I’m reasonably certain this is a squish-related bug and have reported it as such. Many exotic families have their abilities still.
Well, if you’re taking that much damage as a hunter to feel spirit mend is mandatory in the way others say “you’re an idiot for not using one” then you’re not playing hunter correctly! when I did use spirit mend outside PVP it was mostly to heal the pet itself from cleave damage (but) why even do that when clefthoof self heal was even better??
I still see no time spirit beasts were ever mandatory or where people would be big meanie heads to you for not taking one. the dispel was much more useful but u could also get that on other pets!
Also, all these posts on hunter pets complaining about being forced to use “better” pets. Has not ever had blizzard add more to other pets to help make objectively bad pets better. if you hadn’t noticed, it has only made good pets worse. soon all pets will be stripped of anything good…but there ya go. then you’re free to pick anything because they will all be the same, boring and pretty useless except for the damage.
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its not the base exotic ability that have been changed its some pets have a bonus one and those are the ones shifted to a later lvl
The family ability is there, the exotic ability is not.
And again, this isn’t the case for all exotic families.
I believe they forgot to squish the level requirement of a number of these abilities, resulting in inconsistent level requirements between 50 and 60.
But it’s not all of them. In fact, Blood of the Rhino was the only one missing that I could find (though I’ve also heard that Aqiri are missing their movement speed boost Dune Strider). Spirit beasts have Spirit Mend at 50, water striders have water walking, feathermanes have updraft (which is still classified as an “Exotic Ability”, despite feathermanes no longer being exotic), devilsaurs have feast. It appears to only be a couple of the exotic abilities that are delayed until after 50. So yes, as Adreaver says, it’s probably a squish-related bug.
It was used extensively in raids, where much of that damage isn’t optional. And since it can be used on friendly targets, you can also use it to help top others up. It wasn’t needed just because of standing in fire, and it’s an absolute strawman to suggest such. A heal for 30% of your max HP every 30 seconds, freely targetable on others, is incredibly powerful. Even the post-nerf ~10% heal is stronger than people think.
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Thanks for the info. Didn’t realize there was a level limit on some of the pets you can tame. Figured if you could kill it you could tame it.
I feel like another part of this is also the fact that you can’t change specs on pets. I honestly feel like I can’t use spirit beasts because my bees are just better in most situations. I love my bees, but I want to use those new pretty serpents… which are cunning and tenacity… useless. I would use a spirit beast if I could change it to ferocity tbh. But I do feel the spirit of OP’s complaint, of feeling stuck using a certain set of pets instead of getting to have the class fantasy of whatever i want for each character.
Feathermanes were never exotic, they are a tome pet.
Rylaks, which also have updraft, are the Exotic pet. Incidentally, Rylaks don’t have Updraft right now.
This is why I think its a bug.
Bees? Under what circumstances is a Mortal Strike Ferocity pet the best choice?
Cuz I love my beez. (Plus you are proving the point that there seems to be a handful of ‘right’ pets. I can get by with my bees at least but not a cunning pet.)
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I can get by with a cunning pet in most circumstances as long as they have a defensive cooldown (as Pterrordaxes with updraft do). They’re not the best, but they’re adequate for questing, world quests, etc. They’re adequate for non-competitive dungeons or bosses/mobs where they pet isn’t really taking a lot of damage to begin with. They’re good for PvP.
Yes, there are some “right” pets, and I wish we could select pet specs or talent trees like we could in the past. I never understood why that was removed. It was a popular and successful feature.
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EXACTLY this is my greatest gripe. What was it hurting to let us pick a pet’s spec? All it was doing was let us customize our character more by choosing what pet we want to have around. yeah i’m sure the meta is more picky for perfect dps or whatever but dang. Let me use some fancy serpents blizz.
They were initially exotic when first introduced on the PTR, then converted to regular tames when they realized it was a dick move to introduce this pet that matched the class mount, but only have it available to one of the three specs.
And their ability Updraft still has the “Exotic Ability” tag in its tooltip.
I could see some situations in PvE that might arise, MS is reasonable for dealing with healing mobs, and Ferocity is nice for the lust. Probably only M+, I doubt it’d ever be useful in raids. But the MS is certainly more likely than the other 5 to be useful in M+, though the snare at least has some potential use.
They did that because people moaned that they wanted pet choice to matter more. They seemed to think that pets would matter more if which one you picked had more impact.
What it really meant is that everyone and their dog would be running spirit beasts.
I think pets should be reverted to how they were around cata mop. Im fine with them having their own designated thematic abilities like spider having web root, But the ability to change pet role alone helped out a lot in taking something you like the looks of. If u want a stun, or mortal wounds type ability but need it on a lust pet. then just switch the one u like better to that role. Pets are just getting more and more bland over the years. The few good ones we got arent even close to as good as some used to be, and when people complain about being forced to choose only the good pets, it doesn’t serve to buff bad pets, but only strip good ones further down to the point they are all cosmetic with limited function
also they should at least just give a heal to a non exotic pet, that would be a better solution than “removing spirit beasts” lol
They should be cosmetic. The choice of utility and abilities should be completely customizable, independent from the actual pet selected. Same logic for why transmog exists, so players can choose their aesthetics separately from their power.
well that would be nice, but I don’t see that ever happening. if we actually could get the ability to choose abilities (exotics only diff being 1 more talent choice or something) that would be great. But it hasn’t been going in that direction over the years. Our cosmetic and free choice solutions they are doing have been only stripping abilities away. So we get the “cosmetic” but not the abilities.
I saw a post of yours on the hunter ptr feedback but I couldn’t reply so I will here lol. u mentioned flying is only cosmetic. I thought that was true too. But I was messing around with banthalos as the animal companion, and I was noticing that mofo was flying & hitting targets in the sky way out of range. may be a bug they will fix. but since then I only use him as bm companion. test it out lol
I am unable to replicate that.
https://i.imgur.com/zU0Am2b.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/d3dj7jZ.jpg
He continues to skim along the surface for me. First image is him as a normal pet, second is him as an Animal Companion (clefthoof primary). In both cases, he simply skims along the surface like any other pet.
Can you show me an example? Screenshot, VOD, w/e.
In any case, if he is doing that, then it’s most certainly a bug.
maybe. I first noticed it on the fight with the airship boss in dragon soul. he flew way out attacking dragons. then b4 I had flying, I had a druid attacking me in mechagon, as he flew off in bird form banthalos chased & kept hitting way out of range till he despawned. many other times since. I mainly been on MM since prepatch. but ill test it back out when I get off work.
and make sure he’s not main pet…but 1st slot animal companion