Beta Pet Skill Round-Up
Over the past few beta builds, pet skills have seen some really nice changes. Many of you know all about this stuff already, but others don’t, so I thought it might be handy to round up those changes in a reference table.
This is a list of changes to pet skills over the past few beta builds — roughly since the beginning of September. (So this list doesn’t include the changes to focus costs that Blizzard made in build 8820 on August 22.)
| Skill | Family | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Acid Spit | Worms |
|
| Bad Attitude | Crocolisks |
|
| Demoralizing Screech | Carrion Birds |
|
| Fire Breath | Dragonhawks |
|
| Furious Howl | Wolves |
|
| Nether Shock | Nether Rays |
|
| Pin | Crabs |
|
| Poison Spit | Serpents |
|
| Ravage | Ravagers |
|
| Savage Rend | Raptors |
|
| Serenity Dust | Moths |
|
| Shell Shield | Turtles |
|
| Swipe | Bears |
|
| Thunderstomp | Gorillas |
|
| Venom Web Spray | Silithids |
|
| Warp | Warp Stalker |
|
| Web | Spiders |
|
In addition to these changes, most pet skills had their damage tweaked. Some skills got higher damage, some lower, and most got more damage at high and low ranks and less at middle ranks. I haven’t listed those extensive changes, in part because the numbers we had for damage before that pass were placeholders and in part because there are too many of them.
Finally, there are indications that skills are now scaling better with hunter RAP, but I don’t have solid data on that yet so it’s not listed here.
45 Comments
Now these are some mostly pleasant changes. Pin looks like it will once again be a fun choice for PVP fans, if all that’s said about pet survivability and the like is increased as Blizzard implied it would.
As of yet, are Raptors looking to be like gimped Cats now, instead of vice versa? It seems they nerfed Savage Rend this pass instead of bringing it on a level similar to what Cats possess.
Either way, I’m glad they’re focused on leveling the playing field with pet selection and obscuring the idea of a cookie cutter “best” DPS pet.
This makes a lot of moves that were previously pretty lack luster, pretty awesome.
I’ve got my eye on shell sheild and thunderstomp in particular.
I agree, in fact i camped out for the rare White Gorilla ^_^ now he needs a good name :P
Looks like good changes. Though I have one question. Furious Howl, that yard range, does it cover a raid? Or only your group? Cause if it’s a raid… *drool*
Rikaku: Whoops, yes, Furious Howl covers the raid. I’ll add that.
@Rikaku-I’m fairly certain that the furious howl buff is raidwide. That being said, there will be a lot of wolves in the raid set.
Crocolisks though seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to pet abilities though and the reduced cooldown on the web and venomous web will be really nice for PvP. That four second snare will come in handy and I know this beast master will be getting a spider. Those low level draenei better look out ;)
Savage Rend would be much better if it had a much shorter cool down, and I have already suggested that to Blizz.
Rake is still a bit flubbed. It’s doing a lot more damage than listed.
OMG YES WOLF~~~~ <33 Ok I’m no longer sad about corehounds. I can now bring my ghost puppy to raids like a BAMF (if any Dane Cook fans find that *cough* ^^) Thanks for the info Mania =D
I would use a crocolisk (they have cool colors) if they didn’t hiss and growl every 5 secs @_@
No!!! they took the AoE of the dragon hawks away , i liked that skill , it was fun
mmmlikeing alot of those.especaly the wolf one.shell shield is nice to…
@ Raze.
I just went into the PTR and it does look like that Raptors are going to be the 2nd class DPS to Cats again.
Savage Rend
30-36 points bleed (10-12 bleed * 3) over 15 sec
28-38 damage
+ bonus to attack power
1 minute cooldown
Rake
28-38 bleed damage
+10-12 damage over 9 sec
10 sec cooldown
The only way that Blizzard can make them even close to equal is to reduce the cooldown on savage rend. Also I have no way of testing out the +att bonus for the rend in the PTR due to a lack of mods.
Even with all of this, the Tyrant King of pet DPS is still the Devilsaur :-)
No love for tallstriders yet.
Tell me about it. With the nerfing of scorpid sting, Tallstriders should go back to getting a Hit% reduction aoe.
so far as ive tested furious howl wording is misleading, the buff does last 10 seconds, or until you attack a target meaning if you dont damage anything the buff stays on you for entire duration. if you attack anything its ‘on next hit’ and goes away promptly after you land the attack. Your only really getting the ap buff for 1 attack until its applied again. I havent checked it again since this last patch tho
I am so happy with the wolf change!
I’m surprised this hasn’t been reported anywhere yet (including places like MMO Champion), but exotic pets got shrunk again, at least on the PTR. Corehounds are now significantly smaller than the Amani bear (they used to be around the same size) and devilsaurs are slightly bigger than the puppies (although I did see one white devilsaur that appeared to have retained its old size).
Anyone else seen/heard this?
Well this is nice news my warp stalkers going to be a bit better and that cool down for gorillas special move from 1 min* to 10 sec* is awesome.
Never,
The change officially happened last build, but it may have not actually changed until THIS build. However, it is working as intended.
WOOT for Gorillas! Now I am going to have to re-tame one
Drahonhawks lose AoE… that is a huuuge hit. That is the reaosn I kept a caster ‘Hawk for so many levels. Now all they really have is a cool look. Looks like I will havr to dump my hawk for more reason than it now bieng a caster pet now. Was gonna dump him to pick up another one nthat didn;t have caster stats, but after this, I doubt I will pick up another one. Gotta give Firebreath it’s AoE back!
