(This guide was created by Zoa, level 70 blood elf huter of the eu server, Vek'nilash. All credit is due to her for this wonderful guide. Date: 03/09/2007)
Tempest Keep
Lots of fire and arcane mobs - heck, nearly all mobs here have some sort of magic spell that can rip your ravager to ribbons if you are not carefull. If Tumbler dies too often, consider training some fire/arcane resistance on him.
Al'ar
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Lots of things going on here, some which can instantly kill your pet. When Al'ar switches places, your pet might get aggro if it attacks straight away, and trust me, your pet can't hold up to the mighty phoenix. You might want to stop your pet as its running to a new position, just to give the tank some time to gain a bit of aggro. When Al'ar does his Fire Quill, be sure to recall your pet. When you get into Phase 2, you are probably best off dismissing or sacrificing your pet. It can be targeted for flame patch, which can hurt your tanks, it can be blown away by the phoenixes as your raid kills them, and it can be smashed by a meteor. Don’t let Wolfie die!
Void Reaver
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: While your pet wont be targeted for an arcane orb, it will be hit by pounding, doing around 2700 damage over 3 seconds to a pet with avoidance, every 15 seconds. A mend pet is usually enough to keep your pet up but you might want to recall it if it gets dangerously low on health. Be sure to make sure your pet is on the same side of Void Reaver as you are, so it is in range of mend pet and kill commands.
High Astromancer Solarian
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet can be targeted for arcane missiles, but is otherwise pretty safe in this fight. Wrath of the Astromancer was changed in 2.2, and is no longer a risk to your pet. Confirmation needed: Im truly not sure. I did TK last week, and my pet didnt get targeted by wrath, and i cant imagine that the spell has been designed to blow your pet up into the air, but if somebody has seen otherwise, please let me know.
Kael'thas Sunstrider
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Boy, Tempest Keep isn't a very pet-friendly place, and the fight against Kael is no different. Your pet *can* attack Thaladred the Darkener, but is in risk of getting a nasty rend on him. Your pet can go all out on Lord Sanguinar, but not on Grand Astromancer Capernian. It might help the raid on Master Engineer Telonicus, as it can be the recipient of remote toy. When the weapons spawn, keep it clear of the bow, and make sure that your pet attacks the shield from behind, which is actually the "outer" side of the shield. Steer your pet away from any AOE'ing phoenix', and at gravity lapse, be sure to recall your pet. If it keeps attacking Kael, it will die from the clouds around him. Mount Hyjal We travel back in time, to meet up with a lot of old friends. Shadow resistence can be helpfull, but it is not overly needed. Fire resistence can help aswell, but if your pet is caught in a fire attack, it wont matter much in the long run. Rage
Winterchill
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: On the waves before Rage Winterchill, keep your pet away from those nasty abominations. When fighting Rage Winterchill himself, make sure your pet isn't standing in the Death & Decay (red bubbles) but that shouldn't be a surprise.
Anetheron
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet is pretty much safe here. It will take hits from Carrion Swarm (which is migraded by Avoidence), but it wont be that difficult to keep it up. The only real threat would be AoE from the Towering Infernals if it would happend to spawn near the pet. Whiskers will not be targeted by the infernal spawn.
Kaz'rogal
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: This is a pretty straight forward fight, at least for your pet. Make sure that your pet stays behind Kaz'rogal to avoid his cleave, and you should be in the clear.
Azgalor
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Azgalor's Rain of Fire will be the big issue here. Azgalor will target a random raid member and rain down fire (hence the name, her her her). In addition to the initial damage, it will place a dot on the target dealing some 1700 damage each second for five seconds, meaning your pet will take a total of 4250 damage from the dot. Your main priority should be to pull the pet out of Rain of Fire if it is cast on melee, and start mending. Your pet shouldnt be in any of the danger spots unless it has at least 50-75% hp and has a mend pet ticking on it. I suggest recalling it and keeping it near you until its healed, or until you have gotten a feel for the fight. Be sure to stand at max range so your are unlikely to get rain of fire while your pet is standing next to you. We wouldnt want Whiskers to be hit by another rain of fire when he runs to you, would we?
Archimonde
Pet danger: Insanely super humongusly high
Boss notes: Roll a dice. If you roll a six, you have probably wasted what little luck you had of keeping your pet alive on this fight. If you are a BM hunter, improved revive pet, and improved mend pet is a must here. The danger comes from Doomfire, a spell that Archimonde loves to use, and does so frequently. If your pet is hit by this, it will take 1200 damage, and a non dispellable dot that deals 20400 damage over the next 45 seconds.* Your pet will surely die from this, so if you are dependant on your pet, be sure to get it ressed again. Improved Mend Pet cant dispell the doomfire dot, but it can dispel Grip of the Legion, an attack that does 250,000 damage over 5 minutes. Your pet wont grant Archimonde a soul charge if it dies, but it will take damage once he uses that (2000-2500 damage).
* I am going to assume that the Doomfire is an area of effect attack, and thus lowered by avoidence, but the dot probably is not, so your pet will take the full damage. Confirmation on this is needed.
Black Temple You made it. You are finally here. Illidan is cowering in his little castle, and you come in at him hard, from the sewers. If you made it this far, then congratulations!
Some of the fights in The Black Temple can be punishing for your pet. If you want to ease your stress a bit, pump your pet full of shadow resistence and perhaps a bit of frost.
High Warlord Naj'entus
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet can take damage if it's standing next to somebody getting hit by a needle spine explosion, and it will take 4250 damage when his Tidal Shield is broken. Two mend pets should be enough to get it back to full health most of the time.
Supremus
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet will be completely safe during phase 1, unless your offtanks are sleeping and your pet pulls aggro - which it wont. Suprisingly, the scary blue flames will not hurt your pet at all. When he goes into phase 2, however, thats an all different matter. Your pet will take damage from the volcanos that spawn, but while your pet will never be gazed, he will be killed if Supremus charges someone. For some reason, he does some AoE damage whenever he charges to a new target (if that target is within 40 yard range), which is sure to make short process of the pet. Keep him at your side in phase 2, and let him go all out in phase 1.
Shade of Akama
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: If you are in one of the groups taking care of the Spiritbinders, Elementalists and Rogues, your pet might take aggro on one of them and get hurt, but if your tank is fast enough it shouldnt be a problem. I suspect that the pet might be able to tank the Spiritbinder while it gets burned down, which would let the tank build aggro on the Elementalist and the rogue - that all depends on what your kill order is, naturally.
Teron Gorefiend
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: This fight has a lot of factors and sadly, you cant control any of them. Your pet can be attacked by the blossoms, but it seems that it is safe for the Incinerate. Your pet can also be a target for the Shadowy Construct, but that is more of a blessing than a curse. Seeing how a Shadowy Construct severely gimps your group, it's better that a pet dies to it than a raid member. If you get Shadow of Death, keep your pet attacking while you run away and wait for your doom - your pet will despawn perfectly as you die, so your pet bar is free to display the ghost abilities.
Gurtogg Bloodboil
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Gurtogg Bloodboil is a nasty boss, that has a lot of area, cone and cleave attacks, and your pet can suffer most of them. In an ideal world, your pet wouldnt have to take any damage at all, but the world is hardly ideal. Gurtogg Bloodboil is most dangerous in phase 1, so if you want to use your pet you have to plan ahead a bit. After a few tries you should see where your main tanks are tanking him, and in what direction he is facing. Then you have to make your pet idle so that when your tanks has aggro, your pet is directly behind him. About 5 seconds before he changes to phase 2, you should click passive on your pet bar, which will make it run back to the spot you assigned to it. This is a dangerous spot aswell, though, and your pet might be hit by both acid and geysers while Gurtogg Bloodboil runs for his target in phase 2. A much safer way is to have your pet by your side in phase 1 - or at least standing in the caster group since it shouldnt move with you when you move out to take the bloodboil. This will lower your damage output, but allow you to keep your pet up for longer if you are having problems. Be aware to make your pet stay at his original spot if you get Fel Rage. If your pet is standing next to you when you are tanking Gurtogg Bloodboil, it will surely die.
REST COMING SOON!
[Guide] Raiding with your pet: Gruuls Lair
(This guide was created by Zoa, level 70 blood elf hunter of the eu server, Vek'nilash. All credit goes to her for this wonderful guide. Date: 03/09/2007)
Gruuls Lair
Gruul's Lair is fairly safe for your pet. No special resistances should be needed.
Maulgar & Co.
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: As a hunter, you will probably be charged with tanking the shaman. Be sure to not send your pet to attack him, however, as this will trigger his AOE attack and knock you back, as well as damaging your pet. Send it to another target instead. Your pet should also keep far away from the mage, and you should have a timer (such as Deadly Boss Mods) to show you when Maulgar will do whirlwind, and get your pet out a few seconds before.
Gruul the Dragonkiller
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet will not trigger shatter on other players, but it is affected by cave-ins. Usually a mend pet will take short notice of that, but you should watch out for several cave-ins on the melee, and compensate for that - Skip wont hold out long after a few of those.
Magtheridon's Lair
Magtheridon's Lair is fairly safe for your pet. No special resistances should be needed.
Magtheridon
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: When doing the 5 channelers, your pet may be damaged by a stray shadow bolt volley or infernal. When Magtheridon is released, your only pet concern is to make sure that Fang is behind him, and to keep him clear of the fire that will erupt on the floor. World Bosses There are quite a lot of world bosses on Azeroth, but only two in Outland. Both are fairly safe for your pet.
Doom Lord Kazzak
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: Consider your pet a rogue on this fight. He should be attacking Kazzak from behind, but your tank should turn Kazzak around anyways. When Kazzak does his shadowbolt volley, be sure to have mend pet up. It is considered an AOE attack, so Avoidence will lower the damage, but your pet will still take up to 7.000 damage. It should be able to survive that, at least with a mend pet on, and if you are afraid that you will get a second volley, keep mend pet up all the time after the first. Confirmation needed: If your pet dies, it will not heal Kazzak. (?)
Doomwalker
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Your pet will be damaged by his earthquake for a total of 4.000 damage, and it will also help chaining the chain lightning which hits your pet for around 1.000 damage. There is a good chance of your pet getting smashed, but you should still use it for as long as you can, and keep mend pet up when its alive, especially if you are a beast master, so you can take advantage of beastial wrath. Serpentshrine Cavern Serpentshrine Cavern has a lot of nature based attacks and some bosses uses frost attacks aswell. If you find that you are stilling having problems keeping your pet up on some encounters, spending a few points getting nature and frost resistance up could be a solution.
Hydross the Unstable
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet wont be tombed, and he is usually safe on this encounter. However, since Hydross resets aggro at each transition, you should call your pet back before he changes, and don't send it in before the tanks have aggro on him again.
The Lurker Below
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only attack that your pet is in danger of is whirl, which can be healed easily, and a cleave from a stray add when Lurker goes down underwater. You should position your pet to stay on the outer edge of the circle around Lurker, and just send it to attack when he emerges. When Lurker submerges, your pet will run back to his spot and wait there. Don't recall the pet, since that will cause it to teleport to the outer islands where you will probably be standing, and it wont be able to run back again, meaning you have to spend time on repositioning it.
Leotheras the Blind
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Leo clears his aggro at every switch and after every whirlwind, meaning your pet will be moving a lot. You should call it back a few seconds before each phase transition, and about 5 seconds before a whirlwind. Even worse, if you should happen to get an inner demon, you will be mind controlled if your pet gets the finishing blow - this applies to snakes as well, if you are using snake trap to get over your internal struggles.
Fathom-Lord Karathress
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet can take a hit from a stray enemy pet, the whirlwind or the Spitfire Totem, but it's not much to worry about.
Morogrim Tidewalker
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only thing you should worry about here is to make sure your pet is behind Morogrim and out of the way of his little bubbles when you get him to 20%. Recalling him for a few seconds as you reposition and sending him back in will take care of that.
Lady Vashj
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Although high sounds a bit ominous, it might be a bit drastic to mark it as such. Your pet cannot get static charge, but it can be damaged by nearby raid members that have it. It will also be hit by Vashj's forked lightning, as well as the poison attack from a Tainted Elemental, and the poison on the ground from the Spore Bats. Watch out for that health, and keep your pet far away from any striders or nagas that can hit it.
Gruuls Lair
Gruul's Lair is fairly safe for your pet. No special resistances should be needed.
Maulgar & Co.
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: As a hunter, you will probably be charged with tanking the shaman. Be sure to not send your pet to attack him, however, as this will trigger his AOE attack and knock you back, as well as damaging your pet. Send it to another target instead. Your pet should also keep far away from the mage, and you should have a timer (such as Deadly Boss Mods) to show you when Maulgar will do whirlwind, and get your pet out a few seconds before.
Gruul the Dragonkiller
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Your pet will not trigger shatter on other players, but it is affected by cave-ins. Usually a mend pet will take short notice of that, but you should watch out for several cave-ins on the melee, and compensate for that - Skip wont hold out long after a few of those.
Magtheridon's Lair
Magtheridon's Lair is fairly safe for your pet. No special resistances should be needed.
Magtheridon
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: When doing the 5 channelers, your pet may be damaged by a stray shadow bolt volley or infernal. When Magtheridon is released, your only pet concern is to make sure that Fang is behind him, and to keep him clear of the fire that will erupt on the floor. World Bosses There are quite a lot of world bosses on Azeroth, but only two in Outland. Both are fairly safe for your pet.
Doom Lord Kazzak
Pet danger: Middle
Boss notes: Consider your pet a rogue on this fight. He should be attacking Kazzak from behind, but your tank should turn Kazzak around anyways. When Kazzak does his shadowbolt volley, be sure to have mend pet up. It is considered an AOE attack, so Avoidence will lower the damage, but your pet will still take up to 7.000 damage. It should be able to survive that, at least with a mend pet on, and if you are afraid that you will get a second volley, keep mend pet up all the time after the first. Confirmation needed: If your pet dies, it will not heal Kazzak. (?)
Doomwalker
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Your pet will be damaged by his earthquake for a total of 4.000 damage, and it will also help chaining the chain lightning which hits your pet for around 1.000 damage. There is a good chance of your pet getting smashed, but you should still use it for as long as you can, and keep mend pet up when its alive, especially if you are a beast master, so you can take advantage of beastial wrath. Serpentshrine Cavern Serpentshrine Cavern has a lot of nature based attacks and some bosses uses frost attacks aswell. If you find that you are stilling having problems keeping your pet up on some encounters, spending a few points getting nature and frost resistance up could be a solution.
Hydross the Unstable
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet wont be tombed, and he is usually safe on this encounter. However, since Hydross resets aggro at each transition, you should call your pet back before he changes, and don't send it in before the tanks have aggro on him again.
The Lurker Below
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only attack that your pet is in danger of is whirl, which can be healed easily, and a cleave from a stray add when Lurker goes down underwater. You should position your pet to stay on the outer edge of the circle around Lurker, and just send it to attack when he emerges. When Lurker submerges, your pet will run back to his spot and wait there. Don't recall the pet, since that will cause it to teleport to the outer islands where you will probably be standing, and it wont be able to run back again, meaning you have to spend time on repositioning it.
Leotheras the Blind
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Leo clears his aggro at every switch and after every whirlwind, meaning your pet will be moving a lot. You should call it back a few seconds before each phase transition, and about 5 seconds before a whirlwind. Even worse, if you should happen to get an inner demon, you will be mind controlled if your pet gets the finishing blow - this applies to snakes as well, if you are using snake trap to get over your internal struggles.
Fathom-Lord Karathress
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet can take a hit from a stray enemy pet, the whirlwind or the Spitfire Totem, but it's not much to worry about.
Morogrim Tidewalker
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: The only thing you should worry about here is to make sure your pet is behind Morogrim and out of the way of his little bubbles when you get him to 20%. Recalling him for a few seconds as you reposition and sending him back in will take care of that.
Lady Vashj
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Although high sounds a bit ominous, it might be a bit drastic to mark it as such. Your pet cannot get static charge, but it can be damaged by nearby raid members that have it. It will also be hit by Vashj's forked lightning, as well as the poison attack from a Tainted Elemental, and the poison on the ground from the Spore Bats. Watch out for that health, and keep your pet far away from any striders or nagas that can hit it.
[Guide] Raiding with your pet: Karazhan
(This guide was created by Zoa, level 70 Blood Elf hunter of the the eu server, Vek'nilash. All credit goes to her for this wonderful guide. Date:03/09/2007 )
Table of contents:
Introduction
Controlling your pet
Choosing a good raid pet
- Cats and ravagers
- Owls and Bats
- Wind Serpents
- Scorpids
- Wolves Talents Raiding encounters
- Karazhan
- Gruul’s Lair
- Magtheridon’s Lair
- World bosses
- Serpentshrine Cavern
- Tempest Keep
- Mount Hyjal
- Black Temple
Feedback, flaming, questions and the author
Introduction
A long, long time ago, even before I played a hunter, I would team up with hunters in parties. They would be doing damage, and all that they were supposed to, yet I would notice that most didn't use their pet. When I asked them why, they said the pet didn't do much damage. My theory has always been that all damage, even the slightest bit, would be beneficial, and concluded that the lack of pets was either because the pet was at danger of dying or that it was hard to control. Granted, before The Burning Crusade, pets were much less strong than they are now, but I still hold on to the claim that using the pet is always beneficial, no matter the spec - even in raids.
This guide is all about raiding, and is mostly aimed for beast mastery hunters, although a hunter with any spec should try and keep his or her pet active and healthy for as long as possible. But since beast mastery hunters rely on their pet, and many seem to spec away from beast mastery for fear of losing their damage when their pet dies, it's important for a beast master to know what to do and what to expect in raids.
This guide will provide tips and tricks to keep your pet, and thus your contribution to the raid, up.
Controlling your pet
There are many means for which hunters can control their pets. Some use key bindings, some use macros. Of the popular macros there are the classic hunters mark/pet attack macro, but I personally feel it limits me when I want to do either one of those. But in the spirit of teaching, here it is anyways:
/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack Instead of this, I prefer to use key bindings.
Two simple buttons: Q and E. My "Pet Attack" key binding (default is shift + T) is bound to Q, and my hunter's mark is bound to E, meaning every time I want to attack something, I press those buttons simultaneously, and the pet runs off while I apply hunters mark. I can then proceed to use whatever skill I want after that, and if I should want to make my pet attack something else, I can quickly send it to that target without losing my hunter's mark on the first. Use whatever method you prefer to, but remember that it is important that you are able to keep your pet completely under control during a raid.
Choosing a good raid pet
There are many pets out there, and lots of fun ways to use them, but not all are great for raiding. If you are new to raiding, you a probably best off by getting a pet that focuses on DPS (cats, ravagers etc) rather than utility (owls, wolves etc) rather than that cool looking bear. Here is a list of pets that I would recommend for raiding:
Cats, raptors and ravagers: High in damage, these pets are often the prime choice for hunters. They can learn high damage skills as well as dash, and have a lot of cool and unique skins.
Owls and bats: Although we don’t see many bats and owls in Outland, they can still be a good choice for damage and utility. Both have the ability "Screech" which does somewhat low damage, but lowers attack power of all enemies in melee range by up to 210, which is a considerable amount. You might drop a tiny bit in damage, but 210 attack power off an enemy is still significant.
Wind Serpent: Though the wind serpent is past its glory days, it’s still a viable pet for some hunters. A survival hunter combined with "Go for the throat" talent, will cause your pet to spew out lightning breath like it was born to, and will rack up the damage quite nicely. Sadly it falls behind on fights where the enemies have a lot of nature resistance.
Scorpids: Scorpids has been a good alternative for beast mastery hunters because of the neat "bug" concerning their scorpid poison. This has been fixed in patch 2.2, yet it is still a malicious little pet. If you want to use a scorpid, pop all trinkets and bestial wrath before it applies the first poison and the strong effect gained from this will stick on the target as long as the scorpid can reapply it.
Wolves: Although the damage from wolves is lower than that of cats and ravagers, some might find its ability "Furious howl" a nice treat. Furious howl, which is on a 10 second cooldown, increases the damage of nearby party member’s next physical attack by 45-57 damage, which is effectively another 5 DPS for each melee in your raid. You will most likely not be in range for the buff, however.
Talents:
There are tons of good suggestions for raid specs on the various forums all around, so I am not going to post suggestions of my own. I am, however, going to name some key talents to pick if you are speccing beast mastery:
Improved revive pet: If you are a beast master, and your pet dies, you lose about 35% of your total DPS. You need to get it up again fast.
