Hunter's Bestiary!!!!
#1
Ok, I think it would be beneficial if we hunters get togethor and discuss the finer points of pets. Let's discuss our strategy in keeping pets, what pets we like, and how to effectively use our pets in every situation!
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#2
Currently, I have 3 level 60 pets. This will likely change when I have to abandon one to gain new pet talents that become available. Right now I have:

Subaka: Brokentooth. Got him at around level 40 and have kept him since. I use to use him in some pve encounters, but now he is strictly a pvp pet. His 1.00 attack speed can't be beat for PvP. I also like the prowl and dash that cats gets added with bite AND claw. Since he's a pvp pet, I have his resistances built up as much as I can.

Kikaida: Scorpion from searing gorge. This guy was my tanking pet for a while. Like right after getting 60. I haven't used him in ages as I've been leaning towards my "all-around pet" vulture for pve lately. He had a large amount of armor and I liked the idea of scorpid sting. The problem is, whithout a beastmastery spec, I don't feel he has enough focus to stack scorpid sting like it needs to be to do enough damage. I can't learn bite also. This will probably be the pet I abandon to learn a new skill.

Julukatar: Zoacotl or however you say it from badlands. An elite vulture. This is my new PvE pet and my roleplay pet. I love how he looks, and I think he does a decent job with all encounters. He's an all around pet, neither damage or tanking heavy. I like the screech talent that lowers attack power of the target and does some damage, and I also like his dive. His red colouring goes with my red mohawk so he's my RP pet.
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#3
I have started a hunter, he is still young (25 season), and I want some pet advice.
I enjoy playing it and would like to continue. I am primarily a PVE player, and I group with two other people about 2/3 of the time and solo about 1/3.

Being pre-60th season I can realistically only have two pets.
What two pets would you more experienced hunters recommend?
I currently have Humar (cat) & a Gorefang (wolf)

Here are some of my other questions.
How often do you make your cat 'prowl'?
How does prowl work, does the pet do it automatically, like Growl, bite, claw? Or do you have to 'order' your pet to do it?
Is Armor on a pet overrated since magic ignores armor?
I've heard good things about Carrion Birds & Screech?
Furious Howl seems nice.
It seems to me the bite & claw combo is a good DPS, interupt, aggro generator.
I've debated a Boar, put the Charge/Dash on the same timer seems like a waste of an ability to me.
What are some good Hunter mods for me?
All loot is hunter loot - I understand now Smile

Any feedback would be appreciated.
Vote Akora for MA!
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#4
Akora, you have asked some very good questions, and I will try to give you some answers, but will also ask you some questions to better clarify things.

Personally, I prefer cats as pets. Though have a fast attack speed, and look good. At the lower levels you should be focusing on a pet that will allow you to solo things much faster, and make your job easier. If I could do it all over again I would tame a high armor pet for leveling up my Hunter. Something I could just send in on a mob, have it growling as much as possible, and keeping to agro off me while I plunked away with arrows.

So a turtle or scorpid might work for that.

I removed prowl from my cats....I just did not find it useful enough. The pet will do it automatically when out of combat.

I think armor is important. Most of the beasts you fight will not use magic attacks. And if you are a Hunter worth his or her salt, you will be skinning your kills. So, killing animal mobs will be very beneficial.

I hate flying pets. Period. The way I have my screen set up all they do is interfere with my targeting by flapping their wings in my face. Nuisance pets.

I have very little experience with the wolf pets, and thus with Furious Howl. It seems to be a nice little effect however, and there are a few very solid wolf pets out there to tame. Plus, a wolf is a great example of a well balanced pet.

Bite and Claw combo....been a long time since I used both of these on a pet. With Growl, Bite and Claw active on a pet, I found that my pets ACTION bar disappeared to quick, and many times i would draw agro away from my pet, and it had no action to re-cast growl.

I had a boar, and found it to be a terrific pet versus caster types. Plus, it was a very solid tank. However, I would not teach dash to my boar. Charge is sufficient here.

I use no mods.

And yes, all loot is hunter loot.

As far as going into more detail as far as which specific pet you should try and tame, I would need to know more about your play style, and your likes.

I am a big believer in taming what you like...and trying to not get caught up in all the hoopla about attack speeds and whatnot. It's funny, I say that yet I have Broken Tooth, the cat with the fastest attack speed in the game of 1.0. Youve all seen him dying repeatedly while pulling in Molten Core.

