I know very well when it started, I was there. As for being told you can’t use your pet, that’s bizarre. I played BM and cleared everything in Vanilla except Naxx because I’d changed from EU to US servers then and didn’t raid the rest of the expansion. I also raided in BC, Wrath, some of MoP all as BM and not once in that entire time did I get told to dismiss my pet.
In fact the only time I saw any Hunter get told to dismiss their pet was a MM in my raid on Vael in BWL because he had his wolf on Defensive instead of Passive and as soon as the fight started it didn’t engage but it did use its Howl ability to buff the raid which was enough threat to make the dragon turn onto his half of the raid. I still got to keep my pet because I did the right thing.
It’s nice that you have anecdotes too.
My pets routinely got hung up on terrain and caused issues by taking weird paths and pulling extra trash. This was a big issue in MC when trying to skip some of the trash on the way to Garr, in BWL suppression room, in ZG pulling extras when going over bridges, in AQ20 and 40 by pulling extra nonelites that would chain to pull big packs, and I never did OG Naxx on this Hunter. I also saw several Onyxia wipes due to pets picking up massive groups of whelps.
That doesn’t even get into the pathing issues in 5 mans.
I dunno what to tell you. I had my pet get stuck on things, but all I had to do was dismiss and recall it. A hassle, yes, but comes with the territory of pet classes and it’s gotten better. Never experienced a pet wipe due to aggroing trash, at least not in a raid. I have personally messed up jumping into the arena pit in BRS and fluffy taking a magical journey and bringing all the friends he met along the way, so I know the potential is there. I just never experienced it in a raid.
When people first wanted no pets, Blizz was firm in saying Hunter is a pet class and the pet is supposed to be important for all specs. They should have stuck to their guns, but time passed and people wanted an option to use a ranged weapon and not fight with pet AI. That’s not unreasonable at all, which is why I said they should have introduced another class at that time catering to that playstyle. Instead they gutted the “pet class” to where only one spec continued to use pets. C’est la vie.
But now that we have a second pet spec back, Blizz needs to keep it a pet spec. Unlike ranged weapons, there are PLENTY of melee dps without pets. Every class that Blizz has added since Vanilla has had at least one melee DPS spec and they haven’t added a single DPS of any other type. Please, if you don’t like pets just PLAY ANOTHER CLASS.
I feel like it’s hugely entitled to want to change a core mechanic of a class/spec just because you want the “flavor” of a hunter and no pet. I would like the “flavor” of a pet summoner that is Light based and summons cute magical animals, but I’m not calling for an overhaul of a Warlock spec or even suggesting it be added at all because this is Blizzard’s game and they get to decide what kinds of things exist in their game.
You can get the “flavor” of a melee hunter by playing a Night Elf Warrior or Rogue. Use your imaginations. Not every aesthetic you want has to be validated by a game mechanic.
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