Improved mend pet: Cheaper healing and an easy way to clean your pet from that nasty poison. Frenzy: A pet with frenzy as well as serpent’s swiftness and cobra reflexes will attack incredibly fast, which is also nice for the next talent.
Ferocious inspiration: 3% more damage to all of your party members is arguably one of the best buffs out there. It scales perfectly, and increases not only the damage of you and your pet, but also your party members. With a fast attacking pet, this will be up most of the time, giving you a great damage boost.
For most fights, massive resistance on your pet is not needed.
Raiding encounters:
Here follows the main point of this guide - the raid encounters you will meet on your way to defeat the mighty Illidan and what you should expect to do to keep little Fluffy alive. This is based largely on my own experience, and of tips from other hunters.
Karazhan
The Tower of Medivh, and the first raid instance you will meet. One some encounters, arcane resistance will help your pet survive. This is fights such as The Curator and Shade of Aran, but it shouldn't be too hard keeping your pet alive without any resistance talents.
Attumen the Huntsman
Pet danger: None
Boss notes: This is a pretty straight forward fight. The only time you have to call your pet back is when Attumen jumps his mighty steed, in which case he will clear all aggro, putting your pet in a vulnerable spot. Just call your pet back, wait until the tank has a bit of aggro, and send it back in to rip Attumen to pieces.
Moroes
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: From time to time, Moroes will vanish and garrotte a member of your raid, and sadly, Mittens can be a target of this. You won’t be able to keep your pet up with mend pet, and your healers are sure to neglect your pet altogether and see it as a free card. I tend to sacrifice my pet and then resurrect it unless the boss is nearly down.
Maiden of Virtue
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet will be a benefit here, but it will take damage. Maiden's AOE damage, which affects all melee, is spread out among the people that are affected by it, meaning your pet will lower the damage even more. With Avoidance rank 2 and a mend pet once in a while, you will have no problem keeping your pet alive.
The Curator
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: While Curator doesn't pose a threat to Barney, the Astral Sparks that he summons are very dangerous. Not only will they target your pet, but your pet will also chain the lightning to other members, and your pet will be at high risk when killing the sparks. I suggest leaving your pet at the door, and only send it in to damage Curator during his evocation. Other people prefer to stick the pet on Curator for the duration of the fight, but beware that your pet will take at least one hit from each Astral Spark when it spawns.
Terestian Illhoof
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: While this boss is more or less safe for your pet, you might see it aggro Illhoof's imp if its tank isn't fast enough. Once in a while your pet will also take a hit from a small imp, but that damage is hardly anything to note.
Shade of Aran
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Aran can be a nasty old bugger if you don't keep your pet under control. When he teleports you to him, just before an arcane explosion, you must be sure to drag your pet along as you run to the wall, or your pet will surely take a lot of damage. When he does blizzard, you should recall your pet for a second or two while you dodge it yourself, which will position your pet on the same side of Aran as you, and usually keep it out of harms way. Your pet can move freely when Aran does flame wrath, as it will not trigger the explosion.
Netherspite
Pet danger: None
Boss notes: Surprisingly, your pet won’t take any damage on this fight at all. He isn't affected by the constant damage, and can even stand in the black pools of death without being hurt. Prince
Malchezaar
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: While your pet won’t be affected by Enfeeble, it will be hit by his Shadow Nova, but with Avoidance rank 2, your pet will only take 1500 damage. The only other thing you have to look out for then, is the infernal spawns - your tank might not be in range of their fire AOE, but your pet might, so keep and eye out for that and reposition if needed.
Nightbane
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Unless you manage to get your pet behind Nightbane, you won’t have to worry about it getting hit by Nightbane's tail. You should move your pet out of the Charred Earth, as it will do some 400 DPS to your pet, which can burn the fur and give you a cranky pet. When Nightbane goes up into the air, be sure to notice that he can target your pet with Rain of Bones. Park it away from the main group if this happens, and throw it a mend pet.
Table of contents:
Introduction
Controlling your pet
Choosing a good raid pet
- Cats and ravagers
- Owls and Bats
- Wind Serpents
- Scorpids
- Wolves Talents Raiding encounters
- Karazhan
- Gruul’s Lair
- Magtheridon’s Lair
- World bosses
- Serpentshrine Cavern
- Tempest Keep
- Mount Hyjal
- Black Temple
Feedback, flaming, questions and the author
Introduction
A long, long time ago, even before I played a hunter, I would team up with hunters in parties. They would be doing damage, and all that they were supposed to, yet I would notice that most didn't use their pet. When I asked them why, they said the pet didn't do much damage. My theory has always been that all damage, even the slightest bit, would be beneficial, and concluded that the lack of pets was either because the pet was at danger of dying or that it was hard to control. Granted, before The Burning Crusade, pets were much less strong than they are now, but I still hold on to the claim that using the pet is always beneficial, no matter the spec - even in raids.
This guide is all about raiding, and is mostly aimed for beast mastery hunters, although a hunter with any spec should try and keep his or her pet active and healthy for as long as possible. But since beast mastery hunters rely on their pet, and many seem to spec away from beast mastery for fear of losing their damage when their pet dies, it's important for a beast master to know what to do and what to expect in raids.
This guide will provide tips and tricks to keep your pet, and thus your contribution to the raid, up.
Controlling your pet
There are many means for which hunters can control their pets. Some use key bindings, some use macros. Of the popular macros there are the classic hunters mark/pet attack macro, but I personally feel it limits me when I want to do either one of those. But in the spirit of teaching, here it is anyways:
/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack Instead of this, I prefer to use key bindings.
Two simple buttons: Q and E. My "Pet Attack" key binding (default is shift + T) is bound to Q, and my hunter's mark is bound to E, meaning every time I want to attack something, I press those buttons simultaneously, and the pet runs off while I apply hunters mark. I can then proceed to use whatever skill I want after that, and if I should want to make my pet attack something else, I can quickly send it to that target without losing my hunter's mark on the first. Use whatever method you prefer to, but remember that it is important that you are able to keep your pet completely under control during a raid.
Choosing a good raid pet
There are many pets out there, and lots of fun ways to use them, but not all are great for raiding. If you are new to raiding, you a probably best off by getting a pet that focuses on DPS (cats, ravagers etc) rather than utility (owls, wolves etc) rather than that cool looking bear. Here is a list of pets that I would recommend for raiding:
Cats, raptors and ravagers: High in damage, these pets are often the prime choice for hunters. They can learn high damage skills as well as dash, and have a lot of cool and unique skins.
Owls and bats: Although we don’t see many bats and owls in Outland, they can still be a good choice for damage and utility. Both have the ability "Screech" which does somewhat low damage, but lowers attack power of all enemies in melee range by up to 210, which is a considerable amount. You might drop a tiny bit in damage, but 210 attack power off an enemy is still significant.
Wind Serpent: Though the wind serpent is past its glory days, it’s still a viable pet for some hunters. A survival hunter combined with "Go for the throat" talent, will cause your pet to spew out lightning breath like it was born to, and will rack up the damage quite nicely. Sadly it falls behind on fights where the enemies have a lot of nature resistance.
Scorpids: Scorpids has been a good alternative for beast mastery hunters because of the neat "bug" concerning their scorpid poison. This has been fixed in patch 2.2, yet it is still a malicious little pet. If you want to use a scorpid, pop all trinkets and bestial wrath before it applies the first poison and the strong effect gained from this will stick on the target as long as the scorpid can reapply it.
Wolves: Although the damage from wolves is lower than that of cats and ravagers, some might find its ability "Furious howl" a nice treat. Furious howl, which is on a 10 second cooldown, increases the damage of nearby party member’s next physical attack by 45-57 damage, which is effectively another 5 DPS for each melee in your raid. You will most likely not be in range for the buff, however.
Talents:
There are tons of good suggestions for raid specs on the various forums all around, so I am not going to post suggestions of my own. I am, however, going to name some key talents to pick if you are speccing beast mastery:
Improved revive pet: If you are a beast master, and your pet dies, you lose about 35% of your total DPS. You need to get it up again fast.
Improved mend pet: Cheaper healing and an easy way to clean your pet from that nasty poison. Frenzy: A pet with frenzy as well as serpent’s swiftness and cobra reflexes will attack incredibly fast, which is also nice for the next talent.
Ferocious inspiration: 3% more damage to all of your party members is arguably one of the best buffs out there. It scales perfectly, and increases not only the damage of you and your pet, but also your party members. With a fast attacking pet, this will be up most of the time, giving you a great damage boost.
For most fights, massive resistance on your pet is not needed.
Raiding encounters:
Here follows the main point of this guide - the raid encounters you will meet on your way to defeat the mighty Illidan and what you should expect to do to keep little Fluffy alive. This is based largely on my own experience, and of tips from other hunters.
Karazhan
The Tower of Medivh, and the first raid instance you will meet. One some encounters, arcane resistance will help your pet survive. This is fights such as The Curator and Shade of Aran, but it shouldn't be too hard keeping your pet alive without any resistance talents.
Attumen the Huntsman
Pet danger: None
Boss notes: This is a pretty straight forward fight. The only time you have to call your pet back is when Attumen jumps his mighty steed, in which case he will clear all aggro, putting your pet in a vulnerable spot. Just call your pet back, wait until the tank has a bit of aggro, and send it back in to rip Attumen to pieces.
Moroes
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: From time to time, Moroes will vanish and garrotte a member of your raid, and sadly, Mittens can be a target of this. You won’t be able to keep your pet up with mend pet, and your healers are sure to neglect your pet altogether and see it as a free card. I tend to sacrifice my pet and then resurrect it unless the boss is nearly down.
Maiden of Virtue
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: Your pet will be a benefit here, but it will take damage. Maiden's AOE damage, which affects all melee, is spread out among the people that are affected by it, meaning your pet will lower the damage even more. With Avoidance rank 2 and a mend pet once in a while, you will have no problem keeping your pet alive.
The Curator
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: While Curator doesn't pose a threat to Barney, the Astral Sparks that he summons are very dangerous. Not only will they target your pet, but your pet will also chain the lightning to other members, and your pet will be at high risk when killing the sparks. I suggest leaving your pet at the door, and only send it in to damage Curator during his evocation. Other people prefer to stick the pet on Curator for the duration of the fight, but beware that your pet will take at least one hit from each Astral Spark when it spawns.
Terestian Illhoof
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: While this boss is more or less safe for your pet, you might see it aggro Illhoof's imp if its tank isn't fast enough. Once in a while your pet will also take a hit from a small imp, but that damage is hardly anything to note.
Shade of Aran
Pet danger: High
Boss notes: Aran can be a nasty old bugger if you don't keep your pet under control. When he teleports you to him, just before an arcane explosion, you must be sure to drag your pet along as you run to the wall, or your pet will surely take a lot of damage. When he does blizzard, you should recall your pet for a second or two while you dodge it yourself, which will position your pet on the same side of Aran as you, and usually keep it out of harms way. Your pet can move freely when Aran does flame wrath, as it will not trigger the explosion.
Netherspite
Pet danger: None
Boss notes: Surprisingly, your pet won’t take any damage on this fight at all. He isn't affected by the constant damage, and can even stand in the black pools of death without being hurt. Prince
Malchezaar
Pet danger: Low
Boss notes: While your pet won’t be affected by Enfeeble, it will be hit by his Shadow Nova, but with Avoidance rank 2, your pet will only take 1500 damage. The only other thing you have to look out for then, is the infernal spawns - your tank might not be in range of their fire AOE, but your pet might, so keep and eye out for that and reposition if needed.
Nightbane
Pet danger: Medium
Boss notes: Unless you manage to get your pet behind Nightbane, you won’t have to worry about it getting hit by Nightbane's tail. You should move your pet out of the Charred Earth, as it will do some 400 DPS to your pet, which can burn the fur and give you a cranky pet. When Nightbane goes up into the air, be sure to notice that he can target your pet with Rain of Bones. Park it away from the main group if this happens, and throw it a mend pet.
[Guide] Agility or attack power? (no maths)
(This guide was created by Haimun, level 70 dwarf of the eu server, Die Todeskrallen. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 22/07/2007)
When should one focus on stacking agility, and when is stacking attack power better than stacking agility? This thread answers these questions.
As we all know, one can choose between X agility vs. 2*X attack power. The X agility provides X attack power and also increases crit chance a bit (other benefits of agility are not considered in this guide, as it discusses benefits for DPS only). To answer which one is better, one must understand the following first:
BOTH, crit chance and attack power, scale:
* Crit chance scales with attack power (the more attack power you have, the more
is crit chance worth).
* Attack power scales with crit chance (the more crit chance you have, the more
is attack power worth).
Hence:
If you have too much attack power, then:
Increasing you crit chance is much more worth than increasing your attack power.
If you have too much crit chance, then:
Increasing your attack power is much more worth than increasing your crit chance.
When do you have to much crit chance or to much attack power?
It is very hard to tell, as it depends on many things: your gear, your spec, your current crit chance and attack power. Every hunter must calculate his damage for his own. No guide in the world can bring up a solid formula, which is correct for everybody
The best thing to do is finding the median for attack power and crit chance. Many hunters think, this is achieved by just stacking agility (as agility gives both). This is not true. Depending on your current stats, it may be better to focus on crit rating or to focus on attack power alone.
When should one focus on stacking agility, and when is stacking attack power better than stacking agility? This thread answers these questions.
As we all know, one can choose between X agility vs. 2*X attack power. The X agility provides X attack power and also increases crit chance a bit (other benefits of agility are not considered in this guide, as it discusses benefits for DPS only). To answer which one is better, one must understand the following first:
BOTH, crit chance and attack power, scale:
* Crit chance scales with attack power (the more attack power you have, the more
is crit chance worth).
* Attack power scales with crit chance (the more crit chance you have, the more
is attack power worth).
Hence:
If you have too much attack power, then:
Increasing you crit chance is much more worth than increasing your attack power.
If you have too much crit chance, then:
Increasing your attack power is much more worth than increasing your crit chance.
When do you have to much crit chance or to much attack power?
It is very hard to tell, as it depends on many things: your gear, your spec, your current crit chance and attack power. Every hunter must calculate his damage for his own. No guide in the world can bring up a solid formula, which is correct for everybody
The best thing to do is finding the median for attack power and crit chance. Many hunters think, this is achieved by just stacking agility (as agility gives both). This is not true. Depending on your current stats, it may be better to focus on crit rating or to focus on attack power alone.
[Quick Guide] How to win the damage meter
(This guide was created by Isilwen, level 70 night elf hunter of the eu server. All credit is due to her for this guide. Date: 28/05/2007)
1] Specc 41/20/0 for optimal lulz. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbM0gxRwuVoVxbRV 2] Specc your pet with avoidence rank 2, highest possible dps talents (claw+bite or lightning breath) and Cobra Reflexes.
3] Dedicate your life to the following macro:
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
4] Spam it 'till your fingers hurt
5] Keep Hunter's Mark up and pop Beastial Wrath + Rapidfire + Trinket as soon as they are off cooldown.
I've been raiding a long time now with this specc, and it's still amazing. However the first specc i linked (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=mebM0xxRwuVoVVbRV) isn't really the cookie cutter one. I've realised too that imp mend pet is just too good to miss out on, so i removed points from Endurance Training to get that. Also I've had some comments about my choice to not take Imp. Hunter's Mark. We roll with 3 hunters normally, two of which have the talent so it felt kinda useless for me to take it. Anyway, I updated the original post to include these talents.
If you find yourself having manaproblems i would get Efficiency over Imp Mark.
1] Specc 41/20/0 for optimal lulz. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=ctbM0gxRwuVoVxbRV 2] Specc your pet with avoidence rank 2, highest possible dps talents (claw+bite or lightning breath) and Cobra Reflexes.
3] Dedicate your life to the following macro:
#showtooltip Steady Shot
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/castsequence reset=3 Steady Shot, Auto Shot
/cast [exists,target=pettarget] Kill Command
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
4] Spam it 'till your fingers hurt
5] Keep Hunter's Mark up and pop Beastial Wrath + Rapidfire + Trinket as soon as they are off cooldown.
I've been raiding a long time now with this specc, and it's still amazing. However the first specc i linked (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=mebM0xxRwuVoVVbRV) isn't really the cookie cutter one. I've realised too that imp mend pet is just too good to miss out on, so i removed points from Endurance Training to get that. Also I've had some comments about my choice to not take Imp. Hunter's Mark. We roll with 3 hunters normally, two of which have the talent so it felt kinda useless for me to take it. Anyway, I updated the original post to include these talents.
If you find yourself having manaproblems i would get Efficiency over Imp Mark.
Fumi's pet guide, everything about pets
(This guide was created by Fumi, level 70 Night Elf hunter of the eu server. All credit goes to her for this wonderful guide. Date: 03/02/2007)
Contents of this guide
Introduction
Taming
- Finding a pet / types of pets
- Taming a pet
- Naming your pet
Training your pet
- Feeding your pet
- Giving abilities to your pet
- Levelling your pet
- Pet stats
- Loyalty Playing with your pet
- The pet action bar
- In combat
- Healing
- Fleeing
- Dungeons
- Obstacles
Stable Master
Macro’s
Addons
Useful websites
Introduction
At level 10, every hunter gets a quest from their hunter trainer to learn how to tame a pet. Be sure to take that quest and complete it until the very end! After that you can have up to three pets. This guide will tell you everything you have to know about your pets. If you think anything is missing, or if you still have a question, feel free to post it here. This guide is build up very easily. Every paragraph starts with a title, followed by a long detailed text, and it ends with a short summary. To use this guide, just look for the right paragraph and read the summary. If you still have a question you can read all the details, or ask it.
Taming
Finding a pet / types of pets
Beasts live anywhere. But what kind of pet do you want? Basically, there are three types of pets:
- Defensive pets have a little more armor, but deal a little less damage. Defensive pets are those that have a high family modifier in either armor or health. For armor, a high modifier is +10% or above; for health, it is +4% or above.*
- Offensive pets deal a little more damage, but have a little less armor. Offensive pets are those that have a high family modifier -- +5% or above -- in DPS.*
- Well-round pets are somewhere in between. A well-rounded pet has no high family modifiers, the medium modifiers are balanced between offensive (DPS) and defensive (health and armor).* The difference is very small, so if you go for looks that’s not a problem. For more info on what kind of pet you have or for some stats: http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
Click on "Pets Stats & Analysis" for all the global stats and the stats per pet type (direct link: http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/articles/stats_main.shtml). Some beasts are elite or have special names (and are stronger). After taming they will be just like any other beast, but they may sometimes have a special skin, what makes them unique. Their stats won't be different from normal beasts!
* according to Petopia. There are defensive, offensive and well-round pets. Elite or unique beasts won't be stronger than normal beasts after taming.
Taming a pet
The trainer first asks you three times to tame a specific type of beast. After you’ve done that you get the taming skill. But be sure to also take the follow up, which gives you the skill to feed and train your pet.
Once you can tame, train and feed a pet it’s time to tame one!
But you cannot tame everything you see in the wild. You may only tame monsters marked as “Beast” and even not all of them. Kodo’s (f.i.) are not tameable. No worries, most pets are tameable. With some luck your pet even has a nice extra skill. Skills will be discussed later.
You can use the spell Beast Lore to see if a certain beast is tameable, and what it's diet is. There is one more but, you can only tame beast of your own level or below. Just go out in the wild and find yourself a pet you like, then try to tame it. Don’t forget that you cannot tame a beast if you already control a pet. Dismissing won’t work. Store your pet at the Stable Master, or abandon it (which is permanent) if you want to tame another one.
Be careful though, if you start taming a pet it starts attacking you. This does not interrupt your taming, but if you’re not careful it might get you killed, especially if the taming fails. It takes 20 seconds to tame a pet. If you can place a Freeze Trap, do so. The pet gets stuck in the ice, so it cannot attack you. This does not stop or interrupt your taming process. If other people (in your team, or not in your team) attack the beast, the taming will fail as well. So if you want to tame a pet inside a dungeon, make sure the team does not attack it!
Some beasts are very big when you see them. After you've tamed them they may shrink, so don't be surprised if this happens. The looks will be the same, it's only the size that changes a bit. For a list of looks of several pets you can have a look at this website: http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/ There you can also see what skills that pet has, and where you can find that pet. Some pets require a higher level than 10 or 11, so maybe you cannot yet tame the best looking pet. In that case it’s best to find yourself another pet, one you can tame.
You can tame a beast by selecting it and then pressing “Tame Beast”. You only tame beasts of your level and below. The taming will stop when other players attack the beast.
