Hello, I have a level 41 BM hunter that I really enjoy and I had some questions about getting the most out of her. I will summarize them at the bottom of the post. Here is my armory if it helps any.
www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Uldaman&n=Dianaroma
I am kind of a fresh 40 and I am having difficulty upgrading her to full mail gear of the monkey. It is happening, just slowly.
This is what I need help with. I have two level 40 pets right now and I am trying to decide which of the two to use the most often as I have no intention of running back to a major city every half level and switching pets just to level them both up along with me. One is a wolf, a Coyote Packleader named Alpha to be precise, that I have had and trained since level 11. The other is a recent acquirement of Goreclaw, a very nice looking Raptor I am fond of that I have since renamed Horatius. Both have the highest levels of skills they can learn at this time. Alpha has Furious Howl 3 and Dash 2 while I have trained Horatius in Dash 2, both use Bite and Growl if it matters.
I play mostly solo PvE and I prefer to use my pets as kind of a tank, I have Alpha trained mostly in Armor while Horatius is training in Stamina as my offensive pet. I will occasionally pull off of the pet but that is happening less often now. Horatius is only at level 4 Loyalty wise while Alpha is of course at level 6. However I noticed when leveling Horatius up a bit that he already edges out Alpha in damage done. I do not pull mobs off of Horatius any more than with Alpha, possibly a little less and once that Loyalty level goes all the way up he will be doing more damage than he already does now and that will make it even harder to pull mobs off of him. I did notice Horatius does not seem to be able to take as much of a pounding as Alpha, but he is giving better than he gets.
Even though I think Diana looks better with Alpha following her around, I am trying to figure out which of the two I should be using from here on out as the main pet. I also need to know if I should respec Alpha to be more middle of the road, give him both equal amounts of Great Stamina and Natural Armor like I used to or specialize in just one of them.
Summary of questions
1. Do I continue to use Alpha as my main pet or switch over to Horatius? Why?
2. If I use Alpha should I keep his training focused on Natural Armor or go back to an even mix of Natural Armor and Great Stamina or even just switch focus on Great Stamina? Why?
3. Which of the two do you recommend for fast leveling and overall effectiveness in combat?
4. What pet did you chose? How did you build him/her? Why?
5. If you can offer any further assistance or advice beyond just the questions it would be appreciated.
Thank you.
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To be quite blunt, your post is just another "what's the best pet?" post and as such will elicit a response appopriate for that type of post.
To answer all of your questions, though, go with the pet that can do the most damage, meaning the raptor, but I would recommend getting a cat, ravager, scorpid, or windserpent instead, but thats just me. The differences in base pet stats among all pets is negligible, in the sense that a "defensive" pet will not survive much longer, if at all, than an "offensive" pet when it comes down to boss fights or soloing. Therefore picking a pet that can kill faster is more beneficial than picking a pet that can survive longer, because that "longer" comes to about 2 seconds, if that.
The highest DPS pet is the ravager, second is cat, third is probably scorpid, and 4th is a tie between windserpent and raptor, but this is all highly dependant on what kind of damage you prefer, consistant DPS or Burst damage, and that choice normally comes down to whether you focus on PvE or PvP. PvP = Burst, PvE = consistant.
So in short, go with Horatius, you'll level faster and do more damage in groups, and as a BM Hunter thats basically your only job in a group.
To answer all of your questions, though, go with the pet that can do the most damage, meaning the raptor, but I would recommend getting a cat, ravager, scorpid, or windserpent instead, but thats just me. The differences in base pet stats among all pets is negligible, in the sense that a "defensive" pet will not survive much longer, if at all, than an "offensive" pet when it comes down to boss fights or soloing. Therefore picking a pet that can kill faster is more beneficial than picking a pet that can survive longer, because that "longer" comes to about 2 seconds, if that.
The highest DPS pet is the ravager, second is cat, third is probably scorpid, and 4th is a tie between windserpent and raptor, but this is all highly dependant on what kind of damage you prefer, consistant DPS or Burst damage, and that choice normally comes down to whether you focus on PvE or PvP. PvP = Burst, PvE = consistant.
So in short, go with Horatius, you'll level faster and do more damage in groups, and as a BM Hunter thats basically your only job in a group.
1. Using either at this point in the game won't gimp you significantly. If you are planning to keep either one to use at 70, pick the raptor, as he's one of the top DPS pets and very useful in 5-man instances and raids.
2. Both stamina and armor are useful for tanking pets while you're grinding, so using both is good. If you had to pick one, though, my opinion is that stamina is better but I don't have numbers to back that up.
3. They're both effective for various reasons, and you should be able to level just as fast with either. One exception would be that if you find yourself needing to heal your raptor more often than you would your wolf, and this is a mana issue that causes downtime, this may reduce your leveling time, but not significantly.
