My apologies on being a tad late with this news, but after staying up way too late adding a list of stable masters to Petopia (betcha hadn’t even noticed that yet!), I ended up sleeping until 4 pm.
But last night Ghostcrawler posted a rather interesting announcement about exotic pets (and Aspect of the Viper too):
Two changes coming up:
We aren’t happy with how Aspect of the Viper is working in PvP, but it seems fine in PvE. We’re going to try changing it so that 50% of its current regen is passive, leaving the remaining 50% active. That should give hunters some more mana in Arenas in particular when dealing with opponents who manage to get out of LOS a lot. Yet, in PvE where hunter dps is very high, the difference in regen shouldn’t be very noticable. We are also going to let Viper return mana from melee attacks for those cases where a melee opponent is too close for comfort.
The second change is to some of the numbers on the special attacks of exotic pets to make sure the pets are around a 10% increase from normal pets. This should make exotic pets a reasonable benefit for the talent point (especially when you also count the bonus pet talents) without making every BM hunter feel like they are limited to just those pets.
A 10% increase feels like a lot to me, but then I’m the sort of hunter that would give up extra damage (or bunches of talent points, or shoot, even levels) to be able to tame more types of pets. So perhaps I’m not the best judge.
Wow that 10% is a big boost to the exotics. That makes IMO cunning much better for exotics they have a 5% advantage over regular ferocity pets with that buff so with their special attacks as well very nice, still exotic ferocity stands over everything now DPS wise but I still think it makes cunning more viable for me. Also it potentially knocks out a few peoples plans to skip out the exotics and take the extra talents and a non exotic pet. Or would anyone still do this?
*Shrugs* I might. That being said, I am enjoying my two exotics at current. The boost might not be huge, but it is enough to push them over the edge, and hopefully change peoples minds about exotics. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. It did seem fairly silly to have an entirely new line of pets, but to make them just like other pets…. only with slightly more useful family abilities.
Credit for saying something 1st, in the 2nd post.
To be honest; not to insult you Mania, it was mostly I think to make up with the nerf of the BM talent point and sadly, I have to kinda agree, while it was nice they did buff Exotics and give them a reason to be worthwhile outside of vanity, it doesn’t fix the problems in BM that I still remember; and all that :s
But then again I don’t wanna be like the erm, less than satisfied hunters that were trying to offrail the topic badly and take it out on a Blue that posts, quite nicely, considering how, condensending alot have been to hunters :/
Not that thrilled with the further tweaking of AotV, I’ll just have to see when I get ingame, but it already feels that Arena = nerfs and unneeded fixes for things, when well, not many hunters really make it past an xx ammount of ranking; takes alot of skill and gear to do so.
But, this COULD work in small scale PVP such as WSG, though mostly lol at melee attacks.
Cause you know, lolrogues and loladins .-.
But getting away from that; I am glad they did atleast, buff exotics. I wouldn’t have also minded if it was an overall 10% increase, not just DPS, but stats too. I mean extra health and armor is a godsend too, for a bit more survivability.
Though it makes me sad cause now my normal pets are weaker in comparison and I so wanted to have a mixture of Exotic and Normal pets.
I wonder if the 10% increase for dps could just be tied into Beast Mastery? So all pets benefit?
I am quite happy with how things are turning out for BM hunters and all these exotic pets that we get access to (I am BM all the way). I’d say though for all those that are complaining…if ya dont like it, split your talents between other tree’s. GC has been doing ALOT for us, and for that I say thanks.
Due to the timing of my visit to my family, I downloaded the patches, but wont actually get to play WoW until late tomorrow night, hopefully by then some of the bugs will have been fixed.
I wonder how the devilsaurs and the Kurken are doing lol, amongst other popular exotics.
What has everyone else tamed thus far? and what do you think of them?
Part of the PvP and hence arena problem is, for every thing they buff for hunters, they give another class a counter. We got an improved disengage! Great! …..deep fury and protection warriors get counters, reseting the cooldown on intercept and charge usable in any stance, in combat, respectively. Just things like that tick me off.
So 10% what? 10% stats? 10% armor? 10% damage? 10% health?