I hope this answered a few of your questions. Please feel free to send me a whisper in game with more questions. I am always very happy to help out.

Krell
Orc Hunter
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#5
akora Wrote:How does prowl work, does the pet do it automatically, like Growl, bite, claw? Or do you have to 'order' your pet to do it?

Prowl can be either-or, like most things; either right-click it so it gets the sparkly border and the pet will do it automatically when out of combat, or leave it on manual and click it to do it. I haven't found it all that useful either, though - scouting in prowl with Eyes of the Beast, maybe?
"You can never run from trouble, 'cause there ain't no place that far." - Scissor Sisters, "Lights"
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#6
akora Wrote:I have started a hunter, he is still young (25 season), and I want some pet advice.
I enjoy playing it and would like to continue. I am primarily a PVE player, and I group with two other people about 2/3 of the time and solo about 1/3.

Being pre-60th season I can realistically only have two pets.
What two pets would you more experienced hunters recommend?
I currently have Humar (cat) & a Gorefang (wolf)

Here are some of my other questions.
How often do you make your cat 'prowl'?
How does prowl work, does the pet do it automatically, like Growl, bite, claw? Or do you have to 'order' your pet to do it?
Is Armor on a pet overrated since magic ignores armor?
I've heard good things about Carrion Birds & Screech?
Furious Howl seems nice.
It seems to me the bite & claw combo is a good DPS, interupt, aggro generator.
I've debated a Boar, put the Charge/Dash on the same timer seems like a waste of an ability to me.
What are some good Hunter mods for me?
All loot is hunter loot - I understand now Smile

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Since your not doing pvp, I'd say ditch the cat. You need at least one of your pets to be a pure tank. Either scorpion, gorilla, bear. I enjoyed having a bear when I was leveling. The "leveling" build for hunter IMO is a beastmaster spec. It really helps when your pet can almost solo a mob Smile I use a bird myself and enjoy it. I'm sure the lowered attack rating from screech would help in leveling.

One thing about pets, a lot depends on preference. There are high dps pets, tanking pets, and some that fall in between. Choose what fits your style.

And Hunters don't need mods 8-)
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#7
Thanks for your feedback so far.
I wrote a novel for you to digest (be careful what you ask for  - Krell)
I’d like to get more input from all of our seasoned hunters.

Here is how I play. I am Troll hunter in my 26th season and a Skinner, Engineer.
I doubt I’ll ever PVP, I will do 95% PVE.
I am a quest whore, I am always questing. I do instances when they become available.

Pertaining Talents I am progressing in a 30 beastmaster, 21 Marksman spec, training 30 points in beastmaster first, followed by 21 in marksman.
My current two pets, are GoreFang (wolf) & Humar (cat). Wolf & Cat are really the only pets I have experience with.
I solo about 1/3 the time, and play with one or two friends about 2/3 of the time.
Often times my pet does tank, because the other two people I play with are a Druid and a Mage/Priest. But in this group we kill things so fast, my pet rarely dies.

How I fight, I am usually the puller, I send in pet, fire off a DOT Serpent Sting, followed by an arcane shot (and the pet normally still has aggro), then auto shot, and put in another arcane shot whenever it’s available.

Things I’ve learned, my Wolf tanks better than my Cat, Wolf can handle two mobs beating upon him at once, Cat usually can’t. If I break aggro off my pet Wolf seems to be able to get aggro back 2 out of 3 times, Cat seems to only get aggro back 1 out of 3 times. But when I break aggro on a single mob it hardly seems to matter because the mob is almost always dead, and I just melee at it 1-3 times and its done.

I think there are two things I need to understand better about the pet.
1. Pet Energy
2. Pet aggro generation

Pet Energy I don’t watch the energy bar, I probably need to, all I notice is that after a fight, it is very low usually.
I know that all pets abilities like growl, bite, claw, cower (I never use), Furious Howl all take energy. But that is all I know, I don’t know how much energy Growl takes, etc. or how energy is spent.

How do pets generate Aggro, what exactly does Growl do?
Is growl a pet’s only way to generate aggro?

My initial assumption is that pets with both bite & claw should do so much DPS they will hold aggro. But Krell rightfully mentions that bite & claw drain so much energy that often times growl will not be available when I ‘need’ it. Maybe this is why my Cat can only re-establish aggro about 1 out of 3 times after I break his aggro. I might be putting too much emphasis on pet DPS.
I’d like to here other Hunter’s thoughts about the Bite & Claw abilities together? Do they use too much energy?

