Let me glyph that thing into a Sir Not Appearing In This Film and I’ll be happy. I took the Lone Wolf talent on my MM Hunter for a reason, that character’s fantasy doesn’t include having an animal companion but it was nice to whip one out when I absolutely needed one for solo PVE challenges, then put it away.
I even went with Sentinel for my hero talents instead of Dark Ranger because the hovering owl was slightly less obtrusive than a random wolf getting thrown in.
Why should it? Why is mm the special spec?
Hunters fundamentally are a pet class. That is what they have always been. You are the one insisting on making it some special exception to the detriment of people who want to keep that fundamental hunter gameplay and fantasy. Even though we currently have a perfectly good arrangement that caters to everyone.
This is the part that confuses me. You can’t be a no-pet spec with a non negotiable , but only marginally useful, random eagle. Nor is that a pet spec. I personally think “no pet ranged” is a different class, not a hunter spec, but if that’s the desired outcome within the current framework then just DO IT.
I just don’t get what was wrong with how it works now. Now, people who wanted to use a pet could use a pet, and people who didn’t want to use a pet could spec into not using a pet, and everyone was happy.
Why reinvent the wheel?
The new pet cannot tank or be visibly present in the game world. Nor is it customizable by the player, effectively cutting it off the entire pokemon minigame that has been part of being a hunter for years. Yes, even MM did it.
On its own merit it’s fine but when you look at the continuous changes of pets and dumbing down of Hunter pets from TBC to now it’s just another step towards being an idle sim game. I like the micro management of pets. I loved training, feeding and teaching pets new skills. I loved getting unique pets with unique stats. It’s all gone now. We have 3 types of pets, all have the same abilities and ATK speeds. I would not be surprised if pets are removed completely in the next couple of years and become spells.
Fundamentally I agree with you. They could just as easily have added a new Archer spec to Warrior or something to have a purely martial non-pet ranged weapon spec and left MM alone.
However that doesn’t seem to be the direction Blizz is going. I know you were responding to someone else, but for me I’m just looking for ways to make the changes more palatable.
I miss my pets getting a little frowny face because they were hungry. It was like having a tamagotchi.
Or maybe rogues? The diablo rogue is also their archer. It’s super cool. They’re already agility based. And hunters could use a little competition for ranged weapons 
Actually thinking about it more that does sound awesome. They have the sneaking. They could poison their arrows. Leather seems more fitting for hiding in shrubs as you track your target. Mail will catch the twigs.
That looks even stupider than arrows falling from the sky FROM MY GUN.
I don’t find this to be a compelling argument. Survival was fundamentally a ranged class until it wasn’t. Blizzard could give paladins a squire companion and declare they are now a pet class even though historically they have not been.
I don’t think that’s true. I’ve seen plenty of posts from unhappy mm hunters having to keep a lust pet around
Again, I don’t think everyone was happy with the current setup. And furthermore, I think it’s unbalanced that mm has an option that the other specs don’t. Like I said earlier, it’s weird that mm can play with or without a pet, but the other specs cannot. Why shouldn’t all the specs have that option? I think mm lacked a clear identity because of that.
That’s not a problem to do with pets. You solve that by just giving primal rage to the hunter rather than the pet (which they’re doing with this mm rework anyway). That would be better for everyone since they’re also bringing back the choice for pet specs. But survival and bm won’t be able to make use of it if primal rage is still tied to ferocity spec.
I don’t see this as a problem. Tons of other classes have specs that can do stuff that the other specs can’t. Frost mages got a tide buddy, Arcane mages get a little hovering blip. My MM hunter couldn’t call up the special tames that they knew, only my BM hunter could. Only some Shaman specs get the summoned elementals, some only get a couple of totems instead of the full range. Only some Warriors get to do the whirly thing, some Warlocks don’t get some summons-es or Chaos Bolt. Only one Priest spec gets a special form.
Etc. etc.
No, it’s not the same. It would be like if an arms warrior had an option to dual wield but a fury warrior could only dual wield and not use one 2h like an arms warr.
demonology in legion best spec.
Agreed, that would be pretty cool.
Omg!! THANK YOU for pointing THAT out. Been sitting here the whole time wondering why nobody is asking the devs THAT question, wtf is wrong with what we have now?? A choice exists where everyone is cool with the current spec arrangement. This just sounds like “dev preference”, like certain other unnecessary class changes I could mention. What’s crazy is I have a hunter alt and my RP aesthetic is an eagle/falcon look but even I’m opposed to this change, for group stuff I bench my pet, for solo stuff I 100% use my pet BUT I despise BM because of the heavy reliance on the pet to be effective, which makes me not like the spec. Survival would be cool IF we could use all of the weapons the class has been coded to be able to use but no, we are stuck with 2 handed only weapon use (lame ASF & lazy) which makes me not like playing if I don’t even like the way my character looks and plays from limited cosmetic choices. If this goes thru I’ll be retiring BOTH MM hunters alts I have made 
minimally…mm should be able to do quest-lines to
acquire alternate spirit helper beasts.
options are always welcome.
I don’t have an issue with other players, and will on occasion run m+ and rarely raids if people I talk to in game ask me to join in. I just don’t find the content all that fun in general so I don’t choose to do it normally.
Imagine if they came up with a talent that allowed you to run without a pet and gain a dps boost for doing it