The Warcraft Hunter

Depending on which kind of cat you tame, you might find that it automatically wants to go into stealth mode. This can be annoying, especially since it slows down the cat, and it will lag behind whenever you are running. In addition, it takes a lot longer for it to attack mobs. Granted, it will do more damage at least initially, but this small advantage is outweighed by the inconvenience.

This is often seen as a bug, much like the Cower and Growl bugs that are well known to hunters. However, the stealth issue is easily resolved, or at least it always has been for me. All you need to do is open your pet’s spell screen, right-click on the Prowl button, which should turn off the auto cast for prowl. This is what stops the pet from automatically going into stealth mode.

Now, to remove the pet from stealth mode, all you need to do is click on the Prowl button one more time — a simple left click this time. This is a one time cast, and with the auto cast turned off it is a simple toggle between stealth and normal mode.

My experience has been that this fix does not switch back, even when switching pets in and out of the stable. The only time I have seen Prowl turned on by itself is when I have tamed a new pet. If anyone else has seen it differently, please let us know in comments.

Pets Hunter, Pets, Warcraft

Pets in the Cunning Tree are a sort of hybrid between tenacity and ferocity. In addition to this they have a couple of effects that might actually come in handy during some prolonged fights. Most of these pets are of the winged type such as bats and birds of prey, but also include serpents and ravagers.

I have not used any of these types of pets, so my comments must be taken with a grain of salt. I am only going to give you my impression of what these talents would be useful for, but it is possible that I may be way off base. In addition, since so many of the talents on this tree are the same as on Ferocity and Tenacity, I will only list the talents that are unique to this tree.

I welcome any comments from anyone who has used these pets, or has any insight on how well they operate under various conditions.

Tier 2

Mobility, 2 ranks. This talent simply reduces the cooldown on Dash or Dive by 8 seconds and 16 seconds. Not a huge bonus in my opinion, but might make grinding or farming a little faster.

Owl’s Focus, 2 ranks. There is a 15 and 30% chance that there will be no focus cost the next time your pet uses an ability within 8 seconds of the previous one. Maintaining focus for your pet is a lot like maintaining Mana for yourself. This could come in handy.

Tier 3

Carrion Feeder, 1 rank. Your pet can feed on corpses in order to generate health and happiness. This will save on the necessity to carry food for your pet, or at least reduce it. This seems pretty minor to me, especially as there are options in that beast master tree for hunters that pretty much reduce the necessity to feed your pet to zero.

Tier 4

Cornered, 2 ranks. Your pet does 25% and 50% more damage and is 25% and 50% less likely to be critically hit when it is at less than 35% health itself. This sounds like an excellent talent, but I would expect it to be ineffective in PVP or raid. In PVP, other players are less likely to focus on your pet then on you, and he made you want to be careful how much threat you generate. I may be wrong about this though, and I would be glad to hear about anyone’s experience with this.

Feeding Frenzy, 2 ranks. Your pet does 6% and 12% more damage to targets when they are below 35% health. I like this a little more than the previous talent, especially since it helps bring down mobs faster. If I were to get a pet in this tree, I am pretty sure I would grab this talent.

Tier 5

Bullheaded, 1 rank. This talent helps keep control of your pet by removing all movement impairing effects, such as freezing or rooting. I can imagine this being quite useful, but I don’t know how important this is compared to other talents. There are times when I wish that my pet was not stunned, but it is relatively rare and does not last for very long.

Roar of Recovery, 1 rank. When your pet rulers it restores 30% of your Mana over 9 seconds. Since there is a cooldown of six minutes on this I am not sure how useful it turns out to be. Since aspect of the Viper pretty much restores mana over a few seconds anyway, this might be less useful than it appears.

Wolverine Bite, 1 rank. A special attack that does extra damage and cannot be dodged block or parried.

None of these talents is a standout for me. Even as a group they do not impress me that much, but it may be that I am underestimating their combined effectiveness. I might try out one of these pets as a mere curiosity, but as I don’t expect it would be that effective I cannot imagine that I will spend a lot of time leveling it to the point where I can give it a fair comparison. Therefore, I am asking for anyone who has experience with these to please comment.

