Who says it has to be a talent point? Just make a new ability that gives lust. If the problem is “friction” then the most frictionless solution is to make lust a baseline ability. Which is what they’re doing anyway with Harrier’s Cry. You learn the ability at level 48 and it calls down your eagle to give the buff.
So, the 5% LW buff is supposed to make up for the damage you lose out on from not having a pet. And, unfortunately, pet pathing is even more neglected and unlikely to receive an overhaul mid-expansion.
But it isn’t a useless appendage to me or many other players. For group content I never go much further than LFR and normal dungeons. I have no aspirations to move into higher level content and even if I did Father Time has other ideas. I find open world bosses, mobs and delves challenging and by having a tanking pet it increases my survivability. Particularly early in the season when I’m still leveling and haven’t had time to gear up. Compared to my Mage alts my survivability is higher and I spend less time having to run around using a spam ability trying to stay alive. It is one reason I don’t play them much as I don’t find them fun by having to kite everything and hope I don’t get killed and have to run back to my body through a mountainous area.
You did read that I AGREED with you regarding the whole 'Lust thing right? You literally cherry picked the one sentence and ignored everything else I wrote??? Seriously?
Secondly, they KNOW the solo crowd is becoming more popular. However, they also know the Raid/Mythic crowd is who they are catering to. This happens in nearly every MMO out there. If they thought/think the Solo crowd is who they NEED to cater to, then they will change tracks. But currently this is the boat we are in.
The 5% buff is SIGNIFICANTLY better than what the pet does. If the Pet damage was comparable then we wouldn’t be having this Convo since there would be plenty of pet users out in Raids and Mythics. The reason the pet is going is because nobody in those formats are using them. And like I keep having to say, that Demographic is who they are catering to. Right or wrong.
Firstly, thank you for at least reading and replying back civilly.
Being an Appendix. Unfortunately, while it’s used all the time in that content you are doing - And I will freely admit I do the same when I have to do World Content - It just isn’t used in any of the more competitive modes of play. Mythics and Raids.
And like it or not, THIS is the Demographic that Blizzard is currently catering to.
The trouble for your position is that, if you look at it purely in a mercenary manner, there is no downside (for Blizzard) for this change.
It will make the “elitists” happy. Since none of them bother using the Pet.
It will piss of the Casuals. But those players by definition, WILL NOT CARE in the long term. A casual who dabbles in 10 alts is not going to quit the game because ONE SPEC on ONE CLASS is not going to be their idea of what a Hunter is.
The not so casual MM players who don’t Mythic. They exist and are probably the ones posting on these threads. Yes, they are the big losers from this change. They love this Spec. They love their pets. They will lose out. Just like all the Ranged Survival Hunters did.
3a) The problem here is that they are NOT a big crowd. And I suspect a smaller crowd than that of those that hardcore their MM Hunters in Mythics. Sure, I got no numbers to back this assertion. But I reckon Blizzard do. And they obviously feel they can afford to do this.
Or as a casual player I can take my sub to other games as I have when I felt that Blizzard was making a boneheaded change. I played a for a number of years before WoD came out but it made me decide to leave WoW. I returned for a little over a month for Shadowlands before quitting again disappointed. I started DF earlier this year and felt Blizzard had finally found itself again and I felt they were doing pretty good up until this announcement. We’ll see what happens. This isn’t the first time Blizzard has decided to pull pets from MM only to restore them but if they don’t there are lots of other MMOs out there.
And that is your right. There are plenty out there. I was going to take a break from WoW and go back to SWTOR for a change. But this update is made me resub for the next 6 months.
So there are plenty of people out there who will pick and choose. With just the two of us, Blizzard has scored a net neutral zero. If they didn’t do this patch, you’d have stayed but I’d have left. And since the change, you are now saying you are going to leave and I’m staying.
They will though. People who enjoy having a single pet have had some of them for years. This pet has become a part of the characters identity. A lot of people don’t like BM, it is not an option to go single pet BM. The skill set is not the same. I’ve seen people on other places not just these forums also talking about quitting if this goes through.
It’s a big company, I am sure it can eat the player loss, but it is going to lose players over this. They could avoid losing people if they even had one section of the MM talent tree allowing a hunter pet, like they currently have lone wolf. But, if they choose to alienate a potion of their player base, then they are going to lose that portion of that player base.
They’ll be fine because the amount of people that would actually quit playing over this isn’t actually that big because it’s only a part of the people that play Marksmanship Hunters not all Hunters so let them quit the game will be improved despite them.