Expansion Pet Families
I am fascinated by Cataclysm, the upcoming WoW expansion, because it represents a very different sort of expansion. Most MMO expansions change the world by adding new content to the edges of the world. Sure, some of that new content may be for low levels (especially new races), some may be meant to fill in holes in the middle levels, but the majority of it is usually intended for the upper levels. That division helps separate the old and new content in very obvious ways.
But Cataclysm will be restructuring the oldest part of WoW enormously. That clean division of old and new content … not so clean anymore. Now I’m an old hand at MMOs, but I’m not entirely sure what to expect from this one. And that goes double for how and where new pet families may be introduced.
Pet families have never been explicitly limited by expansion — only by the level and location. For example, moths and wasps were added in Wrath of the Lich King but can be tamed by a hunter with only the Burning Crusade because they occur in Outland.
Chimaeras and silithids, on the other hand, can be tamed by any level 60 hunter, whether they have any expansions or not, because they occur in old Azeroth. (True, you need Beast Mastery to tame them, but talents are available to all hunters, and you can get Beast Mastery at level 60 if you plan carefully.)
How is this going to work when the old and new content are so thoroughly intermingled? Gilneas and the goblin starter area will probably be set off, much like the Draenei islands and the blood elf area, but it sounds like the majority of changes will happen in commonly accessible areas. Does this mean that if we get new pet families, they will be largely available to all hunters? Or will we see new families only in the explicit expansion areas?
Let’s take a look at the history so far. When it launched, WoW included 17 pet families:
- Bats
- Bears
- Boars
- Carrion Birds
- Cats
- Crabs
- Crocolisks
- Gorillas
- Hyenas
- Owls (now Birds of Prey)
- Raptors
- Scorpids
- Spiders
- Tallstriders
- Turtles
- Wind Serpents
- Wolves
Patch 2.0 and the Burning Crusade expansion added 6 pet families — an increase of about 35% — for a total of 23:
- Dragonhawks
- Nether Rays
- Ravagers
- Serpents
- Sporebats
- Warp Stalkers
Patch 3.0 and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion added 9 more — an increase of about 39% — for our current total of 32 pet families:
- Chimaeras
- Core Hounds
- Devilsaurs
- Moths
- Rhinos
- Silithids
- Spirit Beasts
- Wasps
- Worms
On a purely historical basis, we might expect another 10-12 pet families (an increase of about 31%-38%) from Patch 4.0/Cataclysm. Or we might get no new pet families at all …
At this point we really have no idea how Blizzard will draw the line between Patch 4.0 content — available to everyone — and Cataclysm expansion content proper. And that means that we don’t really know how the new pet families — if there are any — will be available and at what levels.
I’m really looking forward to finding out. (Hint, hint, Blizzard — send me a beta invite ASAP! Or even better, an alpha invite!) In the meantime, though, the best we can do is speculate endlessly and with great passion.
146 Comments
Not really many new lands so I reakon maybe 4-7 new families however a tamable druid would be nice.
What I would like to see is BM made really worthwhile to take, with pet abilities that are only available to a BM who has spent the talent points. Not just access to some more pet families, and an extra few talent points for the pets, but some genuinely unique abilities made available, either by talents unlocked, or specifics for exotic pets.
I believe (though it won’t be a new family) that they will make those.. erm.. blue-hounds in the forsaken starting area tamable in the wolf family. They already have a similar model tamable, but now I think (just to increase what the undead can tame to start with) that those old hounds will suddenly become tamable as wolves.
I also have a feeling that basalisks will become a new tamable family, or if not a new family, shoved in with the crocolisks. They are numerous, come in many colors, and found all throughout Azeroth.
I can of course have wild dreams about stallions, stags, and zhevras all getting shoved together into a new pet family… but those are just dreams, and I don’t think they’ll come true. Likweise, I can have dreams about hippogryphs and windriders, but again – I seriously doubt.
If BM were made to work right.. IE.. The pet would have to burden the most agro and be able to keep it off the hunter and act more along the lines of an off tank.. Meaning a sever increase in health and armor stats and more.. Realistically speaking, if your being chewed on by a guard dog; most of your attention will be on getting it off you.. Now in the game, pet goes in and the hunter gets off 1-3 shots and the enemy heads staright at the hunter without a thought to the pet still biting on it, as tho it’s not even there. Personnaly speaking; most of the BM skills as they are now, realy do nothing other than allowing the taming of exotics.. What Blizz needs to do is unhook most if not all skills; infact get rid of the 3 tree system all together and allow hunter’s to excell by being hunter’s..IE Guns, traps and pets.. Why can’t hunter’s accell at all? Anyway, my rant is done for now.. Oh and Blizz.. MORE PET SLOTS!!!!!.. I would rather be able to choose more pets to fight with, than have all these useless mounts and “Cosmetic” pets!!
Hydras please. (not the hydralisk, though i do love seeing him once in a while.) That is all. =p
Hippogryphs,Stags, Zehvras and Giraffes need to be tameable. Enough said. I am tired of waiting Blizzard, how many years must I wait before I can kill someone with a zebra!?
Oh and maybe shoveltusks too, I’d love to hit an undead with that XD
oh oh oh and those cute foxes better be a vanity pet or tameable. Or I’ll ’splode all over da wall D=
foxes? what foxes? oO
well i think just 3-4 new families would be enough we have so much choice today, they should better continue to balance them and give us 5 additional stable slots :)
Hydras. Stags. Gnomes.
I think;
1. Hippogriffs
2. Zehvra’s
3. Giraffes
4. Shoveltusks
5. Clefthoofs
6. Elekks
7. Kodo’s
8. Stormhides
9. Hydra’s
10. Mana wyrms
11. Stags
12. Wyverns
13. Mage Hunters (demon dogs)
I think that fits your projections Mania? All those would make viable pets and could easily be placed into the current family system, or and future revisions of it (please revise it blizz?) that may come around.
On a side note I’d love to see the demonology spec of warlocks get a real tame too. And pet renaming…
I really hope they add dogs as tameable pets.
I’m not holding my breath for the gnomes palla. But then again, Blizz does seem to hate them. After all, their home city is still ruled by a lvl 28 elite…
*Chuckles* That was mostly a joke. And Ethgri, Gnomeragan is being reclaimed come Cataclysm.
Frankly, I am surprised that they are not keeping the old content in some form, like they do with the other phased-in stuff. It would be AMAZING to hav the cataclysm happen when you hit 80, or something like that.
Then again, they may realize they have maxed out on players to an extent, and a lot of people want stuf that is fresh from level 1, not the same stale stuff.
Maybe we will get to revisit pre-cataclysm Azeroth in the Caverns of Time :)
Aww… I loved that nearly forgotten little fact. Ah well, guess we’ll have a new pint-sized stop on the [For The Horde] achievement. Maybe this means trolls will get their own giant village too? They could easily work that into them learning to be druids and all.
*Palla* Gnomers getting reclaimed????? where’d you here that from? its about time!! lol.
also, cataclysm will be overhauling the graphics of Wow, I hope that pet details come in line with the graphics of the new druid models. So even if we don’t get to many new pets/families it might still seem like we do with new pet graphics.
I’v also heard that they will be introducing something new, in reguardes to say, pet dogs. That you will be able to have a full sized dog for a pet (not hunter pet) similar but not the same as a vanity pet.
I am hoping that they come out with some new snazzy pets, as well as indroduce pre-exsisting beast families into the tamable variety.
blizz alrdy announced that Zehvra’s will be tamable
I actually think it has to do with the Goblins having a home City, but the worgen just having dog houses in Stormwind. A balance, if you will.
If you look at the lore that Blizz is introducing in Cataclysm, a lot of it seems to be directed towards Elementals and their various homelands. Blizzard has already released concept art for a volcano-turtle looking thing called a Volcanoth, so I’m wondering if a lot of the brand spankin’ new families that we’ve never seen before are going to be beasts of a more elemental nature…
I’m also wondering if somewhere down the line Blizzard is going to start mixing NPC types with beasts. Example: Lots of people want the demon hounds from Tirisfal Glades. Right now we have Demons and we have Beasts as separate types, so we can’t tame them, but it doesn’t make sense for them not to count as Demons either. What if they start combining them into “Demon Beasts” that count as both? Or “Elemental Beasts” when Cataclysm comes out? Then we can start taming helboars or volcano-turtles or whatever else they’ve got cooking up in their heads.
Chickens! Chickens should be tamable. I really want El Pollo Grande! lol Blizz should make him tamable. That would rock.
