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| Reviewed 2/2/2012 Patch 4.3.2 |
View all WoW Cataclysm hunter guides on the WHU.
The 4.0.1 pre Cataclysm patch brings a massive change to the way hunter pet special abilities work. Now in addition to the standard PvP-type hunter pet abilities (stuns, roots, disarms) we also have our pets providing many (but not all) of the raid buffs normally brought by other classes.
Now your pet choice won’t be limited by the one pet that does slightly more dps — instead you’ll want your hunter to bring the pet that provides the best raid buff that your raid doesn’t already have. If your 25-man raid already has all Cataclysm raid buffs covered, then you can bring whatever pet you’d like.
We’re going to present the hunter pet raid buffs in a few ways: a list of every pet special ability, a list of only the raid buffs the pets bring, sorted by pet type (ferocity, cunning, tenacity), and then a list of every Cataclysm raid buff and debuff, with what pet and what classes bring that buff.
Hunter Pet Abilities and Buffs by Pet
Here is a complete list of all the Cataclysm hunter pet abilities. Several of these have been changing throughout the beta, so please drop a note if I’ve got something wrong here. Also note that I’ve left out cosmetic pet abilities like the fox’s Play and the bear’s Rest.
- Bat Sonic Blast: 2-second stun.
- Bear Demoralizing Roar: reduces physical damage caused by all enemies within range by 10%
- Beetle: Harden Carapace — reduces all damage taken by 50%
- Bird of Prey Snatch: disarm.
- Boar Gore: increased bleed damage.
- Carrion Bird Demoralizing Screech: reduces physical damage caused by all enemies within range by 10%.
- Cat Roar of Courage: Str/Agility buff.
Prowl: stealth. - Chimera (exotic) Froststorm Breath: conical damaging attack and 5 sec slow.
- Corehound (exotic) Lava Breath: 25% cast speed reduction.
Ancient Hysteria: attack speed increase (Heroism/Bloodlust). - Crab Pin: 4 sec root.
- Crocolisk Ankle Crack slow effect.
- Devilsaur (exotic) Monstrous Bite: reduces the effectiveness of heals received by 10%
Terrifying Roar: 5% increased crit chance buff. - Dog Lock Jaw: 4-sec root.
- Dragonhawk Fire Breath: increased magic damage taken buff.
- Fox Tailspin: attack speed reduction
- Gorilla Pummel: 2-sec. spell school lockout.
- Hyena Tendon Rip: increased bleed damage taken by 30%.
- Moth Serenity Dust: interrupts/prevents spellcasting from that school of magic for 2 sec.
- Monkey Bad Manner: 4-sec disorient.
- Nether Ray Nether Shock: interrupt/spellschool lockout.
- Raptor Tear Armor: armor debuff.
- Ravager Ravage: increases enemy’s physical damage taken by 4%
- Rhino (exotic) Stampede: bleed damage increased by 30%.
Horn Toss: knockback. - Scorpid Clench: disarm.
- Serpent Corrosive Spit: armor debuff.
- Shale Spider (exotic) Embrace of the Shale Spider: 5% stat increase (like Kings or MotW).
Web Wrap: 3 sec root. - Silithid (excotic) Venom Web Spray: 5-sec root.
Qiraji Fortitude : stamina increase (fortitude). - Spider Web: 5-sec root.
- Spirit Beast (exotic) Spirit Mend: targeted heal and HoT.
Roar of Courage: Str/Agility buff
Spirit Walk: stealth - Sporebat Spore Cloud: cast speed reduction.
- Tallstrider Dust Cloud: attack speed reduction.
- Turtle Shell Shield: damage reduction.
- Warp Stalker Time Warp: movement speed reduction.
- Wasp Sting: 2-sec stun.
- Wind Serpent Lightning Breath: increased magic damage taken.
- Wolf Furious Howl: 5% crit chance increase.
- Worm (exotic) Acid Spit: increased physical damage taken.
Burrow Attack: AoE attack
Hunter Pet Raid Buffs by Pet Type
Now let’s set aside all those hunter pet abilities that aren’t related to raid buffs. Here we’re just looking at the raid buffs, organized by pet type. This list should be most helpful in determining which hunter pets you will want to have in your giant Cataclysm stable for your raid team.