I may now have to consider a Worm over a Gorilla now, maybe the Worm might last longer.
So far the only exotic/new pet I’ve tamed so far is a devilsaur, and if this guy gets a 10% damage increase ON TOP of his already über DPS boosting ability… wow. Big rex is gonna be putting out some big numbers.
There is one problem with devilsaurs right at the moment though: they are entirely dependent on GftT to do top DPS in instances and raids. Reason being is that with the focus dumps being so efficient, Monstrous Bite is occasionally being allowed to fall off due to lack of focus when the cooldown is up, which is absolutely unacceptable. This means that I have to turn off regular bite and press it manually when he has too much focus (which is almost all the time when Bite is off). This, of course, will be fixed once I level some more and get enough talent points for it, but as of right now it is 100% impossible to have both a devilsaur and GftT.
Ryai,
I agree that 10% for full bm hunters makes all other pets weaker, so if you want the dps you must pick exotics as a pet for BM spec hunters. I like the idea of making it a 10% for all pets through the Beast Mastery talent point.
I don’t really like most of the exotics that are available now, but I will go bm for the rhino and worm, spirit beast. the pre bc worms are just horrible.
If only they can fix los issues in arenas, locks, mages and other stuff can still channel spells when their target runs around the pillars, isn’t aim-shot channeled to some degree it should work for us too, maybe [round the corner shot] :)
I think the bonus to Exotics is an attempt to further what seemed like plans on Blizzards part to give Hunter more rolls and options for coop opportunities. I have a feeling there will be a large number of spirit beasts when everything is said and done, so I think we can expect to see “exotic” (aka spirit beast) versions of a lot of regular pet familes (Wolves, Bears, and Boars, I see happening).
On top of that, if I remember right Blizzard has expressed an interest in making Hunter pets as an off-tanking utility a functional and viable option during raids; so perhaps the 10% is part of a slow test to try and get them there without overpowering Hunters.
As far as being annoyed with what they give other classes: Balance is more important than any individuals desires. I would rather see Hunter get a ton of new abilities and watch other jobs get abilities specifically to counter them than to see Hunter become overpowered. Why? Because overpowering a class decreases the value of player skill and increases the odds of the job suffering from massive reduction; which ultimately shuts us out of viability for necessary endgame activities for better gear.
It may seem unfair what some of the other jobs have gotten to coincide with what we received, but the greatest part of the game is learning to overcome the odds and come out on top. If you can’t handle the pressure, that’s a personal issue.
Sorry to double post.
It kind of bothers me that the normal pets will be considered “weak” by more elitist minded players as well, but there’s really no way Blizzard could give an added incentive for using Exotics beyond making them better than regular pets somehow. I think it would balance things out if they added a few exotic class monsters to each family, though.
Like I said in my post before, I honestly believe we’ll be seeing a large number of families make appearances in the Spirit Beast family, but you never know.
if they’re only buffing exotic damage, then tenacity pets would still be roughly the same all around; exotics would be a little better, but there would be more similarities between exotics and non, unless that +10% could somehow be converted to 10% better(?) tanking abilities for exotic tenacities.
“Though it makes me sad cause now my normal pets are weaker in comparison and I so wanted to have a mixture of Exotic and Normal pets.
I wonder if the 10% increase for dps could just be tied into Beast Mastery? So all pets benefit?”
Sorry but I have to say something here XD The BM 51 point talent is really only “51 worthy” for the sake of the extra 4 talent points. “Beast Mastery” DESPERATELY needs something to make it seem worthwhile to actually get an exotic, something that actually makes Hunters consider “Hmm, Marksman or BM…. Chimera shot or Exotics…?”
I don’t think ALL the pets need a buff, and I gotta say that just because alot of people are saying “I want both my pets to be good”. That’s fine and understandable, but if you’re saying you want your pet to be better too, then you need to be a BM. And if you’re already a BM, your pet is already better then a MM or Surv’s; but “Exotic” pets need to be exactly that. Exotic. They need to have more incentive for getting one. Yes, you may not like any of them, and no one is forcing you to take one. Some players like skins more than dps numbers, and that’s fair. With the new family skill system, Hunters can bring more to the raid table then just dps.
