I do just fine with a pet in the content I run 
10 Likes
The only changes that are happening is some who want to waste a talent point on a subpar build to use a pet can again.
The primary focus is the spotting eagle mechanic and will want to use it for the higher gameplay.
You get all the utility that a pet would offer, but will not require one.
1 Like
Those ‘cry baby casuals’ are 90% of the paying customer base.
From the 80 year old grandma, to the player using special input devices, to the one who does see so well, to the kid playing on their dad’s account, the friends who dabble here and there in some stuff and have over 20 years together, to the old dude who just plays for fun. Casual are the game.
I noted above the numbers of high achievers. There websites out there you can look at:
Let’s take a look at Suramate for pvp leaderboards. There are currently about 61k on the 3v3 ladder, rating 0-3k. Move the slider to say 2100 and that number drops to 4k, so 7% of players have 2.1k 3v3 rating (of players who dod rated 3v3 pvp…). What about solo? 19k/240k or so = 8%…the same can be done with Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge, or full m+10s.
The number of chargers, big achievers, ohh so worthy to play and say, starts to look really small don’t it?
Maybe one could even say a minority of players get there, cause it’s very true.
The casuals who play how they want and dabble here and there are the vast majority of players. I got quite the chuckle out of the counter points above about how this majority somehow highjacked the thread and changed Blizz’ mind.
Anyway, Blizz made a good call here. All ya hard chargers, try and have fun. You’re just gonna choose the cookie cutter best sim build anyway.
Edit: I should be healing right, but figured I should also note that the majority of players probably do not do M+, raiding beyond lfr or rated pvp. It’s a small slice of a small slice of the game. Anyway, have fun!
18 Likes
Should just have Predator’s Thirst, Endurance Training, or Pathfinding from the pet override whatever passive you get from Cunning/Tenacious. Calling the pet dispels the talent passive and enables the pet passive. Dismissing the pet activates the talent passive again.
The new design is going in. There is a single choice node to let you keep the pet, the design focus is firmly on everything else.
Petless should do more damage. That’s the intended fantasy, and what most players want for any content where competitive damage matters. If pets happen to sim better by some fluke, I’d expect Blizz will quickly hotfix buffs/nerfs as necessary.
3 Likes
This, or something that hides the eagle completely. I’m not a fan of requiring a specific type of animal.
What wouldn’t surprise me is if they eventually gave the MM eagle the same type of customization that warlock pets get. It’s still the same overall type of minion, voidwalkers are still voidwalkers, but with more colors and options. They’re probably trying to figure out the details of where to place the customization options (my guess is one of either a revamped stable interface, barbershop, or rostrum of transformation) and what the options will be. That being said, I still don’t want to be restricted to birds only. For example, I want a cat to do the spotting for me, not a bird, and other hunters might want a wolf, turtle, bear, or any other tameable animal. I want to replace the eagle with one of my pets, that I went out and tamed via Tame Beast, or no appearance at all. No birds unless I am choosing one that I tamed via Tame Beast from my stable.
2 Likes
It will likely be balanced to always be slightly worse so anyone pushing content wont use it in stuff like high M+ keys or raid but by an amount that doesnt matter for lower content where everything is a roflstomp anyway.
Yeah I dont know why this wasnt the the base design to begin with. I mean its literally how Intimidation for MM already worked so its not like it would require any special new features. Just make your main pet/main stable slot if you dont have a pet be the best that provides this function. Whether it “swoops down from above” like the eagle for flying pets or charges in from the shadows for ground pets its just a visual.
Though maybe this is their plan down the track for “customisation” that they said is coming and the eagle is just a “whatever for now” so they can push the talents out.
Just seems like a weird choice to me for what is ultimately just a spell visual.
3 Likes
And we’ve all said petless is better for group content like dungeons and raids.
We want the pets for open world content and for delves .
Can you people not read that or do you all have a bad case of cranial rectal inversion to the point that you can’t see or comprehend things that do not go along with what you think ?
7 Likes
Congrats!! That is awesome.
2 Likes
I’m pretty sure that quite a few of the people that want pets are going to run both a pet and a petless build. Pet for delves and open world and petless for dungeons and raids.
It’s not a case of you have to pick on or the other . Pick for what you are doing at the time
6 Likes
YAY! thanks for hearing the feedback (for once) i hope you stick to your wornd and dont make picking the pet talent a detriment to do content like for example raids or M+. I really wishing i can have my pet at all times and not losing some % of DPS bc “no fun allowed” meme.
Pet were useless bc all the nerfs blizzard have done since WOD, that talent was exactly the main reason ppl were forced to go petless. Learn your hunter history first monk.
8 Likes
You ahve literally the pokemons companions right there, stop ruining hunters.
1 Like
It’s funny to me that people who play a class excluding 75% of its pet-based design and features, including stables, taming, etc. as well as two specs, who don’t do a wide array of content and mostly just raid, who have Icyveins build their character for them and get the approval of their guild master for all their class decisions instead of looking at the talents and making their own choices, would ever call anyone else a casual.
In my view, it is the “hard chargers” who are definitionally casuals, as they do not experience or interact with a vast majority of the game’s mechanics outside of one small instance, and have a fractional experience of the game overall.
5 Likes
SO - I’m glad they gave me back my pet, but after all this reintroducing the Lone Wolf issue again seems stupid.
My suggestion:
Change “Additionally, this talent will improve the durability and damage output of your pet to better compensate for the potential throughput loss.”
to
“Additionally, this talent will significantly improve the durability of your pet”.
Those of us who want their pet are just out there doing solo content, we don’t have boss timers or M+ timers or any of that rubbish to worry about. We just want our pet out there beside us.
Don’t change what the original intent was, just change how you do it.
2 Likes
Lone wolf was only an issue cause utility, like lust, was tied to the pet and people preferred going pet less in group content.
The damage increase on the pet talent will likely never be meant to overcome the imp. spotters mark and, in the long run, just be meant to aid the pet in tanking (more damage->more threat).
2 Likes
They can just make the talent increase thread per damage.
But if you feel the Lone Wolf issue is resolved even with the MM still having pets - then that seems fine.
I just don’t want to push the ball down the track 6 months have have people still unhappy.
1 Like
Well. the way Blizzard worded it, the issue with Lone Wolf was:
Lone Wolf=more damage without pet
MM hunters had to provide lust in M+ and, maybe, the odd raid
Summoning the pet for lust removed the damage increase from Lone Wolf
So, as long as utility, like lust, is tied to the new eagle or baked in, like manhunter grievous wound, the larges issues should be solved
4 Likes
Because having a gigantic honking raptor or whatever come stomping in goes against their idea of the spec reducing “hunter visual clutter” or whatever. The eagle’s animations are unbelievably fast-- it’s there and gone in about half a GCD. None of the real pets in the game could come and go that fast without looking hilariously stupid.
Just going off the wording of the post it sounds like the eagle will still perform better from a throughput standpoint, the normal pet will likely be more of a defensive boon over an offensive one which is all it was mainly for as marks anyway. It’s basically going to be like having LW is now, no pet for damage, pet for soloing. Which honestly seems like a fine trade and answers a large chunk of the push back I saw.
2 Likes