Ferocity Hunter Pet Buffs
- Agility and Strength: cat, spirit beast (exotic)
- Burst Haste: corehound (exotic)
- 5% crit: wolf, devilsaur (exotic)
- 12% armor debuff: raptor
- 30% bleed damage: hyena
- Cast speed reduction: corehound (exotic)
- 10% melee attack speed reduction: tallstrider, fox
- 10% physical damage: carrion bird
Cunning Hunter Pet Buffs
- Health: silithid (exotic)
- 12% armor debuff: serpent
- Cast speed reduction: sporebat
- 4% physical damage taken: ravager
- 8% spell damage taken: dragonhawk, wind serpent
Tenacity Hunter Pet Buffs
- 5% stats: shale spider (exotic)
- 10% physical damage: bear
- 30% bleed damage: rhino (exotic), boar
- 4% physical damage taken: worm (exotic)
Raid Buffs by Raid Buff Type
Here is a complete list of every raid buff and debuff available in Cataclysm, including which hunter pets provide it as well as what classes provide it. Note that I don’t guarantee the information on other classes is still correct. The info on other classes came from Blizzard, but much earlier in the beta and things could have changed. I only keep up to date on hunter stuff.
- Agility and Strength cat, spirit beast (exotic), death knight, shaman, warrior
- Armor shaman, paladin
- 10% AP marksmanship hunter, enhancement shaman, blood death knight, paladin
- Burst Haste corehound (exotic), shaman, mage
- 3% Damage beastmastery hunter, arcane mage, retribution paladin
- Health silithid (exotic); warlock, warrior, priest
- Mana Pool mage, warlock
- Mana Regen paladin, shaman, warlock
- Replenishment shadow priest, frost mage, destruction warlock, retribution paladin, resto druid
- 5% Crit wolf, devilsaur (exotic), fury warrior, feral druid, subtlety rogue, elemental shaman
- 10% Physical Attack Speed shaman, frost death knight, retribution paladin, survival hunter
- 5% Spell Haste shaman, balance druid, shadow priest, destro warlock
- 6% Spell Power mage, shaman
- 10% Spell Power elemental shaman, demonology warlock
- 5% Stats shale spider (exotic), paladin, druid
- 12% Armor Debuff serpent, raptor, warrior, rogue, druid
- 10% Physical Damage Debuff bear, carrion bird, warrior, druid, protection paladin, warlock, blood death knight
- 30% Bleed Damage Debuff rhino (exotic), boar, hyena, arms warrior, feral druid, subtlety rogue
- 30% Cast Speed Reduction sporebat, corehound (exotic), warlock, rogue, arcane mage
- 5% Spell Crit Chance Taken fire mage, warlock
- 25% Healing Taken devilsaur (exotic), arms warrior, fury warrior, hunter, rogue, frost mage, shadow priest
- 10% Melee Attack Speed Debuff tallstrider, fox, warrior, death knight, feral druid, protection paladin
- 4% Physical Vulnerability worm (exotic), ravager, arms warrior, combat rogue, frost death knight
- 8% Spell Damage Taken dragonhawk, wind serpent, warlock, unholy death knight, balance druid, assassination rogue
The Pet Short List
Here is a suggested list of the 12 pets that you should have in your stable to cover every raid buff type. This list assumes that you’d prefer ferocity over cunning, and cunning over tenacity — so that you always have the highest dps pet providing your buff. It also assumes that you’d prefer a non-exotic pet over an exotic pet, so you’ll have more flexibility in what spec to use.
Note that three buffs are only provided by exotic pets: the burst haste (heroism), stamina (fortitude), and 5% stats (kings/motw).
- Cat (str/agil)
- Corehound – exotic (burst haste & cast speed reduction)
- Silithid – exotic (health)
- Wolf (crit)
- Shale Spider – exotic (5% stats)
- Raptor (armor debuff)
- Carrion Bird(physical damage caused debuff)
- Hyena (bleed damage)
- Sporebat (cast speed reduction)
- Tallstrider or Fox (attack speed slow)
- Ravager (physical damage vulnerability)
- Dragonhawk or Wind Serpent (spell damage taken)
Where to Find Them
Go to Petopia to easily hunt down any pet you want. Petopia will show you all of the different colors and skins for every kind of pet, what levels they are, and where to find them with map links.
“Note that three buffs are only provided by exotic pets: the burst haste (heroism), stamina (fortitude), and 5% stats (kings/motw).”
And with a single swoop Blizzard have mede BM a viable raiding spec, assuming you miss one of the above buffs.
