Using a pet other than wolf

[Bob002]

What would you use? I realize the reason to bring the wolf is it buffs your personal DPS. But, what other pet options are there? I thought a Wasp as it has an armor reduction, but I wasn't sure if this stacked with other armor reducing effects. After that is a raptor or tallstrider (if the move works on bosses).

[Thereign]

Basically, if you don't have a sunder in the group, then the wasp is the best, but the tallstrider is pretty weak, and a raptor does decent DPS, but the wolf still reigns supreme. There is a reason that everybody uses a wolf, they generally provide a 100-150 dps increase over any other pet.

[Bob002]

I thought it was furious howl, and that all other pet dmg was normalized otherwise.

[Thereign]

Each pet has a special ability as well as the normalized, for the wolf it is FH, wasp has a sunder, tallstrider makes the opponent miss, and raptors have a bleed. Because the wolfs 320 AP effects the hunter, it has the greatest overall benefit.

[Daez]

At the current point in time, pet selection in PvE means, "What color is your wolf?" Blizzard wants to change that in Cataclysm, but only time will tell.

[Deleted]

I've found that a cat pet also nets some nice overall damage.
Then again, that could also be because I only use my cat in Blood Princes when I'm BM/Surv specced for optimal surviving capabilities.

But tbh stick with the wolf, it buffs itself and you a lot of times, and 3 times it'll buff you with an insane amount (other pets can do so as well), has the same damage output as other pets, doesn't make anoying sounds and doesnt have godawful graphics compared to other pets. (Depends on if you tame the Zul'Drak wold or not.. ZD Wolf sux)

[Cyph3r]

Each pet has a special ability as well as the normalized, for the wolf it is FH, wasp has a sunder, tallstrider makes the opponent miss, and raptors have a bleed. Because the wolfs 320 AP effects the hunter, it has the greatest overall benefit.

This is correct but I'd like to clarify that it's the faerie fire debuff that wasps duplicate, NOT sunder. Sunder is a full 20% armor reduction, sting is only 5%. But if there's no boomkin in your group a wasp will provide a dps increase to all your physical dps in the raid, usually outweighing the personal loss from not having a wolf.

Knowing all this I still raid with my cat though. With the ICC buff DPS is never the reason groups wipe anymore. Besides, the bleed helps our rogues when our warrior isn't present for 10's.

[Firebyrd]

Worms actually have the sunder debuff, but as they're exotics, your loss in personal dps from switching to BM and then having a tenacity pet very likely isn't worth it. If your raid is heavily weighted towards physical damage, it's not out of the question, or if you have something like a rogue who does a great deal more dps than you do (so having them attacking more by not sundering can be useful), but usually it's a net loss in 10s and in a 25, you should have a rogue or warrior who can sunder. Raptors can do decent damage as well, particularly if you have something like a feral druid in the raid who is mangling.

Basically, wolves are straight up the best choice for MM and SV right now, but it's not out of the question to use something else. Honestly, if you're not trying things like HLK 25, it probably wouldn't hurt your raid if you switched to something like a cat or raptor. Most of regular ICC is pretty easy now with the buff so high and you'll suffer more of a dps loss from RNG like Festergut puking on you than using a different ferocity pet.

[deadman80]

If you are in a group with at least two other physical dps, and there is no druid doing Faerie Fire, then wasp will result in an overall increase in raid dps, but you will personally take a dps loss on the meters. Personally, I think it is worth losing 200dps on my personal dps if it means that 3 other players will gain 100dps each (and it is typically a lot more than only 100dps.) If you have a druid keeping up FF though, then sadly we are "required" to use wolves or we are not playing to our full potential.

[Sharpopiev2]

I say raid with w/e pet you want. I use a raptor and will eventually raid with my Purple Tallstrider once he is 80.

[genesis1337]

wolf = + atp boost
wasp = fiery fire
now a sporebat is a very nice option. -3% armor + aoe dot.

[Numeanor]

wolf = + atp boost
wasp = fiery fire
now a sporebat is a very nice option. -3% armor + aoe dot.

I tried sporebat, it is nice coz it's beautifull pet, but that armor decrease doesn't stack with something else which I forgot so you only have AoE which is only usefull on trash. The only plus for sporebat was roar for mana. 30% mana every 3 min and 16% damage increase on target below 35% HP. Cunning pet are for pvp, ferocity are for pve and tenacity mostly for questing and some for pvp also.

[deadman80]

Sporebat's armor debuff does not stack with Sting/Faerie Fire/Curse of Weakness, which all provide a 5% armor debuff anyway so they perform better than sporebat to begin with.

[Markluzz]

The tallstrider move does work on bosses, yes i raid with a pink tallstrider to, i dont care and my guild doesnt care, my tank enjoys the free miss.

[Quesly]

if you need wasp and sporebat in raids your boomkins/ferals are bad

[deadman80]

if you need wasp and sporebat in raids your boomkins/ferals are bad

If you need to use a wasp in a raid, it is because you have no boomkins/ferals in the raid to begin with ^^;;

BTW, even a resto druid CAN pop off a FF at the beginning of an encounter without the tanks dying if they bother to make an effort to remember to do so.. (I know I do when I'm on my tree during alt runs and it does make a big difference to raid dps while it only costs me 2 GCDs when I already have HOTs ticking away on the tanks.) The point of using a wasp is to fill that debuff gap if no one else present can keep it up without sacrificing a larger portion of their dps than you would by not using a wolf.. This is why it is preferable for a hunter to use a wasp vs a warlock using CoW since they lose more dps from giving up CoE for it than you lose from switching from wolf to wasp.

[Kalti]

The tallstrider move does work on bosses, yes i raid with a pink tallstrider to, i dont care and my guild doesnt care, my tank enjoys the free miss.

Word. I have a Floyd also.

[Kotov]

I'm using Floyd. Not a fan of wolves.

[Gestopft]

If you need to use a wasp in a raid, it is because you have no boomkins/ferals in the raid to begin with ^^;;

BTW, even a resto druid CAN pop off a FF at the beginning of an encounter without the tanks dying if they bother to make an effort to remember to do so.. (I know I do when I'm on my tree during alt runs and it does make a big difference to raid dps while it only costs me 2 GCDs when I already have HOTs ticking away on the tanks.) The point of using a wasp is to fill that debuff gap if no one else present can keep it up without sacrificing a larger portion of their dps than you would by not using a wolf.. This is why it is preferable for a hunter to use a wasp vs a warlock using CoW since they lose more dps from giving up CoE for it than you lose from switching from wolf to wasp.

I was mostly wondering who is going to blame a resto druid for a tank's death.

OT: Yes, wolf is the top dps pet. I think the model for cata is for different pets to bring different buffs/debuffs so you can fill out missing ones if needed, and have more choice in the matter.

[killzwitch]

This is flipping fantasy game, where are the giant slugs, the over sized vicious flying rabbits and the small plastic bubbles that you turned inside out and put them on the desk only to have they recorrect themselves and fly off in the direction of someone's face. Now thats a Pet!