Pardon the Interruption

If you've spent any amount of time at all in the new heroics, then you know that interrupting spells is a huge part of many of the encounters. If you've spent any amount of time playing a hunter then you know that when it comes to interrupting we're not exactly the most assertive bunch. Still though we're not completely helpless in this area.


Now when you think of hunters and interrupt you normally think of Silencing Shot, which is only available to Marksman hunters. Silencing Shot is not our only option though. In addition to providing buffs and debuffs, we have pets with interrupt capabilities.

Gorillas, Nether Rays and Moths all have interrupt abilities. Gorillas have Pummel, Nether Rays have Nether Shock, and Moths have Serenity Dust.

Gorillas are the best option because their ability has the shortest cool down at 30 seconds. Nether Shock has a 40 second cool down and Serenity Dust comes in at a hefty one minute. Beast Mastery hunters have the Longevity talent that will reduce the cool downs by 30%. So for Pummel that takes its cool down 21 seconds which puts it on par with Silencing Shot.

So if you find yourself in an unbalanced group lacking sufficient interrupts, just head to the stables and grab one of these faithful companions.

Happy Hunting!

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Patch 4.03a - Get Ready!

Okay, you know all of the stable slots you've been keeping in reserve? Well now is the time to go and fill them up. This next patch is bringing us all of the old world changes and that includes and astounding amount of pet choices. As always I recommend that you head over to Petopia for all the details, but suffice it to say your stables are about to get a lot more crowded and feel a lot smaller. What's even crazier is that there are still more pets coming when the actual expansion is released.

In a moment I'll show you some of the ones I gathered up on the PTR, but first I wanted to mention a few general things about the this patch.

• The new Justice Points vendor is in the game, however, you must be level 85 to purchase items. So no dumping your points now and grinding Wrath dungeons to build them up again before Cata.
• The portals to all of the major cities are gone from Dalaran and Shattrath.
• Stormwind and Orgrimmar are meant to be the new Dalaran. I recommend setting your hearth to one of these cities the night before the patch goes live.
• My red hyena, which I got from Scarlet Monestary, was changed into a Mastiff (dog family). There are other pets that will also undergo makeovers. This is not a bug.
• The new fishing and cooking dailies are available. You can start stockpiling some cooking awards before the expansion.

Anywho, here is a sampling of things I tamed on the PTR and that you'll be able to tame when this patch goes live.

The new look Shango

Hive Controller

Seagull

Highlands Fox

Hellboar

Boss Turtle from Blackfathom Deeps

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Tiger

EDIT: Folks over at Petopia are reporting that the Tol'vir Prowlers found in the Lost City of Tol'vir instance are now tameable as beta build 13277 (published after I made this post).

This is the new tiger model coming in Cataclysm. It's a cat, not a rare, nothing special, just your plain run of the mill scratch your eyes out, maul you to death cat. But as my podcasting partner Frostheim likes to say - however semi-comma colon, there's a catch; a big one at that.

The tiger is found in a phased area of the game. Specifically they're located all over Neferset City in Uldum (they're also in the Halls of Origination Lost City of Tol'vir instance, but the ones there cannot be tamed). There is a long quest chain that culminates in you helping to take over the city. The tigers are  found at the beginning of the chain. When you complete the chain your phase changes and the tigers are gone. What complicates things even more is that these guys are level 85, so you need to be max level to tame one, and it's possible that you might not be level 85 when you start this series of quests.

If you have your sights set on taming one of these beauties in Cataclysm you'll need to do a little planning or you might find yourself phased out.

Meet the Brew Crew

Our new stables have five times the pet capacity than we're used to, but until we have the room to store one of every type of pet skin in the game it will never be big enough. I'll bet many of you are agonizing over what you're 25 will be; that is unless you're a card carrying member of the "untextured cube" club. Yes I'm talking about you Euripides :P

Like most of you I've been on a taming spree and I've finally gotten all of my pets leveled to 80. When it came to finding pets I had three goals in mind,

1. Ensuring that I had all of the raid buff/debuffs at my disposal.
2. Having pets with the looks that I like best.
3. Making sure I left some space to tame some of the awesome pets coming in Cataclysm.

I suppose a fourth goal should have been coming up with cool names for all of them. Maybe next expansion. Anyway, it's time to meet The Brew Crew.

1.	2.	3.	4.
5.	6.	7.	8.
9.	10.	11.	12.
13.	14.	15.	16.

1. Fluffy - Ancient Hysteria (heroism buff), Lava Breath (cast speed reduction). This is the Kurken model, by far my favorite. If you're Horde you might want to pick up this guy now. You'll be able to do it in Cata., but it might be a little more challening.