Basics, Pets Basics, Hunter, Pets, Warcraft

The role of a Hunter in any group situation is to do as much damage as possible. It makes sense, therefore, that in this situation you would want to have a pet that can do as much damage as possible as well. Pets in the Ferocity tree are exactly what you need for this situation.

Cats, Wolves, and Raptors are the most common beasts picked for their Ferocity. Core Hounds and Devilsaurs are examples of exotic Ferocity pets.

Not only do Ferocity pets have the ability to do extra damage, but they also have some interesting talents that help them stay alive. This is important; after all, how can your pet do extra DPS when it is dead? However, it is vital that you do not pick too many talents that focus on defensive aspects for your pet. Remember that your job is to do damage, and all the talents that you choose for your Ferocity pet should aim towards that goal.

Tier 1

Cobra Reflexes (2 Ranks). this talent will increase your pet attacks feet by 15% and 30%. However, each attack will do less damage. The important effect here is that your pet attacks more frequently, and thus has more chance to proc certain skills. Ferocious Inspiration is one such proc that can help your group do a lot more damage. A must-have.

Dash or Dive (1 Rank). Increases your pet’s speed by 80% for 16 seconds. the faster your pet can get to an enemy, the faster it can do damage. This is a must have talent.

Great Stamina (3 Ranks). Increases your pet’s total stamina by 4%, 8%, and 12%. This is not what I would focus on for a ferocity pet. However, you may find that you need to put one or two talent points here, eventually.

Natural armor (2 Ranks). Increases your pet’s armor by 5% and 10%. Again, this is not the best talent for a ferocity pet to health, but if your pet is dying frequently, you may need to pick one talent in this or in Great Stamina.

Tier 2

Bloodthirsty (2 Ranks). Your pet’s attacks have a 10% and a 20% chance to increase its happiness by 5% and heal its total health by 5%. Obviously the healing is important, because your pet will stay alive longer; but the happiness is important too, as it will do 25% more damage than normal when it is happy.

Boar’s speed (1 Rank). Your pet’s movement speed is increased by 30%. This is a permanent increase, as opposed to the temporary increase in Dash or Dive. Once again, moving faster means it can get to the enemy faster, and thus do more damage.

Improved Cower (2 Ranks). When your pet cowers, it will also decrease the damage against it by 10% and 20%. If you find that your pet is getting aggro frequently, you may want to take one or two points in this talent. This would be applicable only in a group situation, where the tank is supposed to hold aggro. It is not a good talent to have when you are playing solo, because you want your pet to keep aggro as much as possible.

Spiked collar (3 Ranks). Your pet’s damage is increased by 3%, 6%, and 9%. Anything that increases damage is good, so you should grab as many points as you can here.

Tier 3

Avoidance (3 Ranks). The amount of damage that your pet takes from area of effect spells is decreased by 25%, 50%, and 75%. This is not especially useful for Ferocity pets, unless this is a specialty pet being used just for mobs that specialize in AoE damage.

Charge or Swoop (1 Rank). When your pet charges an enemy or swoops at it, it will increase its attack power by 25% on its next attack, as well as immobilize the enemy. This is a good one to have.

Lionhearted (2 ranks). Stun and fear effects are reduced by 15% and 30%. Again, this talent is a little bit questionable for ferocity pets. Unless you are fighting mobs that fear or stun frequently, this will be of little use to you. (However, if your pet is feared or stunned, it cannot do any damage.) Also, this talent does not lead to any Tier 4 or Tier 5 talents, so I never bother to get this talent.

Tier 4

Great Resistance (3 ranks). Damage to your pet by Arcane, Fire, Frost, Shadow, and Nature are reduced by 3%, 6%, and 9%. Since this does not focus on doing damage, and does not lead to any other talents, this is not worth having.

Heart of the Phoenix (1 rank). Allows you to instantly rez your pet after it dies in battle, with full health and focus. This is an absolute must-have talent for a Ferocity pet. Grab this as soon as you can. It has saved my life more time than I can count.

