Pet Changes in WoD

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[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.

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.

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.

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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.

6 Comments on “Pet Changes in WoD”

  1. Dragonfly?! What the What? *grabby hands* Give me a picture internets, give it to me now… Makes sense, those suckers can bite. Also, “Thick hide” for Rhinos – someone at Blizzard was doing their research, not that the underlying effect is new, just good on them for referencing IRL animal info.

    Woot Woot for new animal information!

      1. Pictures of hippos now on mmo-champion.com. They match the riverbeast concept art image shown at blizzcon.

        Assuming Dragonfly are based on the mount model, they will look mean.

  2. OK, I hope when this goes live someone over at Petopia draws up a new master chart of pet abilities, etc, or I will surely go mad lol.

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