Naming your pet
Each pet you tame has the name “Cat” or “Wolf or “Owl” or whatever type of pet you tamed. You can give it a custom name only once per tamed pet. Think about a name very carefully, because renaming is impossible. There are a few tricks to give another name to your pet, which are a lot of trouble. To name your pet, right-click on the pets portrait and press the “Rename” button. You get a small window where you can enter a name. After pressing the okay button you get one last confirmation. After that the name is set and cannot be undone.
If you are unhappy with the name of your pet there are only 2 options:
1. Abandon the pet by right-clicking the portrait and clicking on “Abandon”. A confirmation window appears, warning you that you will permanently abandon your pet.
After this you can tame a new pet with the same looks, and give it the name you want. The problem is that a pet with the same skin is much lower level than you, or much higher. So that means you have to level up more, or you’ll have to level a new pet all the way up.
2. This is an option I will not advice. You can contact a GM to ask him/her to change the name of your pet. This might however only work if the name of your pet is against the naming policies or - on a roleplaying realm - against the additional roleplaying naming policies I repeat myself: I do not advice using this option, it’s a lot of trouble, and you shouldn’t give your pet a name against the policies to start with.
You can name your pet by right-clicking on it's portrait and pressing the button "rename". This can only be done once!
Training your pet
Now that you have tamed a pet it’s time for some training. Don’t go into fight yet! There are some other things you must know first. Have you seen that your pet’s portrait is now under your own portrait? The bars of your pet shows his health (green bar) and focus (red/orange bar) and it’s happiness level. A few pets use mana instead of focus, in that case they have a blue bar. (I haven't found mana using pets yet, I've been told that Serpents and Warp Stalkers might use mana, but I've tamed those for their skills, and they used focus. Maybe they used mana some time ago, and maybe that's changed with a patch.) You pet might be able to do a skill, if not you can learn them a skill. All skills require focus, just like you need mana for your skills. Skills will be discussed a little bit later. First it’s important to be sure your pet is happy. To do that you need to feed it.
Feeding your pet If the happiness level of your pet shows “Unhappy” (red picture) or “Neutral” (yellow picture) you’ll have to feed your pet. You can also mouse over the happiness logo and read what it says. By doing so you can also see that at lower happiness it deals less damage. If you have just tamed a pet, it’s automatically unhappy with you. To feed your pet, open your spellbook and go to the Beastmastery tab. Look for the “Feed Pet” spell and click on it (you might want to drag it to one of your actionbars). Then select some food from one of your bags, with the glowing cursor.
Instead, you can also directly select food from a bag, left click on it and then left click it again on your pet. What’s that you say? Your pet doesn’t like the food? Maybe you gave your pet the wrong type of food. Not every pet likes it all. Cats only eat meat, while a turtle eats only fish, fruit and fungus. And boars eat almost everything. If you want to know what your pet likes, press [shift] + p. You have just opened your pet window. In the upper left corner you can see the happiness level again. Mouse over it and you can see what it eats (Diet: …). In most capital cities you can find meat vendors, bread vendors and fruit vendors. If you don’t have the needed type of food with you, buy a little bit. At higher levels you might need higher level food. You can also find food in the wild. Most beasts drop meat if they get killed, but other mobs can also drop fruit or bread.
Now you have the correct type of food, feed your pet 1 food. Click on your pet or it’s portrait to select it. You now see a buff with a little food icon. This means your pet is eating. Slowly the happiness is rising. If you send it into combat now, the eating stops, and the happiness won’t rise anymore. After the pet is finished eating, it might not yet be fully happy (green happiness logo). Feed it again until it’s done eating. By now it should be happy, if not feed it again.
Over time your pet loses happiness and needs to eat again. Also, when it dies it loses 1 happiness level and you’ll have to feed it. Unhappy pets leave you after a while!
You can make the feeding easier by using an addon or macro. Read the addon and macro paragraph for more info.
Feed your pet when it’s Neutral or Unhappy by pressing the “Feed Pet” button and then select food from your bag.
Giving abilities to your pet
If your pet has an ability, like Bite, you cannot yet teach it to any other pet. Go and fight some with your new pet. After a few fights you should get a message in your chatwindow, saying you’ve learned the spell. It’s now available to other pets you tame.
Another way to get new abilities for your pet is to visit the Pet Trainer. Those usually can be found near a Hunter Trainer. The Pet Trainer teaches you how to give your pet extra stamina, armor or specific resistances. It also gives you the ability to learn your pet how to Growl, which is very useful if you go out into the wild alone, with only your pet with you.
Good, you got yourself some nice tricks for your pet. Now open your spellbook and go to the General tab. Look for the button “Beast Training” and click it. This is like the spellbook for your pet. If you select a skill you can see how many training points are needed, and what level is needed. That level is the level of your pet, not your level!
Your new pet probably has no training points yet, so you can only learn it Growl. Do so, you’ll see it’s very useful.
If your pet gains loyalty (coming to that later) and levels it gains training points, which you can spend for other abilities. Some abilities still can’t be learned by your pet, because some abilities are for specific types of beasts only. F.i. Prowl can only be learned by cats.
Every pet can learn Great Stamina, Natural Armor and the several nature resistances. But this is where it gets tricky. You cannot learn the highest rank of everything! So you’ll have to choose. That choice is totally up to you. For beginners who are just levelling up I would advice to take Natural Armor and Great Stamina. The resistances, like Fire Resistance are more useful in endgame dungeons (level 60 without The Burning Crusade, or level 70 with TBC).
There is one very tricky thing about giving your pet new skills. If you have learned your pet Great Stamina rank 1, which requires 5 training points, you can learn it Great Stamina rank 2, if it has only 5 training points left, and the right level. If you learn it a higher rank, the training points from the previous rank are “refunded” though it’s not visible. So if your pet knows rank 1, which costs 5 training points, you can learn it rank 2, which costs 10 training points, even though you see that your pet has only 5 training points left.
Any specific skills can be found here: http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html That website also tells you what pets hold the skill you want.
A level 60 pet with loyalty level 6 has 300 Training Points to spend. At level 70 it has 350 Training Points. If you want to know the amount of Training Points for your pet, you can use this formula: Training Points = PetLevel * (LoyaltyLevel - 1)
If you have learned your pet an ability, but it didn't show up on the Pet Action bar, or if you removed it by accident, you can simply get it back by opening your own spellbook (p by default) and then go to the Pet tab, which is found at the bottom. There's a list of all the skills your pet has!
You can learn skills from the Pet Trainer or by taming wild beasts. The “Beast Training” button opens your pet-spellbook from where you can learn skills to your pet.
Levelling your pet
Levelling your pet is very easy. If you have your pet active and defeat monsters that give you experience, your pet also gets experience. But it only works if your pet is at a lower level than you are! As soon as it’s at the same level as you, it won’t get any experience anymore, until you are a higher level again. At level 70, you won’t get anymore experience, but if your pet isn’t level 70 yet, it will still get experience for monster that have a green, or higher level.
Your pet doesn't have to fight in the combat. If it's on Passive and only stands next to you, it can still gain experience.
If you are level 70 and your pet is level 10, it won’t get experience from level 11 monsters! That’s why it’s very hard to level up a low level pet.
Your pet will only get experience from kills, not from quests! So that's why you can still level up a bit faster. To level lowlevel pets fast, it's easiest to kill level 62 monsters, those are the lowest to give experience. Another method of leveling a lowlevel pet fast is doing 5 men dungeons. This gives less experience per monster, but monsters do get killed faster in a group, so it's more monsters per minute. 10 or more men raids are usually very slow methods for pet leveling.
Your pet only gets experience when you do, and only if it’s at a lower level than you are, until it’s at your level. Pets won't get experience from quests.
Pet stats
Every pet has the same base stats.Those stats increase every level. The type of pet you have also has a little influence on those stats. All the stats can be found at
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/articles/stats_main.shtml
The link "Base Pet Attributes by Level" has all the base stats per level, while the link "Family Roles" tells you everything about you need to know about the changes in the stats, affected by pet type. You can upgrade the stats of your pet with several talents from the Beast Mastery talent tree. Buff from scrolls, or other classes (like Power Word Fortitude) can also give your pet a nice boost.
Your own stats also have some effect on the stats of your pet. That influence is very easy, according to Petopia:
Pets have basic stats, which are affected by their family, talents, buff and the hunter stats.
Loyalty
The higher the loyalty of your pet, the more Training Points your pet has. The maximum loyalty is level 6. By pressing [shift] + p you open your pet window. On top you can see the loyalty of your pet. At lower loyalty levels your pet might not listen to you when you give it a command. Pets with happiness Neutral or Happy will gain loyalty. You also need to fight with your pet in order to increase loyalty. If a pet has a lower
Playing with your pet
Fighting with your pet means you control yourself fully and your pet only for some part. For how much you control your pet depends on the settings in the pet action bar.
The pet action bar Above your own action bar is an extra action bar for your pet, as long as your pet is active. This action bar has three standard options, followed by some empty spaces or trained skills, and three other standard settings. I’ll describe all the standard actions and settings and also explain how to use the custom skills.
Attack
This is the most left button. Simply select an enemy and press the attack button, and your pet goes attacking that enemy.
Follow
If there’s a yellow bar around this option, your pet will always walk next to you, or a little behind you. After a fight is comes back to you and will follow you again.
Wait
Makes your pet to stop. It won’t follow you and won’t move, unless you command it to attack, or it goes attacking a nearby enemy (when your pet is on Aggressive or Defensive). After an attack it moves back to the location where you made it stop.
Aggressive
When your pet is set on Aggressive it will automatically attack any enemy that’s close to you or your pet. In most cases this option isn’t really helping. There are some cases where this option is useful…try and learn for yourself!
Defensive
In this mode your pet will also automatically attack enemies, but only enemies that are attacking either you or your pet.
Passive
Passive mode makes sure your pet does never attack an enemy, unless you command it to attack.
Custom skills
Custom skills can be very different. Growl is a custom skill that your pet can use to keep or take agro. Other skills can poison a target, daze it, lower attack, or just cause extra damage. There are several skills for your pet. For more info, have a look here: http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html The custom skills are on by default. This means the pet uses them automatically at it’s own will. If the button has yellow linings moving around the button this means the pet uses the skill at it’s own will. If you right-click the skill the moving lines will stop. This means the pet will not use the skill. Only if you left-click on it, it will use that skill. Right-click again to set it to on again.
When you go on your mount, the Pet action bar gets grey. Your pet goes on Passive and Follow automatically. You cannot control your pet as long as you're mounted. When you get attacked, a pet may still cast some of it's skills, like Furious Howl, which can attract more enemies. If this happens and if you dn't want this, you may turn the autocast off before mounting.
With your pet action bar you have full control over your pet. Play with it and turn the skills on or off, until you have found the right playstyle.
In combat
You have a pet, you know how to feed it, and you know how to control your pet. There is one more thing you must know, then we can go for some action!
Be sure your pet has learned Growl, and make sure it’s used automatically if you go fighting without someone to tank (like a warrior, or druid in bear form). Remember the fighting without your pet? You fire arrows at the enemy, it gets too close and you have to use your other weapons to attack it. Those other weapons deal only a few damage. Now your pet will growl and keep the enemy busy. Ready?
Select an enemy and make your pet attack it. Then just fire the enemy. Your pets keeps the enemy away from you, and it also does some extra damage! Basically, from now on this is how you fight. But beware: sometimes you deal so much damage, the growl from your pet can’t keep up with it and the enemy still comes after you. It happens, you can melee it, or you can use your tricks to get some distance to shoot again (I’m not going to tell you those, this guide is about pets, remember?).
Select an enemy and send your pet to attack it. Then you can fire from a distance with a large chance the enemy won’t attack you.
Healing
The Hunter Trainer will learn you the ability Mend Pet, which you can use to heal your pet. If your pet is getting low on health, you can heal it with Mend Pet. You can also bandage your pet if you got the First Aid profession, but that will only be useful out of combat. If you bandage your pet in combat, the bandaging will stop if your pet gets a hit from an enemy.
Heal your pet with Mend Pet when in combat. Out of combat you can also use bandages.
Fleeing
This is most effective after level 30, if you can Feign Death. Before level 30 it’s only effective with 1 or 2 enemies and when they attack your pet. Sometimes you find that you cannot take down an enemy, or multiple enemies show up, more than you can handle. It’s time to make a run for it! First, try to run away from the monsters. Then Feign Death, so the monsters either go back to their location, or go after your pet. Then stand up, switch to Aspect of the Cheetah and run. Be sure not to run into other enemies! If they attack you, you get dazed. If you are running, put your pet to Passive and command it to follow you. It will keep up with your Aspect of the Cheetah, but won’t get dazed! Sometimes your pet gets killed, or you’ll have to sacrifice it for an escape. Don’t worry, you can resurrect it.
Another, more tricky technique is Feigning Death, and when you're at safe distance you can dismiss your pet. The enemies often reset.
Another method is just fleeing yourself, without taking your pet with you. If the distance between you and your pet is long enough the pet will be automatically dismissed, without losing loyalty. There is a slight risk that your pet gets killed before it's auto-dismissed.
To flee, Feign Death, then run for it with Aspect of the Cheetah. Make your pet to follow you so it has a chance to survive as well.
Dungeons
In a dungeon, always set your pet to Passive. Otherwise it can go after enemies and with that it can pull in new groups of enemies, which is unwanted. Your pet does have the same agro range as you do. Also, be sure to know where your pet is, always.
Also, make sure your pet won’t use Growl in a dungeon. There is always someone to tank, like a warrior or feral druid in bear form. For a tank it’s very hard to take the agro from a pet that is also trying to take agro.
In some cases it can be useful to use Growl. You’ll learn when and when not to use it by trying. For a more detailed guide on using a pet in dungeons you should have a look here: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14351597&sid=1
This guide is basically written for the level 60 dungeons though. Also know that most healer wont heal your pet, unless they have the time and the mana for it. Healing players is more important than healing a pet. You can heal it yourself, and you can easily resurrect it when needed. With some luck you get a great healer who often heals your pet as well.
Your pet may have other abilities, like Furious Howl. When those are on autocast they may sometimes be cast when a nearby enemy does an action. With some bad luck you may get attacked when your pet casts such an ability. The enemies go after the pet, before the tanks can get agro, and if nobody was prepared the team may wipe. Be sure you know what abilities are safe and which aren't!
Make sure your pet is on Passive and that Growl is turned off. Your pet is on the bottom of the healing list, so don't get angry when it's not healed in time.
Obstacles
Sometimes you need to jump down a cliff or something in order to proceed. Especially in dungeons it’s important to know how your pet will react. If possible, the pet won’t jump, but will walk the long way around to you. When it does, it can pull full groups of enemies with it. This isn’t what you wanted. In a dungeon your entire team might get a bit angry at you if that happens! Here’s how to guarantee a safe jump. Actually, there are 2 options:
1. Most people will find this the best option: Dismiss your pet (not abandon, just dismiss), jump down the cliff and call your pet again.
2. Put your pet on Wait, so it won’t move anywhere. Use Eyes of the Beast to gain full control over the movement of your pet. Then use it to jump your pet down. Then go out of the Eyes of the Beast by waiting until the 1 minute is over, or by right-clicking the Eyes of the Beast buff next to your minimap. Be sure to keep your pet in Wait all the time. Jump down yourself. Once down, you can turn your pet into Follow mode again.
When jumping down, make sure you know what your pet does. Dismiss it, jump down and call it back again.
Stable Master
At pretty much every inn, and in every big city is a Stable Master. There you can stable pets you are not using, so you can train or tame another pet. Talk to the Stable Master to stable or take pets. There are three slots for a pet. The most left slot is the pet that is with you. The two others are for pets that are stabled. You will have to buy those two slots one time to use them. They’re very cheap.
You can drag pets between slots to move them to you or the Stable Master. It might be wise to have one slot empty all the time, so you can store your own pets when you ever want to tame another beast for a skill only. You can have only one pet with you. If you want to tame a new beast, you cannot have a pet with you.
You can have only one pet with you. Other pets can be stored at a Stable Master.
Macro’s
You can make some easy macro’s to make working with your pet easier. Yes, even you can make those macro’s. Simply open a chatwindow by pressing [enter] and typing “/macro”, then press [enter] again. Make a new macro by clicking on “New”, find a sign icon for it and name it. Once that’s done you must enter the code. You can [shift] + click a code from your spellbook for a /cast code. Or you can copy and paste the codes below.
To feed your pet with one simple click:
# show Roasted Quail
/cast Feed Pet
/use Roasted Quail
You can remove the Roasted Quail part and type another name for other food.
You can also [shift] + click the food from your bag for the name. The "# show" part causes the macro's name to disappear and put the number of food you have left. on the button instead. You can make a macro with "# show- " always to easily see how many of that item you have. Don't forget to place the macro on an action bar.
To send your pet into attack and cast Hunter’s Mark:
/Petattack
/cast Hunter’s Mark
If you also add a line “/cast Auto Shot” you will also start your own Auto Shot.
Addons
There are also addons you can use. A document on how to use them is usually comes with the addon.
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/1277/fizzwidget-hunters-helper/
This addon adds some info to the tooltip. If you mouse over a beast that might be able to learn you a skill, it’s shown in the tooltip.
There are also several addons that help you feed your pet. You will still have to click a button, or press a key on your keyboard to do so (yes, with some addons you can bind a key to it). A small list can be found here:
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/search/?cat=1&q_labels=1&q=feed You can also make the feed macro and bind a key to it (yes, you can bind keys to all your actionbars or just a single button on it).
The zHunter addon got a nice popup bar for your pet abilities (feed/heal/ressurect/etc) http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/2610/zhuntermod/
(thanks to Zevena)
Contents of this guide
Introduction
Taming
- Finding a pet / types of pets
- Taming a pet
- Naming your pet
Training your pet
- Feeding your pet
- Giving abilities to your pet
- Levelling your pet
- Pet stats
- Loyalty Playing with your pet
- The pet action bar
- In combat
- Healing
- Fleeing
- Dungeons
- Obstacles
Stable Master
Macro’s
Addons
Useful websites
Introduction
At level 10, every hunter gets a quest from their hunter trainer to learn how to tame a pet. Be sure to take that quest and complete it until the very end! After that you can have up to three pets. This guide will tell you everything you have to know about your pets. If you think anything is missing, or if you still have a question, feel free to post it here. This guide is build up very easily. Every paragraph starts with a title, followed by a long detailed text, and it ends with a short summary. To use this guide, just look for the right paragraph and read the summary. If you still have a question you can read all the details, or ask it.
Taming
Finding a pet / types of pets
Beasts live anywhere. But what kind of pet do you want? Basically, there are three types of pets:
- Defensive pets have a little more armor, but deal a little less damage. Defensive pets are those that have a high family modifier in either armor or health. For armor, a high modifier is +10% or above; for health, it is +4% or above.*
- Offensive pets deal a little more damage, but have a little less armor. Offensive pets are those that have a high family modifier -- +5% or above -- in DPS.*
- Well-round pets are somewhere in between. A well-rounded pet has no high family modifiers, the medium modifiers are balanced between offensive (DPS) and defensive (health and armor).* The difference is very small, so if you go for looks that’s not a problem. For more info on what kind of pet you have or for some stats: http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
Click on "Pets Stats & Analysis" for all the global stats and the stats per pet type (direct link: http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/articles/stats_main.shtml). Some beasts are elite or have special names (and are stronger). After taming they will be just like any other beast, but they may sometimes have a special skin, what makes them unique. Their stats won't be different from normal beasts!
* according to Petopia. There are defensive, offensive and well-round pets. Elite or unique beasts won't be stronger than normal beasts after taming.
Taming a pet
The trainer first asks you three times to tame a specific type of beast. After you’ve done that you get the taming skill. But be sure to also take the follow up, which gives you the skill to feed and train your pet.
Once you can tame, train and feed a pet it’s time to tame one!
But you cannot tame everything you see in the wild. You may only tame monsters marked as “Beast” and even not all of them. Kodo’s (f.i.) are not tameable. No worries, most pets are tameable. With some luck your pet even has a nice extra skill. Skills will be discussed later.
You can use the spell Beast Lore to see if a certain beast is tameable, and what it's diet is. There is one more but, you can only tame beast of your own level or below. Just go out in the wild and find yourself a pet you like, then try to tame it. Don’t forget that you cannot tame a beast if you already control a pet. Dismissing won’t work. Store your pet at the Stable Master, or abandon it (which is permanent) if you want to tame another one.