Spiders Bite (3 ranks). Your pet’s attacks have a 3%, 6%, and 9% extra critical strike chance. Since so many other skills and spells are invoked by critical strikes, it makes sense to get all three ranks of this talent.

Tier 5

Call of the Wild (1 rank). Your pet roars, thereby increasing both ranged attack and melee attack power for all members of your party that are within 40 yards by 10% for 20 seconds. This sounds like a lot of extra damage, but there is a five minute cool down, and it does not affect spell damage. That being said, extra damage is extra damage. You may want this one.

Lick your Wounds (1 rank). Your pet is healed for 100% of its health, channeled over 5 seconds. Again, this sounds useful. But in a group situation, it is the healer’s responsibility under normal circumstances to keep everyone healed. And since you would already have Heart of the Phoenix, you should not need this extra healing as well.

Rabid (1 rank). Your pet increases its attack power by 5%, with a 50% chance of increasing attack power by an additional 5%, stacking up to five times. This lasts for 20 seconds and has a 45 second cooldown. It is difficult to stack this five times and thereby get 25% extra damage, and it requires three points in the avoidance talent. But again, extra damage is extra damage, and this may well be worth having. It usually comes down to either this or Call of the Wild.

Basics, Pets Basics, Hunter, Pets, Warcraft

Tenacity Pets are the type of pets that every new Hunter should start off with, especially if you are new to the game. The reason for this is that they will act as a tank for you, taking all or most of the damage from opposing mobs, and surviving attacks from multiple mobs. This makes questing so much easier, as you don’t have to try to pick off one mob at a time.

Bears and boars are the easiest beasts to tame as they are all over Azeroth. Both of these pets are omnivorous, which comes in handy if you happen to run out of meat to feed your pet. When you get to Stranglethorn you will want to tame a Gorilla — they are my absolute favorite pet to level with.

Like all the Pet Talent Trees, Tenacity comes in 5 Tiers. To be able to pick anything in one of the higher Tiers, you need to have at least 3 Talents picked from the one below it. Also, some of the Talents require other specific Talents to have been picked.  Starting with level 20, your pet is assigned one Talent point every 4 levels that can be “spent” on Talents within this tree.

When picking the talents you need to think about two different things: 1) What is the role that my pet is playing; 2) What are the big Talents in Tier 5 that I will want. For question one, the easy answer is that your Tenacity Pet is tanking, so Armor and Stamina will be the primary focus, along with Threat generation. Talents that help the pet increase damage are secondary, unless they also increase threat.

Here are the Talents available in the tree, and their relative importance:

Tier 1:

Cobra Reflexes (2 Ranks). This Talent increases the speed at which your pet attacks, but reduces the amount of damage per attack. The net benefit is slightly increased damage, which at first seems like a bad idea for a Tenacity pet. But later on when you get other Talents both in your own tree as well as your pet’s, there will be “procs” that will occur from time to time based on your pet’s attacks. The more often your pet attacks, the more often these happen, and this is a good thing. However, you should wait until mid levels before grabbing this one, as it will do little good for you at a lower levels.

Charge (1 Rank). With this Talent your pet is able to charge an enemy and immobilize it for 1 second, and increase his own damage to the enemy on his next attack by 25%. Aside from the extra damage out and reduced damage in, there is another couple of benefits to this Talent. One is that the attacks happen sooner, which makes questing and grinding faster. The second is that it increases the distance between the Hunter and the mob, since the mob does not have time to start running toward the pet as it is on its way to attack. This extra distance can come in handy if the pet can’t hold aggro. I would pick the Talent up as one of the 3 you need to move to the next Tier.

Great Stamina (3 Ranks). Each Rank increases your pet’s total Stamina by 4%for a total of 12% if you get all three ranks. This is definitely one of the Talents you will want to max out as soon as possible, not only for its benefits, but for the follow-up Talent that becomes available.

