I was looking forward to going back to having 1 pet again, as it suits my class fantasy perfectly, but unfortunately Blizzard really dropped the ball.
I did a quick sim, and it’s about 16% DPS loss when using it over Animal Companion. Not really sure what they were thinking here. They should have just made it equal DPS, and merely a cosmetic change, but Blizzard will be Blizzard, I guess.
Unless my math is incorrect and someone can correct me, but here are the raw numbers with my current gear and a ST build (using RaidBots Quick Sim):
With AC: 1.266M DPS
With SC: 1.076M DPS
4 Likes
it will never be equal, double pets mean more chances to proc many things from talents, to trinkets. It was always meant to be a rp talent
https://www.raidbots.com/simbot/report/3Pxm68gnmHfxE8RA1jMJ4t
4 Likes
Blizz said in their comment under the patch notes taking one pet will be a dps loss and their vision of BM is two pets but they want to accommodate the single pet players and are trying to make it not significantly less damage
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I understand it being less damage, but if OPS numbers are correct 16% DPS loss is a bit much. I levelled my hunter when they announced the return of this talents, and Im struggling to do any decent dps to start doing mythics 0 and +2.
It’s for rp flavor same as having a pet as MM.
And 16% dps isn’t noticeable until really high end content anyway.
I didn’t sim it but I tried both on the PTR and my highly unscientific testing found it’s a noticeable difference, in fact the friendly pug I was with kept reminding me that BM is meant to have 2 pets.
Blizzard has been pushing the two pet class fantasy. Im not a fan of it. Luckly the 15% +/- doesn’t matter for myself when playing.
I’m suprised they even created the Solitary Companion talent truthfully.
3 Likes
Not shocked, it will become the new SMF, Blizz is so stubborn with their vision of what a spec should be, and all it will do is drive players away. They keep talking about giving players more choices, but they don’t, it’s the illusion of choice, but they make one choice so bad, you really don’t have that choice.
5 Likes
Is this a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too? You wanted One pet BM, you get it, but don’t expect it to be viable or competitive with 2 pet BM.
Its the same as petless vs MM with a pet, you get it but petless will still be a DPS gain
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Its a cosmetic talent. Players can just switch to AC before joining end game content.
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Yup. Takes, what, five seconds?
I wonder if sims are bugged.
Animal companion’s second pet does not cast Bite/Claw/Smack.
Running a single pet increases Bite/Claw/Smack by 35%.
Does animal companion stomp maybe? But is stomp > 35% increased Bite/Claw/Smack in single target?
I don’t like vague speculation!
The talent specifically says “This pet will obey your Kill Command, but cannot use pet family abilities” the pet family meaning claw/bite/etc.
The AC will Stomp but the damage mainly comes from the 2nd Kill Command. So it’s more two sources of Kill Command > 35% better Bite/Claw/Smack
Yeah I knew AC said that hence thinking SC should be better by 35% then it clicked.
I was comparing the old AC we have been using (2 x 65% kill commands for 130% KC damage)
Now it is:
Animal Companion: 2 x 100% kill commands and normal bite/claw/smack
Solitary companion: 1 x 135% kill command and +35% bite/claw/smack
I can sleep now I understand it all.
1 Like
they could just make the main pet proc’ing every attack (+KC) a 2nd time @ 35% effectiveness or whatever
(math guy, do the math; u get the idea, not semantics)
even if its a dps loss, people will still play it; it just can’t be a significant dps loss such as -13%<
Gonna be funny when the forum post begin “I was kicked for having a single pet”
1 Like
The problem with trying to make them equal or even competitive is how the damage profile changes with +pet damage vs an extra pet. Extra pet flows into apm giving you extra procs on stuff because two pets are casting kill command, stomp, etc. Too much +pet damage from SC starts making tertiary pets/beasts/cotw too strong, starts scaling too well with other %pet damage modifiers in the spec tree and pack leader tree, etc.
This is what’s meant by “not supposed to be balanced”. If they’re within 5% of each other but one bursts way harder than the other, that one choice might get made not because the person wants to play with one pet, but because the talent enables you to do something different. Things meant to be fully RP can be 16% weaker.
There are a lot of more ridiculous things that people are really getting kicked for. “You chose a talent that’s a 16% dps loss” is actually a less-egregious reason to kick than some I’ve heard.
Im ok picking a weaker talent if it comes with some downsides. But back to the issue of making SC too strong if it then starts makign tertiary beasts too strong, why not have two damage modifiers from it and make one damage modifier only affect your main pet. Would give a bit more fine tuning ability.