For the record, I still think Oozes should be tameable too. Their family skill could be filling your opponents bags with vendor trash. ;)
GIANT CHICKEN? SIGN ME UP.
Everybody take a look at wow wiki beasts page.
From there you can pick a bunch of families that could be in-game already. I’ll list my favourites(that ain’t tamable yet):
- Hydras(mandatory);
- Beetles;
- Mana wyrms(too cool to be missed);
- Spore walkers(yes, they are classified as beast. Most of them, at least);
- Basilisks(they could be merged with crocolisks?);
- Thunder Lizards.
- Shoveltusks(just as Rikaku said)
Also, i think some families shouldn’t be tameable, but only mountable. I don’t really see a point on having a zevra, a giraffe or a horse, as a pet, but it’s reasonable as a mount. Same goes for clefthooves, elleks, hipogryphs and all the other families that are already mountable, but not tameable.
Diemetradons are too ugly, same goes for pterrordaxes(they’d be worse than all the curent flying pets on raids).
Frenzies and Sharks, obviously, can’t go outside water (I’d love a hovering shark tho O.o)
Give Talbuks.
That is all. I don’t care about any other families, just let me tame a Talbuk.
Ross:
Blizzard said zhevra’s might be a possibility for Cataclysm. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s 100% for sure we get zhevra’s though. I mean, look at Moths. They were originally aimed at TBC release, but weren’t tameable til Wrath.
Seryths:
There are fox creatures that were discovered at some german coverage of Cataclysm I believe. I think you can see one of the pics somewhere on petopia’s forums.
Narasalu:
YES OMG I WANT A TALBUK!!!
awww, I like the other dinos in Un’goro. Love to see ‘em tameable.
I’d looooooove to see Scarabs/Workers/Beetles tamable to go with Scorpions. Would look awesome, and they could burrow and surprise opponents in pvp and crap! Or launch an opponent vertically with their mandibles or something. Kinda like those huge worms in Hellfire Penn…
Bucks getting a mass family (Shoveltusks, Talbucks, Bucks, Mammoths, Elephants) would be cool. Or just add them to the Rhino family since the Rhino special has become so general, boring, interchangable. Might as well stick Boars with them too, anything with a tendency to charge headstrong.
I recall hearing word that they wanted to generalize the family skills so that the pet skin was more of a choice – would make sense to have bunched groups like Chargers, Insects, etc. And have you choose a tree and a particular family special for a group.
Phoenix please :)
Saranette’s idea made me think that yeah. There should be those tameable too.
Deer Family:
Talbuks, Shoveltusks, and Stags.
Elephant:
Elekks & Mammoths (there’s quite a variety of them =D)
Rhinos:
Should have Clefthooves moved into this category. Perhaps Kodos added into the family as well (since they’re descendants of Clefthooves supposedly). Make it like the “Birds of Prey” family that incorporated Owls into the not-so-owlish family.
No-idea-for-a-name:
Pterodactyls and those thunder lizards, and those other wierd stegos in Un’goro. That’d rule.
Anyways thats just off the top of my head.
I want a stegosaurus now….
Most likely will never get your deer/horse pets, those animals aren’t so prone to violence. They good people.
Spritedarter
Elekk/Kodo
Clefthoof=Rhino
Thunderlizard/Stego
Pterrordax
Basilisk=Crocolisk
Diemetradon
Of course new spirit beasts
If they go underwater pets we need Hydra and Threshadon, altho Id love a pet Frenzy.
Actually Humongous, they have already said that zervera were a possibility in game. So don’t count them out yet.
Course I just REALLY want a stag for a pet.
Hydralisk could totally be a spirit beast. Most “ghost” animals should ^^.
Btw, thx for fixing my comment Mania.
…….hydras aren’t…..ghost animals. Oh sure the tameable version was some what ghostly, but most hydras just aren’t. I’d rather have them be their own family, and not a rip of the spirit beast family. Or the ambiguous family, if you will.
Aw crap, since we’re teorycrafting, i’ll trow some more ideas in the fan. I always wanted to discuss this topic, but it sounded silly in my mind some months ago.
- I think makruras shouldn’t be humanoids. They should just be from “lobster” family ^^;
- Engineer-Hunters should be able to craft a mechanical pet, a battle one, for instance.
- Just stumbled on Rock Flayers. They are humanoid, but would make an awsome pet.
- MOAR wasp skins. There’s a lot of slithid wasp skins untameable. Makes me so sad, always wanted a white wasp
@ Palladiarmors: I meant just that ghostly hydra that acted like a crocolisk. Afterall, now we have “cats” and “wolves” as spirit beasts ^^
But i guess i get your point. SB are somehow unique. Just throwing “spiritual” animals in the family isn’t nice. Soz
Palla:
I think Chico meant specifically “Ghost Hydra”. Mania once referred to it as “Hydralisk” & “Crocoslime” and the names stuck.
But personally, I wouldn’t want the ghost pets in game to move into a “spirit beast” family. I like my ghost wolf, ghost saber, and I’m sure others like their slimes & hydras the way they are. XD
You know what I want them to do for Cataclysm especially though (and I’m curious as to your thoughts Palla since you provide a pvp insight so maybe it’ll pertain? I dunno)?
Make COMMON Spirit Beasts.
WAIT WAIT! ALL YOU SPAWN CAMPERS WITH PITCHFORKS PUT EM DOWN D= Hear me out first!!
I don’t mean I want a bunch of Loque’s and Skolls just spawning around in The Barrens. But perhaps, make new models (or recolors) in such a way, that the current spirit beasts keep their “unique” looks. But say in…Abyssal Maw (I’m just picking randomy names by the way), theres a pack of Spirit beasts that live in the area who look like Loque but have Black fur with white spots and red eyes.
If that made any sense…
The reason I mention this is because specifically the SB family is the only pet family in-game that is purely rare-spawns. Because of this they are the only pet family whose DPS is kept in check because Blizzard doesn’t want a “somewhat superior pet ** ” being rare. So it’s because of their rare-status that Spirit Beasts get shanked.
** By somewhat superior, I’m making a reference to how Exotics play in comparison to a “sister” family. Example being Devilsaur > Raptor, Silithid > Spider.
Now I know Exotics are supposed to be “kept in check” since Blizzard thinks that forcing players into “that one pet” is bad (and yet its an unsolvable issue, but thats a blog for another day). Exotics are meant to be a slight upgrade for those who want more pet families and 4 extra pet talent points.
But doesn’t it seem odd that just one of those families is kept in an even stricter line just because of what the family contains? Even if their DPS isn’t upgraded, it still seems silly to have a family compromised of pure rares.
But maybe that’s me.
the fox-thingy’s…wasnt that the Female worgen models? they have a somewhat more Vulpin appearence then male Lupin models.
I would love a Talbuk for a pet! (we already can tame raptors, cats, bears etc and they are mounts as well) spiritdarters, lol I remember the first time I ran into one, the first thing I did was beastlore to see if I could tame it! Sadly no…but heck, they’d be on my tame list if they become available!
I was trying out Perfect world International (a free MMO), and they have an interesting take on the aquatic pet aproach. while on land you can use a land based animal that you tamed, and only when your in water can you use a water based creature you’ve tamed. (terrestrial pets cant be used in water, and aquatic pets cont be used on land.) I actually really liked it.
Makoes:
No, I mean real foxes, not Worgen. There are foxes in the game, in cataclysm anyways. I’m not insane. I’ll find a link… XD
http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/1842/fox01.jpg
Fix the spaces if you want, I just didn’t want it to get moderated. XD
Anyways that is the fox I am talking about. One of our forum users (Faehl) took the pictures at PAX, which was a convention shortly after Blizzcon.
So pic credit goes to Faehl, not me. Other pictures include a Mastiff from the Worgen area as well. Can be found in out “Pet Discussion” forums.
I actually agree with you about spirit beasties, Rikaku, and I think I’ve mentioned that before. If spirit beasts really offered something that made them a cut above the rest aside from looks and an odd combination of family abilities, it’d be one thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Aracia with a passion, but she doesn’t do as much damage as my wolf, my cat, OR my devilsaur. She is an absolutely gorgeous show-case piece that I use out of loyalty, to my newest addition. That and I think the moonfire thingie gets on the hordes nerves…..
So give us a little pack of spirit beasts that hang around some where in Storm peaks, or have it make more sense, and make the offspring of Har’Koa be spirit beasts. As some one who searched for six months for a spirit beast, I am not going to begrudge other people the chance at having one easier.
