My Best Friend II

So, a while back I blogged about my pet and my ideas for pets and their need for more depth (Here). I had so many ideas that I needed two entries to cover them! So, here is part two!

Let me start by saying I have 3 pets and a use for all 3, which is not necessary, I could easily use my cat for all 3. My cat is for PVP (stealthy with me), my wind serpent for raiding (lightning breath FTW) and my bear for instance solo runs (tank it for me!). That reminds me, I should make an "Instance progression" segment for my attempts to solo Outlands instances! All of that being said, I am sad that I can't simply have more depth to my pet experience. Why can I not do pet quests? Why is there not a quest for a rare pet, a quest that is hard and has a cooldown timer on re-trying it?

3) Pet Quests. This kind of carries part of Idea #2 in Part One. Simply, why can't I have a pet daily or pet quest that requires my pet to do something on her own. Like, she must solo Ragnaros and I get a Legendary bow!? Ok, that's just nuts, but just as likely as pets getting some love! Seriously though, is it so hard to have something for Sadie to do? Catch a fish, skin a clefthoof or even build a Gnomish-device of some sort? Clearly my bear could catch some fish and my cat could devour a clefthoof for its skin and meat. It could even fail sometimes "Soggy clefthoof meat" or "Torn Clefthoof leather" which would sell to the junk vendor.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have a quest where your pet had to get killing blows in PVP battlegrounds. Maybe the quest would just be for your pet to be a part of kills. "Nomakk, have your cat slay 20 enemies in the struggle with the horde" Vandaar said. Reward: 10 Sporeling snacks and 5 Scrolls of Strength V or something equally helpful to your pet. Maybe some other buff food like +2% dodge or "Chance on hit to increase haste by 100".

4) Pet armor - This is something that would have to be handled very carefully. We do not want pets to be too powerful. Which reminds me, shouldn't a Beast Master's pet be stronger than him? Is that not the idea? God I could rant here, but I will save it for another day. So, pet armor! :) I am thinking bracers, helmet, and chest plate are applicable and maybe a neck piece. Simple and possibly invisible? I say that because it scares me to think of silly pets with huge helm's on. I would want subtle armor. yeah, this idea would really need to be done carefully. Maybe we can all discuss this later...of all my ideas, this one worries me the most, so I will discuss it no further!

5) Pet sanctuaries - The best example I can think of here is Zul'aman. Locations that pets perform better. I mean, who knows how to attack a bear better than an opposing bear? If I tamed one, this is his fight to shine! Against the bear boss and mounts my bear has +10% chance to hit and chance on hit to receive a raid buff "Bear aggression" which increases each raid members chance to find weaknesses (get critical hits) by 3% for 15s. Something of that nature.

Then we fight the dragonhawk boss. Lets say you happen to have a dragonhawk stored away!? Grab him and throw him in the fight. He has +5% resistance to fire and enrages on the sight of other dragonhawks. His enrage increases his attack speed by 20% and gives the raid a buff of "Dragon's spirit" which increases fire resistance by 100 for 30s.

Did you tame a Lynx? For this one, perhaps any cat should work? Debatable. Regardless, the Lynx fight has cats getting an increase to focus regen by 50% and critical chance increased by 5%. Every time the Lynx hit full energy the raid is healed for 2% of their total health and every time he crits, the raid is replenished with 10 rage or energy and 100 mana.

I mean, we could go on all day as to how great ZA would work for this idea. I mean, it could even work negatively. Perhaps if you have a bear for the Dragonhawk boss they have a chance to be disoriented with bewilderment for 10s and become worthless. Maybe flying creatures fear the Lynx and have their chance to hit reduced by 30% as they get a debuff "attacking with fear".

What about a zone being a pet sanctuary? Snakes in Zangarmarsh have +20% hit points. Cats in Nagrand have +30% outdoor movement speed (oh yeah, it stacks with other movement enhancement buffs). Perhaps dragonhawks hate blades edge mountains (dead dragons on spikes anyone?). So, they get the "attacking in fear" debuff while they fight there.

This isn't an enhancement that would need to be a part of every instance or every zone. It simply would again create an incentive to having multiple pets with multiple uses. These zones could have roaming stable masters. Maybe the troll Instances and dungeons always are pet sanctuaries, makes sense. Maybe some places have a generic pet enhancement. In Hellfire Citadel all beasts have "Magtheridon's enraging presence" which increases their chance to crit with spells and physical attacks by 1% (this could include shifted druids). It would be amazing for planning and definitely create some more depth!

I could do this all day! =D Perhaps I will do a part II and IV and V and....well, let's see what you all think of part II first! Happy trails pet lovers! Thanks again to Pike for the inspiration!