Newcomer with question :)

[Vorhees]

Well I did jokingly reference it in my first post

Since my last post I tried both the Wolf and the Windserpent.
Though it's difficult for me to notice any difference in preformance, I seem to 2-3 shot everything while I'm questing now (lvl 67)
No matter what I do, I might aswell play with boxing gloves on.

Just tamed a Moth now that I'll try just for S&G....I named him Doomflutter

[peanutbuttercup]

Keep in mind most of us are advising from the viewpoint of a level 90. At level 67, you shouldn't notice much difference... almost any pet will do. So use the pets you like and don't worry too much about optimizing. It's just good information to keep in the back of your mind, in case you do take on something pretty tough. In those cases optimizing might mean winning versus losing, and that's where you should try switching it up.

[Vorhees]

Thank you, and yes I absolutely agree.

It wasn't intended to be so much about optimizing and DPS though.
I was mostly curious what people liked for utility and the pet being generally useful, outside of DPS and tanking, wich after all are their major features.

Like for example, if "fetch" wasn't a glyph, but a dog only ability, I'd probably have a dog and rarely if ever swich it out

[peanutbuttercup]

Utility can be part of optimizing too. I've tried using Birds of Prey on bosses that melee too hard (it didn't work ), a Rhino's horn toss in lieu of a stun (sometimes worked), etc. But you got the idea already, and I'm glad you're trying out different pets and seeing what works for you.

And if Dogs were the only family with the fetch ability, I guarantee you, I would make sure I had one with me at all times. I could see it being the favored solo pet for that reason!

[Xota]

Spirit Beasts heals. I'm pretty sure the heals will scale with level and/or gear (but I may be wrong) and so at max level Azrael (Loque) is healing me for around 13/15k.

If you plan to use it whenever you please, and not when the pet decides to, take it off of auto. Just so they don't heal themselves when it was you who needed it.

I don't let my pets auto-cast the heal and instead use a macro to target myself and heal since 9 times out of 10, I am the intended target.

The heal does scale with your gear. On my main (ilvl 582) I tick for around 35k, on an alt (ilvl 536) I tick for 28k.

As far as using a beetle I don't allow it to auto-cast shield. In sticky situations it doesn't do it at the right time (it feels like it always casts too late, so that it's too far gone to save) and I'd rather take on the responsibility of deciding when the time is right.

Do you happen to know a macro I can use for my spirit beasts, so they'll target me and cast the heal? I should probably get around to making more macros really. Still gotta figure out that misdirection one...

macro(s) for spirit mend:
The first always casts on the hunter.
I prefer something that gives you a little more control, like the second macro. If you hover the mouse over your portrait, or over party frames, or over a player or pet model (not including yourself, IIRC). If what your mouse is hovering over isn't something you can heal, your pet heals itself. You can make it heal you instead by turning the [@pet] to [@player]. To save barspace / keybindings, I glom a bunch of spells into the same macro, including spirit mend and mend pet. The third macro is the one I use. The last macro is the one I use for misdirect. Spec:1 is my pvp spec, and when in a group, I either focus my pet (if it's tanking) or the tank.

Code: Select all

/cast [@player] Spirit Mend

/cast [@mouseover,exists,help][] Spirit Mend

#showtooltip
/cast [pet,@pet,nodead,mod:shift] Dismiss Pet;[@mouseover,exists,nodead,help,pet:Spirit Beast] Spirit Mend;[pet,@pet,nodead] Mend Pet; [mod:ctrl][pet,@pet,dead,mod] Heart of the Phoenix;[pet][mod:shift] Revive Pet; Mend Pet

#showtooltip
/cast [@focus,nomod,exists,help] [nogroup,@pet,nomod][spec:1,@pet,nomod][] Misdirection

For pvp, my default pet is a silithid (+stam buff and a ranged root), but that's turning into a melee range snare in WoD. Spider will have a ranged snare, but no stam buff. For rogues in particular, a pet with a disarm (like bird of prey) is handy when they shadow dance. (in WoD, most of the pvp utility will be removed from pets, only runspeed-reducing snares will remain). If you're looking at a pet for a buff, mastery is good for your pet's damage (nice when they LoS you, but can't get away from your pet), assuming you're still BM. Versatility will probably be good for pvp too, the pet buff will increase your damage (and healing) by 3%, and decrease your damage taken by 1.5%.
This thread tells you what pet families will provide what benefits.
In addition to BM's ideal stat being mastery, Marks will benefit most from crit, and Survival most from multistrike.

You can change your pet's 'spec' too. Any pet can be switched to tenacity (tank), ferocity (dps), or cunning (pvp), when you're not in combat. Usually, I have 1-2 on me that can tank, 1 that I like for pvp, and a couple for dps (or utility) if I end up in a group for something. For tanking pets, in addition to spirit beasts, water striders can be really handy for reducing down time out in the world (if there's lots of water around), just put /cast [pet:water strider] Surface Trot in your mount macro before the line that summons your mount.
If you run in a regular raid, figure out what buffs/debuffs they might be lacking, and you can get a pet to fill that roll. In MoP, I often had a spell haste, a physical haste, and a battle rez pet ready for my 10 man. In LFR, I ran a battle rez pet most of the time ('quilen' in MoP; cranes, moths, and 'quilen' in WoD). When it comes down to it, though, you should go for pets that you 'click' with (aesthetically and playstyle). You'll have more fun, and may do better because of that.