This is one of only two reasons why I don't like my hunter (the other is that it's a pure DPS class, but that's something else entirely). I still play him and like playing him, but I really hate the fact that it's basically wolves or GTFO.

I'm not sure how to get out of the trap of having some pets be mandatory for progress raiding without making them just varying skins on identical-below-the-surface pets. But I sure wish someone would figure it out.

I believe they said that in Cataclysm you'll be able to choose which talent tree your pet uses and that they're going to nerf wolves, so that should provide some more variety in pet choices. Yeah a turtle with Shell Shield is never going to provide as much DPS as a cat, but if it were able to take talents in the Ferocity tree instead of being restricted to just Tenacity it'd be a lot closer.

There will always be a mathematically best DPS pet, but hopefully they'll be able to close the gap some so you're not totally gimping yourself by choosing the pet you want.

This is one of the reasons I would not join a truly "hardcore" raiding guild. The pressure to become a cookie-cutter-clone of every other top-end raiding hunter is just stupid. I'm perfectly happy as a Survival hunter with my cat pet. (Who I've had since lvl 20.) Am I lowering my own DPS by raiding as Survival instead of MM, and with a cat instead of a wolf? Yeah, most likely. Is it a significant difference? No, not really. If it were the difference between, say BM and MM, I'd probably switch, but Survival is doing well. And you know what? My guild doesn't try to pressure me about my spec. We do our ICC10/25 runs and have fun progressing through the content. And that is what matters.

I think if the wolf had as many skins as the cats or even something that looked cool (or heck, something that looks wolf-like instead of mangy mutt), then I'd complain less at the necessity of having a wolf.

Still, it is important to remember that this article is about raids. I'm not hip on my hunter pvp, leveling, and other stuff your hunter could do and I'm sure this article would read different if it was about other activities.

Or just nerf the wolf unique ability.