Again, this is my opinion, and I think that’s what the Blues are hoping to accomplish, more players actually having an incentive to take an exotic pet to take the 51 BM talent.
The 10% boost is only to the specials of exotics. It won’t effect white swings or claw/bite/smack, or at least that is how I read it, so its actually a very small boost.
Core Hounds actually do less damage than Serpents with an entirely similar attack. Core Hound slow is longer by 2 sec, but the damage is significantly lower than Serpents. The 10% would only make Core Hounds equal in dps to Serpents not superior. Have not run the numbers, just guesstimating. I like Core Hounds, but for dps and slow spell the Serpent is currently better.
Hmm… I’m one of those hunters that is happy to take a DPS cut in raiding for *some* Arena/PvP utility…. but not if the difference between exotic and non-exotic pets will be quite significant. I’d be happy if, say, the devilsaur was top DPS, but the cat was pretty close (I realize on beta it’s the other way around at the moment with Rake).
I am seriously hoping that with the “Spirit Beast” family that they do make a “spirit” skin to reperesent members of other families. So far with just the “cat skin” I am not impressed, but i think after Blizz releases its next spirit beast we’ll have a better idea on what they’ll be doing with this particular family.
I agree with what Rikaku said above. Exotics need to be a bit better then regular pets or else whats the point? They just become another pet skin/family. Something needed to be done to set them above regular pets.
BM Hunters tend to rely heavier on thier pets, and need pets that can dish out dps/aggro in order to keep at a safe distance. And most of BM talents are directed at increaseing pet damage and armour. So i like the added 10% that exotics will be getting as it seems to add a bit more of that “special 51-point” feel.
The 51-point talent is completely optional for hunters who go down BM talent tree, so its up to the individule hunter to decide whether or not they want to put any points into it.
I will admit that I dont do alot of pvp and have never tried arena, So I really dont know to much about that interaction, but I think that the “Disengage ability” “traps” and “Beastial Wrath” will prove to be very helpful, and a pet that dishes out more damage isnt something that other players will be able to “ignore” anymore.
In the pvp that I have done, I’ve noticed that most playters will go directly for the hunter, and ignore the pet (pets never did much damage= no threat). What BM hunters (I think) are going to find is that a pet thats dishing out major damage is going to prove to be more of an ally in pvp because its going to be suicide for players to ignore them now. Fluffy now has fangs and is ripping chunk-o-mystery meat outa your enemies!
“Exotics need to be a bit better then regular pets or else whats the point?”
Flavor?
I mean nothing about the word Exotic says better, Look it up. If you are too lazy here,
1 From another part of the world; foreign: exotic tropical plants in a greenhouse.
2 Intriguingly unusual or different; excitingly strange
Not everything is about numbers. after all it IS a game.. and games are supposed to be fun. Should a BM hunter be forced to take a Devilsaur because it’ll be top DPS and that is what a hunters guild/ raid team wants from him/her? Exotic needs to be just that not better, not worse, just different. The idea of the ability to tame new beast because you are completely dedicated to mastering the was of beast is fine in and of itself. You are dedicated to the ways of the beast and can do something noone else can, THAT is the reward.
Cian- GC said they’d be tweaking the specials “to make sure THE PETS are around a 10% increase from normal pets”. Looks to me like they mean an overall 10% dps boost via the special skills, not just a 10% increase in special ability damage.
I’m not liking this. I would rather skip the 51-pointer and take another talent than be pigeonholed into using an exotic.
Varsar: Think you may be coming off a bit harsh there. “Exotics need to be a bit better then regular pets or else whats the point?”
Flavor?
I mean nothing about the word Exotic says better, Look it up. If you are too lazy here,
1 From another part of the world; foreign: exotic tropical plants in a greenhouse.
2 Intriguingly unusual or different; excitingly strange”
Ok putting aside your dictionary lesson, let’s look at the word “Exotic” in teh WoW since. The Exotic pets are part of a 51 point talent. It should NOT be about flavor. the 51 point talents are supposed to be the whole point of speccing into a tree in the first place. Having “flavor” pets sounds a tad ridiculous. Essentially what you’re saying is, “Your 51 point talent is 4 extra pet talent points and new models to tame that aren’t any better than other pets”. That sounds very very cheap compared to the other specs.
