Pet Changes in WoD

[EDIT: after writing this, we got confirmation from @Celestalon that there are non-exotic pet versions of ALL the buffs and debuffs. Nether rays will be bringing Heroism/Bloodlust]

Now that the alpha is out and the dataminers have cracked the code of the new CASC file format we’re getting all kinds of great information about Warlords of Draenor that were not in the patch notes.

We know from the patch notes that a number of buffs and debuffs were changed or removed. This means that many of our beloved companions have lost some of their abilities. Not permanently of course, but replacement abilities were not listed in the notes. They have been datamined, and the petopia community has been hard at work filling in the gaps.

Special thank to @cgjthoma (Christian Thoma) who compiled a list of WoD changes on the Petopia forums. His information is the basis for much of this post.

Here are the new pet abilities that have been datamined thus far.

• Plainswalking – Mastery buff – Tallstrider
• Molten Hide – AoE Fire Damage – Core Hound (exotic)
• Strength of the Earth – Stats – Worm (exotic)
• Speed of the Swarm – Haste buff – Wasp
• Thick Hide – 50% Damage reduction and HoT – Rhino (exotic)
• Strength of the Pack – Crit buff – Raptor
• Primal Intensity – Stats – Gorilla
• Dust of Life – Battle Rez – Moth
• Web Spray – Slow – Spider
• Tendon Rip – Slow – Silithid (exotic)
• Talon Strike – Physical Vulnerability debuff – Bird of Prey
• Harden Shell – Damage reduction – Crab
• Deadly Sting – Healing debuff – Scorpion
• Feast – Heal and Focus regen – Devilsaur (exotic)
• Invigorating Roar – Stamina – Bear

Additionally CM Lore has confirmed that moths and cranes both have a battle rez. This means any spec can bring a battle rez in Warlords of Draenor.

@cgjthoma @WatcherDev @Celestalon correct.

— Lore (@CM_Lore) April 5, 2014

In addition to what I’ve listed above it looks like,

• Shale Spiders will have a damage reduction ability similar to crabs, turtles and beetles.
• Quillen will also have the damage reduction/HoT ability similar to the Rhino’s.
• Foxes will be able to increase their dodge chance by 30%.

It should be noted that the tooltip for the Thick Hide does not reference the healing aspect, but it makes sense, otherwise it’s a weaker version of the general 50% damage reduction ability that crabs, turtles, beetles and shale spiders have.

Additionally new pet families that are being reported include,

• Dragonfly (exotic) – Stamina and Haste buffs.
• Riverbeasts – Mortal Wounds
• Hydra – Mastery

Note, that Hydras are not listed as exotic pets, which I hope is the case.

Finally here is a list of the buffs and debuffs and the pet families that provide them. It looks like the only ability that is exotic only now is Ancient Hysteria.

I’d say there is also room to more evenly spread the buffs and debuffs around, but maybe Blizzard likes it this way to lock us into some harder choices.

It appears that we’ll have a more flexibility with regard to what pets we can bring, and it’s unlikely that we’ll be locked into playing Beast Mastery in a raid.