Rake or Spirit Strike?

[Silvarain]

Spirit beasts are interesting creatures to say the least and rare in all cases, here are some tested facts to know about Spirit Strike.

Spirit Strike can be spell reflected
>Odd as it sounds, this is true, your pet's family ability can be spell reflected back at them.

Spirit Strike can consume 2 charges of Kill Command
>The initial damage as well as the damage after six seconds both consume charges, however this is a bad thing as the 'dot' portion cannot critically strike but still receives the damage bonus from kill command. This should not be a problem if your focus dump is active.

Spirit Strike is not effected by spell power buffs
>Not a big surprise, it may look like moonfire and act like a spell in every way, but spell power buffs on your pet do not effect spirit strike

Spirit Strike is effected by spell damage debuffs
>Debuffs like Ebon Plague and Curse of Elements do effect spirit strike's damage on the target.

interesting, no? there seems to be so much more going on with this skill than the whole "how much added def does my enemy have?" after thought. i find the uniqueness of this skill... well kinda weird... but none the less would like to see more variety with our pet skills (magic and ranged). i ask my follow hunters if they know/notice any more oddities with spirit strike to please post them here. knowledge is power and Blizz may just add more like spirit strike in Cat.

thanks ^_^

[Mustafah]

As i know Spirit Strike does more damage. But all of the spirit beasts are very rare so i wouldn't recommand to get one(i really dont recommand you get Arcturis i saw like 4hunters camping for him and fighting each other, hehe) as i said, its your choice. If you still want a Spirit Beast pet, go on Loque or Skoll, they are my favourite

[Orni]

As i know Spirit Strike does more damage. But all of the spirit beasts are very rare so i wouldn't recommand to get one(i really dont recommand you get Arcturis i saw like 4hunters camping for him and fighting each other, hehe) as i said, its your choice. If you still want a Spirit Beast pet, go on Loque or Skoll, they are my favourite

That's different on every server. Here at my server Gondria is maybe the most popular.

However. Let's do a bit math right here to answer your question:

Rake(rank 6) :
47-67 initial dmg + 19-25 dmg 3 times. On average this means: 57+3*22= 123 dmg for 20 focus in 9 seconds
This means you get 13,6 dps (unmodified value) from Rake

Spirit Strike (rank6) :
49-65 initial dmg + 49-65 dmg 1 time. On average this means: 57+57= 114 dmg for 20 focus in 6 seconds
This means you get 19 dps (unmodified value) from Spirit Strike

Both abilities will of course be boosted by your pets spellpower as well as your talents (shorter ability cooldowns and more dmg) but this will affect both abilities the same percentual way, meaning, the relative difference will stay.

Conclusion:

Spirit Strike does almost 40% more dmg than Rake, however, it also uses (10/9)=1.111... more focus per second. But in my opinion that's almost meaningless. Therefore Spirit Strike is by far supirior to Rake under optimal conditions for both abilities.

[Mustafah]

True. you must do the math and check the stats for your server and choose. as i said before, spirit beasts are rare, that means, hard to find.

[Ryno]

Yeah, spirit strike does look better. And yeah, spirit beasts are just a pain to find and tame. The new one would almost be impossible. I've seen Loque and Gondria before, never even seen shiny electric wolfy yet. Don't think I've set foot in Grizzly Hills since Ark came out, heh. Finding spirit beasts is mostly a matter of luck, in most cases.

[deathkid75]

well as ppl have said it is a pain to find but it nt just go on thottbot print out a map make a route thn go to the basin and look when ever u fell like it it nt about luck it about tenacity (how long u cn go) it realy worth it i gt louque and gondria if u wnt to go for 1 dont go fr gondria bd dps but if u dont want a spirit beast get a dreadsabre of shango they look sick

[Orni]

actually they aren't hard to find ... it just takes some time:

1. Prepare for them, install _NPCscan and delete your cache everytime
2. Do only use a trash pet (or something you can tame quite easy again) while hunting them
3. Go online at irregular times, like monday nights for example and fly one or two rounds
4. Try again in an hour, do not camp for them if you still got a real-life

This way you'll get them very easy. I got the Time-Lost Proto in such a way after two weeks.
Yes, camping will have a much higher succes rate but you'll also spend redicilous much time looking at your minimap and hitting target makros

[Lilandre]

Another bonus SS has over rake if you use prowl (now that the slowing effect only applys during combat/when sent to attack theres no reason not to) the Spirit beast will stop, cast SS then charge to the enemy. The bonus this gives is that that first SS will benefit from the 50% damage boost to it and still gets the 25% melee attack power for its next attack after charge.
Last I heard cats break prowl when they use charge and that they wont get that juicy 50% bonus unless you turn off/don't take charge.