You know, I’ve just thought of an…..interesting way to buff spirit beasts. Give them each their family ability ((Replace cat’s prowl with rake)) and spirit strike. I realize that we just have two families of spirit beastie right now, but if they do continue to produce spirit beasts of different families, and they all just have prowl and spirit strike, then it’s just going to be boring. By giving them each their family ability as well it puts them a step above the norm as far as damage dealing goes, and might got a long way towards buffing beast mastery in general.
Palla:
You know I was thinking that too when I ran earlier with my Hunter. Skoll + Fur. Howl + Spirit Strike….Holy crap we’d have an awesome contender.
Then that thought was wiped away when the bad Warrior yelled at me saying my pet “had” to have growl on because he’s “never seen a pet generate that much threat”. He argued with me, the Hunter, that my Growl was on…
Wow…just wow…
*Pats Rikaku* And just think! In a few months you won’t have cower to help deal with said stupidity!
Palla:
………….. #$%&^!!! &^*(^ &%^(&%&%$!! !@$#$!!!
Holy crap…..the sulfur off of that profanity melted my hand!! MY HAND!!!
*Coughs* Uh, done with that. But yea…..that’s one reason I don’t PvE anymore. The number of stupid people increased exponentially, and I seem to have run out of patience for them. My advice is pray that your guild suddenly really doesn’t mind you running with them bunches more…..to avoid the sheer amounts of stupidity your going to get hit with otherwise.
They have those strange little plant things in the goblin trailer. Its a long shot and doubtful, but maybe they’ll be tameable. There will be new skins for raptors and there are dodo birds,but no word as of yet if they can be tamed.
Well I hope they make new pets and not get lazy and make a bunch of old ones tameable!!
I would love to see a triceratops could go in rhino class another snake not cobra but constrictor class how about a giant wolverine or badger?? spinosaurus or stego would be neat or an anklyosaurus the dino’s that look like tanks with the big club tails?? sorry the deers and giraffes are what i feed my pets but i dont want one as a pet thats just me tho.. there are lots of possibilities out there all blizz has to do is look in any animal book for new beasts
I would say more prehistoric pets are gonna be the way to go since it seems we are going into “forgotten” areas under azeroth so more dino pets will make alot of sense as well as more feral forms of current families.
@Palla: Blizz made a deliberate design choice to keep spirit beasts as “trophy” pets rather than min/max pets. They’re targeted more at the non-raiding audience than the min/max crowd (i.e. a present for folks that play more like Mania – mostly just looking for fun things to do in game rather than looking to improve their raiding or PvP effectiveness).
Min/maxers are free to tame one anyway, of course, but they’re likely to end up disappointed since other more easily obtained pets will prove more effective.
Nimizar:
The problem is though, Min/maxers are not the majority of the audience. The point Palla was trying to make wasn’t necessarily “SB need to be top DPS pets”. It was more along the lines of how to “buff” SB’s in a variety of ways. The problem with them now is that their Spirit Strike ability isn’t scaling properly. That doesn’t matter if they’re trophy pets or not, a pet family shouldn’t be hampered because of Blizzard’s inability to scale an arcane pet ability properly.
Furthermore, the point was mostly made as a response to the fact that SB are even more hindered just because Blizzard thinks “trophy pet” which is a stupid title at best. For min/maxers, anything that’s not a wolf is basically a trophy pet because if you’re not SV and using a wolf, you’re not playing Hunter properly (or so thats how 99.9% of min/maxer’s look at it).
Even if it’s deliberate, it doesn’t mean Blizzard made a wise decision. Making a whole family rare isn’t necessarily fun. You can have “trophy pets” without making an entire family rare (See Old Cliff Jumper, Araga, Aotona, Nuramoc, and King Krush just to name a few examples). So Blizzard’s idea of a trophy family (in my opinion) was stupid and bad from the get go.
Trophy pet IN a family? Yes, good idea.
Trophy family? No, bad idea.
The problem is it shouldn’t matter if it’s top DPS or the lowest DPS. SB’s are quirked by the idea of “trophy pet = rare pet = too hard to get to make good dps” (which is a purposely created problem) and the Arcane Pet ability scaling problem (which isn’t purposely created). There is *no* justification for such problems thrown onto a pet family, even if you think SB are stupid, not worth taming or otherwise.
Thinking up beast families isn’t all there is they also pet skills
so i’m thinking
Basilisk – sleep or stun gaze
Stag – some kind of disarm effect
Hydra – some kind of nature DOT
Mana Wyrm – a mana drain
Thunder lizards – lightning breath
It would also be awsome but unlikely to make Dragon welps or drakes tamable.
I idle away for a couple days, new mania thread and almost 50 posts lol. Skimming thru some posts;
YAY MORE HYDRA LOVE GIVE HYDRA’S LOVE yesyesyes. Let’s make a petition to get them finally classified as beasts/exotics.
And;
‘Most likely will never get your deer/horse pets, those animals aren’t so prone to violence. They good people. ‘
Actually, get them at the wrong time and they ARE prone to it. Stags/Bucks/Deer, can be violent at times. And Horses can be violent too, stallions, wild horses, a stallion that’s caught wind of a mare in estrus.
I mean I saw a vid where a dumb owner got bit on her ‘chest’ and thrown by a mare who didn’t want the dumb owner near foal so yeah.
And besides MOTHS. We can tame MOTHS.
VICIOUS MOTHS.
8D
and Foxes, tameable Foxes? I MUST HAVE. THIS MUST BE MADE TO HAPPEN. HYDRA AND FOXES.
Rocks my soxes.
Anyways we know that Blizz has hinted to Zehvra becoming tameable; so that means they have to be looking at more species to make tameable. And if they finally gave in and made devilsaurs tameable, which I have heard is really the one per everyone wanted to tame- because admit it, who wouldn’t want to have a giant omnomsaur, even for five minutes?
And people have been clamoring for Hydra, Basilisks, Talbuks, Zehvra’s, etc etc for as long as the rest- and there’s also the Dimetradons and the Terrodax.
And Liduen; pet skills aren’t so hard to think up really.
Mean Talbuks, Rams [I WANT RAMS TOO DARNIT] and Shoveltusks, wether DPS or Tenacity, could have a Rend skill [which COULD possibly make good on Rhino's BLEED+ skill], and could work about the same as the raptor’s bleed skill [which probably would also work good in tandum with a Rhino?], but maybe a bit differently, like 40sec cd, bleeds for xx seconds, and the bleed damage can crit- to make up for no +boost to the dmg like Raptor’s rend does.
Hydra: the nature DoT does seem to fit well with most Hydra’s spewing poisonous venom, or an ability which includes all three heads, maybe hitting multiple targets, kinda like a Cleave ability? Aka Hydra attacks main target with main head- other two heads bite the two closest enemies OR the main target if no one is near.
Mana Wyrm having a mana drain might work, but, I would want something more like the priests ability to drain mana, as well, how useful would it be to drain mana with no side damage? With side damage atleast it would work on non caster mobs or classes. Hopefully.
Basilisks having a 2-3 sec stun would actually be good; maybe Thunder Lizards LB breath could have a 20/30% chance to daze the target or cause paralysis.
The possibilities are endless really.
And @ Rikaku or in responce to what she said.. or well support … or well just my thoughts on what she was replying to really. An entire trophy family is really well redundant and silly. Cause mean all my pets are trophies, and not really because of their status, like say for Jareth. He’s not King Krush, but he was Mosh, and have you tried to tame Mosh? While lv 70? With no fear ward OR +haste for the tame?
O_o I mean I just tried last night on an orc and he just kept smishing me so I decided fine I’m gonna kill you- but I managed on Ryai; I managed to tame a beast that couldn’t be trapped or cc’d, with no aid from anyone, who hit hard even on a 70, and randomly fears.
Blizz has it wrong if they think making Spirit Beasts shiny trophies just because they’re ‘hard to tame’, cause as I said, punishing a whole pet family because of raiding hunters who would be abused- punishes us all because Blizzard thinks it’s their right to decide ‘what is a trophy’ and ‘what isn’t a trophy’ because blizzard decided ‘they should meddle in the affairs of guilds’ when to be frank, they don’t do anything anywhere else. As they state, they don’t mess with gankers, griefers, corpse campers, anything of that ilk- and if you are reciving harassments from a guild, wouldn’t you A: leave or B: be used to it…?
Like I said last time.
