Marksmanship Hunter Pets Guide — Dragonflight 10.2
The following guide covers everything you need to know about Beast Mastery Hunter Pets in Dragonflight, including the best ones to use in each situation such as Raiding, Mythic+, and Soloing/Open-World Content.
Please refer to our Hunter Pets Guide for more information regarding Hunter pets, including what the different pet families are and where you can find pets.
Best Raiding Pet for Marksmanship Hunter in Dragonflight
In raids, due to our Lone Wolf talent in Dragonflight, you will rarely use a pet as Marksmanship, as the DPS loss is too
great.
One valid reason to summon a pet is if you are down a healer and worried about dying to slow ticking damage. In this case, having any Ferocity pet active will grant you 10% Leech, which heals you for 10% of all damage dealt. This is valuable self-sustain for difficult moments in fights, and surviving is better than dying, even if you lose a bit of DPS.
Another would be that you, for some reason, are the only player able to
provide a Bloodlust effect to the group. As unlikely as this is in a
raid environment, it is another practical reason to have a Ferocity pet (any
type will do) at the ready.
While any good-looking Ferocity pet will do well in most situations, Healing Reduction pets like Carrion Birds, Ravagers, Scorpids, and Wasps can be situationally useful. These will reduce enemy healing, and this effect works on bosses that heal themselves and can be invaluable in niche scenarios where no one else is providing this effect.
Best Mythic+ Pet for Marksmanship Hunter in Dragonflight
For Mythic+, the first consideration you need to make is whether you need to
be the Bloodlust for the group. If you do, you are locked into
using a Ferocity pet to activate it every 10 minutes. You do not need to have it
active otherwise.
The best way to use Bloodlust as a Marksmanship Hunter is to
pre-cast Dismiss Pet. Then, when only ~0.5s are left on the cast,
you activate the
Primal Rage. You can do this while casting
Dismiss Pet, since it is a pet-activated ability.
If you do not need to Bloodlust for your group, then you
should rarely use a pet, as the DPS loss, especially in AoE, is massive.
Still, it can be worth having a Damage Reduction Tenacity pet prepared. These can be used to taunt mobs for heavy tankbuster mechanics to spare your tank a lot of damage. With their 50% damage reduction on a 1-minute cooldown and 5% extra max health, these pets can take heavy hits regularly.
Best Soloing and Leveling Pet for Marksmanship Hunter in Dragonflight
For open-world content and soloing in Dragonflight, Ferocity pets are preferred, as their Leech will allow them to heal themselves for a bit of their damage. The best Ferocity pet for tanking things is a Scalehide, as they have 50% reduced damage taken on a 1-minute cooldown.
Pet Specializations
There are 3 different pet specializations. These specializations are determined by your pet family and they cannot be changed. We recommend having a variety of pets of each spec, so that you can cover any situation.
Pet Spec | Passive Effect | Active Ability |
---|---|---|
Ferocity | ![]() |
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Tenacity | ![]() |
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Cunning | ![]() |
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Pet Families and Abilities
Every Pet Family has a special ability. We recommend having at least one of every special ability and spec combination.