2. Yeungling - Qiraji Fortitude (stamina buff), Venom Web Spray (root). This guy is the Silithid Ravager, a rare spawn found in Shimmering flats. You can also get him in AQ40, but you have to defeat at least the first boss before your run into them. In Cata. you'll easily find them in Thousand Needles.

3. Lightbrew - Demoralizing Roar (physical damage debuff). This is your typical polar bear. I might actually release him in Cata. and replace him with a carrion bird as they will have the same debuff. I know dwarves and bears are supposed to go hand-in-hand, but meh.

4. Zeus - Lightening Breath (increased magic damage taken). This guy can be found in Netherstorm and also in Sethekk Halls. If you're farming Anzu you might want to pick one up.

5. Gilligan - Ravage (increased physical damage taken). I spent a lot of time using a ravager in Burning Crusade, but dumped him in Wrath. Boy, I forgot how cool these things are. Flip animations are wicked.

6. Glenlivet - Tear Armor (armor debuff). The picture doesn't do this guy justice. He is actually a color changer, and I much prefer the purple and blue look; It's really nice. This guy can be found in Zul'Drak.

7. Foghorn - Dust Cloud (reduced attack speed). This is the Strider Clutchmother, a rare spawn found in Darkshore. In Cata. the clutchmother is going away, however, this model will be a common one found in Swamp of Sorrows. I have to say, I'm not as fond of the Tallstriders as I was hoping.

8. Shmoo - Spore Cloud (reduced casting speed). This is probably going to be my least used pet. Just head to Zangarmarsh and get whatever color you'd like.

9. Suva - Roar of Courage (agility and strength buff), Spirit Mend (healing ability). Probably the front runner to be my leveling companion in Cata. Suva, by the way, is the capital of the largest city in Fiji. I hope to visit there someday soon.

10. Guinness - Roar of Courage (agility and strength buff), Spirit Mend (healing ability). If spirit beasts weren't such a pain to get, I'd likely release this guy back into the wild. Once Cata. comes there's still a chance his days could be numbered. There are too many other cool pets out there.

11. Cody - Roar of Courage (agility and strength buff). I'm likely to raid as Survival so having buffs covered by both exotic and non-exotic pets is important. The white lion will still be tameable in Cata. I think the only way to get him though is through the Horde quest in the Barrens. I believe the one that spawned from the quest in Winterspring is gone. I may replace this model in Cata.

12. TresHuevos - Terrifying Roar (crit buff), Monstrousl Bite (reduced healing). The T-rex is still fun, and I like using him in PvP as I try to farm some honor for the 264 PvP weapons.

13. Grolsch - Furious Howl (crit buff). This wolf model needs to go. I'm tired of it. I was waiting to see if Blizzard was going to make any of the Demon hounds tameable, which they did. Unfortunatly they're all members of the dog family which means I need to find a new wolf.

14. Joker - Tendon Rip (bleed debuff). The red hyena is my favorite color, in fact I'm enjoying this pet much more than I thought I would. I got this one out of Scaret Monestary, however, they are being replaced with the new Mastiffs in Cata. I'm not sure where the red hyenas will be hiding. Uldum maybe?

15. Ludwig - Frost Breath (slows the target), Froststorm Breath (AoE attack). I'm not really sure when I'll use this guy, but of all the chimera skins I like the purple one the best. He's a rare spawn from Netherstorm by the way.

16. Bogart - Worms just got buffed on the beta and may become the BM AoE pet of choice. Also, the pic does not do this pet justice. I actually tamed the ghostly looking one from the Hodir quests. That thing is almost invisible.

As you can see I have all the raid buffs and debuffs covered. In some cases I even have overlap. In the case of the spirit beasts/cat and devilsaur/wolf this is so I have those buffs available when I don't raid as BM.

Coming in Cataclysm

So those are all the pets I have, but in no way does this consist of all the pets that I want. Curse you Blizzard! You tease us by giving us 25 stable slots and then add an insane amount of cool new pets to the game. As I zip around the beta and follow all of the action over at the petopia pet forums, it's becoming clear that nine free slots just isn't going to cut it.

I'll definitely get a Shale Spider for the kings buff. There are two new turtle models which trump all others (one of them is on freakin' fire!). I love all the parrots, and the seagull makes me lol. I like my current silithid, but the Hive Controller with its exposed brain is something I want. Then there is the new lion that has the same model as the Alliance mount. I love the new tigers from Uldum too. By the way those are apparently in a phased section of Uldum, so careful planning is required if you wish to tame one of them.

Let's see, what else is there? Ooh foxes, especially the Highland model. Of course there are mastiffs and demon hounds. I've always wanted a blue mage hunter. Oh, and hellboars! I fancy the ones from Blades Edge. Beetles look like fun and the Sapphire Hive Queen is back. Then there is Gazzarack the black and yellow warp stalker; it no longer has its summoning effect, but it still looks cool.