And like Rikaku said, as everyone knows SV/MM uses CATS and WOLVES- seriously that’s all I see. Well ofc I see the ocassional owl/carrion bird/raptor/random exotic, but yeah the majority is wolves/cats, so again, why punish a WHOLE FAMILY- or instead why not make COMMON spirit beasts? Leave Loque, STD cat and Skoll rare, but introduce some fairly common/uncommon skins, maybe not with persay Loque’s model as, sorry Rikaku have to disagree with you there, Loque is the mate of erf, Lokara? or well anyways, he’s a spechul cat of spechulness that was punted to hide out in the Basin :p so no don’t want to see recolors of his skin.
[tho I rp my Jupiter as actually a redemed cub lol]
But, spirit beast wolves, cats, and possibily a few others COULD be put ingame. Mean there’s the ghost saber- and no no before you jump on me, I’m not saying to make it into an SB, I’m using it as an example. Of how it’s different from the norm, but still unique and ghostly. And that’s what spirit beasts are about, either by being SPIRITS like STD cat OR in the case of Skoll and Loque, DEMI GODS. or children of demi gods- and has everyone forgotten the OTHER STD like cat models thrown out?
Now granted I know not everyone would be pleased if the other models became the common creatures, but still it is better than nothing, and while I did detest STD cat at first, it has, started to slightly, grow on me.
And besides doesn’t PUNISHING SB dps also PUNISH hunters? Because not every hunter comes to petopia- sure there are some that come here, but you would be amazed on my server how many people DON’T know of petopia untill I tell them- or well er think that it’s a USER.
So they won’t ever know they’re using a subpar pet, or wonder why the irksome players giggle at them cruelly.
Besides, Skoll, STD and Loque aren’t that hard to tame- alright alright don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, yes I know they’re hard to find, and incredibly so, but once you do find them and no one tries to grief you, are they really so hard to tame? They don’t fear you like Mosh or Dred or Krush can/will. They don’t vanish and teleport like Snarler does. They DON’T phase invisable and break tame beast like a warpstalker will EVEN WHEN TRAPPED.
So yes they’re hard to find- but not hard to tame.
Which once again proves Blizzard has some messed up thinking if, instead of making COMMON/UNCOMMON spirit beast skins, they instead nerfbat an entire pet family. Which is ridiculous imo.
Er, I think Rikaku and Ryai covered me. I think that an ENTIRE pet family of rare spawns not being better at what they do is utterly ridiculous. People are STILL hunting around for those silly things, for gods sake…..
Of course, keep in mind that when Wrath launched, there was exactly ONE spirit beast on a twelve hour timer who despawned after an hour, and who had an achievement and rare loot attached to him. Great idea, Blizzard! Make him the most heavily camped spawn EVER! Man, why didn’t I think of that……? BECAUSE IT’S A BAD IDEA!!!! An ENTIRE PET FAMILY, represented in ONE place ((Or rather like, SIX places all over the danged map)) and hunted by everyone, their mother, their sister, AND THE FAMILY DOG.
If they aren’t going to make them easier to catch, the LEAST they can do is make them more effective. This ‘trophy pet nerf’ BS is just stupid.
And sorry Ryai, but I have to agree with Rikaku. If they were to use a skin it should be Loques, owning to it being the only unique skin of tameable pet. Different color, but definitely that look.
As a double, some where along the way Blizzard got ‘difficult tame’ and ‘time consuming tame’ confused.
Palla guess Loque model will be something we’ll have to agree to disagree on :p
And yeah, it’s like, they’ve NEVER tried to tame something really, that was an absolute challenge to tame solo [IE the Saur trio or Snarler] or un CCable pets etc.
And wait Loque despawns? O_o
One of the thoughts that has occurred to me is whether we will _lose_ any pet skins or families. After all, if the world is undergoing a change of a Cataclysmic scale, who’s to say that some of the zones where particular pets live may no longer suit those pets.
For example the scorpid skin found in The Barrens (http://www.wow-petopia.com/html/mobs/mob_silithidcreeper.html) is unique to The Barrens, and we know that The Barrens is going to undergo significant change – so surely there is a chance that these scorpids won’t live there any more.
Just a thought.
Caeralan.
@ 49,
While I would LOVE a whelp, drake, or dragonkin, they can’t because they are sentinent beings that talk and think. Not to bring the whole worgen discussion up, but if you tamed a creature that could talk back and say, “Look. I’m tired of running off and getting pummeled. G’bye.” You’d have trouble. Tht, and dragons were quite helpful in numerous wars. Would you turn on your allies and make them your permanant meatshields if you could? :3
Whelp mini pets, mounts, etc work because, by a RP/Lore standview, they’re offering their services. When you “tame” a pet, however, you’re forcing it to stand by your side.
Really, it can go either ways. Besides, don’t you think an Emberstrife by your side would be a smidge OP? :3
Pft.
I’d want Onyxia. 310% mount my shiny white buttons, I’d have a tank, dps and flying pet/mount all at the same time.
I CAN DREAM 8D
Ok reading through all these comments has been intresting, alot of ranting about the spirit beast,but who doesn’t. I read some where that blizzard wanted to add more class quests to the game to make each class feel special. What i think blizzard will do is create hunter quests to tame new beasts. Lets say we get 5 unique pets. Call them the Cataclysm Beasts and then at the end of it we get to only choose one of the 5 when we hit 85. I think alot of people are wanting pets as everyone has mentioned above but i feel blizzard want every hunter to have its own somewaht indiviuallity.
There’s the rumor that Zhevras will become tameable. And if that happens, hopefully the Stags and Talbuks will become tameable as well. They could have Double Kick as their family attack (strike with both front feet at the same time, damage + an effect, maybe a brief stun or disorientation), or Impale (skewer the foe with their horns/antlers, dealing damage and a bleed or sunder armor).
Personally, I’d like to see Diemetradons and Pterrodaxes become tameable (as part of the Bat and Crocolisk families, respectively), as well as Mammoths (Ferocity, with Tusk Sweep as their family skill, knocks the enemy off its feet for a second or two). And Blizzard must add new skins and/or models for existing pet families. I’m still hoping for a Spinosaurus model in the Devilsaur family.
But er Mitsuhide, Spinosaurs -aren’t- T-rex’s, they’re a different family entirely. Yeah yeah I know minor details when there’s 4 species of wolf grouped under the same name, but, Spinosaur’s aren’t even related to a Rex, that’d be like saying a Rex is a Raptor… like I did see someone in Un’goro say last night.
If, and I mean IF they introduce a Spinosaurus, it’d probably be it’s own family/own unique model/skin.
I mean I could, note could, see it maybe happening for the goblin island if they’re gonna take from the lost world/jurassic park to that extent, but I’d not want it dubbed ‘Devilsaur’.
Mean strange enough Owls and Hawks are grouped up together O_o
I think I’m on my own with this one, but I would love to see the Fen Striders of Zangarmarsh tameable.
Oh, and Hydras too. :P
No Ryai. Loque doesnt despawn, he just isent lucky enough to NOT have some farmer find and kill him. Same with the other two in the same area.
Someone up here mentioned they was hopeing for the pets models to be updated like the druids…i do not! i love the look of the old world wolves, hyenas, cats, raptors, bears. And i actually miss the old druid catforms and got sad when i discovered that i could not chose from the old and the new model. Not saying the new forms doesnt look good. they do, but i find the NE form to look to…soft. i miss that pointy, sharp and dangerous look of the old form.
but i would enjoy to see more animations in the old models, like blinking eyes, muzzle wrinkle or something when sniffing the ground. and good old wolves not snarling 100% of the time. but new models of old models. no. do not want.
for new pet families. there is a few old ones id like to finaly see tameable.
Pterrordaxes first of all. ive wanted one ever sins my first step in un guru.
Bassilsks.
Old world wasps. why arent those marked as beast yet anyway?! :l
Hydras.
Hippogrypsh and windriders..not gonna happen but i want one >:
the sweet sweet mana wurm looking dragonkins in northrend. ok they might have the face of a dragon but they act like beast. in my eyes they arent anny different the Chimerah. and that one could easily go for a dragon.
Sharks and Frenzys…just cause theyr awsome.. engineres could possibly fix up something to make it work…lol
personaly i cant see girafes, stag and zebras as pets. they just seem like peacefull animals that rather flee than fight in my eye.
I agree though with the SB been of only rare, hard to find and tame beasts are crap. i HAVE hunted and tamed all 3 but an entire familiy of rares that isent even one of the top dps pets is stupid. an exotic pet SHOULD be a slight upgrade from its closest…relative if you want. A devilsaur is easy to get and one of the best dps pets. while the SB beeing one of the hardest to find but dps easily beaten by you regular non exotic pets..
