A Guide to Choosing a Pet
I. What is the Best Pet?
There is NO best pet! It is entirely situational. What is “best” for one situation may not be the best for another. You must evaluate your play style and interests to determine what will be the best for you in any given situation. You need to consider what you will be doing (PvP or PvE – solo or grouping). Finally, remember that once you tame it a “rare” or “elite” pet has no special abilities that will set it apart from its common cousins (i.e. Snarler, once tamed, is just like any other level 42 wolf whether tamed at 42 or tamed at 8 and leveled up to 42). There is 1 exception discussed later on in this guide that relates to “caster stat” pets.
II. What are the Most Important Considerations in Choosing a Pet then?
A. Useage – will the pet be for PvP or PvE?
1. PvP: With one exception, a high dps pet will generally be preferred for PvP. PvP is all about dealing out as much damage to another player as fast as you can. High dps pets like cats, ravagers and wind-serpents do exactly that. The one exception is a boar. Boars are low dps pets. However, boars have a unique family skill, “Charge,” that is exceptionally useful in PvP – particularly in WSG. For a hunter in the 10-29 brackets especially, having a boar and 5/5 in the Improved Concussive Shot talent will make you the ultimate defender of your team’s flag. No flag runner should ever escape from such a hunter. Also, in the 30+ brackets a night elf with a cat that has been taught the skill “prowl” makes a great node or flag defender since they can both be invisible and get the jump on an enemy player. See also the Misc. note regarding scorpids in Arena play as well.
2. PvE: When it comes to PvE use of a pet, you need to consider whether you are primarily engaged in PvE group work or soloing first.
i. Soloing:
Hunters are almost without question the best solo play class in the game. How well you are able to solo depends on a few things like your ability to kite and your understanding and skill in trapping. However, when it comes to choosing the pet for solo work you need to consider a few factors:
a) Aggro holding ability: When you are soloing your pet should be acting more or less like your tank is supposed to act in a group setting. The ability to hold aggro instead of having aggro revert to you is a key function, therefore, of your pet in solo settings. If your pet loses aggro the mob will charge you and generally, you want to avoid that as hunters do more damage on ranged targets than to do on melee targets. High dps pets have an edge over most low dps pets in the aggro holding department as the higher damage being dealt by the pet helps generate threat and keep the mob focused on the pet. However, pet skills also play a part. A boar’s charge ability and a bird/bat’s Screech ability are also large threat generators that will help a pet grab and hold aggro. To a smaller extent, a wolf’s Furious Howl skill also generates some threat too. Growl, a skill all pets can learn, is designed to generate aggro on the pet as well. However, growl alone can easily fail to generate enough aggro to keep a mob off a hunter; particularly if the hunter gets in some large crits with his shots. High level hunters with the misdirection skill can use it to also ensure that a mob focuses his efforts on killing the pet and not the hunter making it easy for the hunter to kill the mob with his ranged attacks.
b) dps ability vs. tanking ability: As a general rule, there is an inverse relationship between dps and tanking ability. The higher the pet’s natural dps, the lower his “surviveability” and tanking ability. Turtles are the ultimate survivors, but their dps is exceptionally low. Boars make really good tanks, and while better than a turtle’s, their dps is not exactly through the roof either. On the other hand, a ravager has the highest dps of any pet in the game, but suffers from a health deficiency that significantly impacts its ability to withstand the same kind of damage that a boar or turtle can withstand. The goal of using a tank pet is to have a pet that can maintain aggro and stay alive long enough that you can down the mob via your dps. The goal of using a dps pet when soloing is to have a pet that does more to boost the damage the mob suffers so he goes down faster and before your pet dies. Middle-of-the-road pets seek to establish a balance between tanking ability and dps. For example, a wolf can take a beating that would kill a ravager, but he’ll still die before the boar. On the other hand, he’ll do more damage than the boar, but not as much as the ravager. For many hunters, a middle-of-the-road pet is a good choice for soloing. However, it is not always the right choice, what is the “right” choice depends on your style and other skills and talents and abilities. A Marksmanship hunter, for example, is probably better served in solo work by a tank or middle-of-the road pet that will stay alive longer and ensure the hunter can pew-pew down the mob while a Beast Master hunter will probably want a dps pet or middle-of-the-road pet since his talents help make up the deficiency in the dps pet’s surviveability and also help boost either pet’s damage output significantly so the mob goes down faster.
ii. Group PvE:
a) Group dynamics: When you are in groups the dynamic of the group and the group’s makeup will be a major factor in the decision as to whether you want a high dps pet or a tank pet or middle of the road pet. Your expected role in the group is probably the biggest consideration; are you to be off tanking or providing the majority of the CC? Then probably a tank or at least middle-of-the-road pet that can grab aggro and take a bit of a beating before he dies is going to be a good choice. Such a pet will be better able to handle his job of keeping a mob occupied and off other party members. On the other hand, is your main job to assist the tank and the group by being a dps dealer and killing things fast with lots of quickly dealt damage? If so, a dps pet is likely a better choice. You’ll have growl and other aggro. generating skills turned off or their use at least manually controlled so your pet is less likely to become the focus of a mob and die and it can deal a steady stream of damage and help take down targets quickly. Is your role kind of mixed; some CC and some damage and assistance to the tank and the groups overall dps? Then possibly a middle of the road pet will be better since it will balance the off tanking ability of a true “tank” pet and the dps ability of a pure “dps” pet.