Yeah, 25 stable slots is definitely not going to cut it. Here's a look at some of the pets I'll look to add to my stable in Cataclysm.

Note: All the images are from the super awesome Petopia (because I'm too lazy to do my own screenies). Go there NAO!!

Until next time, Stay thirsty my friends and remember to drink your Darkbrew Lager.

Fear the Turtle!

Wain over at the Petopia Cataclysm Pet forums posted a pic of this neat little find. It's a rare spawn in Hyjal named Terropene. OMFG, do want!

Filling Up the Barn

Okay with patch 4.0.1 on the horizon I wanted to take a moment and talk about pets in patch 4.0.1. Now I'm not going to cover all of the pet changes here; we have Petopia for that. Speaking of Petopia there's a good chance that Mania will be making an appearance on the Hunting Party Podcast soon, but I digest.

Anywho, to get the skinny on all the pet changes coming in patch 4.0.1 and Cataclysm I recommend starting with the Petopia: Cataclysm Overview page. Also, Frostheim released his Cataclysm Hunter Pet and Raid Buffs Guide over at the WHU.

My goal for today is to provide you with some caveats when acquiring new pets and to give you some guidance on the pet families you'll want to consider when it comes to raiding. I'll also take a look at these pets in the context of a recent 10 and 25 man raid to see if I'll be forced to bring certain pets versus bringing my favorites. So let's crack open a Darkbrew Lager and get started.

Things to Keep in Mind

1. We still need to level our pets. They start at three levels below us and not five. If your raid starts at 8pm and you tame that Corehound at 7:30pm, it's only going to be level 77 and pretty worthless to your raid until you get him up to 80.


2. The list of pets that are level 78 and higher is pretty slim. The available families include Bears, Birds of Prey, Boars, Rhinos, Spiders, Spirit Beasts, Wolves, and Worms. You can see the full list here.


3. I recommend running heroics to level your pet. The days when this was a detriment to your group are long gone. They'll be back in Cataclysm, so enjoy it for now.


4. At level 80 we only have access to four of our five active slots. The fifth one requires level 82.


5. We need to visit a stable master if we want to swap out an active for an inactive pet. Pets pulled out of the stable will need to have their talents redone.

Recommended Pets

If you want to have all of the raid buffs and debuffs covered then here is the list of pet families you want in your stable. Keep in mind that due to talents, ferocity pets should do more dps than cunning and tenacity (I think cunning pets are pretty close in dps though). Also, if you want to have all the buffs and debuffs you will need to have a BM spec.

1. Corehound - 30% haste


2. Silithid - Health buff


3. Raptor or Serpent - 12% armor debuff


4. Wolf or Devilsaur - 5% crit


5. Ravager or Worm - 4% physical damage


6. Dragonhawk or Windserpent - 8% spell damage


7. Cat or Spirit Beast - Strength and Agility


8. Boar, Hyena or Rhino - 30% bleed debuff


9. Shale Spider - 5% all stats (only available in Cata. though).


10. Bear - 10% physical damage debuff.


11. Tallstrider or Fox (Cata.)- 20% melee attack speed debuff.


12. Sporebat - 30% cast speed reduction.


13. Chimera - AOE damage (not a buff, but an attack).

Will I be able to Raid With My Favorite Pet?

The answer to this depends on your raid composition, your raid leader and the number of hunters you have in your group. Keep in mind that some abilities that affect raid buffs may not be available to all classes at level 80. For example, Mages don't get Time Warp (bloodlust/heroism) until level 85. Hunters may be more pigeon holed at level 80 than we will at level 85.

Before heading out to the raid instance, you might want to wait until the raid group is full and you've consulted with the raid leader and any other hunters in your group about what pets you might want to bring.

But back to the question about raiding with what you want versus what the raid needs, let's take a look at the composition from a recent 25-man raid I was in. Again, this may not fully apply to level 80, and your typical raid composition may be different.

Here is the list of buffs and debuffs that were provided by the various classes.

1. 30% haste (Shaman)


2. Health buff  (Priest)


3. 5% crit (Ele. Shaman)


4. 4% physical damage (Frost DK)


5. 8% spell damage (Balance Druid)


6. Strength and Agility (DK)


7. 30% bleed debuff (Feral Druid)


8. 5% all stats (Kings) (Paladin)


9. 10% physical damage debuff (Warrior)


10. 20% melee and ranged attack speed debuff (Rogue)


11. 30% cast speed reduction (Feral Druid)

The only thing that was missing was the 12% armor debuff provided by Prot. Warriors and Bear Druids. Based on this it would have made sense for me to bring a Rapor or Serpent. We also had a second hunter in the raid so that meant only one of us would've needed to bring the armor debuff and the other hunter would've been free to bring his favorite pet.

