EVERYONE I AM A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON! ([info]00hshiny) wrote in [info]wow_ladies,
@ 2007-09-12 13:29:00
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Slightly odd hunter pet question
I adore my pet. He's amazing and beautiful and I love him. The problem is, he was the first beast I tamed and I've had him since we were both ickle babies. I spent a ton of his training points on different resistances which has left very little for learning new skills. (He's a strigid screecher.)

I want to see endgame content. My current guild is starting kara runs today. I'm only 67 but I'm pushing for 70 so I can finally start raiding. I know Parakeet isn't going to be good enough for raiding. I know I need a new pet but I have no idea what would be good. I recently tamed Rema (the den mother in Blade's Edge) but she's only 66 and she'll just keep dragging a level behind me, plus I don't know what wolves are good for (tanking, dps etc.).

What is a good pet to get for endgame? I'd love one at my level (67) that can take a beating and keep up. If I get two or more mobs on Parakeet, he dies fairly quickly. I'm hoping to avoid that.

EDIT: I've been playing with talent builds, and I was wondering what ya'll think of this:

Current build (I know it sucks hardcore!): http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Feathermoon&n=Jaiddin

Possible new build: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=cEbGdggoVkAoE

I am torn between adding clever traps or not because I use my traps a lot.

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[info]yawatevrupurs69
2007-09-12 05:39 pm UTC (link)
i have a 68 hunter and in all honesty, while doing end game, if you have a good tank then keep ur dps pet. that way mobs go down quicker. At least that is how it has worked for me in the past. if you're going to be raiding with a not so good tank, try to tame a bear. they eat practially anything and are good tanks. Also boars and wolves are pretty well overall pets. Only sucky thing about wolves being that they only eat meat. :D Good luck!

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[info]sventhelost
2007-09-12 05:45 pm UTC (link)
If you really want to keep Parakeet, why don't you re-train him? I don't know how it's done, but I believe it's possible. Then you could upgrade him with some more useful skills and be able to DPS in a raid with him.

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[info]jennreese
2007-09-12 05:52 pm UTC (link)
Yes, retraining is very easy and actually very cheap -- just 10sp! I retrain my hyena with resistances specific to the instance we're planning to run. I keep most of his skills the same, just switch out fire, frost, shadow, etc.

I think if you love Parakeet, you should keep playing with him/her. I've had my hyena since level 30, and I wouldn't dream of ditching him now. :)

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[info]rustdangel
2007-09-13 09:38 pm UTC (link)
and I think it resets every 24-48 hours so if you want to try a different set of abilities you can

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[info]pyoska
2007-09-12 05:45 pm UTC (link)
You should check out Petopia. Its got all sorts of information on pet types and training. It sounds like for right now, you could use a tanking pet. Or you could respec the pet you have to give him Great Stamina and Natural Armor, which will increase his survivability. My windserpent doesn't have any of the resistnaces normally (I'll spec in them for instances and BG's since pet training is cheap) but he can tank 3 or 4 things at once, as long as I keep tossing him heals.

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[info]00hshiny
2007-09-12 05:49 pm UTC (link)
He's got natural armour and stamina. Maybe if I respecced now instead of waiting to 70 it would work out more?

This is my tree right now:

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Feathermoon&n=Jaiddin

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[info]pyoska
2007-09-12 06:10 pm UTC (link)
Then I'd respec him out of all of his resistances, and drop all of his training points in Great Stamina and Natural Armor, plus his offensive abilities (Screech, Claw, and Dive I think for owls.) You won't really need the magic resistances.

Also, from the perspective of someone who's played both a MM hunter and a BM hunter, I'd suggest you go with BM, then put the rest of your points in either MM (for Mortal Shots) or Surv (for Clever Traps), depending on what you want. BM makes your pet pretty awesome. Beastial Wrath and The Beast Within are fantabulous abilities. This is just a suggestion! :) Also, I don't know how it is on your server, but a lot of end game raiding guilds on mine look for BM hunters.

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[info]fordarkness
2007-09-12 06:34 pm UTC (link)
The drawback of doing BM and survival is that while your traps are awesome, your damage output takes a dump if your pet dies (which will happen at times). I tried out the BM/surv set up and didn't overly like it. Usually the best option is to put as much as you can into MM to help boost your damage output when your pet either can't be used or dies.

One of the ways I make up for the lack of trapping skills is bringing pieces of my Beastlord set in order to give me a bit of a bonus when a trap breaking means certain death for the party (such as the Moroes fight). While having enhanced trapping is nice, it's not something you will need with every encounter whereas your damage output is far more important. :)

Just my two cents... others might have different opinions on it, but this is how I found it worked.