b) Pet Abilities: In a group setting the family abilities like charge, screech, etc. can have a major impact on the group’s abilities in an encounter. As you consider your role in the group, you should consider how your pet’s abilities and your talents can help. Some of the most important pet skills for group PvE include:
i. Screech: An AoE aggro grabber and debuff to mobs (-210 AP at max rank). Helps makes mobs less likely to kill the group or your tank. Available on dps pets (owls & bats) and middle-of-the-road carrion birds. Downside is that it can grab aggro. away from the tank and big flappy wings of flying pets don’t always work well in a dungeon setting.
ii Furious Howl: Boosts the dps of the group’s ranged and/or melee attacks; only available on wolf/worg middle-of-the-road pets. Down side is the range is pretty limited and it won’t affect spells, only physical attacks also the cool down of 10 seconds is rather long.
iii. Intimidation: A talent in the Beast Mastery tree that stuns a target for 3 sec. and generates a large amount of aggro. There isn’t much better when it comes to having your pet save the priest than popping intimidate and having the mob hitting your priest stunned for 3 sec. and then focusing his attacks on the pet. Downside is that it is an aggro grabber and can ensure that your pet dies in the encounter since the mob starts to attack it also the cool down is a few minutes so it is usually only useful once in an encounter.
iv. Charge: Immobilizes (but not stuns) a target for 1 sec. Also gets your pet to the target fast and generates some aggro; only available on boars (a tanking pet) Also a good skill for saving clothies from certain death, but has the same downside as intimidate. In a group where the hunter’s pet is expected to be a significant off tank, a BM hunter with a boar should be able to handle the job very effectively.
B. Damage Dealing ability
Pets, as noted in the foregoing, get divided into 3 groups, dps pets with higher base damage, middle-of-the-road pets with “average” damage and tank pets with below “average damage dealing abilities. Which way you need to go with your pet will depend on the factors noted above. But as you evaluate your pet’s damage dealing abilities, you need to consider a few factors that affect a pet’s ability to pump out the damage.
1. Prowl: Prowl is an ability learnable by cats that will increase the base damage they do on their first strike. Since cats are high dps pets, the initial strike out of prowl will be about as big a burst of damage as any pet can give. In PvP where burst damage is king, prowl is very useful as a result. The downside is the significant slowing of your pet's movement speed while prowled.
2. Ferocious Inspiration: A talent deep in the BM tree, FI will boost the damage your pet (and other party members, including caster spells) does. Very useful skill for any pet to up their damage.
3. Cobra Reflexes: Available at the pet trainers at a cost of 15 Training Points and teachable to any pet at level 30; Cobra Reflexes will boost the attack speed of your pet by 30%. The amount of damage per hit by your pet is slightly reduced, but the overall dps of your pet is increased by ~10 – 12%. On the downside, because there is a slight reduction in damage pet hit, the damage from a “Kill Command” is also reduced somewhat (not enough to offset the overall dps gain though).
4. Improved Hunter’s Mark: A talent near the top of the Marksmanship tree, Improved Hunter’s mark will serve to boost the melee damage done to a marked target by your pet (and others) by a decent, though not huge, amount.
5. Gore: A skill learnable by ravagers and boars, gore allows for the occasional “double damage” burst from a pet’s hit on a target. On ravagers in particular it makes for a great dps booster for your pet allowing the ravager to pump out serious dps in an encounter. However, on a boar, it is also exceptionally useful in that it will bump a boar’s dps and make the traditionally low dps boar into a pet approximating a middle-of-the-road pet in his damage dealing abilities.
6. Lightning Breath: Only learned by wind serpents, LB is an important damage dealer because it is ranged (20 yards) and also it is not mitigated by the mob’s armor so in pumps out consistent damage over time making wind serpents a great dps pet. Also, because it is ranged, it can be used in encounters with mobs that have large AoE or Cleave abilities that would otherwise kill a pet.
7. Furious Howl: A nice skill for wolves/worgs that will boost the melee and ranged attack (but not spell) damage of those within 15 yards of the wolf. Very good when the pet is assisting a tank or off tank since the damage done to the targets is upped. Also good in encounters where a pet can’t melee since he can sit by the hunter’s side and cast FH and boost the hunter’s damage from his ranged attacks.
8. Frenzy: Another BM talent, when this procs your pet’s attack speed and dps also go up. When coupled with Cobra Reflexes and the BM hunter talent “Serpent Swiftness” the hunter will have a pet with a 0.99 Attack speed and a major dps boost in the middle of things.
9. AoE & DoT family skills: Scorpid Poison, Poison spit and Flame Breath are other pet damage effects worthy of note due to their potential downside. Their damage dealing ability is decent, however, the two poisons are DoT’s that will break CC on a mob and can be an issue and Flame Breath is has a cone AoE that can also serve to break CC if not paid attention too. These are not bad skills, but because of their CC comprising ability, hunters using scorpids, serpents and dragonhawks need to pay more attention to what their pet is attacking and what the CC targets are.
10. Charge: the Boar skill charge is not only a great PvP ability and aggro grabber, it should be noted that it will also boost the boars AP for his first attack after the charge and that can result in a nice burst of damage or large crit. If BM hunter then that means frenzy procs immediately which is nice.
Quick Shopping
- *Game:
-
- *Currency:
-
- *Server:
-
- *Quantity:
-
- *Charactor Name:
-
- *Full Name:
-
- *Email:
-
-
Phone:
-
-
Payment:
-