#1 Best Raiding pet

[Kalliope]

Edit: The #1 pet for everything is a pet you love.

Like a sporebat!

[Anyia]

Edit: The #1 pet for everything is a pet you love.

Like a sporebat!

LMAO

[Comett]

Hehe, in perfect honesty, a raid-attentive hunter would do well to bring a cat, wolf, dragonhawk, ravager and raptor - or their counterparts - to cover the widest range of viable raid buffs. However I have always personally felt that yes, if you feel up to it, supplying an additional buff is a good thing, but the buff will not (or at least should not) make or break the success of a raid... I think the most important thing is that you enjoy playing your class, and if you enjoy your hunter the most when you use a sporebat, so be it!

When I'm in a cheery mood and am happy to do so I'll use my wolf or dragonhawk for the buffs they provide, however the majority of the time I use my cat (despite us raiding with both shammies and a DK), and on occasion I'll raid with my warp stalker. And this thread has really made me want to go get a sporebat.

So I can pwn rogues and dks in PVP. Chyeah.

[Ickabob]

If the debuffs aren't present, I roll with a raptor or wind serpent. The dinosaur's armor debuff is all around good for hunters, and the increased spell damage is pretty nice if your SV, (which is heavy on spell damage by way of your special shots, traps, and poisons) plus the casters in your group will love you. Of coarse, if your raid has all the buffs/debuffs they need, then feel free to bring whatever pet you like. Thanks to class homogenization, there really is no 'best pet', so like I stated already, it comes down to personal preference.

[Nachtwulf]

During Wrath, I relied on either a ravager or windserpent depending purely on the majority population in the raid at the time. If we had a lot of casters, I pulled out Ghost, otherwise it was Splinters.

It can be difficult to juggle buffs (and in my raids, like some people had mentioned, usually everything is covered anyway), but it's generally hard to refuse a flat out 4% damage increase. Most of the debuff type abilities aren't going to work on some or all of raid mobs, so I don't tend to focus on those. Cast interrupts, casting slows (especially) and attack haste debuffs are all going to pretty much be a waste outside of PVP. As are roots (although Squee Spiders' retain usefulness due to being a pocket pally if you don't have one).

Also, with the switch to focus, Roar of Recovery is a nice thing to have going in the background, 'cause as Surv, I do tend to run a little low on focus on long fights. Anyway, them's my two cents. if you're not filling a hole in your buffs, you can pretty much bring what you want, I just like pulling out 'whatever makes my raid hit harder'.

[Shade]

Edit: The #1 pet for everything is a pet you love.

Like a sporebat!

Wouldn't it be ironic if Blizz were to read this and patch the Sporebats to be the best raiding pet in the game?

[Nachtwulf]

Hey, I totally raided and instanced with a sporebat back when their cloud was an AoE armor debuff. With wrath trash packs being what they were, and the crazy that was Volley...

Ah, those were the days... (days of arguably too much AoE and getting aggro in the face a lot... XD )

[Loethlin]

My guildmate thinks Sporebats, when not in combat, should sit on your head like a sort of hat, just like in Half Live 2.
I agree.
If they would, they'd be the greatest pets ever.

ATM, they're great if you're missing a lock.

[Kalliope]

Sporebats are currently used on Maloriak by some hunters, self included. Slowing his casting speed is a good thing! Your little sporebat will keep that debuff on him at all times (since he doesn't move much) without you or anyone else having to worry about it. This frees me up to focus on freeing people from freezes.

It often makes more sense for us to do it, since mind-numbing poison is a dps loss for a rogue and everyone else has to give up a global every now and then to keep the debuff up. (I don't know from warlock rotations, but I'd imagine that giving up their curse slot for tongues would be a pain too.) I personally already bring my ravager for raids, since the physical debuff is usually the one missing, so I'm just going from one cunning pet to another. Definitely not a big deal.

[Cialbi]

Hey, I totally raided and instanced with a sporebat back when their cloud was an AoE armor debuff. With wrath trash packs being what they were, and the crazy that was Volley...

Ah, those were the days... (days of arguably too much AoE and getting aggro in the face a lot... XD )

Yeah, your sporebat wasn't actually improving your AoE DPS, since Volley was 100% Arcane damage (and thus ignored armor completely).

Sporebats are currently used on Maloriak by some hunters, self included. Slowing his casting speed is a good thing! Your little sporebat will keep that debuff on him at all times (since he doesn't move much) without you or anyone else having to worry about it. This frees me up to focus on freeing people from freezes.

It often makes more sense for us to do it, since mind-numbing poison is a dps loss for a rogue and everyone else has to give up a global every now and then to keep the debuff up. (I don't know from warlock rotations, but I'd imagine that giving up their curse slot for tongues would be a pain too.) I personally already bring my ravager for raids, since the physical debuff is usually the one missing, so I'm just going from one cunning pet to another. Definitely not a big deal.

If a Warlock were to use Curse of Tongues instead of Curse of Elements, and you were to use a Wind Serpent or Dragonhawk instead of a Sporebat, your raid would get the same debuffs on the boss (the resistance lowering provided by Curse of Elements is irrelevant, since bosses have no spell resistances to be lowered) and not have to worry about the boss moving out of a ground AoE debuff.

But, that requires a Warlock in the first place.

[Kalliope]

If a Warlock were to use Curse of Tongues instead of Curse of Elements, and you were to use a Wind Serpent or Dragonhawk instead of a Sporebat, your raid would get the same debuffs on the boss (the resistance lowering provided by Curse of Elements is irrelevant, since bosses have no spell resistances to be lowered) and not have to worry about the boss moving out of a ground AoE debuff.

But, that requires a Warlock in the first place.

We could do that, though really, the boss doesn't move often enough on the fight for the movement to be a factor anyway.

We do have a warlock, so it can go either way in my raid. Not a big deal at any rate, though swapping the buffs around *would* remove any potential loss of debuff.