Pet management - Page 9

Har · 02/26/09, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Difool

Hrm.... Maybe time to start prepping some other pets for 3.1, like croc for tanking - (source MMO-Champ)

Pet

* Thunderstomp (Gorilla) has been removed as a pet skill and replaced by Pummel - Pummel the target, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec. (20 Focus, 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown)
* Thunderstomp is now a pet talent available to any Tenacity pet. Now your bears, crocs or ESPECIALLY CRABS can join in the AE tanking fun.
* Savage Rend (Raptor) now temporarily boost the raptor's damage by 10% for 30 seconds.
* Furious Howl (Wolf) now only affects the wolf and its master, duration increased from 10 to 20 seconds.

If this makes it in, I'm definitely going to tame a croc. Now that we can switch pets out in dungeons, it'll really help on those trash pulls with hundreds of small adds.

Aluriel · 02/26/09, 8:45 PM

Call Stabled Pet has a 30 min cooldown by the way. If you are planning to switch to croc for trash and than get your dps pet for boss, it may not work due to long cd.

KraxisSingular · 02/26/09, 9:57 PM

Besides, Bad Attitude requires your pet to be attacked. More than a couple of trash hits rapidly and it's dead. Just like most non-tanks are.
A Bear with Swipe would potentially be a better AoE pet, but I really doubt it's efficiency on bosses.

Mji · 02/27/09, 5:04 AM

I don't really know where else to ask this, I'll probably get a warning or banned, but as this thread is pet related, I ask here.

There is a pet I've seen a lot. It's not on any websites I've seen such as Petopia and the Hunting Lounge. The VERY dark Grey, almost Black Har'koa Spawn. The normal Cursed Har'koa spawn is too light. I've seen other hunters with it, and I'm curious as to where it's from, and why they all have it. Is it in any way better? Or is it purely cosmetic?

KraxisSingular · 02/27/09, 12:07 PM

Don't worry, while not a normal question it is somewhat harmless.

What I have been able to gather is that it is in fact the Cursed Offspring of Har'koa. Just a new skin for it. Upgrade or not, you decide.

Steelfleece · 02/27/09, 1:45 PM

Originally Posted by KraxisSingular

Don't worry, while not a normal question it is somewhat harmless.

What I have been able to gather is that it is in fact the Cursed Offspring of Har'koa. Just a new skin for it. Upgrade or not, you decide.

Actually, this seems to be a PTR deal where certain textures are now MUCH darker than they used to be (if you're in Valorous Cryptstalker you probably noticed it on your armor too). It may not even be intended, so we'll see.

Iru · 02/27/09, 2:59 PM

Does anyone know if the number of targets that can be affected by Bear's swipe is limited, other than by range? With the change to thunderstomp I'm looking for a new tanking pet for instances and the combination of swipe + TS seems pretty compelling if it hasn't been ninja-nerfed some how.

Har · 02/27/09, 3:02 PM

Originally Posted by Iru

Does anyone know if the number of targets that can be affected by Bear's swipe is limited,

No ninja nerf that I'm aware of. It operates the same way it does on live, which is to say a cone in front of him, but no limits on targets.

Noctivagant · 02/27/09, 5:08 PM

Which would be more effective:

Thunderclap + Swipe

or

Thunderclap + Bad Attitude?

The idea being that once Thunderclap pulls aggro, the damage shield is constantly increasing aggro 360, versus swipe doing it in a limited cone.

KraxisSingular · 02/27/09, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by Noctivagant

Which would be more effective:

Thunderclap + Swipe

or

Thunderclap + Bad Attitude?

The idea being that once Thunderclap pulls aggro, the damage shield is constantly increasing aggro 360, versus swipe doing it in a limited cone.

I believe that Bad Attitude with it's constant reactionary damage is superior in a clean environment. It is simply more damage and more threat with no directional issues.

However out in the 'real' world I doubt it is better overall. The simple fact is that if you draw aggro while TS is on CD, then Bad Attitude isn't going to help you. Swipe on the other hand will have an infinately greater chance, being an active ability.
Also while it is on a 5 sec CD is a direct threatreduction compared to Bad Attitude, it is an advantage in continual pulling. Bad Attituse has a long period of downtime where the Croc will be considerably less efficient as a tank if you don't change behaviour to fit it.

Simply the Bear appears to be easier to manage. And I dare say it is more iconic and looks better.

Saladin · 02/28/09, 2:44 AM

Originally Posted by KraxisSingular

Simply the Bear appears to be easier to manage. And I dare say it is more iconic and looks better.

Not if you were lucky enough to tame a Ghost Croc / Ghost Hydra / Oozalisk while the Oracle daily was bugged.

Anyway, I take it we've all heard the news of normalizing pet abilities so that each has 5% to armor/stamina/damage/etc. across the board. I can't say I'm really excited about this change, but we'll have to see how it works. Something I'm curious about is if Tenacity's Stamina/Armor talents will be buffed any to compensate for the loss of both 5% Armor and Stamina.

Otherwise, we'd have to compensate for the deficit solely using Wild Hunt, which I believe is only accessible to BM hunters. That being said, it would more than make up for the loss of family-specific bonuses assuming your gear is even marginally up to par.

KraxisSingular · 02/28/09, 10:47 AM

Well, non-BMs can grab one point in Wild Hunt. Which I would advice for.

The normalization seems like a hidden pet DPS nerf really. Blizzard removed the Tenacity pet that could match Ferocity, and rightly so. But now Ferocity pets lose 5% of their bonus damage? That's basically a rollback of the Kindred Spirits rollback... But with the added 'benefit' of impacting the other specs too. Or has the pets been baseline boosted to match the loss of damage?

Saladin · 02/28/09, 11:39 AM

Good question, Kraxis. I guess time will tell on that one.

