An overview of 2.1 Hunter pet changes
by Mike Schramm 
May 14th 2007 at 2:57PM
Just in time for the impending release of 2.1 on the live realms. Petopia has created a page with everything hunters need to know about pet changes in the new patch.We already reported about a few of the new pets to be found, including a cool purple tallstrider, but there's at least one more out there called the Skettis Kaliri, probably found in the Arrakoa capital, a new quest area. In addition, there's those two new pet skills, Avoidance (which should help with DPS pets in raids and instances), and Cobra Reflexes, which increases attack speed at the cost of damage per attack. In tests, Petopia says it does increase DPS overall, but it remains to be seen how it will work on the live realms. Both skills should be trainable at the pet trainer (although that may be only for the test realm, again not sure).
If you're a hunter (or just want to know what you might be facing in the high level battlegrounds-- I would hate to get beat up by a purple dodo), Petopia's page is definitely worth a look before the patch drops as a great overall view of what's happening in petland.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hunter, Patches, Guides
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DoctaDJones May 14th 2007 3:20PM
"Warlock and Hunter pets will now be automatically dismissed when you summon a mount."
Anyone else pissed about this pet feature in 2.1? I've been grinding Orgrimmar rep with my blood elf just so I could ride a Worg and have another Worg running beside me.
And with my "causal" gaming pace, I'll never even see a Flying mount. So this fixes nothing for me, and removes an aspect of the game I really enjoyed.
But I can't get too mad, since this is the first patch that I've had a problem with. But I really do hope they change this in 2.1.x.
Adeas May 14th 2007 3:34PM
Don't worry--this feature can be turned on and off in the interface options menu.
It is incredibly nice that they added this for when you get a flying mount, as one of the benefits of flying mounts is being able to cruise along to your destination without worry about aggroing mobs. However, this is somewhat hampered when your pet insists on running along directly underneath you on the ground when you're flying, resulting in my pet usually dieing from aggroing entire camps or running off of cliffs if I forget to dismiss them.
Chedder May 14th 2007 3:35PM
I think pet dismissing thing is only for flying mounts. Not ground mounts. There is no reason that you would need to dismiss the pet on ground mounts.
I would hope they added more pet slots in the stables by now. 2 Is just not enough. We need like 4 or 5.
DoctaDJones May 14th 2007 3:45PM
"Don't worry--this feature can be turned on and off in the interface options menu."
I was very much unaware of that. Having it as an interface option make everyone happy. Thank you for making my day.
(ps Sorry Blizzard for prematurely complaining. Still #1 in my book)
Ryan May 14th 2007 4:23PM
So BM hunters will do respectable DPS. Still doesn't justify a raid spot though. Maybe 1 Survival for expose weakness.
Prauche May 14th 2007 4:29PM
Interesting that people don't like BM hunters' Ferocious Inspiration. Mine procs so often that I almost always have a 3% damage increase. Interesting how that's not of import in 'raid slots.'
Areis May 14th 2007 4:33PM
@6 - don't feed the trolls
Ryan May 14th 2007 4:35PM
@6 It's certainly something to factor, but it still doesn't even beat out an enhancement shaman.
Goolup May 14th 2007 5:04PM
'Anyone else pissed about this pet feature in 2.1?'
You have to be kidding? This is like the best feature from the entire patch. You say you are casual so you cannot obtain a flying mount yet by the time you hit 70 by 'casually' completing quests you will have more than enough gold to buy one. Stop QQing.
Jason McLeod May 14th 2007 5:41PM
Dang.. I've trained up my Bangalesh because he came with Cobra Reflexes. Now EVERYONE can have it.
Serenity May 14th 2007 6:06PM
@8 Not in a rogue group, but stick that BM hunter with a caster group, and it's a major increase.
Robert May 14th 2007 10:00PM
Preliminary testing and theorycraft on the EJ forums suggests BM may edge out MM for raid DPS in 2.1, on fights where the pet dying isn't an issue. (The new avoidance skill helps with this.) And 3% damage increase is much better than Trueshot aura.
Furthermore, as I understand it, BM hunters are a bit less mana-thirsty than MM, so less reliant on shadow priests to fuel them through longer fights.
So before you write off the spec I'd recommend taking a look at the theorycraft. Might be eye opening.
Ryan May 15th 2007 6:45AM
@11 Ugh, what a waste of a spot. Totem of Wrath is still better.
Toolio May 15th 2007 8:19AM
Hey Squishy, remember the days on the BGs before 2.0? The days before pet AS normalization? Remember that?
Its baaaaack!