BM Hunter Pet Abuse

[Gaffy]

Can't get the armory link for him currently (at work where they block wow, and just moved so having to wait till Saturday for internet hookup) but he's Erwinor on Quel'dorei (US). Mostly the LW crafted pvp gear and quest gear atm.

[Shaitan256]

Can't get the armory link for him currently (at work where they block wow, and just moved so having to wait till Saturday for internet hookup) but he's Erwinor on Quel'dorei (US). Mostly the LW crafted pvp gear and quest gear atm.

I guess if you focus on Stamina you could boost your pet has about 20k (with pet talents of course) and if you focus all your talents on the pet, too, wouldn't really make it a tank but would increase its ability to survive a few seconds after a taunt.

I'm going to play my Hunters ^^

[Boylston]

Solo hunters have already MTed a couple heroics with their pets... http://bigredrhino.wordpress.com/200...eep-heroic-mt/

Multi-hunters have some nice advantages in that you can lose a pet and just allow others to pick up tanking. Reviving the pet is a 4sec unlimited battle rez... I haven't attempted one yet, but I am optimistic that at least a few will be possible with slightly better gear.

I do worry that I might have made a mistake in using Druid as my healer, since I think the best buff for heroics is going to be Fortitude, since you get 161% of its benefit on your pets' health. Pets are super easy to heal and their mitigation is pretty decent, but their health pool is a bit small.

[Shaitan256]

Yeah, that's making them vulnerable. And the 1.6% crit left is a big issue.

Yeah haven't seen this post, was just on that page by coincidence as I googled for "Heroic Pet Tanking". Yeah that with Fortitude is insane and with blessing of kings too? does they scale up each other on the pet? That would be really insane xD
Priests also have Shields and can Give a + to Spell dmg and Spirit.

But I guess I will use my Pet as off tank and I call it "Side Tank" because it's just taking dmg via absorbing and at the big attacks Taunting so their is a chance for me to make things a lot easier. Gonna start today with 1 Team, but don't really know if it's going to be a regular grp pr a 5xdruid / 5xShaman But I guess I'd put a hunter into this regular grp.

But the real pet Skills are available @ 44 (intervene) or 62 (last row of the tree, or 60 with the BM talent of course)

Hehe, with 3 Hunters this would be insane DPS and you could keep the Roar on Cooldown xD what makes the tank taking all the time 30% less dmg Guess I'll start draenei then, get an extra HoT and Hit isn't bad at all^^

[Boylston]

Yeah, a priest with the talented PW:Fort gives a pet about:

165*1.3*1.61*10 = 3453 extra hit points...

I just got my crew to L80 last week, and am still a little undergeared for heroics, but I definitely think I'll be testing the waters soon. I know from being in heroics with 2-3 of my hunters (and a real, player controlled tank) that trash is really not a problem, but the bosses hit very hard. I am not worried about the remaining 1.6% chance to be crit so much, since there's always a backup tank if a pet gets crit hard and dies. I am more worried about just having the pets killed in 1-2 regular attacks. 3453 hit points would go a long way and maybe allow the healing to get off another heal.

I am still convinced that the druid is possibly the best healer for the multi-hunter PvE setup, largely due to some of the amazing glyphs. (I also think Wild Growth is >> Circle of Healing.) However, a priest might be the best way to get started doing heroics until pet health gets into the 20-25k range.

For bosses, I have been working on a macro rotation to always keep Roar of Sacrifice up on the main tanking pet. I'll report back when I get it working well.

[Shaitan256]

That's a lot for 1 Buff.

Didn't know that Wild Growth affects Pets as well.

GL HF

[Gaffy]

I am still convinced that the druid is possibly the best healer for the multi-hunter PvE setup,

I was thinking the same only for the multiple hot's all boosted up an extra 50% could mean a massive amount of health per tic, as long as the pet doesn't get 1-2 shotted, the hots would be able to bring the health back up

[Boylston]

Glyph of Rejuvenation is awesome for pets-- boosts healing of rejuv another 50% when the target is below half health, which is when you need it the most. Combined with all the extra +Heal% that talented pets get, rejuv can give a LOT of health to a pet. I think of it as life insurance. Glyphed regrowth is also nice, it gives another 20% to a regrowth if there's a regrowth HoT still active on the target. A properly talented regrowth crits a TON, which also procs a reactive heal on the target... There's just a lot of synergy...

IF the target can avoid being 1-2 shotted. That's the main concern. I think with some gear and proper Roar of Sacrifice chaining, my pet crew will become beefy enough to tank bosses without too much worry. We'll see.

Pretty much the only significant advantage that priests have over druids for healing a hunter multiboxer setup is Fortitude. Unless changes are made, Wild Growth heals more per application than Circle of Healing, and it's HoT ability is actually useful in boss encounters because you can pre-apply some healing to people you know will get AoEd. On the whole, they are very equivalent, but I prefer the druid style after having spent the last 10 levels appreciating how much forgiveness HoTs give the pets.

It stinks that Pallies don't have decent AoE healing capability. The only interesting pally mechanic that might be worth exploiting is their Beacon of Light ability for boss fights. Using Roar of Sacrifice, you could ensure that a second pet is always taking some of the tank's damage, and now have two targets that are soaking damage-- an ideal situation for how Beacon works.

* * *

My current healing strategy as a druid is...

Keep Rejuv up on anything that has aggro. (Life Insurance)
Regrowth spam on any target that is taking significant damage
Wild Growth on either the pet group or the huntard group every 6 seconds

I don't roll lifeblooms too much during trash, because I generally just let the pets have a free-for-all and duke it out for aggro. Wild Growth is awesome for dealing with this bouncing aggro. Lifeblooms are employed only on boss fights when I try to keep aggro on a single hunter pet.

For the last three weeks, I have pretended that WG already has a 6 second cooldown, and I will not re-use it while it is still ticking on anyone. I don't think the nerf will impact my playstyle much as a result.

[Shaitan256]

Yeah the glyphs are insane for Heal druids (haven't looked at the other yet) If it's only Fortitude is the druid to 100% the better choice, you could ask a Priest if he casts you the 1 Hour thing on you be fore you get into a Instance, give him just the Money for his Reagents, don't think they won't do it^^

Regrowth is insane you can get it to 70%ish with talents and normal 5% crit , without any +crit rating. If you have 4 Pets it's doable Keep RoaroS up, if your going to get 4 Tenacity Pets .

[Boylston]

There's no reason not to go with 4xGorillas (tenacity pets). Several of us in this team composition have tested other combinations, we almost always come back to 4xGorillas...