Pet ai and pathing is wonky in general and having two really doesn’t improve this.
I would like it a bit better if it copied the pet I have out currently, I don’t want to have to go back to the stable everytime I want to change pets in order to match.
Often times I just end up picking a different talent because I find this one so frustrating. Having two pets out at once looks silly to me anyway
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Pet pathing affecting both pets when using AC makes little difference compared to pet pathing that affects your one pet(when using another talent). No matter which is used, if your pet(s) get stuck, you still lose out on that damage.
But either way, no it isn’t fun. Why they haven’t made it work better to account for such issues, is beyond me.
I would argue that the best solution going forward would be if they made the same changes to AC as they did to Lone Wolf for MM, going into BfA.
Animal Companion should be a baseline passive effect similar to how LW works for MM, basically allowing us to manually call out 2 permanent pets from the 5 we can bring with us at all times.
If you only use 1 pet, it deals normal damage. If you call out a second one, the total(100%) is split between the two. They perform the same attacks and benefit from the same buffs. Only the second pet does not use Growl or Pet Family-abilities.
Honestly, I find it strange that they did not do this for Shadowlands. Why keep it as a talent when it can be a baseline passive choice? Especially when the talent in it’s current design causes tuning/balancing to be more of a hassle than necessary.
It’s a subjective matter. Some people(like myself) think it makes perfect sense that a BM hunter in WoW should be able to manage several pets/beasts at once.
…or choose to focus on that one pet instead.
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There’s actually a few pathing errors that don’t happen with just one pet.
For example, there are some cases where one of the pets can be out of range while the other one isn’t. If you hit Kill Command (or Barbed Shot) the pet in range will dash and the pet our of range will just walk, missing the Kill Command entirely. It’s not super common, but I’ve seen it happen several times.
Each pet paths independently, so they also get stuck independently. If your second pet gets stuck you might not notice because you main pet can still attack normally. Only when your main pet gets stuck will Kill Command fail and be noticeable. That doesn’t mean that it gets stuck more often, just that it’s harder to notice when it does.
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I personally have always preferred one pet outside of AI, pathing, and other concerns. I hated it Legion (despite liking Hati has a character). And I hate that I have to take that talent now to be the most viable.
Having two pets really goes against my personal class fantasy as BM hunter. I should be the master of one beast, not a menagerie. I’m not a zoo keeper. But there are some that would disagree with me. Which is completely fine.
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They are not perfect since WoW started. I am talking about a single pet.
With 2 pets, that was the setup for BM for the whole Legion expansion. Yeah, they are not flawless but more than 95% of the time, they’re good on me.
The real advantage of 2 pets vs 1… 2 is always better than one on Pet/s on Dire Frenzy especially on AoE. It humiliates every classes on AoE DPS even the FoTM DH.
this is total bait but i think it’s a much cooler concept for a DW melee spec
basically rexxar, who’s since been retconned into some kinda disaster
or drek’thar even tho he’s not a hunter
otherwise not a big fan, me and my one bud goin on adventures is cooler, but i also don’t think it’s that bad either
Think you misunderstood my point with what I wrote there. But yeah, sure.
Exactly.
If there can be multiple options that cater to different preferences, what would be the problem?
Some don’t like playing with two permanent pets? Okay, then there should be an option to allow for the use of only 1 pet. And vice versa.
The only real thing that differs using 1 vs. using 2 pets would be how much damage each pet deals. Not exactly a major deal, even if made into a baseline choice rather than requiring a talent to be chosen.
I don’t like it either.
I always liked the “me and my pet” aspect of the Hunter class. Then MM went the route of Archer and BM went to two pets. Both ranged specs penalize you for using one pet, so that feeling is gone.
I did have to farm a second Loque, Gib, and Skarr for it. I do like the feeling of having two Loques or Skarrs, but I miss the “me and my pet” feeling of the original class design.
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When I tired farming Loque, he was accidentally killed 3-4(me included) times within 2-3 days because of AC’s pet spawning out of nowhere.
