Once again, I am going to come at this from the perspective of someone who has mained a marksman hunter with a pet for the past 15 years. I’ve had a recurring subscription the entire time, and play daily for about an hour on average. Is that casual? Kinda. I’m by no means a hard-core min-maxer pushing Mythic+ 20 keys or raids. I’ve dabbled in raiding, and Mythic dungeons (low keys), and even some pvp in the past for a few Vicious mounts. I suppose I fall into the oft-overlooked “mid-core” type of player that Holly Longdale was saying that Blizzard wants to focus their attentions on to make us feel included. Most days, I do questing and world content, delves, weekly runs, and time limited events. A big part of the game for me is mount and pet and transmog and toy collecting. I’m an achievement hunter and play a bit of everything. For me, WoW isn’t just about pushing end game content; WoW is an immersive experience that let’s me escape the headaches of the real world for a bit, and my character is an extension of myself, existing in this digital landscape.
So I think it’s fair to say that I am heavily invested in both WoW as a game, my character, and yes, my pet.
Anyone who is annoyed or can’t understand why people are still “complaining about this one change,” when said change is actually removing a core aspect of the class, is being disingenuous, because for many of us, this issue is bigger than any other change Blizz has put forward in this rework. This isn’t like they took away a single spell or ability. This is not Blizzard taking away Murder of Crows as a talent and giving it to only Beast Masters, something that mildly annoyed me but I could live without. This is taking away the pet, and even the OPTION to continue using our pets, ENTIRELY. For some of us, that is enough reason for the uproar, because the pet is more than just a spell or ability, for two main reasons: it has utility functions as well as emotional and aesthetic purpose. Let’s explore both of these:
Pet as utility.
There are a lot of reasons having a pet for utility is great: in the open world or in delves solo, the pet is a mini tank that can taunt and keep mobs off my hunter. And honestly, to the people complaining about how the pet is “tricky to manage,” it really isn’t. The pet is set to focus on whatever mob I initially tab target and holds it until dead, and then moves on to any additional mobs I have aggro’d until they are dead. Yes, I can utilize traps and stuns for some mitigation, but I like having my pet keep the active mob at bay. Without it, elite mobs either a) run right up to you and start smacking you so you’re getting hurt while shooting them point blank (sniper fantasy? LOL, no), or b) you’re kiting them around running backwards hoping you either don’t pull them off their tether and resetting them or accidentally running through additional mobs like a cracked out squirrel (again, this is not a “sniper fantasy”). The closest way to maintain that sniper fantasy as a solo player is, ironically, to utilize a pet as a mini tank. Just keep an eye on it’s health, spam mend pet where necessary, and you’re golden. If pet dies? Aspect of the turtle and revive pet, boom, you’re back in business. Pet pathing has also greatly improved over the years, and the few areas it would be an issue are in dungeons and raids, where most players who are marksman dismiss their pet anyway for the small dps boost.
As an aside, “fetch” is a wonderful quality of life technique for non-engineers lacking a loot-a-rang.
Pet as companion.
Aside from the function of the pet, for many of us, there is still an emotional bond formed with our pets that is iconic to more than just the spec, but unifies hunters as a whole class. Hunters get to:
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Choose pets that match our character, our transmog, our fantasy.
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We tame them, name them, and they adventure by our side.
Now, after 20 years and two failed attempts at removing the pet (because surprise, many hunters are attached to their pets), Blizzard is removing the option for us to use them. And the really annoying thing is, they didn’t HAVE to do this, they are CHOOSING to. For the past 10 years, players have had the option to either continue using their pet, or go lone wolf and get a compensatory dps boost.
This rework addresses issues that the lone wolf crowd had with the spec by removing bloodlust from the pet and putting it onto the hunter, which is what they wanted, which is FINE, however in that same rework they decided to euthanize everyone’s pet. Why? This is completely unnecessary. They can do everything they want in this rework WITHOUT forcing those of us who use a pet to give them up, simply by making all of those abilities, stat boosts, and bloodlust to the hunter, rather than be dependent on the pet, that way utilizing a pet would be explicitly optional. That way everyone wins. Those who like the changes but don’t want a pet can have them and those of us who want to continue using our pets still can. That’s compromise. That is a win/win for everyone. And that is feedback that I’ve seen pushed from the hunter crowd who want to keep our pets in the forums and on social media.
The anti-pet crown, however, have been coming off as condescending, vitriolic, and unhelpful, with no attempt at finding a compromise that would let us keep our pets. Things I keep saying repeated and the problems with them:
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“If you want to play with a pet, go play Beast Mastery or Survival.” No. First, those specs play completely differently. Beast Mastery is a spec that focuses on managing a zoo, and makes me feel like I’m the sidekick to my pet, instead of the other way around, and I do not like the poison and trap management of survival, or the fact that it’s melee. I enjoy being a ranged bowman with a trusty lynx by my side. Or like, the iconic dwarf Mountaineer with a single bear pet that is literallya core part of the original cinematic. I like the same style of gameplay as all of these so-called “sniper” fantasy marksman, just with a pet. Also, let’s flip this whole bad faith argument on it’s head, shall we? “If you want to play a petless ranged class, go play mage.” What do you mean it isn’t the same? Okay then, stop telling us to just go play something else, hypocrites.
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“Marksman don’t use pet/all marksman play without pets/marksman haven’t used a pet for years.” Again, this is simply not true. Not only is this hyperbolic, but these platitudes about “all” marksmen not using pets fail to cite any real concrete data or sources for these claims. It is extremely disingenuous to suggest that only the side from your echo chamber is correct and everyone else is either wrong or can be dismissed. Lots of logical fallacies being thrown around to dismiss the concerns of marksman who utilize our pets, and it’s honestly disappointing.
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“You aren’t losing your pet, you can still use it on BM or SV spec.” See response above. This again is a bad faith argument.
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“Blizzard is giving you an eagle, that’s your pet.” No it isn’t, and I don’t want it. First off, it isn’t a pet, it’s a glorified spell effect that procs sometimes. You don’t tame it, you don’t name it, it may not fit your race or character fantasy, and cannot be changed or customized. I don’t want some random eagle that “exists outside of the game space,” I want the lynx I’ve kept by my side that last 15 years which doesn’t disappear in 5 seconds.
Again, pro-pet players are not trying to say that the anti-pet crowd can’t have the things they want. Just make those changes baseline to the hunter instead of tied to the pet and keep the option of using a pet available so everyone is happy. It is explicitly the anti-pet crowd who are either trolling those of us who want to keep our pets at this point or dismissing us with logical fallacies or outright malice. Don’t want to hear about people fighting about pets? Fine, but Blizzard needs to address the community about this. They wanted feedback, and when you take away a core part of the class from one spec of that class, regardless of how you personally feel about it, a change this big was bound to incite feedback that dwarfs every other change made in this major shakeup. By ignoring this and remaining silent on the issue, Blizzard is allowing it to fester. Since by removing the pet entirely, they are siding with the anti-pet crowd, and the rest of us reserve the right to push back and be vocal about it. I will die on this hill. Do not take my pet. The only people who don’t want marksman to have pets don’t want ANY marksmen to have pets out of malice and spite.
Blizzard has the opportunity to fix this and make everyone happy. If this goes live as is, it certainly will not, and many of us will continue to push back and be vocal.
Again, I have mained a marksman hunter with a pet for 15 years, and I have a deep investment in my character, on my customization, on my agency, and my pets. Do not take my pet.
sad days!