Hunter Pets

[buckynaked]

So, I was wondering for all you Hunters out there...what pet do you use as your main? I am currently looking to score Skoll, the new spirit wolf, and will start searching him out when I get home today. I have used a bear since level 11, but now that I am hitting the Heroics and trying to get into raids, I need a wolf to pack the extra DPS. How about you guys?

[77919051]

I have both Skoll and Gondria. Currently I am using Gondria to get it to 80, but then plan on switching back and forth between the 2 since Hunters can Call Stabled Pet once every 30 mins (soon to be 5 mins in next patch).

[buckynaked]

Well, I camped Skoll last night, no luck. Reported sighting of his corpse at 1pm EST. I was looking for him from 630pm-930pm EST with no luck. Some asshat paladin kept flying by wanting to kill him for loot and take him from hunters. Word on the street is this clown has stolen 4 kills from hunters trying to tame him. Anyway, I will keep looking.

[antacus]

Hrmm. I am goofing with a hunter to play with the finance's daughter and just got a bear pet. How do you get two pets and flop back and forth? Guess I did not even know that was an option.

[buckynaked]

You have to visit the stable master in the nearest village or city. There you can purchase stable slots. You can store up to 4 pets, and have 1 active for a total of 5. So, just stable your bear and tame another pet. You just have to switch back and forth between the two when you are ready at the Stable Master until you get Call Stabled Pet (level 80), which will allow you to switch from any locale.

[antacus]

Very cool. Thanks for the heads up. My guess is that it takes gold to buy additional slots (what does not take gold in warcraft?). So now my problem is leveling faster then I am getting gold :p

[cabby]

Question for you Bucky, if I were to try to tame the quested white tiger in Barens (Echeyakee), am I able to still complete the quest by summoning him again?

[cabby]

Finally got to the Echeyakee part with my hunter and decided to tame him even if I couldn't complete the quest. When you summon him with the horn, the horn is removed from your inventory. You can tame him, abandon the quest, then go back to the quest giver to get the quest and the horn again in order to complete the quest. Figured I'd let any other horde hunters know in case they'd like to tame him.

[buckynaked]

Sorry I didnt answer you before. I don't have a horde toon just yet, but I was going to assume you could do just what you said. Many times for pets if you want to tame an elite mob that you are questing for then you can just abandon the quest and pick it up again. I honestly don't remember the price of the extra stable slots. I think the first is free, then maybe 1-10 gold per slot from there on up.

[cabby]

Yeah, I had a feeling I could abandon and then accept the quest again but was just looking to see if you could confirm it. When I got to that point in the guide I was already about 2 levels ahead of the guide with no heirloom stuff so I figured it wouldn't hurt if I couldn't do the quest. I like the idea of having the nice white lion that can only be gotten from this quest and then later on up in the 60s.

I think the first pet slot cost me 50s. I know it used to be free but it seems Blizzard decided to charge for it now. My hardest choice is trying to decide what pets I want to get since I'm limited in stable slots. If they'd go and expand the stable to unlimited I think I'd try to get one of every pet skin. :D

[notorius]

Bucky if your looking to get into raids youll probably have to change your spec as well as your pet and your glyphs.

The top dps spec for hunters at the moment is this : http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#cZ0eVooZx0ci0cIhedAhsd

Whilst the rotation that you need is this: Explosive shot>Black arrow>serpent sting> aimed shot> steady shot. Then steady shot until aimed shot is off cd and then start again.

Remeber to use your trinkets, racials and rapid fire etc.

For a pet I would go for a cat as wolves are not very strong dps at the moment, if you need more help with glyphs and pet talents and gearing etc please say. :)

[buckynaked]

Notorious,

I hear you on the spec. I am still just getting basic gear and running the daily heroics so that I can get some boa gear for other alts to level up. I have been lazy and have not respecced for pure raiding. As a matter of fact I did tame Gondria this morning! So, I am starting the slow process of getting myself together for a full on raid setup. Although, I still want the wolf and will keep trying as the days go by and I am in the area.

Cabby,

I wish they would go to unlimited stabled pets as well, but who knows if that will ever happen. I had a spirit cat from the Darkshore that I am going to kick out of the stable since I tamed Gondria this morning. I have the Elite Core Hound from the Draenei area, and now just need to get my hands on Skoll.

