Can hunter pets tank 5-mans in WotLK?

[DrBob3002]

I remember seeing a post on how a hunter in the PTR with patch 3.0 had his crab tank Heroic MgT without any wipes or threat problems, until Kael'thas where there was one wipe. I don't think it will follow suit in WotLK with all the different mechanics, but yes, pets will be able to tank 5-mans now.

[Koumaru]

On PTR, in crappy (T4) gear, my gorilla pet was able to hold aggro against me on Durn the Hungerer and a Fel Reaver and survived the encounters with only Mend Pet for healing.

The gorilla was level 68.

Okay, yeah, I did lead off with an MD and FD every 30 seconds. But at 68, the ape didn't have his level-70 rank of Growl yet.

Go, go, Tenacity pets!

[Deckrin]

I highly doubt pets being able to tank anything in the instances save for some incredibly weak hitting bosses.

Blizzard said they don't pets to become too strong in the survivability department. Strong yes, but not at the level of a real tank.

So i doubt it.

A pet specced like this, http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?petcalc=0Vbz0fc0szz , can easily Tank 5 Man's at 70.

And for someone that mentioned, yes Hunter base health was buffed and Pets is going to be at some point too. At level 80 I am sitting with over 16k on Beta, Pet health is going to be buffed to match that.

[Taryble]

Also... on the beta, my holy priest healed a hunter's tanking pet through a level 80 instance. A couple deaths, no wipes. Non-heroic, however. Blizz has even said that "tank" specced pets should be able to tank any non-heroic.

[xourico]

yes pets will be able to tank 5 man normal, with some restrictions tho...

there is a video of a lvl 73 hunter and a lvl 73 pala duoing a entry lvl dungeon in northrend (dont remember the name) with a bear cub pet.

also atm the best pet tank is most likely the Gorilla, also known as Gorilladin!!

the Gorilladin thunderstomp does insane aoe threat, and a misderection + 3xVolleys is enough to let ur mages/locks aoe at will!!!

spec: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?petcalc=0h0G0rG00k
if u get spirit bond ur pet will be getting a insane 50% extra healing
at lvl 70 my scorpid with a similar build has 11k hp and 16k armor UNBUFFED yes.

[Unoseeme]

This is a silly thread with silly folks making silly claims with no video or blue posts to back them up. If your pet is holding threat in a 5-man, then your group's dps is REALLY bad. I feel sorry for any healer who actually tries to heal this.

[xourico]

This is a silly thread with silly folks making silly claims with no video or blue posts to back them up. If your pet is holding threat in a 5-man, then your group's dps is REALLY bad. I feel sorry for any healer who actually tries to heal this.

or u know jack of wat ur talking bout...

tenacity pets produce 20% more threat and have taunt, plus hunters MD every 30 secs.

the threat gen from pets in 3.0 from lvl 70 to 80 gets a huge boost...

[DruidFTW]

Are you on the beta and trying to use your Bear or Gorilla to tank lvl 80 instances? Or are you talking about how your lvl 52 hunters pet does at holding aggro in Sunken Temple?

Blizzard has said, numerous times, that hunter pets, when specced to tank, can easily tank 5 mans. They have buffed pets HP and armour, given them bonus healing recieved, and upped the growl threat level quite a bit. Theyve given hunter pets the ability to spec into having almost all the abilites a normal tank does (taunt, swipe, extra threat, etc.)

[xourico]

u want videos?
here's one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QX7qOdTn9k

I'll show u a hunter+paladin soloing a entry lvl instance in northrend in a sec if I find the freakin link...

[Koumaru]

This is a silly thread with silly folks making silly claims with no video or blue posts to back them up. If your pet is holding threat in a 5-man, then your group's dps is REALLY bad. I feel sorry for any healer who actually tries to heal this.

This is a silly post with a silly troll making silly claims with nothing better to do then hop in threads and jack them up. If your pet is holding threat in a 5-man, then your group's dps is REALLY bad, or you have a gorilla/bear benefiting from a 30-second-cooldown Misdirection, a 70-second-cooldown Bestial Wrath, and putting out over 1000 sustained TPS at level 70. I feel sorry for any healer who can't heal this with a 54% buff to healing received by the tank.

[Unoseeme]

u want videos?
here's one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QX7qOdTn9k

I'll show u a hunter+paladin soloing a entry lvl instance in northrend in a sec if I find the freakin link...

Lol, I may be silly but I'm not trolling one bit. This video is showing non-elites and it's not in a 5-man. That's not what this thread is about. I totally understand that there are significant buffs to pet threat, armor, and dps. But it's wayyyy too early to make the claim that tanks won't be needed in wotlk 5-mans with a properly-specced hunter pet in the group until it goes live and you see hunters LF healer and 3 dps for 5-mans and actually getting interest.

Just to clarify, I won't be surprised if a level 80 hunter's pet can tank a level 70-73 instance with 70-73 dpsers. But, unless I misunderstood, the title of the thread as asking if hunter pet's can generally tank 5-mans in wotlk. I take this to mean around the same level as the instance. My 70 rogue in pvp gear with 400 res can tank some non-heroics in BC with an awesome healer, but I wouldn't say, "Hey, rogues can tank BC instances now. No need to bring a warrior."