Now this is a 25-man scenario where it's much easier to find all of the raid buffs. How about 10-man where you have 15 fewer players?. Well, in my last ICC 10 heroic run the composition looked like this.

1. 30% haste (Shaman)


2. Health buff  (Priest)


3. 12% Armor Debuff (Prot. Warrior)


4. 5% crit (Ele. Shaman)


5. 4% physical damage (Frost DK)


6. 8% spell damage (Unholy DK)


7. Strength and Agility (DK)


8. 5% all stats (Kings) (Paladin)


9. 10% physical damage debuff (Warrior)


10. 20% melee and ranged attack speed debuff (Warlock)


11. 30% cast speed reduction (Warrior)

So in my ten man we had everything but the 30% bleed debuff. Since I was the only hunter it would have made sense for me to bring a Hyena. Admittedly not my favorite pet, but I do what must be done.

As you can see Blizzard has really tried to spread out the buffs between the various classes. Personally I like that fact that we fill the gaps in our raid buffs. Raid buffs make the group stronger, and a stronger group has a better chance of succeeding. Hunters will be able to provide a lot of utility and fill the gaps, but I suspect that we'll have plenty of opportunity to just run with whatever pet we like best.

Happy Hunting!

Yarr!!

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Looks like the latest beta build gave us some new things to tame, and just in time for Pirate's day. The top one is called a Monstrous Macaw and the bottom one is a Brilliant Clayscraper. Both were level 41. They're birds of prey. I found these at the Southsea Holdfast near the old Shimmering Flats. It looks like there's a tameable Silithid Wasp in these part too. Yarr!!

That Ain't Yogi

One of my beta friends sent me this screen shot of a very disgusting and very tameable bear found in the Hillsbrad Foothills. The thing looks like it bit into a 1,000 year old picnic basket. Yuck!

Update: I read on the petopia pet forums that it loses the spidery egg sacs after you tame it.

Not One, But Two Beta Builds

Okay, I'm still not in the Cataclysm beta. That being said, there is so much information floating around that one can get a pretty darn good idea of what's going on without actually having to log onto a beta server. I'd still love and invite though.

This week there were two new beta builds. There were a few talent changes for hunters, but for the most part hunters are still very much a work in progress, and the big changes/fixes to focus and talents aren't implemented yet. Also, the pet design for Cataclysm remains missing in action.

Pets, on the other hand are still very much a part of the beta. Blizzard seems to be taking a "No Skin Left Behind" approach and the list of endangered species keeps dwindling. Most if not all of the "rare" skins have been found. In fact a couple of the skins that could only be found on rare mobs have been made common. The Strider Clutchmother and Mazzranache are two examples.

The Sapphire Hive Queen in Sholazar (sometimes referred to as the LSD Wasp of Doom) is reported as tameable in the current version of the beta.

And finally, Grunter the black boar in the blasted lands is reported to have a new look.



Yup, for the moment we have one tameable helboar. Keep in mind this is beta and there's no guarantee that this will make it to release. But still this is cool.

Also, the image is not an actual screen shot of the new Grunter, but it is his new model. You can view a screen shot of him in this post over at the Petopia forums. If you want to stay on top of all the pet rumors and changes coming out of the beta head over Petopia . Until I get a beta key it's where I go to get the skinny on pets.

Happy Hunting!

Two for the Road

I love pets. I make no secret about this. I hate the fact that our current situation for raid is, as GC put it, "wolf or die." The good news is Cataclysm is bringing some terrific changes regarding pets. Here's a quick rundown of some of the pet changes coming in Cataclysm.

Oh, but before I dive into this I just wanted remind you that if you really want to keep up with all the pet changes happening in Cataclysm, there is not great resource Petopia. I don't know if Mania is in beta yet, but if you happen to be in beta, and you happen to love pets she would welcome your help in gathering information.

You can check out her Cataclysm pet forums for more info. on what you can do to help.

Stable Slots - It Goes to Twenty


This is how I think it's going to work. We'll have 20 slot stable and the ability to carry around five active pets that can be called from the Call Stabled Pet ability. If we want to make a pet from out stables active we'll have to visit a stable master to do this. If this is correct that means hunters should be able to have up to 25 pets in Cataclysm. Unfortunately, when you move a pet into the stable its talents will get wiped.

Even if it's only 20 total pets that should be enough to fill most hunter's needs. That is unless they added 15 more spirit beasts to the game :P .