Currently at lvl 85 in pre heroic gear BM is the top dps spec and has been since before the pet pass. All specs are going to be roughly equal dps at 85, this has been Blizzards intention since they announced Cata; besides BM has always been raid viable. Frostheim posted a massive article proving that BM dps was more than sufficient in the average players hands to beat the dps requirement of Festergut the big gear check of ICC (at 5% buff?), but in the end concluded BM was not raid optimal as it did roughly 15% dps less than MM.
I read the same article(s). However, I think that we differ on the definition of ‘viable’ – doing just enough damage to meet the requirements of a boss is not the same as contributing the most that you possibly can in a progression fight.
My comment is inteneded to refer to the fact that with some raid make-ups a BM hunter may provide more DPS than a MM/SV hunter if the BL (or other) buff cannot be provided by other members.
It’s probably also worth noting that BM was perfectly able to beat any dps requirement in skilled, above average hands. When we saw the average BM numbers from hundreds of thousands of parses, it was pretty f’ing sad.
Synonym of viable “capable/doable/possible”. In the middle of February BM dps was capable of pulling 9.5k dps, the dps requirement for Fester is 7.6k, thats almost 2k more (not “just enough”) than the dps requirement for ICC’s gear check. The raidwide buff was implemented in early March. Does that fit the true definition of viable? I believe so.
I also believe that if you choose to raid in a progression raid team that you should be contributing your all to the success of the team by bringing the optimum dps your class has to offer; or a critical buff that will be more benefical to the team than a loss of personal dps. I normally provide nature resist on Rotface and Valithria for my guild, are we capable of doing it without the buff? Yes! its a viable option, is it more benefical to sacrifice some dps to lighten healing? Yes that’s why we do it.
I highly doubt anyone could claim they are in a serious progression raid team and be missing any of the vital buffs. IF BM is still significantly behind MM post 4.0,then yes BM Lust may be viable for a small percentage of guilds still tenaciously pursuing progression, when their Shaman is unavailable (as both Enhance and Elemental were better dps choices pre 4.0; assuming this trend will remain post 4.0 IF BM still suffers from “dps depression” as it has been called).
Stating BM is not raid viable is a load of crap; stating that BM that is not viable for progression raiding would have been acceptable if we were talking about the current situation. We are talking about post 4.0 which is changing talents, spells, gear and our resource system, I certainly wouldn’t be confident in calling BM’s dps not viable for progression raiding without some serious testing using a wide variety of gear sets across all specs. I will reserve my judgement for post 4.0.
I’m not a big fan of blanket comments especially when , strictly speaking, they are wrong, infer future events/status with no solid grounding and perpetuate a stigma that has dogged our class for too long. Cata is basically here, its time to drop this crap about BM’s viability and embrace Blizzard’s attempt at spec equality. I just hope BM hunters are more forgiving than we have been if my spec of choice turns out to be the ugly duckling, which it is on Beta currently.
Wow…erm. Get over yourself. My initial comment was written because I was pleased that the BM raiders may get asked to raid in their prefered spec. As a RL working on a progression fight I have refused to take BM hunters when an MM/SV hunter is available with more DPS.
I suspect that once the 4.0.1 patch drops and the numbers are balanced, then BM will not be the no.1 raid spec. And therefore be less viable than MM or SV.
Just a thought: So is it ok to raid 3.3.5 as MM and not put the maximum effort in, so long as my damage doesn’t drop below what a BM would be doing? The answer is obviously no, and that is why I state that BM is less viable.
Great job on those lists!
It looks like you missed fox in every section after the first one. Also, the tool tip for both fox and tall strider abilities says its a 20% attack speed debuff but you list it as 10%. Which one is correct?
20% is the attack speed reduction of the fox and tallstrider. frost also missed listing it under the ferocity pets buffs with the tallstrider.
This list is great! Once it’s been finalized (you know, when Blizz decide they’re done screwing around with our pets), I sincerely hope serious raid leaders and hunters will use it. Coupling the new BM utility with Dual Spec means that a hunter can really fit in anywhere! “We need buffs!” – “Okay, BM it is” or “We need dps!” – “Right, MM/SV it is!”.
I do still wonder how we’re going to weight dps against raid buffs. As you’ve previously stated, coming as a BM hunter may mean that the hunter dps loss is greater than the dps increase of a given buff. Interesting times ahead!
It also seems that a BM hunter won’t need to do any respeccing to switch between ordinary soloing and raiding, since a raid viable BM build should be more than viable for soloing, though extreme soloing may still need a different approach.
