Patch 3.0 FAQ - Controlling Your Pet
Important: The information on this page was written for Patch 3.0, the patch that immediately proceeded the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
This page has not been updated, so the information here may no longer be accurate and current in every detail.
However, Patch 3.0 contained such sweeping changes that this information can still be very helpful for returning players. That's why it's still here ... with this warning.
- Do pet talents go on the pet action bar or on the hunter's action bars?
- Has the pet action bar gotten any bigger?
- But I can have more than four active abilities, right?
- So where do I put those extra active abilities?
- What is the auto-cast priority for skills and talents?
- Has Blizzard done anything to make focus management easier?
- Why does my pet attack when I do?
- How does pet aggro feel? Can pets hold aggro?
Do pet talents go on the pet action bar or on the hunter's action bars?
Pet talents, once they are learned, look a lot like pet skills. Both skills and talents show up in the pet's Spellbook and both can be dragged from the Spellbook onto the pet's action bar. Neither can be directly placed on the hunter's action bars.
(You can, however, easily create a macro to cast a pet ability, and like all macros you can put it on your hunter's action bar.)
Has the pet action bar gotten any bigger?
The pet action bar is still the same size as before. It can fit four active abilities (either skills or talents).
However, Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler has stated
on the WotLK Beta Hunter forum that:
We also have a plan to make the pet bars much more customizable. You should be allowed to remove any button you don't use a lot, Stay or Aggressive perhaps, but put it on again like any other attack.
This may help clear up some space for some hunters. And Ghostcrawler has also said that they may be doing more work on the pet action bar in the future as well.
But I can have more than four active abilities, right?
Right. Your pet will have four or five active skills no matter what, and you can add to that any active talents that you buy for the pet with talent points.
So where do I put those extra active abilities?
Blizzard is still working on the pet action bar. but in the meantime there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
- You can leave pet skills set to autocast without having them on your pet bar. For example, if you always leave Growl on autocast and never need to trigger it manually, then it doesn't need to be on your pet's action bar at all.
- While you cannot place pet skills directly on your own action bars, you can easily set up a macro to cast any pet skill and those macros can go on your action bar.
Unfortunately there are some bugs with pet abilities in the beta right now that are affecting this situation. For example, Cower and Prowl have a nasty habit of turning themselves on spontaneously when left off the pet action bar, and Growl can turn itself off. But Blizzard is aware of these bugs and is working to fix them.
What is the auto-cast priority for skills and talents?
For the most part, auto-cast priority appears to follow focus cost. That is, pets will use any ability that they have the focus to use.
This is pretty simplistic, but it often works out reasonably well. For example, Growl costs only 15 focus whereas the focus dump skills cost 25, so Growl will always cast before a focus dump if it's cooldown timer is up.
Many of the more situational pet skills and talents have no focus cost at all, so that they can be used at any time in an emergency no matter who much focus your pet has available. These abilities are often best controlled manually.
Has Blizzard done anything to make focus management easier?
Blizzard has not added any sort of snazzy focus management UI for hunters. However, they did adjust focus costs on pet abilities in such a way that managing our pet's focus is no longer at all difficult or onerous.
Pet abilities with a long cooldown that need to be invoked at the drop of a hat (for instance Roar of Recovery or Taunt) no longer have a focus cost associated with them. Abilities that tend to be on auto-cast and used continuously have small focus costs that help prioritize them. For example, Growl only costs 15 focus whereas the focus dump skills cost 25 focus, so Growl will be cast before the focus dumps if Growl's cooldown timer is up.
Why does my pet attack when I do?
Previously, a pet that was set to Defensive would attack any enemy that attacked the hunter. Now, a pet that is set to Defensive will also attack any enemy that the hunter attacks, unless they already have another target.
In other words, a Defensive pet will still defend you if you are attacked. But it will also automatically attack your target when you start shooting (as long as it's not already busy).
If you find this behavior disconcerting or inconvenient, your best bet is to set your pet to Passive so that you can more strictly control it.