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[info]pyoska
2007-09-12 06:40 pm UTC (link)
I'm specced BM/ MM for Mortal Shots (well, when I get that far dow the tree, I will be.) :) But I have a friend with Clever Traps, and he swears by it. :shrug: I'm not really fond of it, myself, but hey. He'd be pimping his build here if he could, so I figured I'd give it a mention for him.

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[info]fordarkness
2007-09-12 06:57 pm UTC (link)
Is he BM/surv or MM/surv? One of my officers is the latter and he loves the build, but I know for me, I wasn't crazy about it. As I mentioned, having buffs to traps is awesome, but you're not trapping all the time. For me, it's vitally important in Karazhan in the Moroes fight and in some of the multi-mob pulls, but nothing else. I don't use them in Gruul at all. In Mag's they're nice to randomly catch infernals so it takes a bit of a load off the warlocks, but it's not imperative. So far in SSC, I've used them to catch the rampaging rays, but there's a drawback there... when the rays are enraged, they're not CC'able, and really the only reason for the trapping is to help out the mages who are sheeping.

Your trapping capabilities *are* quite useful in a lot of the heroics though and having enhanced traps there can mean the difference between success or a wipe. But as I'm moving forward, I'm finding that while the traps are helping, they're not as imperative as they used to be (ie, with the right group, we're burning mobs down fast, heroic be-damned!)

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[info]daikenpriestess
2007-09-12 10:16 pm UTC (link)
Stick with BM/MM. That's my personal recommendation. I can't look up the armory at work, but you can look me up there. Dulcea on Feathermoon. And honestly? Even when my pet DOES die on a boss fight, I can still stay in the top 3 for DPS. Your pet is extra bonus damage, I count mine as maybe 1/4 of mine. But even without him, with a good shot rotation, I can still stay in that top spot, or 2nd when I'm not paying attention (*grin* Learned from leveling the pig in level 70 instances).

Cats are ez mode DPS, hands down. But I pride myself being a good enough hunter to raid with a boar (He'll be helpful in Moroes, my cat lives...sometimes...but the healers worry).

Your owl is very useful in raids and instances with his screech dot, so again, remember its what you're comfortable with. You play better when you're happy (or venting from that idiot at work! *grin*) and in the end THAT's what makes your play style and DPS. All anyone else can do is offer advice. What works for me won't always work for you, not because I'm a better player (or you are!) but because it might not make sense to you.

But that's what makes a hunter such a great class to play!

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[info]00hshiny
2007-09-12 10:44 pm UTC (link)
O HAI fellow feathermoon-er! Thanks for the advice :) I've been playing with new talent builds part of today and I think I've figured out a good one, plus I'm going to respec Parakeet, check Petopia and see what skills I can pick up for him and then spend his training points on acquiring the new skill.

Secretly I would love a winterspring owl because they're so beautiful but I can't do that to Parakeet. We've been best friends from day one. I may start another hunter and tame a winterspring owl on that toon.

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[info]tviokh
2007-09-12 05:51 pm UTC (link)
http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/

They used to have it split up by defensive (tank) pets, offensive (DPS) pets, and well rounded pets, but they seem to have changed layouts recently.

Generally if you want a tanky pet that can take a beating stick to bears, boars, crocolisks, warp hunters/chasers, tallstriders, crabs, scorpids, and turtles.

Cats, owls, windserpents, bats, and spiders will do the most damage, but can't take as many hits.

Wolves, carrion birds, sporebats, nether rays, and serpents tend to be pretty well rounded. They're not DPS kings or super tanks, but they do a pretty good job all around.

Avoid caster pets; they're a waste of training points.

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[info]fordarkness
2007-09-12 05:53 pm UTC (link)
A DPS pet is what's needed for end game, not a tanking pet. So keep Parakeet but you *need* to retrain him. My hunter officer (hybrid MM/surv spec) uses an owl and does really well with him.

Putting points into nothing but resistences on your pet means that it's a very weak tank and not very good on DPS (even as a DPS type pet). I would recommend putting points into resistences only if you plan on running that pet in one instance only that has that type of damage... which really isn't reasonable.

I run a level 70 cat (DPS) in end-game raids and am quite successful with her. It may take some time to work out the nuances of the fights to ensure she doesn't get killed, but once I know it, she lives to the end. Her training points are stacked in claw, bite, growl, thick hide and natural stamina, plus cobra reflexes and avoidance (or whatever that one is that allows pet to avoid 50% of AoE damage). I've learned to keep her out on some fights, while throwing her into others (but pulling her back during certain attacks). You have to watch your pet icon to see if they're being hit by something (cave-ins, fire, rend, etc).