Dakaran-
gasp! i forgot about those!
do want Fen striders!
want!
Ryai & Palla:
Actually Ryai, I was more making an example. That wasn’t my stance on “making spirit beasts common”. I was more trying to make a point that there’s a variety of ways they can make common spirit beasts without threatening Loque, Gondria, and Skoll’s uniqueness. Option 1: Re-color the current SB’s and make those recolors common. Option 2: Make completely new SB’s that are unique and common.
I just want SB’s for everyone! I think it’s a little unfair that these SB’s are hard for Hunters who maybe don’t have time to camp a heavily camped (on some servers, at some times) rare spawn due to real life priorities.
Now my opinion, personally? (And Ryai, sorry in advance, but I agree on the right to disagree peacefully =) ) I think Loque would make an awesome re-color but only because I freaking love that model. That long tail, those big feet…it reminds me of a beanie baby on crack that fires lasers XD But I can see how people wouldn’t want those models being used and that’s cool too.
Just, cmon Blizz. Make some unique SB’s that are common. use those 2 other spectral tiger models that are different colors like Gondria. That’s already in-game files, it’s not *that* hard D=
COMMON SPIRIT BEASTS FOR EVERYONE!!!!
ok I’m done. Sorry, just the whole “rare” family makes me wanna punch a DK.
I have no doubt there will be new pets. Blizzard knows how pets energize the hunter community, they would be foolish to ignore how much longer players like mania and the rest of us here stay interested with new pets on the docket.
thank for the picture rikaku
but i ´cant see those foxes as a combat pet :/
vanity yeah why not but biting or clawing at deathwing? i think he would just laugh
maybe foxes will be the “standard” non-combat pets for worgen, like moths for draenei or snakes for orcs
I’ve been considering all the changes happening to Azeroth, and I’m pretty sure a lot of our old pets won’t exist in a revamped world. The Ghost Saber doesn’t have a fighting chance at staying, considering Darkshore is officially getting revamped from the earthquake and they weren’t quite intended to be pets initially.
I’m personally grabbing some of the unique Azeroth skins on alt hunters to ensure they remain the the game :)
I really hope blizzard adds more pet families. At least a handfull or so. I would also like to see pets of each family, given an ability that works, and makes sense, in both a pve and pvp aspect. When blizz leaned towards pet normalization, I dont think they intended on hunters just using a wolf for pve, or a crab/spider for pvp.
The wild versions of each family, has several abilites they can use. It should not be a big issues to guive each pet family an extra ability to fill in any void that leaves them out of certain portions of this game.
Pet leveling really needs to go too !!
Rae:
I doubt the Ghost Saber is in too much danger. Auberdine is the area hardest hit by Cataclysm for the Darkshore region. Shadowclaw, a nearby stealthed rare just north of Auberdine…yeah he might be in trouble but his skin isn’t unique. However, Ghost Saber is still at the ruins up north. Far up north. In fact, there might be some change to make that area more of a quest hub since that village of Trolls (Shadowspear I think it’s called) will become available to travelers.
Is there a possibility that Ghostsaber is gone? Yes, I’m not a Blizzard expert so I can’t say for sure. But to Blizzard’s credit, when they revamped zones, they *rarely* took away any unique skins from taming. When Dustwallow Marsh was revamped, we didn’t lose any unique skins. When they re-did Skettis, again no loss of unqiue skins. Revamp of Ogri’la area DID remove the red warpstalkers that were once there, but remember, those guys were never tameable as they were lvl 71+ as long as they existed in that region.
Now another example would be Barrens. Barrens is gonna get torn up in Cataclysm, but there’s not really any skins “in danger”. Humar has Pitch, Echeyakee has Sian Rotam, and just about every other Barrens animal is found at other levels.
So I do think Blizz does keep some thought of Hunter’s in their thoughts.
Now of course, this is just *skins* I am talking about. Cataclysm may (and probably will) mess up what skins are offered at what level. By that I mean, maybe with Cataclysm a White Lion under lvl 60 maybe no longer obtainable, but the White Lion skin itself will still be around. (If that makes sense)
Seryth:
Yeah me neither…but I can dream! *holds onto dream* I think the Worgen’s vanity pet might be that. It better be…I want a fox somehow.
But that also brings an interesting point. Sometimes we get minipets that are just “tiny” versions of their larger companions (Worg Pup, Strand Crawler, Spiderling, Parrots, Owls). So I’m hoping theres a giant tameable fox somewhere…. XDD
Loque USED to despawn, they changed that a good five or six months ago now.
I want those ghostly wolves in Shadowfang Keep.
They are just THE sexiest beasties I have seen yet in this game.
I’m a dog person, and none of the tamable wolves in the game really DO anything for me, they all have a far too similar skin.
I personally think a pet should keep it’s ability that is has in the wild. I guess the easiest example would be spiders. Some have webs, some have poison. This would make things a lot simpler. What I mean by that is…. if a hunter wanted a pet spider for pvp purposes, he could tame a spider who used web in the wild. If a hunter wnted a pet for dps, they could pick up a pet spider that inflics pison damamge. And lastly,I would love to see zarakh keep her attack speed. lol She hits like lightning. Anyway, i think that would cleap up some of the “family ability” issues. and it can’t be too hard for blizz to that. After all, the beast already had the pet in the wild. how hard could it be to loet it keep it when tamed?
i don’t agree that spirit beasts should automatically be the best pet dps-wise. i don’t think any pet family should get a free ride to automatically be the best dps pet. however, most should be close. right now, wolves are the best pet for dps, followed by cats, with raptors and moths being closish behind. include exotics and devilsaur and spirit beast should be in there, as the pure-dps ferocity pets. blizzard’s goal should be to get the damage each of them does close enough (that is, within about 5%) so that a pet choice is just that. if in the end, spirit beasts are 5% below whatever the next FotM pet is, then that’s good enough. they really should fix that scaling problem so that they are competitive, but let’s not kid ourselves – there will be players who will select a pet for a 2% dps increase. good or bad, they will.
that said, i partly understand why blizzard doesn’t work as hard at pet balance as we hunters might like – they have large balance issues to deal with, like the dps difference between mage specs, where frost is as much as 20% below fire and arcane. or they have to worry about blood DK AoE being next to nil while unholy and frost AoE is really sweet. or make sure that shadow priest dps doesn’t always come in dead last. the list goes on, and i’ll forgive them somewhat for making the difference between wolves and spirit beasts a lower priority. i want the spirit strike scaling fixed, but i’d rather have the difference between BM and other hunter specs closed first.
Attack speed was normalized before even BC came out, if I recall. There used to be spiders with a 1.0 attack speed and you could tame bears that had 3.5 I think. Everything else just kept what speed it had when it was tamed. (Though most were around 2.0 anyway. It was REALLY limiting because then everybody only had the fast pets.
I think that Blizzard could solve a lot of problems by letting each family have it’s own individual set of talent trees that would allow us to customize our pets more. Creatures like Spiders that have multiple attacks in the wild could spec in a tree that allowed the hunter to choose what attacks it learns. Sure that’d be a lot of work for Blizzard, but that’s what we pay them for. :) I can’t think of a single hunter I’ve ever spoken to who doesn’t want their pet to be somewhat unique and able to be specialized to their playstyle, and while pet choice has improved incredibly since Wrath came out, it’s still not as unique as I think most of us would like it to be.
Fen Striders are pretty awesome. I would probably get one if they were made tameable. (And weren’t horrible.)
@Veinyn Brokentooth and the Zul Gurub Bat had the 1.0 speed and was the fastest attacking pets
I remember i had a spider that would gain happiness when it was attacking!?!? Spirit beasts are suppose to be stonger then most pets since Loque is the mate of God/goddess in Zul’durak not sure about Gondria’s origins and Skroll is norse.. Wolves dont really have the best dps its the 20 sec boost to yours and his that give him his popularity cause after that buff and before the CD he’s up there but not at the top 3.. Granted if you drop your target in 20 or less no arguments but if it takes longer then different story.. Sure a few new skins would be nice but lets get whole new beasts out there Blizz…
That’s right, at the moment Devilsaurs are on top for Pet DPS, followed by cats, with wolves being better then cats if you factor in the damage increase from howl.
Seryth: You do know we can tame Moths, right? :p
If we can tame moths, then foxes wouldn’t be far fetched; aslong as they aren’t tagged critters.
