Help finding a tanking pet

[Sarantha]

I farm leather pretty heavily because it sells amazingly well on my server and I can make thousands of gold if I get enough of it. I'm wanting a pet thats best at holding aggro on multiple mobs at once and still able to survive. For the mobs I'm talking about, its those spiders in Molten Front. They're the best source of leather I've ever found. I've heard beetles, turtles, crabs, worms....any one have a definitive answer? Assume I take all the talents that make the pet better able to take damage and get increased healing. I've been using Severus, my black worm, but he gets pretty low on health even with me keeping mend pet up and he only having around 4 spiders on him. Haven't tried Terrorpene yet. Karkin failed miserably, but that might be because I have him spec'd into dps talents. Have yet to try Madexx for this.

[Vephriel]

You could try a Bear. Their special ability, Demoralizing Roar, would help lower the damage and keep some additional threat on multiple targets. I've found Turtles or Beetles the best at all-round survival due to their extra cooldown with Shell Shield or Harden Carapace. Worms have the AoE, but they don't retain any threat during casting so you'd be taking hits while it happened.

I'd say Bear or Turtle/Beetle would be your best bet. The other Tenacity families don't really bring any useful abilities to the table for multi-mob tanking.

[Kalliope]

Sounds to me like your gear is more of a problem, since you're not killing things fast enough to keep up. Second the recommendation on a bear regardless.

[Sarantha]

My gear is rather pvp oriented, so that might be the problem. I can take hits, but not dish out enough damage to take lvl 85 mobs down extremely fast. I'm also BM, so I don't hit as hard as MM/Surv does.

[Nightsights]

gear wise you're fine for MF mobs. when MF came out i was in T11 gear, similar ilvl as you, my ferocity pets (hydra and sambas) were tanking 3-4 mobs.

do you single target or multi shot? atm, MM would be the way to go for both single and multi target dmg. single targeting is best tho, unless its low level mobs that you can kill within a full bar of focus.

rapid killing + rapid recuperation = win, also great for lvling, and for soloing H Beth spiderlings.

similar concept to not aoe trash in 5mans and raids. 4 mobs beating on your tank for the full 60 secs or burst down one mob at a time every 15s, and your tank is taking less and less dmg over the course of that 60s and your healer(s) don't go oom.

[Kalliope]

Ah nod, that should be fine - pvp or otherwise - for the Front. I hadn't actually looked; was just wondering.

[Sarantha]

I tamed a beetle just now and I'm gonna try it out as MM. As BM, I don't think I was dealing enough damage to take out the mobs before they started hurting my pet.

[Magli]

You could try a shale spider...the extra 5% agility from Kings will help with killing stuff, and the 5% stamina will keep you and your pet alive.

[Scotia]

Turtle or beetle, simply because of the Shell Shield/Harden Carapace ability.

[Nubhorns]

I use a bear for farming groups of mobs at once and she does just fine. I rarely - if ever - have a use for the turtle/beetle ability unless I'm soloing dungeons and not paying attention. I think a lot of it boils down to your particular playstyle though. :]

[Andine]

I personally love the turtles as tanks, and definitely would not advise using worms for your personal tank while soloing. While they might fight just good enough, you basically lose one ability with them, because Burrow is a tragedy for soloing - the worm drops the aggro and does AoE... while the mobs get out of the AoE range and straight towards you. And in instances they're not advised because they're tenacity, so... yeah. Turtles, bears, they're your best choice IMO.

[Harvoc]

@ Nightsights

If I'm not mistaken, Survival is still better than Marksmanship in terms of AoE damage. Not in single-target, but because of the synergy between Improved Serpent Sting, Toxicology, Noxious Stings, and Serpent Spread; and Trap Mastery, Point of No Escape, Lock and Load, Resourcefulness, and T.N.T; their AoE is very good. Also, in an instance, AoEing down a pack of mobs is better because you don't evenly split your damage among all the mobs, just like other classes. When you AoE, you have one marked target than you use Steady/Cobra Shot on for focus as well as Aimed Shot! from Master Marksman, Explosive Shot from Lock and Load, Kill Shot, and Auto Shot. Not to mention your pet's melee abilities are only single-target. With everyone having a primary single-target and seconday AoE targets, damage is much more lopsided. You could have all of your DPS and tank have the same primary target so that mobs drop faster, but even if everyone targeted different mobs, the amount of time each mob would've lived is still less than if everyone single-targeted. If not, then why would anyone multi-target?

