How much you care?

[evil950510]

Its simple question do you treat your pet as a companion or just extra DPS? Example is when you know a dungeon group is about to wipe do you take that extra few seconds to dismiss your pet before you hit the FD button? Or like I do when you summon your pet you give them a snack or hit them with a dose of mend pet. I seen hunters who just send their pets in over and over again into fight that they know will kill them, or Hunters who do not take the time to give their pets a name.

[Bryndell]

My pets are part of ME. They all have names...some carefully chosen by me, some that my kids pick out. But when I FD, and they die, when I rez them, I feed them and heal them.

Its my job to heal them when they are taking the brunt of the damage to save me. My terrorpene Casey tanked and killed ALL of Kara, and he was well rewarded afterwards.

[Litlemouse]

Well, when I first got Moony, my first pet ever (he's a ), I would rather have myself die than him, and it actually sometimes gave me an advantage in BGs because if my pet died I would get mad, like "WHO DARES TO KILL MY PET?!" (Ok I sound like K'T and Mr. Bigglesworth now ) and I would often charge at the person and even if I knew I was gonna die I'd kill them no matter what

Sadly, since I stabled him for my also-much-adored Skytear, the bond between my pets has seemed to weaken. You know this got me thinking... I should bring him out tomorrow. I remember he was the ONLY pet I ever used except for my Devilsaur for awhile, but eventually I got tired of him and brought back Moony, and the second he was fighting by my side again I felt... comfortable.

[Nubhorns]

I dunno. My pets play a huge part in my DPS, but I don't actually care enough about it to really consider them 'extra damage'. Then again, I've drifted away from WoW. I don't really play much at all. My pets are pretty much pixels, save for maybe my 'old' group of five who I rarely use anymore.

As for the title question...I don't really care, but I used to.

Edit: As for the examples...no, I don't dismiss my pet before I feign, usually because I'm desperately trying to pet tank the wipe. I will toss mends when I summon them out of habit, since the health glitch is bound to get them killed somehow if I don't.

I don't think a lack of a name means a hunter doesn't care. I have a lot of pets who are still nameless and I know people who run around with 'Cat' and 'Wolf' for days before they pick the right name.

And, well, pets are meant to die for you. In a 'you or them' situation, it's supposed to be them. I've used my pet as a distraction, bait, and a medley of other creative and likely to be seen as cruel tricks. :P Doesn't mean I care about them any less than anyone else does.

[Litlemouse]

I don't really care, but I used to.

Exactly with me I still love 'em of course, but more of a "trophy" than with a real bond or anything.

[Xella]

If I have the time to dismiss my pet before a guaranteed wipe, I'll do so, not only because then I don't have to revive him later, but also because the longer combat lasts, the more likely it is something will mess with my FD.

I do bond to most of my pets, and I suspect that's a large part of why I've been enjoying my hunter more than most of my other alts. I'll still let them die to save my own hide, of course, but a virtual companion isn't going to be terribly cranky with me if it dies to save me from spending twenty minutes getting lost on the corpse run back across a giant ditch or something (sigh, dying in Halaa!)

[Mindsprocket]

Sending the pet in when we know it won't survive? Isn't that also how we treat tanks?

The way I see it, we're in a group with our pets and each of us has a specific job to do like in any group. And the pet's job is to take the hate off the hunter (and other group members if necessary) and die first when shit hits the fan. To me, the pet is as much of a companion as other group members but it's lowest in the hierarchy. As DPS I'm more dispensable than tanks and healers, and my pet is more dispensable than me because its dps is negligible and it can't do anything without me anyway (and of course unlike my other group members it's not a real person - no matter how much I like to pretend it is ).

I do use Mend Pet because I see this as part of my job in our group, but I only use Dismiss for strategical reasons like Xella.

As for names, some people just need longer to find a good name. I sometimes need several days. So a pet may be nameless *because* the owner cares so much and doesn't want to pick somehing on a whim. It's not that big a deal anymore now thanks to the Certificate of Ownership, but some people just like to get it right at first try.

[Tsiya]

I agree with Mindsprocket. "Save the tanks and healers" is engraved on my eyelids. I will do what I can to avoid my pet dying, but if it's in an attempt to save two of the holy trinity, my pet and I will both pay the price. I don't dismiss when there's a wipe because I'm usually fighting tooth and nail to avoid it right up to the last second. Yeah, it's prolly hopeless, but I've pulled some crazy $hit out of my butt and saved more than one run because I didn't give up.

[Heleos]

I absolutely love my snow leopard. I've had him for 5 years and I still use him for everything today - raids/heroics/pvp you name it! Once in a while I bring out my silthid in pvp, or my corehound for some bosses where Ancient Hysteria (hunter heroism) would be useful but other then that I'll be using that snow leopnard for pretty much every fight.

I feed him dragon flanks after every rez or dungeon, mend pet all the time, and even buy those shower buckets at Dalaran so he can be shiny from time to time. I do collect trophy pets only bc I have the stable space, but I hardly use any Spirit Beast or Rares.

[Moore]

It depends, sometimes I'll use a pet as fodder if I really really want to get away from something D: sounds mean I guess, but if I aggro the alliance guys in Tol Barad I'll be like "get em pet" and then run away myself. I see it as giving me a 50/50 chance of making it.