Dweezill,
There are no more casters in the game. Overall, the one hit skill isn’t bad. It’s no different from what was there, just that Dragonhawks can’t tank very well. I would have loved to see Dragonhawks moved from Cunning to Tenacity and be a tanking pet.
Zwigle… I’ve had Uhk’Lok for several levels now, and I think he is great. He actually played just like my spider, except he had the Thunderstomp to boot. Now that Spiders and Gorillas are in different trees, Ia m curious to see just how different they play. both were good tanks that held aggro really well. I love that they lowered the cooldown on web as well. makes my zarakh spider not only look evil, but he now is more than just a “pretty face”.
Seido… I know that casters are gone. That’s why i was gonna dump my ‘Hawk with caster stats for one that had normal stats. But the change from AoE to non-AoE is huge to me. I could easily send my ‘Hawk (named Phoenix) into a group[ and set of firebreath, and there would be a ton of yellow numbers popping up all over tha place. That won;t happen anymore. I am disappointed by the move,and i really hope they bring it back. I seriously won;t have a ‘Hawk if it doesn’t have AoE. That’s the main reason for having one.
any one know if Furious howl stacks with more than one wolf in the group?
oh and anyone seen any other spirit beast spawn areas? been stuck in sholazar basin for almost 7 days now……
Well Gorilla is now the best tanking pet with a 10 sec stomp. It still causes threat right?
Some very nice changes indeed. I like that the dragonhawks fire breath will be single target now. I never cared to use them, but at least the people who do won’t have to worry about it breaking crowd controled mobs.
Dweezill-
What I don’t understand is why drop one with caster stats for one without when, once 3.0.2 goes live, the one you have tamed will no longer have caster stats? I mean, I certainly understand dropping a Dragonhawk since it will not longer be a decent AoE, or decent period, tank. They were great tanks, but now, they’re going to be good PvP or Arena pets. But, once the patch goes live, your pet will be a baseline Cunning pet like all the others, and have a single target skill. So, I’m a bit confused here.
Seido…
I din;t realize that tamed ones would convert to non-caster pets. ia sked that question a few times, but never got an answer. But still, without the AoE, I wouldn;t want one now. The AoE of firebreath is what made it unique. That’s the main thing about Dragonhawks that i really liked. It’s not something I am interested in now. Just wanted it really for AoE and that’s gone, so no need for me to have one.
Ah, ok, Dweezill. From what I saw when I transfered over my hunter, they all revert to what’s in the patch. I certainly understand about not wanting it now that it’s no longer AoE. Right now, I’ve got a Cat, but I’ve been testing everything, including Dragonhawks. Well, everything under lvl 26. I really can see that Cunning pets are attuned to PvP/Arena though. The other two are good for PvE work though. With care, you can use a Ferocity pet soloing, or go for a Tenacity pet for a real tank.
Can. Not. Wait. To get a silithid :D
40 seconds seems fair, a great buff from 2 minutes, in any case.
As a flat AP buff, Furious Howl should be in the same raid buff category as Blessing of Might and Battle Shout. (They’re going to have to add the other 5 ranks back in though)
Has anyone checked the magehunters to see if they can be tamed yet?
@ Tabmow
Ley Hunters and Mage Hunters are still demons on the PTR
All I really have to say about this… I want my tallstrider see some love. At the moment ability is allready enough for me to use my sweet white Hotah in raids anyway because I’m biased. But I’d love to see that the skill would apply a % to miss instead of one attack, in the vein of how Furious Howl was buffed.
(As I play a tank as my main, I’d love to give some tank love via the Tallstrider. That would be hawt.)
Hi, sorry if its been asked before but.. If I tame a level 37 for example now (pre 3.0 on the live realms) and I have it in my stable, when 3.0 goes live would it just ding upto 65 then or would it just stay at 37?
@ Desk,it will go to lvl 65.
@ Ichigo ty for checking.
I thought it will stay its current level while it remains in the stable but as soon as you make it your active pet it gets auto-levelled then.
Bears and Gorillas and Carrion Birds rock now.
AoE pet tanks FTW.
I think the change to Crocks makes them a viable AOE tank pet again
There is a lot of balancing needed here yet.
Someone already mentioned the cat vs raptor as being very one sided.
Take a in depth look at bear vs gorilla now. The bear’s ability will do half the damage, cost twice the focus, and lacks the bonus threat when compaired to the gorilla. Oh yeah, and it can only hit 3 targets. With the bonus threat and multiple targets, the thunderstomp should really do less dmg.
So again, I hope Bliz sees that, and I hope they’ll work on it.
Hope the raptors get a bit more loving before launch. Blizzard has admitted they like cats being (over)used though, so false hope :<
The Poison Spit change for Serpents is rather nice buff anyways :] Their damage alone was very lackluster.
just played around with my wolf in beta and in bm spec its furious howl is up 100% of the time. it has a 10 sec duration but a 7 sec cooldown. that combined with rabid and call of the wild is pretty tempting, just wish dogs did higher base damage.
@Shagrat-Turalyon
you’re right, in beta atm it does stay at its current level in the stables, it levels to 5 levels below your chars level once you remove it. I just checked it out with one of my stabled pets.
Can anybody confirm the amount of Hunter RAP that is added to pet skills?
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