Ferocity Pets
Special Ability | Description | Pet Families |
---|---|---|
Damage Reduction Cooldown | Reduces the damage taken of your pet by 50% for 12 seconds. This has a 1-minute cooldown. | Core Hound (Exotic), Scalehide. |
Self-Dispel | Removes 1 Disease, 1 Magic, and 1 Poison effect from your pet. 10-second cooldown. | Bat, Ray |
Healing Reduction | Reduces the healing taken of your pet's target by 25% for 10 seconds. This has a 6-second cooldown, which means that it will be active all the time. | Carrion Bird, Devilsaur (Exotic), Ravager, Scorpid, Wasp. |
Damage Reduction On Low Health | Reduces your pet's damage taken by 60% for 15 seconds when your pet falls below 40% health. | Clefthoof (Exotic), Gorilla. |
Dodge Chance Cooldown | This ability increases your pet's Dodge chance by 30% for 20 seconds. It has a 1.5-minute cooldown. | Cat, Courser, Wind Serpent |
Slow/Snare | Reduces the movement speed of your pet's target by 50% for 6 seconds. It has a 10-second cooldown. | Crocolisk, Spider, Tallstrider, Wolf, Chimaera. |
Tenacity Pets
Special Ability | Description | Pet Families |
---|---|---|
Damage Reduction Cooldown | Reduces the damage taken of your pet by 50% for 12 seconds. This has a 1-minute cooldown. | Krolusk (Exotic), Beetle, Turtle. |
Self-Dispel | Removes 1 Disease, 1 Magic, and 1 Poison effect from your pet. 10-second cooldown. | Spirit Beast (Exotic), Crane, Stag |
Healing Reduction | Reduces the healing taken of your pet's target by 25% for 10 seconds. This has a 6-second cooldown, which means that it will be active all the time. | Direhorn, Hydra, Riverbeast, Lizard. |
Damage Reduction On Low Health | Reduces your pet's damage taken by 60% for 15 seconds when your pet falls below 40% health. | Oxen, Bear. |
Dodge Chance Cooldown | This ability increases your pet's Dodge chance by 30% for 20 seconds. It has a 1.5-minute cooldown. | *Feathermane, Dragonhawk, Toad. |
Slow/Snare | Reduces the movement speed of your pet's target by 50% for 6 seconds. It has a 10-second cooldown. | Worm (Exotic), Crab, Mammoth, Blood Beast |
Magical Damage Reduction | ![]() |
Lesser Dragonkin |
*Feathermane pets also have Updraft, which enables Slow Fall for you and your pet, allowing you to fall safely from almost any height while the pet is active for 30 seconds.
Cunning Pets
Special Ability | Description | Pet Families |
---|---|---|
Damage Reduction Cooldown | Reduces the damage taken of your pet by 50% for 12 seconds. This has a 1-minute cooldown. | Shale Beast (Exotic), Boar, Mechanical. |
Self-Dispel | Removes 1 Disease, 1 Magic, and 1 Poison effect from your pet. 10-second cooldown. | Sporebat, Moth, Water Strider (Exotic) |
Healing Reduction | Reduces the healing taken of your pet's target by 25% for 10 seconds. This has a 6-second cooldown, which means that it will be active all the time. | Hyena, Rodent, Raptor. |
Damage Reduction On Low Health | Reduces your pet's damage taken by 60% for 15 seconds when your pet falls below 40% health. | Gruffhorn, Pterrordax (Exotic), Camel |
Dodge Chance Cooldown | This ability increases your pet's Dodge chance by 30% for 20 seconds. It has a 1.5-minute cooldown. | Fox, Monkey, Serpent. |
Slow/Snare | Reduces the movement speed of your pet's target by 50% for 6 seconds. It has a 10-second cooldown. | Basilisk, Bird of Prey, Hound, Warp Stalker, Aqiri (Exotic). |
* Water Strider pets also have Surface Trot, a passive ability
that lets you and your pet walk on water while out of combat. Damage will
break this effect.
Exotic Pets (Beast Mastery-only)
Pet Family | Specialization | Special Ability | Exotic Ability |
---|---|---|---|
Core Hound | Ferocity | ![]() |
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Chimaera | Ferocity | ![]() |
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Devilsaur | Ferocity | ![]() |
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Clefthoof | Ferocity | ![]() |
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Carapid | Tenacity | ![]() |
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Stone Hound | Tenacity | ![]() |
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Spirit Beast | Tenacity | ![]() |
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Worm | Tenacity | ![]() |
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Krolusk | Tenacity | ![]() |
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Shale Beast | Cunning | ![]() |
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Aqiri | Cunning | ![]() |
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Water Strider | Cunning | ![]() |
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Pterrordax | Cunning | ![]() |
Changelog
- 06 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Jul. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.5.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 20 Mar. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.7.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 06 Jan. 2023: Added page.
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This guide has been written by Azortharion, a Hunter Theorycrafter and Guidewriter since 2014, and considered one of the best Hunters in the world. He is an accomplished player with dozen of top parses for all specs throughout the game's history. He is also the Founder/Owner/Head Admin of Trueshot Lodge, the Hunter Class Discord. You can find him on his stream on Twitch and his channel on YouTube. He also has his own personal Discord server where you can freely ask him any Hunter questions you may have!
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