When gearing for extreme soloing, would you recommend going for the hit cap and then stack on stamina?
“We need dps!” – “Right, MM/SV it is!”. I’m presuming you are only concerned with the disparity in dps between now and the release of Cata, as all dps specs will be roughly on par at 85. On a side note in high gear levels (heroics ICC25) BM catches up to SV which are both a fair bit behind MM (talking currently, prior to 4.0).
In the new trees there are no mandatory extreme solo talents in the BM tree so you should be able to do your extreme soloing in which ever tree you feel like
You should check out the scattered shots article from a few days back to see Frostheim’s full disseration on the topic of extreme solo in Cata.
Ah, thanks! I must have missed that one!
Yes, it was indeed that disparity I was referring to and I’m glad you could allay my childish fears.
Besides, I’m very happy as a BM hunter so before I get to endgame, I’m pretty sure Frost & Co. will already be able to advise us poor amateurs
Augh. I feel ill.
“MM Hunter lfg”
“Can you switch to BM? We’re missing a Shammy”
“=(“
Im kind of fearing the same effect, cause i doubt any group without a shammy (even 5 man) will let that buff pass by if just for 1 boss cause of the cooldown.
“hey kan you switch to BM for this fight so we can use bloodlust during phase x? kkthx”
At least for the stam or kings buff i can understand it, as the health can mean some vital difference for the tank or an aoe situation if anybody seems a bit undergeared. Thats also 2 buffs im really happy to recieve.
Tough i wonder why it needs to be exotic since you can just buy drums or a scroll for all 3 (kings, stam, bloodlust effects). Id understand giving something like crit to exotics, as thats class limited and cant be replaced by an item as well.
Don’t forget that the drums bring a weaker form of those buffs though. If you have drums and the real thing available, you will want the real thing if possible.
Though with drums you can now count on a hunter to bring something else and use the drums, and if you have a paly in the party the paly can bring might, so your 5 man with a paly and hunter have like half the most important raid buffs without even knowing what the other 3 toons are, lol
Mages get heroism at level 85. People may ask you to switch in five-mans, but in most raids, I would bet that you would have a shammy or mage.
Granted, between 4.0.1 and level 85, you may also get asked a lot.
I see this as more a blessing than a curse for Hunters. I’d rather be asked to change my spec/pet and get in on the team, then be told “Sorry, we need a Shammy, not another Hunter.”
The only thing I noticed was foxes being left off the final short list. Foxes and tallstriders are both non-exotic ferocity pets with the same ability.
I understood that the Shale Spider family was only coming in Cataclysm and not patch 4.0.1.
Along with the dog, fox and monkey.
Most likely the dog & monkey will be introduced in 4.03. The fox & shale spider will probably be introduced with Cata. The shale spider can’t be tamed until you are lvl 82/83.
This was my understanding as well. Maybe we’ll be able to see them in-game in 4.0.1, but not be able to tame until Cataclysm? Then again, it could just be a typo.
@attilah the fox and monkey should come with 4.0.3, and the dog and shale in cata, since the dog is basically only in Gilneas, and the fox u can get at level 20ish
Aye, a handful of the new pets won’t be available until Cataclysm. It’s not a typo… as the title says, this is the Cataclysm pet raid buff list : )
I didn’t think there were going to be any changes in the environment in 4.0.1, just game mechanics. Which would mean none of the new families would be available until Cataclysm. Of course, this post is titled Cataclysm pets, not 4.0.1 pets.
I desperately hope this list is useful to me in the post 4.0.1 world, if my shaman becomes my main my hunter will linger in NR, never to hit 85
and that makes me sad.
Great list Frost. Looks like you’ve got Silithid under cunning and tenacity, though.
Holy bucket of buffs Batman!!
Who can help us sort out all this stuff?
http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=4753
handy flow chart to help you on your pet choices.
However nice the list, i think the real question is which 5 pets you should have on quickdial rather then which you should get.
Before a raid its easy to switch and prepare. However, for a 5-man you dont want to go out the dungeon, fly to town, switch pets arround and head back again for some buff. I wouldnt be surprised to see a difference there based on being MM or SV.
I think in that regard you’ll have at least 1 of the slots for the Bloodlust buff with a BM offspec just because of the insane power it holds. 40 seconds of 30% speed boost is almost certainly called upon in certain dungeons to make the entire fight, or at least a critical phase, easier.
