While Octo still needs some time before we can go back to the latest TWoW patch, I thought I'd start providing feedback early on this topic.
Hunters should be able to tame all the beasts in the game.
Those who cannot be tamed right now should either join an existing family (e. g. thunder lizards or even hippogryphs could be wind serpents) or have a new one of their own (e. g. chimeras or hydras).
Chimeras, wyverns, hydras, gryphons, hippogryphs, kodos, thunder lizards, devilsaurs, pterrordaxes, diemetradons, basilisks, giraffes, zhevras, horses, stags, silithids, wasps, worms... the list goes on. There's simply a ton of beasts that cannot be tamed and should be so. Existing pet skins that are unused such as the stormcrows or white and grey darkhounds should also be introduced on already existing or future new beasts. The same can be said for well-known beasts introduced in future expansions such as dragonhawks, which already exist on TWoW as pets and flying taxis. Furthermore, high level darkhounds such as all plaguehounds and bloodhounds are still classified as demons and untameable.
The developers of TWoW stated planning to add the following families in future patches:
- Offensive: Darkhound (moved away from wolves), Hippogryph, Hydra (mentioned to have a semi long CD multi attack; they could also get a TBC Gore-style ability with a chance to deal double or triple damage).
- General: Mechanical, Serpent, Fox. Last two already added.
- Defense: Thunder Lizard, Basilisk.
Elekks were also mentioned.
On the other hand, there's some existing beasts that cannot be tamed and could if lowering their level or just flagging them such as Soulflayers, the Lower Karazhan spiders or several wind serpents in Tel'Abim. It would also be nice to have the ability to tame a Gilnean raven.
Additionally, I think aquatic beasts such as threshers, frenzy or sharks should be made tameable as well. This would also be the very first time in the entirety of WoW that aquatic pets are a thing. They can simply hover above ground slightly when out of the water and tamed by a hunter, just like many beasts don't swim unless they're a hunter pet. A questline or specific drops could be required before unlocking the ability to tame aquatic beasts and would include an explanation for the (possibly magical) means that let them stay out of the water.
I also believe that faerie dragons, whelps and drakes should be tameable in a similar manner. A questline or item could then emphasize how we befriend rather than tame these creatures due to their higher intelligence.
I would ask the Octo team to continue the TWoW philosophy of making more pet families viable for different things. Let's not fall into the eternal trap of having only a small handful of families viable in PvE or PvP. It's happened in Vanilla, TBC, SoD... Pets without focus dumps will focus cap* so unless something is done about it, plenty of families won't see much use. While the recent TWoW pet changes were a step in the right direction, more needs to be done. Bestial Discipline** in Octo affects all of the pet's abilities so Bite can be used more often and it should continue to do so (unsure if it's a bug or a feature as of this moment); BD could also be buffed to provide more CD reduction or Focus regeneration, or have another talent do that a la Go for the Throat from TBC. Conversely, Bite could perhaps deal increased damage at the cost of more Focus if the pet has more than N amount of Focus when cast. Perhaps this would be enough to turn it into a pseudo focus dump?
*Perhaps wolves won't due to their high Focus costs but they are an exception.
**On the topic of Bestial Discipline, there is one family that has a negative interaction with it, serpents. Their Poison Spit will be overwritten with 2 seconds left if having the talent so either allow each individual spit to be on the same target so as not to lose those last ticks or lower the duration of the poison while keeping the overall damage and CD the same so that it can never be overwritten.
Hyenas, for instance, have a +0% damage modifier, so their ability has to compensate for this but ... does it? It really didn't in TWoW and the Pack Ally spawned next to the hunter, losing uptime while traveling to the target. Their lack of a Focus dump also made them cap easily. Tallstrider's aura could provide some damage benefit to the pet in the form of additional damage based on AP to melee attacks, for example. The new crocolisk ability deals low damage and the slow is barely useful if the target moves out of range. The list goes on. It's a step in the right direction but there's still a long way to go.
Kill Command (or any other talent or ability) could also be used as an additional balancing knob by providing a different effect based on family. For instance,a hyena using KC could reduce the CD of its special ability by N seconds.
Finally, give all pets Dash/Dive, give us more stable slots (and make unlocking them cheaper), and adjust the ranks of some talents in the BM tree such as Ferocity and/or Frenzy from 5 to 3 while keeping the overall same effect so that there's a bit of wiggle room, since the tree is bloated. Also a slight annoyance I have is that foxes and moths use wolf and wasp sounds instead of their original Cataclysm and TBC sfx, respectively. They should get that changed.
To anyone else reading, what are your own wishes, feedback or thoughts in regards to hunter pets and tameables?