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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHunter pet aggro may be fixed in Wrath
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jul 24th 2008 at 11:00AM
The story of Hunter pets and aggro in Burning Crusade, especially since patch 2.4.2 or so, has been a very stormy one. Even deep Beastmastery Hunters have had to learn to kite, as pet aggro grows worse and worse. Growl in 2.4.2 was supposed to scale, but almost every Hunter that tested it said it didn't, despite Hortus' insistence that it did.
Luckily, it looks like there may finally be some real relief coming in Wrath of the Lich King.
According to Ghostcrawler, they now realize that it's very easy for BC-era Hunters to pull aggro off their pets, and it's something that will be fixed in Wrath. Although they haven't done a full pass on threat generation yet, they want to make sure that a pet will be able to hold aggro against a Hunter in solo play. Even more so, a tanking pet should ideally be able to effectively offtank a 5-man instance and even main tank in some group circumstances, such as 5-man quests.
A preliminary look at both the Beastmastery tree and the Hunter pet Tenacity tree would certainly seem to bear this out. Beastmastery gets a Longevity talent which looks like it should reduce the cooldown of Growl. If it then stacks with Improved Growl in the Tenacity tree, that should make it a lot easier for tank pets to keep aggro, especially if you add the Taunt talent on top of that.
After a long Burning Crusade spent learning to kite, I know this news make me look forward to Wrath of the Lich King more than ever. It should provide Hunters both with an extra hook to grab 5-man groups, and make Beastmastery Hunters feel like effective soloers once again.
Filed under: Hunter, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Instances, Expansions, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
T Jul 24th 2008 12:23PM
hunters kill stuff faster than once every 30 sec
Charcuterie Jul 24th 2008 12:59PM
Well there is the problem. The mindset that hunters NEED to kill things faster than 30 seconds a pop. Can't we slow down and just enjoy the game?
It's the argument of the person who consistantly goes 10 MPH over the speed limit. You only run into the people who slow you down because you insist on going so fast.
Mullinator Jul 24th 2008 1:06PM
When as a Hunter you are forced to feign death to remove aggro after nothing but auto-shot it is a problem.
The purpose of having a pet and giving it growl was that it should be able to tank for the hunter. That was it's purpose. So when it is incabable of doing that even when the Hunter severely limits his DPS by doing nothing but a base auto-attack it is a problem.
Pville Jul 24th 2008 6:04PM
I agree with Charcuterie... I have at least one of each class and hunter is by far easiest to solo (plus it's my fav). It's called Aggro Management... is that hard to understand. I used Feign Death regularly. I am also BM so I have Intimidation which I use all the time. When you're higher levels, there's Misdirect. After a night of soloing with my lvl 70 hunter, my repair bill is around 20s. Try doing that with any other class.
If you want aggro issues, try playing a Mage. Better yet, try soloing with a Mage or a Priest... you'll know the locations of all the graveyards real quick.
Richie Jul 25th 2008 5:48AM
:/
DPS = Damage Per Second. you stop attacking your DPS will go down.
Dotixi Jul 24th 2008 11:37AM
I don't think it's just hunter pets. My Felguard had so much trouble holding aggro that I re-spec'd.
Raaena Jul 24th 2008 11:38AM
I haven't tested out my pet yet in Beta--I'll probably split some time between questing on her and working on my DK. I'm really excited about this fix--but it was a great way for my hunter to level weapon skills in BC. ;)
Faladril Jul 24th 2008 11:40AM
In WOW Insider, Wrath of the Lich King Edition, will there be article editors?
"A preliminary look at both the Beastermastery tree...?"
and...
"...and make Beatmastery Hunters feel like effective soloers once again?" (I don't even want to ask what that one's about).
Sarcasm aside, it will be good not to have to run from everything my pet can't keep hold of. Even if I let my cat knock off 10% of the mod's health first, I can still take aggro away with just a couple of shots. Not good. And how often can you use Feign Death when you're farming?
Mullinator Jul 24th 2008 11:53AM
Love how people here are insulting hunters for a change that will have absolutely zero effect on non hunters.
Honestly what are you whining about? Just leave it be.
Saelorn Jul 24th 2008 12:04PM
I don't know about anyone else, and maybe it gets worse when you're all epic-ed out, but I never have aggro problems or mana issues when I solo. Just because you CAN do more damage and steal aggro if you oom yourself doesn't mean you SHOULD.
Jayboy Jul 24th 2008 12:51PM
It's one thing for Bliz to nerf bat something. It's another for them to insist something is working a way they intend, when it clearly isn't. The issue was never that Bliz wanted pet aggro to suck as bad as it did, it's that they didn't believe it sucked as bad as it did.
They have finally admitted they were wrong and have said they'll address it. That's good for all classes, IMO.
Pythia Jul 24th 2008 12:08PM
Pshhh, hunters are gods. I'll take buffs, I won't complain about nerfs, I love the class.
Also loving that this article used my favorite boar model as the picture. Go Baldric!
Glamdr1ng Jul 24th 2008 12:10PM
My guild once used a turtle to tank Anub in pre-BC Naxx. Truly a highlight of the game.