As for the rest… some mathgeek will tell :p
Yep I too would keep a Core hound on standby, but running Dungeons wont be as pet intensive as you think. Personally, if I go with MM in the end id have a raptor or hyena. If i go Sv, a wind serpent.
I believe Chimera is an exotic pet. That’s not stated in your 1st list.
Yep it is and you will only need it if you are a BM for the entire raid, gives you a boost to your AoE DPS which you would not otherwise have (SV and MM come with inbuilt AoE boosts), so you can swap out during some Mob packs, but I really dont see much call for it as most mob packs require CCing and single target kills (from what i have seen).
Llucky enough in my guild to have an actual surplus of Shammies (weirdly under-represented on mages though) so i’m not especially concerned about running out and respeccing one of my trees to BM. However if BM will turn out to be a damn good pve spec in general i might well do so anyway. i’m waiting and watching…
What we could use now is a good add-on that looks at group/raid composition (class/spec) and gives us a list of missing buffs and which pets would fill those gaps.
Along with a proper focus mod! 4.0 hunter is going to rely heavily on mods for “quality of life” issues.
On that note, I wish the trap launcher had a fly-out like our new call pet does.
Last time I looked, the tool tip for bleeds indicated “Increased Bleed Effect”. Does the ability actually apply a bleed as opposed to increasing the effect of another bleed – or both?
the ability is a copy of a druid’s mangle debuff. the debuff just increases other bleeds by 30%. the debuff doesnt do any damage by itself.
Thanks for putting this together, Frostheim! Is it possible that we’ll see Bears in groups for their incoming-damage-reduction? That would be awesome– love my bears!
Btw, I meant to say dungeons, not just “groups”.
Not likely as all tanks have these damage reduction abilites, and as we know, if theres a class biff/debuff already there, then the pets buff/defuff wont stack.
Soloing yeah I can see us useing this pet, but its up to the number crunchers as to which will come out the best soloing pet.
Cat Roar of Courage: Str/Agility buff
The beast lets out a roar of courage, increasing the Strength and Agility of all party and raid members by 1395 within 100 yards.
Agility
1 Agility = 2 AP
324.85 Agility = 1% crit
1395 Agility =
2790 AP
4.29 % crit
wolf 5% Crit
It was happy hunting Mr. wolf, Hello kitty
Yep and I would agree… as long as there isn’t a DPS warrior, enhancement shammie or a DK in the group
Doesn’t Str also give AP? Even to hunters? I know it doesn’t give as much as Agi, but I seem to remember that Str = 1 AP, more or less.
Of course, that may be melee AP, which means that I’m now demonstrating my abysmal lack of knowledge, but if we get both Str and Agi and Str = 1 AP and Agi = 2 AP, then we really get 4185 AP and 4.29% crit. It doesn’t change the fact that I’ll bring a cat instead of a wolf, I just thought it was worth asking.
Yes and No, Algroth. Strength gives attack power, but it doesn’t giave Ranged attack power. The only AP we get from Strength only applies to our melee attacks. If you’re in melee for an extended period of time you’re either doing it wrong, or in a very out-of-the-ordinary situation.
Note those are level 85 conversions too.
Except that kitty only buffs physical classes (warrior, dk, rogue, hunter) and a few specs (cat/bear druid, , enh shaman, ret pala). The 5% crit buff is usefull to anybody in any spec, even your healer.
So you’ll probably use cat only in physical groups or if the 5% buff is there already.
True
What are you thinking of filling your other four slots with? Just in case there is a DPS warrior, enhancement shammie or a DK in the group that is (^_^)
I was thinking along these lines:
slot 1: Cat/Spirit Beast, that’s just too nice a buff (regardless of the answer to the question I just posted above)
slot 2: debuff to increase physical dmg taken (Worm, so + Burrow AoE)
slot 3: debuff to increase magical dmg taken (Dragonhawk/Wind Serpent)
slot 4: cast speed reduction (Core Hound, so + Ancient Hysteria)
slot 5: health efficiency debuff (Devilsaur, so + 5% crit buff)
I think these will come into play most often and seem to offer raid-wide utility. The switch between magical and physical dmg depends on group composition and mob/boss susceptibility to either dmg type.
Cast speed reduction can often mean a whole lot less dmg for the healer to heal (less threat), and the Ancient Hysteria increase dmg output from dps and threat generation from tank (more threat, especially with well-timed Misdirections).