4. I chose a boar because they are great defensive pets, they eat almost everything, and charge is a very useful ability. I used armor and stamina, as well as charge, bite and gore (though I didn't use gore much while I was leveling because I didn't want my pet to have too little focus and not be able to growl). At 70 I use my cat exclusively, but I still have my boar for levels 71-80, when the expansion comes out.
5. If you've made it to 41 with a wolf and raptor, you will be fine with any pet. Keep up the good work!
2. Both stamina and armor are useful for tanking pets while you're grinding, so using both is good. If you had to pick one, though, my opinion is that stamina is better but I don't have numbers to back that up.
3. They're both effective for various reasons, and you should be able to level just as fast with either. One exception would be that if you find yourself needing to heal your raptor more often than you would your wolf, and this is a mana issue that causes downtime, this may reduce your leveling time, but not significantly.
4. I chose a boar because they are great defensive pets, they eat almost everything, and charge is a very useful ability. I used armor and stamina, as well as charge, bite and gore (though I didn't use gore much while I was leveling because I didn't want my pet to have too little focus and not be able to growl). At 70 I use my cat exclusively, but I still have my boar for levels 71-80, when the expansion comes out.
5. If you've made it to 41 with a wolf and raptor, you will be fine with any pet. Keep up the good work!
Scholar
49 posts
90% of your questions can be answered with a bit of browsing. Neither the wolf nor the raptor is the HIGHEST dps pet. Although I'm no theorycrafter, I have heard that ravagers combination of bite/gore produces the highest dps since the scorpid nerf. Use Petopia as your tool. It includes a ton of useful information on pets abilities, skins, etc.
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
(1) This is a simple question of personal preference.
(2) While leveling I took all the highest rank of stamina and armor skills and neglected the resistance ones. All he/she needs to be is a meat shield so stock up on both as best you can.
(3) Six to one a half dozen to another.
(4) I used the unique lion from Mulgore from level 10-50ish. After that I picked up a gorilla from Un'Goro. They are excellent multi-mob tanks due to their thunderclap-esque ability.
(5) Your pet choice while leveling is really a matter of personal preference. All the pets perform similarly and shine depending on the situation. You shouldn't have to worry too much about the "highest" dps pet until endgame. Even then no ones going to complain if you don't have the "right" pet. Basically just choose whichever you can stand to watch follow you around for 29 more levels (and beyond).
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/
(1) This is a simple question of personal preference.
(2) While leveling I took all the highest rank of stamina and armor skills and neglected the resistance ones. All he/she needs to be is a meat shield so stock up on both as best you can.
(3) Six to one a half dozen to another.
(4) I used the unique lion from Mulgore from level 10-50ish. After that I picked up a gorilla from Un'Goro. They are excellent multi-mob tanks due to their thunderclap-esque ability.
(5) Your pet choice while leveling is really a matter of personal preference. All the pets perform similarly and shine depending on the situation. You shouldn't have to worry too much about the "highest" dps pet until endgame. Even then no ones going to complain if you don't have the "right" pet. Basically just choose whichever you can stand to watch follow you around for 29 more levels (and beyond).
As most of your questions have been answered, I will try and answer the "why?" part of question (2).
(2) Yes, a balance of armor and stamina is the right way to go with your pet while leveling. But let's say you find yourself in a situation where for example you have 6/7 trained in both Natural Armor and Great Stamina and only enough training points to train to 7/7 in one of the two, go with Great Stamina. This is because Natural Armor (increasing his armor) will only help mitigate physical damage. Any spell cast against him will not benefit from the increased armor. By increasing your pet's health, you are essentially mitigating both physical and magic damage to him by giving him more hit points to take the damage from any source.
(2) Yes, a balance of armor and stamina is the right way to go with your pet while leveling. But let's say you find yourself in a situation where for example you have 6/7 trained in both Natural Armor and Great Stamina and only enough training points to train to 7/7 in one of the two, go with Great Stamina. This is because Natural Armor (increasing his armor) will only help mitigate physical damage. Any spell cast against him will not benefit from the increased armor. By increasing your pet's health, you are essentially mitigating both physical and magic damage to him by giving him more hit points to take the damage from any source.
7 posts
I can't tell for certain from your post, but it looks like you might not be aware of the fact that you can learn skills from other pets and teach them to your current pet. This way, you can teach your pet the highest level available of skills that can't be learned from a trainer, like bite and claw. Petopia has information on the different skills that can be learned by the different families of pets, and which creatures know which levels of which skills. So stable your pet, go out and tame a pet, fight by it for a few fights until you get the message: New Skill Learned (Skill: Level). Then abandon that temporary pull your pet out of the stable and teach it the new skill. But you may know that already.
