Most efficient tanking pets

[Tuls]

Hi there! I've been trying out a few tanking pets while leveling my hunter and just want some opinions on what you have found during your lvling/soloing experiences! So far I've tried a gorilla (didn't like), a rhino (meh, tanked well but ugly), and am currently on this little guy, the bright blue Hazzali Swarmer, I named him Arcturis because I've been exhaustingly camping Arc for days and needed to feel some sort of satisfaction :] (In my head I tamed Arcturis sp don't tell me it's not my shiny bear or else I might believe you and go back to endlessly camping o.O)


^Arcturis

[Kurasu]

For me, after extensive testing, I have found that for heavy tanking, go with Beetle/Turtle, and for more casual tanking, I like Crocolisk. The ankle crack is nice for if you pull aggro, since it slows the enemy way down, but the extra shell of Turtle and Beetle make them preferable for handling the big stuff.

I *STRONGLY* suggest avoiding crabs. Their 'pin' ability is vastly more PvP; channeled abilities mean that he's not casting growl, and you will lose a lot of threat unless you turn Pin off and micromanage.

[Furiku]

Personally I use a white warpstalker for an aoe/general tank and a purple shale spider for a backup. My warpstalker, Blitz, holds aggro pretty well and his timewarp is useful if I need to get some range on a mob that's zeroed in on me for some reason.

My shale spider on the other hand is useful for when I'm running in a group with a tank with shaky aggro and we might be missing Kings/MotW. Her web shot is also great for when there are mobs going after the healer, or just running crazily, and can help prevent a ton of wipes.

I try to keep one tanking pet on me for those instances where everything goes to pieces but yeah. I just prefer those two out of the tanking pets I've had before. (Bear, worm. Though both were great for single target tanking, typically the situations I'm in aren't single target tanking situations heh.)

[Lisaara]

I like scorpids much more for tanking. My turtle would lose aggro a lot but my scorpid never does.

[Lupis]

My turtle. Love it. Shell Shield has saved him many a time.

[Shade]

Pretty Articus you have there!

*pets and shudders*

Anyways. I've never been one for a tank pet really-I've not used one until most recently.

On my level 85 hunter, her turtle is the best tank so far out of whats in her stables (worm, warpstalker, and scorpion). The turtle/beetle seems very effective.

On my level 67 hunter, I've been playing with a bear and warpstalker. I tested the bear out first and it was a super fit. I can't count the number of times I've had to pull my Kníght-my white bear (my shining white knight hehehe)-out to save my dungeon runs from a wipe. If I keep an eye out and the tank falls, I dismiss my wolf or cat, call Kníght, and even if he is lower then most the beasts in the instance, he'll keep us from wiping all the way as long as I keep mend pet up on him. I have not yet pulled aggro off of him either.

Warpstalker and croc I've been trying to test out. Both I've pulled aggro from (and I'm pretty sure that they are all specced the same way). Warpstalker is decent-but I still like my Kníght.

I loved the worm, until they changed his burrowing ability. /mourn

[Tuls]

Ok sounds like I'm on the right track with Arcturis (beetle form), he does hold aggro very well and he's also very shiny. I've never tried a turtle but I think those are in the same category as beetles. Warpstalker I had and loved its playstyle to death but the looks I couldnt get over, never really liked how their heads looked like they had grown some sort of aggressive tumor. Off topic however I did tame a purple wasp and have been surprised with what it can do when specc'd to tank! I have yet to pull aggro off it between its sting and DPS, not to mention its HUGE! By far one of my favorite pets. (except of course my newly tamed Wiggles -Gondria-)

[Acherontia]

Depends on what you mean by "efficient!" If you want something to quickly grind things down, such as during boosts or clearing old content while spamming AoE to keep threat, try out anything specced for damage + Thunderclap, perhaps with a buff like the Shale Spider's BoK.

If, on the other hand, you want something that can truly tank heroic bosses and whatnot in a pinch, taking any punishment possible to deal out, definitely grab a turtle or beetle. 90% damage reduction, even on a cooldown, is nothing to laugh at!

(These are my experiences, anyway; I use a beautiful indigo beetle for true tanking, and a damage-specced warpy--because I love them--for quickly clearing older group content.)

[Lisaara]

I seem to be the only scorpid user. ^^;

[Teevo]

I seem to be the only scorpid user. ^^;

I made my black and blue Madexx tank spec'ed, while red and green are dps

[Tulune]

Turtle or Beetle for singe target tanking.

Bear for AOE tanking.

IMHO

[Ziarre]

Ziarre wuvs her Samira, yes she does! Tufani's still getting comfortable with name-shifting-around Gezzarak.

[Tuls]

What makes a bear more efficient for AoE tanking? I got my beetle cause I thought it could do that as well as any tank pet. Sorry for my ignorance I just recently got way too into my hunter and decided to research the hell out of everything so I'm still learning :]

[mpd_84]

bears get demoralizing roar...