[Harvoc]

@ Andine

Actually, Worms ARE advised in dungeons because of their AoE but only if all the other possible pet buffs/debuffs is covered (which hasn't ever happened to me once since Cataclysm dropped) and if the AoE situation lasts less than 16 seconds. If the AoE situation lasts longer than 16 seconds, then the Chimaera is better.

[Shade]

I play as a BM and I have to say my shale spider is my favorite tanking pet by far. I hit pretty hard on single target mobs, so his web ability holds them in place long enough for him to pull aggro back to himself if my misdirect is on cool down.

My rotation is something along the lines of: cast misdirect, mulitshot a few times, keep Bestial Wrath and Serpent Sting up, then Kill Command and Arcane when possible, and Cobra shot when you need the focus.

Your biggest problem I would think, is that you are soloing in PVE areas in PVP gear.

[Harvoc]

I use a turtle for tanking personally because I don't like overlap in my pets and I already have a Carrion Bird for instances in case the Death Knight or Paladin tank doesn't take Scarlet Fever and Vindication, respectively (its happened to me before). Turtles/beetles are better for emergency damage reduction while bears are better for constant damage reduction. If you use Shell Shield/Harden Carapace on cooldown and keep Demoralizing Roar on autocast, their damage reduction is exactly the same. What makes a bear better is the fact that most people don't use Shell Shield/Harden Carapace on cooldown and the fact that Demoralizing Roar generates threat as well. Since you're mostly AoEing, I'd recommend a bear. Other choices are a shale spider for the stamina boost from Embrace of the Shale Spider, a gorilla for the interrupt if you're facing a caster so less damaging spells are cast, or a scorpid for the disarm if the target can be disarmed, eliminating all of their weapon damage. I can't compare those to a bear or a turtle/beetle,however, because of how complicated the effects of the stamina boost, interrupt, or disarm are on total damage reduction.

[Harvoc]

@ Shade

You don't need to worry about Misdirect's cooldown if you have the glyph as it's always up for every pull. Also, as BM, I think you're AoE rotation should just be using Focus Fire at 5 stacks, keeping up Serpent Sting on every target (only possible up to 7 mobs), and using the other focus for Multi-Shot. As for your cooldowns, use Bestial Wrath before a pull and Fervor when you're below 45 focus, approximately. I don't know if this is correct or not as I don't play Beast Mastery, but I think it's pretty accurate.

[Harvoc]

As for your gear, PvP gear should be fine for questing as I quest in my PvP gear and PvP spec because of the higher survivability and because I still need to get used to playing Marksmanship for PvP as I just switched over just last month after about 3 years of playing Survival for both PvE and PvP.

[Foru21dr]

Most tanking pets would work fine for you, your worm you have now would. You definitely need to change the pets talents to a tanking spec so that it can benefit from the heals it can get along with increasing the stamina for it. If you have it set to be DPS, then it's survivability is low.

If you want to take the advantage of the special abilities to reduce the damage and hold a mob, then it's the bear, turtle, or beatle.

[Andine]

@ Andine

Actually, Worms ARE advised in dungeons because of their AoE but only if all the other possible pet buffs/debuffs is covered (which hasn't ever happened to me once since Cataclysm dropped) and if the AoE situation lasts less than 16 seconds. If the AoE situation lasts longer than 16 seconds, then the Chimaera is better.

Which makes them very situational. So much situational, that you're really better off with another pet being there as a constant.

[Tankperson]

I have used all the tanking pets Right now I am using Madexx on my horde troll for every day things but when I go to solo places I'll take out my green jewled beetle from Uldum. Their second ablity is just that nice incase I forget to watch their health. I run as BM and I have no issue killing mobs quickly I just have to remember to hit kill command often and let the pet do the damage.