@Ryai #60- In regards to the owls and eagles being in the same family, that makes sense because in real life they’re very similar in terms of hunting style, niche in the food chain, and because they’re both “raptors” aka birds-of-prey, along with kestrels, hawks and falcons. The only big difference is owls are nocturnal and other raptors are diurnal.
As for Spinosaurus, it could still be in the Devilsaur family, as an evolutionary offshoot or special adaptation of the Devilsaur (and the Devilsaurs already have the spines on their back, all it needs is some skin stretched between them). Make the head a little more crocodilian, lengthen the arms and add a third finger, slim down the body and fill in the spinal gap, and presto a SpinoDevil. Also give it some unique animations, like replace the headbutt with a double arm swipe, and the downward bite with a crouch-and-lunge-forward bite.
Thebitterfig:
See the arguement for best DPS pet is always a moot one. No matter what Blizzard does. No matter what. There will always be one pet that just does better DPS then another pet. That’s just how it works. Is it fair? No. But unless you can mix n match your pet skills, there is never going to be equality. And even if there was a mix n match pet skill ability, there would be some “cookie cutter skill set” that would be the best dps skill to use.
No matter what you do, there is always something on top @_@
“the list goes on, and i’ll forgive them somewhat for making the difference between wolves and spirit beasts a lower priority. i want the spirit strike scaling fixed, but i’d rather have the difference between BM and other hunter specs closed first.”
Agreed. But rather the thought brought up about SB’s is supposed to be “thought provoking”. Plus I think BM won’t be in too much of a problem if “stat scaling” comes with 3.3 like Blizz is aiming for. With that change alone, Pets will scale to all stats (except armor pen) the hunter has. BM will no longer stack Attack Power, we’ll be AGI-loving Hunters just like all the others. That alone will change BM drastically.
Just figure in how much your AGI will go up. Which means how much your crit will go up (since 1 AGI = 1 AP, your AP will remain the same for the most part). Which means your pets crit will go up. Possibly pets will scale to our haste (for BM this is more minor) but more haste for pets = more swings per minute = more FI and Frenzies = more overall dps.
Then in Cataclysm, AGI is getting buffed. 1 AGI = 1 AP (which is the vanilla stats for those from Pre-BC remember). Add that all up and how much our pets will be increasing in damage, and I see the gap between BM and SV closing to a very competitive design.
1 AGI = 2 AP ** for the last paragraph….i just suck @_@
If you look, they have wolves and worgs, and cats and Large cats… They should make a large, feral hyena. Similar to a worg but hyena-ish… Just a though. I would love it if they did that!
Don’t forget the Fireflies then the giant evil Silithid Wasps Rottingham
That too! Thank you, Grimlion. Also,there are smaller Ravagers, and then the huge, hellish looking ones!
http: //www. wowwiki. com/ Dire_animal
So it won’t get censored as it is just a Wowwiki link. Anyways according to WoW lore, Dire animals already exist, and as far as I can figure, are implimented to an extent ingame. Atleast concerning wolves; the Worgs, not the northrend ones, the ones that look like beefed up wolves. Those are I think the classic ‘Dire Wolves’ which are also dubbed wargs/worgs/battle wolves/etc.
So Hyena’s getting a ‘buffer’ version of themselves isn’t so farfetched, to an extent ofc. And looking around it seems Hyena’s did have, irl a giant ancestor, so.
For those speculating about new spirit beasts. Check out this new arrival on MMOchamp…
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/october/spectralbear.jpg
(too bad it’s probably gonna be a SB and not a real bear…)
No one else has mentioned them, but I’d really like to see maggots become tamable. They’re already beasts, and I find them particularly evocative. Plus they’d pair wonderfully with the new Undead Hunter.
I just wanna know that the Troll and Worgen Cat, Bear, and Moonkin forms for druids will look like. Prehaps the worgen cat form could be the feral/dire hyena, because they are slighlty more related to cats then wolves… so it would be a nice “In between” mix. and if they do that, the possibly they would make the dire hyenas tameable pets.
…
One can dream, can’t he?
I am still waiting for BLizz to add an armadillo or snail pet, too. Who wouldn’t want a pet whose family attack it to roll up into a little ball and roll at high speeds into the enemy, knocking them back?
Sorry for double post, but I just Saw Max’s. I agree, the maggots would be a good pet, with a leech family trait, that drains life from the enemy and healing themself.
Aaaaah I went to MMO to check it out cause of the SB bear possibility [I would kill for that on one of my alts] and looking thru I find a post and there’s an icon of Saurfang. AND SAURFANG HAS DK EYES.
WHAT IS HAPPENING D: the post doesn’t clarify if it’s Saurfang the Younger or Saurfang Cleaves faces D:
And to be honest I wouldn’t really play a Worgen Drood if it had a ‘dire hyena’ form, because even if they are related to Cats it just doesn’t make sense really- as cat form is cat form and I didn’t even know Hyena’s were related to cats until doing some searches on the intarwebz.
And tbh I wish they’d fix worgen hair first, they.. still look to lionish to me.
That and just remembered I WANT MORE TAMEABLE BLIGHTHOUNDS D:
gimme the glowy wolves gimme
Saurfang the younger. *SPOILERS* Both Saurfang the younger AND Bolivar are under the control of Arthas. It is hinted that you can free them from said control in dialogue. *End spoilers*
If anything, those bears will be boss mechanics. That’s my guess.
As my double, though, I will go out on a limb and say that every major patch has had a new spirit beast added, so it isn’t to far fetched that this furry see through fellow is one.
ooooohhhh shiny translucent bear! gimme gimme gimme
Palla:
We’re not sure if Bolvar is turned yet or not. As it stood in the yelling before the charge on ICC, Bolvar is still talking smack against Arthas. So we do know he is not *yet* under the Lich King’s control, but for how long?
And holy crap spectral bear!!!
Too bad it’s probably a spirit beast and not a real bear. I mean, as with Skoll, it won’t feel even very-bear like. Prowl on a bear? XD
I’m disappointed though that they went with the “Gondria” look (if its infact tameable). One thing that irks me about that (and I mean me personally) is that kind of “half done” look. I mean, compare the transparent pets such as Ghost Saber and Disembodied Jormungar and notice how their transparencies don’t show off any “opposite side blockiness” like Ghost Wolf, Gondria, and even the Spectral Tiger do. It’s something that drives me batty (and I love GW, don’t get me wrong. but it still drives me batty).
*SPOILERS* If I remember right, there is a fight in the files for 3.3 against both a ‘fallen horde champion’ and a ‘fallen alliance champion’ that I am assuming to be those two. Then again you may just end up fighting Saurfang but not Bolivar. if I had to wager, I’d say the horde have to fight Bolivar, and the Alliance have to fight Saurfang, but that’s really just a guess on my part. We should know soon enough either way, though.
Mmm, tamable tri-pods (spore walkers) would be nice. I like how they look. I just think Blizz didn’t make them tamable because the whole size scaling would make them pretty silly if they got too small. And too tall if they made them big enough to walk properly.
Tamable maggots would be cool. I think they’re kinda cute.
noooo noooo maggots noooo
I still remember my first time seeing Bolegore on my first [and failed[ ally hunter on hellscream when I wanted a belf cat for her. I was stupid enough to actually go into loraedon and think I could use the teleporter… hurdur moment there.
Anyways we were on the home stretch. THEN UP FROM THE DITCH THIS GIANT WORM APPEARS. I go D: and then I go DDDD: cause omg the name the name is red I CAN SEE THE LEVEL THE NAME IS RED AND ITS GOING FOR ME.
It litterally swamped me.
So no my hatred for them was borne at that moment and has never gone away.
Besides I rolled one of my DK’s blood. I get enough maggots that way …
In a lot of ways, we are hitting a point where there can just be no more pet families, and some of the untameable pet families could or should be folded into other families that already exist.
Right now, the remaining families are Basalisk, Clefthoof, Diemetradon, Elekk, Frenzy, Giraffe, Gryphon, Hippogrphyon, Hydra, Kodo, Mana Worm, Pterrodax, Shark, Stag, Talbuk, Threshadon, Thunder Lizard, Tripod, Wyvern, Zhevra.
The mass of the Clefthoof, Elekk, Kodo and Thunder Lizard is not an issue, and the height of the Tripod is not as well. Rhinos and Core Hounds are as massive as the first four, and Devilsaurs are kind of the same general height at Tripods.
Here’s the way that it could play out easily-
Clefthoof, Elekk, Thunder Lizard and Kodo join the Rhino Family.
Pterodax joins the Bat familiy.
Zhevra (already rumored), Stags, Giraffes, Talbuks, form their own familiy.
