Passive, Defensive or Aggressive?

[Feath3r]

Greetings all! New Hunter here (well, my Hunter is level 45 but that doesn't mean much, lol) and I have a question for everyone.

As I've been running through dungeons (via LFD tool) I've run into very few hunters and the only friend I have who is a hunter never used the dungeon finder until he hit 78 to get those last few levels so I haven't really gotten to see how other hunters use their pets much. More often than not tanks will say to keep pets on passive and complain like crazy if any of the few hunters I've run into have their pets join into the fight more than a few times throughout the entire instance and god help the hunter whose pet pulls aggro for even a split second.

So my question is, how do you guys run your pets? Do you leave them on defensive to help out or passive and only send them out a target at a time or something else? I've been running mine on Passive (Growl on) and only sending them out when the Healer or another squishy DPS pulls aggro and the tank cannot get the aggro back fast enough and against bosses (Growl off). Does doing it that way hurt my damage output a lot or is that how I'm supposed to run my pet or... help?

Sorry if it's a really stupid question.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Defensive with growl off to assist with damage, no matter what your spec. There are certain situations where you are going to want your pet on passive, but those don't come up to often. If something comes off on the healer then turn growl back on for the duration.

[Ryai]

Defensive with growl off to assist with damage, no matter what your spec. There are certain situations where you are going to want your pet on passive, but those don't come up to often. If something comes off on the healer then turn growl back on for the duration.

^this

Outside of a few things, IE AN for Anub where I leave my pets on agressive or aassive for other fights/runs like for when I'm pulling OR. The run thru the slag in HoL. Where I seriously don't want my pet to get aggro. Another good place for passive-dfensive switching is PoS where tanks usually run to the middle and you seriously don't want to drag aggro off them during that run.

Other than that Defensive with Growl off; unless trash is on a healer but tbh unless you have Intimidate growl doesn't usually pull threat off fast enough imo so you'd be best off trapping it first.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

That ritual in...gah....where is it.....I'll look it up in a minute, but there is a ritual in one of the level eighty instances that can kill your pet. It's the one where some one is selected to be sacrificed, and you have to kill the mobs to free them. The ritual that forms under the Valkyr there can kill your pet if you don't have them on passive while you plunk away.

[Ryai]

That ritual in...gah....where is it.....I'll look it up in a minute, but there is a ritual in one of the level eighty instances that can kill your pet. It's the one where some one is selected to be sacrificed, and you have to kill the mobs to free them. The ritual that forms under the Valkyr there can kill your pet if you don't have them on passive while you plunk away.

UP; and I know it's oneshot my pets a few times before I realized wtf was going on. For this fight I'd also suggest making a macro to somehow get the pet to attack the three banshees while you continue pewpewing.

Not figured out how yet >_>

[Golden]

That ritual in...gah....where is it.....I'll look it up in a minute, but there is a ritual in one of the level eighty instances that can kill your pet. It's the one where some one is selected to be sacrificed, and you have to kill the mobs to free them. The ritual that forms under the Valkyr there can kill your pet if you don't have them on passive while you plunk away.

UP; and I know it's oneshot my pets a few times before I realized wtf was going on. For this fight I'd also suggest making a macro to somehow get the pet to attack the three banshees while you continue pewpewing.

Not figured out how yet >_>

/tar [banshee mob name]
/petattack
/tar [boss name]
/startattack

Too lazy to look up NPC names, but that's how I would do it. (No idea if it works though...)

[Dewclaw]

Defensive with growl off to assist with damage, no matter what your spec. There are certain situations where you are going to want your pet on passive, but those don't come up to often. If something comes off on the healer then turn growl back on for the duration.

This. The only time I've ever put my pet on aggressive in a dungeon is the bug dungeon where the boss burrows underground and sends little buggies after members of your group. It's easier for me to have the pet just automatically go after them because they can be hard to target.

[VelkynKarma]

I think I've always used defensive. I started running instances by keeping my pet in Passive, but it became irritating very quick to have to manually select and command whatever target I want my pet to fight. And as I'm BM my devilsaur is a significant part of my damage.

I don't think I've ever used aggressive; I've never needed to. I could see why it might be useful on big trashpulls to just have your pet redirect, but honestly since I'm spamming Volley by that point I've hit every mob at least once, so my Defensive pets will always redirect to the next mob when the one they're targeting is dead. Aggressive is just asking for a wipe, at least for me, since in the rare cases I use it outside of instancing I always forget it's on too.

~VelkynKarma

[Kitairra]

Also,I would leave any raid where the RL told me NOT to have my pet attack. "Sure! 30% less DPS coming up! " Seriously?!?


Kitairra

[Saturo]

I might be the odd one here, but I prefer having my pets on passive, and then manually sending them in to attack. It leaves you with much more control, and your pet tends to do more damage if on the same mob the others are on, since that mob usually has debuffs.

[Ryno]

became irritating very quick to have to manually select and command whatever target I want my pet to fight.

manually sending them in to attack.

Toon Specific Macro:

/cast Hunter's Mark
/petattack

This will send in your pet when you put up a hunter's mark on something.

[Chrizesu]

I normally one use aggressive for pvp and passive for kiting, pet tanking tricks, and pet survival tricks.

[FuzzyDolly]

The only times I ever have my pet on aggressive is if I'm running a low level dungeon for an achievement and don't care about loot, or the whelps in that dungeon where you have to kill several thousand whelps.

[Feath3r]

Thanks for all the help! I ran my pet on defensive last night and it went great. No comments from the other party members about the pet (Other than "*point* FLAMINGO!" lol) and I didn't run into any problems throwing him into passive didn't fix. It's nice to finally see my pet doing something other than standing next to me and not worry if I was doing it right.

Again, thanks for the advice guys.

[Dakonic]

In dungeons its almost always defensive with growl off. I'm usually good about turing on growl and redirecting them to get aggro off the healer or me. Only time I used aggressive is when I dual rogues. I set a flare around me and put my pet on aggressive, can't touch me.

[Nick]

Growl off and defensive in dungeons, growl on and defensive outside.

[Tygamoon]

Another note about pets in dungeons. Not sure about anyone else but if I'm healing I will heal the pet in the lower levels 20-50ish. That is if the hunter seems to be on top of things by keeping me alive and not pulling aggro off tank....unless the tank is snarky and bad.

[Vicario]

I'm still under the impression that my pet is supposed to always be passive, but I do use aggressive for Novos and Tribunal.

[FuzzyDolly]

It's funny... I never expect a healer to keep my pet alive. That's my job. However, when I'm on my druid, I always heal pets. lol

[cosmicblue]

It's funny... I never expect a healer to keep my pet alive. That's my job. However, when I'm on my druid, I always heal pets. lol

I also play healers (druid and priest) and I always heal pets if I can. With my druid, I usually just throw up a rejuvenation and that's usually good enough.