No, just because you’re BM doesn’t mean you have to have Devilsaur. As stated before, Hunter pets of all shapes and sizes are now bringing new things to the raid. No one is saying “Hey, Hunter use a Devilsaur!” If no one has a sunder on hand, than maybe you can bring a worm. Maybe you just want to DPS, bring a cat, bring devilsaur, bring your turtle if you want. No one is FORCING you play a specific pet.
But saying that exotics shouldn’t have at least some difference other than flavor is just weird. Think about it. “Beast Mastery” is a 51 point talent. If you’re going to spend 51 points into BM, you should get a stronger pet as an option.
Bite, claw, and smack count as specials. Anything that takes focus, technically, is a special.
I agree. The 51-point talent is supposed to be like the ultimate beast mastery skill. I hope by 10% increase they mean more than damage. Maybe like how cunning pets have 5%/5%/5% health, damage, and armor, for exotic it will be 15%/15%/15% and the same for tenacity and ferocity. That would make exotics much more useful.
For armour and health, the 4 extra talent points is already a big benefit. Non-BM hunters have to make major sacrifices to pick up those talents for their pets.
The reason for buffing the exotic pet’s DPS directly is because you can pick up all of the DPS talents in the Cunning and Ferocity trees with only 16 pet talent points.
I am not saying they should have just flavor, all pets have their own new skills, and are useful in their own way, but really hunters are always going to be about DPS.
The 51 talent already gives you a stronger pet, 4 more pet talents is a stronger pet, and it applies to all pets as it should be. Want to make that 51 talent buff all a BM’s pets more I am all for it. I am against the idea of buffing just exotics.. because then they will become anything but 98.9% of BM hunters will use exotics and so they won’t be exotic anymore, just new pets. By making them better they are removing the flavor, IMO.
No one is screaming use just a devilsaur, or whatever exotic yet, because they aren’t better yet. Just wait. Exotics will become the new cats and scoripds. I am sure a few of the exotics will shine above the rest as well. Just when it seemed they balanced things out a lot better(pet wise)they throw it out the window.
Seriously make the 51 point talent make all BM pets get a buff and I am glad for it, but just exotics IS trying to force BM hunters into 1 type of pet in this case “exotics” is the type. Devilsaurs, spirit beast, and Silithids will end up shining among them I’d be willing to bet. Worms might see a place in 5 mans but not likely in 25 man raids.
to the statement about not being forced to bring a certain type of pet. im pretty sure that if you are bm spec-ed they want you to bring those exotic pets to the raids, or you wont raid. This has been my experience from raiding pre 3.0 patch (when bm was the only way to go for serious raiding, not withstanding that one surv/mm hunter for the expose). if i even tried to bring a raptor or cat to my raids my guild would tell me to get my ass back to the stables and bring a ravager. i really hated ravagers. so i think that with being bm you will be forced to bring a exotic or not come at all. maybe i was just in a retardedly strict guild; i’m sure allot of hunter know what im talking about.
i still like the idea of the Beast Master talent to give 10% more dps to all your pets, not just exotics. that way all your pets are still better than other hunters specs, but you are not restricted to exotic families to get the 10% boost. The only exotics i plan to have are the wotlk worms, spirit beast, and rhino.
i love what they have done with cats, raptors, serpents, and crabs :)
Well, to be fair there would also be reason to bring a non-exotic pet for a buff. Wolves, for instance.
On that note, a 65 gorilla, a 70 hunter, and a 65 ret pally can do Mana tombs with only a little difficulty :)
,_, Oh no, I gotta agree with Varsar here because this doesn’t exactly sound good at all. I mean I like the exotics and that will be a great boost to BMs and the talent point itself. However now Blizzard is making the cookie cutter move again because if you were BM, people would tell you to bring an exotic because they’re ‘better’ even if a normal pet had a better ability. Not only is there going to be almost a force on BMs again but I strictly remember Blizzard saying they didn’t want to make exotics too unfair or OP, and yet now they’re boosting them XD!
