Most efficient tanking pets

[TygerDarkstorm]

<3 Jormungars. Kinda sucks that burrow is only good for DPS situations and not tanking without some careful setup, but they are very lovable and cuddleable creatures.

[Snowwalker]

I have to go with turtles here, myself. You just can't beat having shell shield. I try to keep my turtle with me for those 'oh crap' moments while running dungeons.

^.^ It's also fun to threaten crappy tanks with "Dun make me get out my turtle of turtly doom"

[Ana]

I like crab tanking >3 sebastian, my red crab tank on Predatoria, but tbh... årnfalks turtle is a way better tanker

[Ellaran]

When I tamed Terrorpene, he became my premiere tank. Shell Shield has kept him alive through so much it's not funny. So I'm biased towards turtles and beetles just because of Shell Shield

Bears would be good too, I imagine, since their special lowers attack power, which makes physical enemies weaker. Just gotta watch for casters.

[Tuls]

I actually released poor Squirmy the Jormunger cause, well put bluntly I hated him. Instead I went on a taming rampage and got King Mosh(no name), Ironhide Devilsaur(OMNOMNOM), and am in BFD and we speak getting my new turtle (Shelly clever I know). Cant beat the classics!

[Cialbi]

Ellaran, they changed Demoralizing Roar and like abilities that all tank classes have. Instead of lowering attack power by 10%, it now reduces damage done by 10%. So, the debuff is more potent than before.

[Araela]

First off, love your Arcturis! Good luck with getting the "real" one- I hope he spawns for you soon!!!

Second, I was using a beetle for awhile, but I have ALWAYS loved turtle tanks. Tenacity pets I currently have are:

Terrorpene
Gezzarak the Huntress
Jadefang
Madexx (black)


I have run with Uhk'loc the white gorilla, a few crocolisks, bears, boars etc. I always go back to turtles though- they just say "TANK" to me.

Jadefang is great for BM soloing just because you can heal him easily and it's easy to have him keep aggro with all the MD/beastial wrath tricks.

Madexx I keep because it's Madexx, but I don't run with him much.

Gezzarak I keep taming, abandoning, and then retaming. I can't seem to let her go, but I keep wanting open stable slots for other pets. >.<

I highly suggest trying out a few different ones and seeing what works for you (for questing, for soloing dungeons, for pvp if you're interested in that, though I tend to prefer sithilids (cunning) for pvp if I'm not using my shale spider).

[Kalliope]

Overall, I stick with the following:

1. Bear (<3): Demo Roar is nice for survivability against physical attacks and extra aggro on multiple mobs
2. Turtle/Beetle: Shell Shield/Harden Carapace is the strongest pet family ability for straight up tanking, since it also works against magical damage.
3. Crocolisk/Warp Stalker: The constant snare means that these two can slow runners automatically in PvE and double decently enough for world PvP, which the previous three families can't exactly do (bears don't help with casters there either).

That's personal preference. I loved leveling at survival with a crab during Wrath, but that depended on me kiting, rather than my crab actually tanking.

[Makoes]

I find turtles to be thee most efficient tanks. With Shell shield, a mend pet and proper tank specing, they can tank even a raid boss (with a sharp healers attention). Barret my Lava turtle, has tanked more instances in LFG pugs both reg and heroic that I care to count.

And Surprisingly, my Hyena proved to be a great tank pet despite being Ferocity. discovered that in Heroic SFK when the tank lag'd and died right at the start of the Boss fight where Fenrir use to be. I turned growl on, MD'd to Nanaki, and opened fire! BW and KK, and a very quick smart healer who kept him alive while we all burned the boss down. niether the mag nor the warlock (both well geared) came anywhere close to pulling aggro off of him.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I tanked a heroic on my hunter with a jormungar pre-4.0.1.
Group had a bad tank so I offered to have my pet tank, healer agreed and we blew through the rest of H HoL. XD

[Tuls]

Shelly (My turtle) and I are now blowing through quest after quest, I think we're going to stick together for quite some time. She is by far the best tank pet I've had yet. She holds aggro, she can keep good aoe aggro, shell shield, cower, and last stand make her invincible, and not to mention she does it all while being drop dead gorgeous!

[TygerDarkstorm]

Glad you found a new tanking friend.

[Skyshot]

I can definitely agree with turtle and beetles being the best for single target. (I love the color options that the beetle family offer though.)
In fact my beetle is the official guild BH tank so that we can use the OT and MT slot for more dps.
The healers only have to focus on healing the pet tank. They rather like blood of the rhino and spirit bond heal boosts.
When wanting to run BH, everyone asks if I would be willing to "tank" it before bringing in their tank toons.

I used to have a bear for multi-target tanking too but let him go before wrath. From whet I hear, they're still one of the best for that. ^^

[Tuls]

Lol wow I never knew pets could actually tank anything significant, thats so cool! Shelly and I will be tanking Nefarion before you know it ;]

[Skyshot]

Yup it is quite possible! He he tanks Arg beautifully and takes little enough damage so that the healers don't have to over heal or go into 'heal frenzy' mode. All the raid has to do is make sure they're standing behind the boss.
For his fire phase, they have to work their way over to the opposite side before it ends since the pet will automatically run behind the boss. It will flip him to face the opposite direction when the phase is over. ^^

[Kelesaria]

Kelesaria's shale spider tanked the Crucible in Twilight Highlands. For non-BM, though, her recently-tamed fire turtle, Charcoal, has been the best tank I've ever had. Shell shield is total win, and he holds aggro even over her 30k+ crits. The (very) few times Kel does pull aggro, a quick Kill Command jerks the mobs right back to him. I love him.

And my baby tauren and draenei each have off-tanked instances with their foxes. My draenei's black fox, Whitetip, even got complimented by the others in one group.

[Davarra]

I think I've tried everything except gorilladins in both true tank and heavy dps configurations. Bear is a GREAT compromise, as are squee and boar, but I haven't been disappointed with any of them.

IIRC I've got a warpstalker and maybe croc as my full tanks on Davarra, with a dps bug, squee, worm, and another stalker, an undecided piggy on Sunhawke with a stalker for tanking, a tanky bug and crab on Lyrothea with dps boar, squee, and bear (who's being handed down to one of my littles now), Zarandiya has a dps crab and plans for a scorp (her permanent partner has a tank scorp), and Boltslinger has dps crab and croc, tanky turtle.

So many pets I really LOVE...I just wish I took to the turtle more. I think some of the "extras" might be handed down as they're trained up nicely by the elder hunter.

[Shuuko]

I've given new love to my beetle (TuffStuff) and turtles in general after a few tries at Heroic Halfus with my horde guild. The extra DR really shines through when someone has to hold threat.

[Tyuriwen]

Very informative posts guys =)

I myself have used my Warp Stalker since I got her in WoTLK, but come Cata I started to branch out and use things like Crocolisks and Shale Spiders. I haven't found a turtle skin I'm mad about yet, and Beetles are just not for me. xD

Of the 3 I'd say Priscilla, my croc, has been the best. =) Might give a worm a go, maybe grab a blue turtle...I feel a taming spree coming on