[Makoes]

I guess for me it depends on which pet it is. Nanaki, I try my hardest to keep him alive, and if things go south, i try to dismiss him before he dies. Most of the time in situations like that, I'll dismiss him and bring out Barret to try to tank and get damage focused on him rather then the group. I'll try my hardest to keep him alive, but he is more my suicide pet. I give him lots of treats to make up for the sacrifices he makes.
But Nanaki, I will stop dpsing in the middle of a trash pull to revive him if he goes down just because I cant stand seeing him lay there on the ground getting trampled.

Since I really dont use many other pets besides those two, occasionally Highwind or Ultima or cetra or tifa. But never enough that I've been in such situations with them.

[FuzzyDolly]

I always allow myself to die before I allow my pet to die. I have taken the aggro from my pet many times so it would stay alive.

[Teigan]

It honestly depends on the pet. There are some I have much more of a bond with than others. Some are pretty pixels that round out my stables. Some are my buddies. But the ones I love, I love. I have sometimes come out of feign death cause I couldn't watch poor Rune, my crab, die. If someone kills one of my "special" pets, I go after them, be it an NPC or player. "NOT RUNE!!! DIE YOU EVIL THING DIE!!!"

[Acherontia]

I treat them as companions. I feed them, emote at them, dismiss them before they die. I will distracting shot + deterrance to give a pet time to heal up, then feign, although that's more of a tanking tactic than a save-the-pet one.

I will send a tank pet in after a tank dies in a Heroic, but that's because generally the pet can actually tank it I don't use my pets as bait or disposable, and I try to dismiss them before I feign death. I will stop midfight to res a pet, partially because I'm BM and partially because I don't like seeing my pet dead on the ground >.>

I don't bond with them as much as I WANT to--sometimes I just can't click with a pet despite having always wanted it. But I still try to treat them well--even if they are pixels, they're constant companions as well

[peanutbuttercup]

I don't think it's a matter of care/don't care. I like my pets very much, but I'm going to play my class to the best of my ability as well. So if I'm in a raid and leader calls for a wipe, sure I'll try my best to dismiss pet before feigning or dying - that's responsible pet management. If it's a heroic though, I'm going to do everything I can to salvage the situation and if that means my pet and I die to take out a mob when it looked to be a wipe, I absolutely will do so. I think a lot of hunters underestimate how well their pets can tank things. I've had dps specced pets off tanking adds on chogall and nefarion that have survived just fine.

[Lupis]

I dunno. I really like my pets, but I haven't ever gotten the real connection to one that other people have. Sure, I really like having them around, but they're not my best buddy ever. They're just cute.
So... I care, but I don't love.

[GormanGhaste]

I'm probably middle of the road. I love my hunter pets, but I don't LOVE my hunter pets

[Mychelle]

My pets are -very- much apart of me being a Hunter. And I still find myself being attracted to pets that I never thought I would. But even now when the people I raid with call out on vent for me to bring out Jigsaw (My crocodile, them calling him by name.) It makes me 'squee a little inside.

And then there is Romeo (My Karoma) that took me so many years to finally have him. I love that stupid 3d ghost wolf. I really dont care how weird that sounds. =P

[Comett]

I care about some of them. Well, I lie. I care about Karma. I always have. I use him whenever I can, he's reasonably common knowledge in my guild as "my pet" ("I've had Karma longer than I've had Colin [the bf] and I've had Colin for a long time!"). Chance of a wipe, and I'll dismiss or do what I can before my boy dies. In heroics etc usually he can manage to backup tank with cower (I've become a pretty good judge at when wipes can be saved or not) but I personally prefer the distracting+deterrence method hehe. Karma has been built up in my head for so long that... idk. When I'm grumpy or down or upset, I can call out Karma and I'll *always* end up with a smile on my face, every time. Entertainingly my boyfriend will, when he's trying to earn some brownie points, WOG or BOP Karma if the occasion demands it xDDD

After that - not really. I'm fond of them... I love Ruchbah and Jake but it doesn't "hurt" me if they die (as it does with Karma). Some of them just frustrate me when they die *eyeroll* because I'm not overly attached or just have them for the buff or whatever. For most of them it's just a natural part of what happens. Though because of Karma I'm in a good habit of dismissing them all before a wipe anyway - pfft, I don't like seeing the broken bodies of my companions littering the floor, not when they fight so hard for me!

[Chimera]

*waves hand around* i always keep an RP pet with me and sometimes that RP pet is my dps/tank pet so if i know both the pet and i will die, i'll quickly dismiss it and FD, but only for the pets i really like, other times i feel like 'eh, i can always revive pet'.

Lol when i and a friend ran past the Alterac Valley guards in hillsbrad (ally guards, we were horde), he bubbled me and kept running since he was faster and higher lvled and im like WAIT NO WHAT IS THIS!?!?! WHAT ABOUT MY PET!?!? WHY CANT I MOVE!?!?! haha, he told me the spell he used and to rightclick when we're out of combat but i dispelled it right away, got within LoS of my pet who was dying and dismissed him and then the guards came and killed me. My pally friend was mad at me lol. It was so worth it <3