It's all relative, and I honestly don't think hunter pets will be tanking same-level 5-mans come release. I've seen no evidence to support it. Hence my "silly" quotes. You (Koumaru) can call me a troll, or a noob, or any other buzzword that has lost it's meaning, but it doesn't make you more or less right than me. Time will tell.

[xourico]

the question was if Pets can Tank 5 mans in Wotlk.

the answer is yes, if proper specced, if the group is proprely prepared and stuff... and as I told u, a lvl 73 hunter with a 73 pala did a lvl 71-73 instance with pet tanking... 2 MAN A INSTANCE!

I just cant find the damn link for the video grr!

[xourico]

OK found it, here is the correct data

utgard keep (entry dungeon in northrend)
lvl 72 hunter
lvl 74 paladin
2 man the entire instance and solo trash by the hunter with a bear tank pet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FqR4caNCdc

enjoy, now imagine a proper tanked specced pet and stuff in current patch (by scorpid pet in my T6 gear has 11k hp and 16k armor and that bear cub only has 8k hp, so yeah go figure, the hunter has great gear ofc, but probly the pet talents in that Build werent has good as they are now)

[Koumaru]

@Unoseeme:

Pardon me if I was a bit insulting in my response to your post, but I read your own post as little more than a dismissive and insulting comment with no "meat" to it, either. From your subsequent, more detailed post, I understand your concerns with a bunch of excited "silly" hunters making a big deal about having "tank" pets and exaggerating things, but there's really not much exaggerating going on.

I've seen the 72 hunter / 74 paladin video (xourico linked it in the previous post), and on the PTR, my gorilla tanks multi-mob heroic pulls without serious problems (and I don't have 2pcT5!). The extra 54% healing received (Spirit Bond, Blood of the Rhino) from the healer and from Mend Pet really makes up for the lower mitigation and health compared to a real tank, and Improved Mend Pet makes dangerous debuffs and DoTs just fall off constantly. I wouldn't bring him to MT a serious raid ("last-generation" content, though, hell yes), but he holds his own in small group content. There's nothing silly about it; it works.

I'd still prefer a real tank so I can just go in there and gun down everything along with Mr. Kitty Shredface (or Barney the Purple Devilsaur), but the tenacity pet is a viable instance tank and should be a first-rate off-tank for some higher-end content.

After 3.0.2 goes live, I'd like to make a video of four beast hunters and a resto druid steamrolling a heroic. It'll be a blast. ;D

[Unoseeme]

@Unoseeme:

Pardon me if I was a bit insulting in my response to your post, but I read your own post as little more than a dismissive and insulting comment with no "meat" to it, either. From your subsequent, more detailed post, I understand your concerns with a bunch of excited "silly" hunters making a big deal about having "tank" pets and exaggerating things, but there's really not much exaggerating going on.

I've seen the 72 hunter / 74 paladin video (xourico linked it in the previous post), and on the PTR, my gorilla tanks multi-mob heroic pulls without serious problems (and I don't have 2pcT5!). The extra 54% healing received (Spirit Bond, Blood of the Rhino) from the healer and from Mend Pet really makes up for the lower mitigation and health compared to a real tank, and Improved Mend Pet makes dangerous debuffs and DoTs just fall off constantly. I wouldn't bring him to MT a serious raid ("last-generation" content, though, hell yes), but he holds his own in small group content. There's nothing silly about it; it works.

I'd still prefer a real tank so I can just go in there and gun down everything along with Mr. Kitty Shredface (or Barney the Purple Devilsaur), but the tenacity pet is a viable instance tank and should be a first-rate off-tank for some higher-end content.

After 3.0.2 goes live, I'd like to make a video of four beast hunters and a resto druid steamrolling a heroic. It'll be a blast. ;D

/Hug. It's all good. I know my original post was heavy on the sarcasm. But I do think most of the responses were at best theorycrafting and at worst a christmas wish list.

I actually just watched the Blizzcon raid panel and a hunter asked this exact question about pets tanking 5-mans. It was kind of funny, the whole crowd booed the question (hunter-haters I guess). But the panelists said in no uncertain terms that all the added hunter pet tanking abilities are designed to make the pet a viable OFF-TANK, and they have no intention of pets being able to main tank 5-mans. This I believe. My little boar buddy has served as a decent off-tank for some time now even without the added abilities, and he's not even the best tanking pet.

I'll check out the video in the link soon, but any videos from beta have to be taken with a huge grain of salt. As you know, there is an endless list of things that have been balanced, reworked, or completely removed from the beta over the endless stream of patches. Live is really all that matters, and if you believe Blizzard, the answer to this question is no.

[Syfo]

Developer's Q&A :
Hunters should be able to off-tank with a defense-speced pet but aren't meant to main tank anything with it

[Nannrz]

I see no reason why Tank Pet with BM spec should not be able to tank 5 man content. Not heroic content or anything like that but yeah a normal 5 man sure why not.