A Guide to Choosing a Pet - Revised for BC

(This guide was created by Alanonymous, level 70 Night Elf hunter of the server Vek'nilash. All credit is due to him for this wonderful guide. Date: 05/07/2007)

The Alanonymous Guide to Hunter Pets

First, I’m writing this from the perspective of a hunter that has had just about every pet imaginable. Specifically, at one time or another I have had a spider, bear, boar, owl, carrion bird, wolf, cat, tallstrider, scorpid, ravager, dragonhawk, crab and even a sporebat (I admit, I’ve never had a crocolisk, gorilla or raptor). I’ve also spent a great deal of time looking at the pros and cons of various pets, both their species and individual pets within a select species. I’ve also sought out and tamed a lot of “rare” pets including Humar, Snarler, Lupos, Gorefang, Echyakee, Mazaranchee and Spiteflayer. So the following is based on that experience and research.

I. What is the Best Pet?

There is NO best pet! It is entirely situational. What is “best” for one situation may not be the best for another. You must evaluate your play style and interests to determine what will be the best for you in any given situation. You need to consider what you will be doing (PvP or PvE – solo or grouping). Finally, remember that once you tame it a “rare” or “elite” pet has no special abilities that will set it apart from its common cousins (i.e. Snarler, once tamed, is just like any other level 42 wolf whether tamed at 42 or tamed at 8 and leveled up to 42). There is 1 exception discussed later on in this guide that relates to “caster stat” pets.

II. What are the Most Important Considerations in Choosing a Pet then?

A. Useage – will the pet be for PvP or PvE?

1. PvP: With one exception, a high dps pet will generally be preferred for PvP. PvP is all about dealing out as much damage to another player as fast as you can. High dps pets like cats, ravagers and wind-serpents do exactly that. The one exception is a boar. Boars are low dps pets. However, boars have a unique family skill, “Charge,” that is exceptionally useful in PvP – particularly in WSG. For a hunter in the 10-29 brackets especially, having a boar and 5/5 in the Improved Concussive Shot talent will make you the ultimate defender of your team’s flag. No flag runner should ever escape from such a hunter. Also, in the 30+ brackets a night elf with a cat that has been taught the skill “prowl” makes a great node or flag defender since they can both be invisible and get the jump on an enemy player.

2. PvE: When it comes to PvE use of a pet, you need to consider whether you are primarily engaged in PvE group work or soloing first

i. Soloing:
Hunters are almost without question the best solo play class in the game. How well you are able to solo depends on a few things like your ability to kite and your understanding and skill in trapping. However, when it comes to choosing the pet for solo work you need to consider a few factors:

a) Aggro holding ability:
When you are soloing your pet should be acting more or less like your tank is supposed to act in a group setting. The ability to hold aggro instead of having aggro revert to you is a key function, therefore, of your pet in solo settings. If your pet loses aggro the mob will charge you and generally, you want to avoid that as hunters do more damage on ranged targets than to do on melee targets. High dps pets have an edge over most low dps pets in the aggro holding department as the higher damage being dealt by the pet helps generate threat and keep the mob focused on the pet. However, pet skills also play a part. A boar’s charge ability and a bird/bat’s Screech ability are also large threat generators that will help a pet grab and hold aggro. To a smaller extent, a wolf’s Furious Howl skill also generates some threat too. Growl, a skill all pets can learn, is designed to generate aggro on the pet as well. However, growl alone can easily fail to generate enough aggro to keep a mob off a hunter; particularly if the hunter gets in some large crits with his shots. High level hunters with the misdirection skill can use it to also ensure that a mob focuses his efforts on killing the pet and not the hunter making it easy for the hunter to kill the mob with his ranged attacks.

b) dps ability vs. tanking ability:
As a general rule, there is an inverse relationship between dps and tanking ability. The higher the pet’s natural dps, the lower his “surviveability” and tanking ability. Turtles are the ultimate survivors, but their dps is exceptionally low. Boars make really good tanks, and while better than a turtle’s, their dps is not exactly through the roof either. On the other hand, a ravager has the highest dps of any pet in the game, but suffers from a health deficiency that significantly impacts its ability to withstand the same kind of damage that a boar or turtle can withstand. The goal of using a tank pet is to have a pet that can maintain aggro and stay alive long enough that you can down the mob via your dps. The goal of using a dps pet when soloing is to have a pet that does more to boost the damage the mob suffers so he goes down faster and before your pet dies. Middle-of-the-road pets seek to establish a balance between tanking ability and dps. For example, a wolf can take a beating that would kill a ravager, but he’ll still die before the boar. On the other hand, he’ll do more damage than the boar, but not as much as the ravager. For many hunters, a middle-of-the-road pet is a good choice for soloing. However, it is not always the right choice, what is the “right” choice depends on your style and other skills and talents and abilities. A Marksmanship hunter, for example, is probably better served in solo work by a tank or middle-of-the road pet that will stay alive longer and ensure the hunter can pew-pew down the mob while a Beast Master hunter will probably want a dps pet or middle-of-the-road pet since his talents help make up the deficiency in the dps pet’s surviveability and also help boost either pet’s damage output significantly so the mob goes down faster.