Baskalisks form their own family.
Dimetradon join the Crocalisks.
Hydra form their own family.
This leaves four non-aquatic beast families left- Mana Worm, Gryphons, Hippogrphons and Wyvern. If they were to become playable-
Mana Worms would form their own familiy.
Gryphons and Hippogryphons would form their own family.
Wyverns their own family.
I forgot to say this-
If Maggots become tameable beasts they should join the Worm family.
All Silithid wasps should be classified as beasts and join the wasp family.
This does not include the possibility of entirely new families in the future.
Actually, all Sithilids -should- be classified as beasts. If reavers/tanks are classified, then why not the rest? And I can understand how the wasps would be able to be tameable by all, they have a simpler mind, they’re intellegent but probably not as much as the other sithilids [aka the tameable exotics]
But then that leaves two bugs left, the worker model AND the tank model, the worker could become another easy to tame non exotic dps/cunning model. The tank like model.. aka the scarab could lean towards exotic and be a tank bug.
And tbh if they do make Elekk’s tameable I would RATHER have them their own family with Mammoths, and their own pet special/ability, because frankly atm Rhino’s are -still- useless as being stuck with tenacity, and if Blizzard doesn’t impliment the change the pet tree of the desired pet.
And wouldn’t see Giraffes, Talbuk and Rams/Stags tied in with Zehvra, could see Rams/Stags/Talbuk/Shoveltusks tied together, then the Giraffes in the Barrens and the Basin in northrend being their own family, which COULD make the wild horses in northrend tameable as I think they ARE classified as beasts- and both are equine in nature.
And yeah that’s why I see exotics different from normal pets cause it sure as heck isn’t strength; so the beasts have to be smarter than their non exotic counterparts- meaning harder to sway/befriend/yada yada rp blah blah.
Question: Since Darkshore and most of the area surrounding it will be under water in the next expansion, does that mean the ghost saber will no longer be available for taming?
… good point… i hope not
So far the devistated Darkshore has mostly been shown to be auburdine and south of it, not north, so the ghost saber is most likely going to be unaffected.
It’s just going to be more of a pain to get it.
10-12 new pet “families” eh? O.o Holy Cataclysm. I’d absolutely love that if they did that! Hmmmm some of the pet “families” that I’d like to see are Hippogriffs, Zehvras, Elekks, griffons and Orcas.
I was thinking of a family that would replace the current “Rhino” family.
It would be called “Great Beasts”.
It would include kodos, clefthoofs, and rhinos. It would make a lot of sense, seeing as the rhino family skins are super-limited, and they all use the same skeletons.
I have a great idea! Just have every beast in WoW be tameable, be able to choose it’s skill, and then choose what spec (Ferocity, cunning, tenecity)
That would make this awesome! Fire Breathing furocity tallstrider FTW!
Ferocity tallstrider… sorry :P
Tallstriders are already ferocity :p
Do you mean Dragonhawks?
I just remembered that one of the new creatures for Cataclysm is a large six-legged rock/magma turtle.
Maybe it will be tameable? :)
Eh, I’m not going for zhevra, talbuk, kodo, mammoths. I hate rhinos and devilsaurs. They’re so obnoxiously big that it makes me want to curl up and hide.
I could have sworn Tallstriders were tenacity :P may bad, thanks, Ryai
They should make some new models for the current pet families, Cataclysm is about using the existing world. Use the existing pets and watch some discovery channel.
S’kay Rottingham
HOL: er what?
Mitsuhide: A friend of mine mentioned the posibility of it being a Dragon turtle and/or possibly a boss. So chances are it will either be labled beast; but untamable or be labled ‘dragonkin’.
Everyone seems to want to throw basilisks in with crocilisks… Forgetting that their names are similar, they are almost completly different creatures…
Personally, I’de like Basilisks to be their own pet type, with a Cone Stun like almost all of them have; Diemetradons i can see being grouped with Crocilisks though.
“Blizzard has already released concept art for a volcano-turtle looking thing called a Volcanoth,…” That totally screamed “POKÉMON!!” for some reason..
I personally like the idea of tameable Hydras, but also how Rikaku said, Id love more Loque/skoll skins but not likin the idea of how BM is needed…..ooh ooh…btw, rikaku :) im on ur realm. on horde. mwhah. meet meh in dally sumtime ;)
I’d like to see plauge hounds and mage hunters which have always been labled as deamons become wolves or there own pet family.
My point earlier regarding the pet families is that we are, honestly, reaching a point where there aren’t a lot of beasts left to make tameable. Those lava turtles are probably elementals.
It may be time to go ahead and make all beasts tameable, though. I think that, at this rate, that’s going to happen anyway. The biggest question will be in grouping.
WTB hydras. That is all.
It would be hilarious if the old retired druid bear and cat skins were made available to hunters, even if they were unique individuals.
My Ideas for Animal families in Cataclysm:
spitters: serpents, windserpents, thunderlizards, dragonhawks, chimaeras, core hounds, nether rays, spore bats, hydras and spirit beats
they turn into caster pets like the warlocks imp. damage gets normalized so everyone of them is equally good. the form of damage is different though. we have shadow ( nether ray ) fire ( dragon hawk ) frost ( chimaera ) nature ( serpent ) and even arcane ( spirit beast )
chargers: talbuks, rhinos, elekks, mammoths, boars, bears, kodos, clefthooves, talstriders, gorillas, zehvras & giraffes ( in terms of those two, im not really sure if they made good hunter pets though ^^ )
these will be our tanks
invertebrates: beetles, workers, soldiers ( the current silthid pets ), wasps, skorpids, spiders, crabs, moths, worms and tunnelers
dps melee pets for those who prefer the creepy look
swoopers: birds of prey, carrion birds, bats, pterrordaxes
basicly anything that can fly except nether rays/spore bats/wasps/wind serpents. the lable “swoopers” doesn´t mean other flying creatures not belonging to it wont be able to swoop anymore
reptiles: corcolisks, basilisks, dimetrodons, devilsaurs, raptors and turtles ( anything reptilic except serpents/wind serpents/hydra´s
prowlers: cats, hyenas, warp stalkers, ravagers and wolves
For those wanting to tame druids, you CAN tame a carrion bird with the . At lvl 10 no less since they are lvls 5-10.
There are also 2 brown versions of the druid skin that count as bird of prey. and I really wish the oily ones kept their oily-ness once tamed though.
For those wanting to tame druids, you CAN tame a carrion bird with the non-epic flight form skin. At lvl 10 no less since they are lvls 5-10.
There are also 2 brown versions of the druid skin that count as bird of prey.
Edit: guess it won’t let me post the wowhead links to said pets…
My first wish: Insect pets styled after the Praying Mantis, with their special attack being a scythe swipe causing either a stun or bleed effect. I’d debated suggesting an attack that does Holy damage, but that’s far too… OP? silly?
Probably not -as- silly as my next idea though! Hippos, as in the large water loving pachyderms. Seriously. I’ve seen them referred to as the single most dangerous mammal in all of Africa on account of their deceptive ferocity and surprising land speed. From a WoW perspective their special attack would likely be a massive bite that disarms the target (or possibly swallows a dwarf whole).
Finally in the spirit of saving the
worststrangest for last: a family of “slime beasts” similar to the current “Spirit Beasts” in game. They’d be modeled after other families of pets much as the current spirit beasts are, only they’d be made out of translucent ooze with evidence of a skeletal structure still visible inside. Special attack could be an ‘engulf’ ability that traps the target inside the beast for a couple of seconds, causing nature damage and snaring them.I think that Hunters should be able to tame their own mounts, to a reasonable extent, like Pallies, Locks and DK’s have their own mounts. Maybe have a quest to tame a Hippogryph flying mount.
To #124: That goes right along with:
Why are there no regularly available race specific flying mounts like there are for land mounts?
Or..
Why can’t druid travel form be as fast as a mount (and subject to the same restrictions)?
I’d just like to see Blizz offer more top-level pets to train. Right now, if you don’t want to spend hours leveling them up (and yeah, join a pug with a sublevel pet and see how that goes), your choices are extremely limited among lvl 79-80 pets: bear, pig, rhino, spider, dog, worm (and only 4 of those if you’re not BM). So if not BM: 2 tenacity, 1 cunning, 1 ferocity. And just looking at lvl 80 pets? Spider, dog, worm. Woo. hoo.
That blows, for what’s essentially a COSMETIC change. What other class, on changing specs, needs to grind for hours to be at full capability?
