Beast Mastery hunters use growl in every situation outside of instances/raiding and PvP.

Rep grinds? Growl.
Farming? Growl.
Questing? Growl.
Leveling? Growl.

Boars were godly. Their Charge attack basically double the AP of their next attack (or some such). Prior to this change, that doubled AP from Charge would apply to Growl, giving your pet piggy a MegaTaunt that would pretty much lock down that particular target for the duration of the fight.

The last time I used it, that little pig could charge in and generate 2.8-3.2K threat on its initial attack. Fun times were had.

This change undoes that, and it changes "everything". Now hunters have to do the equivalent of waiting for sunders while they're out just doing quests.

Before 2.4, growl, which is a high aggro spell used by hunter's pet to tank for the hunter, scaled, using pet AP, which is in itself scaled using the hunter's AP. Based on personal experience as a hunter, this was fine, except that boars have the spell boar's charge increased the AP of the next attack, which pre-2.4 was growl, making boars quite imba in solo play.

Blizz changed this in 2.4, first by nerfing growl not casting immediately after charge, and another by somehow nerfing growl itself (I don't know how, but again, on personal experience, my hunter's pet loses aggro easier after 2.4, no other changes done).

Apparently to compensate, growl will now use the hunter's AP as a modifier, which is definitely higher than pet AP, so in theory growl will be improved or return to pre-2.4 state in it's power.

According to Mania, this is not the case, or there is inconclusive evidence that growl has been affected.

As a hunter, it's quite a concern, but I guess I just adapted to the condition. I use FD more often in solo play now.

Im sorry guys, I guess I wasnt clear. I get how it works, I had a boar for that exact reason when my hunter was still my main. I get how awesome it generated threat, and how growl works.

What I was trying to ask is:

Why was this change needed? Who felt threatened by boar growl superiority, or growl in general enough that they totally flip everything around on it?

After the hunter buff to scare Druids they need a nerf.

"Why was this change needed?"

Well, it was needed because previously only Beastmastery Hunters were able to keep aggro on their pets before.

It would be sooo much better if it actually works as intended, then finally Marksman Hunter pets will actually be worth a damn for more than 5 seconds of mob distraction.

Lars, I don't agree with your comment, not only based on the fact that I was specifically a MM hunter, and never had a problem before with my trusty boar Charles, but that what you are saying is that this change was a buff to all hunter pets to help with holding threat, and that is simply not the case currently on the live realms.

But, each is entitled to think what they want.

i think whats trying to be said is that boars were godly for all other specs. so if i wanted to get a pet for a marksman hunter for some grinding, what are my choices, boar, boar, boar or boar

despite the fact that i might not actually like boars, this is the kind of situation blizz has gone to lengths to avoid with pet normalization and so on

they are trying to get rid of the fact that BM have a choice of pets for grinding solo with, everyone else has to have a boar worryingly low AP or really like kiting

Thank you Bonse, I get what you are saying. That makes a bit more sense now.

.....though Id rather see them buff the other pets (which it seems they will be with the 2.4.2 change) without destroying the best part of having a boar.....

To be clear, I'm pretty sure that portions of my data are faulty. However, having said that, there is still evidence that something is -- for lack of a better work -- wonky with Growl.

Myself, Nimizar and Ashraf have been coordinating on the WoW forums with our testing, and although we've had to throw out portions of our data, what we have left still seems to indicate that Growl is scaling with pet AP on the PTR. But investigations are ongoing, and anyone who would like to help gathering data is welcome to join us. :>

I tell you -- setting everything else aside, this would be alot easier if Blizzard was a bit more forthcoming about how things are supposed to work.

It's true it would be nice if Blizzard could be more forthcoming, but at the same time I can understand why they aren't.

The sheer number of mechanics, and how frequently they're tweaked behind the scenes, would require a cadre of full time staff to keep updated properly. To boot, the vast majority of populace doesn't delve far enough into the game mechanics to make use of more than [/roll]% of the information.

I'm okay with them looking at that situation and deciding it isn't worth their time, but it'd be nice if when the CMs answered game mechanics questions they were a lot more specific with their language. Half of forum explosions seem to come from CM posts where it's easy to misread, and hard to figure what interpretation is correct.

so true growl is useless in world of arenacraft amirite?

in responce to your inane commentary. When hunters are in melee range our dps is non-existant. Which is why we have pets in the first place. If the pet cant hold aggro we have to kite everything. Which is time consuming and/or problematic in a densely populated area.

The Shaman who has no aggro dump can still do loads of damage while something is slapping it in the face. If you are that worried about your aggro. drop tranquil air and quit petty commentary that has nothing to do with the class the article is about.

and yes i play a 70 raiding shaman and a 70 raiding hunter.