Didn’t pets become super squishy with the launch of TWW?
Other squishier classes get by in solo content without a pet just fine. If MM Hunter’s sustain or tankiness is an issue, those can be buffed in thematic fashion.
I would much rather that each Hunter spec feel genuinely unique from one another rather than simply a different flavor of what color projectiles you shoot.
Very foolish question. It doesn’t take a genius to understand why people are upset over having something they’ve enjoyed for possibly decades – one of the game’s most iconic symbols, no less – unceremoniously ripped away from them, when so many better solutions exist. Then we’re told that we need to change how we fundamentally engage with the game, after compromises have already been made to suit a different crowd’s fancies. Adding salt to the wound is that pet-less MM already exists today, right now, every time you log in.
You’re still shooting a gun without a pet after the rework, at least in group content. It’s still “a different flavor of projectile,” except for having lost the class’s most distinguishing feature.
“We know you’ve spent many hours of your life hunting down pets, doing the elaborate unlock methods, or just farming rare spawns to get those specific ones, or have your own personal lore for your hunter and their pet companions, and also use pets as tanks for solo content, but we have decided that everyone wants to be dealing optimal DPS for Mythic+ and raid content and that is all that matters.
So rather than presenting options to allow people to play in a way that suits them, we’re going to take options away and claim it’s for the better.”
The main argument I’ve seen is that they’ve always had them so why can’t hunters keep them disregarding all the pain points the new changes will solve.
Are these “pain points” in the room with us right now?
The main argument for removing pets is a mild inconvenience using a single ability. If Lone Wolf didn’t exist and it was mandatory for MM to have a pet out at all times, that pain point would disappear.
Shocking how people don’t like having someone else’s preferences imposed on them. Weird how the expectation is for the incumbent party to be the ones who make a sacrifice for the sake of those who picked the pet class without liking pets.
Why do you think the developers are making such a change if, as you suggest, the majority of players want to keep pets? Could it be that the majority of MM hunters don’t want pets with how they are now because they have no functional interactions with the spec (like Kill Command for Surv and BM)? It seems some players have a preference of using a pet and some players have a preference of not using a pet. For the developers to make such a change, could it be that the players who don’t want to use pets as MM are more prominent? If pets were important to the function of the spec, don’t you think they wouldn’t touch pets for MM?
If the only thing you have to go by is the wisdom of Blizzard’s executive decision-making, then you’re in for a rough time.
People came to MM knowing what it was. If they wanted a pet-less class, they could’ve picked one. If Blizzard wants to add more pet interactions for MM and lean further into pets, that’d be real swell.
Then they shouldn’t have picked an unambiguous pet class.
Y’know, I’ve always wanted to try paladin but it sucks that it doesn’t have pets. They should let you summon wolves made of light because that would compel me to play the class more. I’m sure the community would be willing to accommodate me.
The majority of the current MM playerbase may want to ditch their pets. Yet that is a demographic that has atrophied over years of missteps and katowing to the vanishingly small minority of the hunter community.
Rather than making each spec further and further alien to one another (disjointing the class tree in the process), Blizzard should start looking into unifying this chimaera of a class. Making the pet integral to MM and fixing its meta woes would likely increase engagement, luring players from BM and Surv to boost its numbers. This change is only going to whittle its population down further.
The fantasy of MM is being a long range…hmm…marksman? When you can take it or leave it when it comes to the pet being out or not and it doesn’t effect how the class plays, then why not use the opportunity to reimagine the fantasy? That’s cool you don’t like the direction. If you don’t like the direction they are going in then idk what to tell you. And Blizzard’s decision making has been pretty good the past couple years. If this was Shadowlands you might have a point.
And your paladin example is silly at best.
If my paladin example is silly, then so is your definition of “marksman” which, to my knowledge as a native English speaker, doesn’t say anything one way or the other regarding animals.
Give me my light-wolves. This is a fantasy that paladins have been clamoring for.
The most popular spec is BM for hunter. Why is that? Because the spec is the pinnacle of what the pet class fantasy is. To me, MM being petless rounds out what the fantasy of being a hunter is. Melee with a strong bonded pet, ranged with 2 pets, ranged with no pets. Survival was a mess before it’s rework and now it has a healthy population and a stronger identity. Reworking it will get people to come back to it, but you’re right that it’s not clear until it’s in players’ hands if it will stay there.
Got it. Have fun getting your light wolves. I’m rooting for you.
Source: it came to you in a dream. Surely it can’t be for any other reasons such as its effectiveness or ease of use? No, it must be because that’s the “pinnacle” of the fantasy even though vanilla WoW’s BM is substantially closer to modern MM than it is to modern BM.
What you’re looking for is a ranger, not a hunter. There should be one. I would be thrilled if there was one. I’d support it if it didn’t come at the expense of a lot of heartbroken players.
Go look at some stats my friend. BM has higher population numbers across the board. And let me ask you something, how come you’re posting on an account with 3600 achievement points and a level 12 hunter? What happened?
Who cares about class fantasy in vanilla when we’re talking about retail.
Regardless, have fun getting those light wolves and being scared to post on your main.
Ignored by the way. Good luck to you.
I know BM is popular. I was laughing at your naivety in thinking you know precisely the reason why. Funny how you can use whatever reasoning you want to define what the marksman fantasy is, but when I bring up the predecessor to this game, that’s a problem and “who cares.”
…Oh man, it’s over? We’re at the “attack the account he’s posting on” part of the evening already? Weak.
Yeah, I don’t really see the logic in pointing out MM’s unpopularity as an argument to double down on the reasons for its unpopularity.
He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but in the end he’ll get what he wants.
We’ve had versions of lone wolf that prevent you from summoning a pet before.
Pets are squishy. Those for pets dont care they die easily. Those for moving pet utility to the hunter for more reliable use wouldn’t mind if the pet stays as nothing more than a cosmetic feature. Pet or no pet is of little consequence to me. How we use what is now pet utility in the future and what its tuning and what design it has does mater. Every single thing that has been changed for 11.1 I like, on paper just reading it. Looking forward to testing.
I do understand having sentimental attachments to pets you’ve played with for a long time.
Cant fathom why people argue having a buggy pet move about is there class identity. When thr rework still has you interacting with beasts just in a more intuitive way. Let mm be the spec that doesnt use pets. I wish warlock had a spec that embraced a petless playstyle more aswell.