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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 4 of 4)
FancyRat Jul 25th 2008 1:25AM
Seriously though, as easy as it is to play a hunter, that's the way the class is MEANT to be played. We are supposed to be able to stand still and focus on DPSing while our pets tank. If you're jealous of that, roll hunter. The problem is that the aggro is broken. This isn't your problem anyway, why are you crying here?
Er Jul 25th 2008 2:40AM
I do not agree with this. Although I do not have the greatest gear (1800 AP in BM spec), i never have problems with aggro. Once you have epic gear, it's so fast to kill regular mobs anyway that if you manage to pull aggro, the mob's dead before it reaches you.
Once MD is up, I use it to let my pet tank two mobs at the same time, no problem.
Hunters have a lot of tools at their disposal for both pet aggro, kiting and whatnot so this should not be an issue. And also, why should a built-in tank allow us to go all out, all the time? No other tanks work like that?
Carl Q. Jul 25th 2008 10:52AM
QQ my Stoneclaw Totem cannot hold aggro when my Windfury weapon does triple-crit.
Buff the hunter's pets, the warlock's pet, the stoneclaw totem and anything else that's supposed to tank for you cause they don't work as well as an actual prot-warrior/feral-druid/prot-pally tank...
Get real people, your pets arent meant to be full tanks, its only buying you some time.
Theungry Jul 25th 2008 3:55PM
Oh drat. I was all excited to finally roll a hunter to experience the pet talent system, but if they actually make hunter pets capable tanking 5-mans, there's no way I want any part of that overpowered nonsense. Hunters should be able to tank on the same day that Rogues can main heal.
Juliah Jul 28th 2008 5:08PM
I hope what you are reporting comes true, Daniel. I hate to be "I'll believe it when I see it," but, well. I am so tired of pulling aggro off my pet with just auto shot!
ihlos Sep 26th 2008 7:52PM
Tenacity pets in current beta build are doing well on threat, but main tanking will still be a challenge in terms of threat.
-Ihlos
Let the Hunt begin!
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