I’ve never had this happen to me, not even once. If your pet is dismissed, your stable pet isn’t going to suddenly appear and kill your capture. There would be bug reports all over the internet if that were that case. I would look at other possibilities.
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I put a report in with no answer, but what happens is when I land and start taming non the spot, my AC pet spawns and kills him.
Animal Companion becomes a GLYPH
What if that talent were to be deleted entirely, and the 2nd (animal companion) pet would simply be a BM only Glyph? The secondary pet would do no damage and only act as a visual choice for those who prefer it (which I very much do).
The 2nd pet would either be chosen from the 2nd pet in your kit or the 1st slot in your stable. Importantly, this would be affected by Essence Swapper once again, just like in Legion, especially since it made the twin pet aesthetic they pushed us to love oh so much easier.
This would essentially fix all the weird mathematical balancing trouble that Animal Companion has caused since BFA and streamline the spec around 1 pet once again. So I ask you guys, is there something that I haven’t accounted for? Or would this be a great idea all around?
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In PvP it would essentially be a permanent Mirror Image without the fake doing damage. If the opponent uses any attacks or CC on the AC pet, it is wasted.
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True, but that is essentially part of the PVP strategy. And if there is a tiny tell on which one is the AC pet, then it would make it more than fair. Plus the AC pet would not do damage obviously, but it also wouldn’t interrupt or stagnate casting etc.
So far, I’m thinking it’s a pretty solid fix.
Better yet, don’t use that talent. That way those of us who like it for how it is aren’t negatively affected.
Yeah I tend to think this is a tuning issue more than anything else. Animal Companion shouldn’t be the clear cut best talent for all situations, they should be balanced so people can play how they want.
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Irony is before AC was semi-buffed in 8.3, I could get my pets jacked up through a Mastery build that got them to deal 50K each, but kinda turned to trash right after the patch hit.
Animal Companion is extremely shoddily implemented. The summon time is unreliable which often leads to the companion missing out on Bestial Wrath, it seems to get stuck in some situations where the main pet does not (I’ve noticed this particularly often on N’zoth), and summoning the companion is actually a hidden cast that breaks Feign Death which had actually gotten me killed a few times. It’s a good idea for a talent but I’d rather it not be the best option for all situations because of the headaches it causes.
I would argue that it isn’t a particularly good idea for a talent.
For similar reasons to why LW as a talent for MM wasn’t the greatest idea either.
Why?
For MM, playing with a pet or without one is a very defining and important aesthetic/thematic choice for a lot of players. For those that want to skip the pet when playing as MM, no matter the balancing, they would be obligated to lock that one talent choice permanently to LW just for the above to be an option.
It’s the same when we’re talking about AC for BM. Sure, some don’t like to/want to play with 2 pets at once, and I can understand why. But others do. It’s a key defining choice for BM hunters when talking aesthetics and fantasy.
You could easily rework AC into a baseline passive aura which has a dependency on how many pets you have active at once(1 or 2). The pets themselves can perform the exact same damaging attacks and benefit from the same buffs. Just that the damage each pet deals is lowered by 50% whenever you have 2 pets active. And when you only have 1 pet active, this aura goes away and your one pet deals normal(100%) damage as usual.
No more issues with tuning/balancing talent choices. Allow for it to be a matter of personal preferences towards aesthetics and fantasy. Nothing more, nothing less.
This would also remove the hassle currently involved in the communication between our characters and the stable, for calling for that second pet.
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So essentially you’re all saying, whether it’s tuning or auras etc, they’d all be solved by my suggestion of removing the AC talent and making it a glyph. 2nd pet is a aesthetic choice and visual and that’s it, because many of us loved it.
This also wouldn’t in any way get in the way of the actual combat, which would be re-tooled around 1 pet again, simplifying and focusing the numbers. The problem with it being a talent is that either it’s terrible or it’s a must-pick, which still forced all the borrowed power like legendaries and conduits or even other talents, to be modified to work for BOTH.