A Guide to Choosing a Pet - Revised for BC. part 4 (Best pets for different situations)

A Guide to Choosing a Pet - Revised for BC. part 4
Date: 05/07/2007

C. Special note on Claw and Bite: Many pets can learn both claw and bite. However, it is important to note that Claw uses a lot of your pets focus and if both of them are on autocast, your cat, raptor, whatever, will do bite and a claw on its first hit, but may never bite again because bite is on a 10 second timer and claw is only 1 second. The Marksman talent, “Go for the Throat” is important in this regard since it causes an instant regeneration of focus when you get in a critical hit. BM hunters can also use the talent “Bestial Discipline” to help ensure their pet always has enough focus to use his abilities to the max. If you do not have GftT and/or Bestial Discipline, you should expect focus to become an issue if you have a pet with a focus eating ability like claw, lightning breath or gore though.

V. Hey, yeah, I forgot about my talent build, how does it
affect things?

Up until you can acquire Frenzy, the Beastmastery tree serves mainly to enhance your pet’s surviveability in a fight (increased armor & stamina), ease your mana drain (improved revive/mend pet) and improve your ranged and dodge skills (Improved Aspect of the Hawk & Monkey) and give a small boost to your pet’s dps. Frenzy increases your pet’s attack speed and dps, Intimdate grabs agro. and stuns your target and Bestial Wrath ups your pet’s damage significantly. I don’t want to debate various talent builds here, you have to decide how much or little you want to use/rely on your pet as you play. I will say I’m using a 41/20/0 build. I view my pet as another weapon in my arsenal that serves me better if his surviveability and damage possibilities are maxed out. All spec’s, BM, MM and SV are viable currently though and as you choose your pet, you just need to take into account how your spec. and play style will affect your pet and how you plan on using it.

VI. Can I get more info.?

Sure, the 3 main web sites I rely on for pet information are:
1. http://www.goodintentionsguild.info/hunters.html
2. http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
3. http://www.tkasomething.com/

VII. Ok, thanks, I have a little better understanding, but I still want to know what you think are “uber” pets.

Ok, keeping all of the above in mind, IMO the following are the “best” pets to have and use. I’m basing these recommendations on useage, skills and specs. What looks good is a matter of personal opinion that changes from person to person and what I like based on looks is beside the point. If you use this list to choose a pet from, then get the pet in the family that you like the look of best. Use Petopia to see what they look like. Note also, this is just my opinion for the tops each category. There is plenty of “wiggle room” and justification for other pets in all situations.

PvE: Solo work:
1. Boar: Great all around tank, charge will grab aggro. well and with growl and gore you’ll probably be able to hold it ok. A BM hunter can also use intimidate to help hold aggro and at higher levels, all hunters can use misdirection.
2. Carrion Bird: Screech is a great aggro holder and as a middle-of-the-road pet with decent damage and surviveability carrion birds make great solo pets.
3. Owl/bat: I’d use an owl or bat over a Carrion Bird only if I were a BM hunter since they are technically a dps pet with lower surviveability. A BM hunter can counter this in ways a MM or SV hunter can’t.

PvE: Group work:
1. Wolf: Good surviveability, decent dps and Furious Howl is a nice buff to the group’s damage output.
2. Carrion bird/owl/bat: The screech debuff to the AP of attacking mobs can be very useful in a group setting too making mobs do less damage to party members.
3. Ravager/cat/raptor: Their high dps make these good group pets for use in taking down mobs fast. In large raids, a wind serpent is also useful for the ranged attack he does with Lightning breath.
4. Boar/bear: primarily for use as an off tank for a group.

PvP: BG use:
1. Boar: stop the flag carrier and others with charge.
2. Cat: For Nelf’s only – prowl and Shadowmeld are hard to beat when it comes to getting the jump on someone.
3. Ravager/owl/bat: High dps pets and with a bird or bat, flappy wings in the enemy’s face.

PvP: World use
1. Cat for Nelfs: Surprise Ganking ftw. 
2. Ravager/owl/bat for BM hunters – higher dps and surviveability issue is reduced
3. Carrion bird, wolf or boar for non-BM hunters when pet dps isn’t an issue but yours and/or surviving is.

VIII. Misc. Notes

1. Lightning Breath is a great dps pet skill and very useful in raids. However, Wind Serpent AI has a bit of a bug in it that will cause a Wind Serpent to fly to range to cast LB and then fly back to the target to physically attack it. This can be countered with a macro (and should be).

2. Pet special skills can be macro'ed and included in an attack macro. I'm not a macro guru, but if you want to macro a skill you are able to do so and many hunters do. Just play around with various macros to see how to fit in a pet skill/attack with your shot rotation and preferred method of doing things.

3. Quick PvP note: Serpent's & Scorpid's poison DoT attacks will prevent a rogue from stealthing which can be a useful thing in a PvP encounter. Also, Scorp poison stacks and with your viper sting shot it can force a pally in PvP to waste all his mana "cleansing" himself.