Decreased efficiency of healing mobs can also mean much shorter fights, if these heals are uninterruptable. If you can’t stop them from casting it, you can at least make sure they get less out of it. Mortal Strike, Aimed Shot and one of these Devilsaur debuffs should pretty much make self-heal mobs/bosses into regular tank’n'spank-encounters.
I haven’t taken into account which other buffs there may or may not be in the group/raid, but focused instead of what I believe would see the most overall utility. More micromanaging can be done for prepared groups/raids, but for random butt-kickery, I think I’ll go for this setup.
I think till we get to start leveling again ill run with these
Core Hound
Silithid
Raptor
Hyena
Cat
this will fit in with me still playing as MM and also use my BM spec to is best advantage, but i have a list of pet that are a must to get all the usefull buffs/defbuffs for raids some ill have to wait till Cata (i.e. shale spider).
wtb edit button -_-
This kind of information is why this is my faviurite huner site and why I refer all hunters who ask me questions here. Thanks for all the work Frostheim.
BM has the cool exotic pets but the BM spec seems broken to me on the PTR? You group with someone set your focus click a macro and unless your pet or you die there is no reason to touch your keyboard/mouse other than to take quests, turn in quests or do some boss fights (You get the point). If you have a second monitor you can watch a movie or play another game while you watch other players level your toon.
I figure I would sacrifice this quality thing the BM spec seems to have going and stick to my MM spec for now based on that below are the pets I’ll be running with to start.
1. Cat = 1395 Strength and Agility
2. wolf = 5% Crit
3. Raptor = 12% armor debuff
4. Hyena = 30% bleed damage
If I have these four buffs already I’m guessing that means I’m in a RIAD and I need to bring what every we are missing lol
Sweeet! Thanks for that Frost and thanks to Altheaus for that fantastic link to the petopia flow chart! I’d imagine that for 25s it’ll be any pet you want (Ferocity that is). But 10′s and 5′s it’ll be a different ball game. In 10′s you’ll discuss it with your guildies (using that petopia flow chart). But in 5′s? We will be taken the one that suit our spec the most. Any pointers there? Ravager for MM? Dragonhawk for SV? Core hound or spirit beast for BM? wolf (if not crit cap) or cat for all?
Me like! Thanks for the details, Frost, now I know what to look forward to for my new baby hunter. Yes, baby hunter. I couldn’t resist and created a Worgen on the Beta, and at level 10 I fulfilled a dream: I tamed a fox and called him Mulder!
I’ve been looking arround a bit, and im starting to get worried for the hunter role in general.
Each spec (mm, sv, bm) brings a different buff and the pets each bring a different (de)buff. Wont the buff you bring easily outweigh your dps contribution on 10mans, meaning that you’ll become some sort of trumph card for whichever buffs are missing?
i mean you can’t really overlook the ravager for raids with a 4% boost… it would take a ton of agil or str to up anyones dps that much right?
from a selfish standpoint it is a cunning pet… and it sounds like pets play a little bit larger role in a hunter’s dpz
Got MM spec and don’t think I need a separate one for pvp anymore…
BM here I come again baby! Boosh.
The Cat Roar is really +1395 Str/agil?! not 195 or something much lower?
Useless is an apt name for me
So here goes (and sorry if my ignorance shows through).
I’m still trying to get my head around the new pet concept. I’ve only played SV with any seriousness so I’m worried about the consequences of using what should be a BM pet whilst in SV spec. My initial concern is the lost of points in the pets spec. Any observations on this?
On a lighter note – name your pets with the buff they provide – boring names but a good aide-memoire.
What do you mean by “what should be a BM pet”? If you mean an exotic pet, then they can’t be tamed or used if you’re not BM.
Does anyone know what impact Ferocity vs. Cunning vs. Tenacity makes in terms of DPS? I like the look of the new Worm special abilities, but does it balance out the fact that it’s a Tenacity pet rather than Ferocity?
Plus, the other pet with the physical damage increase is a Ravager, which is Cunning.
Except when chaining heroics to level the new ones, I’ve been generally rolling with cat, wolf, hyena, and corehound. Seems to cover most bases for now, until CC takes center stage.
I just went out and tamed that Tan Silithid from Thoousand Needles. Looks like Blizzard removed the poison damage from its web spray.
I’ve tested it on target dummies, critters, and level 80 mobs in Ice Crown. As soon as web spray was cast, i put the pet on passive. No damage done.