What is going on!
I’m a full BM Hunter. I took the exotic talent point. My main pet still is and always will be my wolf. I *do* have an exotic (chimera) with plans to get another, and while I think this buff entirely appropriate, my now useful wolf will always hold a special place in my heart. :)
I welcome this buff to exotics. More hunter changes inc as well, aspects off of the GCD, buff to Aspect of the Monkey and Aspect of the Dragonhawk (from level75) that combines the benefits of Monkey and Hawk…
hmm
i was happy to be able to use my good old cat for raiding again, but with this change i´ll probably get my devilsaur (which i already dropped of my tameming list)
not sure if i like this
i was speccing the exotic talent anyway for my rhino in northrend
If Exotics get buffed I’m fine with that, but buffing all BM pets? There’s a fine line between getting a decent talent and one that is overpowered in the eyes of those who prefer to spec MM and Surv. I like the 51 point talent how it is and I don’t want to see it buffed just for it to be completely nerfed when it gets too many complaints.
On a sidenote, thanks Mania for adding the Stable Masters and with links to all the maps too! This is going to help out now we all have more pets to switch between. :)
Ive always been BM and always will be, i would welcome the buff to exotics but that doesnt mean ill just toss my old pets to the side and only use the exotics. My cat and devilsaur are pretty close in dps and their both 65 (although i do enjoy making my devilsaur Ginormous and having people go ooooh ahhhh). My guild doesnt care what i bring to raids although our GM is afraid of bugs so wasp is out :(.
I have a Spawn of Uvoros which at lvl 69, and without any help from me or mend pet clicked, it was able to beat a lvl 70 decently geared Ret Pally friend of mine in a duel. I thought this was insane. I didn’t use any skills like Beastial Wrath, Intimidate, Mend Pet, or anything else. Just let him use his autocast skills. The one that made the biggest difference was Lick Wounds. It regened health at 2300 per tick when it got below 10% health. I couldn’t imagine hitting mend pet while that was going. 3k per tick probably. Now throw in the extra 10% damage, and I can hear the warlocks cry.
I agree, exotics were too close to normal pets in terms of ability damage. I’m happy to see my Devilsaur get even MORE damage under his belt to further separate him from normal pets.
“The second change is to some of the numbers on the special attacks of exotic pets to make sure the pets are around a 10% increase from normal pets.”
I would take this as meaning the exotic racial will do an average of 10% more then a non exotic racial. It is a nice buff but I do not think it is the massive buff allot of people are taking it to be.
How about:
The 51 point talent gets you 4 extra talent points for your pet
ALL pets receive the 10% boost* from the 51-pt talent.
[*The 10% boost could be adjusted by Blizzard to create balance]
And the Exotic pets had a non combat functionality [such as doubling as a mount].
This would give some status to owning them but would not create a NEED for them to be the only choice for raiding.
Even at 10%, and even if it were for normal pets as well, I’m really not sure that its enough of a gain to make it more attractive than Readiness. Refreshing the cooldown on Rapid Fire and Bestial Wrath, on the surface at least, seems like a bigger buff than the ~2.5% dps that +10% pet damage would bring.
Great, so they fixed the 51 BM talent.
How about they take another look at the 51 SV talent? It’s doing only marginally more damage than an untalented arcane shot. and it’s 51 points deep in SV ….
“The second change is to some of the numbers on the special attacks of exotic pets to make sure the pets are around a 10% increase from normal pets.”
I read it as saying that the numbers for special attacks will be adjusted until the pet is 10% better than a normal pet; NOT that special attacks will be increased 10%. If specials are 50% of all damage, than they will need to do 20% more damage to make the pet 10% better (in damage).
My only problem is that there is no viable exotic aoe tank to replace the gorilla. They add another tenacity exotic with an aoe threat generator and all is good.
I hope the 10% is for the species ability, along the whole ‘about the same, but err on the side of exotics’ mentality they claimed they had. Not a balance-tipping across the slate 10% damage buff. After all they dropped the bonus pet points from 5 to 4 because they thought it would let people have more options (with other trees). If every aspiring minmaxer ends up with a Rumblesaurus Rex, that is pretty much the opposite of more options.