I prefer Claw over Bite for damage, although some use both. Big Red Kitty is a great source of information about Hunters who specialize in the Beast Mastery talent tree. Read his BM talent guide for some good information on the topic. Lots of good information in the right hand side of his blog under the heading: BRK's Hunter Training List - If You Read Nothing Else, Read These.
To answer your questions:
1. I'd recommend a third option. If you like the look of the wolf, consider training a cat. They make great pets - with the DPS of the raptor but they might appeal more to your aesthetic sense.
2. I've had no trouble training up to the max level in both armor and health. BRK seems to advocate health over armor at high levels when you also need resistances, but I would recommend leveling with max health and armor and not worry so much about resists while leveling. When I was bringing a new pet on board, I preferred armor over health as mitigating damage seemed more valuable than absorbing it, but I have no theorycraft to back that up, just a gut feel.
3. The general rule is more damage = faster leveling. I'd recommend the cat/raptor for that reason since they both have a +10% to damage over the wolf.
4. I've used both boar and cat. The boar is fantastic while leveling because the boar's charge ability starts the combat extremely quickly and builds so much aggro that I can't pull the enemy away from the boar no matter what I do. It's practically idiot proof in that regard, which is great for some of us idiots. I currently use the cat, but I've had to get better about watching my aggro (I use a threat meter) and using Intimidate, as well as Disengage as necessary to keep the mob on my cat. It works, and the cat seems to do marginally more damage so I'm going to stick with it.
5. Hopefully I have. Good luck and happy hunting!
I prefer Claw over Bite for damage, although some use both. Big Red Kitty is a great source of information about Hunters who specialize in the Beast Mastery talent tree. Read his BM talent guide for some good information on the topic. Lots of good information in the right hand side of his blog under the heading: BRK's Hunter Training List - If You Read Nothing Else, Read These.
To answer your questions:
1. I'd recommend a third option. If you like the look of the wolf, consider training a cat. They make great pets - with the DPS of the raptor but they might appeal more to your aesthetic sense.
2. I've had no trouble training up to the max level in both armor and health. BRK seems to advocate health over armor at high levels when you also need resistances, but I would recommend leveling with max health and armor and not worry so much about resists while leveling. When I was bringing a new pet on board, I preferred armor over health as mitigating damage seemed more valuable than absorbing it, but I have no theorycraft to back that up, just a gut feel.
3. The general rule is more damage = faster leveling. I'd recommend the cat/raptor for that reason since they both have a +10% to damage over the wolf.
4. I've used both boar and cat. The boar is fantastic while leveling because the boar's charge ability starts the combat extremely quickly and builds so much aggro that I can't pull the enemy away from the boar no matter what I do. It's practically idiot proof in that regard, which is great for some of us idiots. I currently use the cat, but I've had to get better about watching my aggro (I use a threat meter) and using Intimidate, as well as Disengage as necessary to keep the mob on my cat. It works, and the cat seems to do marginally more damage so I'm going to stick with it.
5. Hopefully I have. Good luck and happy hunting!
7 posts
Great point about the value of stamina over armor. One thing I will say is that from my experience the overwhelming majority of damage you take leveling is physical. I think (but don't know for sure) that armor mitigates more damage (although physical only) than you would get out of the HP increase from greater stamina. One way to think of it is that increased HPs only help against a certain number of hits and then they're gone. Armor helps on every physical hit until you die. Advantages to both for sure, and you should be able to keep them both pretty even and close to maxed out while you level.
The effectiveness of armor or stamina is directly relative to the mob attacking the pet.
For levelling, a generically set up pet works well, at least it has for me. I don't have max armor or stamina in my pet but a mixture of both after getting the offensive needs of the pet taken care of first. I also throw in resistances to 60 in all areas. This gives the pet a universal chance at anything I throw him at. It does NOT give him the best chance at a given target. It's a generic setting that a levelling pet can get away with. He dies fast against heavy magic using targets. He does better against physical attacks from targets. The resists kick in from time to time and he lives well enough against magic and nature users. Saved him and me a few times.
In the end, it really makes no difference. Saving against a wipe one way will create a wipe in a different manner.
A comedian once quipped: "My lottery numbers are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Don't laugh, they have the same odds of coming up as yours do."
For levelling, a generically set up pet works well, at least it has for me. I don't have max armor or stamina in my pet but a mixture of both after getting the offensive needs of the pet taken care of first. I also throw in resistances to 60 in all areas. This gives the pet a universal chance at anything I throw him at. It does NOT give him the best chance at a given target. It's a generic setting that a levelling pet can get away with. He dies fast against heavy magic using targets. He does better against physical attacks from targets. The resists kick in from time to time and he lives well enough against magic and nature users. Saved him and me a few times.
In the end, it really makes no difference. Saving against a wipe one way will create a wipe in a different manner.
A comedian once quipped: "My lottery numbers are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Don't laugh, they have the same odds of coming up as yours do."
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