A Blow to Pet Tanking?

9 Comments on “A Blow to Pet Tanking?”

1. The real problem in this case was that the boss would apply a debuff on the tank which would kill the tank after x secs. If the tank died the boss would be healed for 50%. However, if a pet tanked the boss, the pet got the debuff and died. However, the pet dying didn’t cause the boss to be healed for 50%.

   The real problem was not the pet tanking or being able to soak up more damage than a “real”tank.

   The real problem was the boss applying the debuff to the pet and then not being healed for 50% if the debuffed target died. In other words, Blizzard had a bug in their encounter. The correct fix would have been to apply the debuff to the closest player (with a tank spec) or the player with the most aggro/threat.

   I’m really annoyed that Blizzard is now killing off hunter soloing challenges (and all hunter/warlock raids) because of either their bad design or implementation. They seem too lazy to fix the real problem and they actually believe this will prevent hunter/warlock pets from being used in the future to make clever use of game mechanics (and Blizzard bugs).

   If really wants to make sure people kill bosses as they intend them too they should:
   A. Tell us how they expect us to do it
   B. Make sure Paladins, DKs Druids and Warriors are stripped of all abilities which allow them to bypass certain mechanics.

   Why do we even have tenacity pets if they are not supposed to tank stuff ? For leveling a ferocity pet is much more efficient.

2. First: I love that video so much. I’m still in awe, 4 years later.

   Second: I have trouble understanding blizzard’s motives sometimes… I could see them not giving hunters/locks extra abilities to handle tanking. Taking away taunts didn’t bother me that much. But putting in these arbitrary mechanics just baffles me. I don’t think there should be some easy way to get around bosses by switching to pet tanking, but that’s not exactly what we’re talking about here. I mean, there’s maybe a few dozen players in the world who could pull off legitimate pet tanking. It’s most definitely harder for a raid team than normal tanking.

   But, I suppose this will make it all the more sweeter when we still go in and get a current boss or two. 😛

3. I’m crushed.

   I’m one of the vast swarm of mediocre players. I was in my late 30s and suffering from lifelong disabilities when I started playing WoW; now I can see 50 looming up and I’m certainly not miraculously cured. Pet classes have been a real lifeline for me, a chance to do something distinctive and fun that mostly works with my limitations. I’m one of those who’s never had a heroic kill in current context and expects I never will, for whom flex was a godsend because Mists regulars were just plain a bit too hard for me, and so on. I’m one of those scrubs the elites mock, one of the “excrement players” as someone on MMO Champion recently put it, who ought to be weeded out in favor of more catering to them.

   In Mists, for the very first time ever, I got one of my hunters to the point where I’ve been making some progress on Cata raids. Not much, but some. My character’s got much higher ilevel than did the trailblazers who were doing this stuff months ago, but he needs it because I’m just too crap at managing my rotations and everything. Nonetheless, I’ve been getting there.

   Now I read this.

   I don’t feel I have any realistic chance of handling this on top of all the other challenges involved. It’s enough of a struggle as is, and I’m at the point now where the only gear upgrades I’ll be seeing are from Ordos or Celestials drops. I’m screwed.

   I dunno what to do. Stuff like this seldom gets rolled back, at least in my experience. Maybe it’s time to go ahead and call it a day with WoW, unless I’m willing to settle for no prospect of any more advancement on the thing that’s most enjoyable for me.

4. Today Watcherdev tweeted on the subject:

   “This has been this way for literally 5 years. It’s not some new system. Pet classes can solo just fine despite it.”

   So I guess nothing is changing. Still it remains a weird way of limiting pet tanking. Especially since Ghostcrawler in the past was quick to make tenacity pets uncrittable when Frostheim told him it was a problem for tanking raid-bosses.

   1. I admit to being confused about that.

   2. I saw Watchers tweet as well. It also struck me as odd. Hopefully we get some clarification soon.™

5. This has been live for quite a while. I want to say as early as the beginning of Cata. In Wrath, you could have a pet taunt to allow a debuff to fall off of a tank, cut to our first night in BoT and the turtle goes squish faster than the rogue.

   1. Ok, now I see that. Thanks Amourice. I think what threw me off was how interpreted Fenixau’s original tweet. I took it as him just noticing the damage spike with Staghelm. I assumed that he hadn’t seen that damage previously, this it had to be new.

      Oops.

      Looks like I wasn’t the only one though, judging by the other tweets Darkbrew added to this piece.

      Carry on. Nothing to see here folks.

      1. Count me as relieved, too!

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