So I’m meh on new species…I’d just like to have a full cross-selection of the zoo we have now. (Oh, and I guess if I had to pick a new one, the true snakes ala “Twilight Serpent” up on the western cliffs of Nagrand; alternately, just leaving pets with their natural ‘flash’ like the icepaw bears – let us keep the cool glowy bits once they’re tame.)
There is an elemental in Bouldercrag’s Refuge in Storm peaks by the name of Blackmaw which is a cat shaped ‘animal’ that has metal plates instead of fur and its eyes glow red even when sleeping apparently. If they could stick that skin onto a spirit beast or something then I know what my hunter would be doing as soon as that was available as a pet. Or they could make it a pet crafted by an engineer, at least then engineers would have something they could sell that doesn’t cost 15k in mats.
That and/or they should add some sort of pet upgrades like spiky armour or something. Even if the hunters had to choose between the armour or the food that is available that gives a bonus to strength and stamina for pets. They could make it so that the buffs dont stack.
Also, I’m sure most of you people will agree with me that more stable slots are needed. 4 might have veen enough back in the day but there is too much variety now and it needs updating IMO.
hmm, stags/zevrahs/giraffes etc keep getting asked for, but to be honest I’ve never seen why, outside of food supply or mount, possibly at best a beast of burden they serve very little purpose as a hunters companion, they lack that killer instinct inherant in the predatory/carrion/arachnid types, even turtles have a sense of determined snappiness.
to my mind taming giraffe would be like protecting your grounds with trained guard sheep
As I saw many responses of near the beginning (I just couldn’t read the latter half of all these posts, just…so…many), I’m all for hydras, as well. After all, they’re found in both Azeroth *and* the Outland so both high and low level hunters would have access to them, they’re pretty much the perfect ‘wild’ animal so you wouldn’t have to worry about potential intelligence in line with…say, dragonkin(if you had to fight two other heads for grub every day, I’m pretty sure you’d be rather feral, yourself), and lastly, they’re rather well known for anyone who played Warcraft III.
In addition to hydras, I would be ecstatic if more snake models were created. Frankly, as much as I enjoy cobras, whenever I play a hunter up to the point where I could tame one (Wailing Caverns, how I loathe thee and your attraction for groups that kill indiscriminately, hardly ever letting a hunter get a shot at them), I was mocked by pretty much anyone with a boar or cat. Heck, the scorpid hunters alone were enough to boil the blood (really, making fun of a poison pet when YOU have one, as well?).
Give a little more variety to them and don’t have it be instance-exclusive until you get to Shadowmoon Valley (if you are one of the few people nowadays that actually do later Outland material) or Sholazer Basin, and maybe people will actually bother trying them out enough that it will be just as accepted as any bear, owl, crab, and even tallstrider. Frankly, the only pet I’ve never understood were the Warp Stalkers. They just seem *too* good. Oh well, The Burning Crusade really needed an ‘omg’ pet so I guess it’s justified enough.
Looking at Wowwiki-
1- Ancient Beasts (Diemetradon, Pterrordax, and Evilsaur[would be absorbed into this)
2- Hydras
3- Thunder Lizards
4- Basilisks
5- Stags (unsure about this)
6- Beetles
7- Volcanoth (http://www.wowwiki.com/Volcanoth)
8-12- More new Cataclysm beasts
I hope that Gryphon, hippogryph & Wind Ryder/Wyvern will be tameable, as well as Hydra.
I’m pretty sure Pterrordax will be tameable, cause the even appere on The Lost Isle (Goblin Starter Zone)
I would love to see most of suggestions. I would also like to suggest those dragon-lizards that were in warcraft 3: the frozen throne missions on the naga side. They could be in that underwater place. Sorry if somebody already suggested this.
What I would most like to see are more small, cute and furry pets. Fox, weasel, badger, otter, wolverine and red panda come to mind. Hey, even gnomes can tank!
Blizzard won’t leave the most interesting aspect of Hunters in the Dust. But I don’t think they will add too many new rare pets. Maybe just 3-4 rare uniques and add a annoying achievement for non-Hunters to kill them just to make taming it harder.
I think your pets should become mounts 2. Maybe that could b a special for BM, and not all mounts, but soome…Like raptors, Boars, Rhinos…Hell, A devilsaur would b a sweet ass mount
Doing old outland quests, i was just thinking about how sweet it would be to be able to tame on of the basilisks there.
@Hunterbane
That might not be a bad idea for people who haev exotic Beastmastery. They can ride the exotic beasts that they tame. Each pet could do something else, such as chimera would be a flying mount, devilsaur and silithid would be an enhanced ground mount (faster then an epic moutn by like 5% or 10% or something), spirit beast and worms would prevent you from being attacked (Spirit beast turns you and it invisible, Worm burrows in the ground), and Corehound and Rhinos are able to hold two people (Like the mammoth or motorcycle)
Sorry for double post… But I aslo saw a video on youtube of Lost Isles… Looks like the raptors there (As of now) are the yellow outland style. Looks like there could be some nice looking raptors for lower levels now, too!
Cataclysm Pets. « Guntitan - November 4th, 2009 @ 4:26 pm UTC
[...] http://www.maniasarcania.com/2009/10/22/expansion-pet-families/ [...]
39/Palla-
“if they do continue to produce spirit beasts of different families, and they all just have prowl and spirit strike, then it’s just going to be boring. By giving them each their family ability as well it puts them a step above the norm as far as damage dealing goes, and might got a long way towards buffing beast mastery in general.”
Exactly – I said this back in the beginning when no one really believed non-cat spirit beasts would ever be released… and some valid points were made, primarily being that it would be harder to program if they stop using the “one size fits all” code model, but I think nowadays as the initial excitement with “rare glowing pet!!” has faded, and people (including me) are thinking about teaming up with a cat-wearing-a-ghostly-bear-suit, players may start pushing back on Blizzard to take it back to old school programming somewhat for spirit beasts.
Here’s hoping anyway.
post 2…
In re: new families I’ve wanted beetles/scarabs since classic, and felt a little spurned when wasps and silithids were made tamable, but not the beetle/drones… I mean c’mon wouldn’t the *least intelligent* type of silithid be the most tamable?
And speaking of wasps, even though they’re not a new family I’d love to see the old world wasps become tamable – I’ve never really been that wild about the BC fire flies, and while I like the AQ boss model, it’s *still* not as cool as the “basic” silithid wasp – probably a good half the reason I got my sapphire hive queen is because I felt pushed into it by the tame nerf in 3.1…
And changing the scholazar drones to use the old style body but with the blue and red speckled boss skin didn’t do it for me either – their eyes look too googly. Or something.
What I want are the basic green/blue/yellow carapace with shiny black cleavers/stingers, and squinty little eyes that you can barely see (and of course Qirot…).
In re: ungulates/heffalumps/etc… an elekk might be nice perhaps as an exotic, though the others don’t really do much for me.
Scott
What I want is for there to be a new wasp, that looks a bit similar to the firflies but with a differently shaped head and a bulkier body. And then have it Yellow and black striped… Then it would be a real wasp!
Here are some family ideas and their special abilities, I know some have already been said, but here goes;
Hydras – Triple Bite: attempts to bite the target with all 3 heads, dealing [rank] damage per head. there is a 100% chance to bite with one head, a 75% chance to bite with 2 heads, and a 50% chance to bite with all 3 heads.
Basilisks – Petrifying Stare: The Basilik Stares into the targets eyes, making them unable to move, attack, or cast spells for [rank] seconds.
Diemetrodons – Fin Smash: The Diemetrodon turns sideways and smacks the target with its fin, dealing [rank] damage and stunning it for 5 seconds. (I wanted to do an ability where it absorbs sunlight, but that would make no sense when used in places like Swamp of Sorrows, Shadowmoon Valley, and Icecrown)
Pterrordaxs – Wing Beating: the Pterrordax grabs on to the target with its beak and smacks it with its wings, dealing [rank] damage per second for 10 seconds.
Shoveltusks – Shovel: Shovels the target with specially shaped tusks, lifting it into the air and dealing [rank] damage. (fall damage would also be included)
Mana Wyrms – Burst of Mana: The Mana Wyrm unleashes a Burst of Pure Mana, dealing [rank] damage to all enemies and giving [rank] to all party members within 5 yards.
Lots of great ideas, but I have to agree with one inparticular……Engineering Hunters should be able to create an actual “Hunter Pet”….that would be so freakin’ sweet!!!!
wow buller thats so true but i think that since they said alot of stuff would be under water so i think they will do somthing with underwater pets like frogs fish amphibians ect.
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