AOE Damage/Threat pet?

[Caanin]

Is the Bear still considered a great AOE Damage/Threat pet? I hear a lot of people say to get a Worm or Chimera for AOE, however I've also heard that the Worm drops threat with it's burrow move? I've been doing some extreme soloing and I am curious what people use, I know the Turtle is great for damage mitigation, but is the Bear, another tenacity pet, a viable option when dealing with trash mobs???

[Worba]

It depends - if it needs to just grab aggro, chimera are nice because they can tap a bunch of mobs with their perma-dash, and then douse them with their AOE breath. As you probably know, they are the only solo AOE dmg pet in the game since worm burrow was changed to drop aggro. This is great for mob grinding.

If OTOH you're expecting the pet to be taking alot of dmg, then I'd recommend a turtle or beetle - nothing but nothing is quite as hardcore as those guys for tanking. The bear's AOE debuff makes it a close second, so if you prefer that look, they will work pretty well.

But under the new system AOE threat is largely based on glyph + misdirect.

[Slickrock]

Croc might be a better choice, since it has a wider radius with it's special.

With all the changes Blizz has made, it's more and more situation specific. It really depends on the exact fight. But for soloing, I'd have a croc and a turtle/beetle.

The annoying thing is Blizz is creating fights (like Chogall) where our pets can't effectively AOE. It's better to leave your pet chewing on the boss.

[Acherontia]

The bear used to be top-notch because of Swipe. Swipe was removed with Cataclysm, so now your best bet is either getting a Turtle or Beetle for mitigation, or a Worm if you feel adventurous--you can still grind mobs with Burrow, you just have to Deterrance during it.

Or maybe you could spec Entrapment and just stay away while the rooted mobs get burrowed? Someone check!

[Kalliope]

Bears still generate a lot of AoE threat with demo roar. Plus the 10% reduction on physical damage can be key in certain circumstances.

[Cerele]

bears have damage reduction as a debuff, turtles and beetles have damage reduction as a buff
lets look at positives for both

Turtles/beetles can survive longer but they taking 100% damage. thunderstomps good for aoe threat but all tenacity pets get this

Bears dont have as long survivabiliy but generate more threat, their debuff they only take 90% of damage, the roar also will agro more targets with its tiny threat and get them off the hunter assuming you havent attacked them. giving his hunter time for misdirect,

bad sides,

Turtle/beetles if let auto cast will only use their ability when below 50% health. if watched by hunter this can be managed so he/she will use it more often. most hunters dont watch it though. So on fights where the pet stays above 50% health with mend pet, it doesnt help much

Bears dont have the extra survival clicky as the turtle/beetle does. but they do take all around less damage making it eaiser for mend pet to do its job.

in short IN my opinion a bear would be more worth it unless you micro manage your pet along with your hunter rotation. I've used my bear for soloing wrath content and im about to attempt stone core heroic with him. i hope this helped you in some way/shape or form.

[Caanin]

Thanks for the great answers. I should've done a little research on the Bear first, I was pressed for time this morning and honestly it has been so long since I last used a Bear, I was unaware that Swipe was removed.

The problem I've been having is using my Misdirection properly. I have the Glyph and I know it resets however my brain isn't reseting and I keep forgetting to use Misdirect every time it is up, which is always!

I have been using Vulcanus (Terrorpene) predominantly in most solo tanking situations, but I was wondering if there was a better AOE threat option. I'm not a fan of either Worms or Chimera, but I might add the Chimera to my stable!

So does anyone know if there is a way to macro Misdirection into shots? I am ignorant of the inner workings of global cool downs and shot mechanics!!!

[Caanin]

Cerele, excellent break down. I have heard another hunter in my guild mentioning micro managing his pets abilities, but honestly I have no idea how to go about it. I use Power Auras with several things, like Kill Command and Kill Shot as helpful, "wake up dummy, Kill Shot is available" alarms, so that kind of defines my play style. I have most things key bound to my Belkin Nostromo N52Te speed pad and I mouse move, so clicking has become a lost talent for me. With my current UI, my pet bar is also difficult to utilize. I wonder if you can Power Aura your pets abilities?

Are some hunters managing Thunderstomp or do the pets do a better job of auto-shotting that talent. I also am considering Stone Core and Vortex solo runs for mounts and anything I can do to improve my chances are greatly appreciated.

[Slapperfish]

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[Worba]

Personally I find that 50% dmg reduction in key circumstances (e.g. when normal measures such as mend pet etc aren't enough) is way better than 10% across the board, especially vs bosses who pound through pet HP in large chunks... I'd try a bear for casual mob grinding except I've found def specced cunning pets with perma dash to be more efficient for that purpose (especially chimerae for obvious reasons).

But YMMV; try a bear and a turtle and see which works best for you!

[Kalliope]

In a technical sense, turtles/beetles have an advantage because their abilities are good against ALL opponents. But some of us love our bears and don't care.

[Worba]

Yes there is always the <3 factor to consider!

[Caanin]

Well I <3 Turtles, but I feel strongly about Bears as well, especially since my first hunter was a Dorf!!!

[Acherontia]

Personally I find that 50% dmg reduction in key circumstances (e.g. when normal measures such as mend pet etc aren't enough) is way better than 10% across the board, especially vs bosses who pound through pet HP in large chunks...

Agreed on this--I'm no math-head, but I'd guess that the comment above about Turtles & Beetles taking 100% damage doesn't take into account the rotation of Cower and Shell Shield. You should be micromanaging it for best results, and it's about a 60% uptime combined, meaning most of the time the pet has either a 50% or 40% damage reduction up for all damage types (rather than 10% physical reduction 100% of the time). I am, as I mentioned, terrible at math, but I'm fairly sure the Beetle/Turtle works out for better mitigation.

However, they don't have the small extra AoE threat amount that the Bear does with Roar.

Btw, the reason I mentioned Swipe wasn't because bears have *no* AoE threat, but because I assumed the OP was misinformed by someone not up-to-date with family skill changes

[Worba]

Well, in re: shell shield and micro management, I leave it on autocast, and I can't think of a turtle solo fight I haven't won, offhand.

I'd rather use my concentration for other aspects of the fight like aggro management, distracting shot, when to hit Last Stand, spacing out FD so the CD is refreshed before I need it again, and so on.

Also, if I did manually trigger SS early, I think I'd be nervous that it would be on CD when I really need it.

All this being said, we're just talking about the tippity-top 0.01% of tenacity pet combat for the most part; for the vast majority of what you would use a tenacity pet for (solo'ing lots of trash, or "soft" minibosses like Boglash), any tenacity pet will work fine as long as you spec its talents intelligently.