Be careful though, if you start taming a pet it starts attacking you. This does not interrupt your taming, but if you’re not careful it might get you killed, especially if the taming fails. It takes 20 seconds to tame a pet. If you can place a Freeze Trap, do so. The pet gets stuck in the ice, so it cannot attack you. This does not stop or interrupt your taming process. If other people (in your team, or not in your team) attack the beast, the taming will fail as well. So if you want to tame a pet inside a dungeon, make sure the team does not attack it!
Some beasts are very big when you see them. After you've tamed them they may shrink, so don't be surprised if this happens. The looks will be the same, it's only the size that changes a bit. For a list of looks of several pets you can have a look at this website: http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/ There you can also see what skills that pet has, and where you can find that pet. Some pets require a higher level than 10 or 11, so maybe you cannot yet tame the best looking pet. In that case it’s best to find yourself another pet, one you can tame.
You can tame a beast by selecting it and then pressing “Tame Beast”. You only tame beasts of your level and below. The taming will stop when other players attack the beast.
Naming your pet
Each pet you tame has the name “Cat” or “Wolf or “Owl” or whatever type of pet you tamed. You can give it a custom name only once per tamed pet. Think about a name very carefully, because renaming is impossible. There are a few tricks to give another name to your pet, which are a lot of trouble. To name your pet, right-click on the pets portrait and press the “Rename” button. You get a small window where you can enter a name. After pressing the okay button you get one last confirmation. After that the name is set and cannot be undone.
If you are unhappy with the name of your pet there are only 2 options:
1. Abandon the pet by right-clicking the portrait and clicking on “Abandon”. A confirmation window appears, warning you that you will permanently abandon your pet.
After this you can tame a new pet with the same looks, and give it the name you want. The problem is that a pet with the same skin is much lower level than you, or much higher. So that means you have to level up more, or you’ll have to level a new pet all the way up.
2. This is an option I will not advice. You can contact a GM to ask him/her to change the name of your pet. This might however only work if the name of your pet is against the naming policies or - on a roleplaying realm - against the additional roleplaying naming policies I repeat myself: I do not advice using this option, it’s a lot of trouble, and you shouldn’t give your pet a name against the policies to start with.
You can name your pet by right-clicking on it's portrait and pressing the button "rename". This can only be done once!
Training your pet
Now that you have tamed a pet it’s time for some training. Don’t go into fight yet! There are some other things you must know first. Have you seen that your pet’s portrait is now under your own portrait? The bars of your pet shows his health (green bar) and focus (red/orange bar) and it’s happiness level. A few pets use mana instead of focus, in that case they have a blue bar. (I haven't found mana using pets yet, I've been told that Serpents and Warp Stalkers might use mana, but I've tamed those for their skills, and they used focus. Maybe they used mana some time ago, and maybe that's changed with a patch.) You pet might be able to do a skill, if not you can learn them a skill. All skills require focus, just like you need mana for your skills. Skills will be discussed a little bit later. First it’s important to be sure your pet is happy. To do that you need to feed it.
Feeding your pet If the happiness level of your pet shows “Unhappy” (red picture) or “Neutral” (yellow picture) you’ll have to feed your pet. You can also mouse over the happiness logo and read what it says. By doing so you can also see that at lower happiness it deals less damage. If you have just tamed a pet, it’s automatically unhappy with you. To feed your pet, open your spellbook and go to the Beastmastery tab. Look for the “Feed Pet” spell and click on it (you might want to drag it to one of your actionbars). Then select some food from one of your bags, with the glowing cursor.
Instead, you can also directly select food from a bag, left click on it and then left click it again on your pet. What’s that you say? Your pet doesn’t like the food? Maybe you gave your pet the wrong type of food. Not every pet likes it all. Cats only eat meat, while a turtle eats only fish, fruit and fungus. And boars eat almost everything. If you want to know what your pet likes, press [shift] + p. You have just opened your pet window. In the upper left corner you can see the happiness level again. Mouse over it and you can see what it eats (Diet: …). In most capital cities you can find meat vendors, bread vendors and fruit vendors. If you don’t have the needed type of food with you, buy a little bit. At higher levels you might need higher level food. You can also find food in the wild. Most beasts drop meat if they get killed, but other mobs can also drop fruit or bread.
Now you have the correct type of food, feed your pet 1 food. Click on your pet or it’s portrait to select it. You now see a buff with a little food icon. This means your pet is eating. Slowly the happiness is rising. If you send it into combat now, the eating stops, and the happiness won’t rise anymore. After the pet is finished eating, it might not yet be fully happy (green happiness logo). Feed it again until it’s done eating. By now it should be happy, if not feed it again.
Over time your pet loses happiness and needs to eat again. Also, when it dies it loses 1 happiness level and you’ll have to feed it. Unhappy pets leave you after a while!
You can make the feeding easier by using an addon or macro. Read the addon and macro paragraph for more info.
Feed your pet when it’s Neutral or Unhappy by pressing the “Feed Pet” button and then select food from your bag.
Giving abilities to your pet
If your pet has an ability, like Bite, you cannot yet teach it to any other pet. Go and fight some with your new pet. After a few fights you should get a message in your chatwindow, saying you’ve learned the spell. It’s now available to other pets you tame.
Another way to get new abilities for your pet is to visit the Pet Trainer. Those usually can be found near a Hunter Trainer. The Pet Trainer teaches you how to give your pet extra stamina, armor or specific resistances. It also gives you the ability to learn your pet how to Growl, which is very useful if you go out into the wild alone, with only your pet with you.
Good, you got yourself some nice tricks for your pet. Now open your spellbook and go to the General tab. Look for the button “Beast Training” and click it. This is like the spellbook for your pet. If you select a skill you can see how many training points are needed, and what level is needed. That level is the level of your pet, not your level!
Your new pet probably has no training points yet, so you can only learn it Growl. Do so, you’ll see it’s very useful.
If your pet gains loyalty (coming to that later) and levels it gains training points, which you can spend for other abilities. Some abilities still can’t be learned by your pet, because some abilities are for specific types of beasts only. F.i. Prowl can only be learned by cats.
Every pet can learn Great Stamina, Natural Armor and the several nature resistances. But this is where it gets tricky. You cannot learn the highest rank of everything! So you’ll have to choose. That choice is totally up to you. For beginners who are just levelling up I would advice to take Natural Armor and Great Stamina. The resistances, like Fire Resistance are more useful in endgame dungeons (level 60 without The Burning Crusade, or level 70 with TBC).
There is one very tricky thing about giving your pet new skills. If you have learned your pet Great Stamina rank 1, which requires 5 training points, you can learn it Great Stamina rank 2, if it has only 5 training points left, and the right level. If you learn it a higher rank, the training points from the previous rank are “refunded” though it’s not visible. So if your pet knows rank 1, which costs 5 training points, you can learn it rank 2, which costs 10 training points, even though you see that your pet has only 5 training points left.
Any specific skills can be found here: http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html That website also tells you what pets hold the skill you want.
A level 60 pet with loyalty level 6 has 300 Training Points to spend. At level 70 it has 350 Training Points. If you want to know the amount of Training Points for your pet, you can use this formula: Training Points = PetLevel * (LoyaltyLevel - 1)
If you have learned your pet an ability, but it didn't show up on the Pet Action bar, or if you removed it by accident, you can simply get it back by opening your own spellbook (p by default) and then go to the Pet tab, which is found at the bottom. There's a list of all the skills your pet has!
You can learn skills from the Pet Trainer or by taming wild beasts. The “Beast Training” button opens your pet-spellbook from where you can learn skills to your pet.
Levelling your pet
Levelling your pet is very easy. If you have your pet active and defeat monsters that give you experience, your pet also gets experience. But it only works if your pet is at a lower level than you are! As soon as it’s at the same level as you, it won’t get any experience anymore, until you are a higher level again. At level 70, you won’t get anymore experience, but if your pet isn’t level 70 yet, it will still get experience for monster that have a green, or higher level.
Your pet doesn't have to fight in the combat. If it's on Passive and only stands next to you, it can still gain experience.
If you are level 70 and your pet is level 10, it won’t get experience from level 11 monsters! That’s why it’s very hard to level up a low level pet.
Your pet will only get experience from kills, not from quests! So that's why you can still level up a bit faster. To level lowlevel pets fast, it's easiest to kill level 62 monsters, those are the lowest to give experience. Another method of leveling a lowlevel pet fast is doing 5 men dungeons. This gives less experience per monster, but monsters do get killed faster in a group, so it's more monsters per minute. 10 or more men raids are usually very slow methods for pet leveling.
Your pet only gets experience when you do, and only if it’s at a lower level than you are, until it’s at your level. Pets won't get experience from quests.
Pet stats
Every pet has the same base stats.Those stats increase every level. The type of pet you have also has a little influence on those stats. All the stats can be found at
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/html/articles/stats_main.shtml
The link "Base Pet Attributes by Level" has all the base stats per level, while the link "Family Roles" tells you everything about you need to know about the changes in the stats, affected by pet type. You can upgrade the stats of your pet with several talents from the Beast Mastery talent tree. Buff from scrolls, or other classes (like Power Word Fortitude) can also give your pet a nice boost.
Your own stats also have some effect on the stats of your pet. That influence is very easy, according to Petopia:
Starting with Patch 2.0, hunter pets now benefit from "pet scaling". Pet scaling just means that your pet gets to add some of your stats to his own stats, so that his power scales with your power. The basics are very simple: # Pets get about 30% of the hunter's stamina added to their stamina. # Pets get about 35% of the hunter's armor added to their armor. # Pets get about 22% of the hunter's ranged attack power added to their melee attack power. # Pets get about 12.5% of the hunter's ranged attack power added to their spell damage. # Pets get about 40% of the hunter's resistances added to their own resistances.
Pets have basic stats, which are affected by their family, talents, buff and the hunter stats.
Loyalty
The higher the loyalty of your pet, the more Training Points your pet has. The maximum loyalty is level 6. By pressing [shift] + p you open your pet window. On top you can see the loyalty of your pet. At lower loyalty levels your pet might not listen to you when you give it a command. Pets with happiness Neutral or Happy will gain loyalty. You also need to fight with your pet in order to increase loyalty. If a pet has a lower
Playing with your pet
Fighting with your pet means you control yourself fully and your pet only for some part. For how much you control your pet depends on the settings in the pet action bar.
The pet action bar Above your own action bar is an extra action bar for your pet, as long as your pet is active. This action bar has three standard options, followed by some empty spaces or trained skills, and three other standard settings. I’ll describe all the standard actions and settings and also explain how to use the custom skills.
Attack
This is the most left button. Simply select an enemy and press the attack button, and your pet goes attacking that enemy.
Follow
If there’s a yellow bar around this option, your pet will always walk next to you, or a little behind you. After a fight is comes back to you and will follow you again.
Wait
Makes your pet to stop. It won’t follow you and won’t move, unless you command it to attack, or it goes attacking a nearby enemy (when your pet is on Aggressive or Defensive). After an attack it moves back to the location where you made it stop.
Aggressive
When your pet is set on Aggressive it will automatically attack any enemy that’s close to you or your pet. In most cases this option isn’t really helping. There are some cases where this option is useful…try and learn for yourself!
Defensive
In this mode your pet will also automatically attack enemies, but only enemies that are attacking either you or your pet.
Passive
Passive mode makes sure your pet does never attack an enemy, unless you command it to attack.
Custom skills
Custom skills can be very different. Growl is a custom skill that your pet can use to keep or take agro. Other skills can poison a target, daze it, lower attack, or just cause extra damage. There are several skills for your pet. For more info, have a look here: http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html The custom skills are on by default. This means the pet uses them automatically at it’s own will. If the button has yellow linings moving around the button this means the pet uses the skill at it’s own will. If you right-click the skill the moving lines will stop. This means the pet will not use the skill. Only if you left-click on it, it will use that skill. Right-click again to set it to on again.
When you go on your mount, the Pet action bar gets grey. Your pet goes on Passive and Follow automatically. You cannot control your pet as long as you're mounted. When you get attacked, a pet may still cast some of it's skills, like Furious Howl, which can attract more enemies. If this happens and if you dn't want this, you may turn the autocast off before mounting.
With your pet action bar you have full control over your pet. Play with it and turn the skills on or off, until you have found the right playstyle.
In combat
You have a pet, you know how to feed it, and you know how to control your pet. There is one more thing you must know, then we can go for some action!
Be sure your pet has learned Growl, and make sure it’s used automatically if you go fighting without someone to tank (like a warrior, or druid in bear form). Remember the fighting without your pet? You fire arrows at the enemy, it gets too close and you have to use your other weapons to attack it. Those other weapons deal only a few damage. Now your pet will growl and keep the enemy busy. Ready?
Select an enemy and make your pet attack it. Then just fire the enemy. Your pets keeps the enemy away from you, and it also does some extra damage! Basically, from now on this is how you fight. But beware: sometimes you deal so much damage, the growl from your pet can’t keep up with it and the enemy still comes after you. It happens, you can melee it, or you can use your tricks to get some distance to shoot again (I’m not going to tell you those, this guide is about pets, remember?).
Select an enemy and send your pet to attack it. Then you can fire from a distance with a large chance the enemy won’t attack you.
Healing
The Hunter Trainer will learn you the ability Mend Pet, which you can use to heal your pet. If your pet is getting low on health, you can heal it with Mend Pet. You can also bandage your pet if you got the First Aid profession, but that will only be useful out of combat. If you bandage your pet in combat, the bandaging will stop if your pet gets a hit from an enemy.
Heal your pet with Mend Pet when in combat. Out of combat you can also use bandages.
Fleeing
This is most effective after level 30, if you can Feign Death. Before level 30 it’s only effective with 1 or 2 enemies and when they attack your pet. Sometimes you find that you cannot take down an enemy, or multiple enemies show up, more than you can handle. It’s time to make a run for it! First, try to run away from the monsters. Then Feign Death, so the monsters either go back to their location, or go after your pet. Then stand up, switch to Aspect of the Cheetah and run. Be sure not to run into other enemies! If they attack you, you get dazed. If you are running, put your pet to Passive and command it to follow you. It will keep up with your Aspect of the Cheetah, but won’t get dazed! Sometimes your pet gets killed, or you’ll have to sacrifice it for an escape. Don’t worry, you can resurrect it.
Another, more tricky technique is Feigning Death, and when you're at safe distance you can dismiss your pet. The enemies often reset.
Another method is just fleeing yourself, without taking your pet with you. If the distance between you and your pet is long enough the pet will be automatically dismissed, without losing loyalty. There is a slight risk that your pet gets killed before it's auto-dismissed.
To flee, Feign Death, then run for it with Aspect of the Cheetah. Make your pet to follow you so it has a chance to survive as well.
Dungeons
In a dungeon, always set your pet to Passive. Otherwise it can go after enemies and with that it can pull in new groups of enemies, which is unwanted. Your pet does have the same agro range as you do. Also, be sure to know where your pet is, always.
Also, make sure your pet won’t use Growl in a dungeon. There is always someone to tank, like a warrior or feral druid in bear form. For a tank it’s very hard to take the agro from a pet that is also trying to take agro.
In some cases it can be useful to use Growl. You’ll learn when and when not to use it by trying. For a more detailed guide on using a pet in dungeons you should have a look here: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=14351597&sid=1
This guide is basically written for the level 60 dungeons though. Also know that most healer wont heal your pet, unless they have the time and the mana for it. Healing players is more important than healing a pet. You can heal it yourself, and you can easily resurrect it when needed. With some luck you get a great healer who often heals your pet as well.
Your pet may have other abilities, like Furious Howl. When those are on autocast they may sometimes be cast when a nearby enemy does an action. With some bad luck you may get attacked when your pet casts such an ability. The enemies go after the pet, before the tanks can get agro, and if nobody was prepared the team may wipe. Be sure you know what abilities are safe and which aren't!
Make sure your pet is on Passive and that Growl is turned off. Your pet is on the bottom of the healing list, so don't get angry when it's not healed in time.
Obstacles
Sometimes you need to jump down a cliff or something in order to proceed. Especially in dungeons it’s important to know how your pet will react. If possible, the pet won’t jump, but will walk the long way around to you. When it does, it can pull full groups of enemies with it. This isn’t what you wanted. In a dungeon your entire team might get a bit angry at you if that happens! Here’s how to guarantee a safe jump. Actually, there are 2 options:
1. Most people will find this the best option: Dismiss your pet (not abandon, just dismiss), jump down the cliff and call your pet again.
2. Put your pet on Wait, so it won’t move anywhere. Use Eyes of the Beast to gain full control over the movement of your pet. Then use it to jump your pet down. Then go out of the Eyes of the Beast by waiting until the 1 minute is over, or by right-clicking the Eyes of the Beast buff next to your minimap. Be sure to keep your pet in Wait all the time. Jump down yourself. Once down, you can turn your pet into Follow mode again.
When jumping down, make sure you know what your pet does. Dismiss it, jump down and call it back again.
Stable Master
At pretty much every inn, and in every big city is a Stable Master. There you can stable pets you are not using, so you can train or tame another pet. Talk to the Stable Master to stable or take pets. There are three slots for a pet. The most left slot is the pet that is with you. The two others are for pets that are stabled. You will have to buy those two slots one time to use them. They’re very cheap.
You can drag pets between slots to move them to you or the Stable Master. It might be wise to have one slot empty all the time, so you can store your own pets when you ever want to tame another beast for a skill only. You can have only one pet with you. If you want to tame a new beast, you cannot have a pet with you.
You can have only one pet with you. Other pets can be stored at a Stable Master.
Macro’s
You can make some easy macro’s to make working with your pet easier. Yes, even you can make those macro’s. Simply open a chatwindow by pressing [enter] and typing “/macro”, then press [enter] again. Make a new macro by clicking on “New”, find a sign icon for it and name it. Once that’s done you must enter the code. You can [shift] + click a code from your spellbook for a /cast
To feed your pet with one simple click:
# show Roasted Quail
/cast Feed Pet
/use Roasted Quail
You can remove the Roasted Quail part and type another name for other food.
You can also [shift] + click the food from your bag for the name. The "# show" part causes the macro's name to disappear and put the number of food you have left. on the button instead. You can make a macro with "# show
To send your pet into attack and cast Hunter’s Mark:
/Petattack
/cast Hunter’s Mark
If you also add a line “/cast Auto Shot” you will also start your own Auto Shot.
Addons
There are also addons you can use. A document on how to use them is usually comes with the addon.
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/1277/fizzwidget-hunters-helper/
This addon adds some info to the tooltip. If you mouse over a beast that might be able to learn you a skill, it’s shown in the tooltip.
There are also several addons that help you feed your pet. You will still have to click a button, or press a key on your keyboard to do so (yes, with some addons you can bind a key to it). A small list can be found here:
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/search/?cat=1&q_labels=1&q=feed You can also make the feed macro and bind a key to it (yes, you can bind keys to all your actionbars or just a single button on it).