[mnenioc]

To be honest, I had problems with scorpids until I went Madexx hunting. Now I use my blue for dps and green is more of a traditional tanking spec. For more of the extreme tanking, I still go with a turtle (beetle would work out just as well) or when I run pugs and tank just can't keep aggro.

[Serendipity82]

By far my favorite tank is my Rhino. He holds aggro like no other and is adorable to boot Another favorite is my Scorpid and suprisingly (for me anyway) my warpstalker. Wasn't expecting to like him as much as I do. I have a beetle, but I have to say, even though he is tank spec'd he doesn't do nearly as good a job as the other 3.

[Kurasu]

What makes a bear more efficient for AoE tanking?

Someone answered below, but not with a lot of detail. Bears Demoralizing Roar is a debuff on the entire group around them, plus it has a fairly short CD, allowing the bear to use it fairly often. This means that between Thunderstomp and DemoRoar, it's using area attacks, as well as lowering the damage it takes thanks to DemoRoar.

All in all, it makes bears very efficient in the AoE tanking area, though they haven't the 'extra CD' of turtles and beetles, so I still prefer those two for heavy elites/bosses tanking. But bears have come out as quite popular due to that AoE utility.

[Cialbi]

What makes a bear more efficient for AoE tanking? I got my beetle cause I thought it could do that as well as any tank pet. Sorry for my ignorance I just recently got way too into my hunter and decided to research the hell out of everything so I'm still learning :]

Demoralizing Roar is an AoE debuff that reduces damage done by 10%, that the bear applies. Great for grabbing initial aggro, tagging spawns so that they don't get glued to you by healing aggro, as well as giving that added edge in AoE threat generation throughout the fight. So, bears are great tanks; they get used the most when I'm soloing.

I decided to try out a scorpid recently as a tank pet; tamed a Venomscale Spitter since they look more like tanks, but have yet to seriously try the critter out. They are going to be situationally useful; a disarm isn't always going to be possible, and only affects one target. But, when used against a single hard-hitting NPC that can be disarmed, your pet gets a nice chunk of threat and mitigates a lot of damage over 10 seconds.

Worms fell out of style when their AoE was changed so that your worm lost aggro while using it. However, their debuff still comes in handy. Not only do you burn through mobs faster, but your pet gets the lion's share of the extra DPS - and consequently more threat. Of the abilities that give your pet threat, only Thunderstomp doesn't deal Physical damage. By contrast, the only physical attack that gives you threat is Auto Shot. On top of this, worms are surprisingly clever, as TygerDarkstorm discovered. When faced with multiple mobs, a worm will try its best to maintain the Acid Spit debuff on two different targets at once. So, definitely worth a try if you're a tanking pet fanatic like myself.

Gorillas are another situationally useful tanking pet that can be a great boon at times. Their special ability is Pummel, a spell interrupt and 2 second partial spell lockout on a 30 second CD. The neat thing with Gorillas that Kurasu discovered is that when Pummel is left on autocast, your gorilla will only autocast the ability if his current target is actually casting/channeling a spell. This is huge when facing a boss that has an interruptable heal that will otherwise make killing the boss quite difficult. The only way to improve upon that would be to let your target get close to finishing their spellcast before interrupting it, effectively making your target waste the previous seconds spent casting.

Shale Spiders will provide both of you with a powerful DPS buff that doesn't require refreshing, and can also stun targets at range and for 3 seconds. The latter isn't too terribly useful for tanking, but you can find clever uses for it nonetheless.

In case you were wondering, I didn't bother mentioning turtles and beetles, since you already understand why they're awesome.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Aw, Cialbi, I'm honored you remember my report on worms. ^_^

But yeah, a lot of the others have pretty much covered everything. I have my shale spider specced as a DPS tank, and my Terrorpene is specced for hardcore tanking. My Madexx is specced for PvP since that's where I find disarm the most useful (and yes, I know it has its place in PvE; done plenty of pet challenge testing ).

I find that when I'm running as BM and just doing basic stuff like dailies and whatnot, I can use just about any pet I want and a simple kill command is enough for the pet to hold aggro. I usually never need more than one mend pet. Also, for these kind of purposes where you want to blow through stuff fast, a cunning pet can make a great tank because you can spec them into Grace of the Mantis and make them crit immune.

I actually used a fox to run my bf's lowbie through Hellfire Ramparts and she held AoE threat like a champ with Tail Spin. I like to test out alternative tanking styles, what can I say?

[Tuls]

Wow thanks for all the great info! One question about the worms, does a Jormunger count as a worm? Cause those look badass and I would really prefer that over a normal lookin squirmy

Edit: I did some research quickly on petopia and saw they ARE part of the squirmy family, on my way to tame one now Super excited!
Edit: Edit: Tamed and named Squirmy appropriately :] Loving it so far. Specc'd for mad single target DPS/Threat.