Natural Armor (2 Ranks). Increases your pet’s Armor by 5% and 10%. This is a must-have, as is the follow up Talent that becomes available. Overall, with purely physical damage, Armor tends to outweigh Stamina in terms of keeping your pet alive, especially in long fights. However, you will encounter many caster mobs who deal damage that cannot be mitigated by armor. That’s why I recommend taking alternate ranks of Natural Armor and Great Stamina until they are both maxed out.

Tier 2

Blood of the Rhino (2 Ranks). This becomes available after you get three ranks in Great Stamina, and is definitely a must-have. Your pet gets a 2% and 4% boost to Stamina, but even better there is a 20% and 40% boost to healing effects. These should be your first to Talents in this tier.

Boar’s Speed (1 Rank). Increases your pet’s speed by 30%. This may not seem like a big thing, but the truth is I always take this as soon as I can. Maybe I am just impatient but I hate seeing my pet move slowly, especially if he is trying to get to a mob that is attacking me. Even if you don’t take it right away, you will want it eventually.

Pet Barding (2 Ranks). This talent increases your pet’s armor by 5% and 10%, and increases his chance to dodge melee attacks by 1% and 2%. This is a nice one to have, but it can wait until you have some higher Tier talents that have greater effect. There is nothing extra that becomes available when you max this out, so get your higher tier Talents first.

Spiked Collar (3 Ranks). This talent increases the damage done by your pet by 3%/6%/9%. This is not where your points should be going, as a Tenacity pet is supposed to hold aggro and absorb damage, not deal it out. I will take all the free extra damage I get, but I will not sacrifice my pet’s ability to stay alive in order to get extra DPS.

Tier 3

Avoidance (3 Ranks). This Talent reduces the amount of damage taken by your pet due to AoE attacks (Area of Effect) by 25%/50%/75%. This Talent can be quite good if you expect to encounter a lot of AoE attacks, but it also unlocks the Tier 5 Talent Last Stand. This is definitely a Talent to consider, unless doing so prevents you from choosing the Tier 5 Talent or Talents of your choice.

Guard Dog (2 Ranks). Increases Threat generated by your pet by 10% and 20%. Also increases its happiness, thereby nearly eliminating the need for feeding if you are in combat frequently. For me, this is one of the two must-have Talents, along with Taunt (which this Talent unlocks). It reduces the chance that you will grab aggro from your pet, making solo play that much easier.

Intervene (1 Rank). This Talent allows your pet to run toward you or a party member and intercept the next melee attack against them. As good as this sounds I have never found it to be necessary, and I have never regretted not having it.  By the time you reach a level where you can grab this there are so many ways to avoid melee (Feign Death, Disengage, Freeze Trap, or even just having the pet attack the mob) that it seems redundant. And since this Talent does not unlock any others I can safely suggest that you leave this one out of the mix.

Lionhearted (2 Ranks). Reduces the Stun and Fear effects duration by 15% and 30%. This is another Talent that I have never chosen, but from time to time I have wished that I had it. When your pet is stunned and you are trying to get him to attack the mob that is attacking you, it can get frustrating. However, I have never died by not having it, and it also does not unlock anything.

Tier 4

Grace of the Mantis (2 Ranks). Reduces the chance your pet with bit hit with a Crit by 2% and 4%. This one depends on whether you expect to get hit by higher level mobs or not, as those lower than you will rarely crit anyway. Better to go with Armor or Stamina that will be better for all or most situations. But it is not a waste, and it unlocks Roar of Sacrifice, and you will need 3 points in Tier 4 before you can get anything in Tier 5, so I usually end up with points in this Talent.

Great Resistance (3 Ranks). Your pet takes 3%/6%/9% less damage from damages of the Frost, Arcane, Fire, Shadow and Nature type. Since you need to choose between this Talent and Grace of the Mantis, you will end up having at least one point in this Talent if you want any in Tier 5. Whether you spend 2 or 3 will depend on whether you expect to farm in areas where you will encounter this type of damage more frequently than melee or ranged. You can always get another pet specifically for this purpose and use all the points in this talent.