[Bouvi]

I find using multi-shot instead of Aimed shot gives me better results. Here is the math to explain that: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2009/04/aimed-shot-explained/

I use an still prefer a wolf as a pet.

[antacus]

Hrmm, I never really thought about playing a hunter seriously before. The one I am playing now I only made as a "trash" char on the account I created for the finance's daughter. I use it to dual box and get the big XP boot for my mage. The more I read about, and play, the hunter class the more I wonder if I should make one on my main account once I level up my mage. After all so far I have 12 "grant a levels" which I could pass to a new toon easy enough. So I could have a lvl 25 hunter in a couple hours I bet :rolleyes:

[cabby]

Nah, save those "grant a levels" for in case you're high level and hit a spot in the guide that says grind until you're such-and-such a level. Pop one then and you'll get a nice quick boost without all the grinding work. Getting thru the low levels is pretty easy and really doesn't take much time at all.

[ric1016]

I'm a noob and not too sophiticated in Wow, but as a level 62 Hunter I have used a Boar almost exclusivley. Buzzards and bats have been fun, but I still go back to the Boar. Between bestial wrath and volley, we can drop 4-5 mobs upto 3 levels above us.

I am thinking of taming one of the elite raptors in Un'Goro for DPS - any comments?

I have to say, despite all the negative comments out there about Hunters, it has been fun playing this toon.

[buckynaked]

The elite raptors are fun to use and work well. I used one for fun and to have in my stable for a bit, but still use the bear. Bestial Wrath and Volley can mow down many mobs if you have a pet that does decent damage. I am finding with Gondria that I am able to take mobs down faster because of the higher DPS, but sadly she dies a few times in instances now if I am not keeping a close watch on her. I guess I got used to my bear not really having any issues unless he was out aggroing our tank for a minute or two.

A side note to all healers reading this. Please heal any pet in your group. They are the 6th man in any 5-man instance. I get tired of reminding Healers to not forget about my pet. Yes, I can heal my pet, and I do include that in my shot rotation, but Healing is "your" primary job remember? My favorite argument in an instance goes like this:

Me -- Wait a sec...need to revive pet.
Them -- Thought we were making this a quick badge run. Forget pet. Let's go.
Me -- No, I won't forget pet. He puts up DPS just like everyone else and is part of my function as a Hunter...remember?
Them -- Fine. Hurry up and catch up with us.
Me -- I wouldn't be doing this if the Heals would do his complete job. Don't forget about my pet!!!

It usually gets ugly at this point with lots of swearing, but anyway. Got my point!

[antacus]

Right now I am just using a lvl 22 bear, not elite or named or anything. Plain old bear. Should I look at getting a better bear? The only one I can think of was the named bear in the mountains just outside Loch Modan Ol' Sooty. Is it worth looking for a named bear at my low level and building it up or wait? Does the name of the bear actually do anything for the damage?

[cabby]

The names don't really do anything once they're tamed for helping with damage or anything like that. The only reason to pick one bear over another (or any beast for that matter) is for the way it will look once it's your pet. You can find all sorts of great info and pictures over at Petopia (http://www.wow-petopia.com/).

[antacus]

I was actually looking at the Petopia site last night and love it. They have way more info then I could absorb before I hit lvl 60 ;)

[ric1016]

Bucky
Thanks for the info. Yes, I get caught up in targeting and sometimes forget to mend pet, followed by mob going aggro on me - not usually a good end result. I will have to give the bear a try.

[buckynaked]

Well, I still have not seen hide nor hair of Skoll in the Storm Peaks as of yet. The only time that NPCScan goes off is if I am in Dalaran and some other hunter has him out. Meh, I will keep plugging along until I find the wolf!

[antacus]

Well, I found my first elite (think so ... had the dragon around the pic) bear named something like Ungor'lok over in forest song. I tamed him and it lost the name. So now I have a "bear". To me it looks just the same as the bear I leveled up from 16 to 31. Ohh well *shrug*

I guess I can say I did it at least :)

[buckynaked]

That is the only problem when you tame an elite, it loses the name. Hey, at least you got one though!