The following are the best gem choices and gear enchants for a Beastmaster tanking build. Our primary focus is attack power and stamina. Hit gems can also be used to reach the hit cap, which is 7% for Northrend heroic instances. The suggestions below assume that you are hit capped. If not, feel free to gem for it.
Technically, crit rating can help, but far less than stamina and AP. It should also be noted that we get 1 attack power for each agility, but since most AP vs. agility choices are roughly 2 AP to 1 AGI, we should always be choosing the 2 AP.
Best Choices
Red Gem:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40114
or
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=39999\
Blue:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40008
or:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45880
Meta Gem (Austere Earthsiege Diamond):
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41380
Also Good:
Purple:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40136
or
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40029
Orange:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40156
or
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40052
You should only need yellow gems for hit rating, and green can be safely avoided.
….
Enchants
Again, the choice is usually either AP or Stam, with the exception of the chest and cloak. When you have a choice of either one, and this goes for gems as well, use your judgment. Is health or threat more of an issue for you? The answer to that question will make the decision for you.
2H Weapon (Massacre): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44483
Weapon (Superior Potency): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44486
Chest (Powerful Stats): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44489
Boots (Greater Assault): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44490
Bracers (Greater Assault): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44484
or (Major Stamina): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44944
Cloak (Mighty Armor): http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44471
Gloves (Crusher): http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=60668
If you’re a leatherworker, insert the appropriate high-level bracer enchants for these. There’s also an armor enchant for gloves that leatherworkers can make, but as opposed to cloaks where we don’t have a good AP enchant option, gloves do.
Gemming and Enchanting Raid Items
Let’s say you’re Survival, but also tank, and you have correctly gemmed and enchanted for agility. But you wear a fair number of raid items for tanking. Should we favor agility or attack power? A lot will depend on how serious a raider you are, but I wouldn’t recommend AP stacking in such a situation. We’re a dps class first and foremost, and we shouldn’t let one aspect of our game suffer to help our off-spec.
Fortunately, you can and should have some tanking-specific gear in your pack. It also helps to be an MM raid spec. Technically, agility is ever-so-slightly better than AP for MM as well, but the difference is negligible compared to SV. I almost universally plan my gear for AP now, and don’t have to worry that I’m sacrificing huge chunks of dps.
….
The End… Kind Of
This is actually the end of the pet tanking series that Frost and I initially discussed. Expect to see me sporadically in the coming months, however, both with tanking updates and videos of my tanking exploits, which may be accompanied with brief guides for various encounters.
But in the meantime, thanks for letting me share the WHU stage temporarily with Arust and Frost, and thanks for the positive feedback on the articles. If you have requests for things you’d like to see, feel free to suggest them here or in any of the tanking articles I’ve written. I promise I’ll read it and do my best to accommodate the suggestions.
-Arth
(11 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)
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Really enjoyed this pet tanking bit. Cannot wait to try some of this on my own, specially soloing the early wrath instances. For the cloak, would the +22 agi be an alternative, since you would get amor, ap, and crit?
especially*
damn keyboard…
Contributor
Jack, I’d say it’s definitely a decent alternative. But I only say that because with the agility enchant being our raid enchant anyway, it’s one of those gear slots where you probably don’t need to have a specific hunter piece. But post 3.2, health and armor is a bit more important to stack than AP (though both are still our focus) so the armor enchant is still going to be your best bet if you have an extra cloak lying around.
Other news. I have videos! Awesome ones. So yes, there will be more from me in the coming weeks.
Contributor
I meant to say specific TANKING piece, not specific hunter piece.
…damn keyboard. Seems it’s going around today.
MORE videos you say?
*Confers with panel of Hunter Awesome-ness*
Yes, More videos meets the requirements and we eagerly await their arrival.
Dues Payer
Hey Arthemystia which pet tanking spec are you using ? is it the beast master or the extreme solo guide one or do you have something entirely different which your holding out on us lol .
Contributor
Fradin: on the right hand side of either this or the main guides page, there should be a Categories tab. The Pet Tanking link will take you to all the stuff I’ve written on pet tanking, including spec.
Pet Tanking: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/category/pet-tanking/
Spec: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/07/pet-tanking-hunter-spec/
Dues Payer
Sorry Arthemystia you misunderstood me i was looking for the pet talent guide not the hunter i have your hunter guide already as thats easily found, just wanted to know the pet talents as i can not seem to see where its listed if at all. Was not sure if your using the BM or extreme pet build talent or a special build your hanging on to lol.
Contributor
Ah, right right. Sorry for the misunderstanding. But yeah, the tanking build for pets is hiding. Frost made one a long time ago, and it was recently revised after he and I talked it over. It’s on the main guides page, but it’s under “Hunter Pet Guides” instead of Pet Tanking.
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/01/best-tenacity-pet-talent-build-level-80/
That’s the build I use.
Admin
Added to the pet tanking guides list. Sorry about that!
Dues Payer
Thanks guys man this site rocks and its keeping me at the top in DPS in my guild as a hunter should always be at the top
Member
Well what about head and shoulder enchants should we go with say the 30stam and w/e resistence or get the 50 ap and crit one from ebon and if the stam one wut resistence would u suggest and same goes for the shoulder?
Member
also would the tanking head enchant be a viable choice even though it has 37 stam the def is useless to pet right now right?
Contributor
If you absolutely need the stamina, sure. Otherwise, stick with our regular dps enchants. AP and crit both contribute to pet threat, and our pet already has passable resistances.
That may change in 3.3, but we’re still a ways off from that.
Member
ok then wuts the rough hp we should aim for our pets cause if we stam to much stam wouldnt that take away from ap options and other stats we and the pet needs?
Contributor
Because you have to balance AP and Stam, you can’t aim for a particular number. So the “correct” answer is “as much as possible without sacrificing too much threat.” The less correct, but probably what you’re looking for, is about 24K completely unbuffed. Then with a pet treat, your own food buff, maybe a stamina scroll and 5M group buffs, you should be able to crack 30K. That seems to be a good benchmark for comfortably tanking heroics. I started with well under 20K, and that’s not recommended. I also personally shoot for 4K AP completely unbuffed (and no aspect), but that’s a personal goal. Depending on the dps and the skill of your group, you can get by with less than that.
The best way to figure this out is going to be to make yourself a tank spec and actually take it out there and use it some. Because the skill and gear of your healers and dps will determine a lot of this where theorycraft can’t.
Member
ok well my pet has just under 24k 80something away from it and unbuffed ap i got 2862 with hit at 262 rating crit is 26.95% my own hp is 27k
Contributor
With those stats, you’re probably going to want to focus on AP more than anything for additional threat. But again, a lot will depend on who you get to run with you. Unless you’ve already done some tanking, I wouldn’t start with heroics just yet but work your way up (regular instances, Outland heroics, etc.). A lot of my practice, even currently, comes from running lvl 70-79 toons in our guild through instances. They’re always grateful, they start believing that I can tank well so I have allies once they hit 80, and it’s good practice.
Member
ight ty for ur advice and help
Contributor
never a problem. When you start doing some tanking, be sure to check back in and let know how you’re doing.
What gear do you use? Do you use two T5 pieces like Frost in his extreme soloing, or do you go another route? If you do, what do you find is the best way to acquire these pieces?
Never mind, I just found your gear recommendations under the aptly named “Gear&Glyphs” section.