How Will Pets Work

Here's a recent quote from Ghostcrawler on how pets will function in Cataclysm.

Pets — We haven’t done our design pass on them yet. The design is for them to no longer receive raid buff since they get complete scaling from the master (and we don’t want them to double dip). Their abilities will be divided into 3 categories: basic focus dumps (e.g. Claw), specials (e.g. web), and exotic abilities for the BM exotic pets. Specials never cost focus and basics have short cooldowns but meaningful damage. All pets will do the same dps. We don’t want “wolf or die” in Cataclysm (and before that it was cat). Each pet family will bring a unique raid buff, allowing hunters to be wildcards for when you are lacking something. The ease of swapping pets will facilitate this further.

Basically pets should scale nicely with the hunter, they'll bring some raid utility in the form of buffs (probably nicer for 10-man raids), and pet dps is getting normalized so it's possible that we won't look like huntards for bringing that spirit beast to the raid.

Starter Pets
Hunters will get a pet right out of the gate a level one. I haven't seen an update to this, but last I heard the race/start pet combinations are as follows,

Human - Wolf
Dwarf - Bear
Night Elf - Wintersaber
Draenei - Moth
Worgen - Mastiff
Orc - Boar
Undead - Bat
Tauren - Plainstrider
Troll - Raptor
Blood Elf - Dragon Hawk
Goblin - Crab

All of these seem appropriate and they're not too far off from what I thought they might be (see For Starters Pets).

New Pets - Filling Up the Barn


Petopia's Cataclysm pet page show Monkey's, Foxes, Mastiffs as three of the new pets we'll be able tame, and I'm sure they'll be others. Monkey's are part of the primate family (currently called the Gorilla family in Wrath), and Foxes and Mastiffs are part of the wolf family.

Old Pets - Endangered Species


Unless Blizzard tells us they're building an Ark, there remains the possibility that some of our favorite animals could be on the verge of extinction. So far there is nothing official about specific pets disappearing but there have been some rumors that the Cat Figurines used to spawn the Ghostsabers don't seem to exist in the beta.

There are also some rumbling that Sian-Rotam and Echeyakee may be missing in action as well. For those that don't know they are the only white lions found in the game and they are spawned from the following quests.

• Shy-Rotam


• Echeyakee

Now I happened to have two open stables slots so I decided to jump the gun and save these two from extinction.

Honey Bunches of Rawr!

"A Honey Badger does not kill you to eat you. It tears off your testicles."

- Jeremy Clarkson, BBC's Top Gear Botswana Special

A few days ago Blizzard put out a call for pet feedback. They wanted to know what types of pets we'd like to have and what abilities they should have. Today I'm going to make a plea for what I think is the must have pet for any hunter - the Honey Badger.

When it comes to pets what I most desire is something that is small (almost critter size), furry, cute and tenacious. I want something that is the embodiment of bestial wrath - While enraged, the beast does not feel pity or remorse or fear and it cannot be stopped unless killed.

Scientific American declared the honey badger the most fearsome land mammal due to its "favorable claw to body ratio." In addition to its offensive capabilities the honey badger also emits a spray that is so putrid it makes a skunk's seem like Channel No. 5. Weighing about 30 lbs. and just over three feet long from head to tail, they are the closest thing we have in nature to a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101.

There was a National Geographic special in 2002 that documented a honey badger as it stole food directly out of the mouth of a puff adder. After it finished it's meal it hunted down the snake and proceeded to eat it too. In fact the snake managed to bite the badger, paralyzing it for a short time. Once the poison wore off it finished eating the snake.

Big cats like lions and leopards avoid these animals at all costs, why? Lions and leopards like to go for the jugular and suffocate their prey, but not these guys (excuse me while I cross my legs now). Nope, they go straight for the genitals.

They're one of the only known animals to kill a cape buffalo one-on-one by castrating it. In case you didn't know the cape buffalo can weight up to 1900 lbs. and is one the "Big Five" most dangerous game animals. The other four being lion, elephant, rhino and leopard. WTF?

Now as far as an Azerothian version is concerned, they should live everywhere and be tameable at any level. For abilities there are many that are fitting; berserks, stuns, fears, roars, and interrupts all would work. I really don't care what it does. As long as it's the new wolf I'll be happy.

So, um, what pets would like to see?

The Life Aquatic

After spending two marvelous days snorkeling beneath the azure blue waters of the Caribbean Sea (or is it the Atlantic?) I've come to the belief that hunters need aquatic pets in Cataclysm. With the addition of a new underwater zone it seems fitting that hunters should get pets suited to thrive in that environment.

Now WotLK gave us some good candidates in the form of orcas and sharks and now thanks to the data-mining fiends over at MMO-C it looks like there will be a few more aquatic additions to the bestiary. I'm not going to post any screenies or go into any details about what they are, other than to say a couple of them match what I'd like to see in the way of aquatic companions.

