Pet Pathing Bug: Update

While we can only hope for a fix for the pet pathing issues during the overnight patch, I can say that at least a friendly neighborhood GM has replied to my forum post on the topic.

My question described the issue, and then asked:

I'm both reporting this as a bug and also asking if the devs are, as far as blues know, aware of it; also, was this an intended change?

The GM's reply:

Well, both actually. Our developers have been tweaking pet pathing in recent weeks to try to improve it in certain terrain. So, its current state is indeed intended, but our developers know that it is not in a great place right now and have re-entered it as a bug and will continue to work on it until they are happy with the way the mechanic functions.

It sounds like--on the first read-through, anyway--they tried to fix some bizarre pathing issues and screwed up, completely borking the way pet pathing works.  It's also possible, though, that they were trying to make pet pathing more user-unfriendly, as a way to make the class more challenging, and they went too far.  I am 90% sure that it's the former, and I certainly hope that I'm right.  Perhaps when the servers come up we will see!

Kindness & Cruelty

   So, one of the big topics right now in the pet community is basically help versus harm during the camping and taming of all of the new Molten Front / Hyjal pets.  Tales abound of people getting mobs stolen or killed mid-tame, or being harassed, griefed or camped by other players--whether that be killing, emote-spamming, or deliberately tripping NPC Scan repeatedly.

   The taunting of pets mid-tame was so bad that Blizzard actually hotfixed them, making it so they are immune to Taunt and Distracting Shot.

   I personally had a couple interesting experiences, but they were happily on the other side of that coin.

   I myself found a night elf hunter roaming about in Widow's Clutch, and led her to (and helped her tame) Solix.  I've talked to her since, and she seems quite nice!

Who says Night Elves and Orcs can't get along?

   While taming Kirix, I found another hunter up there who'd died--but he told me to go ahead and tame Kirix, and despite my dying twice in the attempts, he sat by and let me try again and again.  He was there mainly for Skarr, I think, but regardless, he could have easily taken Kirix for himself.

   Best of all, though, was Deth'tilac's tame.  The kite was intense as hell, taking somewhere between five and ten minutes of disengaging through her while she used Deth Strike on my pets, then reviving them while she was stuck in Entrapment and sending pet once more.  That wasn't the stressful bit, though.

Kiting Deth'tilac, with friendly bystanders!

   No less than seven other players were standing there, milling about (and this before she was immune to taunts).  ALL of them were Alliance players, and yet, I tamed her in the end.  The majority of them simply watched, despite two being hunters who could have attempted to steal the tame.  One warrior got himself killed by her twice--but whether he was trying to help or harm I will never know, as he didn't answer me later on in whispers.  The other players, though--some despite urging from friends to "KILL IT"--kindly allowed me to carry on without trouble!  That's at least six people who allowed a member of the opposite faction to take something--slowly--that they could have taken for themselves or killed.

Deth'tilac

   My point is that there are good people out there as well as bad.  People that will help you and cheer you on, or alert you to spawns, or avoid using their rares near the spawnpoints so they won't trigger fellow hunters' NPC Scans.  These people will tell you about spawn timers, give you a heads' up if they've seen a lot of competition in a specific place, and most of them will happily exchange war stories while you wait.  I've even heard about hunters basically standing in line, politely taking turns to attempt to tame a particular rare!

   So if you're getting down, or you're afraid of going into this--remember, there are nice people out there too!