Pet talent trees unleashed
by Eliah Hecht 
Jul 18th 2008 at 5:30PM
Thanks to Mania (creator of the indispensable Petopia), we now have information on the new pet talent trees for Wrath. This excellent information was brought to us by Nimizar, a hunter lucky enough to get into the beta today. Mania hasn't had time to code any talent calculators up, but I'm more than happy to look at the text of this stuff.
Each pet family has access to one of three talent trees, named Tenacity, Cunning, and Ferocity; however, the trees have a large amount of overlap. There are 17 talents per tree, nine of which are shared with the other two trees and eight of which are only found in that tree. The talents are arranged in five tiers. Each tier requires you to put three points into it to move on to the next tier (compare to five for character talents).
The full description of the talents is too lengthy to put here, so I'll just give the highlights. There are some very appealing skills.
- Shared (available to all pets): a lot of the old stuff, like Cobra Reflexes, Bestial Swiftness (now named Boar's Speed), and resistance talents are to be found here
- Tenacity (known to be available to boars):
- Intervene (tier 3): 1/1 for 40 focus, 8-25 range, 30 sec CD ability to redirect one attack on a friendly target to the pet
- Last Stand (tier 5): 1/1 for +30% to pet max health for 20 seconds 6 minute CD (requires 3/3 Avoidance)
- Roar of Fortitude (tier 5): 1/1 for 100 focus, 5 minute CD, 40 sec duration roar that increases total health and Dodge chance of all party members within 20 yards by 10%
- Cunning (known to be available to Owls (renamed to Birds of Prey), Ravagers):
- Carrion Feeder (tier 3): 1/1 for pet to be able to recover health and happiness by munching on a corpse (2 minute cooldown)
- Cornered (tier 4): 2/2 for 25/50% increase in damage and reduction in chance to be crit when at less than 35% health
- Roar of Recovery (tier 5): 1/1 for 34 focus, 5 minute CD, 30 yd range roar that restores 40% of the hunter's total mana over 8 seconds (requires 2/2 Owl's Focus)
- Ferocity (known to be available to Wolves):
- Loyalty (tier 2): 2/2 for 10/20% for the pet's attacks to increase its happiness by 10% and heal itself for 5% of it's max health
- Heart of the Phoenix (tier 4): 1/1 for auto pet self-res with 10% health once per 10 minutes (requires 2/2 Loyalty)
- Call of the Wild (tier 5): 1/1 for 100 focus, 5 minute CD, 20 sec duration roar that increases melee and ranged attack power of all party members within 20 yards by 5% (requires 3/3 Spider's Bite)
I only mentioned three talents per tree, but there are many more; for full details, head on over to Mania's Arcania. Thanks to Mania and Nimizar for getting this info out there!
Filed under: Hunter, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Saelorn Jul 18th 2008 5:43PM
Blood of the Rhino: 2/2 for 1/2% increase in pet Stamina and 20/40% increased healing taken by the pet (also requires 3 points in Greater Stamina)
Seems like a good bear should be able to tank in normal instances. I can only hope this will be the case.
Dood Jul 18th 2008 6:13PM
Yes! I will get a bear tank, and I will name him MiniDrood.
vlad Jul 18th 2008 5:49PM
wowpro has had up for the last few weeks and was a bit cleaner. they took it down this week for some reason though. possibly to update. dunno
Introit Jul 18th 2008 5:49PM
Wow, these look very nice! Time to start leveling my hunter alt I guess?
Rob Jul 18th 2008 5:55PM
This is a great mechanism but I don't think the tanking talents will replace a real tank any time soon. Mainly there is no separate buff for sta and armor, main tank stats. The blood of the rhino is only 2% increased sta, which isn't much at all. 10%/20% would be a nice start.
Wabbajack Jul 18th 2008 6:22PM
Well, there are
-Great Stamina: 3/3 for 4/8/12% increase in pet stamina
-Natural Armor: 2/2 for 5/10% increase in pet armor
-Blood of the Rhino: 2/2 for 1/2% increase in pet Stamina and 20/40% increased healing taken by the pet (also requires 3 points in Greater Stamina)
-Pet Barding 2/2 for 3/6% increase in pet armor and 1/2% increase in pet chance to dodge (also requires 2 points in Natural Armor)
-Grace of the Mantis: 2/2 for 2/4% dodge and hit chance
With the BM talents that would become:
+14% stamina, +10% health, +36% armor, +14% dodge and +40& healing
to hold aggro there are:
-Taunt*: 1/1 for taunt on a 3 minute CD (requires 2/2 Improved Growl)
and
-Improved Growl: 2/2 for 10/20% additional Growl threath.
Falcio Jul 18th 2008 6:23PM
While I definitely believe it won't replace a viable main tank, this can do wonders for emergency tanking situations or even as a viable off-tank.
I most certainly won't see myself getting into a group because of my pet's tanking capabilities, but I definitely see good potential in giving Hunters a little more viability in instances.
Hurode Jul 18th 2008 7:37PM
Pet Offtanking is going to be the new form of Crowd Control in WotLK, most likely. Think about it: Hunters can put their pet on one spare mob while trapping another. It'll be almost as great as a Mage's sheep.
STereo Jul 18th 2008 6:57PM
This is the coolest thing I've seen for hunters in ages, since before TBC. I've been really frustrated with the class for quite a while, but this looks great.
Saelorn Jul 18th 2008 7:02PM
For comparison, this is all in addition to what pets already have (as far as I know, this is in addition to base pet stats like relative damage vs. health and armor). Back in pre-BC, I've done Stratholme with a cat tank, so a talented out bear or crab or such should be have a pretty easy time tanking a non-heroic.
The +40% healing received is probably the largest advantage they have. Imagine if druid tanks had that!
Zep Jul 18th 2008 8:03PM
Imagine if druid tanks had that??
You mean like Nurturing Instinct? Yes it only works in cat form, but a hunter pet with Blood of the Rhino is not going to have nearly as much armor as a bear without any +heal received talent :p
Saelorn Jul 19th 2008 1:56AM
@Zep
Ouch, I guess you got me on that one. I should really know better, since my main is a druid, but that change is incredibly recent; I greatly preferred it when it increased the healing done by the druid rather than received, and I haven't gone feral since they've made the change.
Honestly, though, we have no idea what armor values are going to be like. Maybe they'll get rid of all of this leather with plate-like armor value that causes druids to hit the cap. Maybe a bear with the above-mentioned talents will have comparable armor to the druid with the x5 armor in bear form. Only time will tell.
Matt Jul 19th 2008 9:35AM
With all these new active (i.e. you probably won't just set them on autocast) pet talents, it looks like playing a hunter well will become rather more complicated; the gap between the good hunters and the "huntards" will widen. :)
Wolfstalker Jul 20th 2008 1:57AM
Whether or not pets can tank could well depend entirely on itemisation.
So far we haven't seen much gear, but there's no saying either way that there won't be a whole line of gear like "Leggings of Beast mastery" that increase pet stamina and defense...
STereo Jul 21st 2008 6:14PM
I would imagine bosses in non-heroic instances will be immune to taunt and intimidationi as they are now. How does a 20% boost on growl allow them to hold aggro? My pet can't hold aggro when I use a little mana. I can take aggro after a few seconds with just autoshot. With only 20% higher threat, how can he hold aggro against the entire party unless everyone restricts themselves to white damage?