Pet "Racial" Passive Abilities

[Quintessence]

Wowhead's datamined something interesting: pet racial passives.

http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=202736/mists-of-pandaria-pet-passives-dynamic-quest-rewards-and-400-000-more-beta-invit

Here's the list of current pet family racial passive abilities:

• Critters -- Elusive
  Critters break out of crowd control effects more quickly.
  
  Beasts -- Enrage
  Beasts deal 25% extra damage below half health.
  
  Humanoid -- Recovery
  Humanoids recover 2% of their maximum health every time they attack.
  
  Dragonkin -- Execute
  Deals 50% additional damage to targets with less than 25% health.
  
  Flying -- Swiftness
  Flying creatures gain 50% extra speed while above 50% health.
  
  Aquatic -- Purity
  The duration of harmful damage over time effects is reduced on Aquatic pets.
  
  Elemental -- Weather Immune
  Elementals ignore all weather effects.
  
  Undead -- Damned
  Undead pets return to life for one round when killed.
  
  Magical -- Spellshield
  Magic pets cannot be dealt more than 50% of their maximum health in one attack.
  
  Mechanical -- Failsafe
  Comes back to life once per battle, returning to 25% health.

Not sure what to make of this at the moment. Along with pet stats, levels, abilities (strong/weak), and now racial passives... my vanity pets in MoP are starting to seem more like miniature players than vanity pets.

What do you guys think? Do all of these new additions make companions more engaging and interesting? Or just more complicated and another part of the game that might require min/maxing and theorycrafting? Do you think this takes away from general pet collecting or does it enhance the overall style of gameplay?

[Lysi]

It's hard to know until we see it in action, maybe it will become second nature. Or maybe they're playing around with a lot of ideas, but they won't all make it. I definitely want some pets to be hard, maybe even "challenge" pets. But I want some starter pets to be easy to get, and then everything in between, so you can enjoy it at all levels. I just hope it isn't too much, for what's supposed to be a fun little side activity. I don't want it to take over the game.

[Mortis_darkskull]

I want it to take over the game.

raiding be damned. I want pet battles :3

[Guest]

Thanks for posting, the racials look pretty cool! The Undead one combined with [url=http://www.wowdb.com/pet-abilities/321-unholy-ascension]Unholy Ascension[/url] looks like a great combo.

I love what they're doing with the battle system. I get even more excited for it when they add more features, like the racials and new abilities! Looks like it will be easy to learn, but hard to master. So that's good for collectors who aren't really into battling. Hopefully (most of) the wild pets will be fairly easy to obtain for them.

I like the idea of hard mode pets. Legendary pets? Yes please!

[Nursie]

there's always going to be people who min/max, you won't see it as much in pet battles as most people who are hardcore raiders and pvpers will tend to shy away from pet battles. I was honestly waiting for passives to be added, it gives each type it's own advantage and makes it appealing for players to "specialise" in one type for example having 3 mechanical pets with failsafe gives your team a never say die attitude

It's up to us beta testers to make sure pet battles are as balanced as possible

[Ril]

i'm the type of player who min/maxes. i'm already overwhelmed by the sheer amount of abilities and pet classes and a bit worried about where to get the time to become a "pro" pet-gladiator from.

[Keoren]

Looking at some of the abilities, I'm slightly afraid that we might end up with some comps that dominate just about every other one. This means that if you take the battles in any way seriously, you may end up with very limited choices.

I hope that all the abilities end up balanced. Some seem extremely strong and some feel as if they are on the weak side.

[Ruzgofdi]

Looking at some of the abilities, I'm slightly afraid that we might end up with some comps that dominate just about every other one. This means that if you take the battles in any way seriously, you may end up with very limited choices.

I hope that all the abilities end up balanced. Some seem extremely strong and some feel as if they are on the weak side.

Agreed. Things like coming back from the dead sound much better than getting out of cc faster (without knowing more).

[Mortis_darkskull]

there's one thing bugging me:

the undead racial says they revive for one turn when killed... the mechanic racial says they revive once when killed...

I don't know, maybe the undead racial is better if there are ressurections in pet battles, but doesn't it sound like the mechanic racial is a powered-up version of the undead one???

not to mention I feel they should be the other way around...

the undead should revive once because they are undead, and various zombie mobs do that (stratholme zombies, I'm looking at you lol)

while mechanical pets should revive for one turn than break because they were functioning while damaged... that usually causes machines to break lol

[Keoren]

Agreed. Things like coming back from the dead sound much better than getting out of cc faster (without knowing more).

I'm not talking about just the passives either. Some pets and pet combinations seem extremely strong simply due to the exclusive abilities they have.

[Ruzgofdi]

Agreed. Things like coming back from the dead sound much better than getting out of cc faster (without knowing more).

I'm not talking about just the passives either. Some pets and pet combinations seem extremely strong simply due to the exclusive abilities they have.

I admit to not following as closely as I probably could. Care to share a few of those combos with the rest of the class?

[Keoren]

I admit to not following as closely as I probably could. Care to share a few of those combos with the rest of the class?

It is partially because the Pandaren monk seems one of the most finished battle pets, but I was looking into this:

Combine the monk with a pet that has darkness. With that alone you can reduce all healing to 0% while thanks to the thousand fists (notice how it functions with darkness) and blackout kick the monk can keep the target stunned almost constantly. Furthermore, one of the monk's abilities deals double damage to stunned opponents.

All of this requires only two pets, and is an extremely powerful combo if you can't change a pet while it's stunned. It doesn't even take in to account the other special abilities that the pet doing the darkness has.

I was also thinking about a multi-turn ability interrupt such as kick for the third pet. Alternatively using a sacrifice pet for unholy ascension seems possible, but I don't think it would be very strong against magic pets. I still need to look into the + vs and - vs things to see which would be the most beneficial alternative.

[Nursie]

keep in mind, not all abilities have 100% chance to hit.. there is meant to be combos that pay off if they work and hurt you if they don't from what i can tell.

[Sapphiria]

As if Pet Collecting was not Overwhelming already.


I think I will collect all the Pets then decide to try the Pet Battle system...

Are all these New BATTLE PETS even the same as Pet Companions? There just seem to be soooooo Many?

[Nursie]

As if Pet Collecting was not Overwhelming already.


I think I will collect all the Pets then decide to try the Pet Battle system...

Are all these New BATTLE PETS even the same as Pet Companions? There just seem to be soooooo Many?

most battle pets are current companions and critters in the current game on live non-beta servers, there are roughly 100 new critters being added into the game to work with the system.