I can understand everyones concern is with making the exotics more powerfull and the effects it will have on raids/pvp/ etc. However, WoW is a game, played for fun. I have never been told not to bring my hyena along on any raids, or dungeons (and this was before it got its nice family skill) I think that when it comes to guilds or groups that start dictating what pet a hunter should bring, the hunter should just say “No, this is my pet, this pet works great for me. Deal.” And if your guild/raid can’t understand that your pet is YOUR partner (not thiers), then tough, find a new guild/raid.
I am a BM hunter all the way, and my partner will always be my Hyena, whether anyone else likes it or not. And nobodies ever objected after seeing my pet in action. Sometimes it just takes showing what your pet can do to make people realise that “Hey, that pet is cool”
I will use the pets that work best for me whether they are exotic or not. Why? because I am a hunter, and my pet is MY partner, a part of my chatacter and I will use the ones I like.
And as for the 51-point talent, yeah, it should boost exotics because 51-point talents are suppose to be great, what you work for.
As fot Exotics over-running the games and being “Everyones” pets, its a fad…hunters are going to try out lotsa pets and eventually find one or two that hold a special place in thier hearts. I look forward to trying out all these pets, and discovering what ones are going to become part on my “Hunter family”.
Hunters like pets that:
look cool
can dish-out/take damage
has a nice speacial ability
Personality (face it, we all grow attached to our pets)
And many try to find something “Unique” (skin/species/etc)
“The second change is to some of the numbers on the special attacks of exotic pets to make sure the pets are around a 10% increase from normal pets. This should make exotic pets a reasonable benefit for the talent point (especially when you also count the bonus pet talents) without making every BM hunter feel like they are limited to just those pets.”
Ok, this 10% increase is on the “Special Attacks” of exotics
“AROUND 10% increase” from normal pets”
“Without making every BM hunter feel like they are limited to just those pets”
So this increase is just on special attack, not all exotic stats.
(so, some pets will still have other stats that are better, ie. Armor. Just because a pet can do more damage doesnt mean thats a good thing, sometimes a pet that can take alot of damage can be more usefull in those long fights and dungeons)
Not only that, but pets have become much more versatile in their training. So even two hunters with say “silithid” pets can have very different stats/skills depending on what the hunter did with the pet points and in what order. (ie. One hunter might have a silkithid with high health, and low armour, while the other hunter has a silithid with low health and high armor) And what attacks they have on auto-cast, and what attacks they have set to passive…If you get two pets of the same family of equal lv but different training and you dual them (without heals) what one wins? do they kill eachother? or does one have just the right training to beat the other?
(oh, and Varsar, Exotics ARE better, or else every hunter would be able to tame them not just BM. And I did not say “How they are better”. Bizzard is already showing us how they are better. Doesnt mean though that they will be better for everything, just that as an end point talent, they are better (then they were without the 10%).” )
JUst found a post by GC that might help everyone out:
On the exotic pets issue, I have said before that we want to be very careful with the balance here. If the pets are immensely better, then the talent becomes a non-decision (which isn’t so bad) but the exotic pets also becomes a non-decision, which means that the tree that is supposed to be all about pets has fewer options to choose from.
“At a slight dps increase, the particular pet you choose is still up for debate. On a boss where you need to go all out and the pet’s debuff isn’t imporant and survivability isn’t important, then yeah maybe you take the devilsaur or core hound. But when farming, running heroics, PvP or in other situations you still can bring which pet you want.
We did a big pass at pet dps and found that while some exotics were near the top, others were near the bottom. We made a big numbers pass to consolidate things a little better, and make sure the exotics were all near the top or at the top. Cats and other pets without a strong debuff should also do good dps as well.”
Well, lets keep in mind that if Devilsaurs currently do MORE than 10% higher dps than other pets, they’ll actually get nerfed instead of buffed
Don’t worry, Jaed, from the sounds of it its just a flat out buff to exotics, not rearranging them all to the same point.