Aquatic Pets

Sharks - An obvious choice for a hunter pet. Name him Jaws, Jabberjaw, Tiburon, Smiley, Thunderball, what have you.

Now I've never actually been in the water with sharks, but my wife has been diving with Lemon and Black tips, and she was none too pleased. I once ate at a restaurant in the Bahamas where they fed all of the scraps to bunch of Bull Sharks that gathered in the waters outside the restaurant (Fun Fact: Bull Sharks are considered by many to be the most dangerous sharks in the world. Sorry whitey). God help you if you ever fell in.

Sharks would make a cool pet. Not only that, but we'd get to use cool RP taming macros like, "I think we're going to need a bigger boat." and "Smile you son of a bitch." Perhaps this post kill macro where you'd shout "This was not a boating accident!" The possibilities are endless I tell you, enldess.

Whales - Another solid choice, and I'd want them to be tenacity pets, our tanks of the sea. Maybe they could get that knockback ability Rhinos once had. Then in addition to my healing macro, "Save the Whales!" I could us my "Ramming speed!" attack macro, and of course my "There be whales here." macro when calling him.

Narwhal - The Jedi of the sea? These things are just plain awesome. I'd have to macro the lyrics of that silly narwhal song and spam it while I attacked.

Manta Rays - These would be our oceanic scorpids with their poisonous stinger tails. They'd also make cool mounts as well. Being the geek that I am, I'd probably name mine Black Manta. I actually was lucky enough to see one swimming near the shore on one of my vacations to the Bahamas. If more people knew what was in the waters just a few feet from shore, I'd bet a lot few people would ever swim in the ocean.

Frenzy Fish - This would be just a single pet, but graphically it would look like a school of 5 - 6 of them, just like we see in Zangarmarsh. Maybe they could have some sort of interrupt or cast reduction ability.  In lieu of a pet this would also work as a new trap - The Fish Trap. Fun Fact: Lee Majors, forever known to me as Steve Austin the Bionic Man, starred in the 1979 movie Kill Fish. It was about jewel thieves who had to tried to recover treasure from piranha infested waters. I'm ashamed to admit that I've seen it.

Barracuda - I usually run into a few of these whenever I go snorkeling and to this day they still scare the crap out of me. The largest one I ever saw was about 4 feet long. It was on live aboard dive boat trip I took. The boat captain said his name was "Big Ed". Apparently, he lived in this particular spot we were anchored and he liked to hide in the shadows of the boat and pick off unsuspecting prey. The should've named him "Lazy Ed".

The barracuda is an intimidating choice for a pet and goes well with this attack macro - "You yell barracuda, everybody says, 'Huh? What?'"

Eels - I saw a spotted moray eel yesterday. Again very cool, and again they scare the crap out of me. They're mostly nocturnal so I should consider myself fortunate to have seen one during the day; I do. I also consider myself fortunate that it didn't decide to bite my arm off like that guy in the movie The Deep.

Anyway, these could be the Windserpents of the sea and have some sort of electrical nature damage attack.

Naturally we'd only be able to use these pets while underwater, however, during the beta they'd need to be bugged so that we could call them anywhere. Think tameable polar bear cubs in WotLK beta. So for a brief period I'd want that ocean shark to be a land shark. Good times.

Do I think this will happen for Cataclysm? Probably not, but it would fun for sure.

Good Hunting!

Hunting Party Podcast, #26

At last we're happy to bring you one of our long lost episodes. This episode was originally aired live on March 27, 2010. We talked about patch 3.3.3 changes and Spirit Beasts and the future of hunter pets in general.



As always, here is the iTunes store link, the Hunting Party Podcast feed, and the direct XML feed. If you email us comments or questions, we’ll read them on the next show. Send an email to huntingpartypodcast@gmail.com. Also, we love iTunes reviews. So please drop by iTunes and mention what you thought of the show.

If you don’t do syndicated podcasts, and just want to download this week’s MP3 and play it on your player of choice, click here.

For Starters - Pets

One of the changes Blizzard has planned for Cataclysm is that hunters will start out at level one with a "race appropriate" pet. Here's the exact quote,

"Additionally, hunters will now start with a race-appropriate pet at level 1 and will be able to tame a different pet at level 10."

This has got me thinking (always a dangerous thing btw), about what the possible race/pet combinations might be. Remember too, they're going to be new members of the hunter family in Cataclysm as well.

ALLIANCE

Dwarf and Bear - The original vanilla wow cinematic featured a dwarf hunter with a bear, and the Argent Tournament pet is bear cub. Dwarves and bears just go hand in hand. I think this one is pretty much a given.