The zHunter addon got a nice popup bar for your pet abilities (feed/heal/ressurect/etc) http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/files/details/2610/zhuntermod/
(thanks to Zevena)
Guide:TBC Raiding consumables and you
(This guide was created by Crockmeister, level 70 dawrf hunter of the of the EU server, Bloodfeather. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 04/07/2007 )
Elixirs
Elixir of Major Agility:
Increases your Agility by 35 and your critical strike rating by 20 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir. http://www.thottbot.com/i22831
Onslaught Elixir:
Increases attack power by 60 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir.
http://www.thottbot.com/i28102
Elixir of Major Mageblood:
Regenerate 16 mana per 5 sec for 1 hour. Guardian Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i22840
Fel Strength Elixir:
Increases attack power by 90 and decreases stamina by 10 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir. http://thottbot.com/i31679
Elixir of Draenic Wisdom:
Increases Intellect and Spirit by 30 for 1 hour. Guardian Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i32067
Elixir of Mastery:
Increases all Stats by 15 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i28104
Potions
Haste Potion:
Increases haste rating by 400 (38.0%) for 15 sec.
http://www.thottbot.com/i22838
Unstable Mana Potion:
Restores 1350 to 2250 mana.
http://www.thottbot.com/i28101
Super Mana Potion:
Restores 1800 to 3000 mana.
http://www.thottbot.com/i22832
Fel Mana Potion:
Restores 3200 mana over 24 sec, but at a cost. Also reduces spell damage by 25 and healing done by 50 for 15 min.
http://thottbot.com/i31677
Super Rejuvenation Potion:
Restores 1650 to 2750 mana and health.
http://thottbot.com/i22850
Flasks
Flask of Relentless Assault:
Increases attack power by 120 for 2 hrs. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
http://www.thottbot.com/i22854
Unstable Flask of the Bandit :
Note Gruuls only Increases the player's Agility by 20, attack power by 40, and Stamina by 30 for 2 hrs. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists through death, but only works in the Blade's Edge Mountains Plateaus and Gruul's Lair. http://www.thottbot.com/i32599
Foods
Ravager Dog:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 attack power and 20 Spirit for 30 min.
http://www.thottbot.com/i27655
Warp Burger:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Agility and Spirit for 30 min.
http://www.thottbot.com/i27659
Blackened Sporefish:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 min.
http://thottbot.com/i27663
Grilled Mudfish:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Agility and Spirit for 30 min.
http://thottbot.com/i27664
Other
Scroll of Agility V:
Increases the target's Agility by 20 for 30 min.
http://thottbot.com/i27498
Flame Cap:
Note shares cooldown times with healthstone Chance to strike a ranged or melee target for 40 fire damage. Also increases fire spell damage by up to 80. Lasts 1 min. http://thottbot.com/i22788
Sporeling Snack:
Increases the Stamina and Spirit of your pet by 20. Lasts for 30 min. http://thottbot.com/i27656
Superior Mana Oil:
While applied to target weapon it restores 14 mana to the caster every 5 seconds. Lasts for 30 minutes.
http://thottbot.com/i22521
Elixir of Demonslaying:
Note: Nice for some kara bosses Increases attack power by 265 against demons. Lasts 5 min. Battle Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i9224
Thats all for now folks, hope its of some use
Elixirs
Elixir of Major Agility:
Increases your Agility by 35 and your critical strike rating by 20 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir. http://www.thottbot.com/i22831
Onslaught Elixir:
Increases attack power by 60 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir.
http://www.thottbot.com/i28102
Elixir of Major Mageblood:
Regenerate 16 mana per 5 sec for 1 hour. Guardian Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i22840
Fel Strength Elixir:
Increases attack power by 90 and decreases stamina by 10 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir. http://thottbot.com/i31679
Elixir of Draenic Wisdom:
Increases Intellect and Spirit by 30 for 1 hour. Guardian Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i32067
Elixir of Mastery:
Increases all Stats by 15 for 1 hour. Battle Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i28104
Potions
Haste Potion:
Increases haste rating by 400 (38.0%) for 15 sec.
http://www.thottbot.com/i22838
Unstable Mana Potion:
Restores 1350 to 2250 mana.
http://www.thottbot.com/i28101
Super Mana Potion:
Restores 1800 to 3000 mana.
http://www.thottbot.com/i22832
Fel Mana Potion:
Restores 3200 mana over 24 sec, but at a cost. Also reduces spell damage by 25 and healing done by 50 for 15 min.
http://thottbot.com/i31677
Super Rejuvenation Potion:
Restores 1650 to 2750 mana and health.
http://thottbot.com/i22850
Flasks
Flask of Relentless Assault:
Increases attack power by 120 for 2 hrs. Counts as both a Battle and Guardian elixir. This effect persists through death.
http://www.thottbot.com/i22854
Unstable Flask of the Bandit :
Note Gruuls only Increases the player's Agility by 20, attack power by 40, and Stamina by 30 for 2 hrs. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists through death, but only works in the Blade's Edge Mountains Plateaus and Gruul's Lair. http://www.thottbot.com/i32599
Foods
Ravager Dog:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 40 attack power and 20 Spirit for 30 min.
http://www.thottbot.com/i27655
Warp Burger:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Agility and Spirit for 30 min.
http://www.thottbot.com/i27659
Blackened Sporefish:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Stamina and 8 Mana every 5 seconds for 30 min.
http://thottbot.com/i27663
Grilled Mudfish:
If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 20 Agility and Spirit for 30 min.
http://thottbot.com/i27664
Other
Scroll of Agility V:
Increases the target's Agility by 20 for 30 min.
http://thottbot.com/i27498
Flame Cap:
Note shares cooldown times with healthstone Chance to strike a ranged or melee target for 40 fire damage. Also increases fire spell damage by up to 80. Lasts 1 min. http://thottbot.com/i22788
Sporeling Snack:
Increases the Stamina and Spirit of your pet by 20. Lasts for 30 min. http://thottbot.com/i27656
Superior Mana Oil:
While applied to target weapon it restores 14 mana to the caster every 5 seconds. Lasts for 30 minutes.
http://thottbot.com/i22521
Elixir of Demonslaying:
Note: Nice for some kara bosses Increases attack power by 265 against demons. Lasts 5 min. Battle Elixir.
http://thottbot.com/i9224
Thats all for now folks, hope its of some use
Grizhak's guide to "gray" pet levelling at 70
(This guide was created by Grizhak, level 70 Orc hunter, of the eu server. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 20/03/2007.)
After reaching Outland and level 70, people complain about the types of pets available to them on that level. This guide will hopefully give you a look on how to level a pet from a level from totally useless to above 60 - where raw grinding and instance runs take over.
Of course, you *can* do instance runs with your level all-too-low pet, but as most people tend to hate and blame a low level pet for everything, far less permit the hunter to bring it, I will focus on getting the little bastard to 60 for now. The hard way, all solo of course. Be warned, once the pet reaches 60, the process of levelling will go much slower as he will require almost four times the amount of xp needed to gain a level. If someone could provide me with the exact numbers I will include them here (with credits, of course).
Table of Contents Part 1
- Getting started Part 1a
- Skills and talents Part 1b
- Equipment Part 1c
- Pet skills Part 2
- The technique Part 3
- Places to grind Part 4
- Conclusion
Other stuff
Part 1 - Getting started
Part 1a - Skills and talents
Skills
- Aimed Shot
- Concussion Shot
- Scatter Shot
- Steady Shot
- Aspect of the Viper
- Hunter's Mark
Talents
A good marksman build with a few points in survival and beastmastery works well here. The trick to this way of doing it is to down the enemy before it gets too close without burning too much mana and without using your pet at all. I will give you a sample build and explain some of it now.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=mVbhZEE0RVzMxotcG - 10/43/8
This build has a few survival talents that helps against the enemies featured in this guide as your prime target - humanoids. It also features Hawk Eye, which is almost mandatory for a hunter these days, even so for us in this situation. Efficiency points may be sacrificed for Careful Aim, depending on your preference. Remember, this is an optimized variant of my character's levelling build, and a more general approach would be preferred if you plan to do other things than just levelling a grey pet. The other Beast Mastery talents helps your overall damage and survivability in melee. As long as your build contains the above mentioned skills and preferrably Savage Strikes and Hawk Eye.
Part 1b - Equipment
Nothing really fancy. A good dps gun with a steady shot rotation you're familiar with and an OK melee weapon. I prefer slow two-handers for Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike, but do what you feel is best.
My weapon of choice: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23748 - Ornate Khorium Rifle. Good, slow and with a nice DPS to boot. A bit more expensive than
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31303 - Valanos' Longbow, but I recommend either of these for the task ahead.
Oh, and a decent crit rate (15% and more) is a plus, but you can manage without. It'll just be a bit slower.
Part 1c - Pet skills
Before you tame your pet of choice, be sure to have learned all the skills you plan to teach him. For example, before getting my Ashmane Boar I had to tame a Rip-Blade Ravager to learn it's Gore rank 9, a Plagued Swine for Charge rank 6 and I already had Dash rank 3.
See http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html for a list of pet skills and where to get them.
Part 2 - The technique
So, how to do it? I'll give you a short walk trough an average battle:
Hunter's Mark when running to range, Aimed Shot, Concussive Shot (if melee mob), Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot (Concussive Shot will have worn off by now). Depending on your number of crits and the mob's health you can now either finish him off in melee, try to finish him off while still at range, or Scatter Shot him and do a Steady Shot + Auto Shot. He should be dead by now.
If you fight casters, you might want to use Silencing Shot. If you get the distance right, he will stop running towards you and start casting again before getting too close for you to shoot him.
In any case, remember to use Aspect of the Viper. Don't be ashamed if you get some downtime, personally I solved that by not using Arcane Shot unless the mob was closing in on me with 2000+ health. With decent gear that won't happen often anyway.
Rinse and repeat in your area of choice or until the pet gets level enough to hold aggro. That's when you can begin the "ordinary" grind.
Side note: Traps
I tried using traps for this kind of grind, but it's not worth the time or mana. Use some extra mana on your shots instead.
Side note 2: Stings
Not worth the mana either. The mob will die before too long has passed, and the dot effect of Serpent Sting breaks Scatter Shot. Mana better used on something else.
Part 3 - Places to grind Grind.
A terrible word. But that's what it is - experience grinding. I have chosen these areas out of efficiency, not out of drops. These are the areas I have tried and have experience with, you might have other favourites. The level range is from 62 and above because at level 70, neither you or the pet (at ANY level) will get experience from mobs at 61 and below.
Preferred place, second if not alone: Firewing Point (Terokkar Forest) - around 70,35
Mob level range: 63-64
Mobs: Around theglowing centre with the manabomb - Mainly warlocks, which stays at range most of the time. Casts shadowbolt and immolate, often resisted. Some melee mobs. All the mobs have a small chance to drain about 1200+ mana if you're closer than approx. 20 yards. Common drops: Silver, Netherweave and Runecloth, water and bread, Firewing Signets (low-level scryer rep) and very rarely Arcane Tomes.
Great if you are alone, because you can mainly grind off warlocks. Only technique to worry about is to keep distance. Once they start casting they'll stay at range. Downside is that the place is a quest place, making it quite possible someone else is there too, "stealing" your mobs. Also the warlocks do some damage, making it likely you will get some downtime. Otherwise a brilliant spot :) Can also be used at levels above 60.
A close second: The Den of Haal'esh (Hellfire Peninsula) - around 26,75
Mob level range: 62-63
Mobs: Melee and ranged casters. Some grey level birds, easily avoided. Melee mobs might get a running speed buff, which makes raptor strike useless. Use Scatter Shot instead to gain range if needed.
Common drops: Silver, Netherweave and Runecloth, a few pieces of meat and some water. Also tons of light feathers.
This is the place I found the most effective in pure xp value. The mobs respawn quickly, the ones questing in the area leave as soon as they are done and there are no high level gankers around. Also, if you are horde like me, the vendor at Falcon Watch is only a minute away.
A close third: Veil Shienor (Terokkar Forest) - around 58,23
Mob level range: 62-63(?)
Mobs: Melee and a few stationary ranged casters. A named quest mob.
Common drops: Silver, Arakkoa Feathers (used for Lower City rep), Netherweave and Runecloth, Light Feathers, meat and water.
The skettis camps in Terokkar is often crawling with both alliance and horde, and mobs can be scarce at times. The Arakkoa Feathers make these camps popular for level 70 rep grinders. Still, I find Veil Shienor, just northeast of Tuurem, to be the better choice over the others. If you are alone, you will soon find your own "rounds" in the camp without waiting for respawns.
Fourth: The Hewn Bog (Zangarmarsh) - around 33,33 and as far as the ogres go
Mob level range: 62-64(?)
Mobs: Melee and semi-ranged casters with fire nova totems. A named quest mob. The melee ones enrages on low health. The casters are slow patrollers, but not enough to be a problem.
Common drops: Silver, Netherweave and Runecloth.
Between both alliance and horde towns, these ogres are close to both and a good grind. The distance between them tends to be big if you cleared out an area, and they don't respawn as fast as the arakkoa in Hellfire and Terokkar. Low health and easily downed if you got a good gun. Still, you hardly get your rythm going because of gankers and other questers killing the mobs.
Part 4 - Conclusion
So there you have it. That's how you can level any pet of any level to level 60 and above with (hopefully) minimum amounts of pain as far as soloing goes. Great thanks to... umm... Blizzard for making this game and my Ashmane Boar Borka for staying with me. He's been level 70 for some weeks now, and now it's the Noxious Plaguebat Greywing's turn!
Other stuff
Some nice to know facts:
- You and your pet shares the aggro range, regardless of level. That means the pet won't aggro pull because of its low level.
- All pets will are able to learn Cobra Reflexes. No need to level King Bangalash just for that skill. - There are no beast-class (tameable) boars above level 60.
- For most pet-related questions, see http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
- Cower sucks.
After reaching Outland and level 70, people complain about the types of pets available to them on that level. This guide will hopefully give you a look on how to level a pet from a level from totally useless to above 60 - where raw grinding and instance runs take over.
Of course, you *can* do instance runs with your level all-too-low pet, but as most people tend to hate and blame a low level pet for everything, far less permit the hunter to bring it, I will focus on getting the little bastard to 60 for now. The hard way, all solo of course. Be warned, once the pet reaches 60, the process of levelling will go much slower as he will require almost four times the amount of xp needed to gain a level. If someone could provide me with the exact numbers I will include them here (with credits, of course).
Table of Contents Part 1
- Getting started Part 1a
- Skills and talents Part 1b
- Equipment Part 1c
- Pet skills Part 2
- The technique Part 3
- Places to grind Part 4
- Conclusion
Other stuff
Part 1 - Getting started
Part 1a - Skills and talents
Skills
- Aimed Shot
- Concussion Shot
- Scatter Shot
- Steady Shot
- Aspect of the Viper
- Hunter's Mark
Talents
A good marksman build with a few points in survival and beastmastery works well here. The trick to this way of doing it is to down the enemy before it gets too close without burning too much mana and without using your pet at all. I will give you a sample build and explain some of it now.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=mVbhZEE0RVzMxotcG - 10/43/8
This build has a few survival talents that helps against the enemies featured in this guide as your prime target - humanoids. It also features Hawk Eye, which is almost mandatory for a hunter these days, even so for us in this situation. Efficiency points may be sacrificed for Careful Aim, depending on your preference. Remember, this is an optimized variant of my character's levelling build, and a more general approach would be preferred if you plan to do other things than just levelling a grey pet. The other Beast Mastery talents helps your overall damage and survivability in melee. As long as your build contains the above mentioned skills and preferrably Savage Strikes and Hawk Eye.
Part 1b - Equipment
Nothing really fancy. A good dps gun with a steady shot rotation you're familiar with and an OK melee weapon. I prefer slow two-handers for Mongoose Bite and Raptor Strike, but do what you feel is best.
My weapon of choice: http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23748 - Ornate Khorium Rifle. Good, slow and with a nice DPS to boot. A bit more expensive than
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=31303 - Valanos' Longbow, but I recommend either of these for the task ahead.
Oh, and a decent crit rate (15% and more) is a plus, but you can manage without. It'll just be a bit slower.
Part 1c - Pet skills
Before you tame your pet of choice, be sure to have learned all the skills you plan to teach him. For example, before getting my Ashmane Boar I had to tame a Rip-Blade Ravager to learn it's Gore rank 9, a Plagued Swine for Charge rank 6 and I already had Dash rank 3.
See http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html for a list of pet skills and where to get them.
Part 2 - The technique
So, how to do it? I'll give you a short walk trough an average battle:
Hunter's Mark when running to range, Aimed Shot, Concussive Shot (if melee mob), Arcane Shot, Steady Shot, Auto Shot, Steady Shot (Concussive Shot will have worn off by now). Depending on your number of crits and the mob's health you can now either finish him off in melee, try to finish him off while still at range, or Scatter Shot him and do a Steady Shot + Auto Shot. He should be dead by now.
If you fight casters, you might want to use Silencing Shot. If you get the distance right, he will stop running towards you and start casting again before getting too close for you to shoot him.
In any case, remember to use Aspect of the Viper. Don't be ashamed if you get some downtime, personally I solved that by not using Arcane Shot unless the mob was closing in on me with 2000+ health. With decent gear that won't happen often anyway.
Rinse and repeat in your area of choice or until the pet gets level enough to hold aggro. That's when you can begin the "ordinary" grind.
Side note: Traps
I tried using traps for this kind of grind, but it's not worth the time or mana. Use some extra mana on your shots instead.
Side note 2: Stings
Not worth the mana either. The mob will die before too long has passed, and the dot effect of Serpent Sting breaks Scatter Shot. Mana better used on something else.
Part 3 - Places to grind Grind.
A terrible word. But that's what it is - experience grinding. I have chosen these areas out of efficiency, not out of drops. These are the areas I have tried and have experience with, you might have other favourites. The level range is from 62 and above because at level 70, neither you or the pet (at ANY level) will get experience from mobs at 61 and below.
Preferred place, second if not alone: Firewing Point (Terokkar Forest) - around 70,35
Mob level range: 63-64
Mobs: Around theglowing centre with the manabomb - Mainly warlocks, which stays at range most of the time. Casts shadowbolt and immolate, often resisted. Some melee mobs. All the mobs have a small chance to drain about 1200+ mana if you're closer than approx. 20 yards. Common drops: Silver, Netherweave and Runecloth, water and bread, Firewing Signets (low-level scryer rep) and very rarely Arcane Tomes.
Great if you are alone, because you can mainly grind off warlocks. Only technique to worry about is to keep distance. Once they start casting they'll stay at range. Downside is that the place is a quest place, making it quite possible someone else is there too, "stealing" your mobs. Also the warlocks do some damage, making it likely you will get some downtime. Otherwise a brilliant spot :) Can also be used at levels above 60.
A close second: The Den of Haal'esh (Hellfire Peninsula) - around 26,75
Mob level range: 62-63
Mobs: Melee and ranged casters. Some grey level birds, easily avoided. Melee mobs might get a running speed buff, which makes raptor strike useless. Use Scatter Shot instead to gain range if needed.
Common drops: Silver, Netherweave and Runecloth, a few pieces of meat and some water. Also tons of light feathers.
This is the place I found the most effective in pure xp value. The mobs respawn quickly, the ones questing in the area leave as soon as they are done and there are no high level gankers around. Also, if you are horde like me, the vendor at Falcon Watch is only a minute away.
A close third: Veil Shienor (Terokkar Forest) - around 58,23
Mob level range: 62-63(?)
Mobs: Melee and a few stationary ranged casters. A named quest mob.
Common drops: Silver, Arakkoa Feathers (used for Lower City rep), Netherweave and Runecloth, Light Feathers, meat and water.
The skettis camps in Terokkar is often crawling with both alliance and horde, and mobs can be scarce at times. The Arakkoa Feathers make these camps popular for level 70 rep grinders. Still, I find Veil Shienor, just northeast of Tuurem, to be the better choice over the others. If you are alone, you will soon find your own "rounds" in the camp without waiting for respawns.
Fourth: The Hewn Bog (Zangarmarsh) - around 33,33 and as far as the ogres go
Mob level range: 62-64(?)
Mobs: Melee and semi-ranged casters with fire nova totems. A named quest mob. The melee ones enrages on low health. The casters are slow patrollers, but not enough to be a problem.
Common drops: Silver, Netherweave and Runecloth.
Between both alliance and horde towns, these ogres are close to both and a good grind. The distance between them tends to be big if you cleared out an area, and they don't respawn as fast as the arakkoa in Hellfire and Terokkar. Low health and easily downed if you got a good gun. Still, you hardly get your rythm going because of gankers and other questers killing the mobs.
Part 4 - Conclusion
So there you have it. That's how you can level any pet of any level to level 60 and above with (hopefully) minimum amounts of pain as far as soloing goes. Great thanks to... umm... Blizzard for making this game and my Ashmane Boar Borka for staying with me. He's been level 70 for some weeks now, and now it's the Noxious Plaguebat Greywing's turn!
Other stuff
Some nice to know facts:
- You and your pet shares the aggro range, regardless of level. That means the pet won't aggro pull because of its low level.
- All pets will are able to learn Cobra Reflexes. No need to level King Bangalash just for that skill. - There are no beast-class (tameable) boars above level 60.
- For most pet-related questions, see http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
- Cower sucks.
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Stings, Pets, and Crowd Control)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the Baelgun server. Date: 09/25/2007 )
Senior Level
14. Stings
15. Pets
16. Crowd Control
14. Learn what stings to use and when. Serpent Sting is a horrible investment of mana, and a terrible investment of a debuff slot. Serpent Sting is absolutely horrid compared to almost every other debuff, the only benefit is that if you have multipule hunters, each hunter can drop a Serpent Sting on one mob, which would be good on the Mulgar fight where we ranged-tank Kiggler. Important to note here, that is the ONLY sting for which that can happen, you will not be able to stack 3 Viper Stings with 3 hunters for example.