However, I have had another intriguing realization about wolves possibly becoming the top DPS pets (or beckoning another nerf). By boosting both the wolf and hunter AP by 312, the wolf should also get additional AP scaled from the hunter's boosted AP--thus double dipping its own buff. Additional points in Wild Hunt would multiply this effect. That'd give the wolf a sizeable head start on the top DPS rankings. Although I'm not sure if it's enough to outweigh the Devilsaur, Moth, and Raptor percent modifiers with Wild Hunt.

More than likely we'll find that wolves are the best pets up until a certain benchmark of hunter AP, at which point Mothraptorsaurs overtake them thanks to the percent modifier pet abilities. It'd be interesting to find out what that benchmark is.

halabar · 02/28/09, 3:24 PM

Originally Posted by KraxisSingular

The normalization seems like a hidden pet DPS nerf really. Blizzard removed the Tenacity pet that could match Ferocity, and rightly so. But now Ferocity pets lose 5% of their bonus damage? That's basically a rollback of the Kindred Spirits rollback... But with the added 'benefit' of impacting the other specs too. Or has the pets been baseline boosted to match the loss of damage?

Yes, it is a bit of a nerf, but, with the other new talents, it may be a wash. If the huge boost from the new talents is large enough, perhaps we needed that normalization. We need a new PTR build with all the fixes in to get new #'s.

My hope would be that it does make more pets viable, and that we would be debating 8 or 9 different pets instead of 4 or 5. It also may make tenacity more viable for some raiding situations (bear to help OT adds on Sarth?)

Who knows.. we might even actually use cunning pets finally...

KraxisSingular · 02/28/09, 3:43 PM

Well obviously Wild Hunt is currently more than enough for all three specs to overcome the loss. But when it gets corrected down to the right level, will it really be worth enough? BM was lacking, even with the rollbacks, it needed the boost to the BM talent, for that reason as well as people not taking it at all. I don't know if BM will actually be enough with the corrected values for Wild Hunt, and Shark Attacks have already been nerfed (which I think was rather odd considering the OP values Wild Hunt gives).

halabar · 02/28/09, 4:00 PM

Judging by GC's comments, it seems that Wild Hunt numbers are where they want them, but some bugs were preventing excess scaling...

Yes, we did nerf the damage of Explosive Shot a little more. After many of the changes to locks, DKs, warriors and the rest, we felt SV hunters were too high. MM may still be a little too low. BM seems on target at the moment, but we had a few bugs in new pet abilities especially that was making it hard to get accurate numbers.

so, based on that... perhaps we are good, perhaps we need a boost.. who knows. We need the next ptr build, and real testing, to judge fairly. They seem to be toning down dps overall, to prepare for new gear, so our pets might be fine now.

maxdawg · 03/06/09, 4:02 PM

After looking over the 3.1 patch notes, pet calculators, and cunning pets, I'm wondering if a cunning pet could viably be used in a raid now, for damage. Just looking at the changes and calculator, with feeding frenzy, cornered, wild hunt, and roar of recovery, the cunning pet calculator appears to be more attractive to maybe use one in a raid.
At least it seems like something to look at and maybe test when it comes out. Has anyone tested on the PTR and can provide any feedback, results with cunning pets?

Dochalliday · 03/06/09, 9:32 PM

I did a quick scan of the thread and didn't see an answer to my question, but it could be in there and I just didn't see it.

Anyway

I'd like to create a macro that would both cast dash and give the command for my pet to return to my side. How might I go about doing this?

Tsook · 03/06/09, 9:40 PM

/cast Dash
/petpassive

or if you prefer,

/cast Dash
/petfollow

Dochalliday · 03/06/09, 9:49 PM

works like a charm thanks

Peldin · 03/17/09, 5:10 AM

I was actually looking for a pet macro as well. Please link the thread if this one is already answered.

The macro I need would allow me to hit my hotkey to have my pet attack. Then I can hit the same hotkey to have my pet follow. Basically a toggling switch for /petattack and /petfollow.

Peldin · 03/17/09, 5:30 AM

Nevermind, I figured one out that works perfectly.

/petattack
/petpassive [target=pettarget, exists]

Corbetti · 03/17/09, 9:22 AM

Originally Posted by Iru

...With the change to thunderstomp I'm looking for a new tanking pet for instances and the combination of swipe + TS seems pretty compelling if it hasn't been ninja-nerfed some how.

Have a look at the Warp Stalker. Warp means you can save a talent point by skipping charge, plus it gives 50% physical avoidance for up to 4 in every 15 seconds as non-BM (yes, Warp does autocast even in melee range). That's pretty sweet IMO.

Iru · 03/17/09, 10:59 AM

Some time ago there was a discussion in this thread about having your pet stay (ctrl-3) at the entrance to Thaddius, using /petattck (or ctrl-1) to attack the appropriate sub-boss and the pet then returns to where you left it, allowing you to call pet once you've jumped without having to deal with pathing bugs.

When I try this approach, however, my pet choses to sit out the sub-boss fight, although I can summon it for the thaddius fight successfully. What am I missing?

Har · 03/17/09, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by Iru

Some time ago there was a discussion in this thread about having your pet stay (ctrl-3) at the entrance to Thaddius, using /petattck (or ctrl-1) to attack the appropriate sub-boss and the pet then returns to where you left it, allowing you to call pet once you've jumped without having to deal with pathing bugs.

When I try this approach, however, my pet choses to sit out the sub-boss fight, although I can summon it for the thaddius fight successfully. What am I missing?

If you tell it to stay and then tell it to attack, it should join the fight, and then run back to where you told it to stay. Check that you've got it on defensive, and make sure you're not telling it to stay somewhere it runs into a pathing error.