As an exotic beast master, I am not sure what I think. I have never intended and never intend to have my entire stable filled with exotics. Right now I have three normal, two exotic, with the number changing to three exotic, two normal when wrath hits. I don’t really want to feel like I am slowing myself down by pulling out my wolf ((Newly renamed Lucretia! Yay certificate of Ownership!)) or cat.
As a side note, I have had the opportunity to test seventy PvP with the new patch, and my diagnosis is as follows:
The damage at eighty doesn’t increase a massive amount from the damage at seventy. It does go up, and you end up with larger criticals, but it isn’t world ending. That being said, everyones seventy damage has been put on Wrath levels at current. Take into consideration that no ones hit points are there. Wrath hit points are double or close to double for all classes. ((My hunter at seventy had 10,000 without to much fiddling. My hunter at eighty had 21,000.)) With that being said, people and things are dying much, MUCH faster then before. If your a healing class ((*Pets his poor, neglected holy paladin)) then this is bad. If your a healing class who didn’t get a significant damage boost *Openly pets his poor, poor neglected holy paladin)) then find the nearest DPSer, and do a whole lot of greater healing or holy lighting or whatever your big heal is. Flash of lights and lesser heals, literally, can not keep up with the insane amounts of burst.
And if you want frustration, watch as a warrior pops blade storm into a group of people. No way to stop them, as they get off no less then seven whirlwinds in six seconds, and more then likely enough hit points to survive and kill at least two people. Not cool.
paladin* * for an interesting correction…
I like the idea of just buffing BM pets a bit more. Not only do you get the extra 4 training points and exotics, but it gives a buff. 10% bonus dps to all pets. Or make it wacky and give 5% health and armor to tanks, 10% dps to ferocity, 5% health and 5% dps to cunning or something like that. That way BMs can take an exotic, but it’s not needed…then the pet abilities can be scaled to match the others.
In an early post, someone asked what exotic we’ve tamed. I’ve tamed a Chimeara and leveled it to 67 as I’ve been trying to get comfortable with all of my toons new skills. I plan on spending the next few days stricly on my hunter (main), though, and will probably go check out the Devilsaur, too (I currently have a raptor as one of my dps pets, and he and I may have to part ways lol).
Back to the exotic discussion: I really like the look and feel of my chimeara but would like to see a boost to the special attack, as it does not hit nearly as hard as I would think. On the other hand, however, the 5 second frost slowdown has been nice as I’ve pulled aggro from him a few times and it’s been nice to be able to keep my distance. But really, an exotic pet should be just that, exotic. To most people, I would think that one way of defining exotic is to say ‘different’. I dumped my first 51 points in to BM and I should get a reward for it, and a boosted pet family for me to choose from is just the ticket. Their are 7 families from which to choose, so it’s not such a cookie cutter decision at this point. I tend to do PVP more than instances, so I am considering the special skills as part of the whole picture (I will keep my steady-eddie cat for instances and tame a wolf for raids) as I’ve typically used an owl for PVP. Which is better, the disarm for 6 seconds, the web or pin for 4 seconds, or the frost for 5 seconds? Combined with intimidation, that gives me a very good escape option from the pesky rogues who always hide lol.
My two cents is that I’m glad to hear about this. Yes, I believe that devilsaurs will probably be a dime a dozen, but their are other options for other types of players, as well. The 51 talent giving us a new family type should also give BM an added bonus.
As for AotV, I found last night that it regenerated mana at a sick rate, honestly. The dilema now becomes learning how to use it in conjuncture with other aspects and knowing when to switch between them.
Can I just completely echo what Makoes said – I’ve never had a cat or a ravager, neither of them float my boat and I’m in, admittedley a casual raiding guild but I never get told what pet i have to bring. I use a my Wolf, a Rapotor and a Owl for raiding cos i like them, simple as. I’m usually top or second in the hunter dps too.
I just really really hope we don’t get into the situation where all hunters feel they have to ahve the same one pet again – it would be such a shame after all Blizz has done with pets if they undermine it at the final hurdle.
Yes make Exotics a bit special but not in such a way that makes non-exotics poorer for it.