Rolled a Hunter looking for some advice on pets

[Dephilia]

Hi, how am I supposed to control my pet, be it in arena or leveling? Should I have it on the target i am attacking? So should i macro /petattack in /cast arcane shot? Should it be on passive? Should I spam KC?

[Spiralphoenix]

Personally I think it is best practice to have your pet on passive, so you are explicitly commanding where he is at all times and not leaving anything up to AI. Since by the sounds of it you are leveling, now is a great time to learn to make that habit. Those that use Assist/Defensive and switch to passive tend to just have their pet sit by them for some length of time because they aren't used to sending it in.

You want it on whatever target you want to do damage to. Use KC every time it's off CD, yes. I don't recommend macroing petattack into any other ability, bind it as a separate bind.

[Saffa]

http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/

Great hunter site

[Cyph3r]

My personal number one rule in terms of pet control:

Keybind pet follow

Seriously, this will save your ass constantly. It's all too easy to send your pet to attack the wrong target, or maybe he's on defensive and for whatever reason goes chasing some mob down you don't want him to. Having an easy to reach button that brings him back to your side at a moments notice is indispensable. Personally I use one of my mouse side buttons (I have a Naga currently, but most mice have at least 1 or 2 side buttons), so that my thumb is already on it ready to go.

My second recommendation is to keep your pet on defensive, not passive, and don't muck around with /petattack macros. With your pet on defensive, they will automatically attack anything you attack first, or anything that attacks you. I prefer this for several reasons. One, it cuts down on the number of macros I need. Two, if I'm standing around or have to jump up away from my computer for a moment near mobs, and I get attacked, I won't come back to a dead character (the vast majority of mobs are weak enough for your pet to handle on it's own with no assistance from you, it's just slow).

That said, I do have a /petattack macro, as well as a hotkey. The macro is petattack combined with hunter's mark, standard opener. With the upcoming marked for death change in 5.2, I will be doing some experimenting and seeing if there's a more efficient way to go about this, but for now it works just fine. You most definitely want to use Kill Command on cooldown, as it's your primary attack as BM. I do think it's important to understand the attacks mechanics fully though, to really be able to perform at a higher level.

First, you can only use KC if YOU have a target. Your pet doesn't need to be in combat yet. HOWEVER, once your pet is attacking a target, if you move to a new target (so that you and your pet are attacking different targets) and you use KC, your pet will still execute the attack in HIS target. This is basically a trick you can use to split damage a bit. All of your shots will go to your direct target, while pet auto attacks and KC damage all go to the pets target. I use this frequently when dealing with multi-mob situations solo, and sometimes even in pvp. It's also worth knowing that Blink Strike doesn't work like this. Blink strike will always send the pet to attack YOUR target.

Pet control can seem a lot more complex than it really is. Pets are mostly automatic, especially on defensive (moreso on assist, but I never use that because I often want my pet on a different target than me, personal preference). You definitely want at least one macro/hotkey for pet attack, and you DEFINITELY want a hotkey for pet follow. Other than that, the rest just kind of happens.

[Spiralphoenix]

My second recommendation is to keep your pet on defensive, not passive, and don't muck around with /petattack macros. With your pet on defensive, they will automatically attack anything you attack first, or anything that attacks you. I prefer this for several reasons. One, it cuts down on the number of macros I need. Two, if I'm standing around or have to jump up away from my computer for a moment near mobs, and I get attacked, I won't come back to a dead character (the vast majority of mobs are weak enough for your pet to handle on it's own with no assistance from you, it's just slow).

You don't have to use a macro for pet attack, you can bind the button itself on the pet bar, same with pet follow. I've never really liked lumping together abilities like that (petattack + HM), I far prefer to have separate binds for each. As for the second... I'd much rather jump on a flying mount, not really any reason to stay on the ground and get ganked on my 2:1 horde:ally server, and it's a drop in the bucket the number of situations where you can't mount. But, to each his own.

I can agree with pet follow, I have pet attack bound to ` and pet follow as shift+`. Both are invaluable for having full pet control. Don't care for assist or defensive though.

[Dephilia]

Thanks for the replies so far guys!

[Nario64]

I've always liked having my pet on Passive (or Defensive if I'm lazy and soloing something) and then keybind pet attack to your mouse forward button, and pet follow to your mouse back button (You know, those two buttons for navigating websites back and forth).

[Trollragemore]

I've always liked having my pet on Passive (or Defensive if I'm lazy and soloing something) and then keybind pet attack to your mouse forward button, and pet follow to your mouse back button (You know, those two buttons for navigating websites back and forth).

never though of using my mouse wheel up for pet attack, usually use it to target nearest. might give it a shot

[Cyph3r]

You don't have to use a macro for pet attack, you can bind the button itself on the pet bar, same with pet follow. I've never really liked lumping together abilities like that (petattack + HM), I far prefer to have separate binds for each. As for the second... I'd much rather jump on a flying mount, not really any reason to stay on the ground and get ganked on my 2:1 horde:ally server, and it's a drop in the bucket the number of situations where you can't mount. But, to each his own.

I can agree with pet follow, I have pet attack bound to ` and pet follow as shift+`. Both are invaluable for having full pet control. Don't care for assist or defensive though.

Yeah I actually do have a separate binding for HM for when I want to mark a target but not send in the pet. I like having options. And this method is just the one I've been using for something like 5 years, and you know how it goes with old habits. It works well for me, and never gets in my way or causes problems.

I think that should be the big takeaway from this actually; everyone has their own methods. Try different stuff out until you find what really works well for you.