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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsHunter pets: leveling improved, caster stats removed
by David Bowers 
Oct 3rd 2008 at 9:00AM
Once again, we return to Mania's Arcania for the latest and greatest in pet news:First off, hunter pets' leveling has been improved in the latest beta patch, so that now pets have to get just 1/10th (10%) of the hunter's total experience per level rather than 1/6th (16%). That's a big improvement of more than a third off of pet leveling time, but considering that now our characters have a ton more experience to earn per level than they used to, and a huge part of that experience we get comes from turning in quests. Our pets were taking an incredibly long time to level up before, I'm personally not sure this improvement will be enough to give it that special "training a pet feeling" (if it ever could -- personally I would do without pet leveling altogether, but that's just me). Hopefully this still won't be so bad, since, as we already know, if you tame a pet any lower than that, it will automatically just jump right up to 5 levels below your hunter. Hopefully Blizzard will be paying attention and reduce the leveling time even more if it's still too slow, or maybe even, as Mania hopes, include quest experience in pet leveling too.
Secondly, "caster stats" on pets are at last going extinct. Many of us have, in the course of our travels around Azeroth, desired one nifty pet or another, only to find out that it was a "caster pet" with reduced stats, and far inferior to the regular pets. Somehow for ages now, beasts found in the wild with a mana bar haven't changed to regular pet stats when you tame them, and have basically been a waste of stable space (nevermind why in the world beasts would have mana bars). But now that is going to change! As Mania reported, and Ghostwalker confirmed, caster pets will be a thing of the past, and their damage will be brought in line with all the other pets of their family type.
Filed under: Hunter, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
ThorinII Oct 3rd 2008 10:10AM
Yes. Even though no other classes with "pets" have to do that either. :0{
Seriously, though, it is a huge coin drain for hunters. Buying ammo and food for pets sucks you dry, but such is the life of a hunter. I think that's just something a player has to consider before rolling a hunter. I wouldn't complain if they changed that, but I'm also not going to QQ over it.
Netherscourge Oct 3rd 2008 10:00AM
Oh cool - I didn't know about the loyalty removal.
Do we still have to feed pets though?
Sylagdu Oct 3rd 2008 10:11AM
Happiness is still there. It affects the damage your pet does.
ThorinII Oct 3rd 2008 10:12AM
Er, that last comment of mine belongs here. oops.
Trem Oct 3rd 2008 10:21AM
From playing around on the PTR it doesn't look like you will need to feed your pet as much now if you take the pet talents to increase their happiness. The tenacity talent makes it so that every time your pet growls it gets happiness. The Ferocity talent is a chance on attack to get happiness. Sorry forgot the name of both talents but I did a whole set of Island of QD dailies without feeding my pet once. It was great.
Sewer-Urchin Oct 3rd 2008 10:36AM
You won't need to feed pets for happiness. Each of the 3 types has a talented way to build happiness. Ferocity has an ability that grants a % of happiness on hit. Cunning pets can feed on a corpse to gain happiness, and Tenacity have a chance to gain on each use of growl.
Aust Oct 3rd 2008 8:34PM
I haven't tested it, but I think that the happiness talents will only delay the need for feeding, not eliminate it. If the devs wanted to get rid of feeding they would have just removed it entirely.
Rugus Oct 3rd 2008 10:54AM
Tenacity pets have "Guard dog" (Your pet's Growl generates additional threat and 20% of its total happiness when talented 2/2). I've tested a lot this feature and it works pretty good. I've dropped all the food long time ago, as you really do not need to feed the pet anymore. Even with a RED face after 3 deaths in a row, I could make him happy just attacking few random mobs. Well, to be honest it never goes out of happiness, unless you kill him 3-4 times lol :)
blorg Oct 3rd 2008 11:17AM
Speaking as someone who has levelled several pets from the 20s and 30s right up to 70, my immediate response is "Stop whining!"
5 levels is nothing compared to what plenty of hunters had the patience to go through before the expansion, whether it's at 1/10th of experience or 1/6th
STereo Oct 3rd 2008 12:08PM
The class is broken beyond belief and people are talking about what pretty pretty pets we can have.
Marc Oct 3rd 2008 12:58PM
The article IS about fixes and people can talk about whatever the hell they want.
Danel Oct 3rd 2008 2:41PM
You really are a single-issue lunatic, aren't you? When you wake up every morning, is your first thought "Why is the sun shining while the Hunter class still sucks?".
Have you perhaps considered trying another class?
niwaar Oct 3rd 2008 1:13PM
The class is far from broken. The class is still one of the highest forms of DPS there is currently, and in Wrath. What you see is broken is some of the inherent issues with LoS, Mana and other issues in PvP. Simply put, while PvP has become a much larger part of the game since TBC was released, it is not the main focus of the game design so you need to wait for PvP changes.
Not everyone needs to be perfect in PvP. There is a system of checks and counters to make PvP a fun and viable thing. Hunters as a class have range and LoS issues and some Mana issues in PvP but it is nothing next to those squishy priests who get 3 shot by ANY melee class. In short quit your griping about PvP.
On the original topic, pet leveling is a part of the game because it needs to be an accomplishment, you and your pet get to your level together. You are a party of 2. I enjoy pet leveling. The problem is that they should gain xp towards the next level while we level. We should not have to be 71 to see our pet start to get xp. Why can we not have our pet gain xp and be 1tnl when we ding to 71? Why do we need to grind an entire level for them when we would have just gotten that level while we grinded our own? What I do not enjoy is the fact my pet does not get a portion of quest xp. After being on the beta for roughly 5 hours, I got 1.6million xp with the vast majority of that being from quests. I still do not see how a Level 70 pet is going to be close to 71 when I hit 72.
Mania Oct 3rd 2008 1:54PM
Forgive me for pimping, but if you want to know more about hunter pet changes specifically in Patch 3.0 and Wrath of the Lich King, Petopia has a nice FAQ on the topic:
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/articles/wotlk.php
kunukia Oct 3rd 2008 2:07PM
Good times.
Reno66 Oct 3rd 2008 2:59PM
All these hunters complaining about leveling their pets.
First off, mages use TALENT points to get their summon, the water elemental. AND it only lasts 45 seconds. You can keep your pet out indefinitely and it doesn't require talent points to use it. Secondly, shamans get the shaft in many ways and are the most boring class until level 30 (I have one, I'd know). Also, the elementals can be summoned once every 10 minutes I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). And finally, warlocks don't have to level their pets yes, and we can keep them out indefinitely like hunters yes. But they require soul shards to summon, so they aren't entirely free, and a warlock pet is in general weaker then a BM hunter's pet (If you're marksmanship then yeah your pet is crappy like a destro lock). So less QQ about having to level your pets, because they are just that, PETS. They aren't summons, they aren't minions, they're pets. They're supposed to be companions that grow with you, and besides you get to name your damned pets.
Pucelle Oct 3rd 2008 3:34PM
My god, you're right! Warlocks do have it hard! It's not like hunters (up until 3.0, and even then) have to feed their pet with food that usually has to be purchased from a vendor because it barely drops in the world, and of course it's completely and totally true that ONE SPEC OUT OF THREE has a pet more powerful than a warlock's. (And that warlocks have no talents AT ALL to enhance their pets.)
How could I not have realized this before?
Shut up. You're a disgrace to carbon.
Anaughtybear Oct 3rd 2008 4:04PM
Great news about caster pets. I can finally quit doing /laugh at huntards that have bad pets. Hopefully they will stop wearing Pauldrons of Surging Mana as well. Then I can take them seriously.