In 5-mans and raids, a better sting than Serpent would be Scorpid. This reduces the hit chance of the enemy mob by 5%, this will get many tanks into the "uncrushable" area, and if you know anything about tank mechanics, this is great, if you don't, ask your MT if it will help. Garentee he'll say "YES!!". If you're the only hunter, try to keep it up for the big fights, it's not that important on trash mobs. If you are with more than one hunter, the person that doesn't have IHM gets to do Scorpid Sting.
Viper Sting is useless against boss mobs, just too large of a mana pool. Now for PvP on the other hand...it's very nice and it'll be even better with our Arcane Dispeling Shot. Goodbye Arcane Intelligence..goodbye mana :)
15. Use your pets, they add a significant portion of our DPS and are fairly easy to keep alive. With the new avoidance ability and Kill Command, their damage and survivability is much easier to maintain, especially since our Mend Pet is now a HoT. If your pet is getting jacked up, pull them back (CTRL + 0) heal them up, and send ‘em back in. They are also a very nice, "get the hell off my caster" critter. This is especially true if they are BM. A good hunter will also know when to use their pets "growl" ability, our pets can off-tank, but should be a last resort only, and when they do....please all healers reading this, for the love of the gods, TOSS 'EM A HEAL OR TWO DAMMIT!!! Thanks...
16. Crowd Control. I've noticed with the inclusion of being able to drop traps in combat, hunters are now responsible for a respectable amount of dependable CC, baring resists, being able to keep that 3rd, 4th or 5th mob tied up in traps or kited around between traps. A good test would be to give a hunter a mob to control for an entire fight, this would be for a 3-5 mob pull, and have that target be the last one taken. Proper use of traps can save a group. If a healer / caster is getting beat on....run over and trap 'em. A nice test is to give a hunter 2 targets and have him double CC them. Ice trap one, wing-clip – concussive shot the other and juggle your trap cool downs. Fun times.
Also of note here is that our traps are on a 30sec. cooldown (much less with talents / gear) and a 1min. arming time. Keep this in mind when you are chain trapping. Please remember that no one likes getting thier CC broken prematurely, if you think your multishot is going to hit that trap/sheep/seduce don't fire it off, plain and simple.
For the love of all that's holy, when you are given a target to trap, don't put the trap anywhere near the front line of combat! This kills me when I see it. As someone responsible for cc'ing a mob you need to make sure that the mob stays cc'd! This means getting it away from the nasty Thunderclap and those pesky AoE's (including your own). Keep in mind that this also gives you room to run if you get a trap resist, of forbid, the dreaded double resist and are forced to kite for while, but you know how to do that right..? This also applies if you are assigned to trap a ranged mob, given that to LoS the caster mob, there's usually a lot of places in the rooms behind you...go fig...
Senior Level
14. Stings
15. Pets
16. Crowd Control
14. Learn what stings to use and when. Serpent Sting is a horrible investment of mana, and a terrible investment of a debuff slot. Serpent Sting is absolutely horrid compared to almost every other debuff, the only benefit is that if you have multipule hunters, each hunter can drop a Serpent Sting on one mob, which would be good on the Mulgar fight where we ranged-tank Kiggler. Important to note here, that is the ONLY sting for which that can happen, you will not be able to stack 3 Viper Stings with 3 hunters for example.
In 5-mans and raids, a better sting than Serpent would be Scorpid. This reduces the hit chance of the enemy mob by 5%, this will get many tanks into the "uncrushable" area, and if you know anything about tank mechanics, this is great, if you don't, ask your MT if it will help. Garentee he'll say "YES!!". If you're the only hunter, try to keep it up for the big fights, it's not that important on trash mobs. If you are with more than one hunter, the person that doesn't have IHM gets to do Scorpid Sting.
Viper Sting is useless against boss mobs, just too large of a mana pool. Now for PvP on the other hand...it's very nice and it'll be even better with our Arcane Dispeling Shot. Goodbye Arcane Intelligence..goodbye mana :)
15. Use your pets, they add a significant portion of our DPS and are fairly easy to keep alive. With the new avoidance ability and Kill Command, their damage and survivability is much easier to maintain, especially since our Mend Pet is now a HoT. If your pet is getting jacked up, pull them back (CTRL + 0) heal them up, and send ‘em back in. They are also a very nice, "get the hell off my caster" critter. This is especially true if they are BM. A good hunter will also know when to use their pets "growl" ability, our pets can off-tank, but should be a last resort only, and when they do....please all healers reading this, for the love of the gods, TOSS 'EM A HEAL OR TWO DAMMIT!!! Thanks...
16. Crowd Control. I've noticed with the inclusion of being able to drop traps in combat, hunters are now responsible for a respectable amount of dependable CC, baring resists, being able to keep that 3rd, 4th or 5th mob tied up in traps or kited around between traps. A good test would be to give a hunter a mob to control for an entire fight, this would be for a 3-5 mob pull, and have that target be the last one taken. Proper use of traps can save a group. If a healer / caster is getting beat on....run over and trap 'em. A nice test is to give a hunter 2 targets and have him double CC them. Ice trap one, wing-clip – concussive shot the other and juggle your trap cool downs. Fun times.
Also of note here is that our traps are on a 30sec. cooldown (much less with talents / gear) and a 1min. arming time. Keep this in mind when you are chain trapping. Please remember that no one likes getting thier CC broken prematurely, if you think your multishot is going to hit that trap/sheep/seduce don't fire it off, plain and simple.
For the love of all that's holy, when you are given a target to trap, don't put the trap anywhere near the front line of combat! This kills me when I see it. As someone responsible for cc'ing a mob you need to make sure that the mob stays cc'd! This means getting it away from the nasty Thunderclap and those pesky AoE's (including your own). Keep in mind that this also gives you room to run if you get a trap resist, of forbid, the dreaded double resist and are forced to kite for while, but you know how to do that right..? This also applies if you are assigned to trap a ranged mob, given that to LoS the caster mob, there's usually a lot of places in the rooms behind you...go fig...
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Resist gear, Keep your mana alive, Hit gear, Aspects)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the Baelgun server.
Date: 09/25/2007)
Junior Level
10. Resist gear
11. Keeping your mana alive
12. Hit gear
13. Aspects
10. Get resist gear and know when to use it, and keep it repaired. Don't wait until you are neck deep in a new zone before looking to get the gear, get it now if you can / have the space. This also falls under the "know the encounter" topic..
This is still important as many bosses in Heroic level zones are going to require at least a passing nod in resist gear. Get with your guildies and get them mats for resist gear. Most of us can make some good stuff; this also helps everyone out as the gear will probably give a boost in skill points as well.
11. Now that we have "Aspect of the Viper" our need to FD+drink is practically obsolete. There is little reason to do this anymore as it's a huge interruption in DPS when DPS is a major factor in some encounters, like Gruul. Especially with the upcoming changes to AotV to make it more viable. Learn to toggle between AotH and AotV for the longer boss fights. Steady shot takes virtually no mana, has no cool down and can be pretty much spammed with AotV on while regaining mana.
For example, during Gruul, I start off with AotH on, plink away at max DPS until about 50% mana, then I pop a Fel Mana Potion (a hunters best friend) and keep up the max DPS until about 30%, then I switch over to Viper and regen mana with an “auto – auto – steady” stream of DPS until my potion cool down is up then pop the potion and switch back to Hawk. During your “down-time” you do have several ways to keep up the DPS you loose from your rotations, trinkets, rapid-fire, etc.
Only in extreme emergencies should you FD+Drink. Or if you have a crapload of time like in Netherspite's banish phase..
12. Get +hit gear. For PvP encounters, you want 5% of hit gear and/or abilities. For mobs that are 3 + levels higher in instances, the generally agreed-upon number is 9% to “never-miss”. I can’t stress how important and easy this is to get. It makes me want to strangle a kitten whenever I see a hunter with 2% to hit and wondering why his DPS suffers… Oh ya….psst….the Surefooted talent gives you a passive 3% to hit all the time. Practically half-way there….
13. Learn when to use your Aspects. You should be completely familar with them just from leveling up, but not everyone goes beyond Hawk. Our standards are Hawk for RAP, Viper for Mana, and Cheetah/Pack for speed, not going to talk about them. Just make sure you turn off Pack before a fight...heh.
Aspect of the Beast....well...if you've ever played WSG and got stuck holding the flag...you've probably found the best use for it right there.
Aspect of the Monkey is very, very nice. AotM + Deterence is even better. If you have Deterence, do yourself a favor, make a macro that makes AotM active when you trigger Deterence. Trust me, when your in the position to pop Deterence, you will notice the difference.
Aspect of the Wild is 60 NR to everyone in your party, which translates to roughly 15% damage reduction all around. The bad thing is that it doesn't stack wtih the shaman ability, and if you have a shaman in your group, use his buff, not yours. Anyone want to bet that there’s going to be nature damage in the next outdoor Troll zone? I know of a few spots where this aspect comes into play, Blood Furnace, the Underbog, even more so on Heroic, Gruul's lair when we "tank" Kiggler.
Date: 09/25/2007)
Junior Level
10. Resist gear
11. Keeping your mana alive
12. Hit gear
13. Aspects
10. Get resist gear and know when to use it, and keep it repaired. Don't wait until you are neck deep in a new zone before looking to get the gear, get it now if you can / have the space. This also falls under the "know the encounter" topic..
This is still important as many bosses in Heroic level zones are going to require at least a passing nod in resist gear. Get with your guildies and get them mats for resist gear. Most of us can make some good stuff; this also helps everyone out as the gear will probably give a boost in skill points as well.
11. Now that we have "Aspect of the Viper" our need to FD+drink is practically obsolete. There is little reason to do this anymore as it's a huge interruption in DPS when DPS is a major factor in some encounters, like Gruul. Especially with the upcoming changes to AotV to make it more viable. Learn to toggle between AotH and AotV for the longer boss fights. Steady shot takes virtually no mana, has no cool down and can be pretty much spammed with AotV on while regaining mana.
For example, during Gruul, I start off with AotH on, plink away at max DPS until about 50% mana, then I pop a Fel Mana Potion (a hunters best friend) and keep up the max DPS until about 30%, then I switch over to Viper and regen mana with an “auto – auto – steady” stream of DPS until my potion cool down is up then pop the potion and switch back to Hawk. During your “down-time” you do have several ways to keep up the DPS you loose from your rotations, trinkets, rapid-fire, etc.
Only in extreme emergencies should you FD+Drink. Or if you have a crapload of time like in Netherspite's banish phase..
12. Get +hit gear. For PvP encounters, you want 5% of hit gear and/or abilities. For mobs that are 3 + levels higher in instances, the generally agreed-upon number is 9% to “never-miss”. I can’t stress how important and easy this is to get. It makes me want to strangle a kitten whenever I see a hunter with 2% to hit and wondering why his DPS suffers… Oh ya….psst….the Surefooted talent gives you a passive 3% to hit all the time. Practically half-way there….
13. Learn when to use your Aspects. You should be completely familar with them just from leveling up, but not everyone goes beyond Hawk. Our standards are Hawk for RAP, Viper for Mana, and Cheetah/Pack for speed, not going to talk about them. Just make sure you turn off Pack before a fight...heh.
Aspect of the Beast....well...if you've ever played WSG and got stuck holding the flag...you've probably found the best use for it right there.
Aspect of the Monkey is very, very nice. AotM + Deterence is even better. If you have Deterence, do yourself a favor, make a macro that makes AotM active when you trigger Deterence. Trust me, when your in the position to pop Deterence, you will notice the difference.
Aspect of the Wild is 60 NR to everyone in your party, which translates to roughly 15% damage reduction all around. The bad thing is that it doesn't stack wtih the shaman ability, and if you have a shaman in your group, use his buff, not yours. Anyone want to bet that there’s going to be nature damage in the next outdoor Troll zone? I know of a few spots where this aspect comes into play, Blood Furnace, the Underbog, even more so on Heroic, Gruul's lair when we "tank" Kiggler.
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Shot Rotation, Know the encounter, Know your spec, Hunter's mark)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the Baelgun server.
Date: 9/25/07)
Sophomore Level
6. Shot Rotation
7. Know the encounter
8. Know your spec
9. Hunter's Mark
6. Learn your shot rotation. This is how we DPS, without it, we might as well just jump in and start swinging away. The shot rotation has completely changed now. Due to Aimed Shot resetting the shot timers, it fits in only somewhat during a prolonged fight, that’s if you want to give a nice misdirect to someone or to see how high you’ll hit for during Curator’s evocation. Other than that, it’s pretty useless other than having fun in PvP and as a stepping stone in your talent tree.
Shot rotations will vary depending on class, play style and gear. Beast Master Hunters depend less on shot rotations as their talents give large boosts in speed which can make weaving shots problematic at best. In the spec section I have linked to a button-mashing macro for BM types that includes auto-shot, steady-shot, kill-command, and little else.
Marksman Hunters and Survival Hunters depend on weaving in their special shots between their auto-shots. An example of this would be…fight starts; tank has aggro, arcane shot – multi-shot – auto-shot – steady shot – auto-shot – steady shot – arcane shot – auto-shot – steady shot – multi-shot – auto-shot. Now for the next level, add in KC (Kill Command) because you have your pet out right? And he’s doing damage right? Good thing KC is separate from the Global Cool down huh? I use something similar and I never “clip” my shots.
Wait, I can hear you now, “what’s this “clipping” he’s talking about?” Well, that’s when you fire off one of your specials (arcane, steady, multi) towards the end of your auto-shot cycle. What this does is put your next auto-shot in queue as it were and delaying causing an interrupt of constant DPS, which by the way, is what we do. If you have a shot-timer (you do right?) you can get used to seeing when your auto-shot goes off.
7. Know the fight. Whatever the fight is, you gotta know what to do. With the advent of smaller raids and more complex boss fights, gone are the days where we just simply stand there and pewpew for the entire fight. Before going into a new zone, do a bit of research so when you attempt the big kill for the first time, you don't look like a complete noob.
8. Know your specs. We got lucky; all three trees can add something positive to a raid / group. BM for CC resist, and uber pet and greatly increased DPS for 15sec and 3% damage increase for party members for 10 sec., MM for TSA, Imp. Hunters Mark, Silence Shot and Scatter Shot (not too good against bosses, but trash mobs...perfect), and Survival for uber traps, Wyvern Sting, and Expose Weakness.
9. Keep Hunter's Mark up. On bosses, every hunter in the raid is going to be focusing fire on a single target. Rank 4 Improved Hunter's Mark is a bonus 110 RAP / AP for all melee and ranged. We get the extra bonus of it increasing our RAP up to 440. Not too shabby. In a raiding environment, really only one hunter needs to have this skill or one hunter only needs to make sure that it is constantly up and running. If you run 5-mans a lot, chances are you have this anyways, or at least you should..
Date: 9/25/07)
Sophomore Level
6. Shot Rotation
7. Know the encounter
8. Know your spec
9. Hunter's Mark
6. Learn your shot rotation. This is how we DPS, without it, we might as well just jump in and start swinging away. The shot rotation has completely changed now. Due to Aimed Shot resetting the shot timers, it fits in only somewhat during a prolonged fight, that’s if you want to give a nice misdirect to someone or to see how high you’ll hit for during Curator’s evocation. Other than that, it’s pretty useless other than having fun in PvP and as a stepping stone in your talent tree.
Shot rotations will vary depending on class, play style and gear. Beast Master Hunters depend less on shot rotations as their talents give large boosts in speed which can make weaving shots problematic at best. In the spec section I have linked to a button-mashing macro for BM types that includes auto-shot, steady-shot, kill-command, and little else.
Marksman Hunters and Survival Hunters depend on weaving in their special shots between their auto-shots. An example of this would be…fight starts; tank has aggro, arcane shot – multi-shot – auto-shot – steady shot – auto-shot – steady shot – arcane shot – auto-shot – steady shot – multi-shot – auto-shot. Now for the next level, add in KC (Kill Command) because you have your pet out right? And he’s doing damage right? Good thing KC is separate from the Global Cool down huh? I use something similar and I never “clip” my shots.
Wait, I can hear you now, “what’s this “clipping” he’s talking about?” Well, that’s when you fire off one of your specials (arcane, steady, multi) towards the end of your auto-shot cycle. What this does is put your next auto-shot in queue as it were and delaying causing an interrupt of constant DPS, which by the way, is what we do. If you have a shot-timer (you do right?) you can get used to seeing when your auto-shot goes off.
7. Know the fight. Whatever the fight is, you gotta know what to do. With the advent of smaller raids and more complex boss fights, gone are the days where we just simply stand there and pewpew for the entire fight. Before going into a new zone, do a bit of research so when you attempt the big kill for the first time, you don't look like a complete noob.
8. Know your specs. We got lucky; all three trees can add something positive to a raid / group. BM for CC resist, and uber pet and greatly increased DPS for 15sec and 3% damage increase for party members for 10 sec., MM for TSA, Imp. Hunters Mark, Silence Shot and Scatter Shot (not too good against bosses, but trash mobs...perfect), and Survival for uber traps, Wyvern Sting, and Expose Weakness.
9. Keep Hunter's Mark up. On bosses, every hunter in the raid is going to be focusing fire on a single target. Rank 4 Improved Hunter's Mark is a bonus 110 RAP / AP for all melee and ranged. We get the extra bonus of it increasing our RAP up to 440. Not too shabby. In a raiding environment, really only one hunter needs to have this skill or one hunter only needs to make sure that it is constantly up and running. If you run 5-mans a lot, chances are you have this anyways, or at least you should..
A Fistfull of Arrows: Hunter course 101 (Kiting, Aggro-management, Helping the healer, When you do get aggro..., supplies.)
(This guide was created by Cutrean, level 70 Tauren hunter, of the server Baelgun. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 09/25/2007)
Considering there's a bunch of people who don't like hunters in groups, I put this together to give a decent breakdown of "need to know" skills and general know-how so we can keep telling those nubs who doubt us to go blow. As always, if you like it, bump it, if you have additions or comments, keep 'em coming! Cheers!
Hunter Levels or, How to Keep Getting Invited without being a Huntard.
Freshman Level
1. Kiting
2. Aggro-management
3. Helping the healer
4. When you do get aggro...
5. Supplies
1. Be able to kite. I can't stress this enough, we are a ranged / kiting class, this is our bread and butter, you need to be able to do this. Kiting is also a necessary skill for your epic bow quest, which I think we should all still do, but now...never will...sigh... Pre-Outland, Emberstrife and that giant grub in EPL (whatever his name is) are great mobs to have fun with. Emberstrife for the reason that you get used to interesting terrain and the grub for kiting through a zone full of things that want to eat you. In the Outlands, two of my favorite kites when I'm bored are the demon packs that roam the road by the Dark Portal (sorry Thrallmar and Honor Hold.....well, HH, not so much) and the Fel Overseers in Nagrand, and yes, you can bring these mobs all the way into Shatt City if you want, try it, it's fun. Once you do that a couple of times, controlling a loose mob in an instance or raid by kiting, is kinda anti-climatic, but one of our most valued abilities.
By the way, if you're going to be kiting a lot, get the meta gem that has a run speed increase, or put a Run Speed enchant on a spare pair of boots. It is important to relaize that run-speed enchants do not stack with cheetah.
2. Do not pull aggro. Do not go nuts with burst damage when there is 1 sunder on the mob. For !&$%'s sake, your DPS doesn’t have to be 98% of the theoretical upper limit as long as you don't wipe the raid. There are two decent threat-meters you can pick up, get either KTM or Omen and if you raid, chances are your guild will require it anyways, so get used to them. As a general rule, ranged DPS won't pull aggro untill our threat is 30% above the MT, since FD is used to completely wipe aggro, keep an eye on your threat and use accordingly.
Pulling aggro has been a bit harder since the expansion, even with me hitting my trinkets and popping rapid fire, but it still happens, just not a whole lot. Keep in mind your group’s make up and pace yourself accordingly. If your tank is under geared compared to you, chances are, your gonna pull aggro, and you’re going to have to tone down your DPS or make liberal use of misdirect. This also goes with a druid tank as they take a bit longer to gain aggro, giving them misdirect as often as possible will make your life and the groups much easier.
3. Don't suck up healing if you can avoid it. In fact, be prepared to get no heals, believe it or not, it happens quite frequently, the healers have more to worry about then keeping your ass alive. Outside of a few exceptions, expect this as the rule. There are lots and lots of obvious exceptions, but as a general rule, you shouldn't be taking much damage compared to the rest of the raid / group. You stand at range. Bring band aids and take care of your own damn health.
4. Die if you have to. Dead hunters deal no DPS, but they don't wipe raids or groups either. If you pull aggro and your FD resists, chances are you're taking one for the team. Run TOWARD the tank. Remember Disengage? Spam it and you might possibly live. If not, then learn to cope with the shame of your repair bill. You earned it.
