It's time to rethink hunter pets and hunters in general

None of the specs make any sense anymore. BM might be the closest, but even it’s extremely one dimensional. I have said this in a few posts over the last week, but I think all the specs need a light, if not full rework. I have been playing hunter since wrath and it just feels antiquated in the current game.

Hunter pets need to be addressed. Nearly every spec that once relied heavily on pets has really moved away. In the past, frost mage, basically all lock specs, and uh dk really revolved around their pets to some degree or another and all of them have mostly moved on. NOT that locks and dk’s don’t use their pets for cc and interrupts, but they aren’t a liability in the same way.

For whatever reason, hunters rely on our pet for way too much. Master’s Call, Roar of Sacrifice, Intimidation, Kill Command (for building focus), Damage, etc. While pet AI has improved, pathing can still be an issue, dying is still a thing, and in general pets can do just… random things. Like having it glitch out and having to recall it mid match.

My suggestion is reworking all of those abilities.

  • Master’s Call - The hunter applies a freedom to the target and the pet.
  • RoS - Usable wether the pet is in CC or not. With the changes to crit, RoS hasn’t held up well at all. I don’t like the idea of just getting another damage reduction, but something needs to change. Maybe instead of preventing crits, it reduces the damage of crits by X%. This would make it actually functional against more specs.
  • Intimidation - Make it work like Blink Strike did in the past. Wherever the pet is, if the pet isn’t in CC, it should stun the target IF the target is in line of the hunter. It’s insane to me that I can be on a target, but somehow my pet is more slowed then I am and is unable to stay on the target.

Without repeating what everyone knows already, MM needs a complete overhaul. Take it back to what it was in MoP or earlier. It’s a meme right now and I can’t imagine anyone actually enjoying it. It’s facing the same problem BM always had. When it doesn’t have damage, it simply isn’t relevant. When it does have good damage, it can be instantly oppressive.

Hunters should have moderate consistent burst that lines up with traps. Traps should be more meaningful. The current 6s CC is awful and it forces the need for MORE damage during our go in a shorter window making all the specs more spikey. I’d rather have longer CC windows with more meaningful, setup goes. It makes landing traps that much more important and makes stopping traps that much more rewarding.

I really hate the direction this game is going.

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This is a glaring issue with Hunters in PvE and PvP. Hunters must chose between a major defensive or lust (PvE) or defensive, lust or mobility (PvP) based on their pet choice. With the ai and pathing being so unreliable it can mean the difference between a kill or defeat. No other class is effected more by a Z axis level for a major class ability.

I would like for them to make a 3 choice node in the class tree with the command pet options for Lust, Master’s Call and Roar of Sacrifice. Switch the Roar of Sacrifice talent note with Bear.

Lust, Master’s Call and Roar of Sacrifice would be provided with a Dire Beast type pet so pathing and ai are taken out of the equation.

I know that this takes away the option to run MC and RoS but with Bear being a separate ability it now give you the option to be more mobile vs more defensive based on the comp your facing.

Keep the pet families the same and let people pick pets based on Mortal Strike, Slow, Damage Reduction (PvE Pet Tanks) etc.

Hunters need a defensive buff, damage toned down, and you should pet spec trees re added to the game.

I would play a petless survival tbh. Survival is fun but i just can’t stand pets

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More specifically, MM needs Rapid Fire toned down and their damage more global locked. I’m fine if they maintain the same overall damage, but they have too much damage front loaded on too few abilities.

I’m fine with the pet if it’s relegated to minimal tasks. Like keeping the pet alive and having it be integral to our damage, totally fine. Having some of our major utility attached to the pet… not fine. The fact the pet can be cc’ed and I lose out on all that utility AND damage, that’s too much.

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Man, I miss the pet talent trees!

I played hunter for 15 years and shelved it in SL. I started playing it again, and it’s a blast in some scenarios. Survival feels painful in RSS though.

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  1. They need to redo BM’s talent tree so that taking all of the passive options isn’t the best way to play it. Not directly related to “hunter pets” per se, but…
  2. Bring back actual pet talent trees and untie pet families from specific pets. Let people pick the pet skin that they want and then give it its own talent tree where you get to pick from options of the existing pet utilities.
  3. Revamp RoS - crit immunity is too good against mage and almost negligible against everything else. Make it a flat damage share and give the pet something like old cower that you can use in tandem with it to micromanage/keep your pet alive during it.
  4. Remove lone wolf. Kind of like point 1, it’s not directly “hunter pet” related, but the ability is and has always been problematic. You have functions in the class tree that don’t work/don’t make sense with no pet. Using it makes you lose all of your pet utility. The ability gates a really important throughput passive (hunter’s knowledge).
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Bm is a spec designed for raid leading so you don’t have to focus on rotation

Shouldn’t be viable in pvp tbh

That’s a very tired meme. It is no longer 2014.

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No, it is very much how the spec is intended

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Frost mage having the elemental always felt bad and clunky. It was an afterthought and can hardly be considered a pet class.

Demo losing felguard and not having feldom is a huge liability that’s even worse than hunter not having pet because the resummons aren’t free. Destro and aff also just straight up can’t play without sac or your pet dies in 5 seconds.

Yeah lets dumb the game down even more. If anything it should stay the way it currently is for hunters and all 3 lock specs plus dks should have more put into their pets.

I think everything should be viable but it shouldn’t be nearly as strong as it is for how easy it is to play.

It’s the truth.

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Although I think everything but tanks should be kinda of viable in pvp. I do feel like certain specs should always be weaker than the other spec(s). Fury/Demo/BM come to mind right now, prob more.

It was a pet class though and that’s the point of the statement. It wasn’t a great design and it was a liability.

The Felguard is rarely, if ever, targeted.

It’s not dumbing the game down though. It’s about having a reliable tool. Are you going to argue with me that SV isn’t already complex enough relative most of the other specs?

I think it would be nice for ai to never bug but it takes more skill for the fire mage to cross a pet on a combust go than it does for the hunter to press roar sac

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And that is more or less the case now, no? SV/MM are better than BM. Destro is definitely better than demo. Arms > fury. In fact, of the three (bm/fury/demo), BM is arguably the worst of the group. Also having played a decent amount of fury for the first time ever this season, I don’t personally see how you can compare anything to it in terms of how straightforward it is.

If pets can be killed and need to be rez’d, hunters should be able to shoot the arm off a warrior or rogue, making them unable to use abilities until restoring their arm with a 3 second cast.

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What if they aren’t trolls?

haha

Yea, make melee have to cast to remove disarm. =p

As I have learned and been on the receiving end of, it doesn’t matter if they think they are trolls or not. It’s up to the person reporting them and the mod who reviews it. I have been reported for trolling for posts that aren’t even addressing anyone. Just… someone didn’t agree with what I said and I got a 3 day suspension. In this case, it’s clearly trolling. Anyone who needs to hide their made and profile is a troll by default.

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Lol I was referring to the comment about things regenerating limbs… That’s a troll thing.

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