Other things I don’t understand how can a pet with high armor and low DPS hold aggro.

I guess what it comes down to priorities for your pet.
While leveling what is the most important attribute of a pet in your opinion?
• Aggro holding
• Armor
• HP
• Abilities (Screech, Furious Howl, Charge, Dash, Prowl)
• DPS
• Looking cool

I think I’m committed to trying out other pets for extended periods. But I grow attached to my current pets, when I think about all the times they saved me from death. And it will be hard to set them free. I still remember <sniff> my first pet ‘Snargy’ my Durotar Tiger, and when I set him free, for that silly white lion – stupid Hunter.

Ok so I will try a tanking pet next.
The Boar intrigues me. I might go for that next.
So when a boar charges, does that generate aggro or additional energy?
I know it stuns for one second and he runs fast to get to his target, but are there any other benefits?

But the Boar I think looks best is that pretty golden one that is lvl 4. Will that take me forever to level up to my level? Or should I just go out and get a boar my level to see if I like it? (I know RFK has boars around my level)

Pertaining scorpions, does their poison DOT, mess up crowd control? That worries me I group with a mage often.

Bear has the bite, claw combo that is speculated to be an energy hog.

Turtle, seems interesting with no real up or down side.

Gorilla seems enticing but painful to feed.

Kosath would make a good pet, high armor, but I hear he doesn’t take orders from Hunters well, he would be telling me what to do what to pull, ordering me to die, etc I don’t know if I could handle that in a pet.
Vote Akora for MA!
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#8
As you've probably noticed, claw is an instant attack while bite has a cool down. If you want to conserve energy so your pet can keep casting growl, you need to stop using claw.
If you want your pet to hold aggro and tank, bite and growl are really the only things needed. That's why I suggested a bear. Good hp, good armor. Use bite and growl. It's not that tanking pets have considerabely lower dps, they just have a slower attack speed usually.
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#9
I have found that a scorpid makes a great solo pet, but its DOT can mess up the CC efforts of other classes.

Turtles are a great tank pet, but some times I find that high shell gets in the way.

Crabs while they don't have any special abilities are great group pets, nice and low to the ground. They only come with claw though so if you are managing your pets energy use yourself be careful he saves for growl.

Mangle, my primary pet. Is a hyena. Great pet like a wolf but without the furious howl. I really haven't had any problems with using him as a tank, he can usually tank 2 or 3 mobs solo and with extra armor combined with resistances he does a great job against any mobs. Also hyenas eat both meat and fruit unlike wolves that are strick carnivours.

I prefer the all round pets to the more specialized ones, I just find they do a good job no matter what you are having them do. I am Beastmaster specced so Mangle can tear things up pretty good on his own, in fact he can pretty much solo tank anything his level that is non-elite.

I also make use of Smartpet for my pets energy management, I just like that the pet takes care of himself. And I also use lots of other hunter/pet mods, like Feed-o-matic and Huntershelper.
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Etsuko - Monk
Razzlixx Blingwell - Warlock
Cloudjumper Wildmane - Druid (Inactive)
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#10
I'm wondering if any of you have tried out Survival spec and some of it's lower tier talents? What are your opinions on it? So far I love it. Even though I hit less hard, I crit much more and a triple crit Arcane, auto, Multi is a very common occurence. As far as expose weakness is concerned I really can't tell if I'm noticing much of a difference. I wish the icon that showed up would show exactly how much AP it's adding against the target.

Oh well that's about all I have to say right now, and hopefully this can open up some insightful discussion.
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#11
Mokimi is heavy into Survivial, I am sure she will be able to help on this.
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Etsuko - Monk
Razzlixx Blingwell - Warlock
Cloudjumper Wildmane - Druid (Inactive)
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#12
I am very, very in love with my bat, and so is my guild. It's a ZG Bat, which means at full Beast Mastery spec, it has a .83 Attack Speed. Throw in growl and screech, and it never loses aggro unless I tell it to, and it keeps casters from casting. Like whoa. Bats are picky eaters, though - only fruit and fungus.

I'll admit, especially when I was grinding, the picky eating of a wolf drive me insane. Now, Roasted Quail is easy to come by, so it matters much less. Diet is one of the things that made Bears awesome when I was grinding.

