This was a comprimise between those who found leveling a Hunter to be a chore, and those who felt that it added flavor to the Hunter class.
I don’t think the stabled pets will keep autolvling to 5 lvls below your own. What i would do if I want to keep a couple pets lvled is dismiss the brown boar I have in the stable, because it’s 17 lvls lower than me, and retame it two minutes later. Voila, autolvled 12 lvls and I name it the same as the previous one and try to forget it is another one… kinda like an old grandma, who had a kitty for 35 years named Fluffy… that the current fluffy is a direct decendent (sp?) of the neighboors dog is of no matter, ‘cos it’s her Fluffy, even with the glasses on…
And regarding “rare” petskins, A) with all the new family skills the ravager, raptor and cat will not be the Uber DPS pets anymore. The choices have grown big time and the sky is the limit. If nothing I hope to see some more Crabs running around and B) even if you still prefer a cat, you can go get any pet skin, not just the black-with-white-stripes one caught in skettis (i know i’ll get a khaki barrens lion if i decide to keep my cat :P). The latter argument goes to say what some before me here have said, the variety in skins will only go up, not down. Because you can get any skin now, at any lvl, the sky really is the limit.
/rant off :P
@Seidouyumi -
I don’t really go for pet collection either but for stuff like ghost wolves… I’ll grind her levels out manually if I have to (IIRC 60-70 XP is getting dropped anyhow in LK) but getting the more obnoxious levels of what’s left would be nice.
I don’t mind leveling pets (much), I just mind the pet not being able to help with its (his/her) own leveling. I’ve gone after mobs 3-4 levels higher than me with a pet that was a level lower and done fine if I gave the pet a few moments more to get aggro. Running around with a level 30 pet when only ~60+ mobs could give XP is much less fine. Sure, I can (and frequently did) mooch XP off of pre-70 BC instance runs, but that’s also tedious and relies on other people to help too. And yes, seeing more than half a dozen skins on max level hunters will be refreshing.
That being said, stables as free pet leveling seems a bit silly. IMO, one-shot stables leveling of pets 6+ levels under the hunter to 5 levels under when the auto-leveling bit gets added in. Gives hunters the benefit of the new help without being overkill (what would the logic even be for leveling in the stable? vicarious xp?), sorta’ like how pre-BC hunter gear got revamped when they redid how we got RAP. 10 levels isn’t that horribly much for catching a pet up, go after mobs from the lower range of your XP bracket and your pet should do fine. Or, you know, for 99.9% of the pets out there, you could re-tame the ones that got left behind.
i personally wouldnt like the auto level up of my pets, ive got my ghost wolf to 70, my 26 elite bore from rfk i think it is and the zulgurub bat from before tbc.
its not that i dont like this out of “look i have my vanity pets” perspective, its the fact that i put my time and effort into levelling them rather than someone just going oh look thats pretty - tame it and then its the same level.
i understand the complaints about not so many good skins or pets around 70 but i think that doing the auto level would make us like a warlock to be honest maybe they just need to add more skins in higher levels
i must agree with Oturiel too about the attachment i have to my pets i dont want to get rid of one at all ive always fancied a cat but dont want to drop my boar to do it cause of the time i put in.
ive been away from wow for ages just saw this today so added my thoughts.
@Seidouyumi: that isn’t the way it is at all. The auto-levelling code was just first hooked in to the Beast Taming process and isn’t currently available via any other mechanism. As GC posted, they are still looking into whether or not it will be made available in some other fashion without having to abandon and retame a pet - if nothing else, for the benefit of folks that are interested in the RP side of things.
The other thing to remember if you like the connection with your pet from levelling with them is that gaining 5 levels with your pet is still a non-trivial activity. The big difference between the old system and the new one is that automatically bringing the pet up to 5 levels below the hunter means that:
1. Mobs the same level as the pet will still be green to the hunter
2. The pet will only be 1 or 2 talent points short when compared to a pet the same level as the hunter
3. You can take the pet to an instance without it being useless
The new system just avoids the silliness that was taking on mobs 5-6 levels below you with a very low level pet that was just tagging along for the ride.
I don’t understand why anyone would want to level their pets manually, as if there aren’t enough boring dumb timewasting grinds in the game already, with gathering tradeskill mats, faction reps, weapon skill levels and so on ad nauseam.
Leveling a lowbie zone pet up to max isn’t any kind of accomplishment by any means, it’s NOTHING worth bragging about. It just shows you’re crazy enough to waste half a week’s playtime or more on something we shouldn’t even have to do in the first place.
I’ve leveled a stranglethorn tiger and humar from their 20s/30s to 60 (on a now retired hunter), I leveled a 38-ish turtle to 70, and a 49-ish turtle on a third hunter to 60. At no time did I feel any kind of sense of accomplishment, just anger and annoyance at a stupid and irritating game mechanic which shouldn’t have existed in the first place and only remained in the game because of blizzard’s complacency and lazyness.
Reading over the replies to what I posted, I get a feeling we’re talking about the same thing without actually saying the same thing.
I felt kind of confused by some of the replies since that is pretty much was I had said. Sorry if what I wrote is a bit confusing.
Ooo, this is starting to make WotLK more interesting now.
I dont mind leveling my pet, atleast it gives me something to do for 12 hours hehe.
When when I tamed my blue cobra I had a lot of difficulty getting it up to my lvl, especially when it became time to train him in poison spit 3, which required a trip to Zul Gurub. Frustrating as this was, to this day my Dagon is the pve pet for me.
