Even though sporebats look cool…
What Pet do I use for Leveling?
I get asked this a lot, and by a lot I mean almost once a day. Personally I prefer an old fashioned Gorilla for leveling, due to the fact that they have Pummel, which interrupts casters. It’s almost like having your own personal warrior tank. Now any tenacity pet will get the job done but there are a couple stand out members of this particular pet tree.
Gorillas: They have pummel they were originally the only pet with thunder stomp, which made leveling a breeze. Just send in your Gorilladin stand back and volley. I highly suggest this for any starting hunter.
Turtles: These critters gain extra survivability with Shell Shield, so when you pull 1,000 extra mobs with your Volley they’ll still be alive to bail you out and hold aggro.
Please remember though, when you’re in an instance Tenacity pets are a big no-no. They’ll pull aggro with many of their skills even with growl turned off, so be sure to have a ferocity pet in the stables if you decide to run with a group.
What do I raid with?
Preferably a Wolf. These pets were always lack luster until the improvements to Furious Howl when it was revamped to give 320 AP to hunter and pet for 20 seconds. This stacks with raid buffs and is up for about 50% of the time. If you insist on raiding with another pet, for the sake of being different, Cat or Raptor should set you apart from the crowd without getting you laughed out of a raid. These pets were the preferred dps before the buff to wolves.
If you’re BM Devilsaurs are your best bet, I mean you’re already raiding as BM may as well be raiding with a freaking dinosaur. But seriously, Monstrous Bite is pretty awesome.
I’m so Awesome I want to PvP too!
This admittedly is where my advice is it’s weakest. I personally pvp with my spider. In battlegrounds spiders are preferred because they have a web that will hold your enemy in place up to four seconds. This comes in pretty handy- as it allows you to shoot a ret pally a couple times before they melt your face!
In arena, from the research I’ve done SV is the premier spec to be, with a crab as your pet. Crabs also have a pin ability to hold your enemy in place, but with this they also have the Roar of Sacrifice, (all tenacity pets have the ability to gain this), which makes them slightly better than spiders for arena. Though this ability was nerfed in patch 3.2, because hunter’s aren’t supposed to win at arena.
Spiders = no no for pvp, bat or ravager if you’re looking to roll with a cunning pet.
http://www.noobflicks.com/watch/8367/spiders_suck
Thanks for the heads up, as a casual PvPer, my spider has worked out well for me, but I’ll definitely be testing out your suggestions! Your videos, particularly “The Wedding Crash”, are wonderful!
Please continue to stop by and post!
HI OPHE!
<3
Imho, spiders are actually very nice in pvp. Their ranged snare is just delicious for kiting that pesky melee around, or you could even use it to prevent someone from LOS’ing.
Just as a sidenote: I haven’t seen one hunter yet in arenas who didn’t have a spider. (except the rare BM hunter)
The spider, while useful, is too easily countered in an arena setting by every class but shaman (excluding enhance). The bat stun, while on a long cooldown, can win or lose a match for you due to interrupting a heal or saving your partner(s).
I realize it’s mostly subjective, but why no mention of the bear for leveling? He’s ( iirc ) the only tenacity pet with his own AoE attack, making multi mob tanking with him amazing when he gets thunderstomp as well..
I’ve always favored my Gorilladin, this is mostly out of habit and sentimentality, though I do find their pummel very useful for pulling stubborn casters into my volley
Bear is also a lovely choice of a leveling pet though. for the reasons you mentioned.
Spider is presently brilliant for PvP arena, due to the cornered bug (granting it more survivability than a tenacity pet), RoR, and the ranged root. Anyone telling you different is wrong.
Until 3.3 where the Cornered bug will be fixed (AFTER 3.3 when people tell you Spider isn’t fantastic they’ll be right).
The best non-BM pets for arena are presently Spider, Ravager, Crab, Serpent.
Best part about being a Hunter is the fact that the majority of the class knowledge that you accumulate will be changed from patch to patch.
Edit: Don’t take my word for it, check Arenajunkies Hunter forums, we’ll tell you the same there too.
Thanks for the info, of course everyone has their preferences, what works for most may not work for some. I personally love my spider for the casual pvp that I do.
Thank you for more thoroughly explaining why spiders are currently in the lead as the most favored PvP pet.
a ranged root that can be removed by all but two classes excluding one spec, and including one race. How is hoping your opponents don’t have common sense “brilliant” in any way, shape or form?