I decided yesterday do start using a sporebat from Zangarmarsh. I'm not sure how Lhuurssa's doing with hers (I think I saw her with one), but I hate mine with a fiery burning passion already. I'm ditching it for one of those creepy skittery things in the western Hellfire Peninsula.

I'm looking into alternate pets from Outland now.
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#13
With the latest patch, I noticed that all of my pets with an attack speed faster than the default 2.0 had been normalized. Please inspect your bat and notify us here if its attack speed is still so low.

I was under the impression all pets had been changed, but perhaps there are a few out there that weren't?

Krell
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#14
Mangle still is a little faster at 1.78, but that is due to talents. He used to be much faster. Mind you his damage went up so the net effect is the same.
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Etsuko - Monk
Razzlixx Blingwell - Warlock
Cloudjumper Wildmane - Druid (Inactive)
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#15
Morgrah Wrote:I'm wondering if any of you have tried out Survival spec and some of it's lower tier talents? What are your opinions on it? So far I love it. Even though I hit less hard, I crit much more and a triple crit Arcane, auto, Multi is a very common occurence. As far as expose weakness is concerned I really can't tell if I'm noticing much of a difference. I wish the icon that showed up would show exactly how much AP it's adding against the target.

Oh well that's about all I have to say right now, and hopefully this can open up some insightful discussion.
Cloudjumper Wrote:Mokimi is heavy into Survivial, I am sure she will be able to help on this.

(This is off topic from the thread but I will answer)

***Note: Survival is a talent tree that you must go deep into for it to be truly beneficial, in my opinion.***

Ok I am a bit late on this but here it is...Mind you this is all a matter of my opinion and you are free to question what I have said....Survival is not for the hardcore players that are obsessed with DPS'ing in the very high numbers...It has benefits for all kinds of hunters.....Its a talent tree that promotes close combat...Survival is what it is...a talent tree designed for you to outlast a typical ranged hunter that focus's on DPS, by having a plethor of crowd controlling abilities and traps that do insane amount of damage.

I will divulge that I have dedicated 51 points into the Survival tree...5 points in Beast Mastery (Added health) and 5 Points in Marskman (Crowd Control) (Planned out already...this is at lvl 70...I am 67). I have NEVER Been deep into the other trees...I started survival and will always be survival. I am very deep into survival and take advantage of many of the beneficial traits/skills that the tree has to offer...

I will admit that there is alot of skepticism about being so far deep into survival but thats because a majority of Hunters choose Beast Mastery or Marksman, or even Hybrid those with Survival but never go deep into it... I have been called "stupid", "Idiotic", and "dumb" many times when other characters (outside of ironsong) find out I am pure Survival...Ironsong is a rare guild that accepts my talent and does not ask me to change...and I thank them for that... If you want to play the unconventional hunter and take in some melee action, thats great...survival will help you alot.

A note on some abilities...(At max points)

-.Wyvern Sting...Great PvP Skill and Instance Skill in the 5-mans where its usable and its also a great PvE skill for those groups of mobs that you need to control.

-Expose weakness...this skill has a 30% to proc on a critical strike....a good skill although if you do the math 25% on an average hunters agility at lvl 60 is about 100AP....not bad...but as the game evolves it will get much much higher.

-Master Tactician....6% to proc on successful ranged attack....this procs OFTEN!!....and with the added crit chance it works with Expose weakness....a great skill for any purpose..

-Resourcefullness(Or something like that)....Reduces melee and trap mana cost by 60% and Trap cooldown my 6seconds.....A godsend for a melee hunter like myself...cheap Raptor Strikes and Cheap Traps allows me to keep going and going and going....

-Readiness...Emergency Button pretty much...Great skill in my mind although not used often, but reassuring knowing that I can dump two traps on a mob for added damage or an Alliance for added frustration....I love it.

Final note....Survival is NOT, in my opinion, a Talent tree that is mean to be "hybrid"....If you want to be survival...go deep into it...It makes gameplay much more interesting and gives you better chance of being the last one standing in a wipe (without Feigning death lol). Go for it and dump all your talent points into survival..theres only two skills in the entire tree where I dont see a point in putting talents into...dare to be different

P.S. From what I know....Sreng and I are the only True Survival hunters in Ironsong (There may be others now but none come to mind as its not something I hear very often).
Feel free correct me if I am wrong.

(Sorry if this was off topic of the thread, and I hope this gave some insight from my experiences)
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