The idea of seeing more people with my pet type doen’t bother me because them getting the pet easier then I did doesn’t diminish all my hard work. Use the pet you love and don’t mind being not completely original in this game. With so many players that would be kinda silly, don’t you think?
Two hunters meet at a raid gathering in deadwind pass. Says one: “Ahw damnit you brought the same pet I did, now ONE of us will have to go to the inn and change…”
I have a (fully levelled) ghost wolf; chances are I won’t see too many around with his skin. If they re-added him to the game, I’d still keep him, in memory of all the crap I went through to get him…
And, speaking as someone who brought him all the way to 70, I won’t feel particularly insulted when lowbie pets get abracadabra-levels; it wasn’t a pleasant experience to start with, nothing I’d want to inflict on anyone else, and I’ve done it two or three times at 70. The ghost wolf was the last one… I just do not have the patience for it anymore.
Here’s my idea for Pet Auto-leveling.
Place an NPC in the Major City, that for say 1g, will Raise the level of your pet by 1 but does not raise past your current level. BUT this will change the color of the “PET’S NAME” to a different color…say…purple, where as a pet who has not used the auto-leveling NPC the pet’s name stays green, so there you have your cake and can level it too. so “true leveled” pets still retain a certain…”Hardcore” feel, but you can still get a lvl 6 pink plainstrider at lvl 80, pay 74g and have that pet “USEFUL” too. but is recanized as…”lazy”
Sei, please, stop talking about warlock pets being useless. If you’ve turned off their auto-cast abilities, its no wonder their useless for you.
Now, on to the actual subject at hand. Having leveled Princess from a level nine porker to a level seventy power house, having had to play catch up with numerous pets, and having had to level several other pets from the mid thirties or lower because I wanted unique skins, I can honestly say the auto leveling is a good, good thing. Anyone saying that they don’t want their pets to not be unique any more is just being selfish. Personally, I could use a bit more flavor in what I see other hunters using. This will actually encourage people to go out and find colors and variations on pets that they like, instead of grabbing the highest level one and going with that because its easier. And with the serious change to pets, it gives us an open option of all pet families to pick from, without having to gimp ourselves for several days at a time to get them up to our point. Just my two cents.
Just a quick comment on the whole “wings getting in he way” issue. I tamed a dire raven as soon as I found out they had become tameable :D I’ve taken Nevermore along to a few instances now and not once had a complaint about his wingspan. At lv70 I will admit he has an impressive wingspan but having taught him screech, his ability to lower the mobs attack power has far outweighed this.
Several of the tanks I’ve gone to instances with have commented on how much “safer” it is for them with him around as they dont get hit as hard - a real bonuson boss fights. I think since whichever patch it was that made pets attack from behind the target, the wingspan thing hasnt really been an issue. This said, its only not an issue if your tank can hold the aggro and not let it fall onto your pet. Ravens and carrion birds dont suffer with as big a wing span as bats, maybe shrinking the bats slightly would make them more of an acceptable instance pet.
Also, on a totally different point, can anyone explain to my why raptors cant eat fish? If you check out your dino history you find that they would eat fish on a regular basis if they could get them. Make raptors fish eaters and they’d be one of my faves again :D
now i like that idea of Hans’ of the paying to level it idea, sort of like a training school perhaps?
Being a pet fanatic myself I can see where ppl are coming from when they argue against pet auto leveling on grounds of uniqueness/rewarding hard work/etc. But I think Blizz is trying as much or more to find ways of rekindling the interest of existing hunters (players) in playing wow as they are in attracting new ones, with things like pet auto-leveling.
And being a longtime player I have to say the old “challenges” don’t mean as much to me anymore - I feel I’ve “done my time” with the old system, and the positive impact of being able to tame anything I want and just deal with 5 levels of grinding far outweighs any negative impact from seeing lots of other players running around with “my” ghostsaber, clutchmother etc. Of course, I’m primarily a solo’er, so I’m just not around other players that much (with- or without- the same pet as me)…
I love the idea of auto-leveling for newly trained pets, and having the pet five levels below is still a significant gap. I had to level my lava spider Beverly from 50 when I was 55, and it was not an inconsiderable effort. I also don’t feel that unique skins make the pet special–my favorite pet Gunther, whom I’ve had since 11, is a simple black boar, but I’m very attached to him despite his plain looks.
That being said, I want to have my pick of pet looks, and I’m looking forward to getting a snow leopard or Scarlet Crusade hyena.
With the autoleveling, I expect to see a lot of pink tallstriders, while my plain adult plainstrider remains unique. :D I’ve never seen another named one on my server.
If a warrior wants to switch from 2h axes to 2h swords, he respecs and trains his new weapon skill up, which can take a couple of hours. If he goes through a couple other weapon types and eventually switches back to a 2h axe, his skill is still there waiting for him.
If a warlock wants to switch pets, it takes nothing more than a soul shard.
If we want to switch back to a pet type, and it’s not already in the stable previously leveled, we have to seek out the pet, retame it, and likely level it up, sometimes a lot, depending on the pet class. This can take several days, depending on your level defecit. No other class has to put up with such an obstacle to changing their playstyle.
Back pre-BC when everyone was leveling up their very first 60s, I decided to, in my mid 30s, go back and tame Echeyakee. As a result of being gimped in my effectiveness trying to catch my pets level up, I found myself 10 levels or more behind my peers.
Call it dedication if you want, call it attachment even. But levelling a low level pet up to 70, or 80 even, and enjoying it, is just plain masochism.
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