Hunters Corner - The Pet

As HoS' highest ranking hunter, Wolfbrother has his work cut out for him. The hunter class is a interesting blend of archer and beast master, which makes for challenging play. This column is dedicated to things picked up along the way about hunters and they're role in groups.

Pets, Gotta have them!

Attack, Follow, Stay, Claw , Growl , Bite , Cower, Aggres, Defense, and Passive

1. The primary pet skill is growl. This is a taunt that is supposed to keep attention on the pet, allowing the hunter (and others) to kill the target at range. Training is from a trainer.
2. Additional skills include: Claw, Bite, Cower, and Dash/Dive. All are learned from tamed pets; meaning you tame a beast with the skill, then you fight along side it and you learn it. You then can train another "pet" with the skill.
3. Bite Rank 1-8, name says it all just at varying damage levels by Rank. Each Rank is available on different animals. (there is a site that lists what animals have what)
4. Claw Rank 1-8, same as bite.
5. Cower Rank 1-4, (I Think) this is a threat reduction tool, its to try to save your pet when he's in over his head. I don't use this skill, because generally by the time you notice the problem the cure won't change the outcome...
6. Dash Rank 1-4, This is "super speed" for pets. This is handy in pet pulling (more on that later) and for intercepting fast-closing mobs on gun pulling. Plus, in advanced use, very handy for scouting using the Eyes of the Beast skill.
7. Dive Rank ?-?, this is the same as Dash, as far as I know.

In the above photo you can see "checked boxes" above all the special skills. This is a feature of SmartPet which is a UI mod. It auto manages my pets focus to try and always keep growl available. Focus is very similar to a Rogue's energy bar, ie: no focus, no skill. I no longer have cower as a active skill, instead I have Dash in Cowers slot.

Pet Management

Solo- Very easy, Send the pet, let it establish aggro, kill target, heal as necessary, and set pet state as Defensive. Defensive means if your attacked, pet attacks.

Group- Can be tough. Alot of times I will disable growl (if there is a primary tank), it allows the tank to manage the aggro to his liking, and I set pet state to passive. This way a caster/shooter can't trip the pet before your ready to commit. If you jump down anywhere without clearing the long way first, your pet will aggro the world. This is bad. If its questionable, dismiss the pet before the jump. Or if the jump is long enough, have the pet stay and he will auto unsummon if you get to far away.

Pulling- This is one of the best uses for a pet in a group. Pets can pull from further away then a weapon can, around corners, and can abort a pull if it goes south (sacrificing the pet for the greater good). Sneak in, target the mob, back out to where you want to fight, send pet, when his avatar flashes and he takes a tick of damage click "follow", pet returns to you, have the pet reattack target at the range you want to engage the target at. If you pull a whole room by accident, have pet reattack, and run like hell. lol

Scouting- Using Eyes of the Beast you can take direct control of your pet and scout with it. This sounds kinda foolish at first, until you realize your pet has a much smaller aggro range than your character does, and with Dash is as fast (or faster) than a rogue for needful getaways. Two things to remember here.

1. Your pet puts you in combat, if he's in combat. So if you end up fighting or fleeing while in Eyes of the Beast, plan on those mobs coming after YOU when the spell ends or the pet dies (whichever comes first) (real funny how I found this out). The way to break this is to turn the pet to fight, and at the conclusion to the spell Feign Death. Anything to break aggro.
2. If your pet gets to far out and the spell ends, your pet will unsummon. Just whistle, he'll come right back.

Well thats a look at the Hunter Pet, the base animals used to have different stats but Blizz changed it, only real difference now is attack speeds (thats why you see so many white tigers).

Pet Questions? Leave them in comments

*Next Time- Hunter Skills*