Draenei and Ravager - They come from Outland so it makes sense that Draenei would start out with one. Although, I think moths would make a good contender as well. Ooh, look at the pretty butterfly - oh wait, ruuuuun!

Night Elf and Nightsaber - They ride around on cats, and there are plenty of them in their various zones. That being said, I think owls would be a much cooler choice. It'd make them look smarter anyway.

Human and Boar - Wolf could be a possibility, although I'd like to see a killer sheep myself. The hunter uses the Elwyn lamb to sacrifice you.

Worgen and Wolf - I find this idea both cool and creepy at the same time. Is it a pet or you're little brother? Hopefully we'll get some new pets to tame in Cataclysm so maybe Worgen will get something not even in the game yet.

HORDE

Troll and Raptor - They use them for mounts, so it only makes sense that they'd have them for pets too. Although tigers would make good candidates as well.

Blood Elf and Dragonhawk - Lynx would be a close second. I guess whichever one is the "prettier" of the two will win out.

Undead and Bat - Again going with the mount theme here. Spiders would be a nice creepy option as well, but I like bats for Undead.

Orc and Wolf - Wolves and orcs seem to go hand in hand, but it should be noted that there are no wolves in Durotar. I could also see boars and scorpions as options too.

Tauren and Tallstrider - Something about one of these birds pecking you to death makes me chuckle (weird eh?). Other options for Tauren are wolves, cougars and possibly hyenas. Since this is an expansion, tamable Kodos anyone?

Goblin and Mechnical Yeti - They'll probably end up with a crab or turtle (I think they're starting zone is an island). Still though something mechanical would make sense for them. Of course if they went that route that could open up the possibility of Gnome hunters some day, and we just can't have that. I think the reason gnomes can't be hunters is their pets would eat them. Even the veggie ones!

So what do you think the various races should get for their starter pets?

Cataclysm Hunter Changes

I'm going to assume that you've seen the hunter changes, if not here's as good a link as any to what's coming our way in Cataclysm - http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/24261186675/cataclysm-class-preview-hunter/.

With that out of the way, grab a bowl of Swedish Meatballs and a pint of Raven Beer (make that two, this is going to be a long post, I  think) and join me as I dive into the bevy of hunter news that Blizzard sent our way today. Everything thing we know is about to change, and mostly for the better I think. Ammo, clunky traps, leveling without a pet, to quoth the raven, “Nevermore”.

Let's start with the easy stuff, you know the changes that we can all agree are good and a long time coming.

Moar Pets! - Bigger stables, more pets, hunter's leveling with a pet from day one; fantastic! I just leveled a hunter from 1-10 for the WHU raid and let me tell you even when you know what you're doing it still sucks. Getting a pet right out of the gate, along with range abilities is a wonderful change.

Ammo and Quivers - I know a lot people were looking forward to non-consumable ammo, but I think Blizzard made the right decision here to remove it completely. Honestly, what would they have done beside buffs, debuffs, etc. It would've overlapped with stings, traps, and pets and would've led to more "Oh crap, I had the wrong ammo equipped for that fight" moments. I'm glad to see it gone.

Quivers converted into large bags? Nothing but win here. I just hope I still have one in my bank, if not, it's time to get one.

Sting and Periodic Effects - They will crit and benefit from haste. Simply put, get four pieces of T10 before Cataclysm hits. I don't know if the T9 bonus will get updated (I presume it will), but still T10 will be the way to go. This is a great change.

New Hunter Abilities -

Cobra Shot will be available to all hunters at level 81 and it will have a cast time like Steady Shot. BM hunters will be given incentive to use this over Steady Shot, and it looks like it will become their signature shot. It will do nature damage and increase focus. BM hunters really needed a shot of their own, although I think I would've preferred Raccoon Shot over this.

Trap Launcher (level 83) - I guess freezing arrow was such a success Blizzard decided to give this ability to all traps. Sarcasm aside, this might work better for PvP then it will for PvE. It sounds like a cool ability, we'll have to see how it plays out.

Camouflage (level 85) - Does this sound familiar to anyone? Well back in Wrath of the Lick King beta this ability was actually planned for hunters. It was going to be a stealth ability and was ditched because it infringed too much on Rogue's territory. Now it's back and re-designed. Instead of stealth it'll be more like a "shimmering PREADATORy" effect. Okay, if it also comes with a "Get to da choppa" emote, then I'm in.

I'm a little on the fence with this ability. Again it sounds neat, but it also sounds like another thing we need to do right before combat starts. Hunter's Mark, Misdirect and now Camouflage. It's possible that the damage benefit will force us to work this into the normal shot rotation. We'll see, but I'm not 100% on board with this one yet.