Either stick with Parakeet or go with another DPS pet (best), or a balance one (second best). Stay away from the tank pets as they're not overly useful in raiding. Good healers and tanks, as well as work on your part, will keep your pet healthy and contributing to overall damage. :)

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[info]fordarkness
2007-09-12 05:56 pm UTC (link)
Or I should add (as another person mentioned) if you want resistences, respec your pet for each raid. Not the best option though as you can run into multiple AoE type attacks in one evening and I doubt your party will be enthused if you say "wait for this pull! I need to hearth to respec Parakeet!" I have 0 points in resistences on my kitty and she does quite fine... she's lived boss fights in Kara, Gruul's Lair, Mag's Lair, SSC, and TK. :)

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[info]daikenpriestess
2007-09-12 06:01 pm UTC (link)
Respecc'ing is the way to go for beloved pets. And keep yourself as well geared as possible too, since a percentage of your armor/bonuses/resists go to your pet as well. Owls can be awesome off tanks, with screech and growl its like double aggro boost. *has a sudden missing of my old owl*

Since your pet learned all its upgradeable skills at 64, I would train it with its base skills (growl, screech, dive, claw), and split what's left between natural armor and stamina. With the 15ish points left you can pop a level one into either avoidance, or cobra reflexes or resists.

/end two cents

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[info]00hshiny
2007-09-12 06:26 pm UTC (link)
Thank you. This was really helpful (everyone was actually!). I'm going to respec him from his resistances and put his points into everything else. At least that way he can be a really good DPS pet now, instead of moderately good. I really want a raptor but I can't think of anywhere to get one that won't be too low.

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[info]heinous_bitca
2007-09-12 06:34 pm UTC (link)
There are raptors in Blade's Edge you can tame. They are with the Ogres, and look really neat IMO. (I can't type or spell, apparently!

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[info]spellproof
2007-09-12 06:44 pm UTC (link)
Conventional wisdom is that the best raiding pets (once Scorpids get nerfed in the next patch) are Ravagers and Cats because they are high DPS pets. I raid with a cat, but my tank pet, who leveled with me, is Charger the Wonder Boar. I still use him for soloing and farming, but instances and raids are all about the cat.

Make sure you train Avoidance (rank 2) and Cobra Reflexes. I like having some points in resistances; I think it really helps pet survivability on certain fights. But pet respeccing is cheap enough that you can do it regularly depending on which bosses you're going to be facing.

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[info]rollergirl
2007-09-12 09:53 pm UTC (link)
They're getting nerfed for sure then? I haven't been up to date on this fancy scorpid poison crap, but I was thinking of taming one for when I weasel my way into an SSC or something.

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[info]amiyuy
2007-09-12 06:56 pm UTC (link)
Resistances aren't useless, you just can't have huge amounts of them.

I recommend using a Pet Talent Calculator (This one looks pretty nice) and plan your points ahead of time. My cat is able to have max damage skills, Dash rank 2, Armor 7, Sta 7, Avoidance 2, Cobra Reflexes 2, and Arcane, Fire, Shadow 2 and Frost and Nature 1. At level 70.

Cats and ravagers are considered the highest DPS, but you could do fine if you keep your bird. Also, wolves are actually not great pets atm, as their low dps causes problems with their holding aggro and doesn't help your dps at all.

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[info]rollergirl
2007-09-12 09:56 pm UTC (link)
Wolves actually are useful, because of Furious Howl. They're more support pets, not pewpew pets.

Also, as someone who used a hyena [wolf w/o FH, basically] as MM for a good deal of her career and never had too many aggro issues... yeah. If you're BM, they're perfectly fine. If you're not, you'll have trouble if you're not good at micromanaging. That's all.

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[info]surlywench
2007-09-12 07:48 pm UTC (link)
I don't know much about pet talents points, but I will tell you that our hunter class leader (he came to us from another server via a friend of his that was already with us, on that server his guild had progressed thru SSC and The Eye) makes a point to let new hunters know that they'll need two pets. One dpser for raiding and then another for soloing (if they don't always want the dps pet around, lol) For raiding a cat or windserpent is very good dps, there's a macro to set up your steady shot/kill commands so all you have to do is spam that one button in raids (well, not *all*, but it's one less thing to worry about).

Anyway, it's something to think about instead of trying to make your beloved baby mostly good for everything, keep two pets and have them be your 'raid pet' and your 'solo/grinding pet'

:)

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[info]kadaria
2007-09-12 08:06 pm UTC (link)
I'm assuming parakeet is a birdie in which case I offer that our hunter class leader has always used an owl pet and his current pet Banshee can tank very well though we like her for dps :)

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[info]bagieaie
2007-09-12 08:55 pm UTC (link)
I've heard that scorpions are good for long fights because of the poison stacks they have. You can get level 66-67 ones in the Bone Wastes.

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