Let me say it again, RUN TOWARDS THE FRIGGIN TANK!!!! If my FD fails, I always run towards the tank, all hunters should be doing the same.
There is an exception and an exception only. This is when you are given a mob to control. When you are given a mob to control, you do it until it's time for the mob to be taken on by the tank. Whether this is trapping, kiting, or a combination of both, you are functioning as dependable CC that can also DPS.
5. Repair and resupply. Do not show up for a raid or group with less than a full bag of ammo. Hell, sometimes we have to overstock our ammo, deal with it. Do not show up for a raid with less than 100% durability. Do not show up for a raid / group with no food for your pet or water for your mana. Do not show up without your supply of consumables; eg., stat food, mana potions, etc. If you fail to do so on a regular basis, don't expect to get invited back too often. Titan Bar will track durability and ammo, and it also has an add-on that prompts you to fix everything you're holding every time you visit a merchant. It also has a bunch of other assorted goodies, too.
A hunter shouldn't run out of ammo period, it's only happened to me once a long time ago, level 35 or so, but everyone's allowed a "oops" moment, just not a "oops" habit.
Considering there's a bunch of people who don't like hunters in groups, I put this together to give a decent breakdown of "need to know" skills and general know-how so we can keep telling those nubs who doubt us to go blow. As always, if you like it, bump it, if you have additions or comments, keep 'em coming! Cheers!
Hunter Levels or, How to Keep Getting Invited without being a Huntard.
Freshman Level
1. Kiting
2. Aggro-management
3. Helping the healer
4. When you do get aggro...
5. Supplies
1. Be able to kite. I can't stress this enough, we are a ranged / kiting class, this is our bread and butter, you need to be able to do this. Kiting is also a necessary skill for your epic bow quest, which I think we should all still do, but now...never will...sigh... Pre-Outland, Emberstrife and that giant grub in EPL (whatever his name is) are great mobs to have fun with. Emberstrife for the reason that you get used to interesting terrain and the grub for kiting through a zone full of things that want to eat you. In the Outlands, two of my favorite kites when I'm bored are the demon packs that roam the road by the Dark Portal (sorry Thrallmar and Honor Hold.....well, HH, not so much) and the Fel Overseers in Nagrand, and yes, you can bring these mobs all the way into Shatt City if you want, try it, it's fun. Once you do that a couple of times, controlling a loose mob in an instance or raid by kiting, is kinda anti-climatic, but one of our most valued abilities.
By the way, if you're going to be kiting a lot, get the meta gem that has a run speed increase, or put a Run Speed enchant on a spare pair of boots. It is important to relaize that run-speed enchants do not stack with cheetah.
2. Do not pull aggro. Do not go nuts with burst damage when there is 1 sunder on the mob. For !&$%'s sake, your DPS doesn’t have to be 98% of the theoretical upper limit as long as you don't wipe the raid. There are two decent threat-meters you can pick up, get either KTM or Omen and if you raid, chances are your guild will require it anyways, so get used to them. As a general rule, ranged DPS won't pull aggro untill our threat is 30% above the MT, since FD is used to completely wipe aggro, keep an eye on your threat and use accordingly.
Pulling aggro has been a bit harder since the expansion, even with me hitting my trinkets and popping rapid fire, but it still happens, just not a whole lot. Keep in mind your group’s make up and pace yourself accordingly. If your tank is under geared compared to you, chances are, your gonna pull aggro, and you’re going to have to tone down your DPS or make liberal use of misdirect. This also goes with a druid tank as they take a bit longer to gain aggro, giving them misdirect as often as possible will make your life and the groups much easier.
3. Don't suck up healing if you can avoid it. In fact, be prepared to get no heals, believe it or not, it happens quite frequently, the healers have more to worry about then keeping your ass alive. Outside of a few exceptions, expect this as the rule. There are lots and lots of obvious exceptions, but as a general rule, you shouldn't be taking much damage compared to the rest of the raid / group. You stand at range. Bring band aids and take care of your own damn health.
4. Die if you have to. Dead hunters deal no DPS, but they don't wipe raids or groups either. If you pull aggro and your FD resists, chances are you're taking one for the team. Run TOWARD the tank. Remember Disengage? Spam it and you might possibly live. If not, then learn to cope with the shame of your repair bill. You earned it.
Let me say it again, RUN TOWARDS THE FRIGGIN TANK!!!! If my FD fails, I always run towards the tank, all hunters should be doing the same.
There is an exception and an exception only. This is when you are given a mob to control. When you are given a mob to control, you do it until it's time for the mob to be taken on by the tank. Whether this is trapping, kiting, or a combination of both, you are functioning as dependable CC that can also DPS.
5. Repair and resupply. Do not show up for a raid or group with less than a full bag of ammo. Hell, sometimes we have to overstock our ammo, deal with it. Do not show up for a raid with less than 100% durability. Do not show up for a raid / group with no food for your pet or water for your mana. Do not show up without your supply of consumables; eg., stat food, mana potions, etc. If you fail to do so on a regular basis, don't expect to get invited back too often. Titan Bar will track durability and ammo, and it also has an add-on that prompts you to fix everything you're holding every time you visit a merchant. It also has a bunch of other assorted goodies, too.
A hunter shouldn't run out of ammo period, it's only happened to me once a long time ago, level 35 or so, but everyone's allowed a "oops" moment, just not a "oops" habit.
2200+ Rated 2v2 hunter STRATS! VIDEOS! GUIDE!
(This guide was created by Crimsonlocks, level 70 dawf hunter of the server Frostmane. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide)
http://hosted.filefront.com/megatf -- Please read disclaimer.
Link to all my video's. When I have adequate video's of every possible combo, map, and REALLY good teams in the upper echelons of 2v2 I will be remaking this ENTIRE strategy guide.
Reading below I don't mention freeze trap often, but I do use it quite a bit, as you'll see in the video's, despite the trinket nerf, it can be really clutch in completely taking a player out of the game for a few seconds if you know when to do it.
DISCLAIMER
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I forget to record a lot, Aknot gets mad at me all the time, especially when I forget to record worthy combo's I don't have yet, like rogue druid sigh =/.
THERE IS NO MUSIC ON ANY OF THE VIDEOS! Why? Because these are sopposed to be helpful guides and I don't want to hear the music sucks, if you want to listen to music, pick your favorite songs and play them while watching the video's, you'll enjoy them a lot more. There are no retarded zoomups of LOLOLLEETCRITS. Just me and my dwarf or human priest tearing stuff up. A lot of those teams were from when we were releveling our new team, I'll have better quality fights soon, just pay attention to my movie link, when I make a new strategy guide I'll probably only link the really hard teams after each combo I explain. Our playstyle constantly evolves as we figure out newer and easier ways to beat our combo's.
Our playstyle is constantly evolving as we find easier ways to beat combo's, if you see something I've left out leave a tip for another play to read. I learned one of my best counters for Warrior / Paladin teams thanks to Sciurus-Arygos. It'll help me complete an even more detailed and better strategy guide with video's linked to each combo as I get more.
Random Bits of advice before I start the strategy guide:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are not BURST DPS class, understand that.
Drink a lot. If your healer and yourself are pretty much good and he can sustain himself and your oom pull the pet off of his target for a split second, feign, drink then send your pet IMMEDIATELY back on the target, get a couple ticks of drinking off and get back into the fight.
On DOUBLE DPS teams use Aspect of the Hawk, on DPS/Healer teams use Aspect of the Viper.
Be mindful of where your priest is AT ALL TIMES. If you LOS your own priest or your letting him get pwnted, then your gonna lose. Use Raid ICONS, It'll help you locate your healer and he'll be able to find you easier through Poles, under bridges ETC.
Do not use Steady Shot or any casted shot while getting beat on, it's really bad and 99% of hunters do this, use steady shot to maximize damage ONLY WHEN YOUR NOT GETTING ATTACKED.
USE LOS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. We can use it just as effectively as they can use it against us.
Dwarf priests are awesome, but if you and your priest are good enough EDIT: ANY priest will work too. Hunter/Druid, Hunter/Paladin, Hunter/Shaman are all viable, just more difficult and longer lasting fights do to the lack of mana burn.
Lots of resilience/Stam is nice without sacrificing too much damage. Look at my setup, I have 1860+ AP with hawk on(But I usually use Viper depending on our opposing team), 30.69% crit, while maintaining 395 resilience, 11,200 hp and 6028 mana. My point is, please balance your stats without gimping anything else.
YOU NEED THE 17K HONOR PVP TRINKET, GET IT.
Get a SCORPION PET. Can't stress it enough, it's critical. Give him full Nature resist, Full Frost Resist, Cobra reflexes, rank 4 scorpid poison, and the second or third highest shadow resist you can give. Rank 4 because it gives 2 chances to apply the poison stack via one, so if you use rank 5 and one of the poisons gets resisted, dodged, parried, whatever then your stacks starts off at ground zero, not really worth it for an extra 30 damage per tick IMO.
This is the Hunter POV on how to fight these combo's, I can give you a basic knowledge of what I know about the priest class but your priest just has to know how to play. I can tell you what mine does in certain situations but I can't give you the nitty gritty of what he does.
Here's a pro-tip vs warrior/paladin, hunter's mark the warrior after freezing him out of LoS of the paladin, giving cleanse a 50% chance to fail and wasting a gcd. (Sciurus-Arygos gave me this tip)
Here's another pro-tip, if they're FFing your pet, have your priest cast heals on your pet long enough for you to dismiss him, usually after the dismissal they forget about the pet and just go for or your partner. I do this everytime my pet gets ff'd.
If your fighting a team with a shaman, make sure your priest dispells heroism/bloodlust.
Macro's that I use:
/focus (Sets my Focus duh)
/cast [target=focus] Viper Sting (Viper sting on focus'd Target)
/cast [target=focus] Silencing Shot (Silencing Shot on Focus'd Target)
Those macros are good because it casts those shots without ever breaking your target. If below I'm telling you to silence/viper sting certain targets, duh, use them as your focus.
BEST TIP I CAN GIVE
==============
It's really important to avoid getting frustrated, and yelling at your partner, at the end of every loss me and my priests talk about what we did wrong, what we can do the next time, and how we'll be more on the ball.
Warlock/Shadowpriest Combo
---------------------------------------------
My favorite combo, everytime I see this it brings a smile to my face, on any map, find a pillar, on blades edge hug the pillar below, Lordaeron dance around the tomb, Nagrand hug one of the four pillars and let them come to you, they are the burst DPS class of course they will.
Use aspect of the hawk. Put down either a snake trap or a frost trap, I usually use a frost trap so me and my warlock can kite around the pole dodging their burst dps. Use silences and scatters accordingly to stop fears/damage on yourself or your priest.
Keep VIPER STING ON THE PRIEST AT ALL TIMES. Every 15 seconds reapply it on the priest, keep kiting around the pole doing minimal damage until the Shadow Priest is drained, when he is, then you don't have to worry about LOS and just DPS the shadow priest down while you keep scatters and silences on the Warlock.
Warlock/Mage Combo
---------------------------------------------
This combo brings a smile to my face too. Again, find a pillar, hug it, this time you wanna apply viper sting on the mage every 15 seconds, KILL HIS PET, if your priest is LOSing correctly he should never get sheeped, you wanna kill the pet to dodge a shatter combo. If you have decent gear the pet should die relatively fast. I recommend keeping frost trap down at all times.
When mage is OOM do like above and DPS mage down your priest should have a mass dispell ready for when he ice blocks, again keep scatters/silences on warlock, at this point I usually just scatter Freeze Trap the warlock until the mage is dead.
It is critical you guys don't let yourselves get chain sheeped over and over, if one of you guys gets chain sheeped the other will die and it's probably because you didn't follow the instructions correctly.
Warlock/Rogue Combo
---------------------------------------------
This combo is tricky and can be REALLY nasty if used correctly. Hug a pillar, keep flare on the ground and use a SNAKE trap, this is key, it REALLY **#@s rogues up. You need to play really defensively, if you let that rogue beat on your priest too long, guess what, you lose. Save scatters for rogues, your priest should be kiting all over the map.
KEEP THE ROGUE SLOWED. After snake trap use frost trap as often as possible, and keep wing clips on him.
Be ready for vanishes, I keybind my flare to CTRL+F and I usually have a flare ready a few feet in front of wear he sprint vanished the second he vanishes, from there you get a concussive shot on him ASAP.
Use silences on the warlock as often as possible, ALWAYS apply Viper sting to the warlock in this situation, force him to use life tap as your battling the rogue because even though your focusing DPS on the rogue your technically doing damage to the warlock too everytime he's forced to lifetap.
When Rogue is dead, seriously don't get too cocky, warlocks can still 2v1, especially if they are soullink, it sucks but it's a fact of WoW. They are OP.
It is important to try and kill that rogue as fast as possible because he is the BIGGEST threat to your healer. When you get more comfortable keeping the rogue slowed with wingclip/conc shot/traps if you know the warlock your fighting isn't specc'd into demonology you can burst him down while your priest effectively kites the rogue all over the map.
Priest/Hunter Combo
---------------------------------------------
Yes it does happen, it's very rare but when you fight this combo, guess who you want OOM first? It's not the priest. Use LOS to your advantage ONLY popping out to Viper Sting while keeping your priest hidden as best you can so he doesn't get the same treatment, when hunter is oom ignore his weak damage, let your priest mana burn his priest while your viper stinging the priest. When priest is almost oom viper sting the hunter again to keep him low and then kill priest. Easy fight if played correctly.
Do not use Steady Shot or any casted shot while getting beat on, it's really dumb and 99% of hunters do this, use steady shot to maximize damage ONLY WHEN YOUR NOT GETTING ATTACKED. Use a shot rotation, it's not a replacement for arcane/multi's burst damage.
Warrior/Priest Combo
---------------------------------------------
Kind of a tough one if your fighting a well geared warrior, but you won't ever see this combo in the 2k+ ratings, you will however see it in the lower brackets a lot so here's a strat:
Use frost trap, hug a pillar, keep viper sting on the priest until he's oom, constantly scatter shot the warrior every 30 seconds to keep him off your priest, concussive shot to slow him down so your priest can kite the warrior around if need be, 15 second intercept is rough so your priest has to be good at dodging it.
Kill priest first, then kill warrior, if your priest dies before the warrior, ouch, play smart keep range .
Warlock/Paladin Combo
---------------------------------------------
Relatively easy fight. Hug a pillar, keep your pet on the paladin, use viper stings as often as possible on the paladin, keep frost trap down, everytime you see the warlock cast a spell scatter/silence, LOS the *%!@ out the warlock as often as you can, but if you have to jump into his line of sight do it to get a viper sting+Mana burn on the paladin. When paladin is drained you HAVE to kill the paladin, do not switch to the lock because 200 mana can heal a warlock to full for some **#@ing reason it's irritating you have to keep the paladin drained. He will bubble at some point, your priest should obviously mass dispell it.
This is a relatively EASY fight since they have no slowing other than Curse of Exhaustion which you rarely see a warlock use. It's clutch timing your scatters/silences accordingly.
Holy Priest / Shadow Priest Combo
---------------------------------------------
You don't drain the holy priest first, you drain the Shadow Priest first, again hug your pillars pop out as often as possible and drain the shadow priest, make sure your priest isn't in LOS of the other priest so he doesn't get mana burned, use your silences and scatter shots accordingly.
They can easily bring your priest from 100% mana to 0% really fast so your priest has to play smart and you have to be clutch on stopping casts and slowing the other guys, I recommend using frost trap. This should be a REALLY easy matchup. Your priest should be dispelling the dots off you. When shadow priest is OOM you and your priest need to work on the holy priest and bring him to 0. Keep your pet on the holy priest at all times so your scorpid poison doesn't break CC on the shadow priest later. Shadow priests generally have a lower mana pool than holy ones. You won't see this combo too often.
Double Shadow Priest Combo
---------------------------------------------
Yikes, lots of fear and damage potential, keep dispelling dots, LOS around pillars and keep a priest viper stung, once one is drained kill it, shouldn't be too hard to wreck these guys.
Holy Priest(Or Paladin) / Mage Combo
---------------------------------------------
This can be somewhat tricky, like in Warlock/Mage combo's you NEED to kill the mage pet IMMEDIATELY, so you don't get bursted down, run circles around the pillar with frost trap and entrapment on the ground, your priest needs to avoid sheeps and to dispell frostnova off of himself and you as much as possible to avoid shatter combo's. The best thing to do against this combo is to keep VIPER sting on the mage until he's OOM, then focus on getting his healer mana burned.
Shaman / Warlock Combo
---------------------------------------------
This is can be a really hard fight when the shaman pops Bloodlust/Heroism but they usually pop it early in the fight. If you can survive the 30 seconds that it's popped then your guaranteed to win. USUALLY this combo doesn't use soullink, so if you know for a fact the warlock isn't soullink KILL HIS PET so your priest can get OOC and drink.
Destroy totems as often as possible, keep viper sting on the shaman and whenever your priest can safely mana burn the warlock down DO IT. Depending on the spec of the warlock, IE if he's not soullink when the shaman is OOM kill the lock, if soullink kill the shaman first and then kill the lock, at that point keep viper sting on the warlock when the shaman is oom forcing him to lifetap.
Resto Druid / Rogue Combo
---------------------------------------------
Yikes this is a TOUGH one, jesus, but it's doable, keep a flare on the ground and a snake trap, when the rogue finally attacks keep him slowed and off your healer, same as the Warlock/Rogue Combo help your priest kite the rogue around by keeping him slowed, predict vanishes.
Your going to be damaging the rogue as much as possible while keeping him slowed. The rogue will pop out to cast HOTS on the rogue, cast viper sting on the druid and have your priest IMMEDIATELY dispell the hots on the rogue. Doing so WASTES a TON of the druids mana, and eventually you will wear the druid OOM, keep your pet on the druid and keep an eye on your pet, the druid will try to root/sleep your pet so he can go drink do not let him get OOC. When you and your priest develop a strong synergy you will be able to still slow the rogue down while keeping the druid in combat as much as possible.
On occasion you will have to wing clip the rogue, Scatter shot him, and drop a freeze trap on him so your priest can get enough range to drink or kite more.
When the druid innervates make sure your priest dispells it, it's critical. Eventually you'll be able to kill the rogue. Use Scatter Shots on the rogue to give your priest as much room as possible, silence the druid everytime he pops out to try and cast cyclone and/or heal. Be smart, you MIGHT have to use scatter shot on the druid but you should be able too if your priest has enough room.
When druid is OOM burst down the Rogue.
This fight can go another way, if the rogue wants to kill me first it's obviously a lot harder, now your trying to avoid crippling poison and the rogue isn't taking any damage so you can't OOM the druid by dispelling his dots and getting range is tricky because of Deadly throw (Lamest ability ever, should not be spammable.) This is where 2 minute trinkets, and stoneform REALLY shine.
Use whichever trap you feel best using, I personally use freeze trap a lot against this combo since they have no dispell, it can be very clutch in your priest getting range and healing himself.
If you have a deadly throw on you and rogues gaining on you, when it wears off, pop deterrence, feign death, wing clip and run right through him as he approaches you. If deterrence is down, it's crucial you time feign death PERFECTLY as he'll lose his target at a critical moment enabling you to wing clip and gain range. Sometimes you get unlucky and boom he gets a crip proc on you.
But as long as your priest mana burns the druid as he pops out to heal/cyclone. You should OOM the druid pretty quickly.
Warlock / Druid Combo
---------------------------------------------
Best thing to do in this fight is SPLIT up. Use all your DPS on the Warlock, keep your pet on the druid, when the druid pops out to HOT the lock my priest dispells the hots forcing the druid to heal, when he does that my priest fears the druid and gets like 2-3 mana burns off while I throw a viper sting on him. If they put the pet on your priest it's worth it to kill the pet twice, and your priest can fear + mana burn the druid if he pops out to heal the pet. Killing the pet means your priest can get OOC and he can drink. Pretty much keep your priest ON THE DRUID at all times, bring the fight with the warlock and his pet near your priest as much as possible so your not out of range or LOS of his heals. Eventually you should wear this combo down.
The priest is crucial in helping keep the druid in combat since the pet is unreliable due to sleep/roots, and it puts the druid in a bad position when he has to heal with my priest in his face ready to mana burn.
