I’m going to say a little something.
I love pets.
The reason I began playing a hunter was for the companions. The pals, the friends, the pets. I’m sure any other hunter loves pets, otherwise they’d be playing a Mage.
Just so everyone knows, Warlock pets don’t count. They’re absolute tools. Fluffy or Rex or whoever your pet is, is NOT a tool.
Getting back on track, I’d like to point something out. In the Burning Crusade, pets were typically a cat, ravager, or raptor. Possibly a windserpent. Those were the only viable pets in raids. In PvP, we also had the option of scorpids. HOO-RAY. Scorpids get my blood pumping about as much as SPOREBATS do. At the very least, scorpids are not very attractive, and everyone can agree with that.
The main point I’m getting across here is that our pet options were lame. You could tame something else, but it wasn’t nearly as good or as effective for what was needed; the magical 3 syllable word, Dee Pee eSs.
Yes, make your jokes now. I’m not the only one that has spelled it out this way.
Scorpids (YAWN) being the only exception due to their ability to mask your stings. All you PvP hunters know what I’m saying.
Then patch 3.0 hit us, and pets got Love. New trees, talents, abilities, streamlining… all of it. Including the anihilation of caster pets! With the exception of resilience, pets got mostly everything they needed and didn’t have before.
However, I have noticed a small problem. Small, but nonetheless irritating.
High end hunters are still only using 4-5 different pets. Cats, Devilsaurs, Gorillas, Spirit Beasts and Scorpids. What is it with those creepy buggers anyway?
Thing is, this distresses me. High end hunters know what they’re doing, more often than not, and they will notice when some pets are better than others. I’m talking about people like Big Red Kitty. They know their stuff.
And flat out, people have said that certain pets are not only better, but some also just SUCK. Sporebats are known to be mentioned here. Sporebats aren’t a big deal, but it’s not just them on the “suck” list.
Why does this annoy me? Because I’m being pigeonholed. Ye olde english for I’m being force fed pasta instead of being able to eat my pizza if I wish.
I love wolves. They aren’t on the “Best” pet list. So now everyone will assume that I can’t play, and that I must be a huntard for having one. This makes me sad.
In raids, which I do plan on running at least everyone once in awhile, it will be expected that I bring a Cat or Devilsaur, if I’m specced to have one. For tanking, which we can do now, I will be expected to bring a gorilla. And for PvP, I better have a scorpid, or I get called a Newb and will never get the cool PvP gear.
This is a sad thing, because I thought we had moved away from the idea that some pets are better than others, and others just won’t cut it.
Granted, we can get away with having different pets, but you are NOT going to tank with a boar, you will NOT raid with a spider, and chances are that PvP with anything other than a tenacity pet will be considered foolish.
I will continue to use Link, my wolf, and Radix my cat. I will not have a Scorpid, Devilsaur, or gorilla because I just don’t like those pets. However, this means my performance as a hunter in raids and such will be less than that of another hunter with those pets.
I don’t think this is a good thing. The pigeonholing of pets is something to be fought against because it brings us right back to where we started: with 4 damn pets, and anythign else was vanity.