Tier 5

Last Stand (1 Rank). Your pet gains 30% of its maximum Health for 20 seconds, after which it is lost. Given that this has a 6 minute cooldown, I would never take it. Also, if you are frequently getting to the point where you need this in order for your pet to survive then you probably are doing something wrong.

Roar of Sacrifice (1 Rank). This Talent allows your pet to absorb 30% of the damage being taken by you or a party member for up to 12 seconds. This sounds useful, but again a Tenacity pet should be used to keep mobs off you in the first place; and in a raid you have healers who take care of damage and would only end up healing the pet instead or as well as. I consider this Talent to be a waste, unless you play so badly that you need it.

Taunt (1 Rank). Your pet taunts the target to attack it. Another must-have in my books for a Tenacity pet. This, along with a Gorilla’s Smack are perfect for holding aggro when farming.

Basics, Pets Hunter, Pets, Warcraft

If you are new to the game or have never played a Hunter before, chances are you’ll need a little basic Hunter pet info. Once you reach Level 10 you will be able to tame one of many types of beasts to be your pet. This pet will fight with you and do damage on mobs, as well as take the brunt of most attacks for you. Some of its skills will be invoked automatically, others will need to  be triggered by you.

The single most important thing about choosing a pet is what Talent tree you will choose from: Cunning, Ferocity, or Tenacity. Every beast type is classified as one of these three types. There are also “Exotic” pets, but these are just special kinds of beasts available to Beast Master Hunters, but all of them still fall into one of the three types.

Deciding with type of pet you get will depend on how you want to play. In fact, you can tame more than one pet, and keep all but one in the stables that you find near most Inns. That way you can switch pets depending on what you are doing.

Most Hunters will pick Tenacity pets to begin with, as these types of pets will keep aggro and withstand a lot of damage. This makes them great to use as tanks when soloing, whether you are questing, grinding or farming. Gorillas are a very popular choice, as are bears turtles and boars. Personally I use a gorilla for farming.

Ferocity pets are the opposite: they will deal out  large amounts of damage but not hold aggro or withstand damage as well as Tenacity pets. These are the best choice for raids, since neither the Hunter nor the pet are expected to take a lot of direct damage under most circumstances. Cats are the most common choice for Ferocity, but wolves and raptors are also popular. Core Hounds make an interesting choice for an exotic Ferocity pet, but the consensus seems to be that they do not deal as much damage as regular ferocity pets do.

Cunning is a hybrid type of Talent tree, and these pets are in between for both damage dealt and damage taken. In addition, they have available to them some talents that make them pretty useful under certain circumstances. I don’t know many Hunters who use them, but as I understand it they can be useful in PvP or raids, and workable in solo play. Most Cunning pets are of the winged variety (birds, bats, winged serpents) plus spiders and ravagers.

Once you have a pet, you will need to take care of it. That means feeding it to keep it happy, so knowing what kind of food it eats is critical. Keeping the pet happy is important, as it increases the amount of damage it will do when fighting.

Leveling the pet is simple, as it will gain xp from kills just as you do. Also, if you tame a pet that is well below your level, it will automatically be “leveled” up to 5 levels below yours. Skills and ranks of skills (not the same thing as Talents) are automatically learned as the pet levels, so you don’t need to do a thing about that anymore. In previous versions you would have to tame a pet that “knew” that skill, use it until you “learned” it, then get your main pet back out so it could “learn” it from you. Now new skills and new ranks of skills are based entirely on what level your pet is.

Talents are chosen from the pet’s Talent tree, much as your own Talents are chosen from yours. The pet Talent tree is limited in comparison, so there won’t be many Talents left out, but you do want to be careful and pick the ones that enhance the role of your pet as much as possible. Talent points are given to the pet for every 4 levels starting at Level 20. Also, Beast Master Hunters have an option that gives them an extra Talent point for their pets.

The last thing I will mention on this post is that the specific animal you tame will not affect any of its stats: any type of cat that you tame will end up with the same stats, even if it is one the “elite” mobs. The only thing that will be affected is the look of the pet.

Basics, Pets Basics, Hunter, Pets, Warcraft