Ghostcrawler adds to Hunter Q&A
by Eliah Hecht 
Jul 23rd 2009 at 5:00PM
As promised, there's a new version of the Hunter class Q&A up on the official forums. Very little has changed from the previous version, actually, but they did add the following question:
Q: Do we have plans to increase the number of stable slots available to hunters?
A:Obviously we increased it a lot in Wrath of the Lich King. We want to try and keep the pet as some kind of decision - they aren't supposed to be like mounts or titles where you just collect as many as you want. We expanded the size so that players could have say a Tenacity pet for soloing and a Ferocity pet for raiding, but we don't want every hunter to have every family available here. Now one potential problem are the Spirit Beasts, which are collected by hunters and not trivial to replace. We have also discussed expanding the Spirit Beast concept to have rare skins of other pet families (that otherwise don't convey a combat bonus). If we do that, we'd probably have to expand the stable slots.
We've also considered a model where the hunter doesn't even need a stable and can work more like a warlock where they can just summon their pets whenever they want - with the remote stable ability from the dual-spec feature, we're pretty close to that already. If we went this route then maybe the stable could just become pet storage in the same way your bank has all those Invader's Scourgestones and Zul'Gurub bijous that you don't use often but can't bear to part with.
That's all we can see that's changed with the Q&A.
Filed under: Hunter
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
impurezero Jul 23rd 2009 5:07PM
But, but...I'm still turning in scourgestones and destroying bijous. :(
Cyanea Jul 23rd 2009 5:09PM
I've been wanting a feature like that for soooooo long. The ability to swap out pets based on the situation would be awesome (trying to solo a big elite for a quest? drop your Ferocity pet and pull your bear out without having to go back to the nearest town).
Belus Jul 23rd 2009 5:16PM
Hunters already have that ability, added in patch 3.1
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=62757
Mep Jul 23rd 2009 5:11PM
That would be awesome if we could have tons of pets :) I don't want to get rid of my pink plainstrider!
t0xic Jul 23rd 2009 5:15PM
I think collecting hunter pets has taken on a kind of pride of its own -- at least for me. I have a 71 belf hunter, and he has the white core hound ("The Kurken") named "Cerberus" from Azuremyst Isle and the yellow core hound ("Uvuros") named "JunkYard" from Shadowmoon Valley. They're both cool for their own reasons, and even though they have the same purpose it's like driving around town in a vintage '69 Corvette or Chevelle. I get people asking me where I got my pet all the time. It's like vanity pets, but with a purpose. Too bad it seems to run counter to Blizz's ideal of what the stable should be used for. I go all over the place looking for unique pets just to say I did it. It gives me something to do while I wait for 3.2 to drop =)
Candina@WH Jul 23rd 2009 5:21PM
I would LOVE more stable slots.
Or at least to be able to get rid of my Beast Master spec Only pets now that I am no longer beast master.
I have a Rhino and a Devilsaur eating up two of my stable slots, and unless I want to go pay 100g (50 for each respec) to remove them, I can't.
I don't even have any of the 'cool' pets, I just want to get rid of BM pets.
Mordockk Jul 23rd 2009 5:28PM
if you change specs do your stable slots change? as in if i have dual specs BM/MM and i switch from BM to MM where does my t-rex/kurken go? how does that mechanic work if you guys get my drift.
Candina@WH Jul 23rd 2009 5:30PM
They stay right where you left them.
and you can't take them out until you are BM spec again.
So if you have 4 slots of 'exotic' pets. And you drop BM You CAN'T bring any pets out of your stable.
I have wondered what happens to the guy with 5 exotic pets who drops BM. Does it auto dismiss his current pet?
saregos Jul 23rd 2009 5:41PM
If you petition a GM with the names of the pets to be deleted, they can delete them for you free of charge.
Belus Jul 23rd 2009 5:41PM
When you switch specs, your pet is automatically dismissed (not abandoned though). You then have to go to the stable master or do the "call stabled pet" spell. If your spec doesn't include the 51 point BM talent for exotic pets, you will not be able to select them from your stable, but they still occupy a slot.
vocenoctum Jul 23rd 2009 5:42PM
My hunter is at 71 while I level alts ahead of her, and my warlock is level 80, so call me biased.