[Storytime]

I'd say that varies on what you're using the pet for Lilandre, most hunters only spec into Charge for pvp, as all raid bosses are immune to the immobilizing debuff and the fact that it only increases 1 attack... To be completely honest, if you're going for pure dps, neither a spirit beast or cat is the way to go for BM. Devilsaur all the way... I know they're annoying and bulky but they sure do hit hard o.o;;

[zidev]

Rake(rank 6) :
47-67 initial dmg + 19-25 dmg 3 times. On average this means: 57+3*22= 123 dmg for 20 focus in 9 seconds
This means you get 13,6 dps (unmodified value) from Rake

Spirit Strike (rank6) :
49-65 initial dmg + 49-65 dmg 1 time. On average this means: 57+57= 114 dmg for 20 focus in 6 seconds
This means you get 19 dps (unmodified value) from Spirit Strike

Hello Orni can you do a simular breakdown with Spirit Strike and Furious Howl of the wolves? Thanks alot!

[Storytime]

There's not really anything to breakdown with a character/pet buff... "Increases attack power by X amount." So you can say if X is the increase, and Y is your static unbuffed attack power, then X±Y= your answer...

[Storytime]

Another little tidbit after taking a second look at the forum, is that pet stats scale with the given hunter- sure base, listed damage will be the same, but depending on pet buffs any 2 spirit beasts will be different than each other...

[Silvarain]

ok, according to Ranshiin:

Spirit beasts are interesting creatures to say the least and rare in all cases, here are some tested facts to know about Spirit Strike.

Spirit Strike can be spell reflected
>Odd as it sounds, this is true, your pet's family ability can be spell reflected back at them.

Spirit Strike can consume 2 charges of Kill Command
>The initial damage as well as the damage after six seconds both consume charges, however this is a bad thing as the 'dot' portion cannot critically strike but still receives the damage bonus from kill command. This should not be a problem if your focus dump is active.

Spirit Strike is not effected by spell power buffs
>Not a big surprise, it may look like moonfire and act like a spell in every way, but spell power buffs on your pet do not effect spirit strike

Spirit Strike is effected by spell damage debuffs
>Debuffs like Ebon Plague and Curse of Elements do effect spirit strike's damage on the target.

interesting? yes. but it raises more questions such as:
do ATP buffs work on it?
is it considered a magic spell?
why do SLP debuffs work and not SLP buffs?
why can it be reflected back onto the pet if it is not magic?
how often does it get reflected? (encounter wise)
is there not less to worry about with rake?

i like more damage but im not one who is interested with max dps, or i would be running around with a wolf; of which i do NOT and may never have. to me, cats and spirit beasts may as well be the same as both have prowl atm and there not being many spirit skins (nor any i have to have). now i would like to know: just how complexed is spirit strike over the seemingly worry-free rake?

[Saturo]

just how complexed is spirit strike over the seemingly worry-free rake?

They are both similar in difficulty. You can pick whichever pet you want, the attacks are roughly equal in damage, and spell reflection usually ain't something to worry about, unless you're fighting a stupid warrior.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

It's not that bad. Plus, it has the advantage of being ranged, which is a lot more useful then you'd think. Overall Spirit strike wins, but if you have trauma or mangle up on the target then it gets closer. Not only that, but the scaling on Spirit strike is poor, to say the least.

[Feath3r]

I would test it yourself, everyone here says Spirit Strike does more but I saw a video of a guy testing it out himself and Rake did better by a very large margin for him.

[Slickrock]

Ok, it's grumpy math guy time...

First off, a Spirit Beast will give you better dps than a cat overall. As buffs are added, the difference becomes greater.

Secondly, all this will be moot with Cata, as pets are supposed to be rebalanced..

Now, with that being said, you didn't give us enough info. Are you talking about soloing, heroics, pvp, or raiding?.. yes, it does make a difference.

If you want max raiding dps, a trex or wolf is going to do it. If you are soloing, a worm is actually the best. Heroics? someplace inbetween.

What I generally reccomend is get one max dps pet, and then get the others based on pets you enjoy.

[Tahlian]

Actually, in my experience, from using both species on similar mobs...the cat comes out better. I've seen Claw and Rake crit for near 1K. Spirit Strike, I'm lucky to get a 500-point crit on. They neutered the spirit beasts' damage so they wouldn't become "the" pet to have. Only problem is...they hit them so hard with the nerf bat that they really aren't competitive for much at all. I've seen people be moderately successful with one in PvP, but really it's just a "hey, kill this hunter, he has an exotic pet" neon sign over your head.

I'm hoping and praying that my poor Tsorovan will be at least competitive in Cataclysm so that an exotic pet in general and a spirit beast in particular becomes a badge of honor rather than a mark of shame...but we'll have to see what we end up getting.

[Slickrock]

Well, cats and Spirit beasts are both middle-of-the-road at best for dps. If you don't want to go Trex/wolf, a raptor is still a solid choice.

[Unggoy]

Unless your in a hardcore guild, it doesnt really matter. The difference is negligible really. SO use whatever floats your boat.