need help with pets

[TIme987 3]

so im leveling up a hunter.( leveling fast 69 in a day and 1 1/2) and i dont understand pets. what ones are good to have what one sucks. what are a must have for dps, and what are must have for raiding? please help

thanks in advance

[Kattii 40]

Hello baby hunter!

 

All our pets do the same baseline damage, but they each have a different buff, debuff or ability. There are three different pet specs that each pet can be changed to at any time: Cunning, Ferocity, and Tenacity. If you tame a pet that starts out as Tenacity you can change him to Ferocity or Cunning at any time. Pets speced into Ferocity will output the most damage thanks to talents like Rabid and Spiked Collar. It should also be noted that Heart of the Phoenix which allows you to instantly rez your pet if it dies is only available for Ferocity specced pets. Tenacity speced pets are good for tanking mobs if you are leveling or soloing instances. Cunning speced pets are useful for pvp due to the Bullheaded and Roar of Sacrifice talents.

 

Each pet family has a different ability it brings. For instance no matter what type of hyena you tame in game they will all give  the Cracking Howl buff. Hunters are used to fill in missing buffs from other classes. It can be hard to remember which class brings what buff when you are just starting out. I recommend RaidCheckList to help you. This addon will quickly asses the class and spec of your party/raid members and let you know which buffs/debuffs your group is missing and which pets you can bring to fill in. 

 

Here is a list of different pet buffs:

 

Buffs

• Stats: +5% Strength, Agility & Intellect
  • Shale Spider (exotic only) - Embrace of the Shale Spider
• Attack Power: +10% melee & ranged attack power
  • Hunters bring this automatically via Trueshot Aura
• Spell Power: +10% Spellpower
  • Water Strider - Still Water
• Critical Strike: +5% melee, ranged, & spell critical chance
  • Hydra - Bellowing Roar
  • Wolf - Furious Howl
  • Devilsaur (exotic) - Terrifying Roar
  • Quilen (exotic) - Fearless Roar
  • Water Strider (exotic) - Still Water
• Stamina: +10% Stamina
  • Silithid (exotic only) - Qiraji Fortitude
• Attack Speed: +10% melee & ranged haste
  • Hyena - Cackling Howl
  • Serpent - Serpent’s Swiftness
• Spell Haste: +5% spell haste
  • Sporebat – Energizing Spores
• Mastery: +3,000 mastery
  • Cat - Roar of Courage
  • Spirit Beast (exotic) - Spirit Beast Blessing
• Burst haste: +30% melee, ranged, & spell cast speed
  • Core Hound (exotic only) - Ancient Hysteria
• Combat Resurrection: rez a player during combat
  • Quilen (exotic) – Eternal Guardian

Debuffs

• Armor: -12% armor
  • Raptor - Tear Armor
  • Tallstrider - Dust Cloud
• Cast Speed: -30% cast speed
  • Fox - Tailspin
  • Goat - Trample
  • Sporebat – Spore Cloud
  • Core Hound (exotic) - Lava Breath
• Healing: -25% healing recieved
  • Devilsaur – Monstrous Bite
  • Hunter Shot – Mortal Wounds
• Physical Damage Reduction: -10% physical damage dealt
  • Bear - Demoralizing Roar
  • Carrion Bird - Demoralizing Screech
• Physical Vulnerability: +4% physical damage taken
  • Boar - Gore
  • Ravager - Ravage
  • Rhino (exotic) - Stampede
  • Worm (exotic) - Acid Spit
• Spell Damage Taken: +5% spell damage taken
  • Dragonhawk - Fire Breath
  • Wind Serpent - Lightning Breath

The fun part is taming pets with pretty or special skins. You can check out all the possible skins and where to tame them on wow-Petopia.com

[Storm 426]

If you're planning on raiding; Crit, attack speed, and spell haste are the three you'll most often be asked to use (at least in my experience). so those are the ones you'll want to make sure you have available.

[Hybrys 199]

If you're planning on raiding; Crit, attack speed, and spell haste are the three you'll most often be asked to use (at least in my experience). so those are the ones you'll want to make sure you have available.

I'd also add Spell Damage Taken to that list, as only two classes can provide it.  (Although the prevalence of Warlocks sort of makes that a moot point.)

[Storm 426]

True, but usually you have to get to a pretty high level of raiding before you're worrying about covering every buff and debuff in your comp. By the time you get to that level you'll know exactly what pets you need for your specific group. At lfr/flex/normal level half the casters out there probably don't even know the +5% spell damage debuff exists. but if they don't have their 5% spell haste buff every single one of them will whine about it.

[Hybrys 199]

True, but usually you have to get to a pretty high level of raiding before you're worrying about covering every buff and debuff in your comp. By the time you get to that level you'll know exactly what pets you need for your specific group. At lfr/flex/normal level half the casters out there probably don't even know the +5% spell damage debuff exists. but if they don't have their 5% spell haste buff every single one of them will whine about it.

Just because people don't know, doesn't decrease the value of it's application.  Esp in LFR, since around 70% of damage done is affected by it.  (If it affects Holy).

[SparkSovereign 61]

To be fair, almost everyone with haste breakpoints reforges under the assumption they have the spell haste buff.  It'd feel less bad if there were alternatives to the sporebat model for it, though.

[Brya 3]

bigger issue came from limiting it to 3 hybrid specs of 3 different classes. luckily its solved next expansion when they merge attack speed and spell haste together. 

 

I will miss my gm flipping out on me because I will always choose attack speed over spell haste