Hunter Pet Skill Changes in 3.1
Raptors, Wolves, Gorillas and the rest of the Tenacity tree are getting some love in 3.1.
- Savage Rend (Raptor) now temporarily boost the raptor’s damage by 10% for 30 seconds.
That looks like a pretty huge buff to me. It gives the Raptor Exotic Pet damage for 30 seconds and a 5% damage increase overall.
- Furious Howl (Wolf) now only affects the wolf and its master, duration increased from 10 to 20 seconds.
I was really hoping they’d make this change. I had thought it would be so easy to fix the stacking issue by just applying the buff to the Hunter and the Wolf like another Call of the Wild. With the 20 second uptime I have to wonder what the cooldown is now. Hopefully it’s not longer than 30 seconds.
- Thunderstomp (Gorilla) has been removed as a pet skill and replaced by Pummel – Pummel the target, interrupting spellcasting and preventing any spell in that school from being cast for 4 sec. (20 Focus, 5 yd range, Instant, 10 sec cooldown)
- Thunderstomp is now a pet talent available to any Tenacity pet. Now your bears, crocs or ESPECIALLY CRABS can join in the AE tanking fun.
I love this change. Gorillas just got awesome for arena. Depending upon what they do with BM before the next patch (based on this post things are looking up), I may unleash Uhk’loc upon casters in the arena. With 5/5 Serpent’s Swiftness, 2/2 Cobra Strikes and Pummel on a 7 second cooldown with 3/3 Longevity… Gorillas are going to make healers yell to their teammate(s), “OMG… KILL HIS PET, I HATE THOSE THINGS”, just like Scorpids used to do.
On a side note, what the hell is up with stomping crabs…? Rhino, definitely. Bear, sure. Warp Stalker, alright. Crocolisk, ok, but… stomping crabs, turtles and worms..? Well, like my wife says, “I don’t think that realism is what they’re going for in Azeroth”.
This change is going to make Bears the new AOE pet supreme. Thunderstomp + Swipe = aggro magnet. I also like the idea of Turtledins. This change might make turtles great for picking up adds in heroics with the option of switching to Shell Shield for 12 seconds if they get in touble.
Get yer butt over to MMO-Champion if you haven’t checked their site in the past day or two. They have loads of new information and screenshots coming in. Many more details have been posted about the new Argent Tournament, as well as dozens of screenshots showing rewards, etc. I am all over the Argent Hippogryph. While that is a nice looking mount, the Ironbound Proto Drake just may be the best looking epic flyer ever. Check this thing out…
Ironbound Proto Drake
photo courtesy of: MMO Champion