Matchles Jul 24th 2008 12:15PM
People who have never leveled hunters don't seem to understand that low personal risk does not equal good soloability.
When a hunter can pull aggro from their pet with just autoshot there is a problem.
I don't really expect rogues, or any other class (or than warlocks) really understand what it is like to manage aggro while soloing, not using 3/4 of your spells because you'll pull the mob from your pet if you do.
Salty Jul 24th 2008 12:39PM
Really, honestly, Hunter pets don't have aggro issues (can't speak for warlocks). My pet has no problem tanking Durn the Hungerer whenever my buddies need to complete the quest, he generates aggro and stays alive just fine with crap heals. When Wrath comes out, pet tanking is going to be even more Uber, I don't think any of the pet changes could ever be considered a nerf.
Step 0: Have Omen.
Step 1. Cast Misdirect on your pet, wait until you have about 10 seconds left on the buff to let the cooldown burn a little.
Step 2. Hit mend pet and send in your pet. Make sure Growl is on.
Step 3. Hit Beastial Wrath and an AP trinket then use your 3 highest aggro shots.
Step 4. Burn as hard as you can until you get close to your pet's aggro. Hit mend pet, Feign Death.
Step 5. Burn hard yet again, realize that your crits create focus for your pet to burn on growl.
Step 6. If you get close to your pet's aggro, wait until FD is on cooldown, FD, rinse, repeat. Every time you FD it gets easier to burn as hard as you please. Use MD on cooldown.
On lesser mobs, you can still use a similar technique, but throw Intimidation into the mix. It's all about utilizing your whole bag of tricks. If you just auto-cast growl and expect not to have to FD, MD, Kite, Trap, Intimidate, you're gimping yourself unnecessarily.
And last, but not least, no Hunter should ever have to run away from the mob if he's not in over his head (like soloing dungeon elites). Learn to kite. Wing Clip and Concussive Shot are /not to be ignored/. If your target is a beast, fear it if it gets close, if it's not, feel free to use slowing traps and kite the mob in a circle by straffing around the frost effect. Be good at moving/straffing while hitting arcane shot and multi-shot on cooldown.
If you're not BM, and we're just talking about petty mobs, take advantage of the fact that your personal DPS is much higher than that of a BM and nuke that SOB hard and fast from max range with a conc shot right after your initial shots.
In Wrath, this going to be more like: Send your pet in, nuke, mob is dead. The threat and survivability talents are amazing.
Falcio Jul 24th 2008 1:45PM
The problem is, we shouldn't have to use Misdirect, which is a high level spell meant for raiding, on our pet to keep from generating aggro.
I won't argue about Feigning, because that's one of our class's defining abilities, but MDing is hardly a skill that a Hunter should be required to cast on their pet. [special cases can require it, of course, like pulling single mobs away from a full group] Hunters are known for taking down a mob quickly. We shouldn't have to wait until the MD cooldown is up to go to the next mob.
Sure, on the elites, MDing would be best, but on normal mobs, it shouldn't be a requirement.
This aggro fix will help a LOT of Hunters with the small soloing problems that occur in TBC. The whole off-tanking an instance deal is just icing on the cake.
Faar Jul 24th 2008 1:47PM
Your strategy works great, assuming everybody has omen and only kill something whenever misdirect is up. However, if you have to go to such lengths just to get the pet to do the job it was originally designed to do then that's a better example that something's wrong than anything else I could care to mention. ;P
Rob Jul 24th 2008 2:31PM
Agreed. I'll QQ as much as anyone, but hunters just need to manage their threat better. (T6 hunter with 50 days /played). We have half a dozen threat management tools.
1) FD (obvious)
2) pet Growl
3) Conc shot
4) MD
5) wing clip
6) disengage
It should take some modicum of skill to play a class. Now look at locks, what threat management do they have? Practically none. (fear IMO isn't a threat mgmt)
Manatank Jul 24th 2008 12:41PM
"Even deep Beastmastery Hunters have had to learn to kite"
And how is that a bad thing? We have to group with these tards.
anonymoose Jul 24th 2008 12:43PM
I have a question about the commentary from both locks and hunters that pets/minions are unable to effectively tank without their master pulling agro--should it really be considered a rightful function of these classes that a pet under their control should be capable of full tanking? The reason I ask this is because it seems somewhat imbalanced to me that is an operating expectation--that a player should have a personal tank.
I have to confess at the outset my only true experience with hunters and locks is playing them as alts, and not very intensively so I do have quite a bit of ignorance in this area.
Mind you, I'm not saying changes to pet aggro are not worthwhile, but in the scheme of game mechanics and balance I'm just curious about this. I will say when I play my hunter I do love how (for the most part) I'm able to solo most anything because of my pet. I personally find my mana to be more of an issue, but I suspect that overall my ignorance of the class affects many things (not just this question) and likely I don't do sufficient dps to pull agro off my pet (at least something that can't be reset with feign) most of the time.
Is this an issue that tends to get worse as hunter/lock gearing improves at 70? (Neither my hunter nor my lock is 70 yet.)
(Again, hoping you hear my question as one based on my own ignorance and not an assertion that there is no problem at all.)