Seriously, all the hunter QQ when warlocks asked for a way to summon a different named demon, and now they want to let hunters conjure pets anyway? They're supposed to revamp soulshards, but who knows when that will be. Will they let hunters conjure pets without reagent while warlocks need shards?
I dunno, collecting pets is fun, but you should also be attached to the pets you have...
(Though, as soon as possible I ran out and bought my hunter all the stable slots I could. :)
Cyanea Jul 23rd 2009 5:57PM
To be fair (warlock with a hunter alt as well), a hunter has to actually work on their pet. Levelling one is grueling, even with the instantaneous levelling they get when you train a low-leveled one. Our minions are always at our level. And a hunter is at a much greater disadvantage most of the time when their pet dies, unlike us who don't rely AS MUCH on our pet to be functional.
I would get a little pissed off if Hunters did have the ability to summon pets with as quickly as Warlocks do, however. Maybe give the supposed Hunter move a five minute CD with an inability to cast while in combat, and if your current pet is dead, you have to revive it before you can summon another one?
Ringo Flinthammer Jul 23rd 2009 6:38PM
Leveling a hunter pet hasn't been "grueling" since they gave us X-5 level pets.
Prior to that, sure. Getting Humar from 23 to 70 so he could be useful in KZ raids was kind of irritating, but "grueling" still seems like a stretch.
me2hot4this Jul 24th 2009 2:12AM
Well GC does have a point. Technically if you have dual spec (if you don't, get it now, don't be cheap) then you do get to summon any pet at your stable with no cooldown because every time you change specs the call stable pet spell renews itself, and there is no way they can nerf this because if you're a BM hunter changing to a Surv hunter and you had an exotic pet out, you would get screwed.
So stop trying to get them to do something about this because we already have it pretty well and instead ask for the 1minute trap duration back and to not implement the internal cooldown for LnL, i love having 2 freezing traps in a row and 5 explosive shots in a row.
Video Games Blog Jul 23rd 2009 5:55PM
STFU. LIke it's hard to get a soulshard *rolls eyes*
"WAHHHH I have to kill something while I siphon"
We have to either go to a city and find a stable master, or use a 30 minute cool down ability to change our pets on the fly.
vocenoctum Jul 23rd 2009 7:08PM
No reason to be an ass.
The thing isn't about the soulshard, it's about the making changes to one pet class without parity. If a hunter can summon a pet as easily as a warlock, then it'll be easier for him, given that they don't even need a soulshard. Meanwhile, demons have a set name that can never be changed, even to a different random one. Hunters bitched about the purely aesthetic, and now GC is talking about a real concrete mechanic being given to them.
Meanwhile, warlocks get no variety in pets.
paul Jul 23rd 2009 6:10PM
Blizzard needs to just give us what we want -- MORE STABLES SLOTS!! There's no advantage other than the hunter with the most spare time has the most pets. Who cares? I want to be able to collect and name cool looking, different pets.
They need to decide this carefully for those of us who are already iffy/bored with the game. Choice A) Make it fun, give the people what they want, Choice B) Pretend you're forcing players to "strategize" (as if one or two lame pet skills really makes a difference -- speaking from experience the unique traits of pets really aren't significant compared to even a choice piece of gear)
paul Jul 23rd 2009 6:22PM
Even 10 slots would be nice, but I think having something similar to the new mount/companion pet setup would be awesome -- Plus they could throw in some achievements and give hunters something to do.
Who wouldn't want to earn the "Collect 30 hunter pets and level them all to 80!"
My hunter is BM spec, make it a REAL beast master!!!
Otome Jul 23rd 2009 6:32PM
But they won't give out class-specific achievements. I do agree they should just make the pet storage similar to how vanity pets and mounts work though, and eventually Blizz will give in and do it anyway, but probably before they change ammo.
halophoenix Jul 23rd 2009 6:28PM
Just as someone who loves his hunter and has played one for a long time, I'm actually kind of confused that there are a lot of us who want more than what we have. Five slots is a lot, I think - admittedly, I didn't have a problem filling them all up and wishing for me, but I think that what GC is saying about making us choose which pets we should keep and which we should abandon is important; we should keep what we actually want and plan to use at one point or another, instead of hoarding one of every type or tamable beast just to say we have one, then only use one of them. Just my opinion though; I can't say I wouldn't use more if they game them to us! :)