Focus

Okay it's time to talk about the 800 lb gorilla/Elephant in the room party that's happening here. I'm on the wait and see bandwagon here, although I've seen reactions that have been both positive and negative. To me this represents a major paradigm shift in how we play our hunters. Whether it's good or bad, I don't know.

Currently we have a priority based system where we watch our cool downs and fire the highest damaging shot that's available with little or no regard to how much mana it's costing.

With focus we're moving to a resource management system whereby firing the highest damaging shot may not be the best option. We'll have to plan our shots based on how much focus we have and how much focus we'll lose. Not only that, but we'll have to take into consideration everything that might be coming up, or could happen to us in an encounter. In other words we'll want to make sure we have enough focus to do other things besides just dps.

It's going to be a big, big learning curve. We know we'll have 100 focus max, but what we don't know yet is how much focus our shots will cost, as well as what the cool downs on our abilities are going to be. For example, will Chimera and Aimed shots still have long cool downs or will they be shortened for this new resource system?

There is a lot of critical information that we don't know yet. Therefore I remain a little cautious and nervous about hunters gaining focus. A beta invite will go a long way to making feel less nervous though ;) .

Pets

It looks like pets are getting normalized in terms of the damage they do. They're now going to get abilities that are similar to the buffs and debuffs provided by other classes. If these abilities stack with their class counterparts then great, otherwise this may be less valuable in 25-man raids, but could work out okay in 10-man raids. I personally would rather see them be as good as their class counterparts and then see how it shakes out.

Talents and Mastery System

It looks like Beast Masters will have great pet damage, and great focus regen with the emphasis on haste. If their damage is comparable to the other trees this might be the way to go when this system goes live. In fact I'll probably go BM for no other reason than I'll lose less dps while trying to figure out how this all works.

Marksman will still be based around Armor Pen. and physical dps. It look like they're getting something called double-shot which looks like a type of Lock and Load. I'll be curious to see how often we get the double-shot during combat.

Survival hunters will be masters of elemental damage (fire, nature, shadow, etc.) This isn't all that different from how they are now.

All in all, I'm excited about what's coming our way. I love the "quality of life" changes, but I remain a bit skeptical about focus. While I agree that mana does not makes sense for hunters, I have no issue with how hunter's function. Focus is changing that, and not in a small way.

I Mourn for Shadowmourne

MMO-Champion data mined information about Shadomourne the new legendary axe dropping from ICC.  I play a dwarf hunter and am perfectly capable of wielding an axe.  Apparently Blizzard is well aware of this and has restricted the classes that can use this to Warrior, Paladin and Death Knight.

Now since this is the PTR I'm sure it's just an oversight and we can expect to see Hunter added to that list.  If not I may have to get in touch with Mr. T and see how good his WoW hacking skills really are.

As a jewelcrafter I'd be perfectly happy loading the three gem slots with Delicate Dragon's Eye for 102 agility.  And my pet could use the strength, right?  C'mon Blizz!

Let's Get Two!

It's a beautiful day for hunting spirit beasts...Let's get two!  So I decided to try my luck again and headed to Sholazar Basin this morning.  As I was making my second loop of the basin lightning struck again and there was Loque'Nahak right by the Goretalon Matriarch.

If you've ever tried patrolling the basin then you know two laps doesn't take very long.  Once again, right place, right time.  The approximate taming coordinates were (58,22) and I got him around 11:00 a.m. server time.

I'd say that Loque'Nahak is probably the second hardest spirit beast to find.  Here's why,

1. Sholazar is a great place to farm saronite and herbs.
2. Loque'Nahak has a lot of spawn locations and all of them are pretty much on the ore farming route.
3. Odds are that someone is going to run into him shortly after he spawns.

That's two spirit beasts in under twenty four hours with about 1/2 hour of search time.  Well time to switch back to my survival spec.

Good spirit beast hunting!

Well That Wasn't So Bad

I was bored today and decided I would see if I could find a spirit beast. After about 15 minutes of flying around Zul'Drak there it was.  Other than the occasional heroic, quests and bank errands he probably won't see the light of day, but it's cool nonetheless.

Of all the spirit beasts I think Gondria is by far the easiest to get.  Here's why,

1. He has a very concentrated spawn area making it easy for you to cover all possible locations by flying around.
2. Other than quests (and spirit beast hunting) there is very little reason for players to be wandering around these parts.  He's in a low traffic area.
3. He's easy to spot on the map, because he cons yellow and everything else cons red.

Like all spirit beasts you need to be in the right place at the right time. Oh and for all you coordinate trackers, I tamed him at 67,78 around 3:35 pm server time.

Good Spirit Beast Hunting!