We've all seen the horrors of trying to drag a poor pet along on a group or raid encounter. Almost invariably, especially if you are a ranger bird, your life is about 3.6 seconds long until the first AE or whirlwind, then you've transformed into something akin to the dead parrot in that Monty Python sketch.
No more!
In an upcoming patch, we will be greatly improving pet survivability. There were a few considerations taken into account:
1) Many pets don't live long in higher-end raid or group encounters due to mechanics like whirlwinds or massive AEs
2) We don't want people to start using pets as tanks because they can ignore or mitigate substantial amounts of damage
3) Some encounters are deliberately designed to have mechanics that kill or severely punish. "Oops, you didn't get out of line of sight, enjoy your 30k nuke."
To that end, this is what we've come up with:
1) Pets will, in general, ignore most "AE-style" mechanics. This includes spells and melee effects like whirlwind, etc.
2) If a pet becomes first or second on a given mob's hate list, those benefits vanish and the pet returns to its normal squishy-state against that mob. The survivability bonuses will kick back in once the pet drops down on the hate list.
3) Some mechanics are, as mentioned, designed to be punitive and WILL affect pets. This is up to the designer (or us if the designer is long-gone). They will be specifically coded to have these mechanics affect pets. For those familiar with the Fer`din "get out" mechanic, think of something like that as a good example.
4) We will probably need to do some tweaking of encounters based on these adjustments. Some encounters will just be different (for better or worse), so please be patient and understanding while these changes occur which will likely take place over weeks or months as we find them.
5) Swarm-type pets WILL NOT have this mitigation. They are designed to die quickly, and thus will function as they always have. This includes quick-summon pets (like Wake the Dead) as well as clickies like Crate of Pissed Gnomes.
6) WE ARE NOT CHANGING OTHER PET THINGS WITH THIS! Please don't tell us how necro pets need more mana, or mage pets should do more DPS. These are unrelated to the survivability fixes being made here and while they may be legitimate concerns or things that require attention, that is not the purpose of this change. The purpose of this change is to make groups/raids easier on pet classes and allow the proper contribution of a pet's DPS to classes that rely on it.
The changes will hopefully roll in during the next few patches. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns, this is a good time to bring them up, subject to #6 above please.
No more!
In an upcoming patch, we will be greatly improving pet survivability. There were a few considerations taken into account:
1) Many pets don't live long in higher-end raid or group encounters due to mechanics like whirlwinds or massive AEs
2) We don't want people to start using pets as tanks because they can ignore or mitigate substantial amounts of damage
3) Some encounters are deliberately designed to have mechanics that kill or severely punish. "Oops, you didn't get out of line of sight, enjoy your 30k nuke."
To that end, this is what we've come up with:
1) Pets will, in general, ignore most "AE-style" mechanics. This includes spells and melee effects like whirlwind, etc.
2) If a pet becomes first or second on a given mob's hate list, those benefits vanish and the pet returns to its normal squishy-state against that mob. The survivability bonuses will kick back in once the pet drops down on the hate list.
3) Some mechanics are, as mentioned, designed to be punitive and WILL affect pets. This is up to the designer (or us if the designer is long-gone). They will be specifically coded to have these mechanics affect pets. For those familiar with the Fer`din "get out" mechanic, think of something like that as a good example.
4) We will probably need to do some tweaking of encounters based on these adjustments. Some encounters will just be different (for better or worse), so please be patient and understanding while these changes occur which will likely take place over weeks or months as we find them.
5) Swarm-type pets WILL NOT have this mitigation. They are designed to die quickly, and thus will function as they always have. This includes quick-summon pets (like Wake the Dead) as well as clickies like Crate of Pissed Gnomes.
6) WE ARE NOT CHANGING OTHER PET THINGS WITH THIS! Please don't tell us how necro pets need more mana, or mage pets should do more DPS. These are unrelated to the survivability fixes being made here and while they may be legitimate concerns or things that require attention, that is not the purpose of this change. The purpose of this change is to make groups/raids easier on pet classes and allow the proper contribution of a pet's DPS to classes that rely on it.
The changes will hopefully roll in during the next few patches. If anyone has any suggestions or concerns, this is a good time to bring them up, subject to #6 above please.