#0 - March 21, 2009, 12:07 a.m.
Heading into 3.1, the expressed aim was to add better dps talents to the pet trees to enable BM hunters to increase their pet damage via the extra talent points. Now that Blizzard has apparently settled into numbers they are comfortable with regarding those talents (seeing as there have been no tweaks for a few weeks), once again exotic pets are largely lagging behind non-exotic pets in terms of damage.
This, coupled with the lack of changes directed at BM on the PTR and the general consensus from damage reports that BM hunters are lagging around 10% below other hunter specs in DPS, makes me wonder if Blizzard is in fact seeing something we aren't. Instead of assuming that BM hunters are weak and exotics aren't worth much... as many seem to think now... it could be that Blizzard internally is using BM (with or without exotics) in a different way than hunters on Live or the PTR have been, and that this difference in tactics and playstyle makes up the 10% or so gap in DPS BM hunters are apparently dealing with.
One problem here is that there are relatively few hunters on the PTR systemically checking pets and including a variety of pets, including exotics, into their damage parse reports. It is hard to be sure, then, whether or not exotics are in fact middle-of-the-pack (except for the devilsaur), or if hunters are clinging to the raptor / cat paradigm on the PTR simply because that is what they know.
I'd like to get everything we know about pet damage, including exotics, into one place. I think the sense among hunters in general is that pet damage, particularly for BM, is lacking on the PTR and Live, and that Exotics aren't much more than fancy artwork. I'm hoping if we can get data consolidated into one place, we can either highlight specific areas that could be improved, or find out just what Blizzard is seeing when they look at BM and the 51 point talent.
