I’ve seen a lot of BM hunters use spirit beasts (hati specifically) in arenas, bg’s as well as wpvp (granted I’m not doing rated pvp).
Is it just that its extra survival abilities (Survival of the fittest, extra health, spirit mend) are just that much stronger than using a cunning pet with mortal wounds or slow abilities?
It depends what you need. Bring one of each. A defensive pet, a slow pet, a MS pet. id say your default should be the defensive pet but shore up the weaknesses of your group. It what helps hunters to be so universally useful
My experience is only random BGs , WPVP, and arena skirmishes, but I found that dispel is really good in arenas. I was just rocking a nether ray and found it was really helpful in arenas, and will replace it with Hati now that I know how good the dispel is. In BGs, I swap pets during depending on the situation, but start with a pet with a slow. WPVP I also start with a slow and change depending on the situation.
What I’ve been doing up to now in pvp is switch between a slow or mortal wound pet.
But based on my experience playing mage, hunter, and warlock, I’ve almost always see hati when its a BM hunter opponent in an arena. And I rarely see any other kind of pet with a BM hunter in wpvp.
In my experience (only got 1600 this season so take it with a grain of salt if you’d like) is that if you are playing double dps in 2s which is what I play, overall spirit beast is the best and whenever I try a different type it never works out.
You could make a case for mortal strike pet, but with double maledicts trinket you don’t really the debuff and your pet dispel and heal are sorely missed if you don’t have a dispel on your team. The run speed from cunning is nice, but without it you can already kite pretty much anyone if it’s 1v1 and if you are getting double teamed, even with cunning it’s almost impossible to outrun 2 melee on you despite having extra run speed and root break. Also, don’t forget that a spirit beast also gives you a 20% dmg reduction ability.
As for the hunters using Hati, it’s just a skin of a spirit beast and people just seem to really like it. I use the ghost porcupine from pandaria, but it does the exact same thing as all spirit beasts.
That makes sense. Thanks.
And Gumi looked sooooo adorable he has now replaced hati!
I use a Spirit Beast in all instanced PVP except 3s when MS is needed (then I bring in the raptor) and RBGs when I’m NOT guarding a flag (then a silithid for the slow if there is already another class with MS)
I’d use the bat in dungeons IF lust is needed.
I tend to bring Silithid to BG’s, Spirit beast to arenas
For Arenas I use MS Freedom pet mostly (Hyena, Raptor or Rodent type). If my partner in 3s has MS I use a spirit beast mostly otherwise its MS freedom pet.
In 2s I use MS freedom pet with only these exceptions. I found a spirit beast to work surprisingly well against Rogue Healer not sure how it does past 2200 in 2s though. I also use Spirit beast against Double dps 100% of the time like rogue mage for example.
In bgs and world pvp I pretty much use a spirit beast all the time and while base sitting in an rbg I will also use the spirit beast.
Doesn’t the spirit beast porcupines have Mortal wounds?
It does not
I use spirit beast a lot in both arenas 2s and 3s.
In 2s I use spirit beast vs all double dps and vs priest or pally heals, otherwise I run ms / freedom pet.
In 3s I run spirit beast vs rmp otherwise I use ms.
I’ve been doing this all season and played 3 hunters over 2500 in 3s.
Cunning with MS if playing with someone who has no ms and I guess spirit if you have someone with ms