Tanking Pets: Which Do You Prefer?

[Quin]

I like my Rattlescale, my Jormungar worm, but I have free pet slots and I'm wanting to play around with other tanking pets to see how they work.

I currently have:
Rattlescale - Jormungar Worm
Ishura - Devilsaur
Unnamed - My Loque, who I still need to get an awesome name for, but more an RP reason why Quin has him/her
Unnamed - Tiger (I've been wanting a cat, loved the avatar, and so far a gorgeous tigress suits Quin beautifully)

I think I am going to release Rattlescale for a little while and try out another pet, though chances are I am going to re-tame my buddy soon. He has a good deal of personality, but I love the fun of leveling and trying out new pets.

So, what Tenacity Pets do you enjoy? Why? Which ones do you recommend?

[Karathyriel]

When it came to tanking, I found the bears be the top guys as the hit more than one target and are therefore able to tank and hold healing aggro easily.

Getting better when you skill the warrior-like stomping.

And with that lvl11 polar bear in Dun Morogh, I had my favorite skin available pretty soon.

[VelkynKarma]

I've only played with two tank pets: the worm, and the boar.

You know about the worm already, obviously. As for the boar, I love my little Dhaundax! I'm the kind of player that prefers to do as much damage as possible with pets (I prefer leveling with Ferocity pets myself) so I love the fact that Dax can tank for me but still do a decent amount of damage with his charge & gore combo. Plus you couldn't find a more adorable pet with so much personality! The way they run, the way they idle and wiggle their little butts up in the air, and their PetEmotes....everything is just friendly and happy.

~VelkynKarma

[Twila]

If you plan to do a lot of aoe mass pulling, I would recommend a bear. They do hit more then one target and once it gets thunderstop, so long as you occasionally make it turn to hit at another target some (if your watching your agro on all the mobs and turn it to the one you have the highest risk of pulling) it'll do fine.

BE WARNED with a bears swipe, it can also run the risk of pulling EXTRA mobs you didn't intend, same with it's thunderstomp.

If you plan to do solo questing or such where your not gona pull omg big groups in one go, a warp stalker is ideal, with warp you do not have to spec in charge so thats one, two points you can stick in somewhere else cause it's warp acts just like those skills. They hold agro like a charm and unlike bears where you'd have to turn off swipe AND thunderstomp, on a stalker you'd only have to turn off stomp if your in an area where you might not want to pull those extra mobs around. Thus you are still using the stalkers full attacks.

[Karathyriel]

I have to admit, the unintentional pulling ability of SWIPE and THUNDERSTOMP are undeniable.
My apologies, I haven't thought about that.

[Siliverin]

i think on the thunderstomp you have to put pet talent points into it so they dont actully have to have it. i always had bear tank pets. they are wonderful tank pets

[Undra]

Bears do have a nice style. but as the only tanking my pets do anymore is either parking next to Valritha or helping me solo old raids, my Slimalisk is my Raider's tank of choice, and my turtle is securely in my BM's roster until such time as the loot gods smile upon us.

[Vephriel]

I really enjoy Crocolisks for multi-mob tanking. ^^ Their ability is the same idea as a Bear's (hitting multiple mobs at once), but I find the Croc just does it better. I could be biased of course, they're my favourite animals, but still.

I've yet to find a tenacity pet that matches the sheer survivability of Turtles though. If you're in a for a long fight then they would be my choice for sure.

[mnenioc]

There was a thread that had some mentions of some of the different tanking pets:
http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3728

I've had a chance to try bears (great tanking pets and hold aggro really well); crocs (Bad Attitude); worms; boars; gorillas (when they were the only ones that had thunderstomp); rhinos and scorpids. Out of those, my favorite right now has got to be crocs (esp with Bad Attitude) and turtles.
The croc I have (Sewer Beast) is used when it looks like the tank I'm in a group with can't seem to handle it or I go soloing a particularily tough area while lvling up.
The turtle (cranky) is used when I try and solo something particularily annoying like the ZG mount bosses or chillmaw when I was just playing around trying to solo it.

All are good choices, pick out the one that fits ya and that you'll enjoy looking at for periods of time.

[Aquillian]

My Jormungar and my Warpstalker are my favorites, after having tested them all. The Jormungar's ranged attack is amazing, and their animations are adorable. The Warpstalker always looks so eager and deadly... and warp is the only ability I've found that I like more than the Jormungar's ranged attack.

[Protego]

I like rhinos as tanking pets the best. They're huge. They look like tanks. They're tough animals.

[Saturo]

I love my warpstalker. Warp makes him get to the mob right away, while also decreasing the damage he takes. Plus, he looks cool.

[Slickrock]

Too many variables...

While leveling, boars, bears, crocs are all good. If you are 80 in high-end gear, a Trex as Veph suggests is better, because the extra damage they do is needed to hold aggro. If you have a good group, a worm is great if you don't have a warrior in the group as well.

All depends on you, your gear, what you are tanking, and who you are with when you are doing the tanking.

Now the "best looking" tank pet? Armoured black boar for me.

[Quin]

My gear is only "decent" (ICC10 really), and I'm looking for a sturdy, solid "solo pet" for questing, older dungeons and raids, etc.

My current raiding pet(s) are my Devilsaur Ishura and a wolf (whose skin keeps changing until I find the one I like the most).

I have a Tigress that I enjoy right now, testing her out in Heroics and such, though she's more a personality/RP pet for Quin.

[Silvershade]

I prefer warp stalkers. They always seem to have so much (evil) personality, they look cool and Warp is useful. Or you could go with a crocolisk. Their bad attitude ability is always useful and I have found they can take quite a bit of damage. I have used quite a few bears but they arn't really on my favourite animal list so I find it hard to bond with them. Or you could try a rhino.

[Azunara]

Also throwing in my lot with the warp stalker. Love Warp, it means I can unload immediately without waiting for it to get there. Plus, he's unique. Not many have or want a warp stalker. They're a rare beauty. And, unlike worms, don't need exotic.

[Saturo]

ANOTHER dragonmount? Not too keen on it, TBH. A warrior can be kind and caring too, that's not a quality limited to hunters. Neat idea, I'm just not too keen on having a dragonmount for our class mount. Maybe a chimera? With a new model, of course!

[Azunara]

One, wrong thread Saturo.

Two, yeah, you have a point. I just liked the concept of us raising our pet/mount. Chimera would be neat. Or what about gryphon/hippogryph/wyvern. Many people want those as a pet, not too mention with all the dragon mounts, they tend to be underloved. Or...phoenix. Or owl! Owl mount!

[Saturo]

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How the HELL did I make that mistake!? 0.o

[Nachtwulf]

I'm going to wade in on the side of warpstalkers. Yeah, bear swipe is good, but it uses a lot of focus, so you're really only likely to see it once, when your pet first engages its target... unless you've got Bite(claw?) off, I guess.

Warpstalkers have a few advantages. Warp is cheap and has a short cooldown, and your pet will pop behind its target throughout the fight, stunning it. Also, if you've picked up a caster that's ranging, the pet won't have to run to it.

Probably most importantly though, you don't have to waste a point on charge since warp's so much better. This gets you into Tier2 with 3 points in durability, so they're tough little bastids. Pet talents are kind of at a premium, so it's nice to have an "extra" one.