Shaman/Warrior
-----------------------
When it's a shaman warrior, make a macro that /target Windfury and kill the windfury totem as much as possible, use frost traps and have your priest kite around the pole while you drain the shaman, it's an extremely defensive fight since that warrior is beating the cow dung out of your priest. Do not let that warrior get close to your priest with windfury up, ever. Keep the warrior scattered wing clipped so your priest can kite away, the shaman will purge your priests buffs turning him into a thin layer of glass, so you and your priest are going to have to play very carefully. If your priest needs to get away to drink/heal and you can do this, scatter/FT if the warrior has used his trinket already.
Warrior/Paladin
----------------------
CC the warrior as much as possible, heres a HUGE tip that I got from hunter forums, mark the warrior, bait him into a freeze trap and spam hunters mark on him so the paladin dispells that instead of freeze trap, it'll waste the paladins mana dispelling and it puts the paladin LOS so your priest can mana burn him. ON blades edge it's a good tip to mind control the warrior off the bridge to give your healer some time. (for your priest partner). Keep scorpid on the warrior so he doesn't land as many attacks.
Druid/Hunter
---------------------
It's a really scary fight. I played one, kill the enemy hunters pet, and make sure your pet stays alive, try to burn down as much of the hunters mana as fast as possible, keep your pet on the druid, it is imperative you kill that pet before the druid realizes whats going on so your priest can get OOC and drink, your going to really need it in this combo due to the lack of cleanse.
After the hunter is near oom, focus on DPSing the hunter to make the druid pop out of bear form and heal so he can attempt to be mana burned, keep the enemy hunter wing clipped every possible second so your priest can LOS as much of the hunter's viper stings as possible.
MODS / KEYBINDS I USE + Screenshot
Seriously though guys, you know what me and my priest use for movement keys?
EDSF
Why? Gives us WAY more buttons around my movement keys to bind, my fingers rest correctly on the keyboard the way we learned how to type in keyboarding, I never lose my bearing on the keyboard because I know my pointer finger rests on the F button.
I use 1-5 normally then bind the rest of my keys around my movement keys listed below.
Here's a tip for people starting off with keybinds. Start off keybinding 3 of your favorite spells, play around with it for a day, next day add one more spell, then the next day at another spell, then the day after that add another spell, in less than a month you'll have everything important keybound and you'll be tearing it up.
I have zxcvbaghqwt as well as SHIFT+(Letter)
These are the mods I use:
Arena Live Frames
Arena Master
Bartender3
Baud Mount
Cartographer
ColaLight Con@#% v1.14.4
cyCircled
DamageMeters
DoTimer
eCastingBar
Improved Error Frame
Inflight ItemRack
JIM's Cooldown Pulse (This is the mod I use to flash my cooldowns when they are available.) MobHealth
Omen
Perl Unit Frames Zanzer's Hunter Mod
This is a screenshot of what my UI looks like:
I try to keep it as clutter free as possible.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6237/wowscrnshot080907141000sj7.jpg
http://hosted.filefront.com/megatf -- Please read disclaimer.
Link to all my video's. When I have adequate video's of every possible combo, map, and REALLY good teams in the upper echelons of 2v2 I will be remaking this ENTIRE strategy guide.
Reading below I don't mention freeze trap often, but I do use it quite a bit, as you'll see in the video's, despite the trinket nerf, it can be really clutch in completely taking a player out of the game for a few seconds if you know when to do it.
DISCLAIMER
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I forget to record a lot, Aknot gets mad at me all the time, especially when I forget to record worthy combo's I don't have yet, like rogue druid sigh =/.
THERE IS NO MUSIC ON ANY OF THE VIDEOS! Why? Because these are sopposed to be helpful guides and I don't want to hear the music sucks, if you want to listen to music, pick your favorite songs and play them while watching the video's, you'll enjoy them a lot more. There are no retarded zoomups of LOLOLLEETCRITS. Just me and my dwarf or human priest tearing stuff up. A lot of those teams were from when we were releveling our new team, I'll have better quality fights soon, just pay attention to my movie link, when I make a new strategy guide I'll probably only link the really hard teams after each combo I explain. Our playstyle constantly evolves as we figure out newer and easier ways to beat our combo's.
Our playstyle is constantly evolving as we find easier ways to beat combo's, if you see something I've left out leave a tip for another play to read. I learned one of my best counters for Warrior / Paladin teams thanks to Sciurus-Arygos. It'll help me complete an even more detailed and better strategy guide with video's linked to each combo as I get more.
Random Bits of advice before I start the strategy guide:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are not BURST DPS class, understand that.
Drink a lot. If your healer and yourself are pretty much good and he can sustain himself and your oom pull the pet off of his target for a split second, feign, drink then send your pet IMMEDIATELY back on the target, get a couple ticks of drinking off and get back into the fight.
On DOUBLE DPS teams use Aspect of the Hawk, on DPS/Healer teams use Aspect of the Viper.
Be mindful of where your priest is AT ALL TIMES. If you LOS your own priest or your letting him get pwnted, then your gonna lose. Use Raid ICONS, It'll help you locate your healer and he'll be able to find you easier through Poles, under bridges ETC.
Do not use Steady Shot or any casted shot while getting beat on, it's really bad and 99% of hunters do this, use steady shot to maximize damage ONLY WHEN YOUR NOT GETTING ATTACKED.
USE LOS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. We can use it just as effectively as they can use it against us.
Dwarf priests are awesome, but if you and your priest are good enough EDIT: ANY priest will work too. Hunter/Druid, Hunter/Paladin, Hunter/Shaman are all viable, just more difficult and longer lasting fights do to the lack of mana burn.
Lots of resilience/Stam is nice without sacrificing too much damage. Look at my setup, I have 1860+ AP with hawk on(But I usually use Viper depending on our opposing team), 30.69% crit, while maintaining 395 resilience, 11,200 hp and 6028 mana. My point is, please balance your stats without gimping anything else.
YOU NEED THE 17K HONOR PVP TRINKET, GET IT.
Get a SCORPION PET. Can't stress it enough, it's critical. Give him full Nature resist, Full Frost Resist, Cobra reflexes, rank 4 scorpid poison, and the second or third highest shadow resist you can give. Rank 4 because it gives 2 chances to apply the poison stack via one, so if you use rank 5 and one of the poisons gets resisted, dodged, parried, whatever then your stacks starts off at ground zero, not really worth it for an extra 30 damage per tick IMO.
This is the Hunter POV on how to fight these combo's, I can give you a basic knowledge of what I know about the priest class but your priest just has to know how to play. I can tell you what mine does in certain situations but I can't give you the nitty gritty of what he does.
Here's a pro-tip vs warrior/paladin, hunter's mark the warrior after freezing him out of LoS of the paladin, giving cleanse a 50% chance to fail and wasting a gcd. (Sciurus-Arygos gave me this tip)
Here's another pro-tip, if they're FFing your pet, have your priest cast heals on your pet long enough for you to dismiss him, usually after the dismissal they forget about the pet and just go for or your partner. I do this everytime my pet gets ff'd.
If your fighting a team with a shaman, make sure your priest dispells heroism/bloodlust.
Macro's that I use:
/focus (Sets my Focus duh)
/cast [target=focus] Viper Sting (Viper sting on focus'd Target)
/cast [target=focus] Silencing Shot (Silencing Shot on Focus'd Target)
Those macros are good because it casts those shots without ever breaking your target. If below I'm telling you to silence/viper sting certain targets, duh, use them as your focus.
BEST TIP I CAN GIVE
==============
It's really important to avoid getting frustrated, and yelling at your partner, at the end of every loss me and my priests talk about what we did wrong, what we can do the next time, and how we'll be more on the ball.
Warlock/Shadowpriest Combo
---------------------------------------------
My favorite combo, everytime I see this it brings a smile to my face, on any map, find a pillar, on blades edge hug the pillar below, Lordaeron dance around the tomb, Nagrand hug one of the four pillars and let them come to you, they are the burst DPS class of course they will.
Use aspect of the hawk. Put down either a snake trap or a frost trap, I usually use a frost trap so me and my warlock can kite around the pole dodging their burst dps. Use silences and scatters accordingly to stop fears/damage on yourself or your priest.
Keep VIPER STING ON THE PRIEST AT ALL TIMES. Every 15 seconds reapply it on the priest, keep kiting around the pole doing minimal damage until the Shadow Priest is drained, when he is, then you don't have to worry about LOS and just DPS the shadow priest down while you keep scatters and silences on the Warlock.
Warlock/Mage Combo
---------------------------------------------
This combo brings a smile to my face too. Again, find a pillar, hug it, this time you wanna apply viper sting on the mage every 15 seconds, KILL HIS PET, if your priest is LOSing correctly he should never get sheeped, you wanna kill the pet to dodge a shatter combo. If you have decent gear the pet should die relatively fast. I recommend keeping frost trap down at all times.
When mage is OOM do like above and DPS mage down your priest should have a mass dispell ready for when he ice blocks, again keep scatters/silences on warlock, at this point I usually just scatter Freeze Trap the warlock until the mage is dead.
It is critical you guys don't let yourselves get chain sheeped over and over, if one of you guys gets chain sheeped the other will die and it's probably because you didn't follow the instructions correctly.
Warlock/Rogue Combo
---------------------------------------------
This combo is tricky and can be REALLY nasty if used correctly. Hug a pillar, keep flare on the ground and use a SNAKE trap, this is key, it REALLY **#@s rogues up. You need to play really defensively, if you let that rogue beat on your priest too long, guess what, you lose. Save scatters for rogues, your priest should be kiting all over the map.
KEEP THE ROGUE SLOWED. After snake trap use frost trap as often as possible, and keep wing clips on him.
Be ready for vanishes, I keybind my flare to CTRL+F and I usually have a flare ready a few feet in front of wear he sprint vanished the second he vanishes, from there you get a concussive shot on him ASAP.
Use silences on the warlock as often as possible, ALWAYS apply Viper sting to the warlock in this situation, force him to use life tap as your battling the rogue because even though your focusing DPS on the rogue your technically doing damage to the warlock too everytime he's forced to lifetap.
When Rogue is dead, seriously don't get too cocky, warlocks can still 2v1, especially if they are soullink, it sucks but it's a fact of WoW. They are OP.
It is important to try and kill that rogue as fast as possible because he is the BIGGEST threat to your healer. When you get more comfortable keeping the rogue slowed with wingclip/conc shot/traps if you know the warlock your fighting isn't specc'd into demonology you can burst him down while your priest effectively kites the rogue all over the map.
Priest/Hunter Combo
---------------------------------------------
Yes it does happen, it's very rare but when you fight this combo, guess who you want OOM first? It's not the priest. Use LOS to your advantage ONLY popping out to Viper Sting while keeping your priest hidden as best you can so he doesn't get the same treatment, when hunter is oom ignore his weak damage, let your priest mana burn his priest while your viper stinging the priest. When priest is almost oom viper sting the hunter again to keep him low and then kill priest. Easy fight if played correctly.
Do not use Steady Shot or any casted shot while getting beat on, it's really dumb and 99% of hunters do this, use steady shot to maximize damage ONLY WHEN YOUR NOT GETTING ATTACKED. Use a shot rotation, it's not a replacement for arcane/multi's burst damage.
Warrior/Priest Combo
---------------------------------------------
Kind of a tough one if your fighting a well geared warrior, but you won't ever see this combo in the 2k+ ratings, you will however see it in the lower brackets a lot so here's a strat:
Use frost trap, hug a pillar, keep viper sting on the priest until he's oom, constantly scatter shot the warrior every 30 seconds to keep him off your priest, concussive shot to slow him down so your priest can kite the warrior around if need be, 15 second intercept is rough so your priest has to be good at dodging it.
Kill priest first, then kill warrior, if your priest dies before the warrior, ouch, play smart keep range .
Warlock/Paladin Combo
---------------------------------------------
Relatively easy fight. Hug a pillar, keep your pet on the paladin, use viper stings as often as possible on the paladin, keep frost trap down, everytime you see the warlock cast a spell scatter/silence, LOS the *%!@ out the warlock as often as you can, but if you have to jump into his line of sight do it to get a viper sting+Mana burn on the paladin. When paladin is drained you HAVE to kill the paladin, do not switch to the lock because 200 mana can heal a warlock to full for some **#@ing reason it's irritating you have to keep the paladin drained. He will bubble at some point, your priest should obviously mass dispell it.
This is a relatively EASY fight since they have no slowing other than Curse of Exhaustion which you rarely see a warlock use. It's clutch timing your scatters/silences accordingly.
Holy Priest / Shadow Priest Combo
---------------------------------------------
You don't drain the holy priest first, you drain the Shadow Priest first, again hug your pillars pop out as often as possible and drain the shadow priest, make sure your priest isn't in LOS of the other priest so he doesn't get mana burned, use your silences and scatter shots accordingly.
They can easily bring your priest from 100% mana to 0% really fast so your priest has to play smart and you have to be clutch on stopping casts and slowing the other guys, I recommend using frost trap. This should be a REALLY easy matchup. Your priest should be dispelling the dots off you. When shadow priest is OOM you and your priest need to work on the holy priest and bring him to 0. Keep your pet on the holy priest at all times so your scorpid poison doesn't break CC on the shadow priest later. Shadow priests generally have a lower mana pool than holy ones. You won't see this combo too often.
Double Shadow Priest Combo
---------------------------------------------
Yikes, lots of fear and damage potential, keep dispelling dots, LOS around pillars and keep a priest viper stung, once one is drained kill it, shouldn't be too hard to wreck these guys.
Holy Priest(Or Paladin) / Mage Combo
---------------------------------------------
This can be somewhat tricky, like in Warlock/Mage combo's you NEED to kill the mage pet IMMEDIATELY, so you don't get bursted down, run circles around the pillar with frost trap and entrapment on the ground, your priest needs to avoid sheeps and to dispell frostnova off of himself and you as much as possible to avoid shatter combo's. The best thing to do against this combo is to keep VIPER sting on the mage until he's OOM, then focus on getting his healer mana burned.
Shaman / Warlock Combo
---------------------------------------------
This is can be a really hard fight when the shaman pops Bloodlust/Heroism but they usually pop it early in the fight. If you can survive the 30 seconds that it's popped then your guaranteed to win. USUALLY this combo doesn't use soullink, so if you know for a fact the warlock isn't soullink KILL HIS PET so your priest can get OOC and drink.
Destroy totems as often as possible, keep viper sting on the shaman and whenever your priest can safely mana burn the warlock down DO IT. Depending on the spec of the warlock, IE if he's not soullink when the shaman is OOM kill the lock, if soullink kill the shaman first and then kill the lock, at that point keep viper sting on the warlock when the shaman is oom forcing him to lifetap.
Resto Druid / Rogue Combo
---------------------------------------------
Yikes this is a TOUGH one, jesus, but it's doable, keep a flare on the ground and a snake trap, when the rogue finally attacks keep him slowed and off your healer, same as the Warlock/Rogue Combo help your priest kite the rogue around by keeping him slowed, predict vanishes.
Your going to be damaging the rogue as much as possible while keeping him slowed. The rogue will pop out to cast HOTS on the rogue, cast viper sting on the druid and have your priest IMMEDIATELY dispell the hots on the rogue. Doing so WASTES a TON of the druids mana, and eventually you will wear the druid OOM, keep your pet on the druid and keep an eye on your pet, the druid will try to root/sleep your pet so he can go drink do not let him get OOC. When you and your priest develop a strong synergy you will be able to still slow the rogue down while keeping the druid in combat as much as possible.
On occasion you will have to wing clip the rogue, Scatter shot him, and drop a freeze trap on him so your priest can get enough range to drink or kite more.
When the druid innervates make sure your priest dispells it, it's critical. Eventually you'll be able to kill the rogue. Use Scatter Shots on the rogue to give your priest as much room as possible, silence the druid everytime he pops out to try and cast cyclone and/or heal. Be smart, you MIGHT have to use scatter shot on the druid but you should be able too if your priest has enough room.
When druid is OOM burst down the Rogue.
This fight can go another way, if the rogue wants to kill me first it's obviously a lot harder, now your trying to avoid crippling poison and the rogue isn't taking any damage so you can't OOM the druid by dispelling his dots and getting range is tricky because of Deadly throw (Lamest ability ever, should not be spammable.) This is where 2 minute trinkets, and stoneform REALLY shine.
Use whichever trap you feel best using, I personally use freeze trap a lot against this combo since they have no dispell, it can be very clutch in your priest getting range and healing himself.
If you have a deadly throw on you and rogues gaining on you, when it wears off, pop deterrence, feign death, wing clip and run right through him as he approaches you. If deterrence is down, it's crucial you time feign death PERFECTLY as he'll lose his target at a critical moment enabling you to wing clip and gain range. Sometimes you get unlucky and boom he gets a crip proc on you.
But as long as your priest mana burns the druid as he pops out to heal/cyclone. You should OOM the druid pretty quickly.
Warlock / Druid Combo
---------------------------------------------
Best thing to do in this fight is SPLIT up. Use all your DPS on the Warlock, keep your pet on the druid, when the druid pops out to HOT the lock my priest dispells the hots forcing the druid to heal, when he does that my priest fears the druid and gets like 2-3 mana burns off while I throw a viper sting on him. If they put the pet on your priest it's worth it to kill the pet twice, and your priest can fear + mana burn the druid if he pops out to heal the pet. Killing the pet means your priest can get OOC and he can drink. Pretty much keep your priest ON THE DRUID at all times, bring the fight with the warlock and his pet near your priest as much as possible so your not out of range or LOS of his heals. Eventually you should wear this combo down.
The priest is crucial in helping keep the druid in combat since the pet is unreliable due to sleep/roots, and it puts the druid in a bad position when he has to heal with my priest in his face ready to mana burn.
Shaman/Warrior
-----------------------
When it's a shaman warrior, make a macro that /target Windfury and kill the windfury totem as much as possible, use frost traps and have your priest kite around the pole while you drain the shaman, it's an extremely defensive fight since that warrior is beating the cow dung out of your priest. Do not let that warrior get close to your priest with windfury up, ever. Keep the warrior scattered wing clipped so your priest can kite away, the shaman will purge your priests buffs turning him into a thin layer of glass, so you and your priest are going to have to play very carefully. If your priest needs to get away to drink/heal and you can do this, scatter/FT if the warrior has used his trinket already.
Warrior/Paladin
----------------------
CC the warrior as much as possible, heres a HUGE tip that I got from hunter forums, mark the warrior, bait him into a freeze trap and spam hunters mark on him so the paladin dispells that instead of freeze trap, it'll waste the paladins mana dispelling and it puts the paladin LOS so your priest can mana burn him. ON blades edge it's a good tip to mind control the warrior off the bridge to give your healer some time. (for your priest partner). Keep scorpid on the warrior so he doesn't land as many attacks.
Druid/Hunter
---------------------
It's a really scary fight. I played one, kill the enemy hunters pet, and make sure your pet stays alive, try to burn down as much of the hunters mana as fast as possible, keep your pet on the druid, it is imperative you kill that pet before the druid realizes whats going on so your priest can get OOC and drink, your going to really need it in this combo due to the lack of cleanse.
After the hunter is near oom, focus on DPSing the hunter to make the druid pop out of bear form and heal so he can attempt to be mana burned, keep the enemy hunter wing clipped every possible second so your priest can LOS as much of the hunter's viper stings as possible.
MODS / KEYBINDS I USE + Screenshot
Seriously though guys, you know what me and my priest use for movement keys?
EDSF
Why? Gives us WAY more buttons around my movement keys to bind, my fingers rest correctly on the keyboard the way we learned how to type in keyboarding, I never lose my bearing on the keyboard because I know my pointer finger rests on the F button.
I use 1-5 normally then bind the rest of my keys around my movement keys listed below.
Here's a tip for people starting off with keybinds. Start off keybinding 3 of your favorite spells, play around with it for a day, next day add one more spell, then the next day at another spell, then the day after that add another spell, in less than a month you'll have everything important keybound and you'll be tearing it up.
I have zxcvbaghqwt as well as SHIFT+(Letter)
These are the mods I use:
Arena Live Frames
Arena Master
Bartender3
Baud Mount
Cartographer
ColaLight Con@#% v1.14.4
cyCircled
DamageMeters
DoTimer
eCastingBar
Improved Error Frame
Inflight ItemRack
JIM's Cooldown Pulse (This is the mod I use to flash my cooldowns when they are available.) MobHealth
Omen
Perl Unit Frames Zanzer's Hunter Mod
This is a screenshot of what my UI looks like:
I try to keep it as clutter free as possible.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6237/wowscrnshot080907141000sj7.jpg
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)