That was one nice little extra it had before. But it is fun to use that, with pet on passive, and see how many penguins you can have follow you around Argent Tournament Grounds.
I ran across the mod RaidChecklist the other day which helps us make our pet choices in game more easily (and I suppose help the support classes choose their specs or something): http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/raid_checklist.aspx
It lists lists all the (de)buffs by type (+3% damage, +5% crit, etc.) rather than by spell name and highlights the (de)buffs currently supplied by the raid. Mousing over a (de)buff lists who is currently supplying it (useful for looking at doubled up (de)buffs) and/or which pets/specs could be used to supply it if it’s not active.
This can be particularly useful for pugs or for larger guilds with multiple groups where the raid makeup changes frequently.
Havnt seen this although its possible ive missed it.
At the minute you can only put Exotic pets into your 4(5) instant summonpet slots if your in BM spec. Are they going to change this? I understand that you flat out cant summon an exotic pet if your not in BM spec, but from a raid or 5 man perspective if need to whip out my Core Hound / Slithid / Shale Spide to buff the raid but want to have say my Wolf in MM spec as my main DPS I should be able to activate my dual spec and summon it. At current if i am in MM spec i cant bring my exotic pets with me in reserve, this actually came to light while i was raiding this week and i had to go all the way back to Dalaran Stables…
Yep. That’s by design, though I’m sure they will hear about it with everyone being Dual-Specced. Once you switch out of BM your pet goes to the stable automatically. You have to make it back to a stable master and retrain the pet.
am i missing something? when i swap from bm to mm and visa versa or put my pets in the stables they don’t pop back to the stables or be unspecc’d so whats up with that?
Hope I haven’t missed the answer to this elsewhere, but, do pet buffs stack? I recently observed a raid w/2 wolves, and so I wondered. Should you always use different pets if there is more than 1 hunter in the group? Does it increase the uptime of the buff? Am I missing some vital elementary concept of buffs?
i believe it works like 1 pally casting might then a second casting might, the 2nd one to be cast only renews it. but again, thats what i think, i don’t know if it is true or not.
How about a list of pets that benefit the hunter spec. Say for instance two buffs are missing, one being bleed effects. MM hunters would want that say over magic damage buff because of Piercing Shots.
Wouldn’t a moth or nether ray be a useful pet for the interrupt?
Please update your list as Fire Mage does not provide a 10% SP increase (I believe it was speculated before Cat came out), all mages provide 6%.
Also the “5% Spell Crit Chance Taken” is only Fire Mage and Warlocks now.
While this isn’t a big thing, Resto Druids provide replinishment via the revitalize talent which should always be included in your average PVE talent build.
“Also the “5% Spell Crit Chance Taken” is only Fire Mage and Warlocks now.” tanks do not get critted, therefore it would only be dps and i dont believe the buff is viable as dps should not be dieing by a crit from a boss and it would make little difference
Carrion bird is listed under Cunning Pets in the raid buffs section…should be Ferocity…?
I personally as a MM hunter have a very select team i use for raids
Team: Cat, Wolf, Ravager, Raptor, and Dragonhawk, this supplies me well with buffs and nesscary debuffs as well, two are cunning, three are ferocity, this is probably one of the better team of pets to have in any given raid situation, or even for dungeons, not sure if it’s a decent or preferred team for others, but there ya go, hope this helps people who just don’t know what pets to bring, i normally never find myself not using one of these guys.
i understand the diversity. But i would like to know which pets are the best to have on hand at all times. please keep in mind i am a casual player. so i dont get in many raids. due the always at work factor. or the wife is yell and or kids screaming daddy.
i am trying to spec my hunter to its fullest potentical. so when i do get to play i can the raid. PLS help.
Malazee has an interesting spreadsheet / flowchart for hunter pet raid buffs. It essentially (after checking if you’re BM) goes through the raid classes (yes/no fashion) until you get to a ‘No’ where it then tells you which pet to use. e.g for SV/MM, the first choice is prot warrior / assassination rogue. My 10 man raid has neither so it says I should use a raptor/serpent for the 12% armor debuff. Cat is fairly low on the list. Do you agree with the priorities?
As a high end pve survival hunter i take 5 pets with me.. the most important thing is that you pick a pet that fills the missing buff (it doesnt really matter if ferocity tree or cunning tree when it comes to dps). My guild has almost always all buffs except for the warlock magic debuff, so i usually end up with a wingserpent!!